Canon

The comic book Spike: Shadow Puppets parodies the concept of canon by showing Spike with a literal "Official Cannon".

“Official Cannon is so complicated. So many people with so many opinions!”

―Puppet Fred

In terms of works of fiction or fictional universes, canon describes works that are considered more important or more "real" than others, i.e. "official" works. While the canonical status of non-television works set in the Buffyverse isn't always clear, the fictional universe's creator, Joss Whedon, has defined others as definitely canon.

Definition

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Buffyverse creator Joss Whedon has implied that only material he was directly involved in can be considered canon.

Using the religious analogy of a canon of scripture (see Biblical canon), things that are not canon are considered "apocryphal" . When a body of work is not specifically accepted or rejected by an authority, 'canon' can be a fluid term that is interpreted differently by different people. This is the case with 'Buffyverse canon', which has yet to be publicly defined by an authority to the satisfaction and consensus of all observers. Joss Whedon, has implied that additional materials he was not heavily involved in creating are separate from canon. When asked in an interview about canon, Whedon stated:

"Canon is key, as is continuity. If you are massive nerd. Which I am. I believe there's a demarcation between the creation and ancillary creations by different people. I'm all for that stuff, just like fanfic, but I like to know what's there's an absolutely official story-so-far, especially when something changes mediums, which my stuff seems to do a lot."

Whedon elaborated on his opinions in an interview with TV Guide; he revealed that he considered TV tie-in comics to be "ancillary" unless written by the script-writers:

TVGuide.com : “Have you seen the Battlestar Galactica comic ?”

Whedon : “No, I don’t think I can do it. I love Battlestar too hard. I couldn’t look at any ancillary work.”

TVGuide.com : “I love Buffy "hard," so are you saying we fans shouldn’t read [Season Eight]?”

Whedon : “No, because if they stopped doing Battlestar Galactica, and then two or three years later Ron Moore and David Eick said, "We ourselves are going to continue the story in comic-book form - as opposed to something ancillary to the show done by other people," then I would be all over it. People used to say, "Will you make a Buffy movie like The X-Files did ?" I was like never, because while the show is going on, the show is my only priority. That’s not to say the Battlestar comic isn’t great, but I love that show the way other people love Buffy. I love it unreasonably. [Laughs] It feels wrong.”

The "Season Eight" and selected other comics are distinguished from normal ancillary material by the fact that the Buffyverse's creator was directly involved in their plotting and production.

Confirmed canon

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel

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The Buffy the Vampire Slayer television series established the Buffyverse canon.

Both television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel are canon, and are the primary sources of canon in the Buffyverse.

Comics

The Origin

The Origin was a four-part comic series written by Christopher Golden and Dan Brereton which details Buffy Summers' calling as the Slayer before she came to Sunnydale. Based on the non-canon film, it brings the story more into line with the continuity of the television series; for example, Buffy burns down her high school gym, an act mentioned in the show which never occurred in the movie. Joss Whedon affirms the story's place in continuity though not without some reservation:

"The origin comic, though I have issues with it, CAN pretty much be accepted as canonical. They did a cool job of combining the movie script (the SCRIPT) with the series, that was nice, and using the series Merrick."

Fray

Fray is Joss Whedon's first canonical story outside the television medium.

Fray is an eight-part comic series written by Joss Whedon himself. The story is about a Slayer of the future named Melaka Fray and her discovery of what being a Slayer means. Fray is the first appearance of the Scythe, a significant weapon which later appeared in Buffy the Vampire Slayer season seven. This is only instance in the Buffyverse where elements from the comic books have crossed over into the television series.

The canonical Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight featured a crossover with Fray in the story "Time of Your Life".

Tales of the Slayers and Tales of the Vampires

The comic book anthology series Tales of the Slayers (a separate entity from the book series Tales of the Slayer) and Tales of the Vampires are largely accepted as canon. They were written by writers of the Buffy and Angel television shows. Joss Whedon told a number of tales for these comic series. Other writers include Amber Benson, Ben Edlund, Jane Espenson, David Fury, Drew Goddard, Doug Petrie, and Rebecca Rand Kirshner.

Stories from the Tales series have been referenced in Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight; "Wolves at the Gate" is partly a sequel to "Antique" which sees Xander and Dracula reunited, while "Time of Your Life" uses characters and locations introduced in the Melaka Fray story "Tales". Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Tales of the Vampires is a one-shot issue of Tales which ties into the larger Season Eight storyline.

As noted above, the anthology series Tales of the Slayer are unrelated to these comics and do not share their canonicity.

Season Eight

Buffy Season Eight continues the canon narrative of the television series into the comic book medium.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Eight is the official continuation of the television series, plotted and co-written by Joss Whedon. In 2005, Whedon announced the series on Whedonesque:

"Speaking of Darkhorse Comics, they are starting a new Buffy comic, and as I understand it, it will take place after the end of Buffy and Angel and be canon in the Buffy world. And I understand it that way 'cause I'M WRITING IT."

Whedon later affirmed the series' canonicity, stating:

""We could do something and for once we could make it canon. We could make it officially what happened after the end of the show."

Angel: After the Fall and Spike: After the Fall

Like Season Eight, Angel: After the Fall is the official continuation of Angel, and narrates the aftermath of the events shown in "Not Fade Away". Joss Whedon was involved in plotting the series, while Brian Lynch wrote the scripts. In 2007, while discussing Buffy Season Eight, Joss Whedon revealed his plans for a similar Angel continuation:

”In fact, I am talking to Brian Lynch who wrote Spike: Asylum about doing a sort of Season Six of Angel – a canon, post-Angel story. I was really impressed with Asylum. Brian really got the humor and the rhythms and told a story really well. I thought, “If they can do this, why shouldn’t they?"

Brian Lynch also confirmed the canonicity of the series, stating:

"Yes, it certainly is [canon]. Everything that happens in these pages officially happens to these characters. It's pretty exciting and kind of daunting."

The collective cast of Angel and Spike: After the Fall.

The four-issue spin-off Spike: After the Fall is usually accepted as canon since it falls under the After the Fall title and is written by Lynch. However, Joss Whedon is not credited for these issues as in Angel. Nevertheless, Spike is closely interlinked with the events in the Angel title, and later issues of Angel: AtF reference characters who appear in it.

Discussing Whedon's role in plotting Spike: After the Fall, Brian Lynch stated:

"The series is information and stories that were going to be inferred/referenced/glimpsed at in ANGEL:AFTER THE FALL. Spike's situation in that was one Joss and I discussed, now I'm fleshing it out and adding new wrinkles to it."

I was adamant that we get Joss' blessing on telling Spike's story or else I wasn't going to do it. He was for it, I attempted a script, at any point ready to stop if it felt like filler or lazy or unnecessary. I wasn't for doing a spin-off, but a few pages in it was apparent this was going to work beyond any Spike story we've told."

Lynch also addressed the question of whether Spike: After the Fall was canon:

"SPIKE:ATF tells a story that was going to be talked about and seen in the very canon ANGEL:ATF but instead builds on it and fleshes it out, that's pretty much canon."

Issue 23 of IDW's ongoing Angel title acts as an epilogue to After the Fall and is also written by Lynch.

Spike

Brian Lynch's ongoing Spike series is considered canon due to Joss Whedon's involvement and the fact that it ties into the "Twilight" and "Last Gleaming" story arcs of Season Eight. Brian Lynch stated on a fan forum:

”Yes, it's canon, yes, it matters, and yes, it's the best SPIKE story I've told.”

IDW writer and editor Mariah Huehner reiterated this:

"Brian's [Spike] series will be "canon" and lead up to his bug ship story in Season 8. And that's not all. So, fans needn't worry. They're going to get 8 amazing issues of Spike that'll show him as the hero he is."

Angel and Faith and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season Nine

Ambiguous canon

"Long Night's Journey"

The Dark Horse Angel comic "Long Night's Journey" was co-written by Joss Whedon. However, it is rarely mentioned alongside other canonical works, and it's canonical status is unknown. Scott Allie responded to a question about Whedon's involvement in the story and whether it constituted canon:

"Joss had an idea for how he wanted Angel to exist as a comic, different from the comic we'd done previously, and so he cowrote that one with Brett Matthews. Quite frankly, I don't know whether or not to call it canonical. We didn't really have that conversation at the time, and we haven't looked back at it too much. I would guess it's canon, but only in the same way you're guessing."

Works by Brian Lynch

Lynch references his own Spike: Asylum in the canonical After the Fall.

It was Brian Lynch's writing on the comic Spike: Asylum that convinced Joss Whedon that he would the best writer to script Angel: After the Fall. Between Asylum and After the Fall, Lynch wrote another title Spike: Shadow Puppets, which included many in-jokes about canon. These included Spike being injured by Smile Time's Official Cannon, a literal cannon.

One of Lynch's original characters from Asylum and Shadow Puppets, Betta George, was re-introduced in After the Fall as an important supporting character. Joss Whedon was a fan of the character from Asylum, and encouraged Lynch to use him in After the Fall. Other concepts from Lynch's stories are used in After the Fall, including Beck and the Mosaic Wellness Center, and both George and Spike vaguely reference events from those stories. Brian Lynch has also described the canon story Spike: After the Fall as the third chapter of his Spike "trilogy". As such, Asylum and Shadow Puppets are important and influential Buffyverse stories, but their exact timing and canonicity remain ambiguous.

“Seriously, I'm still feeling puppety. I can't go canon as a puppet. The internet is complaining about me as it is.”

―Betta George breaks the fourth wall in Shadow Puppets to comment on his own canonical status.

"I really hate... Official Cannon." Lynch parodies canon in Spike: Shadow Puppets.

Following Aftermath, Brian Lynch returned to the main Angel series for four story arcs, After the Fall — Epilogue, Drusilla, Boys and Their Toys, and Last Angel in Hell. Boys and Their Toys included yet another canon in-joke, with a science fiction fan worrying over whether a comic book prequel to the in-universe film Last Angel in Hell is canon or not. After leaving the Angel series, Brian wrote the Spike ongoing series, which is more explicitly canon due to Joss Whedon's involvement.

“There is a four-issue prequel comic book series coming out before the movie is released. Are we to believe this shall be considered canon or is it a fan-fiction toss-off? I've lost much sleep over this.”

―San Diego Sci-Fi Festival attendee

However, Lynch has stated that he personally does not put much stock in the concept of canon, and is more concerned with telling a good story:

"To tell you the truth, I don't [understand the concern over canon]. Even when I wasn't writing the characters, it didn't occur to me to think of whether or not things were canon. I understand now why people care, but I just love a good story. For instance, STAR WARS eps 1-3? Lucas says they happened, I pretend they didn't."

Angel

The canonical status of Aftermath and other IDW Angel comics are unclear.

Following the After the Fall storyline, IDW continued the Angel title as an ongoing series, starting with Aftermath. However, Joss Whedon was no longer directly involved in plotting the storyline. Aftermath writer Kelley Armstrong stated:

"I'd love to say my arc is co-plotted [by Whedon], because then I'd be able to share the blame if fans hate it. But, no, it's all mine. Sadly."

Armstrong elaborated on the canonical status of Aftermath in another interview:

"I leave it up to the reader. Yes, Aftermath is intended to be canon in the sense that it "counts" - it continues the main storyline of the series. But if a reader feels that anything not written by Joss Whedon isn't canon, I can understand that. Or if they really didn't like my story and decide to wipe it from memory, I'd be okay with that, too (well, okay with the "it's not canon" part...not so much with the "it sucked" part!) With a universe that so many writers add to, I think it comes down to the fans to decide, for themselves, what they consider canon."

Following a brief return by Brian Lynch, writer Bill Willingham took over the Angel title. After Twilight was unmasked as Angel in Season Eight, Willingham reiterated Whedon's lack of involvement in the series. He responded to Dark Horse's claims that they were coordinating the series with IDW's Angel titles:

"I am not coordinating, nor have I ever coordinated stories with Scott Allie, Joss Whedon, nor anyone else at Dark Horse Comics."

However, after it was announced that the Angel franchise was returning to Dark Horse comics, IDW commented on their website:

"Under the direction of BUFFY and ANGEL creator Joss Whedon, all parties are working together for as seamless a transition as possible. The companies have been coordinating storylines in both Dark Horse's BUFFY and IDW's ANGEL, creating a greater sense of cohesion and cooperation to ensure that this transition is true to both ongoing storylines and to the faithful fans of both series."

As it stands, IDW's Angel comics following After the Fall (including associated spin-offs like Only Human, The Devil You Know, Lorne, and Illyria) fit into the Buffyverse continuity. However, their actual canonical status is open to interpretation.

Ancillary material

Ancillary material, such as Dark Horse's original Buffy comic series, are not considered canon by Joss Whedon.

According to Joss Whedon's above definition, "ancillary" materials are not part of the Buffyverse canon. This would include the majority of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel comic books, novels, and video games.

By "ancillary", Whedon means that he was not directly involved in the creation of the story. He has discussed in an interview how involved he is in ancillary material:

"Q : How much attention do you pay to the peripheral stuff, the novels and the comics ?

Whedon : Not very much. I just don’t have time. I give them a few guidelines of things they should stay away from, things that we’re going to be dealing with or things that would disrupt the canon or things that are just antithetical to what I believe in."

Occasionally, Whedon has intervened when ancillary material clashes with his plans or opinions. For example, Christopher Golden's plans for the character Pike in the novel Sins of the Father were changed because Whedon objected to Pike's portrayal as a proactive demon hunter. Several stories have also been cancelled because they were too similar to Whedon's plans for the television series, including a story in which Oz is attracted to a female werewolf; this concept eventually became the canonical episode "Wild at Heart". Christopher Golden has stated:

"Oh yeah, well [Joss Whedon] has to approve everything. I should say, his office has to approve everything, so sometimes he gets more involved than others in doing those approvals."

Often, ancillary material will be ignored or contradicted by a subsequent canonical story. For example, the Buffy television episode "School Hard" establishes that Spike has killed two Slayers in his lifetime. The novel Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row introduces Sophie Carstensen as the second of these Slayers (the first being the Chinese Slayer). However, this is contradicted by the later episode "Fool for Love", which establishes Nikki Wood as the second Slayer killed by Spike.

Sometimes, ancillary material will even contradict each other. In the prose Tales of the Slayer story "It's All About the Mission", Nikki Wood's Watcher Bernard Crowley tries to prevent her Cruciamentum because she is pregnant with Robin Wood. However, in the novel Blackout, Bernard meets Nikki after Robin is already born.

In an interview about the comic book The Curse, Jeff Mariotte discussed the possibility that his story would be contradicted by canon:

"INTERVIEWER: There’s been some talk that the WB will produce “Angel” movies for television. If these films are made how will they impact the comic book series?

MARIOTTE: The rule in licensed fiction is that what's on the screen is canon, and the rest is not. I've done a lot of original licensed fiction — “Buffy,” “Angel,” “Charmed,” “Star Trek,” “Andromeda,” and more — and am used to that rule, and fine with it. Sometimes stuff shows up on screen that contradicts what you wrote, and sometimes the timing is such that a book comes out after the episode that contradicts it airs, causing fans who don't understand the schedule of publishing to think you don't actually watch the show. That bothers me, because I watch every show I write in, but I've also been on the other side of the fence, doing the licensing. I know how it all works and I have agreed to live with those rules.

So if the movies get made, great — then I get to see how Joss would have continued the story, and maybe they'll help the comics sell better. If not, then what I've done, non-canonical as it may be, will be the closest thing there is to canon, and that's cool too."

Discussing how he tried to avoid contradicting Season Eight in his novel Dark Congress, Christopher Golden stated:

"[T]he novels have always had their own continuity which is not the same as, but is parallel to and as similar as possible to the official continuity."

Confirmed non-canon

There are a select few works have been confirmed as non-canon.

• Buffy the Vampire Slayer (film)
• Cursed (Confirmed in a historian's note)
• The Lost Slayer (An alternate reality series)
• Wicked Willow: The Darkening
• Wicked Willow: Shattered Twilight
• Wicked Willow: Broken Sunrise (The Wicked Willow Trilogy is an alternate reality series, and is stated as such from the get-go)