Canon Welding: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

When an author or creator takes two previously unrelated works and puts them into a single, shared [[Continuity]].

Many long-lived genre authors tend to resort to '''Canon Welding''', usually at a later point in their career. They combine two or more distinct series they've created into a single [[Continuity]]. This isn't just a one-off [[Crossover]]; for series with radically different premises, the foundations of one or both stories can be altered forever.

 

 

[[Modular Franchise]] is when it's done at a corporate level. Compare [[Shared Universe]], which can be created through '''Canon Welding''' if it wasn't shared from the beginning.

 

== Cross-Media ==

* Chris Boucher's prose and audio official and semi-official [[Spin-Off|spin-offs]] to ''[[Doctor Who]]'' and ''[[Blake's 7|Blakes Seven]]'' strongly imply that they take place in the same universe, and more specifically that ''Blake's Seven'' takes place in the same geographical area and time period as Boucher's popular ''[[Doctor Who]]'' story "[[Doctor Who/Recap/S14/E05 The Robots of Death|The Robots of Death]]". Fans disagree over whether they buy this.

** And with [[God of War|Kratos]] we can add the [[Mortal Kombat]], [[DC Universe]], and [[Nightmare On Elm Street]] to this expanding mess of a universe.

*** Also the franchises from [[Project X Zone]] and Playstation are tied into the Soul Series due to (guess who) Kratos showing up in Playstation All-Star Battle Royale and Project X Zone of course having Capcom which had already crossed over with Tekken as mentioned below.

* [[Shotaro Ishinomori]]'s later ''[[Skull Man]]'' manga incorporates his earliest concept for the titular character of ''[[Kamen Rider]]'', monsters from said show, [[Kamen Rider]] himself, appearances of Joe Shimamura from the anime ''[[Cyborg 009]]'', as well as cameos from ''[[Himitsu Sentai Goranger]]'', ''[[Robot Detective]]'', ''[[Inazuman]]'', and ''[[Kikaider]].''

** The most recent anime version of ''[[Skull Man]]'' has a [[Downer Ending]] that connects it even more explicitly to ''[[Cyborg 009]]'': {{spoiler|Skull Man is defeated and turned into Black Ghost, the [[Big Bad]] of ''009''.}}

* The OVA ''[[Giant Robo]]: The Day The Earth Stood Still'' and its companion manga ''The Day The Earth Burned'' incorporates practically ''all'' of Mitsuteru Yokoyama's work, including the first magical girl ''[[Sally the Witch]]'', the tokusatsu show ''Iga No Kagemaru'', the eponymous giant robots, and historical characters from both the ''[[Water Margin]]'' and ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]''.

* [[Inverted Trope|Inverted]] with the ''[[Starship Titanic]]'' and ''[[Hitch Hikers Guide to The Galaxy]]''. Despite both featuring similar Starship Titanics which undergo similar events in similar settings, the game [[Fridge Logic|explicitly states that they're different universes.]]

* ''[[Witch Girls Adventures]]'' is a [[The Verse|'verse]] created almost entirely through Canon Welding. The 'verse [[Bleached Underpants|started as a fetish e-zine called "The Shrinking Sorceress"]] by MANGA GRAPHIX, dedicated to sorceresses transforming people into animals and inanimate objects. Later on, many of the same people went on to write ''Witch Girls Tales'', theoretically a comic about young witches getting into mischief with their powers, and several characters and concepts from MANGA GRAPHIX stories ended up in the new 'verse. Completely independently, a different author wrote a comic called "Princess Lucinda," about the titular princess' love for wickedness and transforming people over the slightest offense. The ''[[Witch Girls Adventures]]'' game was created as a team-up between Channel M (the reconstituted MANGA GRAPHIX) and Abby Soto (the creator of Princess Lucinda), using characters from "The Shrinking Sorceress" (including some that hadn't yet appeared in ''Tales''), ''Witch Girls Tales'', and ''Princess Lucinda'' all in a single standalone universe.

** And [[Peter David]], writer of ''Dark Tower'' comics prequels has a character from his comics [[X Factor]] visiting place that is implied to be the same one Roland comes from, adding [[Marvel Universe]] into the mix. And considering Marvel also has ties to abovementioned Super Robot Wars clusterfuck, we better leave it at this.

** ''[[Misery]]'' refers to ''[[The Shining]]'' at one point, when Annie mentions the ruin of the Overlook Hotel.

** And the sequel threw ''[[Eberron]]'', ''[[Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles]]'' and ''[[30 Days of Night]]'' into it. Which makes a lot of things mentioned above even more messed up than they already were.

*** [[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]] might fit somewhere what with the Mulder and Scully appearing in a Simpsons episdoe as a parody of the X-Files.

* Prior to the [[Tomb Raider]] Top Cow comic book Lara Croft would crossover with Witchblade. Since then she would have tons of other crossovers with Witchblade to the point it was impossible to say she wasn't part of the Top Cow universe, until her series ended and Top Cow lost the rights to Lara. A notable example is Lara being part the Monster War event.

* Gosho Aoyama's three main works ''[[Detective Conan]]'', ''[[Magic Kaito]]'', and ''[[Yaiba]]!'', have the tendency to merge into one universe. ''[[Magic Kaito]]'' was more or less put on hold in favor of ''[[Detective Conan]]'', but its characters occur so frequently in ''[[Detective Conan]]'' to be the latter's recurring characters. Although, Aoyama also drew the line: ''[[Detective Conan]]'' does not deal with the daily life of the ''[[Magic Kaito]]'' characters.

** On the other hand, ''[[Magic Kaito]]'' is definitively ''in'' the same universe of ''[[Yaiba]]!''; the characters went to the same school called Ekoda, and the ''[[Detective Conan]]'' OVA Conan vs Kaitou Kid vs Yaiba was originally a ''[[Magic Kaito]]'' story arc (and not [[All Just a Dream]]), in which Kaito attempts to steal a magic sword, just before he found out what he was meant to be going after. Not to say, Aoko's gossip mill friend Keiko's "very reliable source" is Sayaka, the main girl in ''[[Yaiba]]!''.

* ''[[Pretty Cure All Stars]].'' 14 magical girls from 4 different continuities save the day. Awesome.

** The second All Stars-movie features 17 magical girls from 5 different continuities. From the previews it seems to feature some of the different baddies, too.

*** ''All Stars DX 3'' ups the number to 21 from 6 continuities and the brand-new New Stage brings it to a grand total of 28 from 7. It overlaps with [[Remember the New Guy?]] as a lot of Cures that show up in one movie weren't in the movie before that.

* Eiichiro Oda re-used Ryuuma, a character from his one-shot manga ''Monsters'', as a (zombified) villain in ''[[One Piece]]'' and his home country was mentioned to be part of the New World (the second half of the Grand Line). He later confirmed that ''Monsters'' was incorporated into the backstory of the setting.

* Before he gave the world ''[[Dragon Ball]]'', [[Akira Toriyama]]'s first popular series was a comedy called ''[[Doctor Slump]]'', about a robot girl and the slob scientist who created her causing havoc in a weird place called Penguin Village. About a year into ''Dragon Ball'', Toriyama had Goku visit Penguin Village and meet most of the ''Slump'' cast, thus joining the two series into one universe.

** This was mostly done as an attempt to use ''Dr. Slump'''s popularity to help increase readership of ''Dragon Ball'', as it wasn't the huge hit it would eventually become yet. In contrast, the crossover has had the opposite effect in later years: many fans, especially outside of Japan, only know the ''Dr. Slump'' cast because of their guest spot on ''Dragon Ball''.

* Back when comic crossovers where more common [[Marvel Comics|Marvel]] and [[DC Comics]] would have crossover one shots that would treat the Marvel and DC characters being in the same universe. However as time progressed most crossovers between the two companies involved inter-dimensional travel until in 2003 Marvel and DC crossovers outright stopped after JLA/Avengers. But Marvel would continue to have crossovers that would have characters be in the same universe and thus Earth-7642 of the Marvel Multiverse was born.

** ''[http://www.marvunapp.com/Appendix3/earthcrossoverall.htm A list of all the crossovers that happen on this Earth as well as an accurate timeline can be found here]''

* Recently DC made a comic called [[First Wave DCU|FirstWave]] that crossed over ''[[Batman]]'', [[Doc Savage]], and [[The Spirit]] as well as having Rima the Jungle Girl having a small role and [[The Avenger]] being a back up story in the Doc Savage ongoing. It makes sense considering how it's supposed to be an alternate universe with no heroes outside of pulp characters.

* ''[[Image Comics]]'' is an interesting case. Originally, all of its titles took place in a shared universe. Over time, the original Image partners focused on their own corners of the Image Universe, causing the continuity to split into several distinct sub-continuities. The ''Shattered Image'' crossover made the split official. But Image partners still occasionally "borrowed" each others' characters, so the sub-universes still interacted. As new, non-partner creators become more prominent in Image Comics, they started building universes of their own, and they occasionally used the Image partners' characters. For example:

** Characters from Jay Faerber's creator-owned series (''[[Noble Causes]]'', ''Venture'', ''Firebirds'', & ''[[Dynamo 5]]'') appear in each other's books all the time, creating a loose-knit "Faerberverse".

** Actually, they were tied together much before that, notably by the Talamasca (introduced in ''Queen of the Damned'' and later a key player in both the vampires and witches novels) and a few common supporting characters like Aaron Lightner. In other words, the Witches novels avowedly take place in the same world as the ''Vampire Chronicles'' from day one, though their interactions increase substantially over time. Hints in ''The Vampire Lestat'' also indicate that Rice's least-liked novel, ''The Mummy,'' also shares a continuity with these series.

** The novel ''The Queen of the Damned'' establishes that witches and spirits are real. ''Memnoch the Devil'' claims that God, the angels, and [[The Devil]] are all real.

** Also worth noting is that Tom Bombadil, Goldberry and Old Man Willow originally appeared in a poem published in 1933. They had no connection to Middle-Earth until the writing of ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]'' was in progress, and that didn't turn them into anything more significant than a [[Wacky Wayside Tribe]].

* [[Robert A. Heinlein]] did this towards the end of his career, incorporating all his previous stories (often with radically different universes) into one meta-universe, thanks to a handy trans-dimensional device invented by one of his characters. Then he brought the ''[[John Carter of Mars]]'' series in, and the [[Land of Oz|Oz books]], and eventually ''[[wikipedia:World as Myth|all fiction ever created]]''.

** Though he did give preference to the ones he liked, and especially those written by authors with whom he was personally acquainted; one of the transdimensional 'jumps' involved taking the characters into the [[Lensman]] universe created by his friend, [[E. E. "Doc" Smith]].

* [[Larry Niven]] originally had two continuities: the first was the "slowboat" stories of early colonization of space by humanity (featuring the novels "World of Ptaavs", the Gil Hamilton stories, and "A Gift From Earth"), while the second featured faster-than-light travel and aliens (featuring the stories of Beowulf Shaeffer, Louis Wu, and the [[Ringworld]]. And then he wrote his short story "Relic of Empire", which combined the two continuities and created the ''[[Known Space]]'' universe.

* The first novel in [[Terry Pratchett]]'s [[Nomes Trilogy]], ''Truckers'', takes place in the (real) town of Grimethorpe, but in the later books the Store is relocated to Blackbury, which is also the setting of the [[Johnny Maxwell Trilogy]].

** There was a series of action figures: "Tarzan on Mars". Of course, poor Edgar had nothing to do with it.

*** Gridley is also mentioned in the Amtor (Venus) series, linking those five books as well.

*** Tarzan is mentioned by the narrator as having participated in some historical event prior to the main story of the first story. Even then, the Tarzan books, and by association, everything Tarzan had appeared in, were part of the Amtor universe within the first twenty five pages of Pirates of Venus.

* [[Steven Moffat]] has welded a fair number of his series together over the years: ''[[Chalk]]'' contained frequent references to ''[[Press Gang]]'', and was in turn referred back to by ''[[Coupling]]''; ''[[Jekyll]]'' also referred to ''[[Press Gang]]'' and ''[[Coupling]]'' has references to ''[[Joking Apart]]''.

* Lisa Kudrow, who played a quirky waitress on ''[[Mad About You]]'', played Phoebe on ''[[Friends]]''. It was later revealed they were twin sisters and Ursula (the waitress) became a recurring character. It was also revealed that Paul once lived in the apartment now occupied by Kramer on ''[[Seinfeld]]''.

 

== Tabletop RPG ==

** Spells ''also'' exist under the '''same''' names. Not just obvious names like Fireball, but ones like Bigby's Grasping Hand, which imply a specific creator.

** The ''[[Planescape]]'' and ''[[Spelljammer]]'' meta-settings provided a mechanism for crossing over between published campaign worlds. ''Spelljammer'' showed that they most of them existed in different solar systems of the Prime Material Plane, encased in crystal spheres, and one could travel between them in skyships called spelljammers. ''Planescape'' takes place mostly in the Outer Planes, but allows for portals to any Prime Material Plane world.

* ''[[Rifts]]''. Want ''Robotech'' mecha to fight the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles alongside unicorn-riding cyborgs, only to have them all ambushed by eldritch abominations? Rifts. Palladium games specifically published conversion books for incorporating their other franchises into Rifts rules.

** Which is mostly a case of converting some things to MDC. Other than that, every Palladium game uses the same basic rules. Another bit of Canon Welding comes in-universe. Hints have been dropped in the books that Rifts Earth is either a future version of ''Beyond the Supernatural'', ''Heroes Unlimited'', or a bizarre combination of the two.

** To elaborate, Warhammer world used to be a planet in the 40k universe, surrounded by warp storms that made it inaccessible for the rest of the galaxy. Nowdays they exist in separate universes, but there appears to be a small link between them in the form of the Warp (the Chaos Gods are the same in each universe, and some people in Warhammer world have gotten visions of Chaos in 40 universe. For example, in ''Liber Chaotica: Book of Khorne'', it's all but outright stated the author is having visions of Abaddon's 13th Black Crusade. Also the [[Precursors|Old Ones]] in ''Warhammer'' appear to be the same as the ones in 40k, and a fan theory suggests they escaped from 40k universe to ''Warhammer'' one after the War in Heavens). There is no real interaction between the two universes, however, unless you count some daemon characters popping up in both universes and a few magic items that have a suspicious resemblance to 40k technology.

** It also used to be fairly heavily implied that Sigmar (the fantasy Empire's messiah figure and founder) was one of the missing Primarchs (genetically enhanced superhuman offspring of 40k's Emperor).

* [[Namco Bandai]] seems to have merged parts of the previously unrelated (despite numerous [[Shout-Out|Shout Outs]]) ''[[Galaxian]]''/''[[Galaga]]'' series, ''[[Ace Combat]]'' series, ''[[Ridge Racer]]'' series, and some other games into an overarching ''[http://acecombat.wikia.com/wiki/United_Galaxy_Space_Force United Galaxy Space Force]'' series.

* In the PC game series ''[[Dark Parables]]'', [[All Myths Are True|all fairy tales are true]], and they're all pretty much part of one gigantic story. [[Sleeping Beauty]] is sister-in-law to [[The Frog Prince]] and [[The Snow Queen|Gerda]] is descended from [[Hansel and Gretel|Hansel]], for starters.

** If the Space Core Mod in [[Elder Scrolls]]:Skyrim is canon then Nirn is a far off planet in the Half-Life Universe. Or an alternate dimension that the space core landed in through a Wormhole...[[Epileptic Trees|or something]].

* ''[[Commander Keen]]'' and ''[[Wolfenstein 3D]]'' are linked together by way of Commander Keen's Billy Blaze being the grandson of Wolfenstein's B.J. Blazkowicz. A common fan theory is that the protagonist of ''[[Doom (series)|Doom]]'' is also part of the family. The RPG versions of their respective games go with this - the "Harbinger of Doom" from ''Wolfenstein RPG'' is basically ''Doom'''s Cyberdemon without prosthetics, and the hero of ''Doom RPG'' is explicitly given the last name "Blazkowicz".

* Thanks to Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale [[Twisted Metal]], [[Sly Cooper]], ''[[Killzone]]'', [[Parappa the Rapper]], [[Fat Princess]], and many other series featured in Playsation franchises are all part of the one big multiverse.

* Capcom is probably hands down the all time God of this trope. With the the [[Marvel Universe]], [[Tekken]], [[SNK]], [[In Famous]], [[Pac-Man]], a majority of the [[Tatsunoko Production]] series, and numerous [[Namco]] series all crossing over, [[Capcom vs. Whatever]] isn't that much of a stretch.

* [[Project X Zone]] is a massive crossover between [[Namco]], [[Capcom]], and [[Sega]] connecting a ton of their franchises to one another. However seeing as how Namco has connections to [[Super Robot Wars]] and Capcom has ties to everything [[Marvel Comics]] has crossed over with, we better stop talking before our heads explode.

 

== Webcomics ==

* The ''[[MS Paint Adventures]]'' series ''[[Problem Sleuth]]'' was tied into the earlier ''[[Jail Break]]'' series when Zombie Ace Dick and his whale crashed into the jail where ''Jailbreak'' was set. Indeed, a dead whale was part of an early ''Jailbreak'' puzzle, and ZAD and the Completely Sane Man were revealed to be the skeletons in one of the cells.

* In ''[[Starslip Crisis]]'', the character of Vore is all but explicitly stated to be in fact Vaporware from the author's previous comic, ''[[Checkerboard Nightmare]]''. However, this can be considered only to be a partial example, since said strip's events are never mentioned in ''[[Starslip Crisis|Starslip]]'' and Vore himself seems to have lost his memory up to that point, causing a bit of a personality change (yes, Vaporware also expressed desires to exterminate mankind, but Vore's a lot more proactive about it), so for all intents and purposes Vore can be considered a separate character. Eventually he did regain his old memories and personality, and started calling himself Vaporware again...{{spoiler|right before he was killed off for real.}}

* ''[[Crossover Wars]]'' and ''[[The Crossoverlord]]'' established many [[Web Comic|webcomics]] as part of the same [[Multiverse]] with rules more akin to Westphall's mind. The [http://www.webcomicsnation.com/crossoverlord/REALITEASE.php Realitease] [[All There in the Manual|page]] done by ''[[The Crossoverlord|Crossoverlord]]'' creators contains interesting informations about which [[Web Comic|webcomics]] happens in the same universe with lists of proofs and explanations:

** ''[[Megatokyo]]'', ''[[Apple Geeks]]'', ''[[Ctrl+Alt+Del]]'', ''[[Questionable Content]]'', ''[[Walkyverse|Shortpacked]]'' and ''[[Diesel Sweeties]]'' are all set in one universe.

** ''[[Mind Mistress]]'' shares a universe with ''[[Clan of the Cats]]'' and ''LCD'', as well as with ''[[Zebra Girl]]'' or her alternate counterpart.

** Not confirmed in the cases of ''[[Lightbringer (web comic)|Lightbringer]]'' and ''The Green Avenger'' as they can either share worlds with webcomics whose main characters made a [[Cameo]] during their adventures, or that's only their alternate counterparts.

== Western Animation ==

* [[Disney]], if you can believe it, did this. ''[[Lilo and Stitch]]'' had [[crossover]]s with ''[[Kim Possible]]'', ''[[The Proud Family]]'', ''[[Recess]]'', and ''[[American Dragon: Jake Long]]''.

** ''[[Gargoyles]]''' [[Word of God]], [[Greg Weisman]], says it shares its universe with ''[[Atlantis: The Lost Empire|Atlantis the Lost Empire]]'' - or at least, each 'verse includes a [[Broad Strokes]] version of the other franchise. (This occurred when Weisman worked on an ''Atlantis'' TV [[Spin-Off]] - but the series, including the ''Gargoyles'' [[Cross Through]] episode, got canned when the movie bombed.)

** The ''[[Kingdom Hearts (video game)|Kingdom Hearts]]'' series of video games, has most major Disney world, or rather, explicitly AU versions of them, existing in a larger multiverse.

** And another [[Comedy Central]] show, ''[[Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist]].''

* There were reportedly plans to weld the canons of ''[[Exo Squad]]'' and ''[[Robotech]]'' back when the former was produced. Considering that their primary motivation seemed to be that both shows were [[Merchandise-Driven]], your mileage may vary on whether it's a good or bad thing that this never happened.

** There is a deliberate lack of crossovers between ''Family Guy'' and ''American Dad'' but they're considered to be part of the same universe.

** At the end of the "Hurricane!" episode, the houses of Cleveland and Peter end up on either side of Stan's house.

* ''[[Static Shock]]'' was welded into the ''[[DC Animated Universe]]''.

* [[Transformers Generation 1]] have already been listed, but deserve special mention here; in the 80's, it was broadly hinted that the original cartoon shared a universe with the G.I. Joe cartoon, and not-quite-as-broadly that the same was true for ''[[Jem and The Holograms]]'' and ''[[Inhumanoids]]''. This has been taken much further in the 21st century, where not only were the previous hints confirmed, but now ''every'' Hasbro cartoon from the time period has been stated to be part of the same universe, and pretty much every other Hasbro property exists within the Transformers multiverse.

* Saying that ''[[Ben 10]]'' and [[Generator Rex]] are in the same universe is near impossible. Ben 10's about a kid protecting the Earth from alien menaces with a [[Lego Genetics|watch that can transform him into over a million different alien species]] and Generator Rex is about a teenager who helps a government agency know as Providence deal with a nanite infestation [[Inferred Holocaust|that makes every single person on the planet infused with nanites that can turn them into dangerous monsters at any given time.]] So when a crossover was announced between the shows they were both declared a [[Parallel Universe]] to one another. It makes some sense considering how every inconsistency in Ben 10 is said to be an [[Alternate Timeline]].

** But it gets even better seeing as how [[Batman: The Brave And The Bold|Batman the Brave And The Bold]] reminded us that [[Scooby-Doo (animation)|Scooby Doo]] fits in here somewhere. Additionally because of [[Scooby-Doo (animation)|Scooby Doo]] Batman and [[Space Ghost]] are connected to [[The Addams Family]], [[Speed Buggy]], [[The Three Stooges]], and [[Josie and the Pussy Cats]].

** While the two shows never fully crossed over [[The Powerpuff Girls]] and [[Dexter's Laboratory|Dexters Laboratory]] both had The Justice Friends appear once or twice implying that the two where part of the same universe. Also judging by the Space Ghost cameo they might be part of the Space Ghost Verse.

*** It's probably a bad time to mention that [[Yogi Bear]] and [[The Flintstones|Fred Flintstone]] appeared in Billy and Mandy isn't it.

** [[Cartoon Network]]: [[Fusion Fall]] is a MMO that has almost every Cartoon Network show in existence in the same universe. This can create a lot of confusion seeing as how many shows contradict one another... but who cares!

 

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{{reflist}}

[[Category:Crossover Index]]

[[Category:Continuity Tropes]]

[[Category:Creator Speak]]

[[Category:Canon Universe]]