Recently i've seen a lot of people say things along the lines of "The movie and the series are seperate universes/canon!" and i don't think i've seen any other franchise with fanbases who think this to such a degree. Even the wiki has a page suggesting they don't really know and they could be separate.
I don't understand it. I get the reason why people could think that they could be separate universes - there are differences and inconsistencies between the movie and the series, obviously - but i don't know how anyone could seriously believe that is what is intended and think that's actually the case if they have an understanding of canon and how franchises work.
Canon is the events that officially take place and are accepted as fact within a franchise or setting. Typically franchise canon works on a "It's true until shown overwise" basis, where if something is not intended to be canon, it will be stated as non-canon in some way. Canon is decided by the owner of the franchise, as they can do whatever they like with it and it's up to them to determine what is and isn't canon to their franchise. Canon is non-static and can be changed depending on what the rights owner decides. So for example with Star Wars, the movies, the latest books and a few of the TV shows were determined to be the only things that were canon after Disney got the rights to the franchise, with them changing everything else to non-canon; they said everything else was no longer officially Star Wars, in essence. The other material was changed to no longer being 'true' to the Star Wars universe in any way.
The part that seems to confuse people with Stargate are the differences between the movie and the series. For example the look of the gate, Ra not being a snake-like Goa'uld, the human guards instead of Jaffa etc. The series made some changes to the lore and events because moving from a movie to a TV should gave them another chance at things, some things just wouldn't work or they felt they needed to be changed for some reason. Turning a one-off movie into a series obviously required some adjustments. Those inconsistencies aren't issues like people think, though - the concept of a retcon means the movie and the series can be part of the same canon despite those contradictions. The TV shows came after the movie and is official, and was made by the owners of Stargate, so the information presented within them retcons (as in, overrides it so you should just assume how it was in the series is how it should have really been all along) those aspects of the movie, meaning those things in the movie aren't canon anymore.
Stargate canon is a combination of both the movie and the series, in one universe as the series was intended to continue from the movie. They aren't an alternate reality or timeline or whatever, they officially take place within the same setting. The movie isn't 100% canon, as there is information within there that is no longer correct and you should just assume it was really how what the TV show tells us it should have been, but it still takes place within the same universe.
So knowing that those changes the series made were retcons, why would anyone still think the movie and the series don't take place in the same universe? It seems like they might have a complete misunderstanding of what canon and a retcon is. Is there something i'm missing?
I don't understand it. I get the reason why people could think that they could be separate universes - there are differences and inconsistencies between the movie and the series, obviously - but i don't know how anyone could seriously believe that is what is intended and think that's actually the case if they have an understanding of canon and how franchises work.
Canon is the events that officially take place and are accepted as fact within a franchise or setting. Typically franchise canon works on a "It's true until shown overwise" basis, where if something is not intended to be canon, it will be stated as non-canon in some way. Canon is decided by the owner of the franchise, as they can do whatever they like with it and it's up to them to determine what is and isn't canon to their franchise. Canon is non-static and can be changed depending on what the rights owner decides. So for example with Star Wars, the movies, the latest books and a few of the TV shows were determined to be the only things that were canon after Disney got the rights to the franchise, with them changing everything else to non-canon; they said everything else was no longer officially Star Wars, in essence. The other material was changed to no longer being 'true' to the Star Wars universe in any way.
The part that seems to confuse people with Stargate are the differences between the movie and the series. For example the look of the gate, Ra not being a snake-like Goa'uld, the human guards instead of Jaffa etc. The series made some changes to the lore and events because moving from a movie to a TV should gave them another chance at things, some things just wouldn't work or they felt they needed to be changed for some reason. Turning a one-off movie into a series obviously required some adjustments. Those inconsistencies aren't issues like people think, though - the concept of a retcon means the movie and the series can be part of the same canon despite those contradictions. The TV shows came after the movie and is official, and was made by the owners of Stargate, so the information presented within them retcons (as in, overrides it so you should just assume how it was in the series is how it should have really been all along) those aspects of the movie, meaning those things in the movie aren't canon anymore.
Stargate canon is a combination of both the movie and the series, in one universe as the series was intended to continue from the movie. They aren't an alternate reality or timeline or whatever, they officially take place within the same setting. The movie isn't 100% canon, as there is information within there that is no longer correct and you should just assume it was really how what the TV show tells us it should have been, but it still takes place within the same universe.
So knowing that those changes the series made were retcons, why would anyone still think the movie and the series don't take place in the same universe? It seems like they might have a complete misunderstanding of what canon and a retcon is. Is there something i'm missing?
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