History FanonDiscontinuity / Literature

** Not to mention his "elemental theory", in which he associated the various Great Old Ones and the Other Gods (he never realized the distinction between the two) with the four Greek elements, no matter how little sense it makes. For example, he associated Cthulhu with Water due to his octopoid appearance and underwater prison, handily forgetting that water is the only known substance that completely blocks his telepathic powers, and that he's ''trapped'' under the sea. And a lot of fans realize that this makes no sense, but not that the whole elemental theory simply doesn't fit into the stories, and try to rearrange the creatures' positions in the chart, or work with the five Chinese elements instead.
*** A few fans even argue that the four elements wouldn't have any ''meaning'' to entities which, for the most part, aren't even made out of matter as humans understand it.

* Creator/TerryPratchett has [[WordOfGod stated explicitly]] that the (unnamed) Patrician in ''Literature/TheColourOfMagic'' is Havelock Vetinari (though written by a [[TakeThatMe less skilled author]]), since a) he doesn't act much like Vetinari, b) it's a little dicey timeline-wise, and c) it's hard to believe that Vetinari could ''ever'', in ''any'' alternate timeline, have been an obese man who threw wild parties and ate candied jellyfish, many fans choose to believe that the earlier Patrician is one of Vetinari's predecessors (Snapcase or Winder).

** And some fans accept all the first five, but not the sixth, ''Literature/AndAnotherThing''. Adams turned out to have regretted his DownerEnding in ''Mostly Harmless'' and started working on turning it into CanonDiscontinuity, but got hit with another SequelGap -- this time too long, as he suffered AuthorExistenceFailure. After another gap, Creator/EoinColfer wrote ''And Another Thing'', with the approval of Adams' estate. Although it broadly does accomplish what Adams sought to do, there are many fans who believe OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight and accept only the first five books. And still others who previously accepted only the first four now accept all six, because now at least the series doesn't end on a DownerEnding, which was their only real concern.

* ''John Carter and the Giant of Mars'', the second-last story in the ''{{Literature/Barsoom}}''-series, tends to fall victim to this for multiple reasons. For starters, it most likely wasn't even written by Edgar Rice Burroughs himself but rather by his son John "Jack" Coleman Burroughs. The story is also very simple since it was originally written for the children's book series "Big Little Books", written in the third person rather than the first person narrative most Barsoom stories use, and uses English names for the Martian flora and fauna (there are other discrepancies, such as the ''ulsios''/"Martian rats" having three legs rather than the invariable description of them in the other books as "many-legged"). One notable example of fans disregarding the book: in "A Guide to Barsoom", writer John Flint Roy clearly states he does not consider this story to be a true Barsoom story, and thus didn't include any information about this story and the characters appearing in it in his guide. Due to the shortness of "Giant" compared to the other books, it's often published along with the first (and only, due to AuthorExistenceFailure) part of "Skeleton Men of Jupiter", which ''was'' written by ERB and generally ''is'' considered canon, although incomplete.

* "The Mazarin Stone" (adapted by Arthur Conan Doyle from his play "The Crown Diamond") gets this treatment by ''SherlockHolmes'' fans, for it is one of only two stories that are narrated in third-person, breaking the long tradition of Watson as the biographer (and the rare examples of Sherlock narrating his own adventures), with an IdiotPlot of trying to recover the stone -- via the Villains showing off the stolen goods ''right in the Great Detective's home'' after he switched places with a wax dummy of himself. Granted the dummy was a ChekhovsGun since "The Empty House", but still...!

* Many fans claim that there are only four (or possibly three... or two) books in Creator/DouglasAdams' series ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', which by the end of the author's lifetime was a [[TrilogyCreep trilogy-of-five]]. Either option means protagonist Arthur Dent has a chance of living HappilyEverAfter.
** Perhaps a more justified attitude in the ''Hitchhiker's'' universe than some others: [[Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy the franchise]] has no single canon. The various iterations of the story (radio, book, film, etc.) are famously complicated and contradictory, even when solely created by Adams.
** The publication sequence for Adams' novels went as follows: ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' (1979), ''Literature/TheRestaurantAtTheEndOfTheUniverse'' (1980), ''Literature/LifeTheUniverseAndEverything'' (1982), ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish'' (1984); then, after an [[SequelGap extended break]], ''Literature/MostlyHarmless'' (1992). Single-volume editions collecting the [[InsistentTerminology "trilogy in four parts"]] were already available before the belated arrival of the fifth book. It is perhaps telling that, over a quarter of a century after ''Mostly Harmless'''s publication, there are ''still'' editions for sale containing only the original quartet.
** Adams was very depressed while writing ''Mostly Harmless'' and that bled into its DownerEnding. He [[CanonDiscontinuity intended to write a sixth book, reversing the ending]], before he suffered AuthorExistenceFailure.
** After a SequelGap nearly twice as long as the preceding one, in 2009 a sixth book ''did'' reverse the ending: ''Literature/AndAnotherThing'', written by Creator/EoinColfer with the approval of the Adams estate. The discontinuity is excised entirely or [[OnlyTheCreatorDoesItRight expanded to include the sixth book]], depending on whom you ask.
** Many believe that the first two books said all that needed to be said. The idea of the series as a trilogy hadn't yet been conceived, before the success of the second book. The original two "phases" of the radio series only comprised (most of) the events in the first two books (although not always in the same order). Therefore, the original radio series actually did consider the events of the second book to be TheEnd. (Although the actual end of the second book is based on the end of the ''Primary'' Phase, which wasn't.)

* Discontinuity/HarryPotter

* Of the ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' stories, ''Conan The Bold'' does not fit in with the other stories, due to Conan crossing most of Hyboria in a short period of time. The ''[[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 Conan the Barbarian]]'' and ''[[Film/ConanTheDestroyer Conan the Destroyer]]'' novelizations do not fit and contain details that conflict with other stories.
* The Fifth Book of ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'', allegedly written by Rabelais, could be the most impressive example. People began doubting its authorship ever since its first appearance during the Renaissance. The conflict only really came to a conclusion in 1994 with the help of Mireille Huchon's annotations and arguments. However, this does not resolve all issues since this part of Gargantua's adventures seems to have been written through a totally different perspective which does not always fit too well with the saga's previous books.
* Many of the readers who read the last book in Creator/StephenKing's ''Franchise/TheDarkTower'' series now want to forget that he ever wrote an ending to the series. To be fair, King does warn readers not to proceed onwards.
* Many ScienceFiction fans refuse to acknowledge any ''Literature/{{Dune}}'' books not written by Frank Herbert, despite this ending the series on a massive cliffhanger. They choose to follow Muad'Dib's philosophy, instead: "Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife -- chopping off what's incomplete and saying: 'Now, it's complete because it's ended here.' " Some go even further and ignore books after ''Literature/ChildrenOfDune'' or ''Literature/DuneMessiah'', or even accept only the original novel.

** Some fans simply believe that Brian and Kevin [[Literature/SandwormsOfDune CANNOT MEAN TO END LIKE THAT]].

** The issue with the prequels as canon is not about their quality, but more about glaring contradictions. The new authors have made it a plot point that Paul Atreides [[Literature/PreludeToDune was born on the planet Kaitain]] and had many adventures on other worlds. When the original Dune said in the very first ''sentence'' that Paul was born on Caladan and had never been anywhere else before the events of that book.
*** And there's the whole "Leto the First's BFF is a robot-man that, at the time, would have caused Caladan to be RAZED FROM ORBIT by every other noble house due to the whole 'Machine enslaved mankind, so we don't even use calculators' mentality".

** [[spoiler: Many Karrin Murphy fans have thrown ''Battle Ground'' into the discontinuity pile, and for good reason.]]

* Some ''Literature/PercyJacksonAndTheOlympians'' fans choose to ignore the SequelSeries ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' in its entirety.
** There's even some that chose to ignore the last part of ''The Last Olympian'', choosing to end the book right after the UnderwaterKiss.

* Of the ''Franchise/ConanTheBarbarian'' stories, ''Conan The Bold'' does not fit in with the other stories, due to Conan crossing most of Hyboria in a short period of time. The ''[[Film/ConanTheBarbarian1982 Conan the Barbarian]]'' and ''[[Film/ConanTheDestroyer Conan the Destroyer]]'' novelizations do not fit, and contain details that conflict with other stories.
* The Fifth Book of ''Gargantua and Pantagruel'', allegedly written by Rabelais, may be the most impressive example. People began doubting its authorship ever since its first appearance during the Renaissance. The conflict only really came to a conclusion in 1994 with the help of Mireille Huchon's annotations and arguments. However this does not resolve all issues since this part of Gargantua's adventures seems to have been written through a totally different perspective which does not always fit too well with the saga's previous books.

** Several fans use the non-canon (but Frank Herbert-approved) ''Literature/DuneEncyclopedia'''s take on the history of the universe because, among other reasons, it averts the cliché of the RobotWar as humans rising up against robot oppressors. The original novels implied (and the Encyclopedia outright stated) that the Butlerian Jihad was purely ideological (humans who hated robots against humans who loved them).

* Many fans are of the opinion there are only four (or possibly three... or two) books in Creator/DouglasAdams' series ''Literature/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'', which by the end of the author's lifetime was a [[TrilogyCreep trilogy-of-five]]. Either option means protagonist Arthur Dent has a chance of living HappilyEverAfter.

** Many believe that the first two books said all that needed to be said. The idea of the series being a trilogy hadn't yet been conceived, prior to the success of the second book. The original two "phases" of the radio series only comprised (most of) the events in the first two books (although not always in the same order). Therefore, the original radio series actually did consider the events of the second book to be TheEnd. (Although the actual end of the second book is based on the end of the ''Primary'' Phase, which wasn't.)

* Creator/TerryPratchett has [[WordOfGod stated explicitly]] that the (unnamed) Patrician in ''Literature/TheColourOfMagic'' is Havelock Vetinari (though written by a [[TakeThatMe less skilled author]]), but since a) he doesn't act much like Vetinari, b) it's a little dicey timeline-wise, and c) it's hard to believe that Vetinari could ''ever'', in ''any'' alternate timeline, have been an obese man who threw wild parties and ate candied jellyfish, many fans choose to believe that the earlier Patrician is one of Vetinari's predecessors (Snapcase or Winder).

** Details in the Novelverse are considered apocrypha unless confirmed or contradicted by canon. For example, Species 8472 call themselves the Undine, but it is unknown if the same is true in the series' canon.

** Details from the official reference books ''Star Trek Chronology'' and ''The Star Trek Encyclopedia'' are disputed by fans. The placement of dates of and surrounding the five year mission of ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' runs counter to what some fans prefer.

** Even among those who accept a lot of it, you'll be hard pressed to find an Expanded Universe fan who doesn't ignore at least one aspect of continuity. The novel ''Literature/TheCrystalStar'' is generally considered the worst ''Star Wars'' book ever, thanks to its slow plot, out-of-character actions, and general weird crap, and the writers seem to agree.

** Lucas' own position was essentially "The films are canon. Everything else should be treated, ''at best'', as rumor that ''may'' be true." Then he [[GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion changed the canon himself.]]
** Of course, there's those that ignore the Expanded Universe completely, vindicated by Lucasfilm's post-Creator/{{Disney}} decision to strike the entire EU, save the ''Clone Wars'' cartoons, from canon and start fresh with a more tightly controlled continuity. With the Old Expanded universe being relegated to the CanonDiscontinuity of ''Franchise/StarWarsLegends'', it is difficult for anyone to say what anything means anymore.
** ''Literature/{{Revan}}'' is hated by fans of ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' and ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublicIITheSithLords'' - alongside putting Revan and The Exile to mild BadassDecay, the KOTOR squadmates are incredibly shafted, outside of Canderous, T3 and Bastila. Even more so for the KOTOR 2 squadmates, where outside of Kreia (only a short reference as "Darth Traya") ''none of them are even mentioned by name''. Add this in with Exile not recognising Force-consuming abilities (despite having fought one in the form of Nihilus), her connection to the Force magically re-appearing, the Sith Emperor being an InvincibleVillain and all of Kreia's teachings about the Force and the Jedi being dismissed as Dark Side corruption. And on top of that, quite a few people hate the name Meetra Surik. This was a common example given as to why Disney's reboot of the entire Expanded Universe wasn't a completely horrific decision.

* A number of fans prefer to deny the ''Literature/EndersGame'' series kept going after ''Literature/SpeakerForTheDead''. Others ignore anything after the original, still others discount the Ender-focused sequels but include the more recent [[Literature/EndersShadow Bean-focused series]], and others acknowledge the four original books but ignore the Bean-focused sequels and more recently written Ender books.

** For example, there are those who think Salvatore should never have had Wulfgar come back from the dead, even if it meant [[ExecutiveMeddling another author doing so, and probably more poorly]], or the ''Spine Of The World'' novel never being written. Others think Wulfgar should never have died anyway.
** There are those who think that Drizzt's attitude since about ''Starless Night'' on has just been a big emo joke he's played on his friends, and those that apparently believe his playful, half-crazed personality from the first trilogy was a mask he wore for the world.
** Some don't believe that it took something like ten years after Wulfgar's death for Catti-brie and Drizzt to go to bed together, and some think it's a trick and never happened at all, and some can't believe that either the relationship or the marriage happened so quickly. More recently, some just don't understand why [[spoiler:Salvatore would go to the trouble of putting them together and setting up a possibility for her to live a very long life--i.e. magery--only to marginalize her character for the last two books, hand her a DistressBall, use her as a plot device to put the characters where he need them to go, [[StuffedInTheFridge and then kill her and put her in a heaven that]] ''[[FridgeLogic Drizzt won't even]]'' [[DownerEnding get to go to]].]] ''Especially'' when he could have avoided all that and just taken [[spoiler:her magic away and had her die of old age before the new era in 4th Edition TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms]].

** Some have argued that everything after 'The Final Problem' was invented by Watson. More conservative fans have argued that the most of the stories in ''The Casebook of Sherlock Holmes'' never happened.

* Scholars believe parts of the Ramayana were not written by Valmiki and instead interpolated by later authors. Regardless, the part where Rama sends Sita into exile on the basis of an overheard conversation, after she's long since proved her fidelity by leaping through fire, and while she is pregnant with his twins, after spending the entire plot of the epic rescuing her...didn't happen.
* Most fans of the ''Literature/DragonridersOfPern'' series consider any and all Green and Blue riders heterosexual unless specified otherwise, WordOfGod on the subject be damned.[[note]]Dame [=McCaffrey=] has stated on record that she considers all male green riders gay and all blue riders bi. The fandom tends to ignore this more on the statistical improbability of this than on the social implications.[[/note]]

** Not to mention his "elemental theory", in which he associated the various Great Old Ones and the Other Gods (he never realized distinction between the two) with the four Greek elements, no matter how little sense it makes. For example, he associated Cthulhu with Water due to his octopoid appearance and underwater prison, handily forgetting that water is the only known substance that completely blocks his telepathic powers, and that he's ''trapped'' under the sea. And a lot of fans realize that this makes no sense, but not that the whole elemental theory simply doesn't fit into the stories, and try to rearrange the creatures' positions in the chart, or work with the five Chinese elements instead.

* A few fans of Brent Weeks' ''Literature/TheNightAngelTrilogy'' chose to ignore the middle and last book completely, only accepting Way of the Shadows as canon. This is mostly because of [[GodModeSue a little sloppy characterization]] and not one, but two cases of very annoying girlfriends.

* There are many, many, many, many, MANY fans of ''Literature/TheHungerGames'' who choose to disregard the events of the third book entirely and come up with their own conclusions to the story, triggered by ''Mockingjay's'' [[BrokenBase arguable]] {{Wangst}}, CharacterDerailment, and RomanticPlotTumor.

* In common with the other long-running series mentioned, very few Creator/AnneRice fans acknowledge the entire ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' series. Just where the line gets drawn varies, but fans generally fall into two camps: those that believe the series ended with ''Literature/QueenOfTheDamned'', and those that acknowledge everything up to the point where Anne Rice started the {{Crossover}}s with the Mayfair Witches. The major point of contention seems to be when precisely Lestat became a GodModeSue and an InvincibleHero (note that "if" he did is not even brought into question). But it's worth noting that not even the most diehard fans accept ''Literature/BloodCanticle''. Speaking of the Mayfairs, an awful lot of fans pretend ''that'' series ended with ''Lasher'', and a significant minority refuses to accept anything but the first book. Tellingly, neither set of fans is happy with the VC crossovers.

** A portion of the fandom likes to disregard the series' ending and [[spoiler:Rachel]]'s death, or at least the BolivianArmyEnding finale at the end of book 54, mostly because the existence of the villain necessitating such an ending was only introduced a couple pages before the end, and any hints at anything making such an ending necessary only a chapter or two before the end.

* ''Literature/TortallUniverse'': There are a number of people who are ignoring the third book in the ''Literature/BekaCooper'' trilogy by due to varying (from [[OutOfCharacterMoment mild]] to outright [[FaceHeelTurn extreme]]) levels of CharacterDerailment. One of the most popular characters in the series is Tunstall, and for good reason. He's a savvy GentleGiant who's devoted to his job, his comrades, his Puppy, and his girlfriend. He's never offended by anything, gets along well with pretty much everyone, and he likes growing miniature roses. For the first two books. In the third, ''Mastiff'', he's surly, alcoholic, terrified of magic, acts like a dickhead to everyone for no real reason, and has completely shed his savvy tag. That's not even getting into [[spoiler: his FaceHeelTurn where he murders a child and attempts to kill Beka and another child. Because he wants to become a nobleman.]] No, really.

* Many fans of Jean M. Auel's ''Literature/EarthsChildren'' series consider the fourth book to be the last. Given that the first four books (''The Clan of the Cave Bear'', ''The Valley of Horses'', ''The Mammoth Hunters'' and ''The Plains of Passage'') were published in 1980, 1982, 1985 and 1990, and it was not until after a lengthy SequelGap -- then another -- that books five (''The Shelters of Stone'') and six (''The Land of Painted Caves'') came out in 2002 and 2011, it's easy for long-time fans to keep thinking of the fourth book as the final one.

* Prior to Harmony Gold USA's delegation of all ''Anime/{{Robotech}}'' expanded universe material to "secondary continuity", many fans preferred to forget ''End of the Circle'' which attempted to tie up all loose ends and bring closure to the ''Robotech'' saga. Many were also in favor of forgetting ''The Zentraedi Rebellion'', ''The Masters' Gambit'', and ''Before the Invid Storm'', especially if they know that it was written by only half of the pseudonymous Jack Mckinney team, Brian Daley having passed away in 1996. James Luceno wrote those three novels solo but still using the pseudonym. Whether or not this is an indication that Daley was considered the better half of the duo, or it just didn't feel the same, is debatable since Daley was just as responsible as Luceno for ''End of the Circle''.
* Pretty much everyone except for the most thorough biographers ignore the poems written in Classical Chinese by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%E1%BB%93_Xu%C3%A2n_H%C6%B0%C6%A1ng Ho Xuan Huong.]] Not only that they wildly clash with the image of her as a free spirit folk hero who elevated the status of Vietnamese as a literary language, the poems also just aren't as good and lack her signature use of [[SophisticatedAsHell sexual humor,]] DoubleEntendre and [[RebelliousSpirit feist]][[PluckyGirl iness]] against the patriarchal and corrupt society she lived in.

* Pretty much everyone except for the most pretentious biographer ignore the poems written in Classical Chinese by [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%E1%BB%93_Xu%C3%A2n_H%C6%B0%C6%A1ng Ho Xuan Huong]]. Not only that they widely clash with the image of her as a free spirit folk hero who elevated the status of Vietnamese as a literary language, the poems also just aren't as good and lack her signature use of [[SophisticatedAsHell sexual humor]], DoubleEntendre and [[RebelliousSpirit feist]][[PluckyGirl iness]] against the patriarchal and corrupt society she lived in.

!!Animated Shows with their own pages:

* Depending on the ''Literature/HarryPotter'' fan, some may completely ignore the epilogue to the last novel, completely ignore the last novel, or completely ignore the last two novels, either in order to "preserve" the characters in [[HesJustHiding the state that they found most attractive]] or to prevent the characters from [[DieForOurShip ending up in the wrong pairings]]. There's even a commonly-used FanFic abbreviation - EWE, [[FunWithAcronyms for]] "'''E'''pilogue? '''W'''hat '''E'''pilogue?"
** Bizarrely, many authors keep the Epilogue and everything else in canon -- ''and then write fics with alternate ships anyway''. Apparently the half-dozen [[IdenticalGrandson identical children]] with [[UnfortunateNames awful names]] made something of an impression.
** Though they will admit the truth if pressed, many Potter fans still like to believe that [[spoiler: Sirius Black]] is living happily on a farm somewhere with [[spoiler: other animagi]].
** [[spoiler: Lavender Brown's death]] was invented for the film, not the book, but J. K. Rowling made it canon later anyway, which fans prefer to ignore.
** Another group of fans accept the books but [[DeathOfTheAuthor firmly deny J. K. Rowling any right]] to discuss what happened to any characters after the end of the books.
** Fanon is somewhat divided on whether or not to take anything said by Rowling in interviews and Q&A sessions as canon, since they've resulted in more than one quite obvious AssPull (often in favor of making the series more racially, ethnically, and sexually diverse than it actually was).
*** There are some aspects, however, that are almost universally ignored. For instance, there exists all of one major Next Generation fanfiction that acknowledge [=McGonagall=] having retired by 2017. And even then she comes back.
** There are a large group of fans who completely ignore anything to do with [[WritersCannotDoMath numbers JK Rowling gives us]] such as character ages or the number of students at Hogwarts.
*** Other fans prefer to ignore Pottermore for the fact that some of the facts listed on there just don't make sense - most infamously, for example, that [[ToiletHumor wizards used to soil themselves and vanish the evidence away before the invention of indoor plumbing]].
*** Charlie Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange are both famously given specific birth years by JK Rowling that directly contradicts what is stated in the books. In addition, [[Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald Credence Barebone's]] given birth year is almost two years after [[spoiler:his mother, Kendra Dumbledore]], is supposed to have died. However the person who tells Creedence his identity is a known liar and manipulator so this might not even be true.
** The Black Family Tree that JK Rowling drew is considered to be non-canon by many fans due to the fact that it contradicts what is written in the books as well as the fact that many characters are described as having children at 13 years old.
** Whether or not Pottermore should be canon for most of the supporting and minor characters, as many fans suspect their biographies were written after the fact. Particularly with regard to aspects never even hinted at in the books.
** Now there's also ''Theatre/HarryPotterAndTheCursedChild,'' a SpinOffspring play written nine years after the series ended, with its script published as the "eighth book." About [[BrokenBase half of the fans like it]], but even many of them won't consider it canon. One of the biggest comments is that it reads like fanfic, filled with {{Fandom Specific Plot}}s like use of TimeTravel that's different than in the novels, the villain being [[spoiler:Voldemort and Bellatrix's daughter]], and also pulling RonTheDeathEater on [[spoiler:[[SacrificialLion Cedric]]]], a character whom fans actually like.
** Some fans, primarily Americans, are reluctant or outright unwilling to consider the worldbuilding notes published on Pottermore as ''A History of Magic in North America'' the canon vision for Wizarding America, citing a lack of research into American history and culture. Namely:
*** America's wizarding school, Illvermorny, is an {{Expy}} of Hogwarts, despite the fact that America doesn't have any of the British traditions regarding boarding schools (nor does it have medieval castles.) Many American fans have chosen to disrgeard Illvermorny and replace it with a schooling system that better fits American culture.
*** Like the Black family tree, the American historical record is littered with errors regarding dates. Famously, if Pottermore is to be believed, the American wizarding government was founded nearly a century before America existed, meaning it was named after a country that wouldn't be created for another hundred years. It was also located in Washington, D.C. long before Washington D.C. was founded. Naturally, the canonicity of all the inaccurate and/or historically impossible facts is debated, and many have elected to just ignore them.
*** The American wizarding community is generally portrayed stereotypically and, in some fans' eyes, offensively; Native Americans are grouped into one historically inaccurate monoculture, for example, and the narrative explicitly points out that many positive historical events, like the founding of Illvermorny, only happened because of Europeans. Many fans ignore this and create their own histories for wizarding America.
** As the Philosopher's Stone is a PublicDomainArtifact, even US readers tend to ignore the MarketBasedTitle of the first book, not least because they find the reason the name was changed to be insulting to their intelligence and that of [[UnfortunateImplications their entire country]].

** Some fans, primarily Americans, are reluctant or outright unwilling to consider the worldbuilding notes published on Pottermore as ''A History of Magic in North America'' as the canon vision for Wizarding America, citing a lack of research into and understanding of American history and culture.

** The fandom also tends to disregard the existence of the [[Series/{{Animorphs}} TV show]] (except maybe the opening theme) due to how sucky it was; it's the same situation for the ''Animorphs Franchise/{{Transformers}}'' toys (because they succumbed to KibblesAndBits badly), which also ignored by the ''Transformers'' fandom as well.

* Scholars believe parts of the Ramayana were not written by Valmiki and instead interpolated by later authors. Regardless, the part where Rama sends Sita into exile on the basis of an overheard conversation, after she's long since proved her fidelity by leaping through fire, and while she is pregnant with his twins, after spending the entire plot of the epic rescuing her... didn't happen.

** Many fans also dislike some of Todd [=McCaffrey=]'s books... The ones that were only written by him, to be specific.
** The fandom tends to treat the backstory of Masterharper Robinton revealed in ''Masterharper of Pern'' like a pizza menu: Some bits (mostly involving his father, Petiron) are mostly accepted. Some bits are accepted by some, ignored by others (his TheLostLenore wife, his relationship with Madara) and others are near-universally ignored [[spoiler: (the fact that Dimo is Robinton and Madara's son)]].

* While August Derleth's contribution in Creator/HPLovecraft[='=]s Franchise/CthulhuMythos can't be denied (he invented the name "Cthulhu Mythos", and helped to popularise Lovecraft's work), many people consider many elements he added into his version of the Mythos as FanonDiscontinuity, as they often went completely against Lovecraft's vision. For one thing, he tried to introduce the concept of good vs evil into the Mythos (while Lovecraft himself always maintained that good and evil are concepts created by humans and cannot be applied to godlike alien beings).
** Not to mention his "elemental theory", in which he associated the various Great Old Ones and the Other Gods (he never realized distinction between the two) with the four Greek elements, no matter how little sense it makes. For example, he associated Cthulhu with Water due to his octopoid appearance and underwater prison, handily forgetting that water is the only known substance that completely blocks his telepathic powers, and that he's ''trapped'' under the sea. And a lot of fans who realized that this makes no sense, but not that the whole elemental theory simply doesn't fit into the stories try to rearrange the creatures' positions in the chart, or work with the five Chinese elements, instead.

* Some fans of the ''[[Literature/LandOfOz Oz]]'' books by Creator/LFrankBaum refuse to acknowledge the existence/validity of those written by other authors after his death. This group included Jack Snow, the author of two of the later books, who included no references whatsoever in them to the works of Baum's previous successors. Even within the originals Baum clearly thought of continuity as something that happens to other people.

** Others think that it stopped after the second series. The SeasonalRot of the third series and the rather... [[BrokenBase controversial]] mystical turn it took probably contributed to this.
** ... and some [[DracoInLeatherPants Ashfur]] fans like to believe that the series ends right before ''Long Shadows''.
** And some may think the whole [=SkyClan=] thing never exists.
** Graystripe's parents are brother and sister according to WordOfGod. This was originally accidental, but once it was noted it wasn't changed because "they're cats". Most fans ignore this because it's weird and because nothing in-series suggests that Clans would allow with sibling incest.

** Meanwhile, some parts of the fandom ignore the existence and content of ''Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo'', the third series in the saga and sequel to ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'', citing the initial selfishness of the titular character to be one of the reasons they are turned off by it, and even those who read the series may choose to ignore the death of [[spoiler:Jason Grace]] in the third book and/or [[spoiler:Piper breaking up with him sometime after the second series]]. This may be related to the EarnYourHappyEnding of the second series.

* Some ''Literature/AlexRider'' fans say that [[spoiler:Alex died at the end of Scorpia and the other four did not happen, not because they were bad, but because fans like the realism of the books and refuse to believe that Alex survived a shot to the chest]].
** Even though the reasons for his survival are explained [[ShownTheirWork in great detail]].

** Meanwhile, some parts of the fandom ignore the existence and content of ''Literature/TheTrialsOfApollo'', citing the initial selfishness of the titular character to be one of the reasons, and even those who read the series may choose to ignore the death of [[spoiler:Jason Grace]] in the third book.

** The ''Jedi Prince'' young adult novels (also known as ''Literature/TheGloveOfDarthVader'' after the first book) are refused to be accepted as ever occurring by fans, helped by only two points from the entire series ever being brought up again, ever: the concept of [[RidiculouslyHumanRobots Human Replica Droids]], and Duro being a wasteland, polluted to the point of being uninhabitable by industrial waste. Ironically, Disney's reboot below [[Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker would ultimately bring up]], [[HilariousInHindsight wether it'd intentional or not]], the idea of [[spoiler: Emperor Palpatine having a grandchild who ends up on the side of good instead]].
** There is a divide on whether the material building on the Clone Wars time period is even part of the EU, since it contradicts quite a bit of earlier material like Literature/TheThrawnTrilogy which had the clones, including clone Jedi, as ''enemies'' the republic barely defeated. This also extends to the prequel trilogy itself.
** Before ''NJO'', individual opinions on what was considered FanonDiscontinuity or not was vastly varied between individual fans, ranging in extremes from only discounting obvious pieces (such as the ''Jedi Academy'' trilogy and ''The Courtship of Princess Leia'') to ignoring absolutely everything set after The Thrawn Trilogy.
** The ''Literature/NewJediOrder'' series had an enormous number of fans rejecting it outright, mostly revolving around claims of making ''Star Wars'' needlessly DarkerAndEdgier. This opinion was pushed well into the majority after the Swarm trilogy and the ''Literature/LegacyOfTheForce'' series, each considered FanonDiscontinuity for their own reasons, with only a small minority still holding out after events such as [[spoiler:Mara Jade's death]]. ''Literature/FateOfTheJedi'' initially looked to [[FixFic regain some of the lost fans]], but then served only to further diminish their numbers.
** Lucas' own position was essentially "the films are canon; everything else should be treated, ''at best'', as rumor that ''may'' be true." Then he [[GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion changed the canon himself]].

* There's a growing group of readers who like to pretend that ''Literature/FiftyShadesOfGrey'' consisted of only the first book, ignoring ''Fifty Shades Darker'' and ''Fifty Shades Freed''. The book ends with Anastasia realizing that she cannot fulfill Christian's [=BDSM=] needs and leaves him.

*** Charlie Weasley and Bellatrix Lestrange are both famously given specific birth years by JK Rowling that directly contradicts what is stated in the books. In addition, [[Film/FantasticBeastsTheCrimesOfGrindelwald Credence Barebone's]] given birth year is almost two years after [[spoiler:his mother, Kendra Dumbledore]], is supposed to have died.

** Some fans simply believe that Brian and Kevin [[Literature/HuntersSandwormsOfDune CANNOT MEAN TO END LIKE THAT]].

*** Much of the information on Pottermore is from JKR's personal notes that she wasn't able to include in the books due to the LawOfConservationOfDetail, indicating it is indeed canon.
*** In the opinion of some readers, yes, the info on Pottermore is canon. Others feel that if the information didn't make it into the books, it doesn't count. It may be JKR's headcanon, in their opinion, but that's all.

** ''The Final Problem,'' in which [[CreatorBreakdown Doyle tried to kill off Holmes]] after becoming sick of his own brain child, got a [[RetCon new story written]] [[NotQuiteDead to show he survived the plunge]] due to the MASSIVE Fan Revolt, and that his Sherlock Stories were getting him more money than his other works.

* Creator/TerryPratchett has [[WordOfGod stated explicitly]] that the (unnamed) Patrician in ''Discworld/TheColourOfMagic'' is Havelock Vetinari (though written by a [[TakeThatMe less skilled author]]), but since a) he doesn't act much like Vetinari, b) it's a little dicey timeline-wise, and c) it's hard to believe that Vetinari could ''ever'', in ''any'' alternate timeline, have been an obese man who threw wild parties and ate candied jellyfish, many fans choose to believe that the earlier Patrician is one of Vetinari's predecessors (Snapcase or Winder).

* ''Literature/TheLionKingSixNewAdventures'' books introduce a character called Kopa, Simba and Nala's son. This clashes with the premise of ''Disney/TheLionKingIISimbasPride'', where Simba and Nala had a daughter named Kiara instead. Hundreds of fan theories, fanfics and headcanons attempting to link the two sides together have been created and debated over the years as a result of this. Numerous fans have claimed that Kopa isn't canon since he was created by a third-party publisher, writing off the 6NA books as just Disney-approved fanfiction. This often sparks unbelievable amounts of fan-rage over Kopa and those books, and how they could still fit into the movies' story. Sides are often taken in these disputes, make no mistake about that.

* ''{{Literature/Foundation}}'': Many fans of ''Literature/TheFoundationTrilogy'' restrict the canon of the series to just that trilogy, excluding the {{Sequel}}s and {{Prequel}}s, including those of ''Literature/TheSecondFoundationTrilogy''.

* In common with the other long-running series mentioned, very few Creator/AnneRice fans acknowledge the entire ''Literature/TheVampireChronicles'' series. Just where the line gets drawn varies, but fans generally fall into two camps: those that believe the series ended with ''Literature/QueenOfTheDamned'', and those that acknowledge everything up to the point where Anne Rice started the {{Crossover}}s with the Mayfair Witches. The major point of contention seems to be when precisely Lestat became a GodModeSue and BoringInvincibleHero (note that "if" he did is not even brought into question). But it's worth noting that not even the most diehard fans accept ''Literature/BloodCanticle''. Speaking of the Mayfairs, an awful lot of fans pretend ''that'' series ended with ''Lasher'', and a significant minority refuses to accept anything but the first book. Tellingly, neither set of fans is happy with the VC crossovers.

** Graystripe's parents are brother and sister according to WordOfGod. This was originally accidental but once it was noted it wasn't changed because "they're cats". Most fans ignore this because it's weird and because nothing in-series suggests that Clans would allow with sibling incest.