Non-canon stuff you liked more than canon?

[Ihateregistering1]

Understood: 'canon' can obviously be somewhat arbitrary and open to interpretation.

Now that we've got that out of the way, what are some examples from established universes and IPs (be they video game, books, TV shows, whatever) that are considered non-canon that you like a lot, maybe even more than the actual canon stuff? For me:

Fallout: Tactics:
-I loved the look of the new Power Armor, it just looked sleek and cool and almost regal (which makes sense considering only the highest ranked Brotherhood Knights are supposed to get it).
-I liked the look of the cold-weather Deathclaws: they actually looked like funky genetic amalgamations instead of basically just looking like giant lizards.
-I thought the weapons had phenomenally cool sound effects and looked more realistic. Plus the MEC Gauss Minigun.
-I liked how the Supermutants looked like giant mutated humans whose bodies had a melted and disfigured look to them. I always thought the Supermutants in other Fallout games basically just looked like stereotypical fantasy Orcs minus the tusk teeth.
-I also liked the midwest Brotherhood faction. Some people said they made them too benevolent, but they were basically just trading protection for supplies and recruits, and their decision to allow mutants, ghouls, and even Deathclaws in their ranks made sense considering how underpowered they were, but also just generally made the BoS cooler (something about guys in power armor fighting alongside Super Mutants and charging Deathclaws with Ghoul Snipers is just too much fun to pass up).

So Escapists, what non-canon stuff did you like even more than the original source material?

 

[Aerosteam]

Might as well get the Mass Effect 3 Indoctrination Ending out of the way and say that's my choice. It just... makes too much sense.

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

Dragon Ball G*gets knifed in the back*[small]t[/small] - I like the Super Sayian 4 transformation (looks cooler than the canon progressions and dosen't have a horrible name), the traveling to different planets of the early episodes that was reminiscent of the original series, and the final villains being basically the dragonballs themselves. The problem was the whole execution of the story, with anyone not named Goku or Vegeta getting shoved to the side, and some characters not getting proper closure. (Also, TFS's Dragonball Z Abridged has basically become my preferred version of DBZ. Screw Kai and its lack of the Faulconer soundtrack.)


I think the old Sonic show (known as SatAM by fans) is a better story than most of the games with plots heavier than "Robotnik/Eggman is up to no good, stop him."


There's a proposed Alien 3 script floating around the interwebs that is sort of cheesy (It has a new breed of xenomorph that can spread by infecting hosts with spores.), but sure sounded better than what movies the franchise would latter get. It was set on a massive space station and focused on Cpl. Hicks leading the survivors. The only bad thing is Ripley and Newt have to remain in cryosleep (for some reason) and are shipped off to safety before the bad stuff happens (since Sigourney Weaver did not express interest in returning to the franchise at the time the script was written).

 

[Ambient_Malice]

I prefer Vivendi FEAR timeline to the "canon" Monolith timeline.

 

[FPLOON]

Han shot first...

Other than that, the whole Sonic 06 reference that appears in Sonic Generations is actually from an alternate Sonic timeline where, within our universe, its gameplay and story would have been GOTY material in general... Also, Axel from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories says "one hell of a show" to himself...

 

[Drakmorg]

Does Knights of the Old Republic count now that Disney has declared the entire Star Wars extended universe non-canon? I'm going to say it does because I can't really think of any other examples.

I watched all the Star Wars movies originally when I was too small a babby to appreciate them, so their effect is pretty much completely lost on me at this point. KotOR though, I completely and fully appreciated the entire time, as by the time I had finally gotten around to playing it, I was capable of doing so.

 

[FalloutJack]

Ah, Tactics.

The saner Fallout fans who aren't screeching idiots from NMA probably have some issue resolving Tactics into the core universe because of various issues of events in-game VS events in-core-games. For instance...while I have nothing against Fallout Tactics, didn't they do a Cheyenne Mountain situation with a robot army much like the case of Terminator movies, yet Skynet is a Fallout 2 character from the Sierra Army Depot you can get plugged into a Brainbot? Plus, Brotherhood Central would've had to clash with the Legion, I think. None of this is a problem for me, as it IS a nice game, but there can be a bit of Wild Mass Guessing, I know.

Anyway, onto the subject at hand...

I think it goes without saying that most Star Wars fans have raised a middle finger to Disney about the Expanded Universe. It was alot of material and those guys simply washed their hands of it. I remain skeptical on their material, expecially about their desire to crank out movies yearly. I like Star Wars, although I am not as much the fan as people that I've known who adore it. Still, I have enjoyed my own romps into it. I enjoy playing my assassin in SWTOR. I like the way my version of Darth Nox turned out.

It also goes without saying that the Nobody Dies verson of Neon Genesis Evangelion is far more entertaining, though that is not a game...

Lastly, and due to my considerable ego, I must point out that I run the Enclave WAY BETTER in the Wild Wasteland RP here on the board than the ones in the games do!

 

[major_chaos]

Magus523 & Erico are two fanfiction authors I love. While both of them are guilty of some typical fanfiction tropes and Magus especially scatters in some absolutely cringe worthy pointless references (Castlevania meme in my Metroid story? Fucking why.) but I'll take their versions of StarFox/Metroid/Megaman over the limp nothing of the official cannon any day, warts and all.

Seriously, if you grew up on Megaman, just read Whispers in Time and try to not get the feels.

 

[Zhukov]

Uh... I once read a Knights of the Old Republic fan fiction (by a published author) that I enjoyed way more than anything in the actual game.

Does that count?

 

[Dr. Crawver]

Indoctrination theory, and darth jarjar (unless that one turns out to be true. Fingers crossed)

 

[The Raw Shark]

Lotta Star Wars here so I'ma just say these.
I really like The Old Republic, but honestly I kinda wish they stayed the hell out of the Knights Of The Old Republic stuff. HK coming back? Sure, I'm cool with it, but outright washing away our own characters kinda cheapened everything.
And now there's the knowledge that my Old Republic character is just a "Meh" across the timeline of Star Wars also pissed me off.
But if I had to talk about another Star Wars thing, it'd be that I want Starkiller back in some way, shape or form.
While I did immensely enjoy the first Force Unleashed game, with the second one being a 7/10 for me (First would be a full 10 honestly since I'm really forgiving of its shortcomings), it effectively being declared non-canon does lend its way to being ripe for a return in some way.
I mean Sam Witwer still does Voice Acting for Star Wars, and he did a damn fine job with it too. C'mon, why not bring Galen back? I mean he doesn't have to be the Star Wars equivalent to Kratos like he was before but at least make him like he was in the Star Wars novels. None of that clone stuff either, kill him off at some point or keep him around (I'd prefer that honestly) but at least bring him back.
Speaking of clones, why not do something about Republic Commando as well? That was also an extremely good game that the Star Wars franchise would have really benefited from being expanded upon.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Uh... I once read a Knights of the Old Republic fan fiction (by a published author) that I enjoyed way more than anything in the actual game.

Does that count?

you either disliked the game or that was some *damn* good fan fiction. Do you remember what the name of it was, if it's apparently better than the game, I'd sacrifice my thanksgiving leftovers just to read it.

OT:

it seems star wars has been covered in this thread, so I'll chime in with the me3 indoctrination ending as well...just leagues better than what was given.

There are plenty of non-canon things I like, but it's hard to say if any of those I would prefer to the canon material...

 

[Zhukov]

Uh... I once read a Knights of the Old Republic fan fiction (by a published author) that I enjoyed way more than anything in the actual game.

Does that count?

you either disliked the game or that was some *damn* good fan fiction.

Bit of both. Probably more the former though.

Do you remember what the name of it was, if it's apparently better than the game, I'd sacrifice my thanksgiving leftovers just to read it.

Oh, I can do better than a name. I can dig up a link. Gimme a minute.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/5759101/1/On-Being-A-Sith-Lord

That writer also has a some thoroughly amusing Neverwinter Nights 2 stuff, something based on an anime that I know nothing about and... ohhh, a new Dragon Age one. Huh. Didn't know she was still writing them.

 

[Roboshi]

This Darth Jar-jar theory just came out of nowhere and while I find it ammusing it just seems like the classic "I hate this character therefore he's a secret villain". Just like how "I live this villain therefore he's a secret hero/anti-hero" happened to Bobba Fett, after all he when from the guy who carted han solo's body around to the last in the line of a noble warrior people.

The ME3 indoctrination theory is also another in a long liek of crap theories, onlythis time it's a retooling of the "it was all a hallucination" theory, and just he final step in the biggest case of fan bitching we have seen in years.

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

Does it count if it's my theory? Because I like my "the world was rocked with disasters/gigantic black hole ship exploding and evil alien overlords capitalized on circumstances to sell themselves as saviors and #notallaliens in the aftermath of X-Com, therefore old X-Com are now the "terrorists" trying to free a humanity that has accepted virtual alien domination based on a lie"

over "jokes on you, X-Com just lost last game, try again."

 

[Ihateregistering1]

Ah, Tactics.

The saner Fallout fans who aren't screeching idiots from NMA probably have some issue resolving Tactics into the core universe because of various issues of events in-game VS events in-core-games. For instance...while I have nothing against Fallout Tactics, didn't they do a Cheyenne Mountain situation with a robot army much like the case of Terminator movies, yet Skynet is a Fallout 2 character from the Sierra Army Depot you can get plugged into a Brainbot? Plus, Brotherhood Central would've had to clash with the Legion, I think. None of this is a problem for me, as it IS a nice game, but there can be a bit of Wild Mass Guessing, I know.

Out of curiousity, I googled "Cheyenne Mountain Fallout" and the only references I could find regarding it were in Tactics.

Geographically speaking, I think they can make it make sense. Tactics takes place largely in the northern midwest (basically from the Cheyenne Mountain complex in Colorado to Chicago) so, especially with the Rocky Mountains acting as a buffer, they'd be largely separated from all the stuff going on with the Legion, NCR, the west coast brotherhood, etc. The thing with the Calculator is a little different than Skynet, it was set up as being a computer that was in charge of a bunch of machines, but glitches in the system caused it to activate protocols that were supposed to happen if a foreign power was invading the US, so now it began to think of basically everyone as a foreign power and is running around killing everyone.

 

[FalloutJack]

Ah, Tactics.

The saner Fallout fans who aren't screeching idiots from NMA probably have some issue resolving Tactics into the core universe because of various issues of events in-game VS events in-core-games. For instance...while I have nothing against Fallout Tactics, didn't they do a Cheyenne Mountain situation with a robot army much like the case of Terminator movies, yet Skynet is a Fallout 2 character from the Sierra Army Depot you can get plugged into a Brainbot? Plus, Brotherhood Central would've had to clash with the Legion, I think. None of this is a problem for me, as it IS a nice game, but there can be a bit of Wild Mass Guessing, I know.

Out of curiousity, I googled "Cheyenne Mountain Fallout" and the only references I could find regarding it were in Tactics.

Geographically speaking, I think they can make it make sense. Tactics takes place largely in the northern midwest (basically from the Cheyenne Mountain complex in Colorado to Chicago) so, especially with the Rocky Mountains acting as a buffer, they'd be largely separated from all the stuff going on with the Legion, NCR, the west coast brotherhood, etc. The thing with the Calculator is a little different than Skynet, it was set up as being a computer that was in charge of a bunch of machines, but glitches in the system caused it to activate protocols that were supposed to happen if a foreign power was invading the US, so now it began to think of basically everyone as a foreign power and is running around killing everyone.

Oh, this I know. I was just pointing out the doubled-up Terminator references, given that Skynet was a super computer in charge of a military base chokedto the gills with robots, including the big ones with the miniguns and missle launchers. No doubt the Calculator was called such because Skynet was taken, but it's still odd.

 

[Fox12]

I read a fan theory about an anonymous background character in Madoka Magica that everyone has named poor-chan. Apparently she's the only character in the school who takes notes on paper instead of on a laptop. Fans have evidently created a long backstory for her character, wherein she's a homeless orphan that digs through trash for school supplies. This makes me smile.

Also...

Spoiler

The Bible's a pretty good read : P

 

[suitepee7]

I'll make another Star Wars addition, the Old Republic novels I really enjoyed, and I adored the Darth Bane trilogy. Also

Might as well get the Mass Effect 3 Indoctrination Ending out of the way and say that's my choice. It just... makes too much sense.

Yeah, I personally prefer the indoctrination theory, and I play the games and purposely ignore evidence that suggests it to be untrue. I just prefer it.