Fandom School (1st period): Types of Canon

Happy Wednesday, everyone, and welcome to Fandom School! I've already given a brief definition of canon and explained headcanon, so now it's time to talk about the many different types of canon. A quick search on AO3 reveals many different canon-related tags, which will serve well for organization purposes in this post.

Canon Compliant - follows with all parts of canon.

• Canon Related - specifically related to an event in canon.
• Canon Universe - takes place in the universe created by the canon.
• Canon Timeline  - takes place over a range of events during canon. Follows the canon timeline.
• Pre-Canon - takes place before canon. Think of it as a prequel.
• Canon Era - takes place during canon (during the span of the book, movie, or TV show)
• Post-Canon - takes place after canon (after the end of the book/movie; after the series finale)
• Canon Continuation - same thing as post-canon, but with special care taken to make sure that it fits with canon
• Canon Dialogue - includes direct quotes from the show/book/movie
• Could Be Canon - compliant with canon, but not part of it. Think of it as behind the scenes.
• Canon Crossover - a crossover that attempts to, apart from being a crossover, preserve canon for all fandoms involved

Not Canon Compliant - changes or ignores one or more canon events/characters.

• Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence - accepts canon up to a certain point, then changes an event and goes from there.
• Fix-It - corrects something in canon that the author disagrees with.
• Post-Canon Fix-It - wraps up the loose ends. May be canon-compliant, or may be different enough that it doesn't comply with canon.