@Background Pony #52C0  
It does not matter if you’re not the only one misusing the word.  
The earth is not flat.  
Whales are not fish.  
No matter how many people claim that.  
Might does not make right. And nor does quantity.
 
The show has the exact same status as the comics. Hasbro ordered its production and hired an external company to do so. From Hasbro’s POV There’s nothing that distinguishes the show from the comics, and that’s the only POV that matters when dealing with canonicity.
 
The tweet that started this whole discussion even demonstrates the whole point I’ve been making. Hasbro has given the designs to IDW. HASBRO! Not DHX!
 
The comics are not equivalent to fanfiction in anyway. There’s nothing they have in common. As said, an official product is the exact opposite of a fanmade product. There’s no comparing.  
You can’t just take an existing word and willy nilly give it a new meaning.  
There’s actually already a word for what you are describing: headcanon or “fanon”. Your headcanon is that the comics are not part of canonicity. Canon contradicts that but that’s ok, you can have any headcanon you wish. There are still people who see the Twin Sisters as literal deities, and they have the right to hold that headconon too, even though canon contradicts that too.

@soundtea
 
Is your go-to rebuttal always “X doesn’t watch the show”?
 
Yeah I saw GoF. I saw an episode where she was more reasonable…compared to other dragons. An episode where she had zero problem with a death course being how they choose their next leader. Where her interactions with Spike showed she has zero social skills whatsoever. Where she felt herself entitled to leadership because she thought herself smarter than the rest. And…that’s about it.
 
I saw nothing of which in her sole episode’s context that said she wouldn’t be someone who wouldn’t be angry at a broken treaty.

@Dustcan  
Did you watch Gauntlet of Fire. From the start she’s more open to reason instead of the other dumb crap the other dragons were planning. Plus by the end she was alright with the ponies (and especially Spike). So her firebombing a village with ponies and Yaks in it cause Pinkie got an award from them comes completely out of left field. It’s OOC as fuck.

@TexasUberAlles  
I dont care about your dictionary outdated definition of the word. You are talking about licensed products, but comics, books, equestria girls and soon even the movie will be as canon to the series as toylines about princess skyla. Canon in popular usage mean that storylines, adventures and dialogs really happen and theres connection and consistency between formats. Star war prequels are not canon to the new trilogy as well as cartoon show. It doesnt matter that they are all licensed and official disney products. Same goes for mlp. Sirens may had never visit the eqg universe and cheerilee might not have a sister or mina the dragon might not exist while discord probably cannot use time travel as much as he isnt friends with cmc. Everything beside tv show script is basically fanfiction. You should never quote anything from them to prove your point about the show discussion.

@soundtea  
I don’t see a distinction between old and new comics, other than the newer ones taking more ideas from the show instead of coming up with completely original stories. It’s not really tying in, because it’s a one way street, it’s just basing the overall storylines on things from the show, rather than coming up with something completely new. It may end up being more consistent, although judging by that new Dragon/Yak comic and how bad it was, I can’t say I’m confident that it won’t have a few more trainwrecks/hiccups along the way. Hopefully we’ll see some good come of it though, and hopefully they’ll find a way to keep things lighthearted and more controversy free in the future.
 
@TexasUberAlles  
Huh, seems you ignored everything me and Soundtea said, what a shame.
 
Don’t be ridiculous, as I already said, it’s not my personal definition, it’s the definition that most people in this fandom and most other modern fandoms use. It’s time to get off the idea that I or anyone else in this thread invented the current fandom usage of the word. Canon as it’s being used by most people isn’t a word for official, it’s a word for what’s part of reality for the show and it’s universe, and what’s true and factual about the shows setting, characters, stories, etc if that’s a good way to word it.
 
Anyway, the comics are absolutely equivalent to fanfiction in the ways that matter, that’s just a fact, and it’s not a statement on quality or anything like that, it’s a statement on their relevance to the show and it’s writing, characters, etc. They aren’t part of the same continuity, as you said yourself, the same way Fallout Equestria certainly isn’t part of the same continuity as the show either. The writing, characterization, etc in them is irrelevant to the show canon, and attempting to quote said information from them in the context of an argument/debate about something from the show would be about as legitimate as quoting a fanfiction to argue for something.
 
It’s not a headcanon to disregard information from the comics, whether you describe them as not being part of the same canon or not being part of the same continuity/universe. If anything, the opposite is true; things from the comic that someone chooses to adopt is nothing more than personal headcanon, as they are not part of the show canon and thus the things in them are not part of the show ‘reality’, so to speak. People can headcanon things from the comics if they so choose, obviously, but they have no business attempting to claim that those things are part of the show canon, because they are not.
 
If someone wants to headcanon something from the comics, that’s cool, nothing wrong with it, but it wouldn’t really be any different from taking a headcanon from a fanfiction they like, and someone disagreeing with their headcanon would be every bit as valid.
 
@Background Pony #9E5B  
The point is that it has equivalent relevance to fanfiction, not that it’s a fanfiction in the literal sense of the word. Licensed or not, the IDW comics are a separate, non-canon thing. Hasbro has approved it for making some money, doesn’t mean they’ve approved it as canon material to the show, so I suggest you stop twisting their words. Once again, a license is not a stamp for canon material, it’s a stamp for privileges to make money with the IP, something that’s very necessary for US laws around trademark/copyright, and anyone with a marketable product could potentially get one. It has nothing to do with canon, period.
 
Even TexasUberAlles here despite our differences with linguistics stated that the comics are a completely separate continuity/alternate universe, so I’m surprised you’re not on his case more.
 
And no, the statement that they take place “in between episodes” is not, in any way, shape, or form, a statement that they are canon. If I made a fanfiction and stated that it took place in between an episode, it wouldn’t be canon, it would simply be stating a time period that the fictional, non-canon material takes place in. The idea that Hasbro has called the comics canon because of something taken so out of context, is completely delusional.
 
And no, me calling the comics relevance equivalent to fanfiction is not a statement on their quality, or some sort of suggestion that there’s somehow something wrong with people enjoying them, because there’s not. Quality is another discussion altogether. All I’m saying is that the information in them isn’t relevant to the show canon, it’s character, it’s setting, writing, etc. Lot’s of people enjoy them, and that’s fine, but they are not in fact part of the same continuity, universe, or anything of the sort. And again, Texas himself is arguing against both of us, as he’s clearly stated that the comics are a separate continuity/universe from the show, and the definitions he’s using are not the same as the one that either of us are using.

 
Have we?

Hey! Hasbro licensed this, then it must be canon!  

Morning everyone
 
@Background Pony #52C0  
How can you even call the comics fanfiction?  
It is literally the exact opposite of fanfiction.  
Hasbro ordered the production of the comics.  
Hasbro has IDW under contract.  
Hasbro has approved every comic, every page, every word.  
Complete. Opposite. Of. Fanfiction.
 
It doesn’t matter that Hasbro’s statement about the comcis was marketing. Everything they do or say is marketing.  
Hascon? Marketing. Statements about the show? Marketing. Releasing the figures of their sales? Marketing. (hey guys, look at how much profit we make. wouldn’t you want to invest in us?)  
Hasbro no “Official Department of Public Statements Regarding Toy Canonicity”, so what branch of Hasbro do you want them to use for such statements? It’s a public statement to the whoever is interested, so obviously, it’s going to be marketing.  
The link clearly says “it all happens in between episodes” (it’s buried now, I’ll post it again for anyone interested)  
www dot licensemag dot com/license-global/hasbro-magic-branded-play  
In between episodes! That means the events in the comics, etc DID happen and that they happened in the same universe/timeline/wibbleywobbley/whateverbecause otherwise the phrase “in between” has no meaning.  
That is the very definition what it means to be canon.  
You’re just denying that because for some reason you haaaaaate the comics. The fact you called them fanfiction proves that sufficiently.
 
@soundtea  
As for the person saying the flat earth analogy is a bad choice when talking about the correct meaning of the word “canon”. Ok, fair enough. The flat earth was more about how many people claiming something wrong doesn’t make it true, and not really a linguistic thing.  
Here’s better analogy then. Many people call whales and dolphins fish, but they aren’t, they’re mammals. Fish is a well defined word, and is constantly misused when referring to those animals.  
One shouldn’t go “but meanings change, bro”, this isn’t a subtle shift of meaning of a word over the course of generations. It’s the complete wrong use of a word with a solid meaning.  
Likewise with canonicity. People just giving their own interpretation to the word (often guided by an agenda of hatred) doesn’t change the meaning of the word.

@Background Pony #52C0  
The IDW comics are equivalent to fanfiction/fanart  
I pretty much can’t respond to this the way it deserves because rule #0 exists, but your personal dislike of something has absolutely no effect on its official status whatsoever. If you want to disregard the comics and ignore anything that happens in them you are 100% free to do so, your headcanons are your business and you have just as much right to them as anyone else does, and Hasbro appears intent on making that as easy as possible for you by mandating that knowledge of one medium is not required to understand any of the other media in the franchise, but is absolutely and inarguably not up to you or anyone else on this side of franchise production to decide whether something is official or not. That’s Hasbro’s job.
 
Making up your own personal definitions for words– which do not in fact line up in any way with reality, ad nauseum repetition notwithstanding– just because you super duper hate a comic book and want some way to delegitimize it… is still not a sound basis for an argument.

@Background Pony #FFC2  
Eh, nah, it’s not. In the past several posts, it’s briefly dipped into the topic of the linguistics or however you want to word it, but it’s hardly been the focus in this thread.
 
It’s definitely a drain on energy though, isn’t it? This whole comments section, anyway. I should just go back to bed soon.

 
@Background Pony #52C0  
Pretty much this entire argument is “linguistic pedantry”.

@TexasUberAlles  
It’s still the word just about everyone uses. Also flat earth isn’t comparable at all to how a word can change its meaning over time. Find a better comparison.
 
And the comics (at least for Main Series Accord and before) are completely non canon to the show. Not once in the entire run of the show has things like Deer controlling the Everfree, Reflections, Bulls, Living Apples, Accord in general, or even nice things like the Trixie framing thing ever been given even a token mention. When you have all these really big things happen and they’re treated as if they never happened in the first place, then they kind of become non-canon. Especially when shit happens that contradicts the show hard (bog standard shield protects only Glimmer from Element magic).
 
Now current Main Series things are tying more into the show, but don’t ever expect the show to ever mention that Ember firebombed an entire village for a petty award, especially when we’ve already seen that Ember is quite different from the start.

@TexasUberAlles  
So do you actually disagree with anything I’ve said, or just the choice or words I’ve used to say it? Because frankly I don’t personally care too much what words one wants to use in this case, as long as the meaning is the same. The IDW comics are equivalent to fanfiction/fanart in their relevance and authority to the show canon, and the new word would have to get stuff like that across, among all the other arguments people make. Not an easy thing to replace.
 
That being said, for the sake of sanity and keeping things simple, I, the other background pony, and most other people in this fandom and others, will surely continue to use the word canon, just because everyone else already knows what you mean when you say it.
 
The word ‘continuity’ may or may not could serve as an alternative (it’s unclear though), as long as it’s as encompassing as canon for the arguments myself and others have been making, and means the same thing that the word canon has been used for, but it would inevitably be seen as more vague and have less weight behind it, even if that was only the case because people aren’t as familiar with the word and it’s usage, and thus don’t as quickly/easily associate all the same arguments and meanings with it as they would when the word ‘canon’ is used.
 
Again, as Daniel mentioned above, people will probably just ignore you if you pull out a dictionary and say “you’re using the word wrong”. It’s not a personal definition, it’s the one everyone has been using right from the start of this fandom. It was so prevalent that you made a picture ranting about it, so let’s not pretend it’s something that I or anyone else in this comments section invented.

@Background Pony #52C0  
As has been pointed out, getting enough people to agree that the world is flat that it becomes popular consensus does not in fact mean the world is flat. Using the actual correct definitions of words rather than making up personal definitions to suit one’s personal ideology or opinion isn’t “pedantry”, it’s “basic literacy”.
 
there is no easy alternative without using the word canon  
Continuities. The word is “continuities”. “Realities” and “universes” and “timelines” are other dirt-common, bog-standard, universally-understood terms among comic book fans, who have had this figured out literally since the middle of the last century.
 
The English Language really does not care how much someone hates the IDW My Little Pony comics.

@TexasUberAlles  
As Daniel said above, nobody is interested in your linguistic pedantry, or at the very least it’s a conversation that belongs elsewhere. The comics are not canon, this is based on the popular usage of the word (not that I can’t sort of see your concern with this, but at the end of the day you know what people are referring to when they say ‘canon’ in fandoms like this, and there’s not an easy alternative word). The comics could be called an alternate universe, but they are also non-canon, meaning that the writing, characterization, etc in them is not part of the show canon, and cannot be used for any sort of argument about the characters, writing, etc in the show, because the information in the comics does not apply to the show version of any of those things.
 
They aren’t part of the same continuity, the characters in the show canon and the comic canon are totally separate, and the comics characterization does not in any way apply or have any relevance to the show canon, and so on. The same goes for the setting and writing, and so on. By every measure that actually matters to people, they are non-canon. The writing in the comics is not a part of the canon/continuity/universe of the show. Note that that’s not a judgement on their quality or anything like that, as that’s for another conversation. Dunno if that’s a good way to word it, I didn’t sleep as much as I would have wanted to.
 
Anyway, if you’re simply upset about the word people are using it to describe the things I’m describing, and not the actual arguments behind the word, then I guess you’ll have to come up with a new word or easy alternative for people to use and work on popularizing it or something. In the meantime, everyone and their mother in most modern fandoms uses canon to describe the things that me and this other Background Pony have been arguing about, whether that’s good or not. Considering you had to make an image ranting about people supposedly using the word wrong, that must be true, no?
 
@Hebbocake  
He’s actually disagreeing with the other Background Pony I’ve been arguing with too, you know. I doubt he agrees with whatever position you have either, considering he said himself that the comics aren’t part of the same universe/continuity as the show, and thus are separate. I don’t know everything about his position, obviously, and it’s hard to tell, but he seems mostly upset that people aren’t following his strict dictionary definition of the word. Which is a concern I get to an extent, but canon is the accepted term for these things in this fandom and others, and there is no easy alternative without using the word canon.

@TexasUberAlles  
Thank you!

@Esteban, et al., ad infinitum  
 
It doesn’t matter if the show and the comics are set in the same universe, or if they have any connection to each other, or even if they glaringly contradict each other (or themselves); if it gets released for public viewing with My Little Pony trade dress and the Hasbro logo on it, it is MLP canon. Full stop. That’s what canon means in regards to a franchise.
 
This is a pointless argument every time it appears, comic books have been doing alternate universes and parallel continuities for over sixty years and Hasbro in particular has had this figured out with its own multiple-universe franchises since the mid-’80s. The show taking obvious narrative precedence over the comics does nothing to change the fact that the comics are still MLP canon, it just means that if there’s any irreconcilable conflict between the two, oh well– they’re two different universes.

@Background Pony #9E5B  
Finally for someone stating fact.

@Background Pony #9E5B  
Sounds like a good idea, honestly. These debates are a huge drain on time and energy but I get into them sometimes anyway. Hopefully I’ll get to bed soon too, but who knows.

@Background Pony #9E5B  
The show is the source material, what the heck are you talking about? It’s the reason we’re all here, and when we’re talking about canon, we’re referring to the show canon, period. IDW is a third party company with a license, that doesn’t make them canon, it makes them a profitable third party creating their own, non-canon, completely separate stories.
 
Anyway, Hasbro hasn’t even said that the comics are canon, so please stop trying to twist their words to mean something it doesn’t. The comics are non-canon, are made by a third party, and are clearly very separate from the show. Hasbro technically owns every piece of fanart on this site too, and they’re using the MLP IP, but that certainly doesn’t make them canon either.
 
Anyway, it’s clear that the show is the core, actual canon of MLP, everything else except EQG is non-canon, or put another way has a completely separate canon of it’s own. It’s the source material that everything else including toys, fanfiction and fanart, the comics, etc is based off of, and none of those other things are canon just because they are based off of it.
 
Stuff like the toys may have been put on the shelves before the show made it to national television, but they were still based on the show that was already very late in production and simply waiting to air, they simply shipped sooner. The show remains the original source material, and the show is the only thing that is canon. The toys, fanfiction, comics, etc are all based on the show (not the other way around), which absolutely came first once you account for the actual production of the cartoon, regardless of air date, and none of those things are canon, unlike the cartoon.

anyway I’m to bed

@Background Pony #52C0  
You’re contradicting yourself. You brush aside the canonicity of the comics, because they’re just “fanfic (by IDW) to make money”, while not applying your own logic to the show which is also just fanfic (by DHX)to make money.  
You’re also wrong that the show came first. It did not! The toys came first. Following that train of thought the little stories on toy wrapping is the real canon and not the show.  
And even when we disregard the toys, the show is still not first, since on the very first day the show aired (10-10-10) a MLP picture book was released. So how would you define first then?
 
None of that matters though.  
The only ones to set what is canon is the IP owner, not some external company that got contracted.  
Considered true by the authority who can decide what is true, that is the exact meaning of the word canon. Who else but the IP owner would have such authority?
 
Another example which show that the “first” narrative holds no water. The original Star Wars comics pre-date the Clone Wars cartoon, and yet the old comics no longer count as canon, but the Clone Wars cartoon does. Why? Because Disney bought the IP and decided so. Clearly showing that being first has no relevance and that all power resides with the IP owner.

@Background Pony #9E5B  
The show is the source material, the original, and the reason we’re all here, and so on, so no, that’s a false equivalence. When people say “the canon”, they are talking about the show canon. IDW has it own canon technically, and so do fanfictions, such as Fallout Equestria having a pretty extensive canon of it’s own, just as an example. It’s just totally separate from the actual (show) canon.
 
Anyway, you’re simply twisting statements from Hasbro’s marketing department to mean things they clearly don’t. Hasbro is of course going to go off about how their IP is making them a lot of money, this does not somehow equate into them saying that everything they’ve ever sold a license to is somehow canon, that’s just completely and utterly nonsensical. The license is nothing more than permission to make money with the IP as a third party, a necessity because of stuff like trademark and copyright law in the US. It’s not a “this is canon” stamp, and never will be.
 
Selling toys is their ultimate goal, at least for Hasbro’s marketing department, but that literally has no relevance whatsoever to what’s canon and what’s not. It’ll sell those toys for them regardless of what’s actually canon, that’s why they sell licenses to anyone with a marketable product. But at the end of the day, the only thing that’s actually canon is the show (and again, probably EQG), and all the other marketable stuff is totally separate and non-canon.
 
The show having a marketing objective of selling toys doesn’t negate the fact that it has a canon that the comics, books, etc are clearly not a part of.

@Background Pony #52C0  
By that logic the show itself is nothing but fanfiction to make money.  
MLP is a toyline and we are watching 22 mins commercials.  
The roots of the entire franchise is toys, not cartoons. They started making cartoon-commercials in the 80s because all other toy companies did the same.  
From Hasbro’s point of view there’s no difference between comic-commercials and cartoon-commercials.  
You and I are just biased because we’re G4 fans and the roots are several decennia old. But G4 is just like all the Gs, a way to sell more toys. But a fan’s perspective is not what matters.

@Background Pony #9E5B  
The comics are not canon. Hasbro has not even said it as such, all they’ve done is spout out a few marketing slogans/buzzwords about how they’ve expanded the IP to make more money, which does not somehow equate into canon. Again, only the source material, the show and perhaps EQG, is at all relevant. IDW is not canon, and is basically fanfiction with a license to make some money.
 
The show, the comics, and even fanfiction are all part of the MLP IP, but only the show is canon, while the other things are non-canon and separate things that are based on to varying extents, but not part of the source material. Or you could say they have their own, separate canon.
 
Also, what a load of nonsense. There are plenty of fanfiction that were written to take place “in between an episode” or after an episode, but that doesn’t make them canon. All it means is that it’s specified a time period where the fanfiction or comic or whatever else is taking place. And even that’s really only a thing for the most recent comics, most of them aren’t even based on any sort of timeline. Anyway, the comics are completely separate stories, basically an alternate universe, with their own separate canon and continuity. Like a fanfiction, they may reference or feature events and such from the source material, but this does not change the fact that they are non-canon material.