Tuesday is poll time...Wait...

[flowrs4ophelia]

Didn't do another poll for a while because my internets be broken. :( But I'm making up for it with an extra long one about an extra juicy and controversial topic that I'm sometimes not even sure about.

The questions are multi-fandom and some do have spoilers for season 3 of Battlestar Galactica, in case you haven't started it and are planning to (which...you should be or you're crazy).

[Poll #1201674]

Comments

[lunylucy.livejournal.com]

Generally, I accept as canon whatever's in the original material (obviously) plus whatever the creator tells us, because it's their story and it doesn't matter if a particular detail ended up in the book/movie/etc. or not (I mean, unless they are saying they changed their mind, ie "the character was going to do ___ but then I decided that he should ___").

[evrdream33.livejournal.com]

Canon to me is strictly what's obviously indisputable in the original material, even what the creator says isn't absolute canon because a) if it isn't written down they can change their minds or forget what they said and b) input from their publisher/editor for future canon material could change what they originally had in mind.

[ofadoration.livejournal.com]

I sort of pick and choose when it comes to outside canon. Some of the background information SMeyer and JKR give I take as canon, but I'm not going to say that a deleted scene happened when it didn't. (Minus Kara trying to kill herself, because that makes sense.) But anything that happens in the text of a series is canon, whether or not people like it.

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

But anything that happens in the text of a series is canon, whether or not people like it.
Yeah, I don't think anybody can dispute that. The last question in the poll wasn't really serious. :)

I think you have to pick and choose a little. Even a lot of deleted scenes that are released on DVDs were cut not because of time but because the writer(s) decided it didn't belong. And really, does it matter all that much to know that SM says Edward listens to Muse? A lot of the little details aren't even important enough to acknowledge and that's why they're not in the books.

[mouthsopen.livejournal.com]

I think it's a bit hard to distinguish canon with books like Twilight and HP because they're in first-person narratives (though HP is in third-person, it does follow Harry). So things can happen but the narrator might not know it, or their view of it distorts what really happened.

As regards to the last question, I usually have my own personal canon and then actual canon... but Edward Cullen's a liar so I don't really believe anything he says.

[mouthsopen.livejournal.com]

I wonder, if I read Breaking Dawn does that really make it canon for me? Haha. Besides, strictly taking canon from the text is boring.

[mouthsopen.livejournal.com]

oh crap, I meant to say if I don't read Breaking Dawn then does it make it canon.

And ha, I guess we can talk about the judicial branch and how they interpret the Constitution as 'canon'. Who knew the government was so fandom-y?

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

Besides, strictly taking canon from the text is boring.
Yeah, if we had absolutely no ideas about things that happen or are true outside of the canon text, we wouldn't be on the internet writing and reading fic and stuff. And that would be tearfully boring.

I admit I can feel pretty assertive about my personal canon and think these things like "This is the kind of music Jacob listens to, okay. I just know SM with her Muse-on-all-day playlist doesn't have the wide-ranging kind of knowledge of music to be able to ever say so herself." LOL.

[alba-holly.livejournal.com]

I usually just pick and choose what I want to be canon.

I always new Gaeta was supposed to be gay, but I never knew about the Baltar thing. I need to go back and watch the deleted scenes.

[flowrs4ophelia.livejournal.com]

I think the Gaeta thing was explained in scenes that were written but never even filmed and RDM just mentions this in one of the episode commentaries.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_thirty2flavors/]

Wow filling this out made me realize what hilarious double-standards I have for Twilight and HP. Oh wellz.

I think the short version of my answer is that it depends. As someone else said, with HP and Twilight it's difficult because we see the stories through such a limited narrator; with television and film it's different, because we generally get a more omniscient view, but I don't watch BSG so I can't really answer any of those questions. I do think re: television, deleted scenes that might pop up on DVDs are probably canon, but scenes that were written and never shot and/or deleted so thoroughly they aren't on DVDs are not canon. If that makes sense. I don't know, when it comes to extraneous canon info I kind of pick and choose what I like.

[vdkapenguin.livejournal.com]

Are you seriously telling me Gaeta's Baltar love is CANON!!???!?!?! I thought you were kidding!!!!
Great poll. Needed some more with "I don't know"-ish options, though. And maybe a couple "this is not canon because we're better at Twilight than Stephenie Meyer" options. Um, I'm an asshole.

[verysneaky.livejournal.com]

canon is canon. its just a matter of how much you want to accept and how much you want to run away and play with until it resembles nothing more than a very twisted and very scary version of the original.
I like having my own canon because I think that taking the authors word and using it as law leaves no room for being creative.

[eumelkeks.livejournal.com]

I stick to the written word. For discussions in fandom, I take interviews and extra information into account but it's not canon for me. I like the idea of Dumbledore being madly in love with Gellert but it's not in the books, so for any srs bsns analysis it's out of bounds.

[(Anonymous)]

If the deleted scene in which Kara tries to kill herself is canon, isn't also the scene canon in which the infected Leoben reveals himself to be New Caprica!Leoben?

One scene explains so much about the Kacey storyline - it wasn't just Leoben trying to mess with Starbuck for shit and giggles, it was a suicide prevention measure (and a successful one.)

The other means that New Caprica!Leoben has permanently died or that New Caprica!Leoben is indistinguishable from any other Leoben. Both options suck. One removes the Cylon with the strongest connection to Kara permanently from the narrative, the other outright questions the Cylons' ability to be fully functional individuals. (To point out the differences between the individuals of a certain production line has been really important on the show - at least with the Sixes and Eights.)

It has been suggested that the scene in A Measure of Salvation between Leoben and Kara hasn't been removed for time, but rather because someone in the editing room realized "oh shit, we can't kill New Caprica!Leoben off yet." I don't know if this is true. There is no marker that distinguishes deleted scenes that were cut for plot reasons from the ones that were deleted for time.

So if the suicide is canon, is the AMOS scene canon as well?

[ninety6tears.livejournal.com]

One scene explains so much about the Kacey storyline - it wasn't just Leoben trying to mess with Starbuck for shit and giggles, it was a suicide prevention measure (and a successful one.) That's an interesting way to look at it -- especially since Kara tries to commit suicide in the bathroom, and since she later runs in there to get away from Kacey but then comes back out when she hears the kid getting hurt, it would figuratively appear that Leoben's idea worked.