Editing MarioWiki talk:Canonicity

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Final disclaimer, I grew up on the cartoons and genuinely love them still, so don't take this as an attack against them! [[User:Fizzle|Fizzle]] ([[User talk:Fizzle|talk]]) 13:02, 18 January 2014 (EST)
Final disclaimer, I grew up on the cartoons and genuinely love them still, so don't take this as an attack against them! [[User:Fizzle|Fizzle]] ([[User talk:Fizzle|talk]]) 13:02, 18 January 2014 (EST)


:Sections are in chronological order based on release date, not on importance, and the spin-off media ''have'' had impacts on the series as a whole (not to mention the fandom): to use an example once use against me, Bowser's crush on Peach originated in an anime and then appeared in a western comic - years before the games ran with the idea. The wiki makes no judgment calls about the relevancy different types of media because that's subjective and speculative: things contradict, yes, and we document that, but it's not ''our'' place to come out and say which one is the "right" story. We started moving away from our fanon-ridden attempts to link everything into a coherent timeline [[MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive/11#Article_Organization_Standard|in 2008]], and we further revised that to not treat alternate media as second-class sources a couple months later [[MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive/12#Revise_Article_Organization_Standard|in 2009]]. Obviously most people are going to look at the conflicting stories and decide that the video games are the version they're going to prescribe to, maybe even taking a step further and cherry-picking which games they care for, but that's ''their'' choice to make for their own personal headcanons. It is ''not'' our right to choose for them by selecting which sources the wiki as a whole should value more or less: that's skewing the information. Our job is to report the official facts, warts and all, and that's what we've been doing pretty well for years. Using everything we have at our disposal is a much more solid foundation for our articles than dismissing one thing or another and then having to go and defend those choices. The canon debate is a slippery slope, and the smartest thing for the wiki to do is keep its hands clean and not open that kettle of worms back up again; chronology debates on the pages lead to nothing but headaches. - {{User:Walkazo/sig}} 14:37, 18 January 2014 (EST)
:Sections are in chronological order based on release date, not on importance, and the spin-off media ''have'' had impacts on the series as a whole (not to mention the fandom): to use an example once use against me, Bowser's crush on Peach originated in an anime and then appeared in a western comic - years before the games ran with the idea. The wiki makes no judgment calls about the relevancy different types of media because that's subjective and speculative: things contradict, yes, and we document that, but it's not ''our'' place to come out and say which one is the "right" story. We started moving away from our fanon-ridden attempts to link everything into a coherent timeline [[MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive_11#Article_Organization_Standard|in 2008]], and we further revised that to not treat alternate media as second-class sources a couple months later [[MarioWiki:Proposals/Archive_12#Revise_Article_Organization_Standard|in 2009]]. Obviously most people are going to look at the conflicting stories and decide that the video games are the version they're going to prescribe to, maybe even taking a step further and cherry-picking which games they care for, but that's ''their'' choice to make for their own personal headcanons. It is ''not'' our right to choose for them by selecting which sources the wiki as a whole should value more or less: that's skewing the information. Our job is to report the official facts, warts and all, and that's what we've been doing pretty well for years. Using everything we have at our disposal is a much more solid foundation for our articles than dismissing one thing or another and then having to go and defend those choices. The canon debate is a slippery slope, and the smartest thing for the wiki to do is keep its hands clean and not open that kettle of worms back up again; chronology debates on the pages lead to nothing but headaches. - {{User:Walkazo/sig}} 14:37, 18 January 2014 (EST)


::Oh, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree that the continuity arguments are pointless and not at all helpful, at least when discussing games that are not clear sequels (such as the Mario & Luigi games, which each make reference to the previous adventure but don't go much beyond that). And I can sort of see what you mean about the slippery slope in that respect, but I don't think having a two tier canon (ie: Nintendo published games and then everything else) really would detrimentally affect the wiki. As for Bowser's crush, I think, technically, this was hinted at simply by his constant kidnapping of her, I'm not sure the idea that this was mentioned in a manga before it appeared in a game really means they have a real impact on the series. Even with that said, just to use an example from the wiki I spend most my time at, the Zelda mangas have had Link turning into a wolf before it happened in Twilight Princess, for instance, and other things that seem to have possibly influenced the series, but we treat them with a lesser importance. It's not an entirely fair example as the Zelda series does actually have a timeline, but I kind of see the idea of a timeline as a separate issue from canonicity. As previously mentioned, claiming that Bowser's full name is King Bowser Koopa is not exactly true; this applies ONLY to the cartoons. Acting like it applies to everything else seems foolish. This also applies to the existence of a "real world" separate from the "Mushroom World".
::Oh, I WHOLEHEARTEDLY agree that the continuity arguments are pointless and not at all helpful, at least when discussing games that are not clear sequels (such as the Mario & Luigi games, which each make reference to the previous adventure but don't go much beyond that). And I can sort of see what you mean about the slippery slope in that respect, but I don't think having a two tier canon (ie: Nintendo published games and then everything else) really would detrimentally affect the wiki. As for Bowser's crush, I think, technically, this was hinted at simply by his constant kidnapping of her, I'm not sure the idea that this was mentioned in a manga before it appeared in a game really means they have a real impact on the series. Even with that said, just to use an example from the wiki I spend most my time at, the Zelda mangas have had Link turning into a wolf before it happened in Twilight Princess, for instance, and other things that seem to have possibly influenced the series, but we treat them with a lesser importance. It's not an entirely fair example as the Zelda series does actually have a timeline, but I kind of see the idea of a timeline as a separate issue from canonicity. As previously mentioned, claiming that Bowser's full name is King Bowser Koopa is not exactly true; this applies ONLY to the cartoons. Acting like it applies to everything else seems foolish. This also applies to the existence of a "real world" separate from the "Mushroom World".

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