Schrödinger's Canon

Continuity Lockout has never been quite so literal.

So, you've got a work with an impressive Expanded Universe, lots of cool and interesting characters, events, places, and things, and new supplementary creators coming in and out all the time adding more and more awesome toys to the pile. But the primary creator is still working on the work in its primary medium, and is under no obligation whatsoever to include these extra bits in the next main installment. They may not even be aware they all exist. In really large and ill-overseen Expanded Universes, even bits of the expanded material may be self-contradictory. Two characters who got on great in the main story may become romantically involved in a comic, while in a novel they grow distant, while in a video game they just remain friends. Which, if any, "actually" happened? We'll have to wait until the next primary installment to see.

That's Schrodinger's Canon. Officially licensed and created works taking place within the same 'Verse as another work, tying in with its events and characters, and intended to be actually canonical at some level, but whose actual canonicity is in question until the next installment of the main work in its primary medium is released. The events, people, places, etc. exist in creative superposition, both canonical and not canonical until the main work acknowledges them as one or the other.

It is not Fanon, which is speculations by the audience. Nor is it Alternate Universe, where stories are specifically written with an intentional "What If?" bent (though Schrodinger's Canon "observed" to be false may be shunted into an Alternate Universe). It is not Shrug of God, where creators decline to give clear-cut answers, either to preserve mystery or because they don't know yet themselves. Rather, it's when actual, intended-to-be canonical works may or may not be canonical until the main work confirms or denies them.

Similar, but distinct, from Loose Canon, which is largely independent from the main work in its primary medium and has no issue being inserted or removed from the main timeline anyway, with its canonical status not being of major importance due to its mostly standalone nature as a Non-Serial Movie. Canon Discontinuity is what happens when canonicity set up in the main work is ignored by the main work itself, or when particularly popular pieces of Schrodinger's Canon are observed false. Ascended Fanon is what happens when Fanon becomes Schrodinger's Canon that is then observed true. Finally, Canon Immigrant is what happens when a particularly popular character (and character only) from a "lesser-canonical" work migrates into the main work in its primary medium. Compare Filler and Pseudo-Canonical Fic.

Do not confuse for Canon Marches On, where supplementary material is definitely contradicted and rendered non-canonical by a later installment of the main series. Compare Broad Strokes, where only some details of a previous work or event end up becoming part of the actual canon later.

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Examples (sorted by medium of main continuity):

Star Wars

• Star Wars and its Expanded Universe(s) are the Trope Codifier. When Disney bought Lucasfilm and moved forward with their sequel trilogy of Star Wars films, the decision was made to remove all previously-made material, except the existing six Star Wars films and the then-ongoing The Clone Wars cartoon, from official canonicity. However, a great many things from the old EU have served as inspiration for people working on canonical projects within the new continuity, including the new Expanded Universe novels, comics, etc. As such, the canonicity of any place, person, event, item, alien race, and so on from the old continuity is in an undetermined state until the new films (or new EU) either pulls it in from the old EU or dismisses it completely. Some elements from the expanded universe have been "observed true" as early as The Phantom Menace: Timothy Zahn originally named the Capital World of the Empire and Republic before it Coruscant, and Kevin J. Anderson originally created the double-bladed lightsaber. Other elements were "observed false", mostly anything relating to how the Clone Wars actually played out until the year after Attack of the Clones released. Many more are still either/or.
  • The franchise's Canon Immigrant page has a long list of many things originating in the Legends continuity that have been brought back. Many of the locations, in particular, are only known at the moment as names on a map, with fans left to assume that these worlds are much as they were in Legends unless otherwise contradicted. In addition, several of these astronomical objects can be assumed to be in the same place in the galaxy in both continuities, but aren't in the same region of space thanks to redefined boundaries.
  • Hints in reference books and other sources indicate that galactic history before the era of the prequel trilogy went to some degree the same way it was outlined in Legends. There have been mentions of ancient wars like the Hundred-Year Darkness that come straight from Legends. While a planet called Rakata Prime appears on the starcharts of the canon reference books, Andor finally re-canonized that race with a single line about Rakatan invaders from an ancient time by Luthan Rael.
  • At least one character from the old post-Jedi Expanded Universe, Grand Admiral Thrawn, along with the rank, uniform, and (with modifications from the original description) his race, now falls under "observed true" with his addition to Rebels. The novel Thrawn, by Timothy Zahn, reestablished large parts of his original backstory as well.
  • Knights of the Old Republic fell into this because Star Wars: The Old Republic is an MMORPG that launched in 2011, a few years before the Legends decision, and is still running more than a decade later, thus being the final authorized Legends work of fiction in active production despite the Disney ruling (and the fact it's so far back in the timeline as to not directly affect the new films). There have been several easter eggs referencing the game's setting, but no direct word about its canonical status.
  • Poked fun at with the character Jaxxon, a six-foot tall green bunny rabbit who debuted in the 1970s Marvel comics, and who many fans regard as the Anthropomorphic Personification of everything wrong with the Legends EU at its worst. Cavan Scott loved Jaxxon, and campaigned hard to bring him back when Marvel got to do new Star Wars EU comics, and several variant covers were made poking fun at Jaxxon's attempts to be "observed true" in the new canon.
• Rogue One:
  • When Cassian and his informant are interrupted by stormtroopers, one of the troops asks to "see some scandocs". "Scandoc" was a term used widely in the Star Wars d6 role-playing game.
  • The film also observes false a small but important piece of trivia from the Legends continuity. Imperial-class Star Destroyers were incapable of entering a planet's atmosphere, and so had no repulsorlift drives (only useful for pressing against planets' gravity wells). Smaller ships, like the Victory-class Star Destroyer, were needed if enemy forces needed to be pursued lower than high orbit. Rogue One shows an Imperial-class Star Destroyer hovering casually over Jedha City.
• From a Certain Point of View has a chapter that shows Han shoot first like in the unaltered cut of A New Hope. Another chapter focuses on Boba Fett, who only appears in that film in the George Lucas Altered Version. Thus the same novel contradicts itself on what cut of the original trilogy is considered canon.
• Solo:
  • Solo renders two parts of Han's Legends backstory from The Han Solo Trilogy canonical, in that he's been living on the streets and running scams since childhood, and he enlisted to become a pilot in the Imperial Starfleet for some time before deserting to become a smuggler instead. The movie does change the precise circumstances of his departure from Corellia significantly, however.
  • The planet Mimban originally appeared in Splinter of the Mind's Eye, arguably the first Legends work. However, because of the perspective we see it from and the brief time the plot spends there, it's unclear just how similar it is to the earlier version (though it is foggy and swampy, two things the book version had in abundance).
  • Qi'ra mentions being trained in Teräs Käsi, a martial art prominent in Legends continuity, particularly the infamous PlayStation game Star Wars: Masters of Teräs Käsi. The particularly eagle-eyed and informed will immediately raise an eyebrow that Qi'ra can use it, will understand L3's shock, and will not be quite as surprised at a later reveal and by how Qi'ra "can't leave Crimson Dawn behind".
  • While very different, the Maw has also been recanonized (albeit as one large black hole in a nearly unnavigable nebula, instead of a large cluster of black holes).
  • The Falcon's designation as a YT-1300 transport, and that it's a Corellian design, is first mentioned onscreen here. It had been known as such for decades in Legends, but this was the first time it was said onscreen.
  • Similarly, Corellia's capital is mentioned to be Coronet, as established in Star Wars: Galaxies.
  • Enfys Nest is the leader of the Cloud-Riders, a Swoop gang which first appeared in the original Star Wars (Marvel 1977) comics.
  • Word of God states that a desk seen in one scene was made from stone from the temple of Exar Kun.
  • The Mandalorian armor visible in Dryden's office is that of a Rally Master.
  • The tie-in book Tales From Vandor, brought a couple other literary Legends characters back into the fold — BLX-5 from The Han Solo Adventures and Dash Rendar from Shadows of the Empire.
• The Rise of Skywalker:
  • Transfer Essence/Essence Transfer/Force Drain/Dark Transfer (and a few other names besides) has been a prominent Force power in Legends continuity, despite a lack of Force healing abilities depicted onscreen (until now). Interestingly, the film shows two variations of it while strongly hinting at a third:
    • Rey (and later Ben) use the "Light Side" version, healing another being by investing it with their own Force energy.
    • Palpatine uses a "Dark Side" version, draining the life force from Rey and Ben (and, it's implied, their Force Bond) in order to fully restore himself from his Dark Lord on Life Support state.
    • Finally, it's implied Palpatine used a variation of the trick which was shown in Dark Empire, transferring his consciousness, essence, and "soul" (if he still has one) from his dying body to a new cloned body.
  • Palpatine telling Rey that if she strikes him down in anger, he'll be open to possess her body, using it to prolong his own life. Darth Bane learned the secret of immortality via Grand Theft Me after founding the Rule of Two, and attempted to use it on his apprentice when they fought for the future of the at-the-time new Sith. The novel leaves it a tad ambiguous on if Bane was successful at possessing Zannah, though Word of God clarified that he wasn't. Regardless, some fans extrapolated this to mean that all the Sith Lords up to Palpatine were actually Bane in different bodies. Such an interpretation applied to the later film means Palpatine's claim to be "all the Sith" is Not Hyperbole.
• The Mandalorian:
  • Beskar, or "Mandalorian Iron", was half the reason Mandalorians were so fearsome in the Legends continuity, giving them armor which could resist even lightsaber strikes (which is also confirmed in season 2). Some of the first words spoken to the Mandalorian in the series are to ask if his armor is genuine beskar steel. Many Mandalorians in Legends had to make do with armor made from conventional materials, as true Mandalorian iron became increasingly difficult to come by. This also observes true Mando'a, the Mandalorian language.
  • Mythosaurs were first introduced in Legends before being re-canonized here.
  • The mythrol in the first episode tells the Mandalorian that he's heading home to visit his family for Life Day.
  • A more compact carbonite freezing device than Bespin's large industrial facility is shown. Though not the portable, arm-mounted version from The Old Republic MMO, a staple of the Bounty Hunter's campaign to prevent every capture mission from being an escort mission, it's small enough to fit on a fairly diminutive ship.
  • Djarin's rifle bears a striking resemblance in performance to the Tenloss DXR-6 Disruptor Rifle from the Dark Forces Saga, being slow-firing (in the show because it has to be manually loaded with shells, in the game because it has to charge up to full power), scoped for exceptional long-range accuracy, and being a One-Hit Kill Disintegrator Ray. In aesthetics it reaches even further back: it's based on (and even shares a name with) the two-pronged blaster used by Boba Fett in his first appearance, the animated portion of The Star Wars Holiday Special.
  • Cara mentions mopping up "Imperial warlords" after the Battle of Endor. In Legends, Imperial Warlords of a surprisingly wide variety of stripes were the antagonists of just about every post-Original Trilogy story up until the New Jedi Order.
  • The E-Web Repeating Blaster was first seen in The Empire Strikes Back, named in Legends, and has its name spoken in the new canon here.
  • Incinerator Stormtroopers from The Force Unleashed are re-canonized in Chapter 8.
  • The Mandalorians shown in the series follow the Legends concept of the Resol'nare pretty closely. They (or at least the sect Djarin belongs to) wear Mandalorian armor (to the point of not removing their helmets around others). They defend themselves, each other, and their family (the Central Theme of the show is the Mandalorian protecting the Child). Raising children, especially foundlings, in the ways of Mandalorian culture are repeatedly stressed as very important. And the Mandalorian himself is out in the galaxy specifically to bring in money to support the Tribe. The two tenets of Resol'nare that are not alluded to are speaking Mando'a and answering the call of Mand'alor, though the Armorer could be seen as the closest thing to Mand'alor the Tribe knows of, and when she speaks, everyone else shuts up and listens. The concept itself is heavily hinted at, as the Armorer offhandedly alludes to somebody named Mandalore the Great, while Bo-Katan mentions restoring the true Mandalore to power as one of her goals.
  • They're way too big to make serviceable lightsaber crystals without a lot of work, but Krayt Dragon Pearls are confirmed to exist.
  • In "The Siege," the Mythrol crew member is commanded a few times to "slice" things in the Imperial base. "Slicing" is Star Wars Legends vernacular for "hacking."
  • Chapter 14 finally recanonizes Jango Fett's old Legends backstory; as confirmed by Boba Fett and his chain code, Jango was indeed the foundling of Jaster Mareel and fought against Deathwatch in the Mandalorian Civil War, with the implication that his overall history is broadly the same as it was Legends. For that matter, Boba Fett surviving the sarlacc was first established in Legends.
  • Dark Troopers, originally from the Dark Forces Saga, appear in Chapter 14. Interestingly, their design both mirrors yet differs from their original appearance: in Legends, "phase zero" used cybernetics and advanced armor to get aged clones back into fighting condition and phase 3 was a bulky suit of Powered Armor worn by the project's architect, while phases 1 and 2 were droids; in The Mandalorian, Chapter 16 suggests that phases 1 and 2 were powered armor by stating that phase 3 are "no longer suits" but are instead droids, and then introduces a fourth phase that is once again advanced power armor worn by, among others, the project's architect.
  • In "The Convert," Elia says: "Taungsdays, am I right?". In Legends, Taungs were the original indigenous inhabitants of the world that would become Coruscant, but eventually migrated from there to form — appropriately enough — the Mandalorian culture, under Taung leader Mandalore the First.
  • The cloning technology Moff Gideon uses to make his Phase 4 Dark Troopers is markedly different from the Kaminoan design, but does bear a marked similarity to descriptions of Spaarti cylinders. Each tank is freestanding with a cover plate on top, tubes and pipes to feed nutrient solutions to the growing clones, and control panels near them. While the time frame is a little unclear, they also seem to be able to produce full-grown clones very quickly with a full set of skills, like Spaarti cylinders and flash-learning. Though no ysalamiri are present to facilitate this rapid growth while staving off clone madness, which would appear to be observed false.
• The Book of Boba Fett:
  • Rancors being peaceful creatures unless provoked or mistreated was something Luke realized about Jabba's rancor in the novelization for Return of the Jedi.
  • The Rancor trainer mentions tales of the Witches of Dathomir riding rancors into battle. In Legends, they indeed did.
• Andor:
  • Early antagonists are corporate security forces, supplementing direct Imperial control over certain systems. In Legends, the Corporate Sector Authority was a notable, if minor, Imperial-era faction. Like corporate security is implied to be as a rule here, CSA was spectacularly inept. Unlike the corporate security here, the CSA forces were well-funded enough to still be threatening despite that.
  • Cassian uses a Bryar pistol, just like Kyle Katarn.
  • Luthen gives Cassian a Kuati signet kyber crystal, which he says commemmorates a revolution against Rakatan invaders. In Legends, the Rakatans invented hyperspace travel and founded the Infinite Empire, leaving indelible marks on worlds like Tattooine and Kashyyk, even if they're all but forgotten by the time of the Skywalker Saga.
  • Meero gets a dressing-down about more is expected from her, which is probably unfair, but could be a foundation for a superior career, and that some of her coworkers "hew to the traditional viewpoint of this office and its staffing," all implying that Meero is being given a hard time simply because she's a woman. Admiral Daala faced similar prejudice she had to work to overcome.
  • As the Shore Troopers are sorting prisoners, several are assigned to Belsavis. Belsavis is a prison planet that played an important role in the stories of Star Wars: The Old Republic.
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars occupies an interesting slot. At its inception, it was EU canonicity, though the highest tier of EU canonicity. As such, it was free to incorporate, modify, or ignore lower-tier EU works. After the Disney buyout, all EU material except The Clone Wars and the six then-existing Star Wars films were declared Legends, meaning The Clone Wars retroactively observed true, false, or both many aspects of Legends for the new Star Wars canon.
  • Notably, Ryloth had long been the homeworld of the Twi'leks, and this, along with some of their Proud Warrior Race aspects from the X-Wing novels, were observed true. However, Ryloth in Legends is tidally locked, one side permanent scorching day, the other side permanent frozen night, and only the small band of twilight at the terminator comfortably habitable. Ryloth in The Clone Wars seems to have a normal day-night cycle.
  • Lightsaber crystals had long been an important part of Legends, and are the focus of the younglings arc, now renamed kyber crystals.
  • The Nightsisters of Dathomir were prominent villains in some Legends works, before appearing here. Sadly, they don't get to ride rancors.
  • Overlapping with Ascended Fanon, the 501^st started out as an official fan club for stormtrooper cosplay enthusiasts, who began styling themselves as the elite "Vader's Fist" legion of stormtroopers, before it was canonized in Legends that the 501^st was Darth Vader's personal stormtrooper legion. Rex serves the role as the captain of the 501^st Legion of clone troopers, who are assigned to Anakin Skywalker. Notably, Star Wars: Battlefront II had previously indicated that the 501^st clone troopers morphed into the 501^st stormtroopers during the transition from the Republic to the Empire.
• Like The Clone Wars before it, Star Wars Rebels uses, alters, or discards elements from the Legends continuity as it sees fit:
  • A news report the Ghost crew listens to mentions the "Base Delta-Zero Initiative". In Legends, Base Delta-Zero was an Imperial code phrase for orbitally bombarding a planet so thoroughly as to destroy all life on it (the Star Wars equivalent of Exterminatus).
  • The Imperial Inquisition, charged with hunting down Jedi and other Force-sensitives not troublesome enough to draw the attention of Darth Vader himself, were detailed in various Legends works, notably as antagonists in assorted tabletop role-playing games.
  • Interdictor cruisers were a popular tool in the Legends canon, especially of...
  • Grand Admiral Thrawn, who debuts at the start of Season 3 as an antagonist for the Rebels.
  • The ISB, the Imperial Security Bureau, was detailed in a few Legends works, where it was Palpatine's initiative to keep the Empire completely under his personal control (drawing parallels between various institutions in Nazi Germany, like the SS and Youth Groups, to instill the Nazi idealogy into everyone). Andor will later show them to be very similar to their depiction as the State Sec in Legends.
  • The Code of the Sith and Malachor, both introduced in the Knights of the Old Republic games, have been brought back. Like in Legends, the Battle of Malachor occurred thousands of years ago that resulted in the planet being devastated by a superweapon with massive loss of life. However, unlike in Legends, the planet is called Malachor instead of Malachor V, the war was fought by different parties for different reasons and the superweapon functioned differently.^differences Legends: The war was fought between the Jedi-backed Republic and the Mandalorians, and the superweapon, activated by the Republic, crushed both fleets into the planet with gravity waves. Canon: the war was fought between the Jedi and the Sith and the superweapon, activated by the Sith, was a Force artifact that released a Force vortex that petrified both armies. Ironically, this is a lot like the Thought Bomb from Legends.
  • The Imperial Light Carrier the Rebels steal is based on the Quasar Fire-class cruiser/carrier from Legends, specifically the Flurry which appeared in The Truce at Bakura.
  • The TIE Defender first appeared in TIE Fighter, and sporadically in other Legends canonicity since (mostly, other video games, or stats for it in various RPGs). In a case of Broad Strokes, in Legends the TIE Defender wasn't conceived until after the Battle of Hoth, and it (as well as the preceding production model of Darth Vader's TIE Advanced) was designed to remain competitive with the more advanced Rebel starfighters that were appearing, like the X, A, and B-Wings. The TIE Defender in Legends also had ion cannons in addition to its lasers, while the Defender in Rebels appears to only have lasers.
  • In a similar case of Broad Strokes, the B-Wing in Legends was the result of "Project Shantipole", Admiral Ackbar working with Verpine engineers to build a fighter to replace the sturdy, yet aging, slow, and unmaneuverable Y-Wing, with one of the stated design goals being that the fighter would be able to reliably destroy Nebulon-B Frigates, which the Empire was increasingly deploying to guard supply convoys the Rebellion desperately wanted to raid. In Rebels, the B-Wing is developed on the planet Shantipole by a Mon Calamari engineer (melding Admiral Ackbar coming up with the concept and the Verpine actually building it), and is explicitly stated to be designed to destroy much larger ships.
  • Rukh, and by extension probably the Noghri, were also re-canonized partway through Season 4.
  • Word of God confirms that Thrawn survives Ezra jumping them both to lightspeed, so, assuming that they're still with Ezra when Sabine and Ahsoka go looking for Ezra, they're alive post-Return of the Jedi, just like in Legends.
• Thrawn:
  • Thrawn himself. Possibly the biggest one since 2014.
  • Parck and Barris, the Imperial officers that found Thrawn in Legends and brought him to Palpatine, are back and performing the same role. The Strikefast is also back as well.
  • Sy Bisti was previously established as a lingua franca for the Chiss when trading with other worlds. It would appear this is the same case here.
  • Pryce Mining has found a mine full of doonium. In Legends, it's a heavy metal alloy used in the construction of starship hulls, and was first mentioned in The Glove of Darth Vader as being particularly common in the second Death Star. Incidentally, the book also says that Thrawn and Anakin met in the Thrugii Asteroid Belt during the Clone Wars, which in Legends, contained mines of doonium as well.
  • Togorians, a cat-like warrior species, are also brought over from Legends. H'sishi returns, now the owner of Yinchom Dojo.
  • The Raider class corvette also makes its first canonical appearance.
  • The Chiss Ascendancy is also re-canonized. Admiral Ar'alani from Outbound Flight also appears in a cameo.
  • Beckon calls, ship's remotes that were a plot element in The Thrawn Trilogy, make a reappearance.
  • Interestingly, the book counts as this for the Legends canon (which is itself the Trope Maker). It would take little, if any, modification for the novel to slot into that continuity, as well, serving as something of a prequel to The Thrawn Trilogy or a sequel to Outbound Flight.
• Thrawn: Alliances:
  • Cortosis, a lightsaber-resistant material from Legends, returns.
  • "Instinctive Astrogation", a Force power from West End Games' Star Wars d6 game and used by Luke Skywalker in The Thrawn Trilogy, reappears. It's the method by which the Chiss navigate the notoriously dangerous Unknown Regions, and Thrawn manages to teach Vader the technique.
• Ahsoka is the first post-Disney work to be subjected to this. The book had a lot of information about the fates of characters from Star Wars: The Clone Wars (which had been Cut Short at the time) after Order 66, but The Clone Wars later got a proper finale season that covered that same information. The overall details are similar to what Ahsoka claimed happened, but also quite different; Ahsoka and Rex lead a siege against Darth Maul on Mandalore just before Order 66 happens (as the book said), but the battle is over by the time of the actual event and Ahsoka and Rex's escape plays out very differently, as does the subsequent faking of their deaths. What this says about the canonicity of the rest of Ahsoka isn't clear.

Anime & Manga

• One chapter of Berserk had Griffith encountering the true force behind the Godhand, an all-powerful entity identified as the embodiment of the idea of evil. Said chapter was then left out of the collected editions. By Miura's own account, he realized that he'd shown his hand too early by introducing the Greater-Scope Villain in the second arc of the series, and so decided to keep the chapter hidden. The Idea of Evil has been referenced a few times since then, but the event of Griffith actually meeting it is generally avoided the same treatment.
• Dragon Ball has suffered from this almost perpetually since Toei, creators of the anime, started making new filler arc storylines and movies, not to mention the myriad video games with their own unique storylines and contributions. The only thing that is 100% certifiably canonical is the original manga, as it's the bedrock everything else is based off of. In general you can vaguely group most of the works into "Manga"^* Dragon Ball manga, Jaco, and Super manga, "Classic"^* Dragon Ball anime, Z, and GT, or "Modern"^* Dragon Ball, Dragon Ball Z Kai, Battle of Gods, Resurrection 'F', Super (which retells the events of Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F'), and all Super films starting from Dragon Ball Super: Broly, with everything else sort of being uncategorizable.
  • The movies themselves suffer from this by way of referring to specific events and characters from the manga, often as instigating factors of the plot like in Dragon Ball Z: Cooler's Revenge. But it's a one-way street: the manga never refers back to the movies. Similarly, many of the villain characters are referenced in extra filler scenes in Hell, but these are only anime additions.
  • And just because Toriyama worked on it doesn't mean things makes sense! The anime Dragon Ball Super started as a pair of Z movies (Battle of Gods and Resurrection 'F'), both of which were retold as the first two arcs of the anime, giving each version the same validity. The show was accompanied by the Dragon Ball Super manga, which has more hands-on Toriyama involvement that retells the first movie again, deviates from the anime in several ways, and even has several arcs that don't appear in the anime at all!
  • Most famously, Toriyama enjoyed the 1990 Bardock TV special so much he actually referenced the character in the manga, where Frieza recognises the family resemblance to Goku and he is shown for a single panel. For 24 years fans figured that meant that the TV special was as canonical as the manga... until Jaco the Galactic Patrolman came out with a bonus Dragon Ball Minus chapter in the collected release, which told a very different version of Bardock's story that split the fanbase in half. Dragon Ball Minus would effectively be adapted in the first act of Dragon Ball Super: Broly (which Toriyama also worked on), making that version canonical.
• The Naruto manga has been known to reuse a few elements that were otherwise anime or movie-exclusive, like filler villain Raiga, but never really acknowledging more. There are also the Naruto Hiden novels, which are meant to be canonical, but only three were actually adapted in the anime, making the non-adapted novels this trope to the anime instead of the manga.
• One Piece Film: Strong World is a One Piece movie written by the manga author Eiichiro Oda himself. It received a tie-in volume with a completely canonical chapter detailing some events from two decades prior to the manga's current timeline (while ending on a setup for the movie). Even the Big Bad, Shiki, gets mentioned in the manga every now and then. With all this in mind, you'd think the movie itself was part of the main manga canon, but that's not quite the case. The events of the movie are never referenced at all and trying to insert Strong World in the manga timeline is difficult since a) Brook already joined the crew by then (making it impossible for the movie to have happened before the Thriller Bark Arc) and b) Roronoa Zoro should still be recovering from injuries that left him nearly dead (the injuries he received were bad enough to affect his performance in the Sabaody Archipelago Arc, but nothing of the sort comes up during Strong World). Brook also mentions that the fight against the Flying Fish Riders during the start of the Sabaody Arc is his first as a Straw Hat pirate, contradicting the notion that Strong World happened before Sabaody too, but then having it happen after Sabaody is also impossible since the crew gets split by then and only gets to reunite after two years.

Comic Books

• Dark Horse Comics' Aliens comics. Written after Aliens but before Alien³, they follow Hicks, Newt, and (eventually) Ripley, many years after their escape from LV-426, confronting a new Alien menace. Then Alien³ premieres, and suddenly Everybody's Dead, Dave. The stories were patched and retconned to follow Suspiciously Similar Substitutes Wilks and Billie (and an android who thought she was Ripley) instead.
• The Batman Adventures are supposed to be official tie-in comics set within Batman: The Animated Series and the wider DC Animated Universe. But their canonocity isn't completely set in stone and the official shows can override or officially canonize in rare cases like "Mad Love" whatever is written in the tie-in comics at a later date. And sometimes they can even override each other when a different installment (ie: The Batman Adventures, Batman: Gotham Knights, Batman Adventures, The Adventures Continue) comes out featuring different writers in different time periods who want to focus on different things.
• DC Comics' approach to canonicity was very much this. Everything is canonical somewhere, and writers are given free rein to pick and choose canonical elements when telling individual stories. Unless DC is making a concerted effort to create a standard canon free from Continuity Lockout (à la The New 52), any given story within the DC collective is a case of Schrödinger's Canon.
  • Even more so with the Vertigo Comics line. Originally stated to be fully canonical with other DC comics, it has drifted farther and farther until it's basically its own separate universe, from which elements may sometimes overlap with other DC continuities. Which elements these are unknown until they appear in a "mainstream" DC story.
  • Following Crisis on Infinite Earths, DC tried to eliminate the "everything is canonical somewhere" policy because the old "Infinite Earths" continuity was thought to result in Continuity Lockout. Thus, for a long time, it was established that there were no other alternate Earths or dimensions. Naturally, it didn't take long for writers to completely disregard this.
  • Later on, DC started reintroducing the concept of its multiverse. The first attempt started in The Kingdom, which introduced "Hypertime", which was explicitly stated by its creator to be this trope (every story, even the ones just in your head, are canonical somewhere). This, again, was abandoned after it was deemed too confusing for readers, which led to DC once again limiting its multiverse. Until, finally, Dark Nights: Metal established the creation of new universes as well as a whole separate, seemingly unlimited "Dark Multiverse".
• Disney Ducks Comic Universe and Mickey Mouse Comic Universe have a big case of this. Notably, it's not really a problem as the comics run on no continuity. Unlike most American comics, the stories are not expected to tie together in a narrative, and any one issue of the comic may take place in American Duckburg, in Medieval Europe, in outer space, or in a magical fantasy realm. Likewise, Donald may have any job or skillset imaginable. Generally, the only accepted canonicity are the characters' roles (Scrooge is an old miser, Donald is in constant poverty and raises his three nephews, etc.) and some of Duckburg's landmarks (at least when the story takes place in Duckburg). Other than that, most contemporary writers use some variety or elements of Don Rosa's rendition of Scrooge's backstory, and Carl Barks' later characterization of the characters tend to stick.
• The Marvel Universe (or, more specifically, the Marvel Omniverse) works on this principle. Every "What-If", every Alternate Timeline, every "Imaginary Story" happened in a separate universe. Unlike DC, Marvel also avoided a complete Cosmic Retcon (until Secret Wars (2015)). After that story arc, some universes were destroyed (such as Supreme Power) while others were merged with the mainline universe (such as Ultimate Marvel).
• Marvel Comics has published a number of Merchandise-Driven comics featuring Marvel characters interacting with some licensed character. Most of these stories fit in the main Marvel Universe continuity, as the events of their stories still happened. Due to the cost of further licensing, these licensed characters may not show up again, though they are assumed to still be hanging around somewhere in the Marvel Universe.
• The DC You version of Starfire in Starfire (2015) is somewhere between this and Canon Discontinuity. It brings back her older characterization and doesn't reference her controversial time in Red Hood and the Outlaws, but it does not firmly Retcon it, either; it's up to the fans to decide whether the two stories connected.
• Transformers: Last Bot Standing is written in a deliberately vague way such that it can be slotted into just about any Transformers continuity to serve as a theoretical Distant Finale, being set so far in the future that only one Transformer is left and with nods to the past so unspecific that they could refer to just about any story.

Comic Strips

• Sabrina at See-CAD is treated as this by the later Sabrina Online. While Michael and Sabrina's sex scene is retconned away to preserve the trope of Nerds Are Virgins by the time Sabrina meets Richard in the later series; a bonus story depicting Amy and Thomas's wedding in Online had Sabrina crossing paths again with Michael who seems upset to find out she has a new boyfriend by then, making their history in the later Online canon a bit unclear. Likewise in Online Sabrina went to college at Ohio State, with Amy naming the college◊ as where she met Thomas.

Film — Live-Action

• Alien vs. Predator was removed from continuity with a new origin introduced in Prometheus and Alien: Covenant, yet the tail spear from Alien vs. Predator showed up in The Predator, implying the crossover could still have occurred in the Predator half of the franchise.
• Alien: Possibly a messier one than fellow Fox-cum-Disney franchise Star Wars:
  • First, the Dark Horse Comics Aliens comics (mentioned above), which followed older versions of Hicks, Newt, and Ripley on a new Alien-stomping adventure. Once Alien³ came out, and those characters were all off the table, the stories were retconned to follow Suspiciously Similar Substitutes Wilks, Billie, and an android programmed to think she was Ripley.
  • More expanded universe material was released, including the Aliens vs. Predator crossovers, until the Alien: Out of the Shadows trilogy rebooted the EU continuity, relegating all previous EU to Schrodinger's Canon. Interesting, part of the Shadows trilogy would have "observed false" Alien³ and Alien: Resurrection, a rare case of an EU work decanonizing a prime media work, until Fox vetoed that.
  • As mentioned above, Ridley Scott took pains to decanonize the Aliens vs. Predator portion of the franchise with Prometheus and Covenant, leading to at least two EU continuities, one with Predators and one without.
  • Then, new EU material, such as Alien: The Roleplaying Game and Aliens: Fireteam Elite again attempt to provide a single, cohesive version of the Alien 'Verse, making references to each other, and to some previously-decanonized EU. . . but make no real mention of the Shadows Trilogy or other works based on them. Notably, the Shadows trilogy decanonized the Praetorian caste of Alien, yet Praetorians appear in both the RPG and Fireteam.
  • Neil Blomkamp's Alien film would have split the timeline again, being a direct sequel to Aliens and taking place in an alternate continuity.
  • The end result is that any given piece of EU material can take place in at least one of five separate continuities: pre-Alien 3 (with Predators), post-Alien 3 (with Predators), post-Shadows (with or without Predators), post-Covenant (without Predators), or post-RPG (still without Predators, at least for now).
• In Batman & Robin, Batman mentions the existence of Superman, but there is no further information on this version of Superman in relation to the Batman film series, and whether this is the Christopher Reeve Superman, the Superman from the cancelled Tim Burton movie, a different Superman exclusive to this continuity that has never been shown, or an in-universe fictional character. Likewise, Green Lantern (2011) movie mentioned Superman in a Deleted Scene, but there is no confirmation on what version of Superman this is supposed to be^note The movie was intended to be the start of a DC Cinematic Universe. As for the rest of the Green Lantern Corps who ended up being cut from the movie, there is no way to confirm their presence in continuity as the movie's sequel was never made.
• A deleted scene for The Lost World: Jurassic Park had John Hammond dying shortly after the events of the film take place. As it's a deleted scene, its canonicity is in question, until Jurassic World shows the John Hammond is indeed dead by the time the events of the film take place (and supplementary material places his death around the time as The Lost World's deleted scene does), observing that piece of Schrodinger's Canon as true.
• Sony's Spider-Man Universe:
  • Venom (2018) is this in relation towards the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It has been officially stated that it is not part of the MCU, as Spider-Man is only part of it through collaboration with Sony. However, the film's continuity is apparently based on the events of Spider-Man: Homecoming, and Venom could become potentially integrated to the MCU if Marvel Studios and Sony agree to do it.
  • The sequel, Venom: Let There Be Carnage goes one step beyond by throwing Eddie Brock into what appears to be the MCU in The Stinger, given a news report of Spider-Man's identity being exposed to the world thanks to Mysterio. The Stinger for Spider-Man: No Way Home shows Eddie hanging out in a bar in Mexico, continuing on from the stinger in his own film, confirming that he was brought into the MCU (alongside characters from the Sam Raimi films and the Marc Webb films) thanks to a botched spell courtesy of Doctor Strange, before they were all sent back to their respective universes, with the exception of a piece of the Venom symbiote being left behind.
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan: A retroactive example with Dr. Carol Marcus and her family history is shown in Star Trek Into Darkness, which identifies her father as a Starfleet Admiral named Alexander Marcus and her mother's last name as Wallace.
• Superman Returns is supposed to take place after the original Superman II, which is basically Bryan Singer's way of removing III and IV from the continuity. So from Superman II, you could either accept that it got Denser and Wackier and that Kal-El eventually confronted Nuclear Man or that he left Earth for half a decade and came back to discover that he has a son.^note Though dialog from the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover special imply III and IV happened in Broad Strokes, as Superman mentions the time he "fought himself".
• The Wicker Man (1973) has Willow's motivations for attempting to seduce Howie. The longer cut makes it clear that it didn't matter whether or not Howie lost his virginity on the island, just that he was a virgin when he arrived, so Willow was either doing another ritual, or just didn't want Howie to die without losing his virginity, or she wanted to have sex with the sacrifice. The shorter cut omits all mention of it, meaning that leagues of viewers have, for good reason, concluded that this was either a Secret Test of Character or Willow was trying to prevent the sacrifice.

Literature

• The continuity of Harry Potter is debated within the fandom, but The Wiki's stance (which, to the best of anyone's observation, is also Pottermore's) is that the eight books, the appendixes (Fantastic Beasts, etc.) and Word of God constitute the highest tier of canonicity, below which are the Harry Potter movies and then the video games. This means that information introduced in the movies or the games may be canonical unless a higher-ranking work on the scale says otherwise, even if the events they depict are not. For instance, this means that such spells as "Lacarnum Inflamari" probably exist in the canonical universe, even if the characters didn't use them the way the films show them to.

Live-Action TV

• Arrowverse: Of the five live-action DC Comics shows developed by Greg Berlanti and co, two of them began with questionable links to the others.
  • Supergirl (2015) initially aired on CBS and its place within the Arrowverse continuity was sketchy — for one thing, none of the characters in Arrow and The Flash (2014) had ever heard of Superman. It was eventually established that Supergirl was set in a parallel earth within the multiverse (specifically, Earth-38), and once the CW picked up the show and production moved to Vancouver, crossovers became a semi-regular occurrence.
  • Black Lightning (2018), as of its first season, has not crossed over with any of the other shows, but the producers haven't ruled out a crossover in the future. Working against the idea is that Black Lightning films in Atlanta, while all the Arrowverse shows film in Vancouver. And then, he ended up joining the 2019 crossover, Crisis on Infinite Earths.
  • Crisis on Infinite Earths:
    • The crossover depicts, at least in passing, several other previous adaptations of DC properties in television and film. Whether these are "actually" the universes those adaptations took place in or "close enough" universes is open to interpretation.
    • A notable example comes in Earth-167, the setting of Smallville. Smallville's Season 11 comics adapted its own version of Crisis on Infinite Earths, and while it wouldn't be impossible to reconcile the two events (and might actually explain why Clark seems to take the news so well), a simpler explanation may be that the comic continuation is an Alternate Continuity from that depicted in this crossover event.
    • As of the climax, Earth-1, Earth-38, and Black Lightning's Earth have been merged together as Earth-Prime, meaning they now all share the same universe.
• Throughout the history of Doctor Who, and especially following the cancellation of the original TV show in 1989, it has developed an extensive collection of tie-in novels, comics, audio plays, etc., all of which frequently contradicted each other and all of which faced an uncertain canonical status when the TV series was revived in 2005. The revived series has held off from making a blanket determination of the tie-ins' status, while occasionally incorporating specific concepts, such mentioning as an alien race from the novels or a former companion from the audio plays. Even concepts from a one-off spoof made their way into the canon, most notably the Time Lords' ability to regenerate into the opposite sex. One particular spin-off whose status was watched carefully by fans was the earlier failed revival starring Paul McGann; the revived series has confirmed as canonical the existence of a Doctor with McGann's appearance while avoiding addressing any of the controversial plot elements of the failed pilot. The only public "canon policy" issued by The BBC is that (due to the BBC's license-fee-funded and free-to-air status) no TV episode is allowed to be so tied in with a spin-off work as to not make sense if you didn't experience the spin-off.
• Marvel Cinematic Universe:
  • The shows made by Marvel Television are functionally canonical until stated otherwise within the MCU, but the events that happen in them are not mentioned in (or contradicted by) any Marvel Studios produced films or shows, with the notable exception of the 6th and 7th Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. seasons, which directly contradicts the timeline for Avengers: Endgame.
  • The actual canonical status of the pre-Disney+ shows being up in the air until clarified properly has a lot to do with studio politics — the initial plan was for the Marvel Television shows to properly link to the MCU (see Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s first season which directly references events at the time), but there was a lot of bad blood between Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige and Marvel CEO Ike Perlmutter, the latter of whom was a notorious penny-pincher. The interference of Perlmutter and his Marvel Creative Committee was largely hated by the people working on the films, caused the departures of notable directing talent, and several notable actors were planning to walk away after Avengers: Age of Ultron. Feige managed to win full control of Marvel Studios in 2015 (something that people at the company say saved the entire MCU project and prevented an exodus of talent) while only reporting directly to Disney itself, while Perlmutter still controlled the rest of Marvel, including Marvel Television, and the shows functionally stopped having any direct continuity with the films until Marvel Television was folded until Marvel Studios in 2019, allowing Feige full control over Marvel's TV production, which was immediately pushed towards proper integration with the MCU. The limited coordination until late 2019 between the film and TV divisions has more or less resulted in everything being produced during that period to be in canonical limbo.
  • Tina Minoru on the series Runaways has an unclear character history, based on her prior (technically canonical) appearances in Doctor Strange and a tie-in prelude comic to that film. In the film and comic, she's established as being a Master of the Mystic Arts with heroic motivations, but on Runaways, she's more villainous, and no mention is made to her time as a Sanctum Master. Nothing has outright contradicted either characterization, so it's possible they're both still canonical.
  • Complicating things further is that James Gunn at the least personally considers the pre-Wandavision shows to be non-canonical to the MCU. However, Agent Carter was confirmed as canonical in the wider MCU with series regular Edwin Jarvis, played by the same actor, appearing in Avengers: Endgame (not to mention being in the timeline for the MCU story on Disney+), with Vincent D'Onofrio reprising the role of the Kingpin in Hawkeye and Matt Murdock's cameo in Spider-Man: No Way Home confirming the canonicity of the Netflix shows as well.
• Star Trek:
  • The original timeline and Kelvin timeline have a few blank spots where the present status of the continuity is unconfirmed. The rebooted timeline in Star Trek (2009) assumes the timeline was altered due to Spock and Nero traveling to the past, but this doesn't explain differences from the original timeline that are unrelated to time travel, such as Star Trek Into Darkness and the IDW comics. Star Trek: Discovery is supposed to be set in the original timeline, but is unclear about why there are so many differences, such as advanced holographic technology existing before TOS takes place. The original timeline may be further influenced by the Kelvin timeline for aesthetic reasons, such as advances in special effects, with no in-story explanation given.
  • The tie-ins (novels and comics) for Discovery have had significantly more involvement from actual production members than the prior Star Trek series have (while then-Voyager showrunner Jeri Taylor wrote two novels, expanding the characters backgrounds, these were very much the exception, not the rule, and not compatible with later developments after her departure from the show), to the point that the first novel was actively requested by the original executive producer, Bryan Fuller, the writers have actively acknowledged that these are "canon until they're not," [sic] meaning they don't consider themselves bound to the events in the Discovery novels and comics, but, until and unless there's a contradiction, they can be viewed as such. Indeed, the novel The Way to the Stars dramatizes an event that is referenced in an episode that aired a couple of months after the novel's release — but the first novel, published shortly after Discovery premiered, is not compatible with Season 2, as it involves the USS Shenzhou and the USS Enterprise working together, while Season 2 says that Michael Burnham and Spock have been estranged for years.
• Super Sentai:
  • The series has always had an on-again-off-again relationship with canonicity. While there's more than a few crossover movies that jam two-or-so seasons together, (as well as Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, which fuses every season up to that point for its legacy gimmick) the general consensus is that each series (including Gokaiger) is an Alternate Universe of its own (supported by its 45th installment) and that connections to other seasons only exist during said crossovers.
  • Post-Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger. the current explanation seems to be that every Sentai show takes place in its own universe where that team is the "major" one but other Sentais may also exist with a similar plot to what took place in their own show such as Kiramager having a version of Gekiranger take place (since characters appear in an episode of it) and in the Gokaiger universe they all have (as that's the gimmick of the show). There's also a specific "Super Sentai" universe where all of the shows have taken place which is presumably where the Crossovers take place.

Tabletop Games

• This is invoked in Eberron, where none of the tie-in materials (like the novels) are canonical unless you deem them to be, and the setting's timeline never officially progresses. Basically, only you and your fellow players get to decide whether or not the Schrödinger's Canon stuff happened in your game. This is done to try and prevent Continuity Snarls and games being invalidated by canonicity progressing, as is common with some other settings like Forgotten Realms.
• In the early days of Magic: The Gathering, a number of tie-in novels and comics were published by other companies. When the Weatherlight saga began and Wizards of the Coast started its own novel line, the continuity was revised (this is commonly referred to as "The Revision"). Any material in the old publications is considered canonical unless new material directly contradicts it.
• It's an established fact of RuneQuest's setting that all versions of a "myth" are equally true. Sometimes god-talkers will see Humakt courteously persuading Eurmal to give him the Sword of Death; sometimes he steals it. Sometimes the characters' names aren't Humaxt and Eurmal at all! Only the broad strokes of the plot remain constant.
• Warhammer 40,000: Games Workshop has stated that everything you read in any Codex or rulebook is not necessarily true, but rather propaganda, either by the Imperium of Man or whoever the Codex is being written about. Thus, Games Workshop's own published, official canon is Schrodinger's Canon by default, since it's all subject to interpretation and contradiction in later works (the contradiction itself perhaps being incorrect). While this allows Games Workshop incredible freedom to retcon away things the fans really dislike, it also means that no one, true vision of the Warhammer 40K verse is completely, objectively correct.
  • A sterling example of this comes from the Sisters of Battle. Much is made about how strong the Sisters' faith in the God-Emperor is, complete with rules allowing them to weaponize that faith on the tabletop. It is said that none of the Adepta Sororitas has ever fallen to Chaos, except Miriael Sabathiel, and even her story contradicts the "only one ever" line by having her corrupt several other Sisters sent to get rid of her. Other pieces of fiction have entire convents of Battle Sisters falling to Chaos routinely. Whether or not it's metaphysically possible for Sisters to fall to Chaos, and how frequently it may or may not happen, is a source of some contention among Sororitas fans.
• X-Wing Miniatures is set in a mash-up of the Legends and Disney Star Wars versions of the universe. You can have, for example, Manaroo and Sabine Wren in the same army, or a ship with Mara Jade on it picking a fight with Poe Dameron.

Video Games

• Attack the Light, Save the Light, and Unleash the Light are ostensibly canonical to Steven Universe, as they currently don't contradict any of the show's lore and were made with some input from the show's creator. The show itself, however, doesn't directly acknowledge any of the events that occurred in them — the closest it gets is mentioning a Gem of the same type that was introduced in Save the Light.
• Castlevania:
  • Castlevania, Haunted Castle, Super Castlevania IV and Castlevania Chronicles could all be how Simon Belmont defeats Dracula for the first time.
  • A number of books and manga add details without being confirmed in the games.
  • The Kid Dracula series may be part of the Castlevania timeline, or may just be a joke series extending to references and cameos in the main games.
• Crash Bandicoot:
  • The Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy remakes have Coco hacking the Time Twister from Warped and time-traveling to the events of the first entry and Cortex Strikes Back in order to justify her being playable in those. This can be ignored or not since it's completely optional, but has quite the implications since the original trilogy had no mention of this.
  • Parodied in Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time, where a credits disclaimer states that the adventure was 100% canonical unless the player didn't like it, at which point, they're free to dismiss it as All Just a Dream.
• Dawn of War:
  • Soulstorm: The game's lack of quality (especially the Space Marine campaign) made it Fanon Discontinuity, with most fans believing the Imperial Guard campaign was canonical. When Dawn Of War II was released, it was confirmed that the Space Marines had indeed been defeated on Kaurava, though there was no information on which faction was responsible or won in the end.
  • Chaos Rising: The identity of the traitor in the squad is slowly unveiled, but there is no difference in their interactions until then (the traitor is determined by character's corruption ratings, which is decided by the player). Retribution establishes the canonical traitor is Avitus.
• Dragon Age: Origins has epilogues slides that exist in a grey zone regarding canon. Origins came out without plans for sequels, so the epilogues were written as self-contained endings, only to be ignored (or retconned into Canon Discontinuity in some cases) in later installments of the Dragon Age franchise.
• Good luck trying to figure out how Dragon Ball Heroes and Dragon Ball Xenoverse relate to each other. Despite Heroes vaguely mentioning Demigra's playing the same as in Xenoverse, it was later elaborated with the introduction Putine and Gravy, which in turn contradicts Xenoverse's canonicity. And both Heroes and Dragon Ball Xenoverse 2 show their own version of the Masked Saiyan and Dabura's resurrection, with both of them being impossible to reconcile. And let's not get into how these games relate to Dragon Ball Online...
• This is basically the status of all original Hearthstone characters who have not appeared in the larger WarCraft universe. Since Hearthstone is supposed to be an in-universe card game, it's not known which of these characters exist in the "real" Azeroth and which ones are in-universe fiction. Some of Hearthstone lore is definitely not canonical, but now that two fairly outlandish characters originally invented for Hearthstone (Sir Finley Mrrgglton and Skycap'n Kragg) have appeared in World of Warcraft, along with the tortollan race, just about anything not explicitly contradicted by the Warcraft canon might be up for grabs if WoW developers happen to like it.
• Hitman: Absolution is deliberately kept ambiguous in terms of what is considered canon or not when compared to its later entries in the World of Assassination Trilogy. The "Legacy" trailer from 2016 shows precisely one canonical event; 47 shooting Dominic Osmond through a mirror in the Vixens club, which has its own problems (for a start the gun 47 uses to achieve this is an unsilenced silverballer, something he didn't have in that mission). All this suggests that some of the events of Absolution still take place, but nothing more than that.
• League of Legends: Word of God is that some version of the Sentinels of Light story took place, but every rendition of the tale, from the Wild Rift version of the event to the visual novel within the League client, contradict one another on the details of who was involved in the Ruination and how it was resolved. The event itself ends with a complete return to the status quo of the universe, with Viego sealed again and Senna and Gwen brought back to life, with the only change being that Thresh now has enhanced powers, which was confirmed to have happened with the Thresh: One Night at the Inn cinematic. However, other short stories either try to gloss over it or in the case of Ruined King or The Mageseeker, suggest the entire event never happened at all.^note Ruined King ends with Viego resealed and the events of Ruination being averted, while The Mageseeker ends with the abolition of the Mageseeker Order, an order that was alive and well during Ruination.
• Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops was a PSP game that was developed with very minimal involvement from Hideo Kojima. One of its selling points was that unlike the prior Metal Gear Ac!d titles that were also on the PSP, Portable Ops was set in the mainline MGS continuity, being a direct sequel to Metal Gear Solid 3, itself a prequel to the original MSX2 Metal Gear. After finishing developing Metal Gear Solid 4, Kojima would go on to write and direct Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which not only serves as yet another direct sequel to MGS3, it goes out of its way to explicitly ignore anything that happened in Portable Ops, although it doesn't contradict anything either. Throwaway lines in both Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid V indicates something involving Big Boss happened in Portable Ops's setting, but it's never specified what.
  • Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance also falls under the category of maybe-canon-maybe-not. While its events don't contradict any of the other games (it takes place at the end of the timeline), the general view is that any game not made by Kojima is non-canon (while Kojima worked on it initially, the final game was made by PlatinumGames and barely resembles his original concept) and neither Kojima nor Konami have commented on its canonicity.
• Mortal Kombat 9 starts a new timeline based on the old timeline, while adding in backstory that may or may not have happened in the past of the original timeline. Since the original timeline is no longer active, those details are not about to be confirmed. Presumably, the only title that isn't affected by the Set Right What Once Went Wrong nature of the reboot is Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, as it is set before the events of the first three games, but even that is up in the air. Additionally, the surprise addition of Tremor as DLC in the sequel suggests Mortal Kombat: Special Forces may be Loose Canon or happened in very Broad Strokes.
• According to OVERKILL, the No Mercy heist is non-canon in PAYDAY: The Heist; however, it later became canon in PAYDAY 2 as Mercy Hospital being the source of the virus that Bain was injected with, slowly killing him. It's possible it's only canon in PAYDAY 2, but unlike the other classic heists in the game that are recontextualised to fit PAYDAY 2's story, what you're playing is a flashback to the mentioned event (which is why Bain is the one guiding the gang through the heist, even though at this point in the story Locke is the one who does that), meaning it had to have happened before, meaning it had to have been canon in the first game.
• Pokémon:
  • It is ambiguous which pair of Gen VII games is on the current, "main" timeline. The sixth and seventh generation games firmly established that the franchise exists in a multiverse, with the mainline RPGs taking place across at least three major parallel timelines: all the games up until Gen VI are broadly on one timeline, Gen VI onwards are broadly on a second timeline (denoted by the existence of Mega Evolution and similar battle mechanics), and... one pair of Gen VII is on that second timeline, while the other is on a third timeline. While other "third versions" have narratives interchangeable enough that they can be considered as being on the same general timeline as their originals, Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon differ too much compared to Sun and Moon (in terms of character designs, motivations, and even the antagonists) to similarly "share" timelines, and no mainline game that follows mentions the Alola region in enough detail to make it clear. Spin-off games don't help in this regard either, as while Pokémon Masters implies that the Ultra version of events happened, Elio and Selene use their Sun and Moon designs instead of their Ultra ones.
  • The spin-off duology Pokémon Colosseum and Pokémon XD: Gale of Darkness might be the only entries in the franchise to possibly get hit with full-fledged Canon Discontinuity. Apart from the trading connectivity they have with the mainline Gen III games, no references to Colosseum or XD or their events are alluded to in any other piece of Pokémon media, be it the main series, other spin-offs, or the various manga or anime. That prominent creative leads for the series have reportedly spoken disfavorably of the games (claiming they don't match the "vision" of the series as a whole) seems to suggest that they're considered an Old Shame and are deliberately ignored; indeed, in the celebration video for the franchise's 25th anniversary, these games were omitted entirely from the retrospective. That said however, a Shadow Mewtwo appears in Pokkén Tournament (and is referred to as Dark Mewtwo in Japan) with Anne's attempt to undo the Shadow Synergy Stone's corruption on Mewtwo being referred to "as trying to reach Mewtwo's heart", akin to Purification. In addition, Pokémon GO has Team Go Rocket using Shadow Pokémon (referred to by that name in Japan) against the player, and players can snag the Shadow Pokémon and purify them just like in Colosseum and XD.
  • Pokémon Sun and Moon introduces Ash-Greninja as usable Mon that can be gotten if you played and completed the demo. Ash-Greninja is, as the name implies, Ash's Greninja; it even has him listed as the original owner. How do you fit this into either canon is anyone's guess. Ash-Greninja was removed from Pokémon Scarlet and Violet with Battle Bond increasing Greninja's Attack, Special Attack and Speed whenever it scores a KO in battle.
• Resident Evil:
  • During the early years of the franchise, Capcom produced a few spin-off titles, namely Resident Evil: Survivor and Resident Evil: Dead Aim, two light gun-based shooters released under the Gun Survivor branding in Japan (which also included a light gun adaptation of Code: Veronica released only in Japan and Europe, and the Dino Crisis spin-off Dino Stalker), and the MMO-based Resident Evil: Outbreak series. Capcom tend to omit these titles in official retrospectives and sourcebooks for the franchise, yet Sheena Island (the setting of Survivor) gets namedropped in the opening text crawl of Resident Evil 0, while Alyssa Ashcroft, one of the player characters in the Outbreak series, is credited as the author of an in-game newspaper article in Resident Evil 7.
  • The EX Files in the N64 version of Resident Evil 2 features a reference to Christine Henri, as the person who ordered HUNK to retrieve the G-Virus to Umbrella's French subsidiary. This character never actually showed in the games, but was actually from a Japanese radio play titled "Ada the Spy Lives", which was never adapted into English. Unlike "The Young Runaway Sherry", a similar Resident Evil 2-themed radioplay which had Sherry separated from Leon and Claire after the events of the game (something that didn't happen according to the post-game epilogues in Resident Evil 3), the events of "Ada the Spy Lives" were never explicitly contradicted by the games.
• Sonic the Hedgehog:
  • Mainline games are part of the same continuity and often reference each other. When it comes spin-offs, however, their canonical status is less clear. Some were referenced by the main series, whereas others are officially Canon Discontinuity, and others remain ambiguous. There's also the Game Gear entries, which are implied to take place in a separate timeline.
  • Shadow the Hedgehog somehow manages to have this with itself: the only definitely canonical section is the opening cutscene and the Last Story. Several events from different levels are referenced or hinted at in the Last Story but those events aren't all obtainable on a single run of the game, leaving what route through the game Shadow actually took ambiguous. Sega claims that the Pure Heroic path is canon, but that's debated by fans because of the aforementioned Last Way which implies several of the other routes happened.
• Putting aside the fact that all Star Trek non-televised or non-theatrical production is officially non-canonical, Star Trek Online was pretty much all this until the premiere of Star Trek: Picard. It takes place after Spock "was killed" after failing to stop the supernova from destroying Romulus (creating the Kelvin timeline of the 2009 Star Trek film). It continues telling stories in the "Prime" timeline after this point, involving just about everything from every era of Star Trek ever, because the chances of new fiction being produced in that timeframe were vanishingly small at the time of the game's launch. The developers took unmitigated glee in their "unobserved" canonical status, creating anything and everything they want in this timeframe, since only films in the Kelvin timeline were in active production back then. The game's wavefunction was ultimately crushed by Picard being the first canonical post-destruction of Romulus story in the Prime timeline.
• Street Fighter:
  • Capcom's Shared Universe in relation to the franchise. The main (read: numbered) Street Fighter games and Alpha were considered the main storyline, with games like Street Fighter EX being relegated to an Alternate Continuity. Marvel vs. Capcom introduced Shadow, Shadow Lady, and Dan's sister Yuriko Hibiki without confirming if these characters were in the main continuity. Street Fighter V confirms Yuriko Hibiki is Dan's sister, and Zeku (Guy's master seen in his Alpha 2 ending) links Strider to the main series. The Shadaloo Combat Research Institute profiles on the Street Fighter V Character Encyclopedia website confirm characters who were previously thought to be in separate continuities are still in the main Street Fighter continuity, without always confirming how this occurs in-story, such as a profile on Kevin Striker from Street Fighter 2010.
  • For a series-specific example, Street Fighter IV: The Ties That Bind. The OVA is marketed as a canonical prequel to the events of Street Fighter IV, and is focused around the same plot points as the game (S.I.N.'s BLECE Project and the fighters they kidnapped to develop it), but its events are oddly disconnected from the narrative of IV itself. For instance, after C. Viper nearly kills Cammy when the latter interferes in the former's attempt to provoke Ryu into unleashing the Satsui no Hado and capture him, you'd think Cammy's Rival Battle against Viper in her Arcade Mode wouldn't play out as if it was their first meeting. The closest to mentions the film's events receive aren't even in the game's original iteration, but rather in Super Street Fighter IV, when Chun-Li states that Seth previously managed to escape in her Arcade Prologue and Cammy's injuries haven't fully healed yet in her Arcade win quote against her.^note Even then, the latter case may instead refer to the aftermath of Cammy being thrown out of a cargo plane by Juri—an event that would've almost certainly killed her if not for the presence of snow to break her fall—in the SSFIV OVA.
• In the Touhou franchise, the 4Koma manga Inaba of the Moon and Inaba of the Earth was written by Toshihira Arata as opposed to series creator ZUN (Who was only loosely involved), and happens to be a Gag Series, so as a result it occupies an ambiguous place in canonicity compared to other side works. Most fans take the story in Broad Strokes, though it's been referenced somewhat in later works written by ZUN.
• Ubisoft:
  • The relationship between Watch_Dogs and Assassin's Creed is rather complicated. There have been references littered throughout both franchises such as Aiden Pearce assassinating Oliver Garneau, Abstergo Industries buying CTOS technology from Blume, or a British Assassin as a DLC character. However, Ubisoft has continuously denied that the two games are set in the same universe insisting that it's simply fanservice. Despite this, there is substantial overlap with the franchises, leaving their canonicity to each other a bit unclear.
  • To a lesser extent, Far Cry may or may not take place in the AC-WD world since the third installment contains a letter that explicitly mentions the Pieces of Eden and Thomas Edison's experiments while the Abstergo logo can be briefly seen in one level.
• The Ultima and Ultima Underworld games form a main story. Spin-off games and side materials could have possibly happened, or represent alternate timelines/universes from the main games, but their status in relation to the main series is not confirmed.

Web Comics

• Though the Milk And Mocha comics have been going on for five years or so as of 2022, the original comics depicted the title duo meeting for the first time, also setting up a world where white bears are bullied by brown bears, and introducing some characters like a fox and owl. With the "reboot" in 2018 that set the scene going on to this day, it is unclear whether this "first meeting" is canonical, or whether the other characters exist but just live offscreen. The bullying of bears, at least, does not come up any more.

Western Animation

• The Fairly Oddparents had this happen with the three live-action movies, which depict a completely different future than what the ending to Channel Chasers did, and they're considered to be Loose Canon. Basically, Timmy's future either involves him eventually parting ways with Cosmo and Wanda, getting married, and having two children who get Cosmo and Wanda as fairy godparents, or Timmy's future involves him stagnating his life (such as remaining in fifth grade) so that he has Cosmo and Wanda even as an adult, then getting to keep his fairies for life regardless, and eventually becoming a fairy himself after a Heroic Sacrifice. Most fans prefer the former.
• The Invader Zim comic continuation and the Netflix movie begin the same way: we're told that Zim disappeared for a long time and Dib became a shut-in until he finally returned. Even most of the dialogue is the same. After that set-up, however, the two stories spin off into different plots based on the point of divergence of whether or not Zim can remember the next step of his latest evil plan. Which is canonical? Given that the show's continuity was pretty loose in the first place, we're probably not supposed to think about it too hard.
• The Loud House: The Loud House Movie was originally said to be non-canon by series' creator Chris Savino, but then he got fired and replaced as showrunner. The movie's director, Dave Needham, worked under the assumption it was supposed to be canon and states that it occurs between Seasons 4 and 5, but the series has never even alluded to its events, making the truth of that statement unclear.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic (and, by extension, Equestria Girls) has the tie-in comics. Hasbro dictates that all the comic storylines are canon so long as they don't contradict anything in FiM or EqG. Contradictions weren't uncommon though, as neither creative team was ever kept informed about what happens in the comics.
• Sonic Prime was confirmed to be canonical to the mainline Sonic the Hedgehog games (including the IDW comics), but certain continuity errors^note Such as Sonic being apparently unfamiliar with the concept of a Evil Knockoff of him, despite Metal Sonic and many other derivatives being one of the earliest foes he faced in the franchise, or referring to Green Hill Zone as Sonic's home, even though he was born on Christmas Island and is stated to not have a home and an uncertainty in the story's placement in the series' timeline makes it unclear how exactly. Ian Flynn, who wrote both the Archie and IDW comics as well as newer Sonic games like Sonic Frontiers, was a consultant for the show, and after it finished airing he confirmed that while Prime is canon, it "doesn't matter" since the story ends with the Shatterverse being undone (though it's implied that the Shatterspaces still exist) and everything returned to normal, with only Sonic and Shadow remembering the events of the show.
• Star Trek: The Animated Series: The official canonicity of this series has gone back and forth. The official Star Trek website considers it canon, but Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry reportedly didn't consider it canon during the last years of his life. However, some elements have bled over into the rest of the franchise (most notably, identifying the "T" in James T. Kirk to stand for "Tiberius", which was canonized in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country) and the addition of the cat-like Caitians to the mythos (see Star Trek Into Darkness).

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Alternative Title(s): Canonical Until It's Not, Canonical Until It Isn't