I would to start, first and foremost, that this is not a new chapter. this is something that I would move into the auxiliary volumes after some time.
Now, the main reason why I am writing this is to address some things. Personally, I have seen this happen quite a few times throughout the time I have written fics in this site. I felt that this is worth contemplating over, so here am I.
These situations simply boil down to one question:
"Why write things outside/contradicting the canon?"
As fan-fiction authors, we are using the canon knowledge brought upon by the original authors. For me, this should be treated with respect since we are making fan derivative works. This kind of respect vary from one person to another, but mine was mirrorred by my intent to use these canon knowledge as much as possible for this work. I never made any fan derivative works that I haven't even read properly.
For Danmachi, I read all the thirty (18 FM + 12 SO) to make that arc. For Fate, I played up until the Lostbelts as well as read the Visual Novel (Realta Nua last year if you were here way back then) to properly create Fate-related fics. For the upcoming Honkai Impact 3rd arc, I played the game and read through the story to better understand it.
There are many other things that certain authors do to pay this kind of respect to the original work. I will not name all of them, but do consider that they do many things to write these fan-fictions.
Nevertheless, there are cases when authors are 'forced', or 'required' to write something 'beyond the canon'. It could either be things that 'go against the canon' or 'something not in the canon'. An example of this are Nasuverse gods. A select few gods (the strong ones) are not present in the canon. Some of you might have imagined 'Jesus' as a Savior-class servant, but nobody pretty much knew about his possible strength. The Abrahamic God is the same. Nobody knew His strength. Even if we knew about the Machine Gods and their levels, we don't know how 'strong' the Abrahamic God could be.
This situation calls for the 'non-canon' writing. Authors are forced to write things beyond the canon, sometimes even contradicting it. By creating a certain scenario that 'leads' to that direction, we get to see something outside the scope of canon. The major exception to this would be the 'Alternate Universe' fan-fictions that took a path outside the canon from the beginning.
Going back to the topic, these scenarios could occur due to several reasons, mostly due to plot requirements. If, say, a protagonist will meet the Abrahamic God with nearly zero direct canon knowledge, the authors will be forced to 'deduce' things from there. These deductions are reliable answers that they found after deducing things.
An example of that would be: "Since Solomon is already that overpowered with his ten rings during the singularity, the Abrahamic God should be even stronger than that." With that in mind, the author will begin scaling Him as best as he could.
However, there are times when the answer that the author reached contradicts with a canon knowledge. A hypothetical scenario would be (All of these are not true, including the 'canon states statement...'):
Canon states there could only be one Herscherr of Origin. If the Herscherr of Reason in PE was fully supported by the Will of Honkai, could it become the second Herscherr of Origin despite the canon saying it shouldn't be possible?
In that case, the author will choose the non-canon path that contradicts the canon knowledge, simply due to the fact that it was something that went beyond the canon.
In the end, it could be said that the power within the fanfiction lies within the author. It is up to them to make decisions on how they would like their story to go. I would like everyone to consider the things above before coming to a conclusion.
For both readers and writers, reading comprehension and understanding are both crucial. Empathetic approach is recommended since there are a lot of writers doing things for fun despite their work/things in real life.
With regard to these things, I would like to ask a question regarding this fanfic. Should I label the non-canon things at the end of a chapter? That way, it could serve as an indicator that it is 'non-canon'. Perhaps, that will save everyone from confusion (and sending me several screenshots from wiki/original sources, haha).
PS: Yeah, I know this is quite a long discussion, but thanks for bearing with me until the end. To be honest, I don't know how I'll end up until now. I don't know if I could even finish this fic just like my first one. There are currently a lot of 'I don't knows' in my life recently that I (quite literally) don't know what to do. No worries though, since I am feeling that things will be better off soon. I have no plans to go into hiatus, too. I still have to finish this fanfic the way I planned it to be.
PPS: If you have any questions, do drop them here.
Thank you everyone for the support up until now. Do expect for a new chapter at least tomorrow or the other day.
May everyone have a nice day.
If I'm reading a fanfic I've already come to terms that at least 50% is non canon don't mind it to much.
- Personally, I'm of the opinion that if you're writing with respect towards the Canon, even if it's non Canon it should make sense to the canon. I don't know that much about honkai (lore-wise), but with your example with Solomon and the abrahamic god, the deductions would make sense.
- To address the canon/non-canon debate: you're writing fan fiction. The presence of the main character (from Canon or not) doing something that is non-canon immediately put's everything in an AU.
- To everyone harassing the author (ignore if you're providing constructive criticism as opposed to just criticism):
Respectfully, go f*ck yourself with a cactus. As stated above, the fact that the main character is doing something that isn't Canon/is present despite Canon, means that certain events won't be won't be present/will be present that didn't show up in the original story. The author is free to take whatever artistic liberties they desire. Instead of quoting wikis, linking character bios, etc., just enjoy the story. If you're so worried about the precious 'Canon', go read the original story instead of harassing someone online. If you have constructive criticism or ideas, present them as such as opposed to going "um actually, they would do that and this instead".
Yeah. The best I could do was to write non-canon stuff that was anchored to the canon itself (even if it'll contradict with some canon statements itself). The main reason why I wrote this was due to "Archer being able to summon Ea despite canon says it's not". That situation was written with Emiya having Alaya's 100% support, so one could imagine how he and his UBW would fare with that kind of absurd thing (which is non canon). Since Alaya was shown to be able to affect the entire world itself (even go to as much as split them into two with Gaia), that kind of deduction should most likely make sense (if we're talking about Alaya's full potential).
That, and I would like to clarify some things about not only mine but most authors' decisions within SH and Webnovel.
Anyways, thanks for reading this long discussion
@IdleYoungMaster not a problem! It's an interesting 'peek behind the curtains' so to speak.
@IdleYoungMaster Now I feel like an ass, my bad.
I'm going to read your chapters anyway, but if you are going to put a note saying there are non canon elements in the chapter, I suppose it's better at the head of it, probably.
Honestly the thing about EA just made me think that 'creating' a noble phantasm just for that fight made more sense to me than letting Archer use that monstrosity, it's fine anyway though.
It's not like any story is perfect, moreover no matter how much one is a fan or whatever anyone is bound to misunderstand or misuse some elements of the story.
@Lord_Beleth Yeah. Misunderstand is inevitable, which is why I created this discussion specifically to deal with it. And please don't feel like an ass. It was also something on my part (basically not being able to portray the 100% Alaya support well enough).
As for 'creating' an NP, I actually thought of that before. It was placed here on my notes (the potential 'new' Noble Phantasm that Archer might have) but reasons told me that sticking with a destructive NP that already has a blueprint (Ea) might be more reasonable (much easier to do). No worries though, I thought of a way to utilize this one some time later.
Thanks for the inputs and have a nice day