I must have no life whatsoever. I need a girlfriend, or a job, or something. Because I just spent nearly an hour arguing about what is and what is not canon in Gundam's Universal Century timeline.
The Universal Century timeline, by the way, is the original "universe" in which Gundam takes part in. The original series and its direct sequels (Z, ZZ, CCA, F91, and V) take place here. Also, several side story OVAs (0080, 0083, 08th MS Team, and MS Igloo). Also, there are several video games, side story manga, and novelizations. However, Sunrise has claimed that "if it's filmed, it's canon".
Wait. Wait a minute. Everything animated is canon? What about the productions that contradict each other? 08th MS Team has mass-produced Gundam ground-types and GMs in action at a time that, in the original series, the GM had not yet even been introduced into battle. The movie trilogy compilations of the original series cut out certain events and rearranges others from the TV series. 0083's MS are often advanced far beyond those that are in Zeta Gundam, which takes place after it, because it was produced years after Zeta. Zeta Gundam's movies contradict the show on several levels, and yet they incorporate parts of 0083, which also contradicts the timeline, and so on.
So, what is Sunrise trying to say? If everything is canon, and the canon contradicts itself, then the canon is pretty useless, isn't it?
I've always felt that while the original movie trilogy is meant to compensate for the faults of the TV series and is thus the official canon, side stories like 0080 and 0083 are in a grey area as far as canon, because they aren't Tomino works and they contradict official continuity. But then, Zeta had movies too, and those effectively removed ZZ from continuity. Are they canon, too? Does canon mean anything?
It surprises me that there are folks who really think that 08th MS Team is in the same UC as the original series when there are massive contradictions.
Then again, maybe it's like the differences between Rob's OR: The Strip and my dinky Side Story project.
Anyway, I need to wash my hands of all this. It makes me aggravated that I spend so much time on this.
