Canon

**Canon** is a term used to describe a fixed collection of material that is considered part of the *Monster Prom* universe. Due to the franchise's nature of using vast collections of scenes involving wacky, random plots and events, it can be difficult to determine what is and is not considered canon.

This page details the kinds of information the Monster Prom Wiki considers canon.

## The Developers

All information coming from the developers of the *Monster Prom* franchise that may or may not be included in the games or other official content is considered *canon*.

Any information the developers explicitly say is not canon is considered *non-canon*. For example, one one-off event claims that Miranda Vanderbilt's father (a powerful king) owes money to Vera Oberlin's father (a normal man). In that specific instance, the developers confirmed that was *non-canon*. Pictures the developers post online of characters' pasts or futures have been explicitly stated to not necessarily be canon unless featured in a game, and are merely the interpretations made by the artist who created the picture.

The developers have a narrative bible that contains all canon information on the franchise's universe, characters' personalities and backstories, and "canon" ships. The developers consider anything they would be comfortable with used in an official product set in their universe *canon*.

### Ships

The developers have expressed an interest in publishing material such as comics that would incorporate "canon" romantic pairings for characters. For a given character, there is a selection of multiple other characters they can "canonically" be shipped with in the narrative bible, which is useful if a products is licensed out to a producer not in the Beautiful Glitch company.

While not made explicit, there exist implications in the games and some existing merchandise that imply what some of these pairings may be. For example, several events in both *Monster Prom* and *Monster Camp* strongly imply that one such "canon" pairing is between Miranda and Damien LaVey.

Such romantic pairings would be considered *canon*, but *not* necessarily canon to the games themselves; they would exist on an equal, but separate tier of canon.

### Sources Included

* The official Monster Prom narrative bible
* The Official Monster Prom website
* The Official Monster Prom Discord server (statements made by members of the development team only)
* The Official Monster Prom Twitter account
* Julián Quijano's Twitter account
* The Official Monster Prom Tumblr account
* The Official Monster Prom Instagram account

## The Games

Because the games contain hundreds of random one-off events with often-contradictory information based primarily on what is funny with little regard for consistency, most information given (such as facts, how characters act and react in given situations, etc.) is considered *non-canon*.

Successful (non-rejection) endings and secret endings (routes that can only be triggered by buying certain items or encountering certain randomly-generated events) are considered *canon*. More attention to facts and details are given to these, and many establish important character information and backstory, which one-off events may contradict; for example, a recurring joke in *Monster Prom* is Polly Geist giving different explanations for how she died. It was later revealed in the LOCKET secret ending how she *actually* died, and *that* information is thus considered canon. A successful, normal prom ending with Scott Howl states that he has an interest in astronomy.

On secret endings, because the game's universe "resets" and many of the events that transpire in them cannot logically happen at the same time (for example, all of the characters becoming objects, all of the characters being replaced by robots, a main character dying, etc.), secret endings that imply a specific, reasonably-assumed-illogical future for the character(s) involved (such as Scott and Miranda starting a business together), future(s) that do not align with the rest of the events of the game (such as a main character dying), or feature wacky occurrences that are beyond the reasonable assumption of "logic" or "canon", are considered *non-canon*.

Certain one-off events may include information that implies certain facts or dynamics, but which do not make sense for the character(s) involved, or which may not make sense given information provided in a secret ending. For example, a one-off event involves Scott bringing several of his baby brothers to school; however, as Scott was abandoned as a baby by his parents as revealed in the FAMILY secret ending, and thus would have no siblings so much younger than him, this cannot be considered canon. As previously stated, Miranda's father would not logically owe money to Vera's.

However, there *are* exceptions to these rules:

* If there is information that is not included in a secret ending, but is repeated across more than one unrelated/non-sequential events, it *is* considered *canon*. For example, multiple one-off events confirm that The Wolfpack consists of four individuals (as corroborated further by their sprite).
* If information is carried across multiple games, even if it was originally only in one event, it becomes *canon*. For example, in *Monster Prom*, Damien finds a minuscule civilization called Smalltopia. Smalltopia, and Damien's treatment of it, occur in multiple events in *Monster Camp*. In *Monster Prom*, Scott claims in a lunch event to have traveled to Japan and become the mascot of a snack brand called "Scott Snacks"*.* "Scott Snacks" become an item in *Monster Camp*, seen in both the pre-game preparation phase and the credits sequence.
* In *Monster Prom*, the PRANK MASTERZ secret ending involves nearly every character in the game dying. Normally this would not be considered canon, but in *Monster Camp*, there exists a one-off event where Joy Johnson-Johjima explains the backstory behind this and the DEITY endings, confirming it did indeed happen in an *alternate timeline*. While this one-off event is not part of a secret ending of its own, because this information is both given extra narrative weight *and* is connected to a secret ending, both the secret ending and the one-off event are considered *canon*.

The post-game, pre-credits sequence in *Monster Prom* often includes short blurbs explaining the post-school futures of various characters. These futures can vary and contradict each other even for the same characters, and may be contradicted by later installments in the franchise. Such information is considered *non-canon*.

Naturally, because the game features multiple player characters, and players can romance any character across any number of playthroughs, romantic pairings as a result of successful endings of X player character with Y NPC (such as Oz and Vera, Amira Rashid and Dahlia Aquino, etc.) are considered *non-canon*.

The names and pronouns of the player characters are cutomizable by players. However, pre-selected names and pronouns are provided by default, and these have been officially stated by the developers to be *canon*. For example, Amira's default name is Amira, and her default pronouns are She/Her, while Sawyer's default pronouns are They/Them.

### Sources Included

* Successful endings
* Secret Endings
* Repeated information
* Information included across games

## Merchandise

Some official merchandise includes information that is not included in the games and is considered *canon*.

The biggest example of this are the Polaroids, physical copies of polaroids seen during the first game's credits sequence and given as rewards for successful endings. On the backs of these physical polaroids is information that provides exclusive or expanded information on the individual characters depicted, and expands upon the relationship between multiple characters depicted. This information is taken directly from the developers' narrative bible (though mildly edited or picked to remove or avoid information that may reveal one of the bible's "canon" ships too explicitly), and while sometimes "contradictory" with how a given player character may be able to successfully romance a love interest they are said to pair poorly with during the course of a game, all such information is considered *canon*.

Additionally, *Monster Prom* has Steam trading cards that include information on the character(s) depicted in them. These are considered *canon*.

The actions of the player characters are determined by pre-determined options provided by the game, and may go one of multiple ways depending on the player's stats. These actions can often directly contradict the information provided about the player characters in the polaroids; for example, Vicky Schmidt is very kind and would not cause others harm, but many events in the game have the player directly harm others. Many choices in the game have the player act in bold, dangerous, and energetic ways, which neither Oz or Brian Yu would likely do. As such, such actions are considered *non-canon*, *even* in successful endings and secret endings that *are* considered canon (effectively, only information that applies to NPCs would be considered canon).

Other merchandise, such as the official yearbook included in a collector's bundle of the game, includes other information such as the full names of minor characters known only by their given names in the games, and official ages for the original four player characters.

### Sources Included

* Polaroids
* Yearbook
	+ Character trading cards
* Steam trading cards

## Other

Information contained in or implied by *unreleased content*, such as games that have yet to be released or are expected to never be released, are considered *non-canon* unless stated otherwise by the developers or until the game in question is released.

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 File:Discord - Mihail - Canon Bible and Ships.PNG
File:Discord - Mihail - Polaroid Ships.PNG