Only speaking of Star Wars here, but there is actually a proper system for how canonical some of the EU material is. Wildly-AU works don't count as canon, but unfortunately even some of the worst of the books *cough*Crystal Star*cough* do count as canon.

See our wiki article or the Wookieepedia article for more details.

Ahhh... Stupid after-series. With some, it's not so bad, but with popular series and classics, it can get pretty bad.

Curiously enough, LOTR has never gotten that treatment. Probably because LOTR practically defines fantasy. You just can't do anything more. With Dune, though, it just went way too far, and don't even get me started on Star Wars. Prequels, sequels, alternate-historequels... Ugh. Little more than published badfic. I'm surprised there aren't lame AUs and Bad Slash books.

I agree with what Cliever said; they're a divergent canon that includes the original but is not included in the original. Unless they're just horribly, disgustingly lame--then they're in a category all their own, specifically for despising. Like the later Dune spinoffs. And most of the Star Wars spinoffs.

Specifically with the upcoming Xcom FPS, which is supposedly somehow connected to the X-com top-down turn based isometric squad tactical game. I think what irritates me most is that it is inexplicably set in the 1960's with the main character being an FBI agent. Mostly because I see no possible reason for that change.

The general consensus was that if they're published, they're canon, but it's a sort of splinter canon where it might include the originals but the originals don't include it.

Basically, unless the badfic specifically includes the unofficial sequel, it can be safely disregarded for the consideration of missions. For instance, a 'Love Never Dies' badfic must consider 'The Phantom of the Opera,' but a 'Phantom of the Opera' badfic does not necessarily include 'Love Never Dies.'

I'd say it's pretty much up to each individual fan what's part of canon and what isn't. What troubles me personally is Sherlock Holmes published fiction. A lot of authors seem to use Holmes' name as a crutch to get their borderline fanfiction published, and I don't feel that's appropriate.

I once read a Holmes novel entitled "The Seven Percent Solution." I went in assuming that was a reference to the eventual solution to the crime, but it was actually referring to Holmes' frequent use of a 7% mixture of cocaine in water. The novel is a crossover with real-life Sigmund Freud, who psychoanalyzes Holmes (who is a worse addict than he ever was in the original stories) to uncover the mommy issues that keep him a bachelor and led to his substance dependencies. My real problem with the novel is that it implies Moriarty, the admittedly never-developed villain of the Holmes-verse, to be a common math professor; Holmes has subconsciously imagined all his criminal activities, probably because Moriarty was romantically involved with Holmes' mother or something. Freud eventually convinces Holmes to seek treatment for his drug use, prompting Holmes to ask Watson to publish a false account of his death temporarily to avoid attention (which is implied to be "The Adventure of the Final Problem").

"The Seven-Per-Cent Solution" annoyed me because it basically sought to undo part of the established Holmes canon (and because Freud, whose beliefs I hate vehemently, was in it, but that's not important right now). On the other hand, I've also read another piece of published Holmes literature called "The Einstein Paradox," which used the vehicle of Holmes (and Professor Challenger, another Doyle character) solving mysteries as usual as a backdrop for explaining quantum physics mechanics. Despite the educational intent of this book (which was even used as a textbook for my high school's AP Physics class), I absolutely loved reading it, because it remained true to the main canon, and really did read remarkably like an original Holmes story. (I highly recommend it to any Sherlock Holmes fans; the author is Colin Bruce.)

So to finally get around to the heart of this discussion, this extra published fiction is very similar to fanfiction: sometimes, it's good, and we enjoy it becomes it fits well with the canon; other times, it's bad, and makes us cringe because it doesn't jive well with the parts of the canon we remember and love. In those latter cases, we just have to accept that those publications do exist, but that we can choose to ignore them. I don't think it's even worth getting angry about, because, as we, of all people, know, there will always be bad writing. We just have to keep ourselves busy with the good stuff.

My apologies for the long rant.

Saying that rage isn't justified would be like telling me I'm not allowed to be angry about environmental damage just because people enjoy driving cars.

Things like Lost in Austen and Pride and Prejudice and Zombies make me furious, and half the fandom discussions nowadays seem to be about whether new additions to canon are 'official' or otherwise good enough. Everyone has their own opinion, and I don't see why something truly upsetting should be suppressed. Of course you have the right to be angry.

...it depends how bad the story is. I mean, in Doctor Who, a lot of people got mad at the eighth Doctor TV movie and don't count it as canon because they said a lot of things that contradict established canon. But a lot of people do count it, and think it was good.

I suppose it is justified if the characters are really OOC, i.e if it were fanfic, we would class it as Bleepfic-or-even-worse. That way, regardless of canonicity (is that a word?) it is still bad because the author clearly knows nothing about/disrespects that particular canon. Also, they must have a reaction with more than just you if they are as bad as you say, so a section of the fandom do not like it or indeed class it as canon.

I will admit I raeg fireballs at certain profics. I flat out gave up on the Star Wars books after Barbara Hambly's... thing and the absolute crap R. A. Salvatore pulled from his a**. I refuse to touch anything beyond the original Dune books (Kevin J. Anderson seems to be one of those who pops up in EUs that suck). I once read a sequel to Pride and Prejudice that I'm sure would make Austen spin in her grave.

I don't consider profics as part of the canon. I could say I would if the author/creator has given approval to someone else continuing his/her works, but some of the time that creator is dead and their works get nasty things done to them for the sake of making money.

The PPC as a whole may consider them canon, but I'm not wasting any more of my money or time on crap churned out by the likes of Kevin J. Anderson, Dave Wolverton, etc. (Although, I might consider reading William Shatner's Star Trek novels just for the amusement. XD)

Long story short, I totally understand the rage. It makes me feel better to ignore the existance of works that defile canon. -_-

Feel free to dismiss my idle chatter as the merely the mumblings of someone who 'doesn't get' fandom. But from my perspective, nothing says that you, personally, have to accept new 'licensed' works as canon.

Alot of people were angered at the latest Star Trek movie. I honestly don't understand why. It was a fun action flick - nothing more, nothing less. There is no reason that it's existence means you /have/ to accept it as the new star trek universe. If The Next Generation is your favorite show, nothing is forcing you from saying that it's successors, or the plethora of bad movies after it were merely alternate universes. Even better, just keep in mind that fiction that is written doesn't /actually/ become reality, and just realize that if a book or movie is made that is 'official' doesn't mean you are tied to worshipping it.

Regardless, getting angry doesn't work.

But I certainly RAGE at plenty of adaptations of books that I love (pause to glare at Peter Jackson), so I would say that just because something is profic not fanfic doesn't mean that you can't rage at how it destroyed canon.

I think the closest I've come to your situation is when I heard about ALW's sequel for The Phantom of the Opera, which sounded absolutely horrible. But I was always more a fan of the book than the musical anyway. And I was disappointed by some of the recent Star Wars novels, but that's different too. (At least, I think it is.)