Given that many of the examples on the page are actually examples of Fanon rather than the trope described, does this page need clean-up?
"The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." - Tom Clancy, paraphrasing Mark Twain. Hide / Show RepliesDrawing a distinction between the two in my mind is more important. I am not myself 100% sure.
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard FeynmanDefinitely. Very few of these examples seem to actually be people believing someone with no real authority over canon.
Removed:
- A subset of Silent Hill fans insist on the interpretation of Vincent's line "They look like monsters to you?" from part 3 that Heather is violently insane and has been spending the entire game butchering innocent people, undeterred by the fact that this scenario makes no damned sense at all from a narrative or gameplay standpoint.
Word of Dante is about the fans treating a third-party source as if it's canon. This example is about fans subscribing to a different interpretation of a line which was spoken in canon, and therefore Not An Example.
It would fit as Alternative Character Interpretation, though.
Just where did the idea of Santa Claus living at "the North Pole" come from?
I vaguely remember old references to Santa living in Lappland... hence the reindeer.
The section on Religion and Mythology is super nattery right now. I'm not a Biblical scholar, but it looks like it could use some Repair Dont Respond magic.
"The Star Wars Expanded Universe is not canon" is incorrect, Lucas stated numerous times his position is that his personal universe does not include the post ROTJ EU but that this is not the official universe, LFL's is. Editing the main page to reflect this.
I killed the "Draco Trilogy" example, mostly because it sounds more like "Fanon" than "Word of Dante" (most fans don't consider Draco to be a "deadpan snarker).
I don't think there are many people that believe, logically, that Aeris actually does live. I think there are plenty of people interested in the little clues and buried treasures in the code of Final Fantasy 7 that indicated, at one point, she was intended to live if steps were taken etc. Plenty of people WANT her to live and write up fiction, etc, about it though, yes.
Really? I'm just going to write it out long hand as "literary criticism friendly."
To Anonymous Mccartneyfan's question, "Who's the Dante for this?", I have no answer. But I don't think the question is all-important, so I restored the cut examples.
Hide / Show RepliesSorry about that... <sad face<
I consider the question important because the existence of at least one Dante is one of the key methods of differentiating Word of Dante from Fanon.
Let's put it in more high-falutin' terms: it's one thing to say that a certain "Biblical" tenet is apocryphal. It's another to be able to name the part of the Apocrypha it's in.
Or, to put it a third way: take the Star Trek Expanded Universe (please)! Until recently, none of it was technically canonical. That said, any given piece is taken much more seriously, esp. post-TNG, if it is in an officially licensed Paramount book, if only because Paramount has stricter standards about its Star Trek books than it does about the actual series.
There is a fine line between recklessness and courage — Paul McCartney
This example needs to 1) be broken up into two and 2) given specific examples. There are plenty, especially for the Grimms, who further and further sanitized the stories in each edition they were republished in.
Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving. -Terry Pratchett