Canon Article

[Elle]

about the "canon" concept many fans of comics, movies, etc accept as important. The author argues against respect for canon.

[Mike]

I think the author is conflating two issues: Canon and gatekeeping. Gatekeeping is about exclusivity and using tests of knowledge to enforce labels on people. Gatekeepers have knowledge tests for all sorts of interests and fandoms, even ones where the idea of "canon" isn't relevant. The existence or non-existence of canon is irrelevant to the gatekeeping mindset. And the most important thing to pay attention to with gatekeeping is WHO they repeatedly insist on applying their tests to.

Canon, as a concept, is useful. In Star Wars, for example, knowing that the seven movies plus Clone Wars form a single storyline allows me to speculate and come up with theories and predictions, knowing that THESE are the facts available to me. That's useful and fun. The idea of holding up established canon and saying that all retellings of this story must go the same way... that's just stupid. But it's different from gatekeeping. This is about people who love something so much that they feel threatened by the idea of it changing... as if telling a new version of their favorite things somehow makes the original go away. It's dumb. Marvel's doing this right. There's been so many different versions of truth in the comics, that picking out a single "canon" only loosely makes sense. It's more about knowing that there's a million stories out there, and the majority of them all are consistent with one-another in this continuity, but there's big groups of other stories that are tied together under different continuities. And the Marvel Cinematic Universe gets to pick and choose among all the stories and create a brand new continuity.

Maybe canon is a bad word that has gained too much baggage. Maybe it would be better if we spoke of continuities. It's not that this is some set-in-stone, delivered-from-the-hand-of-god CANON that must be revered and adhered to, but rather it's a continuity, so that you know that everything contained within will be relatively consistent and will follow a set of rules that make the stories all make sense together. That's useful, because within a single continuity, you can't have Galactus pulverize our moon in an issue of the Avengers, but then have the Fantastic Four visit the Inhumans on the moon in some later issue. Continuity. And people can have their favorite continuities, while recognizing that there are many other versions out there, all equally valid.

[TheMaster]

When it comes to "canon" and any universe, I look at it like this, You can do what you want with the story line (it's you story line), but don't mess with the characters. For instance, if you are going to make a movie/book/comic book/ etc about yoda, don't change him into a 10 ft blue beast with muscles that don't even exist bulging out. I know that is a bit of a huge jump, but it gets my point across. You can use Yoda to have him go on adventures between what is shown in the film, or even during the films (that is what alternate reality is for), but don't have him going hulk on us or even trying to make a human-ish version of him. I think "canon" should only apply to characteristics of characters, what the character does within the parameters of those characteristics is up to you.

As I was typing this I was reminded on an actual instance of characteristics bending that still gets on my nerves. In First class, (correct me if I'm wrong) Havok's energy beam comes from his body, but (as I know him) should be coming out of his hands. Like I said I could be wrong, but that is the kind of thing that drives me crazy. It's the little things.

[Mike]

Mess with whatever you want, just tell me a good story. You want Spock to actually be more in touch with his emotions and have a relationship with Uhuru? Okay... as long as it makes a good story. You want to tell me Rogue is just a troubled teen, and not a young woman who was brought up by Mystique, has worked as a villain for years and flies around with the strength, power and memories of Carol Danvers? I suppose... just make it a good story. Peter Parker never invented webshooters, he just naturally shoots webs as a result of his powers... Wow, that one actually made the story better for me.

[Elle]

I'm not sure how I feel about what should or shouldn't be done with characters, but what Mike says up there about Canon vs. Gatekeeping mentality is spot on and is The reply that article needed, and you should send it to the author immediately. SO TRUE.

That said, I hate people who eff with Wonder Woman's costume and other essentials. Like, I'll fight em like an angry badger (or bunny). Watch out. You might call that Gatekeeping, or just Irrational Violence. But whatevs, I call it Ethical. Compassionate. Necessary.