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Trolls Trollpedia:Policy/Canon Policy

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This wiki abides to a "canon" lore. This policy page lists all the rules related to it.

About

For those who don't understand what "canon" means, it's simply that what's said in the various related DreamWorks Trolls media is taken as "word of truth".

For example, if a character says they hate birds, such as Branch, it is taken as an indefinite truth about his character. If no official source says that a character like Guy Diamond hates birds, then it's not official and shouldn't be present on the wiki's pages as fact.

In terms of source material, all licensed media related to DreamWorks Trolls is considered a form of "canon" if only within itself. Under no circumstances is fanfiction to be inserted as "canon" onto pages. There will be inconsistencies formed throughout the franchise, due to its aiming being mostly merchandise-based; this should be noted when reading about the franchise. All material should be sourced to the best of an editor's abilities, so that it is easier to find information and fact check data.

Canon is important to the wiki, as it helps readers by establishing what the "lore" is of the franchise, allowing casual readers, new fans and old to fact check data and events they've seen in the series. This makes it easier for every reader to be brought onto the same level of knowledge quickly and efficiently, making the wiki a relaible source for this process. The canon "lore" consists of species rules of the Trolls such as power and abilities, history of their species, characters and their histories, etc.

Please be aware that as far as issues such as LGBT+ go, the canon is the final say on such matters and this issue is not up for debate. Please see this page for links in Fandom about concerns over sexuality and gender, or other identities.

Notes

DreamWorks Trolls is not the only example of non-movie parts of the franchise being only partly canon, as Madagascar is another example of DreamWorks doing the same. Madagascar: A Little Wild is set before another show, All Hail King Julien, and though covers the main 4 characters adventures, is not considered fully canon. In addition, Dragons: Rescue Riders has nothing to do with the main movie series How To Train Your Dragon.

Sometimes canon remains unclear and the wiki has tried its best to tackle issues. One such example was Trolls World Tour and its handling of the mini-Tribes Smooth Jazz Trolls, Reggaeton Trolls, K-Pop Trolls and Yodelling Trolls, as the movie wasn't clear and all were labelled "sub-Tribe". Over time this was corrected, and the wiki now acknowledges them as a proper Tribe. However, the term "sub-Tribe" has returned for Trolls Band Together as Putt Putt Trolls saw the return of the Trolls categorization. Its now understood that while these trolls are all "Pop Trolls", there are Tribes within the Tribe itself, hence the use of the term "sub-tribe" by the wiki. As for the mini-Tribes of Trolls World Tour, these Trolls are understood to be "hinterlands" and are part of the "everything in between" Trolls whose genres are found between Pop Trolls, Rock Trolls, Country Trolls, Classical Trolls, Funk Trolls and Techno Trolls.

Canon can therefore be confusing, and editors need to remember this when editing.

Rankings

Below is a list of "canon" ranking.

Please note that this id also covered in Naming Conventions.

Primary

Absolute canon lore. This is the main source of all things canonical for the DreamWorks Trolls movie franchise. It's considered above all other forms of licensed material. Anything that does not comply with this is considered either a contradiction or an interpretation.

Note that if a movie comes out and creates a contradiction with past sources in this level, it's considered a "retcon", with the current source being the "most correct". For example, Trolls World Tour information on Troll reproduction can be considered a "retcon" to Trolls or other previous 3D sources, and is yet regarded as the current "lore" of the franchise. Characters from other levels of canon can move into this layer, for example in Trolls: Holiday in Harmony, Val Thundershock and Holly Darlin' appeared. They were introduced in Trolls: TrollsTopia originally.

List:

Secondary

These tend to be TV series that, while they reference movies such as Trolls or Trolls World Tour, do not tie together, and will be usually ignored by movies released after them. They are made to exist alongside the movies for this reason, and are in themselves a "canon".

Most of these are made to tie over things until DreamWorks produces the next part of a franchise they own, and they have done this with many of their movies. Conflict between their canon and the primary movie/specials canon does occur for various reasons. An example of this is in the "lore" regarding winter. In the Trolls: The Beat Goes On! episode "Snow Day", it is said that winter lasts in Troll Forest for one day; however, in Trolls: Holiday in Harmony, it does not, lasting at least 3 days. Tim Heitz later confirmed that TV series are seperate entities.[1]

This does not mean that things in secondary canon do not overlap with other levels of canon, as popular characters or developments in this area may later be used in primary canon, promoting it in level.

Since this is still a form of canon, the wiki will use it on pages. However, whatever appears in primary canon will always overwrite the secondary canon automatically due to it being of a higher level. The wiki will mention this at times. Due to the size of the 2D animated series Trolls: The Beat Goes On! and Trolls: TrollsTopia, the secondary canon will produce a larger amount of the wikis supporting text compared to the primary one; there are hundreds of secondary episodes, but only a handful of primary movies and specials.

List:
  • Trolls: The Beat Goes On! - it is released by DreamWorks themselves, but has different writers and staff working on it. Due to this, some changes and contradictions have occurred in order to make the series liable for TV format, as well as development oversights. The basis for this series is Trolls. The acknowledgement of the series as non-canon by fans has been recognized by many members of the staff.[2]
    • ASK POPPY - a supportive promotional series for the aforementioned show.
  • Trolls: TrollsTopia - also canon, based on Trolls World Tour and made by DreamWorks themselves with additional involvement from Atomic Cartoons. The series continues on where Trolls: The Beat Goes On! left, and therefore can also be considered canon to its predecessor.

The shows are made by a different production group of DreamWorks within their television subsidiary. They are limited to what they can do because they do not know what the movie developers want to do at the time, so it is acknowledged that they generally make their own ideas for the overall lore.[3] Other companies can also be involved in the production of the shows besides DreamWorks.

In addition, it was confirmed by Skylar Astin that the performance of the 2D animations is matched to that of the voice actors of the show. This leads to some discrepancies between how the TV show and movie versions of the characters act.[4]

Non-Canon

Licensed material based on "canon" sources. These are regarded as completely independent from all other sources, and are largely ignored by the main canon. These may be acknowledged on pages, but only in reference to existing canon. The wiki will only cross-reference these sources, but never use them as "canon". These material sources can make basic mistakes on canon lore because they're only referencing it. It's fully possible for these sources to be just based on basic information from the canon.

This does not mean that things in non-canon do not overlap with other levels of canon, as popular characters or developments in this area may later be used in secondary or primary canon, promoting it in level. For example, laffodils were a flower were first mentioned in Poppy Follows Her Nose!, and later appeared in the Trolls: TrollsTopia episode "Dance Plants", promoting them from non-canon to secondary canon.

List:

Related Concerns

The following are separate issues regarding the topic of canon.

Covered

The main Good Luck Trolls franchise is kept on the wiki, though the wiki only covers the period from DreamWorks' involvement in the franchise onwards. The Good Luck Trolls are not treated as part of the DreamWorks Trolls franchise nor DreamWorks Trolls considered part of a Good Luck Trolls canon, despite being a licensed property within the Good Luck Trolls own establish franchise. Numerous references are made to the dolls in the franchise, but the appearance of the dolls themselves within the DreamWorks Trolls franchise do not have a lore of their own.

A summary of the dolls' history can be read on the Troll Dolls page, along with additional notes and information related to the matter can be seen in List of Trademarks and List of Copyrights pages.

Not covered

Aside from the aforementioned Troll Dolls page, no other part of the Good Luck Trolls are covered by the wiki; this also extends to counterfeit dolls. All lore and related canon to this part of the franchise is only mentioned at best in passing comment, and is overwise ignored altogether.

The wiki does not cover the 2003 Trollz series. Although it was an official Good Luck Trolls property, it predates DreamWorks' involvement of the Troll Dolls franchise, and wasn't made by them. A separate wiki currently covers the series. Likewise, the 1992/1993 Super Trolls and the 1993/1994 "The Norfin Adventures" series are not covered despite also being official.

The wiki does not cover any non-official Trolls properties at all except for passing mention on Troll Dolls and related pages.

The attitude towards this is subject to change.

Additional Information

See Current Futureproof and Adaption Plans for more information on how the wiki currently plans to cover possible future alterations and additions to the DreamWorks Trolls franchise.

Useful Reference Termology

Below is a shorthand list of terms commonly used in relation to this subject for quick referencing.

  • Canon: official "word of truth" source. The term is short for "canonical".
    • Included is Lore: refers specifically to the sum of histories and knowledge on the series story events, laws of nautre (aka "Science" such as the rules of the franchise's physics), etc.
    • Also reference as "in-universe", meaning "inside the universe that the series exists".
  • Non-canon: any source not considered "canon". Can also include official sources or sources which have since been dropped despite being once considered "canon".
  • Fanfiction: refers to written works by fans and not official source material. It is a common type of non-canon.
    • Included in this is the term "Headcanon", which refers to a working fans ideas and self-invented "lore" not always written down but created by a fan "inside their head", hence the term "headcanon".
    • Also included is the term "fanon", which is the shorthand meaning of "fan canon".
    • Shipping: deprieved from "relationship" or "relationships", a common fan occurence wherein fans pair up two (or more) characters together for various reasons and then back the "ship". Can be platonic or romantic, any sexuality and include canon or non-canon characters. Often a form of fanfiction due to its portrayal regardless of if or not the relationship is official.
  • Retcon: shorthand for "Retroactive continuity", this is when the creators re-write or revise part of the "canon" and/or "lore" of a series further down along the production lines of a series. This is often due to creative differences of different writing staff, or because a earlier idea wasn't fully published earlier on.
    • An example of a retcon would be Smidge's love of Swedish Death Metal in Trolls, which was mentioned in The Art of DreamWorks Trolls. Since Trolls World Tour, this has been retconned out of her official bios.

Feedback and Questions?

If you have any further suggestions, questions or feedback related to the above guidelines, please post them in our discussions for further responses. The Wiki staff are more than willing to give responses to questions and will edit these guidelines accordingly if some issues arise.

References

DreamWorks Trolls Wiki project
Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
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