On Canon

Disclaimer: First let me say that even though I obviosly take a side in this article, I do not, however, disagree with the other side. Make sure you know that I am clear in that intention.

Recently, I @swfacts, @onewiththeforce, became good friends with a few people who, like me, LOVE Star Wars. These people spend a lot of time role playing characters many of them grew up watching, and some we have all come to love over the last few years. Wanting to do more than just post facts related to these characters and the Galaxy they inhabited, I made a new Twitter account and started a character of my own, @thecadbane. Cad Bane is a character who is new to the Star Wars universe and has very little known about his personal history. Seeing this as an intriguing opportunity to role play an unknown character who possesses characteristics I find interesting, I started to develop on the already established mannerisms and story surrounding him.

It has, however come to my attention that some involved in the community believe that canon is being hurt by the portrayals of the characters. I am one for sticking to canon when the story is being told for the purposes of the further development of the ever-growing Galaxy. But in this instance I don't believe it wrong to give a character a new personality quirk, or a new catch phrase.

A place like Twitter is a sort of safe-haven, an area where we, as fans, can gather and develop existing and new characters as we would enjoy, seeing them if they were our own. It is like a fan-run/designed website that deals in fanfiction. Maybe you didn't like Edward dating Bella. Perhaps you thought it served the story better to have her stay with Jacob. Changing that aspect in the evironment we work in is COMPLETELY safe because at the end of the day it doesn't matter at all to the canon of the Galaxy as long as we are happy with the produced creativity.

I agree with wanting to keep canon, canon, but Twitter, as with fansites of fanfiction, has become an outlet for us to become someone who, in real life, we may not be able to become. The stories we create there stay there and have no effect whatsoever on the stories we all enjoy reading and viewing outside of this medium of communication.

Link to the story on Canon:

http://tinyurl.com/kwvxu2