Canon

Canon refers to the works within a franchise that are considered to be "official" by its author, rights holders and fans.

Overview

The term "canon" was originally used by religious scholars, who used it to deem which scriptures were considered legitimate: for example, Orthodox Judaism does not consider the New Testament to be canonical. The term was first applied to fandom (albeit in a tongue in cheek way) by the fanbase of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, to distinguish between the Sherlock Holmes stories written by Doyle himself, and those written by others. Some franchises take a stricter approach to canon than others, but since one work of fiction is no more "real" than another, it is up to the author or rights holders to decide which stories belong to their official continuity.

In Zoids fandom, the question of which works are to be considered "non-canon" has been a source of strife. Each work of fiction in the Zoids franchise is generally set in its own continuity, many of which contain irreconcilable contradictions; therefore, no "One True Canon" stands above all the rest. Each work in the franchise is canon to itself, but non-canon to the rest of the franchise. The Chaotic Century anime and New Century anime are canon to each other, whereas the Chaotic Century manga and New Century manga are non-canon to the anime or each other, the former being a Battle Story spinoff (itself non-canon to the second half of the Battle Story) and the latter being a standalone work. Fluff text written on the boxes and fanbooks are non-canon to the anime and only apply to the Battle Story.

The flipside to canon is Fanon, which are unofficial ideas that are commonly accepted as truth by the fandom (such as the Descendant Theory.)