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Canon
From Encyclopedia Dramatica
Whatever form it's told in (book, TV show, movie), a story will sometimes attract a body of pathological fans who want to make it the center of their own identities and social lives. Given the fans
- reaching a critical mass such that they are find each other
- having enough time on their hands and
- having an inadequate grasp of how stupid their obsessions sound
they will spawn endless tl;dr words. The new environment for condition 1 that the Internet creates has enlarged the scope of stories that fit this pattern. If the story leads to further stories being spun-off, the story being told in a different (if perverted) form, and so on, the fans can enjoy endless debates about how the authentic original story was really truly and properly told IMH fuckin' O and what we should allow in those terms.
Fanatical fans of this kind often have intellectual pretensions so they adopted the ecclesiastical term canon to refer to "the exact way the only truly authentic and original version was really told". All facts in the canonical version are enforced as the absolute truth from which loyalty must nevar waver.
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[edit] Roots
The original Christian Bible consisted of an account of the life of Raptor Jesus, the Letters of Afroduck, and one or two others, for a total of twelve or thirteen books. At some stage between this and the inclusion of a bunch of bad memes like the Apocalypse of Some Guy and the Old Testament, the whole thing came to be called a "canon". Moar recently, other sects have included their own wild fanfic in their own "canonical" collections, notable examples including the Left Behind texts (for the Church of the New Moral Superiority), the Book of Mormon Magic (for the Mormons), and the Story of Jacub the Brilliant but Fucked-up Ancient African Scientist Who Created the Devil White Man (for the Nation of Islam). Being canonical is serious business so members of sects with competing canons often settle their differences by starting a flame war. When this happens on the Internets, it nearly always instigates internet drama.
[edit] Fanon
People in fandom also have flame wars over the words "canonical" and "non-canonical" regarding the fiction they love. They always base the arguments on which fanfic holds their loyalty. This is because the people involved are always fucking retards.
[edit] Alternate Sources of Canonical Info
Aside from the original work (even if it's a spin-off on a bubblegum wrapper), some fans will consider certain interviews with the Creator to be legitimately canonical. The most guilty are rabid, disillusioned shippers.
As one example, Harry/Hermione. Seriously, did you even read the fucking books? It's clear from the start that she was going to end up fucking Ron.
[edit] Examples of what is Canonical
- Ubuntu
- Any event in an episode of The Simpsons or part of a Simpsons movie is part of the Simpsons canon (despite lack of internal consistency) but events in Simpsons comics are completely non-canonical.
- In Lord of the Rings, Frodo and Sam being gay for each other is canon to the movie fans, but their Vegas marriage is only canon to the slashfic crew. Flame wars between the few who'd actually read the books and movie fans were also particularly hawt.
- Most anything from soap operas.
- Whatever Your Mom tells you.
[edit] Examples of what is not Canonical
- Anything on deviantART
- Kain is gay for Raziel
- Fanfiction
- Your BFF's thoughts on yaoi
