Meta: Canon Formats

[ysabetwordsmith]

marchmetamatterschallenge is offering prompts to inspire new meta. This is the third:

Suppose one of your favorite canons was adapted into a different format -- this might be TV to book, novel to comic, comic to film, etc. What changes do you think the canon would likely go through as a result of this change? What might be the advantages?


Watching a fandom change formats is a fairly common experience for me. Some fandoms have even gone through multiple iterations. Star Trek the television series spawned books and movies. Alien Nation and Stargate movies both spawned television series and books. Numerous books have been adapted for television and/or movies. Lots of fandoms have inspired tabletop games.

It can be interesting to see what happens, although the results are often poor because they are more often motivated by greed than artistic merit. Some other cultures do better than America. In Japan, manga (comic books) and anime (cartoon shows or movies) have largely evolved together. Because so many exist in multiple formats, creators there kind of tend to think about that when developing new material. How would it work going from one to another format? So they tend to translate well across those lines. American results often cut corners that leave fans unhappy.

Every once in a while, though, someone makes an absolutely brilliant choice in adaptation that really adds to the canon. This happened with Blood Ties. It started out as a series of novels in which Henry Fitzroy was a romance writer. But in the television series, Henry is a graphic artist instead. This change gives him a much more visual career that is more interesting to watch -- yet retains the low respect that occasionally influences plot and characterization.


The advantages of expanding formats include:

* improved accessibility from book to film for vision-impaired fans

* improved accessibility from film to book for hearing-impaired fans

* improved portability from film to book

* visual representation of characters and places when going from text to film

* addition of soundtracks from text to film

* opportunity to reinterpret and remix a canon, not just in a new format, but often in a new time

You can really see great examples of the latter in recent television adaptations of Sherlock Holmes. The television show Sherlock focuses a lot on modernization, for instance with John Watson keeping a blog instead of a journal. Elementary does a splendid job of dual racebending/genderbending with Joan Watson as an Asian-American woman. Enola Holmes started as a book series, later adapted to film, a rare case where an Original Female Character really shines. Professional fanfic is occasionally awesome.


It is vital to point out that, when a fandom travels through different formats, it very often changes from a canon to a cycle or mythos. A canon is the work of one person, or less often, a cohesive team working from a worldbook to ensure continuity.

Canon refers to the characteristics of a particular book, movie, TV show, etc., that make up a plot continuum, as opposed to fanon. Canon can also mean the works themselves.

Cycle, in literature, a group of prose or poetic narratives, usually of different authorship, centring on a legendary hero and his associates.

Mythos -- A story or set of stories relevant to or having a significant truth or meaning for a particular culture, religion, society, or other group; a myth, a mythology.


When there is only one source, it's easier to maintain consistency. When more people get involved, or new media, then changes creep in and that invites argument over what "is" the "right" version. This is foolish. Nobody expects all the parts of the Arthurian Cycle or the Cthulhu Mythos to agree with each other, because they are known to be diverse and that is part of their charm. If people haven't had the benefit of a literary education and/or shared worlds, then they may not know that these are all different things that require different handling. That knowledge can avoid a lot of arguments just by treating diverse renditions as a feature not a bug.

You can see some of this in my own work. Torn World is a shared world where we placed materials in a common archive that maintained continuity to the best of our ability. Although the archive is no longer maintained and available, some writers still work with their characters in that setting and/or have older materials posted to other venues. The Ursulan Cycle is genderbent King Arthur. It has character descriptions, artifacts, and other materials that set up the core of a new version based on very old stories.

This brings up the concept of open-source fandoms. These are settings that people are free to play with and interpret, including across different formats. Some like the Ursulan Cycle are based on very old material. Others like The Blueshift Troupers or Schrodinger's Heroes are designed to facilitate multiple creators, diverse formats, crossovers, and other dynamic developments. Anyone who doesn't like the stranglehold of big publishers, Hollywood, and the Mouse That Ate Public Domain can simply start up a fandom of their own with more inclusive and diverse parameters.

For ideas on how to set up a shared world, see "Build with the Mind" and its notes on worldbuilding (instructions, links, storyworld physical notes, storyworld population).


What are some of your thoughts on adaptations and evolutions in fandom?

Comments

[yourlibrarian]

Some interesting points about the advantages of different formats. I also like your discussion about Cycle and Mythos.

opportunity to reinterpret and remix a canon, not just in a new format, but often in a new time

Yes, that was one thing that grabbed me about Sherlock, was how it well it updated itself given the skills of the original character. I think that these reboots can be very well done and gain a whole new group of fans when they happen (Dr. Who and Lord of the Rings come to mind) A lot depends on understanding what is essential vs what is not in terms of keeping the characters and canon consistent while still updating.

When you mentioned Blood Ties it reminded me of how Marvel made Kamala Khan a fan artist instead of fanfiction writer.

[anxious_songbird]

My first thought is Pokémon Gameverse VS PokéSpe/Adentures.

PokéSpe is a manga adaptation of the games but with a suprising amount of changes. I haven't gotten far into the manga yet, but a major diffrence is where the protags in the games are mostly blank slates are given big personalities in the manga, and that's ignoring characters like Yellow who is an OC from the manga.

I've gotten some intresst recently into the idea of making an Pokémon gameverse AU where I change the main plot majorly in one way or another. Also a little into other people's ideas, but I'm not sure where to find them.

But I think a pattern is that the older the media is, the more willing people are to change it to be more indulgant to themselves, which, good for them.

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I've gotten some intresst recently into the idea of making an Pokémon gameverse AU where I change the main plot majorly in one way or another.<<

Go for it!

>> Also a little into other people's ideas, but I'm not sure where to find them.<<

You could try looking on AO3 or her in communties.

>>But I think a pattern is that the older the media is, the more willing people are to change it to be more indulgant to themselves, which, good for them.<<

I agree, that fits my observations.