Continuity and Canon Rules

## Summary

To make this brief and clear, the purpose of this page is to clarify about common issues that is currently going within any established canon material and distinguishing different continuities in their own respective offical canon. For the following sections below, each one will provide descriptions and disclaimers for each term used in fiction that focuses on the consistency of the plot in regards to the fictional universe in question. Afterward, there will also be guidelines and tips for how anyone could properly do this for themselves before researching anything important that they may need to know for each fictional universe they are normally considered to be knowledgeable on.

## Canon

Description: The material accepted as officially part of the story in an individual universe of that story by its fan base.

The alternative terms mythology, timeline, universe and continuity are often used, with the first of these being used especially to refer to a richly detailed fictional canon requiring a large degree of suspension of disbelief (e.g. an entire imaginary world and history), while the latter two typically refer to a single arc where all events are directly connected chronologically. Other times, the word can mean "to be acknowledged by the creator(s)".

Disclaimer:

* 1. When there are multiple "official" works or original media, the question of what is canonical can be unclear. This is resolved either by explicitly excluding certain media from the status of canon, by assigning different levels of canonicity to different media, by considering different but licensed media treatments official and equally canonical to the series timeline within their own continuities' universe, but not across them, or not resolved at all.
* 2. There is also no consensus on question of who has the authority to decide what is or isn't canon, with copyright holders usually declaring themselves the authorities when they want to erase or retcon materials that were approved by the setting's original creator (with Star Wars again being an example). The use of canon is of particular importance with regard to reboots or re-imaginings of established franchises, such as the Star Trek remake (2009), because of the ways in which it influences the viewer experience.
* 3. In literature, the term "canon" is used to distinguish between the original works of a writer who created certain characters and/or settings, and the later works of other writers who took up the same characters or setting.
* 4. Some works by the original writer such as The Field Bazaar but not the same publisher may be debated as forming part of canon.[12] This is because copyright used to be exercised by the publisher of the work of literature rather than the author.
* 5. In film and television this is common that the original writer does not decide canon.
* 6. Fan fiction is almost never regarded as canonical.

## Continuity (Fiction)

Description: A consistency of the characteristics of people, plot, objects, and places seen by the reader or viewer over some period of time. It is relevant to several media.

## Alternate History

Description: A genre of fiction wherein the author speculates upon how the course of history might have been altered if a particular historical event had an outcome different from the real life outcome.

## Alternate Universe (Fan Fiction) (AU, alternate universe, alternative timeline, alternate timeline, alternative reality, or alternate reality)

Description: A setting for a work of fan fiction that departs from the canon of the fictional universe that the fan work is based on.

## Expanded Universe

Description: Generally used to denote the "extension" of a media franchise (like a television program or a series of feature films) with other media, generally comics and original novels.

## Shared Universe

Description: a fictional universe from a set of creative works where more than one writer (or other artist) independently contributes a work that can stand alone but fits into the joint development of the storyline, characters, or world of the overall project.

## Spin-Off (Media)

Description: A radio program, television program, film, video game or any narrative work, derived from already existing works that focus on more details and different aspects from the original work (e.g. particular topics, characters or events).

## Sister Show

Description: Also known as "companion series," are two or more television series which exist in the same fictional universe and which may have crossovers.

## Guidelines

These explanations provide an in-depth understanding of the basic part of the guidelines that follows Don Markstein's criteria in terms of continuity and the canon for fictional universes.

1. If characters A and B have met, then they are in the same universe; if characters B and C have met, then, transitively, A and C are in the same universe.

**Disclaimer**: This would be to assume that characters A and B are the **same versions from said fictional universe** (not multiverse, which is tend to be an occasionally interchangeable term depending on the context in question or from any alternate universe (AU), which is usually considered to be non-canon) instead from any parallel ones that just look very similar to each other.

2. Characters cannot be connected by real people — otherwise, it could be argued that Superman and the Fantastic Four were in the same universe, as Superman met John F. Kennedy, Kennedy met Neil Armstrong, and Armstrong met the Fantastic Four.

**Disclaimer**: When considering the idea that 2 or more people that personally met each other being used as reliable justification of the continuity of 2 characters belonging in the same universe or powerscaling their feats together when factors come into play such as both characters meeting each other in a crossover, **this would not always mean** they are in the same universe, canon, or continuity aside from this crossover in any way whatsoever **unless both authors** confirms this to be the case.

3. Characters cannot be connected by characters "that do not originate with the publisher" — otherwise it could be argued that Superman and the Fantastic Four were in the same universe, as both met Hercules.

**Disclaimer**: Keep in mind that even if the original author who owns the characters gave permission to any other author to be allowed to not only create any form of media with their own characters but also borrow the original author's recognizable characters with the likelihood of making them canonically meet up with the other characters **will not automatically confirm** that these characters share the same continuity in the original author's fictional universe by default **unless both authors agree with this being the case first** so any unnecessary controversy or misconceptions regarding the continuity can be easily avoided.

Otherwise, the fictional universe of any secondary author(s) that fits this case will normally be considered parallel to the original fictional universe that only shares the same canon but not the same continuity.

4. Specific fictionalized versions of real people — for instance, the version of Jerry Lewis from DC Comics' The Adventures of Jerry Lewis, who was distinct from the real Jerry Lewis in that he had a housekeeper with magical powers — can be used as connections; this also applies to specific versions of public-domain fictional characters, such as Marvel Comics' version of Hercules or DC Comics' version of Robin Hood.

5. Characters are only considered to have met if they appeared together on-panel in a story.

**Disclaimer**: This usually tends to happen frequently in crossovers, expanded universes, and occasionally in spin-offs but however, do keep in mind that these cases **will not automatically confirm the idea** that these fictional universes could have the same continuity by default rather than just being a part of the same canon for their respective fictional universe that shares close connections with them.

## References (Guidelines & Rules)

* Public Debating Rules
* Wiki Rules