Canon
Canon originally referred to (among other things) the recognised books of the bible. In the 20th Century however the term has also been adopted by fans of most long running media franchises to mean any event, character, or location within the fiction that is considered to have an impact on the overall continuity. Only canonical material should be used as evidence in debates on the nature of the fictional universe and the characters that inhabit them.
How does canon work?
Canon and the Media Franchises
Before examining canonicity as it pertains to Transformers it might first be useful to understand how canon is dealt with in other media franchises. It is tempting to dismiss canonicity as a trivial matter, of interest only to the most obsessive fans and while it is true that many casual fans of a franchise will give very little thought to the canon, some franchise owners have taken it seriously enough to create their own ‘canon policies’ while others ignore the issue totally.
The owners of three of the largest franchises in existence today, Star Wars, Star Trek and Doctor Who have vastly different views on canon. Lucas Arts have developed several levels of canonicity into which a text can fall. The policy decrees that most fiction is canonical unless it is contradicted by a higher level source or is explicitly marked as non-canonical (such as material released under the Infinities banner)[1].
By contrast Paramount, owners of Star Trek have, for the most part, limited continuity to events within the TV series and ten motion pictures. All other material is largely considered non-canonical[2].
Some franchise owners ignore canon totally, the BBC, owners of Doctor Who have no canon policy. Indeed so little attention was paid to it that the franchise is riddled with countless irreconciable continuity clashes. It has been the fans who have therefore attempted to create a canon for the series, though this is in constant flux as new material is released and is the subject of perpetual arguments.
Canon and the Transformers
Right from its conception in 1984 Transformers differed from many other franchises in that it was made up of more than a single continuity. The two main ones being the Sunbow cartoon series and the Marvel comic series. Although based on the same basic concept both series offered different interpretations of events and characters. In the cartoon, Shockwave was shown to be slavishly loyal to Megatron, whereas the comic portrayed him as a usurper constantly plotting to take control of the Decepticons himself. Both interpretations are canonical within the confines of their specific continuity.
In addition to these two main continuities, countless other licensed products offered their own take on the Transformers fictional universe, resulting in yet more continuities, such as those presented in the Ladybird Books, Big Looker Storybooks (also published by Marvel) and Kid Stuff’s Talk and Read series to name but three.
Over the years as new Transformer products have been developed, multiple continuities have given way to multiple continuity families, each of which may contain multiple continuities.
Hasbro’s only real input on what constitutes canon in Transformers comes from the Transformers Universe line. This presents the idea that each Transformers continuity exists in its own separate universe with only Primus and Unicron as single entities straddling all the universes simultaneously. Under this approach virtually everything can be considered canonical.
While this ‘multiverse’ approach helps to ensure that most Transformers fiction is given a certain amount of validity, there are occasions when individual texts with the same continuity contradict each other. When this happens what is or is not canonical is usually resolved by fan consensus. It is difficult to define how fan consensus comes about or how long it takes as it tends to vary from issue to issue and is arrived at through constant debate. It can best be thought of as a work in progress that is constantly being re-evaluated.
Some canonical issue can be resolved by the use of retcon. The Sunbow cartoon series gave three contradicting versions of the history of the Constructicons. Fans have attempted to retcon them together thereby enabling all three to be canonical.
Sometimes though, no amount of retcon can resolve these issues. The Marvel comic series presented two versions of the creation of Goldbug. In the US comic Bumblebee was destroyed by G.I. Joe and then later rebuilt by them into Goldbug. The Transformers/G.I. Joe crossover was not reprinted in the UK comic for many years however forcing them to come up with an alternative explanation. In the UK strip Bumblebee was destroyed by Death's Head and then rebuilt into Goldbug by Wreck-Gar.
Both versions are irreconcilable and therefore a fan consensus is again required. However as fan consensus is liable to change over time, what might be considered canon one day may not be the next. For this reason it can be difficult to pin down what is or is not canon.
General canon rules
- What is considered canon can change over time.
- Something is canon within its individual continuity unless contradicted by another source within that continuity. In this case evidence from other texts within the continuity may be used to validate one version over another.
- Canon from one continuity cannot be used as evidence to support canon in a different continuity except in special circumstances. For example the Tech Spec Bios from the back of the toys are used as the basis for character personalities across various continuities.
- Fan fiction can never be canon.
- Just because you think something is canon doesn’t mean it is and vice versa.
- Some fans have their own ideas about what constitutes canon and nothing anyone else says will change their mind (see Personal canon).
