W/T: Canon vs. Fandom

[darkmagicwillow]

Looking at Pens, I've realized that we've written far more about Willow and Tara than was ever shown on screen or even in the Buffy novelizations. I've also spent more time reading and writing fanfic than I ever spent watching Buffy, and that has deeply affected how I see Willow and Tara when I go back and watch an episode of the show. I can't watch Tara without seeing the woman who had the strength, compassion, and intelligence to make it through the three tests of Lisa's Unexpected Consequences.

For me, Dawn is the lovely young girl from Tulipp's Terra Firma who was essential to bringing W/T back together, and Anya is the Tara's supportive friend of Sassette's Answering Darkness. When I see a Scoobie meeting, I can't help but think of those from Antigone's Gods Served and Abandoned where everyone was there to support Tara's new confrontation with her family.

The reader is always an essential participant in making a story come to life, but fanfic allows the reader a larger scale of participation as a writer too. When does fandom supersede canon? What moments and portrayals have affected your perception of W/T?

[frumpycat]

...actually reading your story the Dark Rose. I never was one for that much fan fic until coming from Buffy Guide to here. I'd always been upset what had happened to Tara from S6 and it made me lose a lot of pleasure from the show. She was, for me, the last sympathetic character and I felt her death was a bad plot point that did nothing to advance the story of Buffy, the show, and Willow's character, whom has always been my favorite. And then I read about the Lesbian Cliche and I thought...crap...they're right. That's when I really started giving up on the show.

I've always wanted Willow to become strong and in charge of herself...your Willow did that in a very Dark Company way. I agree with you that Willow's story arc should have followed Wesley's from Angel...been seperated from the gang from his/her darkness and then been reunited (for me by Tara's love but oh well.)

After hearing arguments from kittens on Buffy Guide I decided to head out here and check it out. I latched on to your story and now I've been reading fanfic ever since. From Lisa's stories to yours I've found fics better than what I can buy. Thanks.

Frumpycat

[lipkandy]

woo and hoo! what a great thread as usual dmw. and I'm actually going to post this. Really. I'm not going to write a page and a half and delete like I keep doing on your writing thread (I have feedback fear).
and, for the record, I'm in total agreement with both of you.
so my two cents: Katharyn's resourceful, kick-ass, intelligent and still-sensitive Tara in The Sidestep Chronicle is a good place to start. and I really love technopagan's Giles in Doppelganger Redux, but then I love everyone in that fic. oh! and mariacomet's Buffy in The Stone Circle is a miraculous thing. I didn't think I could ever like her character again, but she somehow makes her believable as a caring, intelligent friend. which is quite a feat. not to mention the sheer loveliness of her more mature W/T in the Now. and Tulipp? I bow at the characterization goddess (that's you Juli)'s feet. everyone in Terra Firma makes me want to cry for what was lost.

there are so many great chacterizations on Pens. I'm sure this will be a VERY long thread. thanks as usual DMW.

xomel

edited to add:
and Rane's Caitlin (Tara's Mom) in Working out the Kinks. so wonderful to watch Willow interact with Tara's mother, something we obviously never got from the show. not to mention Tara actually having a beautifully supportive relationship with an actual family member. and Caitlin is a complex character torn between wanting happiness for her daughter and worrying for her safety. so...kudos to rane too

and did I mention tommo's high school W/T in Final Exam? I can't even watch the old reruns anymore without imagining Willow sneaking off to 'snuggle' with sexy, insecure, take-charge Tara in the library. heh.

see, I'll just keep going and going and going...so, shutting up now. really.

[sam7777]

[quote:d4a8757dcb]Quote:

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When does fandom supersede canon? What moments and portrayals have affected your perception of W/T?

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[/quote:d4a8757dcb] DMW: Great thread. I agree with you. Fanic has greatly ehanced my enjoyment of Willow and Tara to more than what I saw on the show. The writers at pens really love Willow/Tara while the writers on the show saw them (especially Tara) as plot points. I have rejected the series canon because the real Willow and Tara are here. Stories like Lisa's "Unexpected Consequences" and Triscuit's "Edge of Silence" both show us a strong Tara and a Willow with all the power and quirks of the real character. It's also great to read stories with Willow actually acting in character. Willow is so much more than magic and power. Willow simply can't exist without Tara. Willow and Tara are soul mates and they will always find each other. Nothing else matters.

[reyjawk]

This is a really interesting thread. I have noticed that sometimes I have problems remembering if something happened on the show or in a fic. All of the fics mentioned above I loved and thought that they better represented W&T then the last part of season 6 and I wont even mention season 7.

I wish the BTVS writers had started reading fanfic around the end of season 5 then maybe they would have gotten to know their characters better. Because the last 2 seasons have pointed out how badly they lost touch with W&T and really all of the other scoobies.

The sad thing as fanfic has pointed out the opportunity was there for the writers to write some really good dramatic stories instead they copted out for 2nd rate soap opera plots that they couldnt even keep straight.

Well I guess my hoping that they had read fanfic was a bit much considering they apparently dont even watch their own show!!!

Toni

[mariacomet]

As far as this subject goes, I believe in the 'Heart' on canon more than canon.

Canon is: Xander is a constructor worker who once was engaged to an ex-demon.

But the heart of canon on Xander is: He is the every man. The one guy with no special powers. Even if I were to GIVE him special powers, I would then write it from the prospective of the every man character who suddenly found himself in an unusual situation.

With regards to W/T - while we have a LOT on Willow, we don't have much historical background on Tara. So strict canon for Tara would be somewhat limiting.

Officially speaking there are NO limits. We can write whatever we like. But when I write I want the world clearly recognizable as Buffy's and the characters clearly to be the ones I grew to love. If I didn't care about either of those things - er insert sarcastic comment about season 6 and 7 here.

Ahem...

There are intrepretations to worry about. For some people, X/A are a great couple. Others, I have heard, refer to X/A being a couple on the edge of emotional abuse. I think a case being made for both points is possible. But I wouldn't buy Xander as someone who
suddenly beats up Anya.

I once thought of a Farscape/BUffy spinoff where Tara is a peacekeeper. Rough bunch, those peacekeepers. But one of the key problems was that I could never see Tara casually, remorselessly killing for the empire.

Killing? Yes.

Fighting? Yes.

But killing anyone that she is ordered to, and doing so with efficient detachment. I don't think so. No matter what she had been through or been trained to do. That change in her character would not only be very hard to justify, it would change who she is elementally. Thusly if I do ever write that one, she'll be a peacekeeper who isn't actually all that good at her job.

One of my favorite pieces of canon involves the duality of Willow. The good and potential for evil. People have take this to wonderful places on the pens. And I have seen people stop at differing seasons with canon. Before season 4, and even after season 6.

I think the explorations are wonderful, and I love how vastly different they are.

I will say one thing...when new elements of a story directly conflict with canon, it makes me a bit stubborn, as a reader. For instance, if Willow was the slayer. Or Tara was. On a character level and as a Buffy fan, I think that might be a bit hard to adapt to

[darkmagicwillow]

I'm glad everyone's enjoying the thread.

I found your comments on the heart as opposed the word of canon very insightful, [b:e5293a9f87]mariacomet[/b:e5293a9f87]. That's the essential part to creating an interesting story with characters who are still recognizable.

I've found myself running up against the limits of the word of canon on Tara often recently, because we know so little about her as you point out. In many stories, that leads to a similarly limited view of the spirit, so we get Tara portrayed as a flawless angel or saint, which does a disservice to her humanity and the potential for complexity in her character offered by the lack of definitive canon about her. We see the duality of Willow, but only rarely do we see the duality of Tara.

One way I try to jar myself out of that trap is by reading fanfic. While I can't follow the same history that the Tara of Sidestep Chronicle that [b:e5293a9f87]lipkandy[/b:e5293a9f87] brought up, I can gain insight on the heart of Tara's character from that story and you know, I could see peacekeeper Tara as much like that Tara. Hmmm...and I could see Willow as Sekozu, but that's getting off-topic.

Sidestep also provides me with the definitive vampire Willow. In most stories she's rather one-dimensional like we see in The Wish, but in this story, we get to spend lots of time with her, allowing us to see how she thinks and feels in so many little incidents like her unintentional gift of a kitten and her distaste for dealing with the limitations of a mortal, sick Tara.

[the vamp nurd]

I think the fan fic allows for the characters to build up. Willow's character was built up in the fall.

Mistress of pain - I don't think so.


Tara wasn't allowed to be grow. But in the FF she is.

As they say, fiction is better than fact.

[Mrs Vertigo]

[quote:abf0328923]Quote:

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When does fandom supersede canon?

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[/quote:abf0328923]
Four words, baby: Once More, With Bitterness. I consider that to be pretty much the top of fandom comedy. All hail Ruth and Julia their jolly little helpers.

[The Inward Sea]

Hi everybody

A long time ago I was captured by Fan Fiction through my interest on The X-Files. At first I couldn't believe that I -hey, *I* <G>- would be interested in any fiction written by *fans*... how bad could that be! But soon I found that the quality levels of some of them were surprisingly high. The X-Files fanfiction was followed by ST:Voyager's and there I was, big fan of some fanfiction writers! The point was that there's a lot that the show writers leave out of the scripts, or a lot that the actors act without actually being in the script, that leaves you wanting for more. Specially different kind of tensions created on screen that never hit the scripts. Being a wonderful relationship -the best and healthier couple in Buffy for certain- one actually knows very little of Willow and Tara's story. A lot is left to your imagination. The first kiss is a classical -as in The X-Files -. It also happens to me now, I can't tell what I read in fanfic and what really did happened on screen. The characters have become more rounded, with a full back story to complete them, and not just Tara -as has already been said- but also Willow, a character that depended a lot from the beginning on Alyson Hannigan's acting habilities. If you think about it, Willow and Tara's story and background was told mainly with touches, looks and smiles.

I can mention two *bodies of work* that have enriched my view of W/T, one being Katharyn Rosser's "The Beginning's Cycle" and the other Sassette's "Vignettes". Others, like Tulipp's wonderful "Terra Firma", gave me aspects of the characters and their relationship that *rounded* them and some new stories, like DMW's "The Dark Rose" showed me a lot of possibilities and made me think of the whole story retrospectively. As it happens to you, when I watch W/T on the TV I watch this creation completed by fanfic and not just the show's writers doing. It enhance the feeling of *knowing* these people whose life you follow on TV.

Once more, darkmagickwillow, you've set a very interesting issue There's a very good article about it called "Filling in the Gaps: Fans and Fan Fiction on the Internet", by Sue Hazlett, which I strongly recommend.

Sea

[the vamp nurd]

Once More, With Bitterness.

Will some one please tell me where I can find it???? [The vamp nurd looks desprate].

Woops, bad spelling.

"Tara's the vixen I'm fixing steal her damn she's fine."

That line summons up Fan fic for me.

[darkmagicwillow]

Sea, thanks for the article reference. I liked the idea of fanfiction harking back to an earlier era of oral storytelling, where there was no clear boundary between author and audience, with the audience participating in the creation and modification of stories instead of being only passive listeners/readers. One of the wonderful things about modern computers is their production and communication capabilities, allowing the audience to once again participate in creation.

However, our laws are designed to prevent the reworking of stories in this fashion, though I'd love to see a season 6 done right fan movie in the spirit of The Phantom Edit, the version of The Phantom Menace sans Jar Jar. However, we do have the written word to use to make things right with canon and overall, I prefer it to television.


Edited to add: Thinking of memories from fandom, I can recall in Superstar how Tara's friends Jo and Dani helped her and called Willow after they found Tara in the janitor's closet, hiding from the monster. And I can almost remember how they helped her again in season 6 after she left Willow, but you know, Triscuit hasn't even written that part yet!

[darkmagicwillow]

If anyone could suggest a more clear or obvious name for this thread, please let me know? You can just post or you could darkmagickwillow@yahoo.com.

[Sakti]

Hey Kitties!

I was wondering if any of you filled out the Buffy survey being conducted by a prof at Rudolph Mackin Uni.
You can find the survey in Willow and Tara's Room Links.
Apparently, this prof is examining how TV affects life, and/ or how experiences of the world affect interpretations of Buffy.
She is also examining the specific fanbases of Buffy characters, like right now there are Spike questions up, but she indicated that Willow and Tara would be next, so if any of you are interested in tell her how you fell about W/T, or Buffy in general, go check it out.

[Katharyn]

Edited out cos I am an ass.

Katharyn

[Tulipp]

This is such a compelling topic....

What you said in the first post, DMW, about the READER being a participant in fan fiction, is so important. Of course, it is a writer who might--with the conceptual help, often, of a beta reader or two or three and/or chat buddies--come up with a story idea, dialogue, images, shades of characterization--it is really the reader who has the power to say "that is more canon than canon" or "that isn't canon at all."

And that's a tricky operation because the actual text of canon is fairly limited. But I bet many of us share some canon-ish sense of who Willow and Tara are that has more to do with OUR viewing of the characters on TV than with what TV actually presented us. And so there's a canonical "reading" or viewing as well as a canonical "text" or tv show. If that makes any sense.

I still do --and always have--evaluate fics on the basis of how true to the characters as they were originally *suggested* are. Even in AU fics, I think characters must be recognizable as themselves. But this involves a complex operation because as a reader and a watcher (although I have not been watching for awhiel now), my "canon purity" test has more to do with what I see when I watch than with what was shown to me.

And hence the problem for me: a good fanfic story discovers something about a character that I know to be true when held against the original characters, but I am the one who gets to say who the original characters are.

There are so many fics that I have loved that it's hard to even think of starting a list here, but if I did start that list, it would contain most of the people who have posted in this thread.

[darkmagicwillow]

You're so right about the text of canon being limited, both in the amount of it as well as in all of the nonverbal interaction that's not detailed in the script, which is even more subjective than text, allowing a wider range of interpretations. However, I think you've hit on a truth that holds no matter how we view the characters:[quote:cf17c33611]

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a good fanfic story discovers something about a character that I know to be true when held against the original characters

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[/quote:cf17c33611]Finally, your sig illustrates the confluence of fandom and canon very well for me, as I don't know whether Willow said "Just call me the computer whisperer" in an episode or in a fic. People quote both in their sigs here, which in itself is an indication of fandom becoming canon.

[darkmagicwillow]

Was the difference between dark and light magic ever mentioned on the show, especially in season 6? I've read so many fics that talk about this that I'm no longer certain, but I can't recall it ever being discussed. Overall, I don't like how most stories deal with this as they slip in the addiction idea from Wrecked which I never could accept as canonical because of its sudden, unexplained appearance in that episode.

If fan fiction can add things to what we accept as canon, can it also subtract from canon as well?

[sam7777]

I don't think that fanfic can subtract from canon because each fic is it's own separate world and vision. You can pick and choose what you like. This is one of the reasons I prefer fanfic to canon for the buffyverse. Fanfic can create a world where W/T are the stars and are in character, have actual sex and live happily ever after. I can still enjoy fanfic while I gave up on canon last season.

ME never bothered to explain magic IMHO. I see ME using magic as a writing crutch when they can't think up a way to get out of a situation or want folks to act a certain way without taking the time to build it up in the stories. I have seen a much more consistent and better use of magic in fanfic.

[darkmagicwillow]

It's true that each fic has a separate vision, but they occur in a shared world created by someone else. One essential subtraction that Pens authors often remove from the Buffyverse of course is Tara's death. It's become canon for me that Tara's alive and well through reading fan fiction that's made me gradually forget the later events of BtVS.

[sam7777]

I thought you meant subtract in it's negative sense where the fics subtract from the integrity of the shared world.

I see fanfics as adding to that shared world and surpassing it when I no longer care for the world presented by the creator. I think the fanfics add Tara to a new version of the shared world that goes beyond the Buffyverse. I no longer care about the Buffyverse by the creators. I prefer the new version created here in pens. Here Willow and Tara are alive, happy and in character.

[darkmagicwillow]

It sounds like you're precisely the type of reader/viewer that I'm talking about here, Sam. Have any particular stories or scenes superseded the Buffyverse versions for you from how W/T met to how they ended up living happily ever after at the end of season 6?

[sam7777]

There are several alternate version of how they met that have superseded the ME version for me:
W/T Season 3 Y'all by Justskipit
Angels and Goddesses by Blue Athame1
Red Ace by Nika
Point of Origin by Magrat
Final Exam by Tommo
Camp Flutie by Rane

And especially the following which I consider to be alternate versions because we see their first kiss, intimacy and first time making love:
Season 4: Behind the Scenes by Spikeme4now4200
Edge of Silence by Triscuit
These pretty much supersede the on screen series canon for me.

As for happily ever after, anything fanfic that has Willow/Tara together supersedes canon for me but here's a few:
Unexpected Consequences by Lisa Countryman
No Matter Where You Go and There you are by Dark Wiccan
Encounters and Journeys by Magrat
Holiday Fic 2002 by Katharyn and Forrister

I find I don't really want to read many fics that take place using series canon after season 5 though I have read a few based on season 6. I absolutely won't read any fanfic set in the current series canon. Period. For that reason I avoid sites that have fics set in that canon and stick to Pens and Extra Flamey for the most part. I simply prefer the Willow/Tara-verse as created by fanfic authors at Pens. The nice thing about fanfic is that you can choose your own "canon" and aren't stuck with one "vision".

[justin]

One thing that I've always been curious about is the way Spike and Tara are shown in fics.

What I mean is that in lots of stories Spike thinks of Tara as being his favourite scooby whereas in the show he always seemed closer to Anya (since they have a lot in common)

So is it a case of the writers thinking everyone loves Tara (which is understandable) or is it due to something else?

[darkmagicwillow]

Sam, I agree with you about Triscuit's Edge of Silence, and not just for the in-between-scenes glimpses of W/T's relationship. It goes above and beyond what most fanfic does and creates a whole world of characters who must have been around Tara as she went to university. It's become so much a part of canon for me that I've been tempted to use Jo and Dani in my own fanfic as canonical characters.

Justin, I'm not certain where people get the Spike/Tara friendship from, as the only interactions that strike my mind are him hitting her in Family and her teasing him about what he thinks is his secret affair with Buffy which was really funny. Anyone else?

Edited to add: Where do people get non-canon relationships from? Some of them, I can see hints of in the text like B/F, while others I can see the show actively avoiding. Ever notice how few Buffy/Willow friendship scenes there are after Willow discovered Tara or even how few Willow/Riley scenes there are after Buffy and Riley get together?

p.s.: Will Shetterly, husband of author Emma Bull who wrote the wonderful fantasy novel War for the Oaks, has an interesting quote in his blog which shows a fan taking canon into his own hands: "For me, the canonical BUFFY ends with Buffy's death at the end of season five, and the musical is a pleasant piece of apocrypha."

[darkmagicwillow]

Sorry about the double post, but you see, there's really another post in between these two. It's just in the Tempus Fugit thread where [b:a7a391f141]lipkandy[/b:a7a391f141] wrote:[quote:a7a391f141]

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Tara and Willow in Final Exam, Terra Firma, Dumbsaint's Vixens (one of the first fics I ever read), The Dark Rose, Doppelgang Redux or even something as out delightfully out there as Cataclysm Cafe (where they aren't even Willow and Tara!!!)really flesh out these characters and make them live beyond the restrictions of the show. they they've made them more real.

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[/quote:a7a391f141]I found this point about the restrictions of the show interesting, as I think that's one of the keys to something become more canon than the original series. Television has a lot of restrictions, including needing to make money, network censorship, and the audiovisual medium itself, that fan fiction lacks. They do share one interesting similarity--a multiplicity of writers.

With the number of characters it has, BtVS can't focus on Willow, Tara, or any other non-title character (except Spike) in the way that fan fiction authors can. Is this one of the reasons that people write fan fiction? Would it be different if the show were based more-or-less equally around three main characters like Charmed is? What other freedoms does fan fiction have that make it better than the original TV or the novelizations?

p.s.: Since I did mention Tempus Fugit, I should add that to my list of fics where Willow and Tara are more canon than canon, though it's difficult to explain why in such a short space. Read the story and you'll understand.

[tommo]

Hmm, having read a lot (yes, probably far too many) of the Buffy novelisations, I'd suggest on a lighthearted note that fanfic writers have the benefits of decent beta readers. I can't tell you how many mistakes I've spotted in Buffy books. And it ain't gettin' any better...

However, that's a really interesting discussion point, DMW. And damn you! You've finally pulled me into this thread. Gah.

Speaking from a personal point of view (so please, feel free to call me Little Miss Thinks She Knows It All), I've always loved the freedom of fanfic, mainly because I get to explore the more intimate side of Willow and Tara's relationship. There's really no censorship in fanfic; which is one of the things that I do like, but also one of the things that distresses me, I think. Most fanfic writers have free reign to write whatever they like and present it in this recogniseable form with names that we know, even if the characterisation does leave something to be desired.

However, that freedom means that you get to "fill in the gaps", so to speak. I've been thoroughly impressed by the number of fics that go back to situations we only saw a snippet of in the actual show, and they embellish and enhance scenes that we really liked. The advantages of that generally mean that we gain a fuller sense of what really happened, but in a plethora of different ways and times and interpretations. For me, that's just one of the great ways that Pens writers get to show off their individual styles and, overall, I think it tends to throw up really interesting takes on familiar situations.

And um, I'm not sure any of that made sense. Sorry. It's been one of those days...

[JewWitch18]

wow, this is a wicked good discussion thread. go, kittens. we are a thoughtful bunch aren't we? anyhow, two stories that profoundly override cannon for me, and which haven't been mentioned yet, are lisa countryman's Unexpected Consequences and lipkandy's Tempus Fugit(S7). I don't want to repeat everything that's already been said, but for me what's compelling and utterly true about these characters is what shines through in these stories (not to rehash the debate that went on in the TF thread...) so when I think about tara, abstractly or on the show, I see the woman whose strength shines through every crucible, whose heart and mettle carry the scoobs through the most painful and frightening places they find themselves. when I think of willow, I see a woman with a much deeper understanding of her choices than the willow that ME tried to pawn off on us these last few seasons; to me, good fanfic is all about the liberation of these characters from the confines that their creators have pressed upon them. I don't imagine anything "set" about them other than their hearts; and our girls, all our scoobs, have radiant hearts that are just begging for a chance to shine. I get so much out of a story that lets buffy find her way back to her humanity, and faith, too. the things on the show that I just ignore (like the obvious warren-with-gun, but also... xander leaving anya at the altar, faith coming back evil after the peacemaking, prophetic dreamscape she shared with buffy in graduation day, etc.), I ignore because they just don't ring true for me, not because I don't like them. and getting the chance to find that ring of truth, in all these different stories that really capture the essence of what it is I love about these characters...well, that's what I'm here for!

[darkmagicwillow]

[b:6bc02e0ffe]Ruth[/b:6bc02e0ffe], I get what you're saying about the freedom of fanfic, which mirrors the freedom of the internet compared to conventional TV, magazines, and books. With the conventional media, there's an editor who chooses what you can see before the story ever gets to you, though as you point out, editors don't catch everything. (Is it me becoming a cantankerous grouch in my 30's, or is fiction editing in general of lower quality than it used to be?)

However, there's the good side where you get stuff that the conventional media can't produce, not just to fill in the gaps but to create amazing new possibilities, stories like Doppleganger Redux, Tempus Fugit, and Terra Firma. I haven't read many of the novelizations, but I have read enough to notice my favorite Buffy novelization author--Christopher Golden--struggling to gain this type of freedom by setting his books in the past before the show (his Spike and Dru book) or creating an alternate universe.

And of course, there's the way out there ideas like focusing a whole set of stories on the Cheese Man, who long ago created the unbeakable line of chosen Cheddars through his mystical moldy might, but no one would write that, right?

[b:6bc02e0ffe]JewWitch[/b:6bc02e0ffe]: Hey, I mentioned both those stories! But they're two of my favorites so I'll let you get away with it just this once...(-; Seriously, it's great to hear your thoughts and I'm glad you brought up truth of characterization. I'd like to use a metaphorical image I borrowed from Neil Gaiman to use in a dream segment in my story The Dark Rose:[quote:6bc02e0ffe]"W-who are you?" Tara stammered.

"I'm you," the other Tara said, her mouth broadening in that lopsided smile that Tara knew as her own.

"You're me?" Tara asked her double, feeling foolish as she did so.

"That too," the other Tara agreed with a sparkling laugh as she held up the clear crystal to the window. She rolled it in her fingers, letting it glitter and sparkle as different facets caught the light.

Fascinated by the display, Tara stared into the gem. In every facet of the jewel, Tara saw a different reflection of herself. Each was her, but subtly different, like the other Tara who held the stone. As each facet caught the light, it showed her a new version of herself.

"See how each facet reflects the light in its own unique way?" the other Tara asked. "You could almost believe that the facet was the gem," she added in a reflective tone. "But it's only a part of the jewel." She looked significantly at Tara.

"What are you saying?" Tara asked herself. She was puzzled but calm. Somehow, looking into the jewel had calmed her heart, allowing her to accept the presence of her other self here.

"Don't you understand?" the other Tara asked as she pulled the leather cord over her head. "Every facet is unique. There is a time for each to reflect in the light, but time after time, the jewel remains the same." She handed the gem to Tara.

Tara almost gasped at the warmth of the stone as she took it from herself and placed it around her own neck, accepting the responsibility of holding it for now. "I think I understand," she said, nodding to herself.

"Good," the other Tara said to her with a smile. "It's your turn to shine in the light."[/quote:6bc02e0ffe]I hope you don't mind the long quote, but for me, this is the essence of characterization. Each story, both canon and fanfic, has a chance to show a difference facet of the jewel that is the character of Tara. Good stories show you a new facet that you immediately recognize as part of the jewel, while bad characterization is when the reader rejects the facet show to them as false, a piece of an imitation stone that doesn't compare to the original.

Of course, it's up to every reader to make his or her own judgement on what's true and what's not, but I think there's a broad consensus on this, which lets us see Tara as being truly herself even in the greatly changed circumstances of AU's far from the Buffyverse.

[Garner]

This is a really interesting thread and it was definitely a great idea to start. It would have been harder to address before season 6, when I would have said that it was obvious that the show was canon and the fanfic, though much of it good and interesting, was still basically supposition that some agreed with and others didn't. It's season sux that really makes things difficult, since it did suck so badly, and really violated the essence of the characters. Can canon do that? I would say no and therefore the show ventured into supposition and the category of being nothing more than a fanfic itself. If I had been beta reading the scripts for that I would have raised holy hell about how out of character just about everyone was and that they needed to remember what show it was they were writing and who the characters were.

That being said none of the fanfic I have read, or written for that matter, strikes me as being canonical. Some of it has been very very good. I particularly like Mike of the Nancy Tribe's Endless, and I have liked some of the characters introduced, I have loved some of the insights of the lost sequence style, both Rane's Velvet Chain or Spikeme4now's stuff (though I am afraid that degenerates into too much smut for me) but I just can't see them as canon. Possibilities for sure, but I tend to leave it there. I guess I see fanfic as more true to the essence of the characters and the original canon then where the show went. Be it smut, fun adventures, touching stories, filling in the blanks that we missed, or even well thought out alternate universes, I prefer those that could have been on the show, that could have been episodes or canon, but just weren't due to time limitations or this not being the W&T show.

Well enough ramblings. I wouldn't say fanfic has superceded canon exactly, but it certainly has superceded the show and kept W/T alive, and that's the most important part for me.

Garner