User:MagicMason1000/Sandbox/Policy
Overview
There are specific expectations of what is and isn't considered Canon on Zelda Wiki. Canon refers to a body of materials considered to be an official or genuine part of a fictional universe, in this case, the Zelda Timeline. It is what can be specifically referenced as factual information within the given universe, and so, therefore, canon is often seen as the official, main series as authorized by Nintendo. Zelda Wiki operates foremost on the canon derived from the American English narrative in the series.
Types of Canon
There are three primary levels of canonicity regarding The Legend of Zelda: canon, ambiguously canon, and non-canon. A hierarchical supplementary canon exists for all three tiers, which serves to fill in any missed information in each respective tier. Additionally, certain portions of the canon may be revised canon meaning that while the information presented in a given title may have once been regarded as true for its time, it has since been revised and is no longer intended to be presented as fact.
In the North American canon, the most-recent official update the Zelda Timeline was published on page 10 of Encyclopedia.
Canon
Canon media largely concern the official Zelda Timeline, as well as official statements from Nintendo. The initial order for the Timeline was established in 2011 with the release of Hyrule Historia, an official encyclopedia written by Shigeru Miyamoto and Eiji Aonuma. Subsequent titles were confirmed to take place within the Timeline via social media, amending the Timeline. All media illustrated on the Timeline are considered part of the main series, which can be considered analogous to the canon. Any media that has been explicitly confirmed to not take place in the timeline are non-canon.
Non-Canon
Non-canon media are any pieces of media that exist separately from the Zelda Timeline. Unless otherwise stated, cameos of Zelda subjects in officially-licensed Nintendo media that isn't fundamentally related to The Legend of Zelda are considered non-canon. Whenever an updated version of the Zelda Timeline is released, if any pieces of media released before that updated Timeline were not included, they are now labeled as non-canon as it confirms that they are not a part of the Zelda Timeline.
Ambiguously Canon
Ambiguously-canon media are any iterations in the franchise that have neither been confirmed nor denied to take place within the official Zelda Timeline. All new entries to The Legend of Zelda series are first treated as ambiguous canon until further evidence is provided on its canonicity.
Supplementary Canon
Supplementary canon is a concept that is individually applied to all three tiers of canon wherein information offered in official supplementary media (such as manuals, guides, websites, and magazines) can be considered canon provided that the information in question does not contradict the canon for that canon tier. For example, supplementary media for ambiguously canon material can be considered ambiguously canon as long as it does not contradict the information established in the highest hierarchical source of that material. Similarly, supplementary non-canon material only affects the relevant non-canon material and in no way affects either ambiguously canon or canon material. The hierarchical order for canon among each tier is as follows:
Original material
- Manuals, official statements from a representative of the development team
- Strategy guides released by the company that owns the property, trailers, and active websites and pages from the development team
- Strategy guides released by a licensed third party, any other official material
- Strategy guides released by the company that owns the property, trailers, and active websites and pages from the development team
If material released for American English is not available, any material released in British English may be used instead. If British English is not available, Japanese may be used.
Determining Canonicity
Due to the long and changing history of the series, certain portions of the established canon have been changed through later works or official statements, forcing the overall series canon to be revised to reflect these details. In these instances, the overall narrative of the series should be documented in harmony with the latest series-wide canon. Each contained canon entry may still document the canon as depicted in its iteration, though it must be accompanied by a note whenever its details no longer match the modern canon. In contrast, if a piece of media is a remake or re-release of a previous medium with confirmed canonicity, the remade media retains that level of canon, and the remake takes precedence over the original version. Any content in the original version that was revised in the remade version would now be considered non-canon, and the revised version of that content would be the new canon.
To determine a piece of media's canonicity, Nintendo must release an explicit confirmation of said canonicity. Otherwise, it is labeled as ambiguously canon. For Nintendo to "explicitly confirm" the canonicity of a piece of media, one of the following may occur:
- Someone on the media's development team or the producer of the media states the game's canonicity. If the statement doesn't directly address the question of canonicity, it does not count. For example, "Twilight Princess is in the Zelda Timeline" would count, but "Link's Crossbow Training takes place in the world of Twilight Princess" would not, as that does not directly answer the question of canonicity. If the quotation skirts around the question of canonicity, it is not valid evidence; the evidence must directly acknowledge the Zelda Timeline or the media's canonicity to count.
- The marketing or development team of the game explicitly says that the piece of media is a prequel or sequel to a piece of media with confirmed canonicity.
- If the piece of media was released before the most-recent official update to the timeline and was not included in said timeline, it is non-canon. If the media was released after the most-recent timeline update and no other confirmations of the media's canonicity have been stated, the media is ambiguously canon.
If two pieces of valid evidence for a media's canonicity contradict each other, they cancel each other out and the game would again become ambiguous unless one piece of evidence holds higher canonicity status over the other. For example, if Encyclopedia claimed Breath of the Wild was non-canon but Creating a Champion claimed it was canon, Encyclopedia would take precedence. However, if Encyclopedia claimed Breath of the Wild was canon in one portion of the book but then claimed non-canon in a different portion, Encyclopedia could no longer be used to confirm the game's canonicity as its evidence contradicts itself. Furthermore, if Twilight Princess claimed that Skyward Sword was non-canon, but Breath of the Wild claimed it was canon, Skyward Sword would be labeled as ambiguously canon because the two pieces of contradicting evidence hold the same level of canonicity against each other as canon games.
Version Differences
The latest version or publication of an iteration in the series is considered to be the canon version of that article of media, even if Nintendo publishes an earlier version of that media at a later date. The manual accompanying the latest version release of a game during that version's initial run is considered to be the latest viable canon material of its kind, even under the condition that the latest version is ported to another console, and the accompanying manual is derived from an earlier version of that game. If the manual for a ported release of that game's latest version is newly-made for that port, any revised information from the newer manual is considered canon instead.
