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  • #1

    Sci-Fi/Fantasy and canon

    So...my wife and I were talking about this the other day. We talk about weird stuff sometimes.

    Anyway, take Star Wars for instance. Who decides what's canon/legends and what's not?

    To my wife, if it's not in the movie series, it's not canon. I'm more flexible there, I'm just curious how things are determined to be canon or not.

    For instance, some of the Star Wars novels are (as far as I know) considered canon. Others are considered "legends". So how's that decided?
    Skilled programmers aren't cheap. Cheap programmers aren't skilled.
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  • #2
    Quoth mjr View Post
    Anyway, take Star Wars for instance. Who decides what's canon/legends and what's not?

    To my wife, if it's not in the movie series, it's not canon. I'm more flexible there, I'm just curious how things are determined to be canon or not.

    For instance, some of the Star Wars novels are (as far as I know) considered canon. Others are considered "legends". So how's that decided?
    The franchise owner does, which in (iiuc) this case boils down to George Lucas, who owns the "intellectual property" including copyrights, characters, trademarks, etc. The fact that Star Wars has a living owner, means that said owner does in fact have the legal right to declare that decades of novels are no longer canon.

    In the case of, say, Lord Of The Rings, Christopher Tolkien or his heirs might retain that right, but if they pushed it too far they'd probably face a fan revolt. For an even older franchise... well, Sherlock Holmes wasn't even protected in CA Doyle's own lifetime, because copyright and related laws were much weaker back then. On the other hand, that effectively made Holmes the base for the first modern fanfiction and shared universe.

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    • #3
      For LotR and Holmes, I believe you're 100% correct.

      for Star Wars, however, he sold out to Disney several years ago -- lock, stock, and barrel. It's still under the name "Lucasfilm, Ltd.," however. They control the canonicity (??) of the works now, and they have: No sooner was the ink on the deal dry that they proclaimed that the following list of stuff is canon, and that just about anything extant that could be considered EW/Extended Universe was NOT.

      Full text here.

      "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
      "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
      "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
      "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
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      "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
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      • #4
        The Wife has many friends that were heavily involved in the Star Wars Extended Universe (EU). When Disney decide to break from the EU, I was not able to read Facebook for a month. It was worse than the political rants from the 2016 elections.
        Life is too short to not eat popcorn.
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        • #5
          In my circles, the general feeling is: "Canon? Pfffft."
          When you start at zero, everything's progress.

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          • #6
            Quoth MoonCat View Post
            In my circles, the general feeling is: "Canon? Pfffft."
            And that's what happens when you try to argue with your fandom.

            See also: "Highlander: There should have been only one".

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            • #7
              Highlander? There *was* only one movie >_> And 3 Indiana Jones flicks...
              "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
              "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
              "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
              "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
              "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
              "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
              Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
              "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

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              • #8
                I go by the TV Tropes category, Word of God.

                Steven Moffatt singlehandedly promoted the 8th Doctor radio plays to canon with one four-to-six minute minisode and as he was the executive producer for of Doctor Who for six years, it's canon.

                TV tie-ins, fanfiction, and anything not directly commissioned or written by the original creator is only acceptable as canon in my mind if it isn't contradicted by the internal logic of that specific universe.

                For example, there's a debate going on amongst fans of Timeless. They say Flynn is the son of Lucy and Wyatt. That's not possible because we see his mother in season 1 because he alters history by saving his stepbrother from dying of anaphylaxis. The fan theory is not canon because the actual story contradicts it and it's available for anyone to see.
                Don't waste time trying to convince someone that the sky is blue.

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                • #9
                  Star Wars canon? You mean there is another canon besides Pachelbel's Canon?
                  "I don't have to be petty. The Universe does that for me."

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