Boo-yah! Eligibility Post!

[ficmod]

Welcome! To the 2019 Eligibility Post!

This is the place to make your case for any canons that you know live in the gray area of "does this count as ten years old?" I will keep a running list here of the canons that I have decided on, one way or another.

When making your case, please include the canon's full name (as you would nominate it in the tagset), the date(s) of all the canon material that has been released, and your reasoning as to why I should accept it. Here's an example:

Ella Enchanted - Gail Carson Levine (1997)

A prequel, Ogre Enchanted, was published in 2018. While the events of Ogre take place in the same timeline/continuity, it follows a main character who did not appear in Ella. The main cast of Ogre is for the most part completely separate, apart from two characters (their identities being spoilers) who were extensively mentioned in Ella, but appeared only briefly in the original book. Therefore, I feel as if the two novels should be considered separate canons.

ETA 2/10/19: In cases of tie-in comics and novels, my rule of thumb is: 1. are the tie-ins well known? 2. are they by the same creators? and 3. does it clearly follow the original canon in terms of continuity/characters? If the answer is "no" to at least two of these, I won't consider them as disqualifying material. If you disagree with me about a particular judgment call, feel free to point out why - I'm not super familiar with everything, and Google can only do so much!

Reviewed Fandoms

Avatar: The Last Airbender - NOT ACCEPTED

Babylon 5 - ACCEPTED

Babysitter's Club (Ann M. Martin) - ACCEPTED

Band of Brothers (TV) - ACCEPTED

Batman Beyond (tv series) - ACCEPTED

Battlestar Galactica (TV) - ACCEPTED

Bewitched (TV) - ACCEPTED

Birds of Prey, Vol 1 - ACCEPTED

Blake's 7 (TV) - ACCEPTED

Carnivale (TV) - ACCEPTED

Cowboy Bebop (anime) - ACCEPTED

Dead Like Me (TV) - ACCEPTED

Doctor Quinn Medicine Woman - ACCEPTED

Excalibur (Comic) - ACCEPTED

Farscape (TV) - ACCEPTED

Final Fantasy VIII (1999) - ACCEPTED

Final Fantasy IX (2000) - ACCEPTED

Firefly (TV) - ACCEPTED

Gabriel (2007) - ACCEPTED

Harry Potter (J. K. Rowling) - NOT ACCEPTED

Hellsing (manga) - ACCEPTED

Highlander - ACCEPTED

Inuyasha - A Feudal Fairy Tale (manga) - ACCEPTED

The L Word (TV) - ACCEPTED

Man from UNCLE (TV) - ACCEPTED

Percy Jackson (book series) - NOT ACCEPTED

Practical Magic (1998) - ACCEPTED

The Pretender (TV) - ACCEPTED

Ravenous (1999) - ACCEPTED

Rurouni Kenshin (anime) - ACCEPTED

Sabrina the Teenage Witch (1996 - 2003) - ACCEPTED

Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena (Anime) - ACCEPTED

Stargate Atlantis - ACCEPTED

Stargate SG-1 - ACCEPTED

Stargate Universe - NOT ACCEPTED
Star Trek: Voyager - ACCEPTED

Sweet Valley High/Confidential - NOT ACCEPTED

Sweet Valley Junior High/Twins/Senior Year/University - ACCEPTED

Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (TV) - ACCEPTED
 
Terminator (movie series) - NOT ACCEPTED

Xena Warrior Princess (TV) - ACCEPTED

Young Riders (TV) - ACCEPTED

Comments

Cowboy Bebop

[bladesandstars]

Cowboy Bebop is an anime that ran from 1998-2002, with a movie that came out in 2003. Netflix has announced a live-action series, but there's no new canon as of yet.

Re: Cowboy Bebop

[ficmod]

Sounds good to me!

[kemyss]

Would the fact FFVIII got cleared mean all final fantasies without new additions post-2009 also be eligible? Because I would love to nominate FFIX, which is much the same as FFVIII, in that it's had a couple remakes available on steam and mobile, but no additions to the story. It was published in 2000.

[ficmod]

Yeah, as long as there isn't any new story, that would be fine. If the characters appear in other games/media, I wouldn't consider that as a continuation of the canon. Same goes when a game is remastered/released for different platforms - it's kind of like when an old movie gets re-released on Blu-ray or something, isn't it? As long as there isn't like, a continuation of the plot or something, then it's fine!

[beatrice_otter]

I didn't know Batman Beyond had a comic book, so I have no idea whether the two are close enough to count.

As for the Terminator series, Sarah, John, and Kyle (in flashbacks) are the only crossover characters between the show and the movies. And the basic setup (trying to stop Skynet from ending the world, future John Connor is the leader of the resistence against the machines, both Skynet and Future John sending people back in time to change things). However, a whole lot of the details are different. There are many regular characters (Cameron, Derek Reese, James Ellison, Catherine Weaver, Cromartie/John Henry) and supporting characters (Jesse Flores, Riley Dawson, Savannah Weaver, Charlie Dixon) who never show up in the movies, and lots of plot threads that don't show up either. The largest difference being the series ending: it ends on a cliffhanger, with teenage John traveling to the future in a spur of the moment decision that ends up with him in a future in which John Connor is not the leader of the resistance because John Connor wasn't there. None of these plot points or characters show up in Terminator Salvation or Terminator Genisys.

Bewitched and Bonanza

[karios]

Would the Bewitched sitcom be ineligible because of the 2005 movie? I wouldn't think so, but it seemed worth checking.

Similarly does the Ponderosa series disqualify Bonanza TV? If I wanted anyone of the follow up movies, should I nom those separately?

Lastly, as a more general question: do you mind if prople nom even if they are unsure about signing up?

[mkrobinson]

Baby Sitters Club

[originally published 1986-2000]

There was a prequel that was released in 2010 (after which some of the first books were reissued) and there are intermittent graphic novels released (these are comic interpretations of original series books).

I would like this series to be considered regardless because the bulk of the canon was released prior to these dates.

[mkrobinson]

Sweet Valley High [1983–2003]
Sweet Valley Twins [1986-1999]
Sweet Valley Junior High [1999-2001]
Sweet Valley Senior Year [1999-2003]
Sweet Valley University [1993-2000]

Though there was a "sequel" to the original series that was released in 2011, followed by a series of e-book novellas, I believe that at the very least Twins, JR High, Senior Year, and University should not be disqualified. The continuation was nominally a sequel fic to SVH, and barely follows canon established in that series, let alone in the others

Re: Bewitched and Bonanza

[ficmod]

Bewitched is fine! Even if I did consider the movie the same (it isn't - totally different characters), that would still be under the ten year mark anyway.

Ponderosa (the series) is still under the ten year mark as well - same goes for the TV series released, so all of that is eligible. I'll leave how to nominate up to you - if you believe they're all part of the same continuity/canon, then you can nominate them together or separately - whichever you feel is most appropriate.

And - sure! Go right ahead. :)

[ficmod]

So both this one and Babysitter's Club are, technically speaking, disqualified by the prequel/sequel novels that you mention here. I'd consider making an exception for Babysitter's Club, since the novel is just a few months over the 12/31/09 cut off date, and it also is just one novel. But the Sweet Valley books were still being written by its original author, following the original two characters, all the way up until 2012. Can you explain a bit more as to why you think they should be considered as a separate canon?

[ficmod]

I'll look into Batman Beyond and get back to you.

With the ending (plus with the Jeremy Bearimy-nature of time travel fiction), I'm okay considering the show separately. If it ends on a significantly different track that contradicts the movies, then in my book, I'm going to say that's a different continuity.

[mkrobinson]

I think that Sweet Valley should be considered a separate canon because the continuation novel and the ebooks following that are the only books in the Sweet Valley books that are written by Francine Pascal. Prior to her deciding to write Sweet Valley Confidential, she had never written a single book in any of the series, they were all written by a team of ghostwriters, sort of like Carolyn Keene.

(https://www.npr.org/2013/03/07/173722518/lifting-the-veil-the-secret-lives-of-ghostwriters) and (https://www.thehairpin.com/2012/08/how-your-sweet-valley-high-gets-made/).

In addition there was a 8 year time period between the last SV book being published and the SVC book being published, between 2003-11 there were no Sweet Valley books published. It was also made clear when SVC was published that it was only considering the main series (Sweet Valley High) canon, which is why I was hoping to nominate the other series independently of SVH if nominating them all wasn't possible. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Valley_High#Sweet_Valley_Confidential)

However I understand if you can't make an exception to either book series.

[ficmod]

First of all: this is wild! I literally just had the time of my life reading those links. What an odd phenomenon.

Secondly - I'm okay with accepting Babysitter's Club. With this series - a weird duck indeed - I think considering the different series separately is a good compromise, if you're okay with that. So considering 'Confidential' as a continuation of 'High,' that would disqualify those books specifically. But if you nominate the other ones - 'Junior High,' 'Twins,' etc. - I'll accept those.

[mkrobinson]

I agree, it's a very odd phenomenon.

Okay, yes that works for me. I appreciate you being willing to accommodate me in this regard. I am absolutely okay with not nominating the SVH series but nominating the others separately. Thank you!

Stargates SG-1 and Atlantis

[mlravenwrites]

Both SG-1 and Atlantis' TV and film runs were over before 12/31/09, but there have been novels released more recently. I'm pretty sure that the novels count as obscure, but I definitely could be wrong.

Re: Stargate Universe, I'd argue that it has a sprinkling of cameos from SG-1 and Atlantis characters, but its principle cast is entirely different.

Re: Stargates SG-1 and Atlantis

[ficmod]

I'll definitely consider the separate shows as separate canons. All part of the same continuity but they're pretty distinct casts, so while Universe would be ineligible, SG1 and SGA are definitely old enough.

Since the tie-in novels/comics are by different creators, and significantly less well-known than the tv shows, I'm okay accepting them as separate.

[(Anonymous)]

I am curious about Babylon 5. After the main canon was The Lost Tales, which were TV movies he said he wanted to put in the original canon but couldn't.

Then separate spinoff shows were Crusade and Legend of the Ranger, both of which were quick and then done.

But I am not aware if there are B5 comics still in production and didn't find reference to that so far. Curious your thoughts, since I can nominate 6 things and this might be my fifth.

[kangeiko]

I was going to propose Babylon 5. The Lost Tales was the last of the canon and it came out in 2007 so I'd assume both Babylon 5 and Crusade would be eligible. (Legend of the Rangers was 2002 and AFAIK only a pilot episode with a different cast.) There's nothing fictional in the B5 universe in production, nor has there been any for some time - JMS frequently answers Qs about various options on his twitter to basically say WB have the rights locked down tight & hate the show so they're basically refusing to let anything be done to it (like sprucing it up for a Blu ray or doing a spin off).

[ficmod]

Anything that ended before 12/31/09 is eligible. Babylon 5 and any spin-off movies all fall well before that date, so it's fine.

[ficmod]

A show having spin offs or comics at all doesn't disqualify it. All that material you mention ended before the cut-off date of 12/31/09, so it's acceptable.

[kangeiko]

I have a few I'd like to argue for, please. I've already mentioned Babylon 5, above.

The others from my list are:

Man from UNCLE - the TV show. If I understand the FAQ correctly, this should still be eligible despite the reboot film?

Blake’s 7 - there is the Big Finish audio, but I'd argue that it's not as widely known, and in a different medium (radio plays) which I'd argue are the same principle as tie-in novels. Other qualifying fandoms (e.g. SG-1) also have Big Finish dramas so I'd argue that for consistency B7 should also be qualifying.

Xena - although there are comics, they are less well known and I don't think they're considered part of the canon / a formal continuation of the show, but are a tie-in.

I think my remaining nominations are a bit more cut and dry!

[kangeiko]

That's great to hear, thank you!

[ficmod]

Correct - the film version features different characters. I'll accept the TV show.

I'm alright accepting Blake's 7, and the Xena comics that came out post-2009 are iffy as far as continuity, I agree, so I'll accept that as well. Thanks!

[kangeiko]

Yay! :)

[fhionnuisce]

Cool! Thanks! I don't know why I was logged out, but the longer query about B5 was me.