History Main / WordOfSaintPaul

** Baha'i Faith--founder: [[SpellMyNameWithAThe The Bab]], popularizer: Baha'ullah.

* ''Film/BackToTheFuture'': When asked about the origins of Doc and Marty, screenwriter Bob Gale gaves two theories:

** Producer Creator/JohnNathanTurner was the source of the phrase "There is no hanky panky aboard the TARDIS". It was even mentioned in a 1984 issue of Time Magazine. This makes the widespread assumption that the Doctor (especially in the classic series) is asexual more than just mere fan speculation. Since Nu Who, however, it's been treated as depending on the incarnation. Nine was very enthusiastic about 51st-century humanity's views on sexuality, Ten was more of a romantic, Eleven had [[InnocentFanserviceGuy no nudity taboo]] but did have sex, and Twelve is implied to be demisexual (some originally assumed asexual, but his interactions with Clara, Missy, and River disprove that, though it should be noted that on screen nothing sexual has ever been implied related to any of the three).

* In the ''Literature/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineRelaunch'' books, Andrew Robinson, who played the character Elim Garak, has filled in much of Garak's mysterious and covert past. He felt that Garak was omnisexual with interest in men and women of any species and that Garak was particularly attracted to Bashir, whom he felt was oblivious to Garak's interest. The show's writing staff worked hard to throw this off in the show itself but Robinson's non-canonical novel, based on his personal view of the character's background and personality, was so popular, it became part of the ExpandedUniverse and Robinson's view of the character has been adopted by the fandom as if it was canonical.

* ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry4'': Before ''VideoGame/DevilMayCry5'', the question of whether or not Nero was [[spoiler:Vergil]]'s son was a matter of much debate. Prior to that game, this had been [[AllThereInTheManual confirmed by an official artbook]] (''3142 Graphic Arts''), the official ''Deadly Fortune'' novelization by the lead writer of ''[=DMC4=]'', and a statement by a translator, but [[{{Foreshadowing}} only strongly implied]] in-game. Because the ''Deadly Fortune'' novel deviates from the plot of ''[=DMC4=]'' at multiple points, it was treated semi-canon at best, and [[BrokenBase a part of the fanbase]] vehemently opposed the idea until ''[=DMC5=]'' [[TheReveal settled the matter permanently]]. Though, not all aspects are confirmed--such as exactly who [[ImpliedLoveInterest Nero's mother]] was.

*** Creator/WilWheaton was asked as to why Wesley Crusher doesn't make an appearance in Season 3 of Picard, considering all the rest of the core cast of ''TNG'' are part of the main plot, since Season 3 is in essence the last hurrah of the Next Generation crew. Wheaton offered (while admitting this was his headcanon, not official) that one of the sacrifices Wesley made when agreeing to become a Traveler is losing the ability to interact with the people and places important in your life before becoming a Traveler, and while Wesley would like nothing more to see his mother, and meet his half-brother, doing so would cost him an objectivity in viewpoint that would have dire consequences for his work.

** Things got to a point during the seventies to nineties where some of the TV series' writers were pushing, effectively, for a viewpoint saying the Doctor had ''never'' had sex, despite the existence of his granddaughter Susan (which they got around by saying she'd been adopted). This never got on screen, but it did find its way into the Expanded Universe (e.g. Marc Platt's Literature/DoctorWhoNewAdventures novel ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoNewAdventuresCatsCradleTimesCrucible Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible]]'', which fed into the rest of the line, or Creator/EricSaward's short story "Birth of a Renegade").

** How do you write the name of the Doctor's ship? There're a few ways, as it turns out; in the early days, it was given as Tardis or ''Tardis'', without the all-caps, and sometimes the definite article would be dropped, so you'd have "There is a violent explosion and ''Tardis'' stops dead." or similar. The all-caps TARDIS was first used in the 1972 book "The Making of Doctor Who" by scriptwriters Creator/MalcolmHulke and Creator/TerranceDicks, who went on to establish it as default in [[Literature/DoctorWhoNovelisations the Target novelisations]], and fandom picked it up and ran with it from there. These days, the old forms are primarily used by Magazine/RadioTimes (who use Tardis in their print edition, since in their house style acronyms are written with only an initial capital), intentional period pieces, or Cushing film-verse fics.

Once a work has been published to general acclaim, speculation runs rampant. What did X really mean? How could Y do that? How are we supposed to interpret Z? For some reason or another, [[ShrugOfGod the primary creator keeps quiet]], so when someone else with at least some authoritative status connected to the work says something, it can be easily accepted and incorporated into [[Fanon the common view]].

Once a work has been published to general acclaim, speculation runs rampant. What did X really mean? How could Y do that? How are we supposed to interpret Z? For some reason or another, [[ShrugOfGod the primary creator keeps quiet]], so when someone else with at least some authoritative status to the work says something, it can be easily accepted and incorporated into the common view.

When the Word of Saint Paul contains (or is perceived to contain) mistakes or misunderstandings of the original creator, they can easily carry the germ for future debates.

** ''Series/StarTrekPicard'': Creator/JonathanDelArco [[https://www.ign.com/articles/picard-hugh-nepenthe-episode-7-jonathan-del-arco-elnor insists]] that his character [[https://twitter.com/JonathanDelArco/status/1250830661994156033 Hugh is in love with Elnor]] despite WordOfGod refuting that Hugh is gay.

** According to Barbara Dunkelman, Blake and Yang being in love and becoming an OfficialCouple was [[https://mobile.twitter.com/bdunkelman/status/1639791841959899136 something planned 10 years ago.]]

* ''Film/BladeRunner'': Creator/HarrisonFord has stated that he believed Decker to not be a replicant, as being one would undercut the theme of his character rediscovering his own humanity, and turns the man vs. machine climactic battle into a robot vs. robot fight. Creator/RidleyScott, on the other hand, claims that Deckard was always meant to be a replicant.

* Christopher Tolkien is often this to Creator/JRRTolkien when it comes to posthumous works. In particular, the published version of ''Literature/TheSilmarillion'' is often assumed to be canonical, when it is simply the most well-known interpretation of a number of unfinished and contradictory sources. (It helps that Literature/TheHistoryOfMiddleEarth, showing many of the different versions, was also- later- published, with some commentary as to ''why'' any certain version was picked.) On the whole, Christopher is pretty careful to separate actual WordOfGod from his own thoughts on paper. However, it should be noted that Christopher Tolkien created the maps of Middle Earth that we all know, albeit under his father's supervision. He therefore had a hand in shaping the canon even from a very early date. This is one of the reasons, other than just reverence, why fans generally take his word on things as canonical.

* ''WebAnimation/{{RWBY}}'': The voice actors of Sun and Blake, Creator/MichaelJones and Arryn Zech, have said that they are both attracted to and want them to love each other. Zech has stated that Blake is in love with both Sun and Yang as well.

* Creator/WilliamShakespeare existed before the notion of "Writer/Playwright as Celebrity" and as such we know very little about his own ideas of theatre and which are the definitive texts of his plays. The first collected edition, the First Folio, was published by actors who knew him and contains an introduction by Ben Jonson, a fellow great playwright and friend who affirms that Shakespeare knew little Latin and Greek (at least, by Jonson's own rather high standards) and that the famous illustration on the frontispiece is a good likeness. The Folio's title page proclaims that the plays are "Printed According to the True Original Copies," which seems to imply that the versions therein are based on Shakespeare's manuscripts, and the preface by editors Heminge and Condell proclaims that "where (before) you were abused with diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies, maimed, and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of injurious impostors, that expos'd them: even those, are now offer'd to your view cur'd, and perfect of their limbes." This would have been fine if earlier print editions of Shakespeare's plays didn't contain variations, some of them quite substantial but unquestionably Shakespearean, to choose from. Aside from that, virtually any subsequent inferences about his sexuality, personal relationships, lifestyle habits, or viewpoints have come from [[WordOfDante more recent scholars]] reading between the lines of his texts and what scant documentary/archaeological evidence he left behind, rather than from the actual testimony of him or his contemporaries. Even the date (April 23) typically celebrated as his birthday is only an educated guess based on baptismal records.

** Most Biblical scholars posit the existence of the Q document ("Q" being short for "Quelle", the German word for "source"), a collection of the sayings of Jesus which predates the Matthew and Luke. It is used to explain why Luke and Matthew's writings (1) generally agree with the (older) Gospel of Mark and disagree with the (younger) Gospel of John in the BroadStrokes of the story of Jesus but (2) have a lot of material in common with each other but not with Mark (the "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synoptic_problem synoptic problem]]").

** Then there are the founders and significant figures of all the other of the numerous sects and offshoots of the Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox groups, as well as the sects and offshoots that don't identify with the three larger classifications.

* For the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' series, there was an active fan on [[Creator/ErinHunter Vicky Holmes]]' Facebook page who often answered questions based on her knowledge of the books and previous answers from the authors. Eventually, Vicky gave her permission to come up with her own ideas in cases where there wasn't an existing answer, saying that this would become canon. Su's contributions were controversial among fan. Ultimately, she left after being the target of harrassment and debate, and Vicky said that they were not, in fact, canon and that she'd only wanted Su to have a chance to share her ideas. Some of it ''was'' eventually confirmed as canon after Vicky's retirement from the series, however: a family tree was added to the official website which contained several of the characters and relations that she'd created, and the new story team confirmed these as canon.

* The last ''Film/HarryPotter'' film suggests a romance (or at least a pair of reciprocal one-sided crushes) between Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, which is a widely fanon-supported couple, but not one that happens in canonicity. Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville, asserted the two had a brief fling but ended up marrying their canonical partners. Similarly, the actors who play Seamus (Devon Murray) and Dean (Alfred Enoch) are convinced that their characters become romantically involved and even get married eventually (once it becomes legal in the UK/Ireland).

* The last ''Film/HarryPotter'' film suggests a romance (or at least a pair of reciprocal one-sided crushes) between Neville Longbottom and Luna Lovegood, which is a widely fanon-supported couple, but not one that happens in canonicity. Matthew Lewis, who plays Neville, asserted the two had a brief fling but ended up marrying their canonical partners.

[[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Nothing to do]] with [[UsefulNotes/TwinCities the capital of Minnesota]], or [[UsefulNotes/SaoPaulo the Brazilian state/city]], other than being named for the same guy.