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Canon, Arcs, and False Spoilers

© Ellen Ross

Once upon a time, long ago, episodic television, including SF genre television, had an unwritten rule. (Well, maybe it was written somewhere, but not where the viewers could see it.) At the end of every episode, the characters had to end in exactly the same situation as they started. No deaths, great revelations or other major, life-changing events could occur, unless there was a magic "reset button" at the end of the episode to restore everyone to their original condition. There was no such thing as a story arc. Every episode was self-contained and the basic premise of the show could not be changed.

This also meant that the characters couldn't learn and grow all that much. Fans experience the same problem when they try to write fanfic which falls totally within the canon of their show. Good drama, whether it is written or performed, requires that the events of the story be meaningful to the characters. If the characters can't learn anything significant about themselves or each other and cannot change in any way which would conflict with the show's canon, fanfic becomes much like old-fashioned episodic television.

The popularity of prime-time soaps like "Dallas" and "Dynasty" made it possible for other television shows, including shows in the action-adventure genre, to take the risk of developing story arcs. Programs like "Wiseguy" began a trend which was picked up by the hospital shows and the lawyer shows as well. Story arcs, rare at first, eventually became the norm and totally self-contained episodes became the exception.

What was previously unthinkable began to happen more and more often. Major characters in ongoing television series would actually die.

In many ways, the authors of "Buffy" and "Angel" fan fiction are being true to Joss Whedon's vision when they show the characters changing as a result of their experiences. The characters in the Buffyverse don't have short, self-contained adventures which return them to the status quo. When Joss Whedon and his team put the characters in each series through one ordeal after another, they don't emerge unscathed, speaking and thinking and behaving exactly as before. They do change.

Sometimes, they even die.

Sometimes they don't return.

Sometimes they do.

And sometimes, the fans who seem to be the most wrong about the eventual direction of each series might just have a clue after all.

The "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" team has finally admitted what many fans have long suspected. At least some of the phony spoilers which have circulated online in the last year and a half were not the product of fans' overactive imaginations; they were deliberately planted leaks of false information.

The copyright of the article Canon, Arcs, and False Spoilers in Buffy Vampire Slayer/Angel is owned by Ellen Ross. Permission to republish Canon, Arcs, and False Spoilers in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.