Canon or no?

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Burning Man
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Canon or no?

Post by Burning Man »

I'm sure many people here have already voiced their disappointment that Team Silent is hardly involved with the direction for this game. My question is if we should take the story of SH0rigins as canon and incorporate them into debating the Silent Hill series, or if it's better to leave it out much like most people do with other non-canon material.

Now, at first glance, the answer seems to be an easy one. However, consider that perhaps Konami or more specifically, Team Silent one day officially states that the game should be taken as canon. Afterall, most of the non-canon material makes an effort to tell us that this is happening in an "alternate universe", but SH0rigins is different for the sole reason that it is considered a prequel that connects to the canon series.

Would we actually be missing out by assuming that SH0rigins is non-canon and reject it on the sole basis that it wasn't written by Team Silent?

Your thoughts.
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Post by amphreded »

Depends. If the game is great, then it's a canon. If it sucks balls, then obviously I don't want it to be related to SH1-4.
But in truth, I think it should be considered a canon, because it's obviously a prequel to SH1 and Konami Japan is probably fine with it to let it out into the market.
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Chris Sunderland
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Post by Chris Sunderland »

Most likely canon.
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Post by Hjartu »

It depends on what they reveal in the plot.
If it doesn't quite fit to SH1's events for one reason or another, I wouldn't consider it canon, even if Team Silent states so.
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Post by Matt S »

THat is the beauty of this, you can decide for yourself! I agree: if it rocks, people will consider it canon, and if it sucks, its just a side adventure!
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Post by Stevo »

I'm not familiar with the term "canon". Can you elaborate that so I can shed my opinion on this topic?
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Post by Lostkitsune »

Stevo wrote:I'm not familiar with the term "canon". Can you elaborate that so I can shed my opinion on this topic?
Canon means that it is actually part of the story where non-canon would be more like a spinoff and in my honest opinion I think its canon
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Post by Silent Fantasy »

just have to play the game.
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Burning Man
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Post by Burning Man »

Matt S wrote:THat is the beauty of this, you can decide for yourself! I agree: if it rocks, people will consider it canon, and if it sucks, its just a side adventure!
Quite right. Though, what I'm wondering about is if Team Silent decides to make a connection to this game in future installments of the game. Like what if, say, Silent Hill 6 or 7 has a connection to SH0rigins and it's absolutely necessary to understand the plot elements of SH0rigins to make sense of it?

At this point, we are rather assuming that the games will all have separate stories not necessarily connecting to one another. Yet history does tells us that Team Silent likes to use stuff from previous installments as a nod to former fans (or if you prefer, ran out of ideas). If they, one day, decide to follow up on the story SH0rigins, then we'll have no choice but to accept it as canon.

Whether one accepts the game as canon or not can lead up to uninteresting theoretical debates. Generally, when we discuss a theory, we are all on the same basis in that we agree on which games are canon. But if someone proposes a theory that uses plot elements from SH0rigins, would it be in the best interest for another person to simply dismiss it because he or she doesn't consider it canon?
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Post by Matt S »

Since this game is very much Konami approved, I am sure they consider it 'Canon.'

Something tells me if there are ever references in later games, they may just 'inside nods.' Remember, this takes place before Silent Hill......the current storyline has gone many many years past that, what with part 3 and all....this game represents Silent Hill's 'ancient history'
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Post by Stevo »

It might involve the cult more. Maybe itll shed more light on how it originated. And perhaps we will see familiar faces like Dahlia, Vincent and Claudia? I can't judge before ive played it.
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Post by Knick Knack »

No. The game's not even being made by Team Silent, so I'm expecting inconsistancies up the wazoo.
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Post by Droo »

If Konami says it's canon, it's canon whether you like it or not.
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Post by Chris Sunderland »

That has to be seen to be said.
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Post by Knick Knack »

Somebody saying it's canon doesn't eliminate the possibility of clashing plotlines.
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Post by Nillin »

I know people will disagree with me, but I don't think it's cannon. It wasn't written by Team Silent [if I'm correct] and it wasn't made by Team Silent. They even say if it does well they can hopefully make a sequel. If you ask me, it's nothing more than a spin-off game [series perhaps] and it shouldn't be taken as cannon unless it's stated by Team Silent.
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Post by Droo »

One could also argue that unless it's written by the same individual who wrote Silent Hill 1 that it's not canon, disqualifying Silent Hill 2, 3, and The Room.

Team Silent is a game development team, not luminaries of fiction. Is it not within the realm of possibility that a different development team can have an understanding of the series and write a good story about it?

Series evolve and change. Resident Evil's writers have changed consistently over the course of the series, and Tomb Raider: Legend was made by a completely different company, and both these examples are doing just fine.

Shouldn't we save the fanboy outcry until, well, the game actually exists?
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Post by victim21 »

and wasnt the storyline, characters etc. all made by team silent and given to that ne wteam to work from?

Or did I make that up :?
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Knick Knack
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Post by Knick Knack »

I'm pretty sure you made that up.
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Post by victim21 »

hahaha my bad.

Anyways, I will be taking the game as cannon, because I think its silly not to.
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