DEFINING CANON IN AN ALIEN WORLD(From RPG Writer & Franchise Consultant D Gaska)

Started by Corporal Hicks, Oct 13, 2020, 08:58:12 AM

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DEFINING CANON IN AN ALIEN WORLD(From RPG Writer & Franchise Consultant D Gaska) (Read 18,087 times)

Corporal Hicks

https://roguereviewer.wordpress.com/2020/10/12/defining-canon-in-an-alien-world/

QuoteAs a franchise consultant to 20th Century Fox on ALIEN, Predator, and Planet of the Apes, I often had to take a long hard look at a number of long beloved franchise stories and try to figure out how exactly that could still fit in canon. If I couldn't, I had to recommend they be tossed. I proposed a third option–what I've come to call barroom canon. These are stories overheard in a bar (or read in a comic, or played in a video game, or even posted on Facebook) that may or may not have some truth to them. This allows canon to have some flex in regards to including stories that otherwise could no longer count in a franchise's development.

As the lead writer and canon consultant on the ALIEN RPG by Free League Publishing, I developed the following Canon Tier guidelines to working out the ALIEN universe.

SiL

It's interesting to see Isolation alongside the films proper.

Drukathi

Drukathi

#2
The canon wars are over. Finally.
From now on, this article will be the bible of the Alien canon.

Some notes:
QuoteTIER I CANON
Definitive and authorized canon to the Alien/Prometheus universe:
David's Lab: Last Signs of Life
Well, this is unexpected.

QuoteFive Crew Messages
Phobos
It is obvious. But I didn't think that such rubbish should be mentioned in principle. Although, this only adds points to the article.

QuoteProject Prometheus: Mission
Prometheus Transmission
I don't remember exactly, but isn't there a mention of LV-426 and signal from Derelict somewhere here? If the crashed Derelict is already there, isn't it against the Covenant that David created a species of alien?

QuoteTIER III CANON

Majority of the content is canon with some minor problems that can be explained away as myth or heresay.
Alien Novels:

    Alien: Out of the Shadows
    Alien: River of Pain
Ok, these books are mediocre at best. But I'm surprised. Don't they, together with Sea of ​​Sorrows, form the canon trilogy? In addition, it is not specifically indicated what exactly is heresy in the books, and what is part of the canon.

QuoteAliens: Colonial Marines Video Game (Creatures and Technology are canon, the story is not)
Really good solution. The content of ACM is great, but the story (and execution) is the worst.

QuoteSHOE-HORN CANON:
Outland
YES!

QuoteSoldier
Took a note.

Kradan

Kradan

#3
Quote from: Drukathi on Oct 13, 2020, 10:30:23 AM
The canon wars are over. Finally.

Pffft, never


QuoteMike Tanaka Alien Isolation Twitter account

So, Twitter exists in Alien universe ?

QuoteAliens: Colonial Marines Video Game (Creatures and Technology are canon, the story is not)

Love that one  :D

Quote from: Drukathi on Oct 13, 2020, 10:30:23 AM
QuoteSHOE-HORN CANON:
Outland
YES!

YES! indeed

Samhain13

Samhain13

#4
So WY Report and Sea of Sorrow were put in a different tier than Out of Shadows and River of Pain. Huh.

Quote from: Drukathi on Oct 13, 2020, 10:30:23 AM
The canon wars are over. Finally.

Hold my headcanon.

QuoteAliens: Colonial Marines Video Game (Creatures and Technology are canon, the story is not)


Voodoo Magic

This article hurts my brain. Just the declared seperator of Tier 2 from Tier 1 being 'sources are absolutely canon until Ridley Scott or another producer throws a curveball" just pains the logic living in me. To think things like the Alien Isolation video game in Tier I are untouchable by director curveballs just degrades the whole piece to me.

And I know he delved into Predator a while back but I rely on The Predator's stance by Shane and others in late 2018 that AvP is now Predator canon as current news... until it's not again.

TheBATMAN

I'm surprised the comics are held in such high regard. Titles like Defiance, Resistance and Rescue with W-Y having facilities to experiment on Aliens kind of nullifies Aliens and Alien 3 does it not?

Immortan Jonesy

RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon....


Nightmare Asylum


Local Trouble

I clicked on this thread for a canon war.  Where's the canon war?!

Immortan Jonesy

Canon is an over cooked beast.

Quote from: Nightmare Asylum on Oct 13, 2020, 04:29:51 PM
Canon is a bad word and I hate it.

I second.

𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔈𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱𝔥 𝔓𝔞𝔰𝔰𝔢𝔫𝔤𝔢𝔯

Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Oct 13, 2020, 08:58:12 AM
As a franchise consultant to 20th Century Fox on ALIEN, Predator, and Planet of the Apes, I often had to take a long hard look at a number of long beloved franchise stories and try to figure out how exactly that could still fit in canon. If I couldn't, I had to recommend they be tossed.

Nonsense, he could just give Xenomrph a call. He can make anything fit.

Quote from: Local Trouble on Oct 13, 2020, 05:35:10 PM
I clicked on this thread for a canon war.  Where's the canon war?!


Kradan

Quote from: Local Trouble on Oct 13, 2020, 05:35:10 PM
I clicked on this thread for a canon war.  Where's the canon war?!

Start one. We need to know where that Egg on Sulaco came from

judge death

judge death

#13
Quote from: Local Trouble on Oct 13, 2020, 05:35:10 PM
I clicked on this thread for a canon war.  Where's the canon war?!
Living up to your name I see :P

But as I said on Discord: I can see so many plotholes with this persons idea for canon lines and missing parts and ignoring holes/stuff we lack to fit them together, I could make a better canon than this if I had the time, or SM and he would blast me out of the water. To me its just bias opinion of the person behind the RPG who tries to get the canon written around what they did for the RPG book and wouldnt take it as a canon timeline at all.

The best canon is left up to the viewer/fan to make for themself, just dont try to push it down others throats and respect others canon ideas, is the way to go.

Quote from: Immortan Jonesy on Oct 13, 2020, 04:26:43 PM
RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon....

https://i.ibb.co/rwS173j/4c0ea0163a7bcdf118889bdf738c010d.gif
This is a good resume of the article and that persons canon bias.

Xenomrph

Xenomrph

#14
Quote from: TheBATMAN on Oct 13, 2020, 12:35:50 PM
I'm surprised the comics are held in such high regard. Titles like Defiance, Resistance and Rescue with W-Y having facilities to experiment on Aliens kind of nullifies Aliens and Alien 3 does it not?
Alien Resurrection nullifies those two movies, too.

Quote from: The Eighth Passenger on Oct 13, 2020, 05:42:41 PM
Quote from: Corporal Hicks on Oct 13, 2020, 08:58:12 AM
As a franchise consultant to 20th Century Fox on ALIEN, Predator, and Planet of the Apes, I often had to take a long hard look at a number of long beloved franchise stories and try to figure out how exactly that could still fit in canon. If I couldn't, I had to recommend they be tossed.

Nonsense, he could just give Xenomrph a call. He can make anything fit.
he clarified that in the next sentence.


Quote from: judge death on Oct 13, 2020, 07:05:32 PM
Quote from: Local Trouble on Oct 13, 2020, 05:35:10 PM
I clicked on this thread for a canon war.  Where's the canon war?!
Living up to your name I see :P

But as I said on twitter: I can see so many plotholes with this persons idea for canon lines and missing parts and ignoring holes/stuff we lack to fit them together, I could make a better canon than this if I had the time, or SM and he would blast me out of the water. To me its just bias opinion of the person behind the RPG who tries to get the canon written around what they did for the RPG book and wouldnt take it as a canon timeline at all.

The best canon is left up to the viewer/fan to make for themself, just dont try to push it down others throats and respect others canon ideas, is the way to go.

Quote from: Immortan Jonesy on Oct 13, 2020, 04:26:43 PM
RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon, RPG, Canon....

https://i.ibb.co/rwS173j/4c0ea0163a7bcdf118889bdf738c010d.gif
This is a good resume of the article and that persons canon bias.
He isn't forcing anything down anyone's throat - in the article he says, " All that being said, the Alien RPG is a guide to YOUR alien universe, official or not. Make your game universe your own. What you want in your campaign is absolutely what should be in there, no matter what."

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