Opinions on Continuity in Fiction

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yep. Needless to say, I don't think that the SW fan-base was very pleased with that.

As for other stuff:

For the DMC series, while it's not like it has a particularly noteworthy story-line, I still want to make it clear that I don't consider DMC2 to be canon. And of course DmC exists in its own alternate reality, so that one shouldn't even come into question.

Also, as for another series where story doesn't matter, I don't consider the 3D NG games to exist in the same reality as the NES ones. I know that. Itagaki claimed them to be prequels, but I just consider them a reboot that takes place in a completely different canon from the old games. That, and NG3 for the 3D games is non-canon, either way.

[Spark Of Spirit]

Didn't Lucas recently axe just about all the Expanded Universe material from the canon, leaving only Episodes I-VI and the Clone Ware animated shows?

That didn't change many fans' opinions, honestly. I would suggest reading them anyway.

[LumRanmaYasha]

Oh, here's another one:

Bad Boys, Shounan Junai Gumi, and the original GTO manga are all canon. Shounan 14 Days and Paradise Lost are not. The series just really lost its way after the original GTO, IMO.

Don't forget to disregard GT-R and Ino Head Gargoyle too. Not to mention all those mediocre live-action spinoffs.

The Trunks and Bardock specials of DBZ are canon to the manga. If you try to argue with me I'll just ignore you. They are both too awesome and well-written to not be candied red canon.

I'm afraid the Bardock special is no longer canon to the manga. Toriyama himself retconned it in Dragon Ball Minus, a special bonus chapter that was included in the Jaco the Galactic Patrolman volume release. Jaco is also an official prequel to Dragon Ball, by the way.

The Trunks special, however, IS canon because it is in fact an adaption of a bonus chapter Toriyama created and included in the 18th volume of Z portion of the manga, so no worries there.

Basically, the canon of the DB manga is thus: Dragon Ball Minus - Jaco the Galactic Patrolman - Dragon Ball - DBZ: Battle of Gods - DBZ 2015 film.

Anyway, I consider anime adaptions a different continuity altogether from their manga, so I'd say they all have their own separate "canon" unless stated otherwise by the creators.

[gunswordfist]

another dbz film is coming out?

[Nel_Annette]

So... Kid Buu being born again as Uub is canon? But him being utterly useless in GT isn't?

Fine by me.

[LumRanmaYasha]

another dbz film is coming out?

Yes.

[talonmalon333]

Also, as far as the Superman film series go, the only canon movies are Superman, and Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut (that instead of the original Superman II because it represents the original intent of the film and is overall better). III and IV are bad (they also make choices that I feel hurt the first two films). In fact, III and IV are thrown out of the canon by Superman Returns, which apparently picks up where II left off. But, from what I hear, Superman Returns isn't all that great either. I haven't seen it yet, but until I do (if that actually happens), only the first two movies are canon in my mind.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

I actually kind of feel that a Returns gets way more flak than it deserves. At the very least I liked it better than Man of Steel.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I actually kind of feel that a Returns gets way more flak than it deserves. At the very least I liked it better than Man of Steel.

Same.

I would consider it canon and an end to the original Superman movie series. It might be flawed, but it is a solid ending for what it is.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Yeah, I'd consider it canon as well.

[talonmalon333]

It's a shame we didn't get a great ending in Superman II. I mean, the idea of Superman erasing Lois' memory works. I mean, just think about how broken she was at the end of that movie. However, the execution of it wasn't done well. The idea for Superman to erase her memories by kissing her was just on the spot writing. Of course, that wasn't Donner's intent with the movie, and he didn't like it so he didn't use it in his cut of the film... But even worse, he never filmed an ending to Superman II, so he just recycled the ending of the first movie, literally reusing the same footage, and it just made things worse. I love Superman II as much as I love the original Superman, but either way you go with the movie, you get a weak ending.

[Spark Of Spirit]

I just saw the trailer for the new Terminator film.

What in the world did I just watch? 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

In case I haven't already said it before, The Terminator story ended with the second movie. It perfectly complemented the first film, and both enriched AND capped off the mythology by making it do that Judgement Day would never happen. Both movies told a great story that needed absolutely nothing else added to it. Then T3 happened and completely missed the point of what the first 2 films were all about. Then we got Salvation which tried to explore the events of the human/machine war (which, I remind you, completely neglects the fact that T2 pretty much wrote Judgement Day out of existence thanks to them successfully getting rid of all advanced Skynet technology and blueprints), but also showed us why James Cameron never focused on that part of the mythology. In either of the first 2 movies in the first place: because the story was never about that. It was always about the here and now, and that scary future was more of a threat that we wanted to avoid. The war itself wasn't that interesting so much as the effort to prevent it was.

This new film just looks like a mess. It seems to be trying to cram in elements of all previous Terminator films, and is suffering for it. It basically seems like an inferior remake of the first movie.

[Spark Of Spirit]

They really should have left it alone after 2. Nobody was looking for a third movie.

I'm surprised they're even doing this movie, though. Didn't the last one do horrendously awful business? It seems audiences have already spoken. Leave the franchise alone and do something else.

[talonmalon333]

Wasn't Judgement Day triggered by research on the arm of the T-800 (from the first movie), which got destroyed at the end of 2?