| This article is written from the Real World point of view. |  |
Canon is the body of works which any given Doctor Who fan considers to have "really happened" within Doctor Who Universe, and differs from fan to fan.
The BBC and the various production teams have never attempted to define an official canon, unlike with some other television shows -- most notably the Star Trek franchise -- which has left fans free to hold their own opinions over what constitutes the canon of Doctor Who.
Contents |
Fans almost universally do not consider the two films starring Peter Cushing, Dr. Who and the Daleks or Daleks - Invasion Earth 2150 AD as taking place in the mainstream Doctor Who Universe. These have their own canon and their own continuity. These portray established characters in different ways, envisioning for example, the First Doctor as a human scientist actually named Dr. Who and re-tell the television stories The Daleks and The Dalek Invasion of Earth, respectively, in a different way.
Beginning in 1988 and the release of Wartime independent companies such as Reeltime Pictures and BBV Productions have produced a number of made-for-video productions featuring characters and races from Doctor Who licensed from their creators (but not the Doctor himself). Productions such as Shakedown, Downtime, P.R.O.B.E. and the Auton series (to name a few) exist in a similar grey area of canon as other spin-offs, with some fans accepting them as canon and others dismissing them as they aren't BBC productions. Some independent productions, such as the Stranger series by BBV and the parody Do You Have a License to Save This Planet? in which Sylvester McCoy lampoons the Seventh Doctor, are not generally considered canonical, even though it includes appearances from alien races from the TV series featured in the spin-offs such as the Sontarans and Autons.
There is endless debate among fans over the canonicity of the various series of original novels. Some accept the Virgin New Adventures and Virgin Missing Adventures, some accept the BBC Books (Eighth Doctor Adventures, Past Doctor Adventures etc), some accept both, and some accept neither.
Russell T. Davies has written in DWM (Doctor Who Magazine), clarifying that the destruction of Gallifrey in the TV series was not related to the BBC Books (EDA: The Ancestor Cell), that he cannot put in the TV series any reference to a licensed product which might be taken as requiring BBC viewers to purchase something in order to know the whole story. But in the same article went out of his way to say that there could have been multiple destructions of Gallifrey. He has been consistently careful to make it clear that he wants to make it possible for fans to consider the books canonical, or not, as they prefer; the same attitude has been taken by most of the current series writers.
The potential canoncity of the novels has been made more complex by the fact one novel, Human Nature, featuring the Seventh Doctor, was later adapted as a television episode of the same title, featuring the Tenth Doctor, and that another novel, The Monsters Inside, is referenced on screen in Boom Town.
Some of the novels have made profound expansions to the backstories of the Doctor and other characters, little of which has been related in the TV series (which may or may not contradict the information). Examples include the Master's origins (including revealing his "real name"), the Cartmel Masterplan which attempted to establish an origin for the Doctor and his family (most notably in the novel Lungbarrow). Some novels have directly contradicted the TV series, such as several Cartmel Masterplan-related novels that established that Susan Foreman was not the Doctor's real granddaughter. In some cases continuity established in the novels has carried over into other media, such as having Romana II returning from E-Space and becoming Lord President of Gallifrey, which is also featured in various Big Finish audio dramas and the Shada webcast.
Still other novels have attemped to chronicle the ultimate fates of some companions, such as Peri Brown and Romana (who in the BBC Eighth Doctor Adventures line regenerates into a less-friendly third incarnation. Most boldly, several novels have killed off companions, such as Liz Shaw (Eternity Weeps) and Dodo Chaplet (Who Killed Kennedy).
All but a half-dozen of the original series episodes, plus the TV movie, have been adapted as novels. These novelisations often diverge considerably from their source material, sometimes contradicting what is shown on screen (in one case, the novelisation of The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve told almost a completely different story than the TV original), and as such are generally considered non-canonical.
Most fans consider the early comics stories printed by TV Comic, Countdown TV Action, created for a juvenile audience and featuring many differences from the TV series including radically different characterisation of the Doctor, as not taking place in "real continuity".
The comics printed in Doctor Who Magazine have varied wildly in their approach to continuity, depending on editorial policy. During one period, it was policy to tie them into Marvel Universe continuity, which is very difficult to reconcile with Doctor Who television continuity (example: 'The Crossroads of Time'). During another period, it was policy to closely tie them to Virgin New Adventures continuity, and some of the Virgin New Adventures refer to these. During another period they deliberately contradicted the Virgin New Adventures (in Ground Zero). Because of this, almost no fan accepts all of them as canon, but many fans accept some of them as canon, depending on their tastes. On at least one occasion a concept from the comic strips has appeared in a canonical episode: kronkburgers, introduced in the comic strip The Iron Legion, are referenced in the 2005 episodes The Long Game.
As with the novels, on rare occasions the comics have chronicled the fates of TV companions, most significantly the death of Jamie McCrimmon in DWM: The World Shapers.
Since the return of Doctor Who to television in 2005, the publishers of Doctor Who comic strips (primarily Doctor Who Magazine, Doctor Who Adventures, the various storybooks and annuals, and full-length comics published in the US by IDW Publishing, have made a concerted effort to tie their stories into televised continuity, making them (usually) easier to roll into one continuity.
Dozens of professionally made audio dramas have been produced since 1976 when Doctor Who and the Pescatons was first issued. Several adventures have been produced by and broadcast by BBC Radio, while Big Finish has produced an extensive series of audio dramas featuring the Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Doctors since 1999, along with numerous spin-off audio series focusing on races such as the Daleks and individual characters such as Sarah Jane Smith. As with the novels, acceptance in canon depends upon the fan, although there is at least one example of a Big Finish audio drama (Jubilee) being adapted as a television episode (Dalek). One spin-off Big Finish series, Doctor Who Unbound is not considered canonical as it focuses on "what if?"-style stories featuring alternate interpretations of the Doctor and his (or her) companions.
Generally, the BBC Radio-produced dramas featuring Colin Baker (Slipback) and Jon Pertwee (The Paradise of Death and The Ghosts of N-Space) are considered canon as they were produced by the BBC, along with the Tom Baker recording, The Pescatons. Not yet confirmed is the canonicity of a series of Big Finish-produced but BBC 7-commissioned and broadcast adventures featuring Paul McGann that debuted in 2007.
Prior to the return of Doctor Who to television, the BBC commissioned several original webcast productions for its official Doctor Who website. Of these only one, 2003's Scream of the Shalka, has been definitively removed from canon by the BBC due to the Ninth Doctor as played by Richard E. Grant being supplanted by the Ninth Doctor of Christopher Eccleston (even so, there have been attempts to reconcile this story with canon in some of the spin-off works). Another webcast, Death Comes to Time is also problematic to reconcile with canon as it features the death of a major ongoing character. Real Time is related to the Big Finish audio series and as such is subject to the same canon considerations. The fourth webcast, Shada, is discussed under "Television", above.
During the 2006 season, the BBC produced "webisodes" for each episode of the season. These were short prologues that helped set the scene or introduce a concept featured in an upcoming episode. It is unclear whether these short scenes are considered canonical; none were included in the later DVD release of Series 2.
Since the series revival in 2005, the BBC has also made extensive use of viral marketing online, creating real websites based upon fictional concepts such as UNIT and the Torchwood Institute. Many of these websites feature pieces of information that have been treated as official by some fans, but like everything else the BBC hasn't definitively stated whether any of the websites are canonical. (However, some of the background information seen on UNIT's website did later make it on screen during an episode of The Sarah Jane Adventures, confirming it as canon, at least in part.)
Two stage plays have been produced based upon the series: Doctor Who and the Daleks in The Seven Keys to Doomsday and Doctor Who: The Ultimate Adventure. Despite both plays being written by Terrance Dicks, and the latter featuring (at various times) Jon Pertwee and Colin Baker as their respective Doctors, neither play is considered canon.
A combination of the words "fan" and "canon", these are facts that have been made up by fans over the years to fill gaps in existing continuity/canon, and which become accepted as canon by the fanbase, despite not being supported in on-screen continuity.
Canon, for the purposes of this wiki, refers to the live-action television episodes and motion pictures of the Star Trek franchise.
Canon is a term which refers to the authoritative nature of a specific event. Events that take place within the internal reality of the Post-Crisis, mainstream DC Universe are considered canon, whereas other events may be subject to interpretation, such as Pre-Crisis material, alternate realities, dream sequences and licensed properties. Events that take place in genre-specific environments such as Starfire or Atari Force are likewise considered non-canon.
(See Also: Retcon)
[top] [Edit Canon]
Fallout canon are the things considered to be an official part of the Fallout universe.
Contents |
Because each game of the Fallout series was created by a different development team and the plot and dialogues were created by mostly different people each time around, there are numerous inconsistencies between them and the canonicity of each game is a point of contention between various Fallout fans. For example, in case of inconsistency between games, some fans might consider newer entries in the series to override the older ones, while others might consider the original lore to still be "true" and inconsistencies to be mistakes on the part of the later titles' developers. Even various developers of one game might disagree on what holds true in the games' setting: for example, Tim Cain and Chris Taylor have different views on the origins of ghouls.
Since the acquisition of the Fallout franchise by Bethesda Softworks and their development of Fallout 3, it is Bethesda that defines the official canon. However, many Fallout fans prefer the Fallout canon as it was defined by various developers working on previous Fallout games, even if they also contradicted each other at times.
It should be noted, that thus far Bethesda has not officially ruled on what is canon and what is not. Most of the information on their take is from Fallout 3 in-game material.
Canon refers to the "official" parts of a story. Here, it refers to facts (events, characters, locations etc) that are considered to "officially" appear in the GTA universe.
The games within an Era are considered to share one general storyline and universe. For example, the games within the GTA III Era all share canon, with interconnecting storylines. Whilst there are overlaps between eras (eg Liberty City in GTA III and in GTA IV), these are taken to be influences rather than the same thing.
Whilst canon is easy to define in books and films, computer games are more tricky, as the exact sequence of events is different every time it is played. For example, there may be a choice of which mission to proceed to next, or different people may be killed in a shootout. Some missions may fail if a vital character is killed, allowing it to be replayed until they survive; whilst others will allow the character to completely die and not appear in later missions.
GTA IV introduced choices that the player can make, which significantly alter the storyline, such as whether to kill a character or let them survive. This is all treated as canon, but with multiple options available.
Unofficial modifications are not canon - this could include adding in characters/vehicles that don't exist in the GTA universe (at that time), missions that never occurred, or granting access at different stages of the game. Some fans write missions and stories that are not canon, and these are referred to as Fan Fiction.
Canon is defined as characters, locations, and details that are considered to be genuine (or "official"), and those events, characters, settings, etc. that are considered to have inarguable existence within the Halo universe.
This category has the following 4 subcategories, out of 4 total.
The following 29 pages are in this category, out of 29 total.
C
F
|
G
H
|
H cont.
PS
T |
 |
This page is an official policy on Lostpedia. It has wide acceptance among editors and is considered a standard that all users should follow. When editing this page, please ensure that your revision reflects consensus. When in doubt, discuss first on the talk page. |
Canon is the noun used by Lostpedia to describe information that is known to be officially part of the Lost universe. Only canonical storyline information may be stated as fact on Lostpedia.
The primary purpose of this article is to note:
It is important to note that when no conflict of storyline information exists, and when the source of such information is other than the episode, Lostpedia's judgement in this Canon policy is ultimately an arbitrary one that has no other use than self-consistency within this website only.
In other words the purpose of this policy article is not to judge what information may be considered "real" in the fictional universe of the storyline of Lost.
Neither is the purpose of this article to exhaustively compare all potential and future sources of storyline information; as sources of information change and evolve, site policy may therefore also be subject to change.
Broadly speaking, canonical information is always approved by the creative staff of Lost (the creators, directors, and writers) and released through various official outlets. Information from other people and/or other outlets is considered "non-canon".
The primary official outlet is the television episode. Other official outlets include press releases, websites, podcasts, interviews, books, DVDs, and non-television episodes. If canonical information conflicts itself, information from the television episodes takes precedence. If two episodes contradict each other, the more recent broadcast takes precedence. If multiple contradict one other, the information in multiple episodes takes precedence (no matter the broadcast order). When citing canonical information on Lostpedia, always indicate the outlet it originated from (episode name, podcast number, etc.).
Other non-canonical or semi-canonical information can be included in Lostpedia when properly marked with sources cited.
Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse have stated on record that the following are canonical. The first four were cited in an interview with Entertainment Weekly [1], the fifth from a previous interview [2], and the sixth from a producer commentary on the Season 3 DVD entitled Access: Granted and an interview with Gadi Pollack [3].
Carlton Cuse goes into greater detail about the issue of Lost canon in the March 10, 2008 Podcast. Ancillary materials such as deleted scenes, the majority of the storytelling in the ARGs, and other sources of information are considered apocryphal to varying degrees of semi-canon, and depend solely on how involved the executive staff are in the development of each.
The following contain varying degrees of canon, according to the writers. This list is considered comprehensive, but not final, and is subject to change.
Note: Often, minor conflicts occur between canonical information revealed through official outlets other than Lost episodes. A summary or warning should be included on pages containing conflicting information. Unless consensus requires otherwise, Lostpedia policy is to include all official information as part of the canon. It is important for editors to cite sources in such cases, because it allows the reader to make their own judgement as to the canonic quality of the information, rather than relying on the ultimately arbitrary judgement of the fan community of Lostpedia.
There are many unofficial websites and media related to Lost. Information from these outlets is not canonical. Information from these outlets must be clearly marked if included on Lostpedia, and should not be in the Facts section of any article.
The following outlets are examples of information Lostpedia considers to be unofficial, unreliable, or otherwise not part of the canon. This list is not comprehensive.
Note: Some believe that deleted scenes should be considered canonical, if no other information conflicts them. Information on Lostpedia from deleted scenes must be clearly marked (sometimes called "apocrypha" or "deuterocanon").
Where an article has content that is both part of canon and non-canon (or canon and semi-canon), then the canonical information should take precedent and be placed above any non-canonical (or semi-canonical) information on the page. The non-canon (or semi-canon) information should be placed under a separate heading, and clearly marked as such using {{Non-canon}} template. Which looks like this
 |
Non-Canon alert! This article/section contains information that was shown or released via an official source such as ARGs or extended media (video games, books), however it has no canonical merit to the overall Lost mythos. |
|
In addition, whenever possible, the introductory paragraph for an article should only contain information shared between the canonical and the non-canonical (or semi-canonical) sources. Contradictory details should be limited to separate sections for the different media depictions, and explicitly pointed out as contradictions either as a footnote, or, if there are multiple contradictions, in a separate section.
An example for how this is supposed to look like when the subject of the article itself is presented differently in media of different levels of canonicity can be found on the page for the Christiane I; an example for the subject of one or more sections of an article, but not the subject of the article as a whole, being portrayed differently in different media can be found in the "The search" and "Purported discovery of the wreckage" sections on the page for Oceanic Flight 815.
|
|||||
In the context of fiction, the canon of a fictional universe comprises those novels, stories, films, etc. that are considered to be genuine (or "official"), and those events, characters, settings, etc. that are considered to have inarguable existence within the fictional universe. Usually items that are considered canon come from the original source of the fictional universe while non-canon material comes from adaptations or unofficial items. Generally, Expanded Universes are not considered canon, though there are exceptions which are considered near-canon, or in the case of Star Wars, the Expanded Universe is considered full canon. In layman's terms, one could basically say that something that is canon is something that "actually happened" in that universe.
Marvel Universe Most, but not all, comic books published by Marvel Comics are set in a shared world known as the Marvel Universe. The canon for this world comprises all the comics not stated to be set in an alternate universe, except those specifically contradicted by later stories. The events may not have occurred exactly as shown, however, owing to the floating timeline (For instance, during the 1960s, Ben Grimm said he had fought in the World War II alongisde Nick Fury; during the 2000s, Grimm himself considered that the idea of him fighting in the World War II was ridiculous, as he would be much older).
Alternate universes in Marvel Comics include, for example, the "Ultimate" line of Marvel comics, which have their own canon independent of the core Marvel universe.
Appearances of the Marvel Comics characters in other media are not considered canon.
[top] [Edit Canon]
Canon is a term applied to most franchises with one or more possible storylines, and refers to which of them is the official one to follow. In RuneScape, Canon may be used to describe the correct or official way the world of Gielinor functions, or how things or people in the game run and act. For example, an issue which players often dispute the canonicity of is whether or not Guthix created Gielinor, or whether he just shaped it.
Another issue would be RuneScape fan fiction or novels. Betrayal at Falador, for example, mentions a constellation called Saradomin. However, in the Observatory Quest, the player sees constellations such as Cancer, Libra and Capricorn, which are real-world constellations. Another point of debate, the FunOrb game Armies of Gielinor, directly contradicts established history at times; for instance, the Kinshra unit can be summoned by the player even though the Kinshra are known to have been established thousands of years later, in Fourth Age. This leaves the canonicity of new information presented in the game debatable.
Jagex tries at every possible opportunity to keep to the established canon[1], but there is still dispute about certain subjects, especially on sketchy and highly-speculated subjects, such as the history of gods like Zaros and the Menaphite Pantheon.
| This article has a real-world perspective. |
 |
Canon (\'ka-nen\) comprises the television shows, movies, novels, comics, et cetera, considered authentic or sanctioned as part of the Star Trek universe.
Paramount Pictures and other "Powers That Be" have determined, for Star Trek, that all live-action series and feature films released by the copyright owner are canon. Some books, such as Star Trek Encyclopedia and Star Trek Chronology, are also seen as canon or having canon information until information "on-screen" contradicts them. Anything outside these categories, even if produced or sanctioned by Paramount, is not considered canon.
The canon live-action series and movies are:
Star Trek fans have varying degrees of what they consider canon. Some believe some novels fall into canon, while others believe fan films can be considered canon. The term fanon, a play on the words "fan canon", encompasses this. Fanon can also describe fan fiction, fan films and other fan-created media.
Star Wars canon was first defined in the first issue of the Lucasfilm magazine, the Star Wars Insider:
To understand canon and continuity, the overall Star Wars saga should be looked at as a set of stories written by many different people which "document" past "events." Although some stories are more reliable than others, they all are looked upon as part of the overall "history." It should also be remembered that all of these stories are simply that—stories. There are numerous errors that inevitably arise between the stories simply because different authors have their own ways of telling the story and may not have the time and resources to perfectly align the details.
The situation can be compared to Greek and Roman mythology, or the stories of King Arthur. The various Star Wars tales are a group of separate but linked stories, and are told by many different authors over a period of time.
Contents |
This policy has been further refined and fleshed out over the years. The Star Wars website also details the role of canon, Expanded Universe (or "EU" sources), and how they fit into overall Star Wars continuity. Chris Cerasi stated,
Lucas Licensing editor Sue Rostoni elaborated further on the place of printed Expanded Universe sources in Star Wars Gamer 6,
In a December 6, 2006 post on the official Star Wars forums, Leland Chee ("keeper" of the Holocron) made this comment in response to a question regarding whether Sansweet's "foggy window" was a window into the "real Star Wars Universe of the Films Only" or the "Star Wars Universe of the Films + EU continuity":
In 2008, Jim Ward commented on the subject when discussing Lucasfilm's marketing plan for the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series:
Things are a bit more complicated with the matter of Star Wars games. The overall scenario and documentation (cutscenes, manuals, strategy guides etc) are proper EU (see C-canon below). This, however, doesn't apply to "game mechanics" and stats.
There are however some exceptions when an external canon source, such as an encyclopedia or Guide, state it as happening, like for example that Brianna joined the Jedi Exile. In the game, Brianna joins the player only in the non-canonical male identity. In that case, the game is inconsistent to the canon and falls under the "game mechanic" logic.
In the introduction to the 1994 printing of Splinter of the Mind's Eye, Lucas offered his view on the evolution of the Star Wars saga:
Another notable mention, is this quote from an interview in the August/September 1999 issue of SW Insider:
In July 2001, Lucas gave his opinion on the matter of what is canon in Star Wars during an interview with Cinescape magazine:
Further, in an August 2005 interview in Starlog magazine:
Lucas' statements in Starlog were commented on in a December 7, 2005 post on the starwars.com forums by Leland Chee, who maintains Lucas Licensing's continuity database:
A conversation between Lucas and John Knoll in a web diary during the production of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith showed more of the movie/Expanded Universe relationship:
During ShoWest 2008, Lucas gave an interview where he mentioned the difference between "his world", "the licensing world" and the "fans' world":
Another noteworthy exchange between Lucas and an interviewer appeared in the May 2008 edition of Total Film magazine:
In 2000, Lucas Licensing appointed Leland Chee to create a continuity-tracking database referred to as the Holocron continuity database. The Holocron follows the canon policy that has been in effect for years, but the capabilities of database software allow for each element of a story, rather than the stories themselves, to be classified on their own merits.
The Holocron's database includes an area for a single-letter (G, T, C, S or N) representing the level of canonicity of that element; these letters have since informally been applied to the levels of canon themselves: G-canon, T-canon, C-canon, S-canon and N-canon. As part of his work with the Holocron, Chee was responsible for the creation of this classification, and he spent the early stages developing and refining them into what they are today.
G, T, C and S together form the overall Star Wars continuity. Each ascending level typically overrides the lower ones; for example, Boba Fett's back story was radically altered with the release of Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, forcing the retcon of older source material to fall in line with the new G-canon back story. However, this is not always absolute, and the resolution of all contradictions are handled on a case-by-case basis.
Leland Chee continues to answer questions about the Holocron in the Holocron continuity database questions thread at the starwars.com forums.
On August 4, 2004, when asked if the G and C-levels formed separate and independent canon, Leland Chee responded by stating that both were part of a single canon:
In a December 7, 2005 post, Chee commented on how the Holocron is applied to licensees:
In a December 6, 2006 post, Chee contradicted his original statements regarding the canonicity of the Holocron and how it applied to the Star Wars universe:
On a post made on the same day, Mr. Chee stated that:
This statement confirms the priority of the "current version of the films" over the original versions, as well as the existence of two separate continuities, the "film only" continuity maintained and followed by George Lucas himself, and the "film + EU" continuity that is used for licensed products.
Subsequent questioning over which continuity was "more official" revealed that Mr. Chee favored film + EU continuity, but in the end it was up to the individual fan:
Canon on Wikipedia Star Wars canon on Wikipedia
Canon originally referred to (among other things) the recognised books of the Bible. In the 20th Century however the term has also been adopted in the discussion of most long-running media franchises to mean any event, character, or location within the fiction that is considered to have been "real" with respect to that fictional continuity. Only canonical material should be used as evidence in debates on the nature of the fictional universe and the characters that inhabit them.
In the Transformers brand, as a result of editorial choice and the multiversal nature of Transformers, canon is both extremely complicated and extremely simple, depending on how you look at it. The only reliable metric for determining the canonical status of Transformers fiction is whether it was officially licensed/approved or not. If so, it is canon... for some continuity. If not, it is not canon at all.
Contents |
Before examining canonicity as it pertains to Transformers it might first be useful to understand how canon is dealt with in other media franchises. It is tempting to dismiss canonicity as a trivial matter, of interest only to the most obsessive fans, and while it is true that many casual fans of a franchise will give very little thought to the canon, some franchise owners have taken it seriously enough to create their own "canon policies". Others ignore the issue totally.
The owners of three of the largest franchises in existence today, Star Wars, Star Trek and Doctor Who, have vastly different views on canon. Lucasfilm has developed several levels of canonicity into which a Star Wars text can fall. The policy decrees that most fiction is canonical unless it is contradicted by a higher level source or is explicitly marked as non-canonical (such as material released under the Infinities banner)[1].
By contrast, Paramount, owners of Star Trek have for the most part limited their canon to events within the live-action television series and the motion pictures. All other material is largely considered non-canonical[2].
Some franchise owners ignore canon totally. The BBC, owners of Doctor Who, have no canon policy. Indeed so little attention is paid to it that the franchise is riddled with countless irreconcilable continuity clashes despite being presented as a single continuous story, even in the TV movie and continuing television series that were made many years after the original series was cancelled. It has been the fans who have therefore attempted to create a canon for the series, though this is in constant flux as new material is released and is the subject of perpetual arguments.
Right from its conception in 1984 Transformers differed from many other franchises in that it was made up of more than a single continuity, the two main ones being the Sunbow cartoon series and the Marvel comic series. Although based on the same basic concept both series offered different interpretations of events and characters. For example, in the cartoon, Shockwave was shown to be slavishly loyal to Megatron, whereas the comic portrayed him as a usurper constantly plotting to take control of the Decepticons himself. Both interpretations are canonical within the confines of their specific continuity.
In addition to these two main continuities, countless other licensed products offered their own take on the Transformers' fictional universe, resulting in yet more micro-continuities, such as those presented in the Ladybird Books, Big Looker Storybooks (also published by Marvel) and Kid Stuff’s Talk and Read series to name but three.
Over the years as new Transformers products have been developed, multiple continuities have given way to multiple continuity families, each of which may contain dozens of continuities.
Hasbro's only real input on what constitutes canon in Transformers comes from the Transformers Universe franchise, which grew out of the BotCon merchandise and fiction produced by 3H Productions, and has continued with Fun Publications' fan club and Timelines comics. These stories present the idea that each Transformers continuity exists in its own separate universe, with Primus and Unicron as entities which straddle (or easily travel between) these universes. This approach is essentially a tacit endorsement of the model that the Transformers fandom had already started working under:
In Transformers, "canon" is for all intents and purposes a synonym for "official". If it was released by a Transformers licensor with Hasbro approval, then it is canonical. However, simply being canonical doesn't say anything about what continuity or continuities it applies to.
3H and IDW have both released comics which take place "just offscreen" during the Beast Wars cartoon, but these comics contradict each other. Rather than the newer IDW comics invalidating the 3H story or retconning it out of existence, the two are simply relegated to separate but closely parallel universes.
While this "multiverse" approach helps to ensure that essentially all Transformers fiction is given a certain amount of validity, there are occasions when individual texts within the same continuity contradict each other. (The history of the Constructicons in the original cartoon series are probably the most famous example.) When this happens, there is no clear way to proceed. Fans may reach a consensus on how to best interpret the evidence, but this consensus is not official and therefore not canon. (Until/unless somebody writing official fiction drops it in, transforming it from fanon to canon.) Each fan's interpretation of such events constitutes a part of their personal canon, a subjective collection of ideas about the official fiction which is typically a work in progress that is constantly being reevaluated.
When dealing with Transformers fiction, these general rules apply:
One of the definitions of canon is: a sanctioned or accepted group or body of related works. The Traveller canon includes the books published by GDW, Digest Group Publications, Imperium Games, BITS, Steve Jackson Games, QuikLink Interactive, Avenger Enterprises, and Mongoose Publishing.
Because of the ownership of the Digest Group Publications material, this material can not be used directly in other Traveller material. This has led to referring to this material as deuterocanonical or second canon.
A number of other publishers, including Seeker, Gamelords, FASA are also considered deuterocanonical. Their material produced under license is still used for canon references, though the companies no longer produce for Traveller.
Traveller canon excludes articles published in Journal of the Travellers Aid Society, Challenge, and Travellers' Digest magazines, unless the articles have been re-published in another canon source.
Other publishers products, though approved for use with Traveller at one time, have been de-canonized and removed from this list: Judges Guild and Paranoia Press.
Library entries derived from a canon source are listed in this category. Any library article not derived from a canon source is in the non-canon category.
The categorization of an article as canon or not is usually irrelevant to gamers. Which articles are important to your game should be your decision. Canon is important to authors writing for a publisher to ensure they are within the boundaries set by previous authors.
The following 200 pages are in this category, out of 2,863 total.
|
|
Top topics
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Misc
Search
