NemZ wrote:Not at all. In fact, even being a native English speaker I agree; all that expanded universe stuff might as well not exist.
So, then, how do you propose a fandom deal with the chasm between those who embrace all of these extra details and are willing to reconcile them with the original work on a priority system, and those who want to simply ignore them and feel free to debate with complete disregard to those materials? No agreement at all results in the kind of utter madness and fruitless, circular tangents one sees in debates between scientists and creationists -- the discussions get nowhere because both parties have completely different rules of debate that they're following. You can see how thread hijacks of a philosophical nature happen fairly often because of this.
Also:
A: "I have a theory that Eva-04 is pink."
B: "What? We know what Eva-04 looks like. It's silver."
A: "We never see Eva-04 in the show. Therefore, it could well be pink. With ribbons."
A: "I think that the Black and White Moon were built by the Atlanteans."
B: "Wait, what? They were made by aliens. First Impact happened because the Black Moon smashed into Earth after the White Moon had already arrived. This is also why we're the false--"
A: "It's not in the show! I don't have to believe it! There could be alternate explanations for all of that!!"
A: "Rei's soul being that of Lilith is a bunch of hooey. I have this theory that--"
B: "Are you on crack? Everything in the show points to it. Besides, all the supplemental stuff says--"
A: "THE SHOW NEVER STATES IT, THEREFORE ALTERNATE EXPLANATIONS ARE VALID AND DESIRABLE!"
I'm caricaturing a bit, but, really, I think a total disregard for everything outside of the show, and an inability to compromise within a community setting, leads no where particularly productive.
Legendary wrote:If anything, one would think this argument would be better directed at things like Kaji's or Pen^2's backstory, both of which originate in the manga that Anno didn't make.
Some of the stuff Sadamoto has put in the manga, like PenPen's backstory, were salvaged from original story plans -- so, on account of us knowing that, those details get a bit of leeway. We ended up putting the manga on Tier 4, and it works out pretty well.
The old "What is Canon?" page could probably use some cleaning up, but it's something a lot of the people in this thread need to see, I imagine.