What's your personal canon (again)?

[dprez]

Hmm lets see, it might be limited compared to some of you guys.

- The Manga
- The Anime, and every part that in no way contradicts the manga, this includes Bardock: Father of Goku,The History of Trunks, and certain filler. None of the movies. Those are all in there own universe. Although, this does not mean that a few of those movie characters couldn't somehow exist ( like Coola ).
- Certain ( early, lol ) statements by Mr. Akira Toriyama regarding power levels and what-not.
- About 90-95% of the Daizenshuu guidebooks.
- The Death of Muten-Roshi according to Toyble's Dragon Ball AF. I loved this so much, this is how Roshi died!
- To go accordingly with the above, A Hero's Legacy works just fine for me as the true final chapter of Dragon Ball.
- Dragon Ball Online's story is, I think amazing. The plot is so cool, so certain elements like Goku and Vegeta one day flying off to fight to the death on some barren planet, is for sure in my personal canon.
- Dr Raichi seams ok with me, even though we never see him in what I consider canon, I really like the idea of him.
- The new, extended and altered couple of pages to the final chapter of the manga by Mr. Toriyama, I loved that.

All I can think of right now.

- For now I exclude his other works like Dr. Slump and Sand Land simply because I don't know a whole lot about them. However, Dr. Slump seams like it should and could fit, somehow... since we saw Penguin Village and the gang in the manga.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

You can't include both the manga and Trunks' special.

You can't dictate that... what are you, the canon police?

But there really is no way for both of them being canon, since in the manga, Trunks was a Super Saiyan from the beginning, while in the anime he became one when Gohan died.

[dprez]

You can't include both the manga and Trunks' special.

You can't dictate that... what are you, the canon police?

You can include both if you're like me, and just exclude whatever part of the anime contradicts the original source. Whatever happened during the Trunks special that does not contradict what we see in the flashback chapter, happened, if you ask me.

[Dorexx]

I really try to avoid using the word "canon" because so much confusion and ignorance comes with it; it shouldn't even exist in the first place in the realm of fiction, except maybe when dealing with out-of-universe things, only; It makes no sense to me to say "that is non-canon and that is canon" to mean "that didn't happen and that did happen" (in the story); in the realm of fiction, anything might have happened or might have not, always. Anything you see or read about the story could have happened somehow. People say, for example, "SSJ4 never happened because DBGT is non-canon"... What if SSJ4 did happen, and didn't happen...? Just like Goku died because of a heart disease, but also didn't die because of that heart disease? What we learn from DBO happened, and DBGT happened. We don't need to take absolutely anything and say "this didn't happen". Canon =/= timeline.

I wish this damned word would just disappear from existence. I can't remember how many times I've seen discussions being ruined because of it; if someone asks "what happened to Broli in Trunks' future universe" there's always that one guy who comes in and says "the movies are non-canon", and everything stops or turns into a silly debate where no one wins. It would've been such an interesting conversation...

In short, everything can exist in-universe and there's no reason for it not to.

That aside, I consider the entire events we see in the three anime series, specific movies and all specials to be in one timeline, plus other things that I haven't decided what they are yet, such as alternate events of events that happen in movies which are not part of this timeline. Another timeline consists of the entire events from DB, DBZ, their specials and specific movies, and DBO, with potential alternate events of events from DBGT. Another timeline is the timeline where Trunks comes from. Another is an alternate timeline of that timeline, where Cell comes from. etc. Timelines that are extremely similar influence each other; in other words, for example, in DBZ Movie 2, alternate timeline, Goku and co. battle Dr. Uiro and Kotchin, then in the main timeline those events don't take place, but the Tsumitsumbri Mountains, the snowy location where it happened, still exist on DB Earth. (and Urio is still trapped under the snow, or not; maybe something else entirely happened) Same with everything else. In DBO, stuff from DBGT exists, but the exact events don't, and vice-versa. It would be a fun discussion to determine what and how things from a timeline exist in another timeline, or what caused the divergence of a timeline.

[penguintruth]

As far as "events as they actually occured", I tend to consider the original run of the manga to be the most "canon". To the point where if the guide books contradict the reasoning of the manga, they're wrong. Second is Toriyama's personal answers, though it's shakey because of his forgetfulness. This means I consider the bits Toriyama says about Birisu and Kaio to be canon. And even Tenshinhan's farming and Yamucha's host club.

As far as "how a character should sound, what music is the music of the animation", my "canon" is the first runs of DB/Z, with the TV specials. But this is still slightly less canon than anything in the original manga.

The only DBZ movies I consider "possibly canon" is Movie 9, and not just because I really want it to be (but that's part of it), the Super Jump Special, and possibly the new one.

Then there's "filler than doesn't outright contradict the logic of events in the manga", like Gohan's adventures while training with Piccolo, Goku falling into Hell (the first time... the later stuff is bullcrap), flashbacks to King Vegeta storming Freeza's ship, etc.

The least canon are DB movies 1-4, DBZ movies 1-8, 10-13, and Episode of Bardock.

[Tyro]

If you're gonna debate you have to draw your lines in the sand somewhere. You have to have a common ground on which you can both agree is fair and unbiased. That's why it's difficult to come to an understanding when the concept of canon is growing ever foggier and everyone's opinion is as good as anyone else's. I, personally, want to have just the facts, as close to, and not straying far from the source material as possible. IMO this makes for the cleanest starting ground when things like battle powers get brought up. Battle power fights spawned the canon debates afterall. But cutting so much of the series out like that from the get-go leads to poor discussion and is often not fun. But alas, to me in terms of canon, there is the manga and then there is everything else.

[Hellspawn28]

You can't include both the manga and Trunks' special.

You can't dictate that... what are you, the canon police?

Having the Trunks special be canon to the mang won't work since Trunks was already a SSj in the manga which didn't happen until Gohan dies in the Trunks special. How can you have them be both?

[Tullece]

My Canon:

The Manga, Trunks special, Both Bardock specials, Yo Goku and friends return! special and DBZ movies 1,2,3,5,6,7,9,12,13 and Battle of the Gods.

[FortuneSSJ]

Canon:

(The manga of course)

Trunks special, Both Bardock specials, Yo Goku and friends return! special (wish this one wasnt because i refuse to believe that midget is vegeta brother. To me he will always be the only son from King Vegeta. But now thanks to BoG these one its cannon) DBZ Movie 13 and Battle of the Gods.

[OutlawTorn]

My personal canon is very simple:

Whatever is depicted within the pages of the manga is canon for the manga.
Whatever is depicted within the episodes of the anime, including the Bardock and Trunks specials and the much maligned filler, is canon for the anime

That's about it, really, unless it can be corroborated by the source material, anything brought up in interviews or generally outside of the Dragon Ball production is just potentially interesting information but in no way canon, regardless of the source.

[bleed0range]

Pretty much for me I consider both the manga and anime canon... although the anime differs a bit it is still trying to follow the main story toriyama wrote. I consider the jump special and battle of gods canon since they are both creations of toriyamas (his general idea for the story) and attempt to follow the manga/anime.

Its a tough call on movies 1-13 because they mostly do not fit into the story of the manga/anime. So I'd probably go with a no on those. The trunks special I do not count even though I'd like to but bardock I do count since toriyama wrote him into the manga.

GT is similar to the 13 movies but ultimately I would say no because toriyama didn't have much involvement outside of character designs and a general starting point.

DB Online is a game and it is obvious to me that its timeline and whole general concept is not what toriyama would write if it wasn't within the confines of a mmo. It has some nice ideas here and there he might utilize but the explanations for races and all that make it too gamey. So I can't consider it canon to the main storyline.

Plan to eradicate... no.

[MarCas92]

My personal Dragon Ball Canon:

The Manga
Toriyama Interviews (except anything he says that is obviously wrong because of his famous forgetfulness).
Yo! Son Goku and his friends Return
Battle of the Gods
The Bardock Special
Anything in the Anime Series that is a direct adaptation of manga and all other material in the anime that doesn't create inconsistencies/contradictions within the manga or itself.
The Daizenshuu (with the same exceptions as the anime).

[Ringworm128]

Everything is cannon in my book, just in different timelines/dimensions. There's the main timeline that starts from The Bardok TV Special and ends with Goku flying off with Uub (Movie 9 is included). After that there are two timelines, one where Battle of God's happens which leads to Dragonball Online and one where it doesn't happen which leads to Dragonball GT. There are also the movie timelines, Movie 1 leads up to a timeline where Freeza never goes to Namek and Goku is able to get to Namek, beat Vegeta, and bring everyone back which leads to Movies 2-4. After that there is the timeline where Goku get's back from Allia early which leads to Movies 5. After that Goku and co are able to beat the Andriods before Cell shows up which leads to Movies 6 and 7.

[TheMightyOzaru]

Main canon:
-Manga
-Battle of Gods
-Bardock the Father of Goku
-Heya!! Son Goku and his Friends Return
-Guide Books
-Super Exciting Guide
-Toriyama tidbits
Possible canon based on multi verse theory:
-All 13 Movies
-Dragon Ball GT

[AnimeMaakuo]

Cannon?

[Ringworm128]

Yes my cannon, it will destroy all fan theories.

[Hellspawn28]

I find personal canons stupid. I also hate it when people add fan fiction as their own canon and use it in debates. Fan fiction not being canon is pretty self-explanitory. After all I can say that Goku from Dragon Ball ZKEO can destroy a universe by powering up as a SSj3104 because it's my person canon.

[Insertclevername]

I understand that using fanfics in debates are stupid but why is it dumb to have something fan created in our canons? It's just fiction. No need to read it like religious text.

[Saiga]

I find personal canon pointless, even more so when you add fanfiction to it. Something doesn't need to be canon to be enjoyed, so you don't need to consider something canon because you enjoy it. So I'll never understand why people do outside of using it for in-universe debates & discussion.

[DBZ Mick]

The manga if anything.