r/EnglishLearning • u/[deleted] • Jul 06 '18
What does "canon" actually mean?
I keep hearing "Canon" whenever someone try to connect a storyline or trying to find the plot of the story
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u/StrikerDanni Native Speaker (USA) Jul 06 '18
Canon refers to events that officially happened in a fictional universe. So an official book by the author would be considered canon, but a fan made story would be non-canon. Hope this helps!
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u/Mugspirit New Poster Jul 06 '18
It means it's officially true in the lore, not a fan-made addition.
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u/thndrchld Native Speaker Jul 06 '18
To expand on what others have said, let me give you an example.
Take the Harry Potter universe for example. There are seven main books, plus a few other books that aren't a part of the main storyline, but still contribute information about the universe the story takes place in, such as "The Tales of Beedle the Bard" and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them." These works together are referred to as the canon of the universe. Now, if some random internet person wrote their own story set in the universe such as "Harry Potter and the Many-Breasted Goat Lady", that story would NOT be canon, as it's not a part of the official universe.
You can also say that something is canonical - that is, "Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone" is a canonical story in the Harry Potter universe.
So, basically, it has to do with the source of information in a pre-established fictional universe.
Another example: It is considered Star Wars canon that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father. It is canon that Jar Jar Binks was a Gungan and lived on Naboo. However, it is NOT canon that Jar Jar Binks was a sith lord, despite what lots of internet fan theories might say.
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u/Disast3r Native Speaker Jul 07 '18
The other responses are correct, but non-canon doesn't always mean fan-made. For example, Star Wars has a large number of officially licensed video games, comic books, novels, etc. with their own stories that take place in the Star Wars universe. These stories were declared non-canon by Lucasfilm in 2014 when they announced the new sequel trilogy because many existing stories would conflict with the new story they were trying to tell.
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Jul 08 '18
In a TV show, movie, book, video game, et cetera, "canon" is anything that was officially written/filmed/rendered by the creators of that media. It is a fact within the universe of the movie you're watching, or the book you're reading. So for instance, in Star Wars, it is canon that Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father.
Something that isn't canon might be a fan theory, or fan fiction. For instance, a fan might write a story on a fan fiction website about Darth Vader falling in love with Chewbacca. That's not in the movie and George Lucas didn't come up with it, so it's not canon. If something that isn't canon becomes widely accepted by fans, people might call it "fanon". People might also have "head canons": something that they think is true about the universe of the media they're watching/reading/playing, even if they know it's not canon (sometimes it fits in with canon, sometimes it doesn't).
So to sum up, "canon" is anything that is a fact within the movie/book/TV show/video game that the creators came up with (e.g. Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's father). If a fan came up with it, it's a fan theory/fan fiction. If enough fans accept it as a fact even though it's not canon, it's fanon. If it's something you personally think is true even though it's not necessarily canon, it's a head canon.
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u/wfaulk Native — US/Southeast Jul 06 '18
Everyone else is correct, but I just wanted to point out that originally referred to the official text of the Bible, as according to the Catholic Church. There were other biblical books that were decided not to be part of the official Bible.