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

[wierdalienfantasies]

Excalibur (Comic)

First things first, there have been several iterations of the team, but the fandom tag is used to exclusively refer to the first, namely Claremont and Davis’ team that first appeared in 1988. The comic ran for over 120 issues, with the last published in 1998. Since then all the characters have appeared in other publications, but as part of different teams. There has been one “reunion” in recent times (featuring the founding five members) but nothing set in the run of the original series has been released for over 20 years.

[ficmod]

I don't see any reason why this wouldn't be eligible. Thanks for making your case!

[cookiegirl]

Hi! I'm just wondering what the case is with theatre fandoms. If say, a musical was first produced in 2007 and ran until 2008 on Broadway, but then has had a West End run and tours since, but no new material, just new performances, does that count? It's not as if anything has been added to the script/songs etc and the original Broadway cast would be seen as definitive, but there have been new casts since so, I don't know! :)

[ficmod]

Hey there - that's actually in the FAQ believe it or not! I'm counting plays/musicals by the date it was first performed, since like you said - it's (presumably) the same material regardless of how many performances there have been. Exceptions would be if a certain run or performance changed the story/plot/characters significantly, but asfaik that's fairly rare.

[cookiegirl]

Argh, I'm sorry, I somehow missed that! /o\ /o\

But, yay, thanks for that answer, I'm excited about this exchange :)

[(Anonymous)]

Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena (Anime) - 1997

The Revolutionary Girl Utena franchise spans a number of different media, but the most prominent are the manga series published in 1996 and 1997, the anime series that aired during 1997, and the animated movie that was released in 1999. Each of these depicts the same basic set of characters but takes place in a slightly different continuity.

In 2017, the series celebrated its 20th anniversary with the release of a set of 3 manga chapters taking place after the events of the series. However, the backstories referenced in these chapters establish it as taking place in yet another continuity, one which combines elements of all three of the aforementioned continuities.

I'm specifically interested in the characters in their anime incarnations, and I feel that the new material in the manga is sufficiently set apart from the anime as to count as a different canon.

[ficmod]

I'm okay with considering the anime as a separate canon from the manga. Taking only the tv series into consideration, it falls way under the ten year mark.

If someone wants to also nominate the manga, I would like to hear your reasoning why you feel the new chapters shouldn't disqualify it! (General you, not you personally, anon.)

[ficmod]

No worries. Glad you're excited, me too! :)

[marmolita]

Final Fantasy VIII (1999)

FFVIII was released in 1999. It has been re-released for additional platforms more recently, but there were no changes other than platform compatibility that I'm aware of. Some characters from FFVIII have appeared in other more recent Final Fantasy franchise games (e.g. Dissidia, Kingdom Hearts) but as the plots of those games are not at all related to the plot of VIII I believe they are separate canons.

[ficmod]

Looks good to me. Thanks!

[beatrice_otter]

How are you handling Star Trek series? Are you counting them as one large whole (in which case, no Star Trek is acceptable) or are you counting each Star Trek series differently (in which case, TOS, TNG, DS9, VOY, and ENT would be eligible, but not the reboot or Discovery)?

What about Batman Beyond (a cartoon that ran from 1999-2001)? It's different enough from the main corpus of Batman works (different guy in the suit, different time period, etc.) that it might warrant being eligible even though Batman as a whole is not.

What about Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008-2009)? The main movie franchise is inelligible, but the series has lots of plots and characters not included in any other Terminator franchise. The main characters are John and Sarah Connor, but it has lots of new characters never used elsewhere: Cameron, Derek Reese, James Ellison, Catherine and Savannah Weaver, Jesse Flores and Riley Dawson, etc. The general plotline is the familiar pattern from the Terminator movies (trying to prevent Skynet from taking over, using various time travel shenanigans) but the specific instances are different.

[ficmod]

As stated in the FAQ, the general rule is that if either the main cast of characters OR the continuity is significantly different, I will count it as a separate canon. So since most of the Star Trek TV shows follow completely new groups of characters, I would allow any of them that ended 12/31/2009 or earlier.

Same goes for comics. If you'd like to nominate a specific run of Batman, you can make a case to me on this post about why you feel it's separate enough from more recent iterations of Batman. Batman Beyond, being a discrete show with its own continuity, would be considered a separate canon from Batman as a whole. If you wanted to nominate that, though, you'd have to make a case here as to why I shouldn't disqualify it based on the comic book title of Batman Beyond, which ended in 2013.

Could you elaborate a bit more on how different the Terminator series is, and why you feel like it should be counted separately? Is it made clear in the TV show that it's not a prequel to the newer, more recent films?

Carnivale

[fhionnuisce]

Carnivale is a show which ran on HBO from 2003-2005. It was canceled prematurely. I think 5 seasons were planned. It's set in the dustbowl and involves a carnivale of people involved in an about-to-be-the-apocalypse situation. Magical realism.

Gabriel (2007)

[fhionnuisce]

A lesser known indie film from Australia, it's from 2007 and sequels were hoped for but the main actor died. (Andy Whitfield). Set in Purgatory which angels and demons are fighting over.

Ravenous (1999)

[fhionnuisce]

Ravenous is a dark comedy horror movie about a wendigo on the US frontier. It's got Robert Carlyle. It's pretty slashy.

Practical Magic (1999) (Film)

[fhionnuisce]

Practical Magic (The film) is a 1998-99 film. Sandra Bullock and Nicole Kidman are sisters involved in a battle with a spirit. It's a little bit of everything. It's based on a book but I am specifically interested in the film.

[niewanyin]

Harry Potter: book series that ended in 2007
Percy Jackson and the Olympians: book series that ended in 2009
Avatar: The Last Airbender: tv series that ended in 2008

All have additional canon material that was released in the past ten years, but they are clearly stand alone at those dates and could be accepted with the provision that anything that came out after 2009 should not be the focus nor does have to be taken as canon with those works (i.e. no major focus on the Fantastic Beasts, Heroes of Olympus and Trials of Apollo, and Legend of Korra, with no characters that were introduced in those works allowed to be nominated, nor do the requests or the gifts have to acknowledge and can in fact contradict them if wished)

Re: Practical Magic (1999) (Film)

[ficmod]

Carnivale, Ravenous, and Gabriel are all fine. Practical Magic is acceptable as long as you specify your nomination is for the movie and not the book series, which had a new installment published last year.

[ficmod]

Harry Potter is ineligible because of the Cursed Child play, which is a direct sequel that shares both characters and continuity.

Korra and Avatar would be considered different canons, since the cast of characters are so different. However, the Avatar comics are still being published now (the newest one being planned for March of this year), and seem to be in the same continuity as the original series. Can you tell me why the Avatar comics shouldn't count as new material?

And as I understand it, the Trials of Apollo is also a direct sequel to the original Percy Jackson series. Percy Jackson appears in all of the newer books as a major character, as well as several other characters from the original series (Annabeth Chase, Nico di Angelo, etc).

Unless any of this additional material differs significantly as far as 1. the main cast of characters, OR 2. the timeline/continuity, then they won't be eligible for this exchange. I'm open to hearing arguments either way.

Re: Practical Magic (1999) (Film)

[fhionnuisce]

Definitely my plan! I don't like the books

[niewanyin]

To be honest, I forgot about the Cursed Child and the Avatar comics. They are in different mediums (play instead of book, comics instead of cartoon) that the original base works which were all completed ten years ago if you think that makes a difference, but if it doesn't, I understand.

However, I see, and upon further reflection agree, about Percy Jackson.

[ficmod]

I would be inclined to make an exception if the spin-off/additional material is either very short or obscure - but these examples seem pretty extensive and well known. (Harry Potter in particular!)

[niewanyin]

Okay, I understand. Thank you for listening to my thoughts!

[doranwen]

The Pretender last aired new material in 2001, I believe. They do have a couple of novels published in the last ten years (the most recent being 2014), but those were published specifically as the rebirth of the series, not a continuation of the original series, so I think the original show should still be eligible.

[ficmod]

I'm alright with that. Thanks!