2 ms·

I'm not sure the concept of canon is useful. The work speaks for itself. Derivative works and ideas don't need official blessing to be interesting or meaningfu

I'm not sure the concept of canon is useful. The work speaks for itself. Derivative works and ideas don't need official blessing to be interesting or meaningful. There's just this sort of need for consistency between works in the same 'universe' that I think is maybe not altogether needed, even though people tend to prefer it. Arthur C. Clarke's Odyssey series doesn't suffer for not making sense (which happened because our knowledge grew while he was writing) (but there's still the "different universes" interpretation). Does Star Wars benefit from having a canon? Probably internally, so they can tell a consistent story across a vast sea of media. Knowing what is, and isn't "real" in the universe is probably helpful there. But as a fan? I can accept that the events of Truce at Bakura happened and didn't happen depending on what I'm reading or watching. Online conversation about The Lord of the Rings is frankly impossible because there's always a cadre of folks who have read every shopping list Tolkien ever wrote and interpret it as gospel. I think this diminishes the work, because it shrinks it to the tiniest—possibly least interesting—interpretation. "What would have happened if Gandalf had kept the ring?" can be an interesting question, but as soon as the person starts saying "Um, no, because Tolkien said in a letter to my grandma..." the entire engine of thought grinds to a halt.

kemayo 3y ago
I think the concept of canon is very useful, because it's a consistent starting point for discussion. Exactly how strong and binding the canon needs to be can be debated, and varies depending on the situation. The term largely descends from its use in Christian scriptural politics, where early church councils had to pick which documents were going to be considered true and the basis of their faith and which weren't. In this case, deciding on a canon of scriptures was important because it defined their religious teachings and what it meant to call yourself a Christian. ...but really, I come at it from a fan works perspective, and I just think it's useful to at least know how you're diverging from the shared understanding when you create something. Even your Truce at Bakura example relates to there being a Star Wars canon, it's just that we can accept that there's nested variants of it -- the original movies always holding primacy, and then either layering Legends or the Disney properties on top of it. Having no concept of a Star Wars canon at all would leave us with something like Star Wars: Visions, where "Star Wars" is more of a vibe that stories are inspired by than a setting that stories happen in.

kemayo 3y ago

I think the concept of canon is very useful, because it's a consistent starting point for discussion. Exactly how strong and binding the canon needs to be can be debated, and varies depending on the situation. The term largely descends from its use in Christian scriptural politics, where early church councils had to pick which documents were going to be considered true and the basis of their faith and which weren't. In this case, deciding on a canon of scriptures was important because it defined their religious teachings and what it meant to call yourself a Christian. ...but really, I come at it from a fan works perspective, and I just think it's useful to at least know how you're diverging from the shared understanding when you create something. Even your Truce at Bakura example relates to there being a Star Wars canon, it's just that we can accept that there's nested variants of it -- the original movies always holding primacy, and then either layering Legends or the Disney properties on top of it. Having no concept of a Star Wars canon at all would leave us with something like Star Wars: Visions, where "Star Wars" is more of a vibe that stories are inspired by than a setting that stories happen in.