TLK6NA = Semi-Canon or Fan Fiction?

[SuperBabySimba]

Please don't delete or combine this topic to the general one about this series. This is meant to be an independent topic focusing on the title's question and the issues I point out in this post. So, I know there is even couple of discussion about the TLK6A books over-all, but whenever I try to voice out my thoughts in one of those topics, it gets ignored.

If I lack some essential knowledge on the books that proves my feelings to be out of ignorance, then by all means, correct me but please give me a link to your source of information while doing so.

I just have to get this off of my heart, so that I can move on and stop making it unnecessarely an issue for myself because it doesn't really make a difference in my life. And I mean no offense to anyone.

So - the The Six New Adventures books have obviously been approved for profit purposes by Disney, but does that alone make it a confimation of a "yes, that's what we view it like, too!"? I don't think so. So - unless someone can point me to a reliable source where Disney stated TLK6A is also their view, I'd consider the books nothing more than profit fanfiction.

Either case, (semi-canon and fanon), leads me to getting more and more annoyed about that some of the fan base I've met, don't even bother to seperate the TLK6A from the actual canon while supposed to give out FACTS about the fandom!

So, pleasee take notice that I'm thinking it completely ok if you consider the books to be your personal canon and wish people to know you do, but for Heaven's sake - you ought not to make them into the canon for the entire fandom! Ie. by making up pop quiz questions and answers without mentioning that it's not officially Disney!

And you ought not to go around Q&A sites, answering people's questions with these books' information as if they were official information! "Does Simba have a son?" "Yes, Simba has a son! His named Kopa!!" NO, he does not! But there are unofficial books wherein Simba has a son named Kopa. "What was Scar's name before he got his Scar?" "It was Taka!" No, it was not. It was Taka only in an unofficial book.

There's even so completely false information going around, as something along the line: Scar's father gave him the scar in rage! ?! Someone's seriously confusing them to Zira and Kovu from TLK2. Just because that happened so in TLK2, doesn't yet mean it happened exactly the same way with Scar.

I'm complaining here because I could imagine failing to mention such quite essential matter, as in trying to make unofficial things official in everyone's eyes, is horribly misleading to those new to the fandom. And though it likely won't do any (serious) harm, it is limitting their own creativity, when it wouldn't have to be that way. Plus, I generally hate false information thrown around as facts.

I personally like the story 'A Tale of Two Brothers' alright, but I don't quite get what is so utterly fascinating about that particular fanfiction to so many? Why is it so faschinating to so many, that it's being spread all over the fandom in a claim of being hard, solid canon, when it's not? I'm probably not the only one in the entire fandom who feels frustrated about this, though liking the TLK6A story/ies.

I fell in love with the moment, when young Mufasa leapt to stand between his uncosnscious brother and the huge buffalo herd, ready to fight a battle he could not possible win. As in, him genuinely willing to give his life, just to try and save his brother, whereas the brother in time, will murder him in a similar situation. It's brilliant! BUT, it also happens to seem quite unoriginal, in my eyes for a situation wherein Scar got his Scar. And I'm not too convinced that kind of a scar can be cause by a buffalo horn. If it was just a random situation and not the scar-matter, it would be nothing but brilliant for the brothers' bond matter.

PS. In here, on the 13th page, I have asked couple of questions on the contradicting fan arts/theories on the TLKK6A books.

[KiarasMate]

I think the fact that Disney gave their stamp of approval for these books is reason enough alone to say that they are at least semi-canon. I only consider what happens in the movies to be purely canon but I have no qualms with accepting the fact that these books would be considered to be semi-canon at best. Whether Disney only gave their approval on these books to make a profit or not, it still has their name on it, thus makes it official in a way. Given, I've read much better Fan Fics that far surpass the quality of TLK:6NA but seeing as those books, along with a paw full of others, were the only ones to get Disney's stamp of approval, I have to say that they still seem as semi-canon as anything could possibly be. ^^

[Mike]

Sounds very semi-cannon to me as well I think that everything that needs to be known about TLK is found in the movies. These books here are something you can go to if you're just starved for more TLK stories, even if they're not on the same level as the originals.

[SuperBabySimba]

[quote="KiarasMate"]I think the fact that Disney gave their stamp of approval for these books is reason enough alone to say that they are at least semi-canon. I only consider what happens in the movies to be purely canon but I have no qualms with accepting the fact that these books would be considered to be semi-canon at best. Whether Disney only gave their approval on these books to make a profit or not, it still has their name on it, thus makes it official in a way. Given, I've read much better Fan Fics that far surpass the quality of TLK:6NA but seeing as those books, along with a paw full of others, were the only ones to get Disney's stamp of approval, I have to say that they still seem as semi-canon as anything could possibly be. ^^[/quote]

I don't think so. If I've understood correctly, the authors of those books are not even part of the Disney company but just childrens' book writers who write for several companies quite randomly. And as it was the general Disney that gave the stamp while it isn't the general Disney that created The Lion King - the stamp doesn't make the books official in any essential way. In order to be semi-canon the books would've had to be approved and refered to by the canon source or its makers - but they're not; They have been evidently and litereally ignored by the canon source (the movies, most purely the first movie) and denied by the film makers in 2003 on the commentary track of the DVD.

In short; the books authors are outsiders and not Disney's people. The canon source doesn't tie the book universe in itself in any way. For the last but not the least; the canon source's makers (as in the original film's makers) have denied Kopa's existence in the movie universe and by that everything about the books.
^
And thus, the books are nothing more but profit fanfiction.

[KopsTheTerminator]

I agree with SuperBabySimba on this one. The TLKSNA books were approved way before SP was released, which is why they allowed the authors to publish them. Now that SP was made, they have to deny the existence of TLK6NA because it's a totally different universe.

I still like to count the characters as semi-canon for writing purposes, but other than that, no. I don't like the theories that book has about some of the characters.

[FlipMode]

I'm calling FanFiction on that one too, although they are as canon as FanFiction goes.

[SilverSimba01]

if is semi-conon, it must be has the approval from Disney since this stories went in sale to the public

[SuperBabySimba]

[quote="SilverSimba01"]if is semi-conon, it must be has the approval from Disney since this stories went in sale to the public[/quote]

The thing is, just because something is published with the approval of the copyright owner, it doesn't make it automatically semi-canon - it just makes it public and in this case also profit, without a danger of a copyright lawsuit. Hence, it remains just profit fanfiction as long as it is not tied in to the canon source and/or approved by the canon source's makers, in this case the film makers. And those books have not been tied in or approved by them but the exact opposite of it; ignored and denied.

[Akril]

Although I don't mind TLK6NA, I don't always make an effort to make sure every bit of fan art and fan fiction I create agrees with it in every respect. I think people have gotten a bit too attached to semi-canon material in recent years, as well as theories based on semi-canon characters and situations ("Ahadi scarred Taka!" "Zira killed Kopa!").

The problem is, there are several other books that Disney has given its "stamp of approval", and they contradict the content of TLK6NA. For example, "Friends in Need", Mufasa rescues Zazu from Shenzi, Banzai and Ed when he is an adolescent and he eventually decides to make Zazu his advisor. In TLK6NA, however, Zazu doesn't start serving Mufasa until Mufasa is an adult, after his mother Zuzu became Ahadi's advisor when Mufasa was an adolescent. I also read on a Wikipedia page (now down, unfortunately) that some TLK storybooks mention that Rafiki presented Mufasa to the Pride Lands when Mufasa was a baby, while in TLK6NA, Rafiki doesn't arrive in the Pride Lands until Mufasa is an adolescent.

It's pretty much impossible to accept all "semi-canon" material. You invariably have to choose which parts you accept and which parts you don't. Some people have gone so far as to disregard TLK3 and even SP because of how much they contradict the original film. Still, I don't see any problem with people making up stories based on semi-canon material. As long as they don't run around saying that their ideas are right and somebody else's is wrong just because it conflicts with TLK6NA, The Brightest Star or some particular comic, I say go forth and create.

[SuperBabySimba]

[quote="Akril"]The problem is, there are several other books that Disney has given its "stamp of approval", and they contradict the content of TLK6NA. For example, "Friends in Need", Mufasa rescues Zazu from Shenzi, Banzai and Ed when he is an adolescent and he eventually decides to make Zazu his advisor. In TLK6NA, however, Zazu doesn't start serving Mufasa until Mufasa is an adult, after his mother Zuzu became Ahadi's advisor when Mufasa was an adolescent. I also read on a Wikipedia page (now down, unfortunately) that some TLK storybooks mention that Rafiki presented Mufasa to the Pride Lands when Mufasa was a baby, while in TLK6NA, Rafiki doesn't arrive in the Pride Lands until Mufasa is an adolescent.

It's pretty much impossible to accept all "semi-canon" material. You invariably have to choose which parts you accept and which parts you don't.[/quote]

I don't think that's a problem at all in the matter. The fact that there are so many completely different book universe views that contradict each others, is just yet another SHINING proof of how the books are nothing more but profit fanfiction (especially if their authors do not even belong to Disney's company like TLK6NA's authors apparently don't.) I mean, if Disney is approving so many contradicting views, they certainly don't mean them as semi-canon but as seperate fanfiction views.

Semi-canon has to be tied into the canon source and not one of those books are. They haven't even been approved but instead denied by the canon's creators as in the film makers. And now they apparently even contradict each other.

We are again resulting in the books being profit fanfiction and nothing more.