Canon

Canon (in the context of fandom) is a source, or sources, considered authoritative by the fannish community. In other words, canon is what fans agree "actually" happened in a film, television show, novel, comic book, or concert tour. Specific sources considered canon may vary even within a specific fandom.
== Etymology ==
The term derives from the theological concept of canon: the foundational texts of a religion, such as the Tao-te-Ching, the Bhagavad-Gita, the Talmud, and the Bible.
While some scholars have argued that Sherlock Holmes fandom was the first to use the word "canon" in its fannish sense, this not quite correct. Their usage popularised, and gave added fannish heft to, an already common way of speaking about given bodies of fiction: "while Morley’s 1934 essay “Doctor Watson’s Secret” called the tales “the canon,” the word was uncapitalized and lacked religious reverberations. It seems simply the term that occurred to the deep-dyed bookman in referring to the literary corpus, as often applied to other, lesser secular works such as Shakespeare. Elmer Davis had already used “canonical” the same way in reviewing Starrett’s Private Life. Morley was Quaker in upbringing, not given to extravagance of religious expression in any event. Not until 1941, in an unpublished memoir about the BSI’s beginnings, did Morley use a religious term: “since the Baker Street Irregulars refer to [Conan Doyle’s] works as ‘The Sacred Writings,’ perhaps he may be nominated ‘The Sacred Writer’” — but he did so as a nod to his old chum Elmer Davis, saluted by name immediately afterwards." (Jon Lellenberg, “The Ronald Knox Myth.” The Sherlock Holmes Journal, vol. 30, no. 2 (Summer 2011), 5358. ) 
A fan, Ruth Berman, explained this to some Blake's 7 fans in 1992: (However according to Lellenberg's thorough account, Knox seems never to have actually used the term himself: "Father Knox was not satirizing religious rites; he was satirizing German scholarship, a very different thing.")
The word cannon refers to a form of artillery gun and is pronounced the same as canon. Many modern fans have limited exposure to the religious usage, so they use the more familiar spelling, which leads to bemused rants by those who do understand the difference.copperbadge. etymological discussion of canon vs cannon, posted to Dreamwidth 9 January 2013. (Accessed 2013-04-17)
==Official vs. Canonical==
In some cases, a fandom may embrace one work by an author, and yet reject a closely related work as "not canon." An author's works may be considered canon, while statements by the author are often considered to be merely opinion. See Fanon.
Prop Canon is related to physical objects shown in a movie or a TV show, for example college degrees, driver's licenses, etc. Lacking conflicting evidence, prop canon is considered a reasonably canonical source, but occasionally dialog, or later show development may cancel it out. For example, in Stargate SG-1, Jack O'Neill had different birthdates depending on which driver's license was shown, while Rodney McKay on Stargate Atlantis has a certificate on his wall that gives his name as 'Rodney Ingram McKay' which was later contradicted in the episode McKay and Mrs. Miller when his sister said his full name was Meredith Rodney McKay. 
Grey canon or gray canon refers to canon that is ambiguous in its canonicity: a detail implied or easily inferred in canon but not confirmed outright; a detail brought up in a creator commentary or podcast but never stated in canon itself. (Essentially, the canonicity of that fact is in a gray area.) An example of grey canon would be the "Previously" segments in Battlestar Galactica, which are not, in fact, previously aired material from an episode. Since the not-actually-Previouslies do not occur within the bounds of an episode, it is not unreasonable to call them non-canonical; but since they affect the episode to which they are attached, it might also make sense to call them part of canon. Another example is the character Billy from Power Rangers, whose surname was never stated on the show but who was referred to on some merchandise (and, years later, on the official Power Rangers website) as "Billy Cranston." Although many fans have embraced "Cranston" as canonical, there are some who do not accept it as canon.
==Closed vs. Open Canon==
A fandom is considered to possess a closed canon when no additional source material is expected to be forthcoming (there are no upcoming books, episodes, or movies in the series). 
By contrast, an open canon would thus be one in which new episodes, books, or movies are being produced.
==Canon in Real Person Fiction==
RPF has inherited the story tropes and fanspeak of FPF, and along with the woobies and angst and all those first times came a way of discussing and of conceiving of RPF as a form of fanfiction. The terms canon, fanon and AU get bandied about in RPF circles the same way they're used in FPF meta. 
While canon in FPF usually refers to the single recognized source for the fandom, in RPF there is no single source, and sources often contradict. Not surprisingly, fans don't agree about what is and is not canon in RPF fandoms, or how important it is to a story that isn't represented as an AU to get all the facts right. All RPF is a balance between the Real and the Fiction, but not all RPF sets the same balance. The sources of RPF canon are many, and not all fans have the time or inclination to research every piece of information available: tweets, convention appearances, TV or movie gag reels, interviews (both in print and recorded), "making of" documentaries, albums (for music), autobiographies, and biographies. And even when the facts (or gossip) are known, fans will disagree about what is appropriate to include as "canon" and what is invasion of privacy.
Writing canon-based RPF has been compared to writing historical fiction where an author is "filling in the blanks of an event that really happened"emily_shore. Two kinds of RPF, posted February 11, 2009. (accessed March 25, 2010.) archived.. This kind of story encompasses everything from Sports RPF stories that contain play by play recreations of actual games to Historical RPF which recreates the lives of sometimes long dead historical figures, extrapolating from detailed knowledge and research of the period. Actor and musician RPF also has these sorts of stories where the filming of specific episodes of television shows, parts of films or actual concerts are an integral part of the plot. 
The level to which an RPF story is not canon compliant, and the point at which it becomes an AU, is open to debate. At the extreme end of the spectrum, stories that place real people in scenarios totally removed from their actual lives, stories where the members of My Chemical Romance are on a spaceship or where J2 are bullriders are obvious uses of the real characters in completely non-canon settings. While some aspects of their canon selves might come along for the ride, no one thinks the story is supposed to represent their real lives.
The less obviously non canon–compliant story is the one where My Chemical Romance members are still musicians and J2 are still actors, perhaps even doing many things the real people have actually done, but the desire on the part of the author for perfect detail, or their willingness to use non–celebrities in supporting roles, may push the story away from true canon compliance. This distinction is harder to draw, and different fandoms have different cultures that determine where that line is.
To some extent all RPF, and all historical fiction as well, contains elements of fiction mixed in with the reality of the characters. In RPF though, the author may be setting the story in a simulacrum of the person's real milieu—describing some semblance of a television show studio or tour bus—but was never intending to realistically portray that person's life. In these stories, the use of fanon in place of canon is often intentional. In other cases the author chooses not to learn the difference between the two, either because they don't want to research every detail of their characters real life progenitors, or they don't think they should.mrs_leary in bradleycolin—Crossing the line in RPS..., posted September 14, 2009. (accessed March 25, 2010.) archived.
==Canon in Pop Culture==
T-Rex of Dinosaur Comics once proclaimed several events in his life to be non-canon, including "any event in which I was embarrassed." T-Rex oh man, last night was so non-canon April 06 2004. Accessed October 4, 2008. 
==Rejecting Canon and Dealing With Canon Inconsistencies==
* Reset Button
* SND, a Beauty and the Beast (TV) term used to describe fanworks that rejected the third season of that show
* lots more
From the influential 1973 supplement to the Star Trek Concordance:
==Mistaking Differing Characterizations For Non-Canon==
Some fans feel that canon also extends to characterization and not just the facts or events that take place in the published novel or on screen. The two are so intertwined that a character who behaves "non-canonically" is also considered to be based on "illogical characterizations" that are not supported by the source: 
==Anecdotal Comments==
===1984===
===1996===
===1998===
===2007===
CBS Consumer Products' Senior Director of Product Development, Paula M. Block, was asked about the topic of Star Trek canon for IDW Publishing's "Focus on... Star Trek" issue:
===2018===
===2018===
== Further Reading ==
* Tiny Marshmallows Want to Be Free by Mer (1999 or early 2000s)
* -- -- , a March 2000 discussion on alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated
* Why bother writing in a fandom if you want the characters to be significantly different? (2003)
* by Jane Davitt (2004)
* by Melusina (2004)
* (Jan 2005)
* (Jan 2005)
* Life After Deathly Hollows (2006)
* by Nikki (April 2006)
*Canon Versus Fanon Versus Authorial Intent by Merlin Missy (2007)
* - fail_fandomanon discussion about what is good use of canon in RPF fic (2013)
* Creating Headcanons: Everyone Does It (2015)
* (2015)
* Captain America and Bucky are Just Friends (2015)
* Do you know when "canon," like as a concept, became like a standard nerd thing? answered by vintagegeekculture (2017)
==References==
Category:Glossary