This is something I've pondered a lot about over the last few years. In ancient times stories mostly belonged to societal mythologies, and no one really "owned" a story. Stories changed and Evolved over time, and their creators were often uncredited. As time went on works of art became more closely associated with their creators. It was taken for granted that the creator had the last word over what their work meant. Copyright laws came into being, and most artists owned their work. Later there was a push against this. It was felt that the audience could decide for themselves what a work meant to them, and this was just as valid as why the writer said. Nowadays, however, with IPs often belonging to massive corporations, it can be said that they get to decide what's canon. Hence why watchmen is being incorporated into the DC universe, FF7 got multiple spinoffs, dark souls got an unnecessary sequel by a different group of people, and the alien franchise has a million different contradicting pieces of lore from multiple different writers and directors. This raises an interesting question. Who decides what's canon anymore? Could Alan Moore declare before watchmen non-canon, since he created it? Does DC make that decision since they legally own it, even though they only care about making money? Do we get to decide that for ourselves? Or is the very concept of "canon" outdated in a world where canonocity can change in a moment? What do you think?
