Canon
From Fan History Wiki
Canon is the text of a book, minutes of a movie, pages of a manga, seasons of a television show, or hours of a video game that fanfiction writers base their stories on. Canon is sometimes debated and occasionally ignored in some fandoms, but canon is the source of the fandom that fan fiction writers write for.
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[edit] Historical Definitions
The following definition dates to January 2001 and the site Bad Fanfic! No Biscuit!:
- that which is sanctioned as being part of the storyline by The Powers That Be (q.v.). Almost by definition, all episodes of a TV series (or all movies of a movie series) are canon. Sometimes, the creator of the series will also declare that certain novels or comic books are also canon.[1]
The following definition dates to February 2003 in the Lord of the Rings fandom:
- Canon: If a story is based on canon, it is based on the book, whether that be The Lord of the Rings or Unfinished Tales. [2]
The following definition dates to May 2003 in the Combat! and Nash Bridges fandoms:
- canon: An adjective referring to a character, event, plotline, etc. which happened "for real" -- the actual professional source material. Note that "canon" is a term used throughout most fanficdoms, not just here. On the Star Trek fanfic forums, this is sometimes jokingly referred to as TDC (The Dread Canon). [3]
The following definition dates to August 2003 in the Sentinel fandom:
- "Canon" is the term for facts or ideas that have actually been stated/seen in an episode. [4]
The following definition dates to May 2004 in the Harry Potter, Horatio Hornblower and Pirates of the Caribbean fandoms:
- Canon and Canon Character:
- the original story, movie, song, poem, drawing, or other work upon which a fanfic is based; and, the characters from that original work. Generally the word “canon” is substituted for “original” when describing the “mother work,” since the widely accepted term OC, or original character, defines characters created by the fan fiction author, which did not exist in canon.[5]
The following definition is from cmshaw out of the X-Files, Sentinel, Highlander fandom. It dates from May 2005:
- canon, adj. Refers to facts established by the original fiction. Usually referenced as one might reference a holy text.[6]
The following definition dates to December 2005 in the Harry Potter fandom:
- canon - Facts that have been told to us in the books and in interviews with J.K. Rowling. However, you have to take those with a grain of salt, as she has changed her mind before; in an online chat she once said that she didn't expect to bring Gilderoy Lockhart back, but then she did. Keep in mind that some people also consider things from the movies to be canon,but on FictionAlley's four fanfic houses, we require that fics be consistent with known facts from canon, or that the author note, in the summary or author's note, that the fic is an "Alternate Universe". Canon's counterpart is "fanon."[7]
The following definition dates to December 5, 2005 in the Thunder Cats fandom:
- canon: Refers to the history of the characters as laid out by something official - for ThunderCats, that would most likely be the 130 episodes of the TV series. Accepting that as canon means anything that happened in the show is acceptable to assert as probable in a fan fic. Of course, most fics go off-canon by their very nature but many writers find canon as a helpful reference when trying to lend their story and the characters in it the 'feel' of the show.
- Arguably, other things like the comics, can be considered canon as well. But those notions vary from fandom to fandom, and really, the ThunderCats fandom has pretty much decided their canon is so full of plot holes and inconsistancies that anything goes.[8]
The following definition dates to April 15, 2006 in the Angel fandom:
- Canon - Canon is a term used to describe things that have actually happened on the shows (BtVS & AtS in this case) or been specifically referred to as having happened in the past. This means that Buffy and Angel consummating their relationship exactly one time (in this universe, not the I will remember you-verse, put down that flame-thrower) is canon. Angel having been in Rome is canon as well, as it was shown in flashbacks, Angel being in the Tower of London at some point is also canon even though it was never shown, just mentioned in the Pylean Trilogy. There is some debate about events that take place in the BtVS and AtS novels being canon as Joss Whedon has told many a soul he pays no attention to those whatsoever, meaning Angel could have a butt-baby in the novels and it would have no relevance to the show. I will be compiling an Angel novel Timeline over the summer and I will leave it to the masses to decide if it shall serve as canon or not.[9]
The following definition is was written by Jane Leavell and updated in June 2006:
- CANON: Anything which appeared in the actual series/movie and therefore can be "proven" to be a genuine aspect of the show or character. If we saw the character eating cats in an episode, it is canon that he/she/it eats cats, no matter how much we dislike the idea.[10]
The following definition dates to November 2006 in the Harry Potter fandom:
- Canon
- Everything J. K. Rowling has written or said about the series. [11]
The following definition is from GAFF and dates to December 2006:
- Canon: The officially endorsed facts of a fandom. Information that appears in the actual books/films/comics/episodes/games themselves. Compare to Fanon. [12]
[edit] Fandoms
[edit] Harry Potter
Some parts of the Harry Potter fan fiction community consider the movies to be canon. Some do not. JKR's interviews are frequently considered to be part of the canon as they help explain things, such as what Ginny is short for.
[edit] Star Trek
The Star Trek fan fiction community has traditionally had some issues determining what is canon. Some people consider the books by Jeri Taylor to be canon while others do not. The argument that they are canon stems from the fact that Jeri Taylor was an executive producer for Star Trek: Voyager.
The position of the powers that be in the Star Trek corporate office, according to their website, is:
- "As a rule of thumb, the events that take place within the real action series and movies are canon, or official Star Trek facts. Story lines, characters, events, stardates, etc. that take place within the fictional novels, the Animated Series and the various comic lines are not canon.
- There are only a couple of exceptions of this rule: the Jeri Taylor penned novels 'Mosaic' and 'Pathways'. Many of the events in these two novels feature background details of the main Star Trek: Voyager characters. (Note: There are a few details from an episode of the Animated Adventures that have entered into the Star Trek canon. The episode 'Yesteryear', written by D.C. Fontana, features some biographical background of Spock.)" [13][14]
