----- Original Message ----- 
From: <SSJGohan9544409@aol.com>
To: <ffml@anifics.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 04, 2001 3:59 AM
Subject: [FFML] Question

This is what I saw:

ALTAVERSE WARNING - This is an ALTAVERSE. Events,
characters and the like may not resemble canon. People who are
rabid canon-thumpers beware! (and eat a Dragon Slave while
you're at it)

So what is a canon anyways?

Canon is personalities and characteristics that adhere 
closely to the source material, which is itself considered 
to be canon. On the whole, it is largely subjective when 
it comes to personalities, as different people may observe 
different traits in their favorite characters. It's easier to be 
sure of locations and events though, as those tend to be 
objective in nature since they are just scenery or backdrop 
events.

I, myself, am not a firm believer in remaining canon as far 
as personalities go, as my view on people is that they are 
much more complex than that. But then, I tend to write
altaverse stories myself. I do use observed character traits, but
my emphasis my be different that the original creators of the
characters involved. Also, differing events may or may not drive
any particular character to behave differently than what is
perceived to be normal for them. It is *usually* polite to inform
the reading audience about such behavior if the author of the fanfic
is aware of it, as "canon-thumpers" tend to be loud critics... ^_^

Not that there is anything wrong with wanting to read fanfics that
adhere so closely to the source material. Many of them are quite
enjoyable as it can be easily imagined how they might have fit in
with the original creator's vision.

In the other direction (and counter to my previous argument), some
fanfic authors take the characters in directions so far out of canon
that they are barely recognizable to anyone but the author themselves.
While this *can* be interesting, if there is a plausible explanation for
it, it is often jaring to even to people such as myself, who are not
firm adherants to canon.

The FFML provides for a wide variety of tastes, but we do have
factions...

I hope that this heps everyone! ^_^

Tangent

~~~

When given the constants a, b and c, and the variables x, y and z...
I often find it helpful to concentrate on point q

Tangent
tangent@zbzoom.net

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