Semi-Related: Our Fascination With Canon Is Killing the Way We Value Stories

[Voodoo Magic]

'It's a bit messy' I think is an understatement when it comes to the Alien EU.

[Xenomrph]

To be fair, so are the movies once you get to anything released past 'Aliens'.

[Nightmare Asylum]

As far as I'm concerned, "canon" is the six movies, and that's really it. If I was feeling particularly generous, and wanted to slot in some current stories that I've enjoyed in the last few years, I would add in Isolation, The Cold Forge, and Phalanx. But I wouldn't really care if those three were ever rendered non-canon; they'd still exist and they'd still be good stories.

[Kradan]

As far as I'm concerned, "canon" is the six movies, and that's really it. If I was feeling particularly generous, and wanted to slot in some current stories that I've enjoyed in the last few years, I would add in Isolation, The Cold Forge, and Phalanx. But I wouldn't really care if those three were ever rendered non-canon; they'd still exist and they'd still be good stories.

[Local Trouble]

I am chaos.

Fixed.

[Voodoo Magic]

I am chaos.

Fixed.

[Xenomrph]

I am chaos.

Fixed.

Chaos reigns.

[windebieste]

As far as I'm concerned, "canon" is the six movies, and that's really it. If I was feeling particularly generous, and wanted to slot in some current stories that I've enjoyed in the last few years, I would add in Isolation, The Cold Forge, and Phalanx. But I wouldn't really care if those three were ever rendered non-canon; they'd still exist and they'd still be good stories.

This is my take as well. I consider the EU - and that includes the "AvP" movies - to be outside the main "ALIEN" movie series. The EU is largely licenced, third party content. It is more experimental and exploratory in nature. "ALIENS vs Superman"? "Archie vs Predator"..? Titles like these highlight this thought. It's just ludicrous to have Batman fighting Aliens and believe it's part of the same universe. These are comics that investigate such ideas but canonical, they are not.

This is how I treat the greater bulk of novels and comics.  Hell, even actual novelisations of the movies can differ in details, conflicting with what happens on screen.  They may fill in holes in some cases but such expositions are still the product of third parties.

Canon is always going to be flexible with these movies. It was never intended to be a massive, over-arcing series with finely tuned world building and consistent in every way. Something created in individual piecemeal episodes the way the "ALIEN" series has been made will always have holes in it.  Some can be filled in with further exploration in EU - but as far as canon goes - it can easily be undone in an upcoming movie.

-Windebieste.

[Huggs]

I am chaos.

Fixed.

https://i.makeagif.com/media/7-21-2015/9gjiK-.gif

Who stuck a sparkler in that poor man's tallywhacker?

[SiL]

Why aren't you arguing with SiL yet?

Could people, like, not drag me into conversations I'm not a part of? That would be great!

[Local Trouble]

I don't think anyone else has the stamina to sustain a prolonged debate with Xenomrph on the merits of canon and continuity. 

[Xenomrph]

Yeah but there's nothing to debate.

[Local Trouble]

You mean it's over?  Canon no longer matters? 

[Xenomrph]

You mean it's over?  Canon no longer matters? 

It never did.

[Local Trouble]

So Charles and Peter Weyland inhabit the same universe?  If they do, doesn't that mean the aliens existed long before David "created" them?