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homogenized Since: Oct, 2009
2018-09-29 23:24:08

The page description does not say that it has to be In-Universe; and, to me, requiring it to be so sounds counter to what Word of God is supposed to be about.

Edited by homogenized
LB7979 Since: Mar, 2016
2018-09-30 03:23:04

From the Word of God trope description page (emphasis mine):

"A number of people reject the notion of Word of God being equal to canon, considering something to be canon only if it appeared in the original source material. If the creator had wanted a certain fact to be canon, the thinking goes, they should have included it in the work to begin with."

So the "thing that is stated" doesn't have to be seen/shown in the work itself (happen In Universe). If it is, it's just "Now Has Become Canon" (which probably is another Trope or Trivia, don't know which one).

So Word of God usually refers to statements creators make in Real Life about their works. Usually in interviews they give, or on their social media accounts.

crazysamaritan MOD Since: Apr, 2010
2018-09-30 06:50:08

I believe OP is talking about the difference between the Creator making a statement about something In-Universe (Belkar is CE) and making a statement about something Out-of-Universe (Comics will be delayed because my thumb was cut and I need stitches).


As I understand it, both are Word of God because it is a statement outside of the work, whether that statement is about something that should be in the work or something about producing the work.
I'm pretty sure that OP understands WOG is from interviews, but believes WOG means "creators providing explicit information on stuff that did not explicitly occur within the work".

Edited by crazysamaritan Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
jamaicanst01 Since: Apr, 2018
2018-09-30 15:49:04

Okay. I was mainly wondering because when Word of God is linked to on work pages, there's a notice saying that Trivia entries should be moved to the Trivia tab. Does that mean something should be changed?

wingedcatgirl MOD (Holding A Herring)
2018-09-30 16:30:06

While Word of God, being a Trivia item, shouldn't be listed as a trope on a work's main page, the mods have apparently decided that the warning against inline potholes of Trivia items was a mistake and will be removed eventually.

(This is not the case with the similar warning on YMMV and Flame Bait potholes, for anyone whose next thought was that.)

Suddenly I'm... still rotating Fallen London in my mind even though I've stopped actively playing it.
crazysamaritan MOD Since: Apr, 2010
2018-09-30 18:28:26

(This is not the case with the similar warning on YMMV and Flame Bait potholes, for anyone whose next thought was that.)
That resolves my conflicting understanding of the in-line markup warnings. Thank you for repeating this information.

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
2018-09-30 19:09:34

As I understand it, both are Word of God because it is a statement outside of the work

I don't know what Belkar or CE is, but "comics are delayed because my thumb was cut" is not Word of God.

Word of God is the creator commenting about their works and their universe outside the context of those works. A perfect example is all the inane, pointless babbling that J. K. Rowling has done about the Potterverse. Take, for example, Neville Longbottom. How do we know that Neville's parents were tortured into insanity by Voldemort? Because the books said so; that's canon. How do we "know" that Neville supposedly married Hannah Abbott? Because Rowling can't stop blabbing and said so during casual remarks. That's Word of God.

Personally I agree with the Death of the Author folks; Neville's not married to Hannah Abbott until Rowling writes and publishes a book where he's married to Hannah Abbott.

crazysamaritan MOD Since: Apr, 2010
2018-09-30 21:22:15

but "comics are delayed because my thumb was cut" is not Word of God.
*shrug* Then your answer to the OP is "yes". *shrug*
creators providing information on the out-of-universe development of the work. Is this misuse[?]

Link to TRS threads in project mode here.
jamespolk Since: Aug, 2012
2018-09-30 21:29:17

^I guess it would be, yes. "My thumb was cut" seems more like DVD Commentary in literary form.

Fighteer MOD (Time Abyss)
2018-10-01 05:43:00

Word of God is a out-of-universe (i.e., RL) statement made by a creator establishing something to be (or not be) canonical within a work. It has nothing to do with any RL stuff going on outside the work, even if it affects the creation. Any such uses should be removed.

Also, Word of God is a meta-concept. Though it is trivia, it should not be used as an example in and of itself, such as:

Its primary use should be as part of the description of In-Universe examples, establishing the veracity of something not established in the work itself. Its secondary use is on WMG subpages. While we do not require citations, uses of Word of God should give some indication of what the source is (an interview with the creator, a forum post, etc.) so that someone could, in theory, independently verify it.

Edited by Fighteer "It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
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