MarioWiki:Canonicity
The canon of a franchise is a system of classification that separates official media products from unofficial media products, therefore determining which characters, locations, events, etc. "actually" exist in a series' fictional universe. Many franchises have official canons established by creators of the series, companies owning franchise trademarks, and other sources of authority. Unlike many other franchises, the Super Mario series and its many spin-offs do not have an officially recognized canon. Therefore all media products created with any type of approval by Nintendo are considered canonical. Arguments over canonicity (canon vs. non-canon) are purely speculative, and are of no importance to wiki articles. All official sources can be considered canonical and should be treated as such by all users. While information in an article may be divided into sections about the "main" series, spin-off series, alternative media, etc., this does not mean any source of information is more canonical than the other. In no way should the organization of wiki articles be considered an assertion of what is canon in the Super Mario series. Instead, the organization of an article is simply a way to convey information in the most effective and efficient manner possible.
Of course this does not mean there are not discrepancies between different media in the Super Mario franchise. However, since there is no official canon, all representations are of equal canonicity, even if they disagree with each other. Discrepancies should be noted in articles, but not speculated on. Essentially, it is perfectly fine to include disagreements created by different media products. Our goal is to cover the entire Super Mario series, not to resolve discrepancies between different sources of information. Ultimately it is of no importance whether a particular source is "more canonical" than another source.
Lastly, it should be noted that any information that is made up by fans (including fan-made stories and video games) are considered non-canonical. Beta Elements are also non-canonical, as they were not released in the final version of the game.
