Why do we love canon?

[Zontar]

Now, I love canon as much the next guy, but I'm trying to figure out what the appeal is for nerd things that doesn't seem to show up in other fiction.

An example is things like Power Rangers, Pokemon or Zelda, where some fans have worked harder then the creators themselves to create a timeline of events and connect them all. Be it a diverging timeline to connect very different settings which shouldn't logically coexist in the same universe (Zelda), or trying to make sense of how a single timeline works despite large internal inconsistencies (Power Rangers, Star Trek, Star Wars). And the end of the day we just seem to like contenuity, but I can't for the life of me figure out why, and I love it myself. Anyone have any theories?

In the meantime, I'll leave this little song here (though it's a little dated since it came out in 2010).

 

[PsychicTaco115]

I think in general, people just like order

Having things in a somewhat sequential timeline helps people feel good about story and whatnot

Or I could just be full of shit, who knows? :3

 

[DefunctTheory]

The human brain is wired to find patterns and discern cause and effect. Which is, in many ways, what canon is.

Also, people like having things they're emotionally invested in to be connected, which you can see a lot of in cross over fanfiction.

 

[Super Cyborg]

Part of it has to do when one is so invested in a series, they feel the need to try to connect everything to validate the love for the series, and not for the actual things presented. I see this worse for series that are overall terrible, or series that were once great but are now terrible. Sometimes there are things that people like that don't have any value other than the fact that they like it, but if they can try to make it sound like it's much better than it actually is, they don't feel ashamed of liking a series. Also, if more things are canon, the more stuff people have to back up their arguments.

 

[Malbourne]

Continuity can also give the fan something to think about. Connecting the dots in a universe is fun; it makes the viewer feel like they aren't being treated as a sack of lumpy, soggy oatmeal by the creators. They may as well be saying, "We feel confident enough to create a big universe, so try to see how it's all connected." Of course, just dumping references of canon left and right can backfire, too, and can potentially confuse fans and creators alike.

 

[Clearwaters]

Canon makes the world in the story feel more consistent and therefore more real. This is important for large scale fantasy and sci-fi worlds since people like to use those for escapism.

 

[The Wykydtron]

I suppose people just want to have the things they like feel real I guess. Remember when they announced that all the Star Wars Expanded Universe books were non-canon? It's the perfect example, people were fucking pissed since it's essentially saying "nope, never happened, doesn't even matter now lolololol"

Now since i'm playing a fair few Visual Novels lately and I like to speculate on which route is canon just for fun. Obviously Hanako's Route is canon in Katawa Shoujo, there's too many times in the prologue where Hisao takes a second to go "look at that mysterious girl in the back there, she's pretty interesting right?" when she's not even part of the scene.

My one friend swears on Lily though because the scrub thinks that just because hers has an epilogue it's automatically going to be official canon. 99% sure the devs will be adamantly against speaking out on something official though, let's be honest, Four Leaf are probably at odds about who is Best Girl themselves.

Some are painfully obvious though, Comyu for example unlocks its routes in progression and Best Girl Kagome is unlocked dead last and her route gives so much plot information and twists it's screaming canon at you, not to mention all the childhood friend/partner stuff. That's basically GG for every other member of the cast right there.

"Once you can beat me you are worthy of being my fiance, Akihito"

^ Not even a route quote, that's during the first hour or two. Canon as fuck.

 

[Imperioratorex Caprae]

Canon gives us a sense of history, of the stories being connected in a shared world. Sure there are logical inconsistencies, but is our own history not rife with contradictory accounts, blatant falsehoods or misinterpretations of events? I don't enjoy having a perfect canon myself because it leaves room for legends to pop up, for minor heroes to become mythical gods.
But all in all canon is a way of having things fit together and of course we all decide what is truly canon for us, no matter what the official stance is, because its fiction. We're the ones experiencing it in our imaginations or games or movies and we all can be right as long as we acknowledge that the next guy's personal canon is just as valid. Just as long as we don't apply that to real life history...

 

[Renegade-pizza]

I renember MovieBob saying that having canon and not breaking or dividing it helps to retain the spell that the universes are,in their own way, realistic.

 

[Super Cyborg]

I suppose people just want to have the things they like feel real I guess. Remember when they announced that all the Star Wars Expanded Universe books were non-canon? It's the perfect example, people were fucking pissed since it's essentially saying "nope, never happened, doesn't even matter now lolololol"

Now since i'm playing a fair few Visual Novels lately and I like to speculate on which route is canon just for fun. Obviously Hanako's Route is canon in Katawa Shoujo, there's too many times in the prologue where Hisao takes a second to go "look at that mysterious girl in the back there, she's pretty interesting right?" when she's not even part of the scene.

My one friend swears on Lily though because the scrub thinks that just because hers has an epilogue it's automatically going to be official canon. 99% sure the devs will be adamantly against speaking out on something official though, let's be honest, Four Leaf are probably at odds about who is Best Girl themselves.

Some are painfully obvious though, Comyu for example unlocks its routes in progression and Best Girl Kagome is unlocked dead last and her route gives so much plot information and twists it's screaming canon at you, not to mention all the childhood friend/partner stuff. That's basically GG for every other member of the cast right there.

"Once you can beat me you are worthy of being my fiance, Akihito"

^ Not even a route quote, that's during the first hour or two. Canon as fuck.

I feel that in cases like Star wars, or other series that have multiple routes which non are canon, it can be interesting to discuss what could be canon. Star Wars is an interesting case, because there was so much offshoot material, that there was lot's of stuff to talk about. Haven't played Katawa Shoujo yet, so can't comment much on that. Over all, I think the arguments about canon vary on what series is being argued about. Also, arguing what could be canon can be fun, or even hints in the story about what theories could be canon. I do it quite a bit with people about stuff on One Piece. The main thing is if people are civil about it. I've seen people get really aggressive arguing about what's canon and not.

 

[ChaosBorne]

Canon is important i feel because it justifies the time you spend on something, if anything can be invalidated at any time then why waste time on it at all? It's also important to give a frame of referance for the fans and it helps to create a believable world.

Also i think it cheapens a story if the writer just blatantly ignores what has come before to jam in whatever he wants, it's fine if they are clear it's an alternate timeline or something but if they just brutally force incompatible things into the story it's really jarring and can ruin what has come before simply because the writer has no respect for it.

 

[FPLOON]

I thought "canon" gave a sense of purpose of the character(s)/world(s) in question... I mean, for example, I just found a few people that didn't like shows like Space Dandy because there's barely anything "canon"-related to truly grasp at, thus causing a true disconnect with the characters and worlds that do appear throughout the show...

For me, I can understand that, but I feel that "canon" is more than just that obvious connections between the character(s) and the world(s) in question... Going back to Space Dandy, the three main character in the series (even including the reoccurring characters) all still have the same personality every episode... That's just another way "canon" works in the long run, otherwise Space Dandy would be completely inconsistent in both the obvious sense ("overarching" story) and the not-so obvious sense (every reoccurring character's personalities), thus loosing any sense as to why we're always focusing on any of those reoccurring characters in the first place...

So, yeah... Overall, "canon"'s that sense of purpose that keeps you invested in something because there's some form of consistency within itself, even if it might not be as obvious as one would point out at first glance... (And yes, a consistent theme can be considered its own form of "canon" within the context in question...)

 

[shootthebandit]

Canon to me is important because you could have X amount of spin offs/fan fiction and people would be like "remember that time batman and iron man fought bin laden?" And fans will just get confused by it all. We have canon so there is some sort of standardisation for fans to follow and they can drift off into non-canon stuff

Following canon can be pretty difficult. X-men 1-3, first class and origins all seem to mix up the canon (yes origins im looking at you) and the whole point of canon is so the story doesnt get mixed up but is easy for fans to follow. You know how we can be sometimes. We'll see the hulk pick up thor's hammer in one issue then have a debate to the end of time about it