The thing with RWBY's Canon:
So, here is the thing: This year I read the RWBY's Comics series published by DC but before I give my personal opinion, I want to talk about a certain controversial topic related to these comics: Their Canon Status.Â
In the case that someone still doesn't know it, these comics are considered Canon Adjacent. What is that supposed to mean? It means that the comics can be considered part of the canon storyline, but the elements and events of these wonât be relevant for the future development of the story.Â
The term âCanon Adjacentâ is principally used inside the World of Fanfiction, to classify the stories which want to add up with the official story, respecting the characters, the lore and the principal events. They are something like hypothetical stories that wants to fill in dead points of the plot, instead of changing it. Itâs not a very known term and usually, are used other terms with similar meanings like Soft Canon, Semi-Canon or the one which I prefer, Canon Level. 2
For example, we could see it in the old Star Warsâs Categorized System (before Disney bought the franchise) where the movies were the Principal Line, the superior level of the canon, while other contents like novels or comics were the âside canonâ, the inferior level, that respect the lore and can expand it but whose events or elements can be ignored or even rewrite by the movies, because the power relationship between mediums is strictly one-way, thatâs means all the importance lore points, events and changes comes through the movies and their direction and events can influence directly in the other mediums, while these canât do the same, their writers canât make meaning change and the movies can perfectly ignore their story arcs but these, could being considering part of the same canon line until the principal line making it clear there not.
Other franchises or Fandoms, like Steven Universe, Harry Potter, Star Trek or Dragon Ball, use it too.
'It is canon until it stops being it' or in other words, since the principal story decides to dismiss it officially.
Actually, investigating the subject, I saw that apparently these types of mediums sometimes could not make representation 100% precise of the original story, whatever for creative choices or internal decisions, but while there be small changes or inconsistencies it still being valid, which is the case of the RWBY Comics. In total, I could count 4 inconsistencies with the show:
In issue #1, it shows Ruby returning to her home after the events of the Fall of Beacon, but in the series it says that she fainted and Qrow brought her to home.
At the end of the same issue, it shows Taiyang saying goodbye to Ruby and her friends when in the end of Volume 3, Taiyang didnât know that she went until he found her letter:
In issue #4, we see Blake travelling to Menagerie in a random ship, instead of a passengers one.
In issue #13, Weiss meets with the Pilot guy in the middle of a snowy camp instead in a hangar.Â
According to the writer, Eddy Rivas, the minor changes were made deliberately to simplify some events to a better comfort/understanding of the possible new fans that could come with these comics.
Is a similar case to the Ice Queendom Anime (Which is also Canon Adjacent, according to the Rooster Teeth website) whose first 3 episodes works as a condensed summary of the Volume 1 to the new ones: Keeping the principal events, add up new scenes to interconnect the plotâs point and omitting or changing some scenes that could summarize since they weren't strictly essential to understand the plot or the new arc like there were, and that way, avoid to get extended too much and leaving the door open to the new fans could know the original story through the original series.
Actually, one thing I noticed is that in the Issue #8, Blake is seen coming to Menagerie in the same ship that in Volume 4, with even the same outfit and together with Sun.
This makes it clear that the comics truly have in account the seriesâ continuity, and open the possibility that change in the past issue was a communication mistake for part of the staff behind the comics, which is not something stranger either.
For example, we have the case of Sonic Prime, a series that was confirmed as canon to the mainline of the franchise. This series was developed by a different group outside the Sonic Team and SEGA, to ones it was given a lot of information notes about the characters and the lore that the Wildbrave and Man of Actionâs employees just ignore and thatâs why the series has many inconsistencies with the videogames.
However, I just want to make it clear that these changes in the comic are really minimal and not so severe, because in the past, some people sold me this series as complete nonsense that didnât respect the original plot one bit. And in any case, the idea and advantage of these mediums are Canon Adjacent instead fully Canon, is that the public could has his own word here, we have the freedom to choose if acknowledge this as part of the story, only some select parts, as a possibility or fully dismiss it if we want, since these comics or the anime are more a âoptional complementsâ to bring new public than a strict extension, like the novels or the videogames, and whose exist wonât effect to the story that we all know and prefer.Â
For me, the real problem with all this is that they never truly explain all this subject in a form that the casual public could know and more important, understand. Because, for example, the explanation given by Eddy Rivas was uploaded in an old subreddit that a massive part of the fans could simply not know. I had to investigate by myself what this âCanon Adjacentâ thing was about because the other declarations that they gave are really poor, and this caused a lot of discussions and unnecessary confusion for something that honestly, I don't think is so complicated.Â
Just in case, I tried to make a conceptual map about the different mediums of RWBY and in which canon levels are, based on facts and the official declarations that we have until now.
*The objective of these streams is to explote Mistral's criminal underworld, said by the Official RWBY Twitter Account and according to Eddy Rivas words, and despite the story and character details are not fully defined (Because everything is told through a game of Dungeons & Dragons) the worldbuilding elements are totally canon.Â
**In RWBY Panel at New York Comic Con 2016, Kerry said explicitly that the manga adaptation made by Shirow Miwa âitâs canon until itâs not canonâ
***The Brand Director of Rooster Teeth said multiple times that the movies are no canon but they are an alternative universe. However, Kerry Shawcross said in an interview that he and the moviesâ writer, Megan FitzMartin, manage the movies as Canon Adjacent, that means these were conceived to fill in dead points of the story but their events were never destined to affect the plot. However, the character is still being in tune with the series, so to anyone that may be upset because the development that the girls got in the second part is going to be lost, there is nothing to worry about because of this declaration, the issues addressed in the movies can be easily covered in the series again. For example, the worry of Yang about the current mood of Ruby and her guilt for not help her during Volume 9 were recovered to the last episode of RWBY Beyond, a 100% canon series, so other plot points like Ruby being reckless or Weiss still being affected for the loss of Atlas could being addressed again as well.
****In the Viz Media Panel at Anime Expo 2018, Kerry and Gray G. Haddock talked about how they collaborated with the fan artists bridging to make the anthologies, given them a minimal feedback to making sure that the stories respect the tune of the show, and even Gray mentioned some of the premises are things that they maybe couldâve shown themself if they had a little more time (like if could be, the moment when Ruby and Weiss get on the Nevermore in Ep. 7)
I think these words have made a lot of people get confused and assume that the Anthologies are totally canon. However, the declarations here a pretty ambiguous but we could understand it better if we listened more carefully: Kerry didnât say that the Anthologies are canon or âitâs canon until itâs not canonâ, like with the Shirow Miwa manga, but they offered a really minimal feedback, again, unlike the 2015 Manga or with Grimm Eclipse and the DC Comics, to making sure the anthologies respect the canon spirit, in other words, they respect the bases of the show and his characters.Â
And this interpretation could be reinforced by the fact that outside of this panel, any other possible declarations with respect to their canonicity were extremely vague as well,
With exception of Miles Luna, that described these mangas as a âwonderful fanfictionâ
And this definition is very appropriate actually, if we truly go deeper into the nature of these projects: The Manga Anthologies are not an exclusive thing of RWBY, it is a popular practise in Japan, that other franchises like BungouStrayDogs, Final Fantasy, Persona or Ace Attorney are branched out into, where fan creators/amateurs artists are assembled to contribute with One-shot stories for which they are given almost totally freedom. Practically, the only difference between these anthologies and the Doujishi, is that the anthologies are published by a professional publisher who is responsible for contacting and reuniting the artist at first. In fact, some authors have defined this practice as âplay in a sandboxâ since the fans can give their own interpretation (Just like Gray and Kerry said in the Panel) and provide stories of any kind, just like we can see in the RWBY case: A compilation of slice of life one-shot that yes, are pretty accurate with the characters spirit and some stories could also fill out in the canon line, but on the other hand, there are a bunch stories that feel too far-fetched, and I donât say it for the possible contradictions, but because the extremely obvious fanservice or how ridiculous they could be.
Or at least, I couldnât imagine that canonically one time Yang robbed a wig for Ruby that resulted truly being a Snakes nest, something that nobody noticed until hours later.Â
Or that Penny âborrowsâ a super secret military robot prototype to show it to Ruby, just for this one goes out of control and starts to impersonate Ruby to make random things.Â
Or that one time, Weiss summon a meteor able to destroy Remnant but Yang could stop it with a single punch like the freaking Saitama (with a lot of fourth wall breaks in the middle)Â
Or that Weiss cooks so SO badly that her team seriously decided to use her cookies like Ninja stars against the criminals. And thatâs just to give some examples.Â
So itâs for all this that I donât consider the Manga Anthologies as canon, at least not until further notice. At most, maybe the more normal ones could catalog like âSoft Canonâ since they are supposed to being in tune with the characters and RWBY Spirit but just like the movies or the anime, they werenât destined to influence or even being referenced by the canon plot and they more an "independent extraâ than a serious expansion to taking in account to the future.
