Should all questions implicitly require canon answers?

Question

In the related meta discussion Is it okay to request canon-only answers?, several users have expressed the sentiment that adding "only canon answers, please" is a band-aid "fix" or even "cheating", because it should be automatically assumed that any answerable question should be answered from canon only.

Some quotes:

To me, answers should always be rooted in canon. The only differences I find acceptable, are answers from canon, and answers based on canon - reasonable speculation backed by canon sources.

...and, in response to that comment:

"To me, answers should always be rooted in canon." - Huge agreement there. Otherwise we're inviting pet theories and fandom wishes - and as long as you have good grammar and punctuation, these don't often get downvoted like they should be. Even worse if they include a barely-related image... (cue "ooh shiny, they must be right!" upvotes)

Finally:

I'm confused about why you think adding "canon only" suddenly makes a question answerable. Adding those two magic words doesn't conjure up an answer that didn't previously exist... The objection is about whether the question is good, not about whether there's an answer to it. I don't think that adding "canon only" improves a question at all, personally, because everything those two words communicate should already be implied by virtue of posting the question.

(emphasis mine)

This belief, that the only answers acceptable are those that are directly based in canon (and, by extension, that the only acceptable questions are those that clearly only seek canon answers implicitly), is new to me.

So, in a related question to Where do we draw the line on opinion-based questions?, I'm asking:

Is our community expectation that 100% of our content be directly related to canon (both questions and answers)?

Answer 1

In general, most questions imply canon answers. They do this by stating which work they're talking about. When I ask a Harry Potter question, I'm expecting Harry Potter answers, not Star Trek answers. Harry Potter has a set of rules, characters, a history, etc. that questions use as a background. With most large canons, there are also out-of-universe pieces of documented information that can help fill in the gaps when there isn't a specific in-universe piece of data. E.g. Tolkein's letters, or interviews with JK Rowling. The general expectation is that all of a work/franchise's canon will be used to answer the question.

Are there questions that go beyond or outside of the canon? Yes, and usually those are clear. They'll state things like 'out of universe answers wanted'. Or there are works like Harry Potter that take place in a slightly altered version of our reality, so knowledge of the real world can contribute to canon answers. Or you have multiple canons, so specifying what you're asking about helps (e.g. comic book multiverses, comic book movies/TV series, Lord of the Rings film vs. books, Harry Potter film vs. books).

So my short answer to the question 'Should all questions implicitly require canon answers?' is no. There are many questions where there's an implied or explicit request for non-canon answers, or there won't be a strictly in-canon answer but we have enough information from canon to extrapolate. Good answers will explain their starting point, and how they arrive at the conclusion.

Answer 2

I say, unambiguously, "no".

There are three main concerns I have with attempting to restrict all questions/answers to canon.

1. Definitions of 'canon' vary and are subjective

2. Restricting to questions answers that are directly based on canon violates our current definiton of site scope.

3. So far, there seems to be significant support for "opinion based" content.

4. Sometimes you can't tell if a question is answerable from canon unless you happen to know the specific piece of canon which provides the answer (which can be a needle-in-the-haystack situation).

Definitions of 'canon' vary and are subjective

Demanding that all answers either be from canon, or based on canon, is problematic because how do you determine what qualifies as canon? In some cases, canon is relatively well-defined (e.g. Harry Potter). In others, canon is a sliding scale, such as Star Wars. Does "N-Canon" (non-canon, such as video games) qualify for questions/answers? In other situations, what is canon is actively disputed (e.g. for questions on the world of Dune, do the works of Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson count)? For still others, canon is directly contradictory (Douglas Adams), or from so many sources as to be difficult to sort out (Conan).

Violates our current definition of site scope

Our scope currently includes:

• Plot, character, or setting explanations

• Historical or societal context of a work

• Behind-the-scenes and fandom information

• Story identification

• Franchise/series reading or viewing order

3 out of 5 of those don't relate to canon.

Opinion-based content has support

This is both historical, and current. Of course, if consensus turns against opinion-based questions, that may change, but so far, opinion, of some to-be-determined scope, is allowed, and has been allowed.

Some examples of well-received questions that either don't implicitly ask for canon, or which have non-canon answers that are well-received:

• In what order should the Star Wars movies be watched?

• Why did the Matrix simulate 1999 instead of a pre-computer year?

• Is the basic premise of humans as a power source in The Matrix reasonable?

• Why don't muggle-born wizards use Muggle technology to fight Death Eaters?

• Was Yoda fully sane on Dagobah? (note the top answer does reference canon, but only to confirm the logic that forms the bulk of the answer; the other answers are upvoted, but don't cite canon at all).

There are plenty other examples; these are just some of the highest-voted.

Sometimes you can't tell if a question has a canon answer unless you already know the answer If a Jedi knight were frozen in carbonite, would they be able to use their Force powers? seems speculative, but has several (conflicting!) canon answers. This is frequently an issue with Star Wars, as it is such a massive volume of source material. Same for Star Trek, if you include the novels, cartoons, etc.. There are other examples where someone claimed "that can't be answered", resulting in the question being closed, only to have a canon answer provided from one or more obscure sources.

"I don't know the answer" is not the same as "no answer is possible", but it is sometimes impossible to determine the difference until someone else provides an answer.

Important distinction:

This does not excuse questions that are fundamentally a poor fit for our site. Off-topic is still off-topic. Discussion is still forbidden. What constitutes acceptable subjective is discussed further here.

Nor does this mean that non-canon answers are automatically as good as canon answers (although, in some cases, they potentially can be).

Remember: voting to close is for when something is fundamentally a poor fit for our format. Downvoting, however, is for content that is low quality. That's an important distinction.