Bored at work, so here is another Fandom Take, on the subject of "canon".
How much does canon matter? Well, for the most part- as much as you want it to. We are out here making fanwork, after all. But let's talk specifically about canon and continuity in large franchises such as comics, Star Wars, and Star Trek.
These are fandoms which have existed for a LONG time. Decades. Fandoms for which multiple timelines exist and within those timelines are many, many different writers and artists who all have different ideas about how to interpret the characters, or who want to introduce new characters, or who want to bring back old characters. Many of them being fans like us.
For some such franchises, it's very difficult to consume ALL the media created for that franchise. Especially in comics- look at the Bat fandom alone!!! Do you know how many Batbooks there are at any given time? The answer, as a Batfan, is WAY TOO MANY.
Well, because a lot of the time you will get people who are very insistent on their version of canon, and they argue. And the fact is, you could go into the franchise and pull out examples that will back up nearly any argument you want to make.
Jason Todd was a circus performer? There's canon for that.
Jason Todd is a smoker? There's canon for that.
Dick Grayson was fired as Robin? There's canon for that.
Dick Grayson quit his own damn self? There is ALSO canon for that. DC has told the "how Dick quit Robin and eventually became Nightwing" story a dozen times, each time with something different.
And because DC Editorial is seldom able to COMMIT to something (or, if we are charitable, because it doesn't want to put too many limits on how a writer wants to interpret a character), good luck figuring out which of those things is canon NOW, in the current continuity, with soft reboots happening every few years.
So, if you see someone with a take on a character not to your liking, remember this before engaging: their fandom experience may be different than yours. They may have been exposed to the character differently. They may have read different things or played another game.
Maybe there's someone who has only played the Arkham games, so their version of Jason Todd has a J carved into his cheek and was never dead.
Maybe there's someone (me) whose first exposure to Roy Harper outside of cartoons was in RHATO.
Maybe there's someone whose only exposure to Damian Wayne is through the DCAMU.
Maybe there's someone who writes Harley and Ivy exactly the way the Harley Quinn cartoon does. Or, maybe the way the Arkham games do.
Maybe there's someone who likes the Earth One backgrounds for characters, and has Martha Wayne have ties to the Arkhams.
None of these people are wrong. You can engage with them in constructive discussion, you can choose not to interact. You can even tell them that their take is bad if you're feeling spicy- but you HAVE to understand that they might be coming from a different place than you.
TL;DR: Canon is a construct within a construct. Please develop some chill.
