[Contains random
spoilers from all over the series, and novels as well.
Read at your own discretion.]
What is a canon obsessive/nitpicker?
Glad you asked that. That is the point of this
essay. A canon obsessive is one who obsesses over
canon, to put it in a rather obvious fashion. Canon
isn't primarily a literary term; it's more of a fan
thing. This definition of canon usually applies to
fandom because canon is here defined in opposition to
something I like to call "fanon," assumptions based on
fanworks like doujinshi or fanfiction. Canon sometimes
centers over the technical aspects of a show, usually
the intricacies of the magic in Slayers, or the
mechanics of the spaceships in Star Trek, though it
may encompass more general aspects of the show. Many
of these fans entertain themselves by finding episodes
where the creators themselves contradict canon.
You too, could be a canon obsessive: Signs of
canon obsession.
You have read everything on the inverse.org
database, all of the novel summaries and related
miscellany, and participate on the inverse.org
messageboard, including the discussions about the
nature of the LoN.
Bonus points if you cause these discussions to become
heated.
You've memorized the entire contents of inverse.org
and QP's Site
You start reading a fic, and groan when the authors
start mucking around with the basics of the Slayers
world, introducing new gods, new types of magic, etc.
The question of the novel/anime contradiction
continually forms a stopping point in your online
discussions
You write in to complain that to fanfic authors that
they have violated Slayers magic principle 50002.
You spend time making a website like this. [send
in more, if you like]
One two three four, let's have a flame war!: The
Hot Topics
Here, ambitiously, I shall attempt to condense
various online debates about Slayers.....
Most of them boil down to Anime v. Novel,
Extrapolation, Problems of Taking Worldbuilding too
Seriously.
I'm not going to address romance here, because I've
dealt with it in other essays. Suffice to say that for
the anime, G/L canon, Z/A canon, Filia single canon.
In the novel, Filia doesn't exist and Z/A I'm quite
unclear about.
And here we go:
What is the LoN really like? Does she have a
gender?
She's supposed to be quite mysterious. Apparently,
she created the worlds, but wants them destroyed by
the mazoku because she is lonely and wants them back.
But she created the dragons to oppose mazoku, so
perhaps she doesn't? Let's just say that a) this is
unclear b)the LoN is the manifestation of chaos, so
possibly she can contradict herself as much as she
pleases. Note that according to the novel, the reason
why the LoN wasted Phibrizzo at the end of NEXT was
because Phibrizzo fired at her when she was inhabiting
Lina, annoying her.
She usually appears as a blonde woman in eyecatches
and in the openers of the anime. And she appears as a
woman in the novel freetalks, where she bosses around
the author and Shabby. Does this mean she really has a
gender? Who knows?
Is Xelloss gay? Do Mazoku have genders?
Let's answer the second question first, because if
you think about it, the first hinges upon it. Mazoku
are noncorporeal beings, meaning that they do not have
bodies. They appear to reproduce through a process
like budding, with only one parent. That means that
even if they were corporeal beings, they would have no
need for two sexes. Besides, they don't have bodies,
which means that they don't have sexual organs or
gametes. So this means that they do not have genders.
If Mazoku do not have genders, then Xelloss cannot be
gay, because he would have to have a gender to be
attracted to those of his own gender. There you go.
Is there going to be a fourth season of Slayers
anime?
No. Non. Nyet. Iiee. Next question.
Who are Luke and Mileena?
Novel characters. They travel with Lina and Gourry
after Zel and Amelia go off.
Is Gourry really stupid?
It depends how you define "stupid." What is
generally agreed upon is that he's probably pretending
in the novel, and just doesn't know that much about
magic and stuff that Lina does know about. In the
anime, Gourry has to be ignorant so Lina can explain
things to him and the audience. Gourry most definitely
has great sword skills, but one could argue that he's
memory deficient and doesn't know much about magic. On
the other hand, he's definitely done a lot of things
that simple horse sense would tell someone not to do,
like looking under Filia's skirt in TRY or asking
irrelevant questions at dangerous moments. But perhaps
this question doesn't make much sense in and of
itself....perhaps it makes sense that sometimes Gourry
does things like figure out Xelloss is a Mazoku, and
then do something foolish, because it's comedically
justified. Slayers doesn't operate under strict
realism of psychology, so I'd advise to define stupid
as you wish and classify Gourry accordingly.
Which side is stronger, the Mazoku or the
Shinzoku?
'Nother can of worms argument. Obviously, Slayers
spends so much time on humor and wacky adventures and
things blowing up and character interactions that we
sadly don't get enough unambiguous descriptions of the
magical system. <sarcasm> But the following
facts are known: That Shabster and Ceipheid basically
defeated one another, which ended in Shaburanigido
being split into seven parts and Ceipheid into the
four gods. But the four gods are still around, except
for the water dragon king, who was defeated by the
five Mazoku lords (who apparently are not part of
Shabby, but entities in their own right) and 1/7 of
Shaburanigido. Someone even did the math for
this.... If you take the novel, two parts of
Shaburanigido are ruined and one part imprisoned, two
Mazoku lords are ruined, and one banished to the
astral plane for awhile. But on the other hand, 1/4 of
Ceipheid is ruined, and Ceipheid doesn't have any
nifty lords. Argh. Let's just say this is one of those
that you don't need to know the answer to to enjoy the
show, and one of those that causes flamewars.
Canon and Fanfic: a short note and plea for
plurality
In one of my other essays, I discussed why fanfic
cannot be unimpeachably canonical. So what is the most
vital part of canon? Is it in the facts or is it in
the tone? Where is the dividing line between
permissible liberty and "not being Slayers anymore?"
Goodness, could these questions be devoid of the
certainty which we enjoy finding in canon? Could they
possibly be a matter of personal preference rather
than derivable fact? Could fanfic be something
ultimately having to do more with the audience than
the original work, or some compromise between the two?
And could we also say the line between those must also
be drawn by the individual? Who knows?
Send more in, if you like.....
Vital Sites for the Nascent Obsessive may be found
under the Info section of my Links
page.