Post by Merlin! on Aug 10, 2007 0:59:45 GMT -5
Keeping to Canon - The Cake Theory
When role-playing something like Harry Potter, which was, as you all know, originally a series of books written by J.K. Rowling, although as RPers we are allowed some artistic liscense to take the original stories from where they are to where we want them, we have to make sure we follow the 'canon', and don't do things that are too extreme.
The definition of canon is "in the context of fiction, the canon of a fictional universe comprises those novels, stories, films, etc. that are considered to be genuine, and those events, characters, settings, etc. that are considered to have inarguable existence within the fictional universe." In other words, something that either definitely happened in the Harry Potter books, or cannot be disputed as fitting in.
Now for the cake theory. If you are making a basic sponge cake, you mix together flour, eggs, milk and sugar in the correct proportions, and when it comes out of the oven, you have a nice, well-risen cake. Now, on top of this cake, you can put some icing, and perhaps sprinkle a few nuts. What you can't do is stick on a few tomatoes, drizzle salad cream, or perhaps grate some cheese over it, because can you imagine what that would taste like?!
In the context of canon, your sponge cake is the story the RP is based off, here obviously being Harry Potter. The icing on the cake is what you can change without changing the canon. We can have original characters, because there are all those students at Hogwarts that never get mentioned in the books, but are obviously there, or it would be a very small school indeed. We can have different teachers, because the ones in the books may go on to another job, and some aren't named at all, so we can create them from our imaginations. The nuts are the few things that perhaps may not have been entirely true to the canon, but were introduced in the books, like half-bloods being in Slytherin, a generally pure-blood house, or the occasional first-year having their own broom, like Harry.
However, you don't get many tomatoes in a sponge cake. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a tomato in a sponge cake. The tomatoes, as well as the salad cream, and the cheese, are things that you don't get in cakes, and are the things that aren't canon, that you have to be extremely cautious about writing about. It is very unlikely that your character is going to be an unregistered (or even a registered) Animagus, or a werewolf, because there were very few of them in the book, and J.K. Rowling states in various places that they are not very common; just like tomatoes in cakes. None of the characters in the book is a cutter, or extremely 'emo'. There are no outrageously suicidal characters, and so these are things that you should try to avoid when building your character, because let's face it, I don't think salad cream would be too tasty on a sponge cake. And the sprinkling of cheese? Well, not everyone is a pure-blood Slytherin, whose parents own a money tree and have been doing magic perfectly since they were three. Variety is the spice of life. Or that extra bit of icing on the cake.
Is My Character Keeping to the Canon?
By this, we are not meaning 'canon characters' - characters that were already mentioned in the book and are being taken on as a role by someone, such as Harry, Ron and Hermione, but what can be perceived as accurate for the setting of the book. These are a few questions you should ask yourself to make sure that your character fits in with the basis of Harry Potter, and does not go against the canon. If you answer 'yes' to too many of these questions, you may find that your character is not keeping to the canon, and you may wish to review how you are portraying them.
When role-playing something like Harry Potter, which was, as you all know, originally a series of books written by J.K. Rowling, although as RPers we are allowed some artistic liscense to take the original stories from where they are to where we want them, we have to make sure we follow the 'canon', and don't do things that are too extreme.
The definition of canon is "in the context of fiction, the canon of a fictional universe comprises those novels, stories, films, etc. that are considered to be genuine, and those events, characters, settings, etc. that are considered to have inarguable existence within the fictional universe." In other words, something that either definitely happened in the Harry Potter books, or cannot be disputed as fitting in.
Now for the cake theory. If you are making a basic sponge cake, you mix together flour, eggs, milk and sugar in the correct proportions, and when it comes out of the oven, you have a nice, well-risen cake. Now, on top of this cake, you can put some icing, and perhaps sprinkle a few nuts. What you can't do is stick on a few tomatoes, drizzle salad cream, or perhaps grate some cheese over it, because can you imagine what that would taste like?!
In the context of canon, your sponge cake is the story the RP is based off, here obviously being Harry Potter. The icing on the cake is what you can change without changing the canon. We can have original characters, because there are all those students at Hogwarts that never get mentioned in the books, but are obviously there, or it would be a very small school indeed. We can have different teachers, because the ones in the books may go on to another job, and some aren't named at all, so we can create them from our imaginations. The nuts are the few things that perhaps may not have been entirely true to the canon, but were introduced in the books, like half-bloods being in Slytherin, a generally pure-blood house, or the occasional first-year having their own broom, like Harry.
However, you don't get many tomatoes in a sponge cake. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen a tomato in a sponge cake. The tomatoes, as well as the salad cream, and the cheese, are things that you don't get in cakes, and are the things that aren't canon, that you have to be extremely cautious about writing about. It is very unlikely that your character is going to be an unregistered (or even a registered) Animagus, or a werewolf, because there were very few of them in the book, and J.K. Rowling states in various places that they are not very common; just like tomatoes in cakes. None of the characters in the book is a cutter, or extremely 'emo'. There are no outrageously suicidal characters, and so these are things that you should try to avoid when building your character, because let's face it, I don't think salad cream would be too tasty on a sponge cake. And the sprinkling of cheese? Well, not everyone is a pure-blood Slytherin, whose parents own a money tree and have been doing magic perfectly since they were three. Variety is the spice of life. Or that extra bit of icing on the cake.
Is My Character Keeping to the Canon?
By this, we are not meaning 'canon characters' - characters that were already mentioned in the book and are being taken on as a role by someone, such as Harry, Ron and Hermione, but what can be perceived as accurate for the setting of the book. These are a few questions you should ask yourself to make sure that your character fits in with the basis of Harry Potter, and does not go against the canon. If you answer 'yes' to too many of these questions, you may find that your character is not keeping to the canon, and you may wish to review how you are portraying them.
- Is my character an Animagus, werewolf/part-werewolf, or full/part other magical creature?
- Wanting to end their own life?
- Has my character been flying for years before they attended Hogwarts?
- Has my character performed 'proper' magic before attending Hogwarts?
- Does my character come from extremely rich heritage?
- Is my character a Legilimens, can they detect people's feelings or if someone is lying?
- Does my character have a similar last name to that of a main character (as it can be assumed that most of the last names of main characters aren't very common)?
