On Canon · 12:43pm Jan 9th, 2015
art by Sketchywolf-13
This is familiar territory for my blog, but I've had several inquiries on the subject of what qualifies as "canon" in the Fallout: Equestria universe. So I've decided to address it again, and in more detail, with a blog post that can easily be linked or referenced.
I've always firmly stated that the only things that are canon to Fallout: Equestria are what is written in the story itself. Any further interpretations and extrapolations are up to those writing side stories. Even my own ideas and expansions, such as those offered in my blog, are merely headcanon and should not invalidate anything anyone else writes.
art by Limreiart
Please keep in mind that the Afterword (Ten Years Later) was first posted on Christmas day, 2011. At that time, My Little Pony was less than midway through its second season, having just aired "Hearth's Warming Eve". Since the story was completed between April and December of 2011, it was unable to incorporate any of the wonderful elements that have since been introduced into the world of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. The story doesn't touch on changelings, or the Crystal Empire, or a great number of other things in the world that are full of potential. As such, there is a lot of room to play around in, and there are no canon answers to many questions. "Valid and intriguing interpretations" are all we are left with when we move beyond what the story itself tells.
Yes, some interpretations may be less valid or intriguing than others, especially if they directly clash with the established canon of the story. However, since no side story is canon, no side story is shackled to canon. Exploring divergence with canon can be rewarding, story-wise, but it is also inherently risky. Writers whose stories ignore or oppose canon can reasonably expect some backlash or a loss of readership. However, it is my hope that any fan reaction is polite and respectful -- kindness and friendship are as important as honesty and loyalty.
art by Limreiart
I chose to relegate canon this way for a variety of reasons. The story itself is done. It should be considered a finished product, and its canon should be self-contained. The canon of Fallout: Equestria should be universally accessible; the story is accessible easily to everyone. Not everyone reads my blogs, or is familiar with my headcanon. I think it is asking enough of people who want to play in the Fallout: Equestria universe to keep track of and stay true to a 600K+ word story. It would be unfair to ask them to read other stories and abide by their canon as well. Or to keep up with all my blogs and headcanon. And I don't want authors to need to worry about some bit of new "canon" popping up and invalidating their work. The canon of Fallout: Equestria should be a solid foundation to work from, not ever-evolving.
Even the story "A Mare Worth Fighting For" by Pacce is only canon if you want to consider it so. It is the single outside work that have (and ever will) designate as "permissible to treat as canon". However, you can just as easily chose not to.
art by Limreiart
That said, I do have my own detailed and evolving headcanon -- an amalgamation of conceptual canon and backstory that never made it into the massive work and headcanon which I developed after finishing the story, particularly in response to new episodes and in regards to new elements to the world. You've already seen things like my reconciliation of the "fourth" breed of ponies -- crystal ponies-- and the introduction of the motorized vehicle. While no writer should feel beholden to it, I am happy to share elements of it with you in my blogs.
Some very interesting points, there. I especially like this one:
A lot of people are indeed rather taken aback by deliberate changes in canon done by sidefic authors to accommodate their own story. (Lots of raging about the way Project Horizons does this all the time, with the "war behind the war" justification.) But, yeah, in the end, it's up to the author, and doesn't make the story "wrong" in any way... just a bit different
I still want to know about the last two elements. Canon-wise.
It's the same principle as any fanfiction: the canon is unaffected by your story, but that means that your story is free to selectively deviate from the canon. It's just that FO:E stories are meta-fanfiction—as opposed to fan-metafiction, which isn't allowed on this site—and thus the waters are a little murkier (and probably radioactive.)
Apparently, I'm not a very good person. (Or writer but that's something else entirely.)
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Boo!
(Edit: As in the ghost noise. Not the crowd noise.)
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[youtube=9YtjQPQpg2c]
EDIT: Oh, that works too.
1.bp.blogspot.com/-ErOdSnD3xRk/T-OM8GXiQII/AAAAAAAABl4/E2p03xLkdD4/s1600/ghost.jpg
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2711080 What do you mean? everyone except for Rainbow Dash (at least in canon) we know the fate of (element wise)
2711119 I mean the new elements. The one pick by little Pip
2711195 That makes more sense lol
Did Kkat read any of the side stories, like Fallout: Equestria - Project Horizons or Fallout: Equestria - Murky Number Seven? It's just something that I'm general curious about.
I've read a few story's that use other side fic's as cannon, along with the original FoE. The most important part of this, as I see it, is to let the readers know that what your writing is using other story's as cannon, or just strong inspiration. That way most reader at least know what their getting themselves into, and if have followed the other fic, will have a fun (one can hope) time reading the new story.
Warning: Long post/rant getting some stuff off my chest, and yes I am very happy to see this blog post, because it settles some issues the community has been having recently.
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Yeah this is a major point. I have been getting this disturbing realization that the Fo:E fandom (at least in the Fo:E group) has been developing this "cult following" (for lack of a better term) of a collection of "true" stories which do not contradict the original book in any way. These stories, while not technically canon, seem to have the group's "preferred treatment" over other side stories which perhaps take some liberties in the details which might not fit perfectly into the canon Fo:E universe if you were to take every single detail and play it out to its conclusion.
I find this really disturbing because what it ends up doing is it creates an artificial stigma against side stories which don't "measure up" to the community's standards of perfect internal consistency with the rest of the "preferred" stories. I use "preferred" here because to this community it is similar to a form of "canon" but without being able to be called canon.
Authors seem to be discouraged from taking liberties with details of the story and some people (usually just one specific person) tends to get on their case about how their story is a divergence from the Fo:E universe, and should be made to state so up front so everyone reading knows that this story does not adhere to the true Fo:E universe.
I'm all for the idea of really getting into a fandom, but the level of fanaticism required to compel someone to actively criticize the authors of creative, derivative fiction because they took liberties in some details of their derived work... it's just incredulous.
Where things get sticky seem to be in the areas of what some among us have coined speculative headcanon. This subset of canon does not get received well in the community. I myself have run into this several times with applying headcanons to my own Fo:E side story. These are things which "explain" certain apparent contradictions between the original book and the story which the author is weaving. Or even MLP canon itself.
A small example of this would be my decision to create an expansion to the reason why Celestia abdicated the throne—the official reason being the one revealed in the book, but to those who know Celestia personally, they know her real reason for feeling so guilty over it. I did this because my story takes place only six months after the Littlehorn massacre, and my characters need to stand up to cross examination. In other words, the reasoning for Celestia's actions must make sense in an active dialogue because this is fresh history. In the original story, it is all ancient history, and nobody questions it - probably because Kkat didn't really intend for that particular aspect of the story to be thoroughly explored. This is understandable - you can't create such a massive universe and cover every single possible permutation of questions which might bring certain story elements into question. It's simply too big for that.
Another small example is that I'd kind of like to have a dragon battle in my story. But if you take the time to analyze the timeline of events, you realize that the first dragon battle was the battle over Hoofington, at least two years after Littlehorn. Well, my story takes place in the window of 6-12 months after Littlehorn, so that means it ends prior to Hoofington, ergo I cannot have a dragon battle. You see how restrictive and almost fanatical this type of pedantic canon enforcement is?
So then, when someone like me comes along and tries to insert an alternate explanation for events from the original book, it is largely frowned upon because "that's not how it went". You see where the problem is here? This is well beyond criticizing a work for "ignoring or opposing canon". We're not talking about writing a story which somehow prevents the megaspells from going off or some similarly massive alteration to the original work. We're talking about minor nitpicks which get the evil eye from some, and I think that this has the potential to damage the community by creating an "elite class" of Fo:E side fics which are considered valid, where the rest are to be considered "alternate universe" and likely not be popular.
Of course, this topic can't be complete without talking about Twilicorn. The idea of Twilight as an alicorn is the most raised example of a thing you simply cannot do in your Fo:E side fic. Why? Because Twilight is a unicorn in Fo:E. Plus the Maripony incident would have turned out differently had she been an alicorn. There are, of course, ways to fit this in. In my version, Twilight's wings are just wings. Season 4 shows that her ascension is not a big deal. She's not super powerful like Celestia and Luna. She's just the same Twilight we've always known - with wings. So in my "speculative headcanon" it's okay to have Twilicorn in the Fo:E universe, especially if my story ends prior to Maripony. It's not like I'm attempting to shoe-horn my story into the official Fo:E canon universe here. I don't really think anyone is doing that, though apparently some among us seem to think that this is often the case.
So overall, I really appreciate this blog, because it brings some finality to a recurring debate within the community. It doesn't cover all the bases but it covers enough that it should not be an issue for most side-fic writers. I personally would like to see the abolition of this community-based division between "perfect adherence" stories and those which take liberties with some details. Why not just let the readers decide if they like the story or not? If someone butchers the canon universe, let their comments section sort it out.
Anyway, thanks so much for making this blog post. I think it's been a long needed settling of some big issues that just keep coming up in the forums and it's good to have it spelled out clearly. And again, sorry for the rant.
Am i the only one that thinks that Crystal ponies are just earth ponies, and their appearance is just a product of their environment? The main 6 also picked up the Crystal pony "look" for a short time, and maybe if they had stayed there for a few more years (or generations) it would have become permanent?
Also, what motorized vehicle? (other than trains, and those are covered)
So, what if I (or any other writer) decided to make a little Fo:E with changelings in it.
Would they be shoo'ed away, or would they just shrug and say, 'well, sure, I like the idea.',?
hi hi
Is creativity not a good thing? Is diversity not the spice in life? I would wager that the first and most important thing a story needs to be consistent with, is itself. Every decision an author makes in writing a story should have some sort of reason, regardless of what any other author did.
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On the point of Twilight's ascension (on which I consider her a true alicorn, just far from her future peak of power), I would say that that above any other point is the point at which FO:E diverged from canon. The road not taken leading to ruin, so to speak. Perhaps Celestia might have felt uncomfortable about it and never sent the book, or was convinced not to by Luna, or Twilight solved it without ascending, I can't say.
But that's where I say that FO:E was locked into it's course, and canon locked away from it.
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Oh that's absolutely correct. Fo:E definitely does diverge from MLP canon, no question. It would be impossible for it not to. Heck, all of our ongoing mlp fics are probably about to diverge massively from MLP canon if the Season 4 ending episode is to be considered!
Also, I would never criticize someone for writing brand new Fo:E side fics and considering Twilight as needing to be a unicorn. That's perfectly understandable. What I have an issue with is when such people criticize other writers for finding a way to make it work with their own headcanons. Notice that what you just said was that you consider Twilight as a "true alicorn" but just not leveled up yet. This is a perfectly valid interpretation.
The main thing to remember is that this is not the only interpretation of Twilight's ascension. So if someone's headcanon about alicorns happens to draw a distinction between ascended ones and natural born ones, then suddenly it's possible to fit Twilicorn into the Fo:E universe without breaking it. Except of course, for the fact that she's referred to as a unicorn. This is a naming issue, and not a plot or story issue. And as far as side fics go, they are meant to be entertaining in their own right. They aren't meant to be considered official. This is why I think the community needs to relax about this issue.
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That... was a thing?
Seriously?
What the fuck.
... no wonder this blog exists.
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Yep, yep, I know, and yep.
2711462 It is very appealing to see a nice and verbose response to some things. I admit to not being aware of that issue, but dang, that's just plain crazy to berate any being because it is not close to cannon. Then again, urgh, some works in other fandoms, well... Lets leave it on a bright note and say they have unique outlooks to what is shipped out in words.
2711294 KKat has read a little bit of PH, as for Murky I have no idea but I really hope so its pretty fantastic.
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It's going to vary. Some folks (like myself) will be fine with it, even find it interesting to see a new take on the subject. Others will actively dislike it. As they say, there's no pleasing everyone.
2711602 True, true. Thank you!
Is that a specific detail or just a belief in the existence of them the FOE universe or not?
2711417 Me personally, I like to think that the whole Twilight thing of not ascending in the FOE story as another point of why Celestia finally caves in and offer's a way out and then simply is so willing to help Littlepip afterwards.
In a way, I see a lot of Celestia and Twilight in Littlepip at that point. It's also why I feel like Celestia might have a couple of ulterior motives of wanting to keep her close afterwards.
Of course you could take a lot of that outlook alone. Just goes to show, even canon can differ from person to person reading it.
2711811 I know it at least exists in the story Fallout Equestria: Ouroboros.
To be fair, it would stand to reason that as Equestria becomes more industrialized nation it would need more ways to move items as the demand during the war would require more pony power elsewhere.
To be even fairer, it would be reasonable to assume this stuff would take the place of public transportation, freight weight items that Pegsi carriers couldn't carry and a few ponies that could afford the convenience of having a ponnieless carriage. That would make it reasonable why you rarely see them. In parts where materials like that are worth their own weight, most would be stripped down and melted for materials and in area's isolated, say a stable out in the middle of no where, you might find a whole slew of the metal rusting clunkers.
Of course, like Kkat just said, stories like that one aren't canon. But it does give some interesting thoughts about how Equestria progressed throughout the war.
Yay canon!
Puppy approves wise words of freedom for the creativity of the autors and hopes everyone gets deserved love.
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In Crystal Empire Blues (Part 2), I posit that the Crystal Heart spell acts as a proto-megaspell, and that normal ponies are turned into crystal ponies over repeated exposure to the spell's magical radiation -- an effect that mirrors the way true megaspells turn ponies into ghouls.
In The Motorwagon Orb, I offer motorized vehicles as an invention of Flam & Sons, based on the Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000.
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Well said. Thank you.
Kkat, I'm glad to see you post this here, I hope this helps smooth out some of the drama that goes on in the fandom.
2711317 Wow, yet more reason that I avoid the Fallout: Equestria Fimfiction forums like the plague. The attitude shown there is just sad and embarrassing.
And this is how I got into writing, all thanks to Kkat. My side-fic is on hold for now until a title pic is uploaded. Kkat, if you're seeing this, I'd like to thank you for getting me into reading and writing. Without you, I would've never gotten interested in reading, much less writing. <3
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I will second that! There's no way I would have gotten into writing without this story. And the changes my life has undergone in the past few months from this alone are quite profound.
For the FoE PnP game I've been running keeping up with canon would be insane. I've been inspired by your blog posts, I've been inspired to include technology left over with a stamped emblem "Solaris", but each of my players has different familiarity with Fallout fics. I have had to occasionally clash with one player about PH, which I've never read, any explanations it gives aren't necessarily valid in this game. Everyone seems to be having fun, so I'm probably just worrying too much.
One of the harder things for me to keep internally consistent is a "During The War Timeline", but straightening that out would just be narrative bean counting unless its made to matter.
I very much enjoy the kkat story time blog posts.
Personally I just like to thank Kkat for sharing her story with us and allowing the kind of freedom with it to write our own stories with it.
There's a few fanfictions that I'm really inspired by, but it was Kkat's story to motivate me to at least try to get up the nerve to try to write a couple of stories.
I will confess that when reading your blog posts my brain cuts off the little tags that say "Headcanon!!" and stuffs the rest wholesale into the box labeled "Fallout: Equestria"
I try to remain respectful of the canon with my FOE Fluttershy blog. But at the same time, having so much still open to us has proved quite stimulating. I've kinda made a living on that blog of making the impossible motherfucking possible!
2711064 I finally just had to embrace this or give up. Around chapter 66, I realized that there just wasn't any way for Horizons to be canon, and in fact I'd been bending canon quite a bit prior to that. But 66 was when I went 'Fo:E says X, PH is going to say Y'. Until then I'd always tried to make an effort to stay canon to FoE but now I just need Horizons to finish on its own merit.
Oddly enough, if I were to write another FoE story, I'm not sure it would be canon to PH! I'd probably have to set it far and away from Horizons for it to succeed or fail on its own merits.
2711317 Ah yes. Him. Old wars there. But plainly put, more stories are better than less, and good stories are better than poor ones. Just because a story follows canon to the letter doesn't mean its good. It can still be horribly written crap. And just because a story breaks canon doesn't mean its bad, just that it had to take liberties. Trying to classify something as 'AU' or 'non-au' is ridiculous. All stories are stories, and each one is it's own universe, to be judged on the merits and faults of the story and its storyteller. I had a fun little writing exercise where Blackjack (as an earth pony) grew up in stable 2 and liked messing with Littlepip, and left with her because she thought it was wrong to leave Velvet Remedy alone outside. She rapidly changes her mind when they find Velvet helping slavers. It was a fun little exercise, but no where near something I'd publish, for the usual criticisms.
I write things for people to enjoy, not factual documentaries. Also, Twlicorn in FoE is interesting. If we were doing a 4th season redo, I can imagine LUNA getting killed at Littlehorn (Or worse, there's always worse), Celestia resigning, and Twilight taking over Equestria and implementing her own OCD bureaucracy on the kingdom, asking her friends to help.
2713587 That's more races than I count. I'm perfectly happy to put aside my own headcanons (within reason) for the sake of somebody else's story, but I personally hold with the theory that nopony has natural bat wings; it's just a piece of magic that's placed on members of the Night Guard (and sometimes Fluttershy). And I don't think changelings are a race; I'm pretty sure they're their own species.
My personal take on canon is that it is an inherently instanced thing. For instance, right now, if I'm counting right, there exist 87 instances of purely show canon--one for after each episode except for the first parts of two-parters that aired all in one day, and each containing no information at all beyond what was in the episodes that had aired up to that point. Then there's another 26 canons for various times that also include the Equestria Girls movies, canons including the comics (either with or without the Equestria Girls movies), various pieces of word of God, and so on until you give up on trying to enumerate all of the versions of canon. And then we can talk about canons of fan works, and second-order fan works, and sometimes even third-order fan works, each of which is unofficial to things at lower levels of fan-work-ness, but still canon to something and thus relevant to discussions of said source of the canon. For any date and internally consistent set of things (official or not) that are taken as true, there is an instance of canon. The inheritance is deep and the variety is nigh-infinite.
While one might argue that it is preferable to inherit from the largest instance of canon currently available, it's a very minor offense at worst to miss some obscure bit of word of God or an obscure but technically officially accepted side story. And certainly there's no shame in the inevitable dating of the instance of canon that you inherit from; if everybody waited for the show and all related materials to end and for everybody involved to convey or forget every bit of word of God they might have had, just so the canon they use would always be the most recent, there would be no fandom at all.
People don't tend to be very consistently up-front about the parameters of the canon they're using other than date (and even date only insofar as they start posting the story reasonably promptly and do so somewhere that records when the first chapter of the story was posted), of course, but generally date is the only one you can't infer as it becomes relevant, anyway. So I wouldn't say that there's any harm to creating more instances of canon.
I might be jumping in here late, but I like to consider my story compatible with canon, as it is a rather small story in regards to the scene as a whole... I'm just jumping in with that because I have looked around and made sure I won't be contradicting anyones' story!
That's something I find important, not to step on anyones' hooves...
Maybe that's just me...
2715112 And that's commendable. It's hard work and it makes reading the story easier for most readers. You certainly don't have to be embarrassed. I hope you can tell your entire story doing so.
I think if I were to boil my thoughts down, it would be this: try to stay close to canon if you can. Don't be ashamed if you can't, so long as you maintain a good reading experience for your readers.
Thanks for clearing this up I have always wondered your exact views on what is canon but I do have one question. But first about me. I'm one of your biggest fans and believe that the original FoE is the best thing since sliced bread, but I'm also hooked on PH. I know you are probably asked this a lot but please hear me out. What are your exact views on Project Horizons (yeah I know you already said that no stories are canon besides original) but I honestly like to believe that PH is canon. It really does tie into the original and I respect Somber for his hard work as well. I support the original and have had several people read it (all people love it, including non bronies) but I always tell the people I've gotten to read it to start PH after the original. So basically I think what I'm trying to say is do you support PH or not and sorry if I got a little ramblely I just feel a little nervous sending a message to the almighty Kkat. :)
2713843 That is something that I get annoyed so much with the FoE community, the "FoE Cult of Canon" as I would like to call it. Even the most tiny alteration of canon to fit the story automatically means that you must be burned as a heretic. It's why I often avoid the more toxic areas of the fandom (Reddit being a prime example).
And it's not just that it's just a big annoyance . . . it's a waste of time if you ask me. So they think your story is crap because "it doesn't follow FoE canon anymore". That's fine, but having to repeatedly preach on and on about how much they hate about your story?
I'll tell you this now, but I actually loved your story because of the one thing that I felt stayed true to FoE: The characters. Sure people complain about BJ having "angst", but I never thought it was that bad. In fact, there were times when I actually laughed when she was getting frustrated at stuff, because I could relate.
But this whole canon issue crap actually made me really depressed, because to me, it felt like nobody really cared about FoE for it's story, theme, or even the characters . . . just the lore, nothing else. It's why when I see even the slightest discussion about lore do I get the feeling that nobody really cares about what's going on with the characters, it's more of a "what happened". And it actually got me into a 3 month depression for awhile. I actually thought it was stupid of me to actually enjoy FoE and PH, because people wanted to enjoy it for an entirely different reason I didn't like. But if it wasn't for a very good friend of mine that I RPed with along with other people, both RL and online, including my family, I was able to get out of it, and focus only on the positive stuff with the fandom.
Actually made a blog post reflecting this today before I read this post.
That's why I put a goddess of time in my story who explains that there are branching paths and that there are timelines and worlds without my main character or without the war. Alternate universes and timelines make explaining differences between stories a lot easier.
2744349 wrote : "That's why I put a goddess of time in my story who explains that there are branching paths and that there are timelines and worlds without my main character or without the war. Alternate universes and timelines make explaining differences between stories a lot easier."
I'm working on something similar.
In my fic when the megaspells hit everything on the planet is duplicated multiple times and sent to different places in space and time in the whole multiverse.
That story sets up everything for sequels. In another story after that one. One copy of Stable 2 winds up buried in what will eventually be my backyard. When Little Pip emerges from it she finds not the Equestrian Wasteland but instead a backyard in a residential Louisiana neighborhood.
I've always considered the original and PH to be canon, as in the same universe. That's what I did when I wrote Fallout Equestria: New Age. However I'm redoing my story with a short prequel and it involves Sunset Shimmer and time travel. So I get told the mob mentality will hate it because it's not "canon" Then I remember this blog. I re-read this blog to remember what was said. So I'm right. It's whatever you consider canon to the FOE universe.