Monday DE: To canon or not to canon

[bjornwilde]

Good morning Milliways and welcome to another week. I hope yours is a good one. 

Onto to the topic. How much does your pups canon matter to you? Do you adhere closely to it or decide what bits work for you?

Comments

[likeroaringlions]

I get all anxious about contradicting canon so I mostly try to stick close to it where it applies, and then happily worldbuild where there isn't any information. Buuut I also mostly like to play in small, contained canons where you can stick close without contradiction--I'm so impressed with people who are brave enough to tackle big sprawling comics canons or shows that haven't finished yet and are willing to deal with that uncertainty and having to pick and choose what works for them.

[have_no_mercy]

I stick pretty close for Tess, but I've chosen to ignore the comic continuation as, in my opinion, they make her unplayable. Otherwise I'm a bit of a stickler, even if I don't like it.

[just_cant_lose]

I pretty much always stick close to it. Loving a canon is usually the reason I pick up a pup in the first place, so I don't feel the need to deviate much.

Having said that, I'll occasionally go off-piste. I saved Valjean and Javert from death because it was more fun to do it - and because Valjean doesn't deserve that end, augh - and there's no way of knowing what S4 of Sherlock is going to throw up about what Jim's been up to. I'll just roll with whatever. But when I first pick a pup up, it's always with the intention of sticking with canon.

[bjornwilde]

I stick pretty close to canon but try not to let it become gospel. That way lays trouble with me. I do respect the shape of canon and the work creators put in, but I will look for the wiggle room where I can; missing moments, missed or unexplained character growth, and the like.

I've also noticed some pups require more adherence to canon than others.

There is a danger in playing with the loose aspects of canon though, and that is usually if I shift things enough the character doesn't feel canon any longer. This happened with the Palamedes I ran for a bit. I had put too much back story into him and he just didn't seem to fit the Nicholas Flamel series any longer.

An exception to this is Hank simply because Singer seems to not want to him to grow, even though it's been two decades now.

[fieryface]

I'm on team woooo canon! I'm trying to imagine the circumstance in which I would app a character for the sake of altering something about canon, and while I can conceive of it, if there's events I dislike THAT much, I probably won't be sufficiently engaged in the canon to want to app anyone. I find it really difficult to extricate characters from events-- if [event] didn't happen, then would I still like [character] as much, anyway?

I am also mostly dealing with short canons, though! I don't think I'd app a character from an in-progress canon. I like to know where they end up.

[angry_friendship_wolf]

Dddepends?

I'm sticking very closely to Tri's canon for Yamato, but when he hits the end of chapter three, I might take him slightly AU, in the vein of 'having a slightly longer period of time between chapters so that I have a bit more room to breathe, but keeping the chapters themselves basically unchanged.'

For 01, however, while I'm sticking to the broad strokes of canon, I'm also transplanting stuff from the novels and the PSP game into it, and certainly in the OOMs for episode nineteen and twenty, which are yet to go up, I'm adding in a lot of scenes and embellishing or changing a lot of the ones that are already there.

[varadia]

I definitely adhere closely to canon up until the point I bring my character in. But I feel weird about not letting my character or their choices be influenced by events at Milliways, so after that point, if there's a friend they would ask for help, or some information that would change how they approach problems -- bring it on.

Sometimes I also find ways to not have that happen, but I find it more fun to let things change if it makes sense due to outside influences or a character growing up.

And for comics, it's always pick and choose, because good lord.

[bjornwilde]

Comics canon, especially with the big two, is impossible to embrace wholly. Things change far to often for that, although I am likely Laura as Wolverine.

[varadia]

Yessss. That book has made me so happy so far. Gabby is GREAT. And also Jonathan.

[bjornwilde]

I've just been getting peaks as my comics budget is limited. I am also giddy for Logan and all that teaser poster suggests.

(Likely = Liking)

[varadia]

I will explode if the little girl is really X-23 and not loosely based on X-23.

[bjornwilde]

If it is true, I hope you have enough mass to pull yourself back together. = D

(Just to clear, that was meant as stellar dynamics. I apologize if it came out offensive.)

[varadia]

No, I figured! 's cool.

I hope so, as well. Otherwise, discorporated people can't really interact with matter very well. There ends my presence on the internet!

[bjornwilde]

Golden. =]

[bjornwilde]

Grain of salt since it's not from Marvel, but there may be confirmation of Laura/X-23.

[ceitfianna]

I tend to stick closely to the feel and work of canon but I only bring characters in if I feel like Milliways can add to their journey through canon. The only one that I'm happy to say, canon has issues, let me fix it a lot is X-Men. For the others, I mainly pick characters where I have space to explore things without breaking canon, maybe bending it slightly.

[bjornwilde]

X-men, especially Days of Future Past, is kind of a mess isn't it?

[ceitfianna]

It really is, there are a few good moments but too much and not well thought out.

[bjornwilde]

I think some of it I might buy if it wasn't supposed to be 10 years between each movie. We will make it work for us though. = ]

[mnt_mike]

It really kind of depends.
With the TMNT crew I try to stay as close to my interpretation of canon as possible, but that canon is kind of a gelling of more than one iteration on account of the fact that I started playing here before I did a re-read and it'd been damn near a decade since I'd read the books last.

(In truth I was hoping no would would be conversant enough to contradict me, this hope did not always pan out that way...)

With Avatar, however, I try really hard to stick as close to stuff as I possibly can. Going so far as to do many various and sundry searches as to whether something existed in mainland China during the 1850s for Aang, and the 1920s for Bumi.

Was there coffee? If so, who would have it? Surely the Fire Nation, if anyone, would have coffee...but what about that tea in the first episode of Book II, does that count? HMMM.

[likeroaringlions]

Oh god, the "was there coffee and who would have it" questions. I know that pain.

[heatherandsteel]

Yes, I both love and hate those questions as I adore history pups as they let me research. Then there are those times when I find myself stuck trying to find some weird piece of info or song lyrics.

[runningred]

With four total universe reboots and counting, Jay's canon doesn't care about canon!

lol

[bjornwilde]

And all of those within the past 5 years or so, right?

Re: lol

[runningred]

There abouts. DC just can't work out how to make it work again.

Re: lol

[freedom_is_grey]

Right? I just. ARGH.

[cottoncandypink]

Wilford doesn't even stick to his canon.

(Though, the release of a tangential part of his canon came out on Friday, and I've been a bit obsessed with the livestreams this weekend. Ultimately, I've decided to ignore it though, since I still have no idea what it's actually about yet.)

[i_am_your_host]

I only used the general framework of Cabaret, not what happens in the play or the movie, because Emcee as a character has no real arc except for his symbolism. When I brought him to Milliways, it was vaaaaguely around some undetermined time taking place after the main incidents in the play/movie. But now that I have technically freed Emcee from canon, I'm now going to do my damnedest to stick to historical accuracy. Fortunately his time period has been one of my greatest interests so it's just a matter of details. If all goes well for him (I'm still not sure if they will! oh noes!), then I get to write about NYC in the 1930s, and I am truly excited about that.

As for Pam, I'm going by the True Blood TV series canon since I haven't read the books. In the books Pam is a completely different character, so I'm just playing it safe by drawing only from her story as told onscreen. Eric-mun and I have great fun playing out canon, though, and pretty closely at that. We just like filling in the gaps and giving more emotional weight to key scenes.

Vikings is still an ongoing series, but I think it had progressed far enough for me to jump in with Floki. But it was before THE THING HE DID, and that was the only time I've ever played a character that gave me pause. Like, if this was going to be someone who could return to Milliways after that and not be reviled. But for my part, I've stuck to canon like glue so far and have no intention of changing Floki's actions.

[mightbeagoodone]

I look at canon as a highway with a lot of scenic byways. The highway will get you to your destination, but all the interesting stuff is on the side roads.

[bjornwilde]

That is a great way to describe it.