Heh...I hope I don't wind up getting this moved to the rant section.
Anyway, I heard about Dark Glass from Outtie a long time ago. Never knew there was a comic for it. Thanks for the link.
The story is pretty interesting, but like Outtsyder said, I wouldn't call it canon. It's a script that was never used in the BW cartoon - and since it is not used, it's not canon. Of course, not being canon doesn't mean you can't incorporate it into your fics.
Which brings me to the rant about the definition of "canon." See, I don't believe that "canon is relative." Why? Because that little phrase causes a LOT of flamewars. People generally see canon as Serious Business. Sure, they may say "canon is relative" - but then they'll think some canons are more relative than others. They'll start bending over backwards, thinking they need to "prove" their pairings/interpretations are what REALLY happened - and that rival pairings/interpretations are "wrong." After awhile it just degenerates into "OMG, MY CANON IS RITE, ADN YUORS IZ STUPID ADN WRONG!!!1"
I think canon is what the mega-corporations/original authors are churning out. In the case of Beast Wars, it's what shows up in the CGI cartoons, comics, and tech specs. There's different
kinds of canons, of course - what happens in the cartoon universe is different in the comic universe. But as long as it has Hasbro's official seal on it, it's canon.
Canon also cannot be disputed. There is no doubt that the Primal and his team are the good guys and Megatron and his team are the bad guys. There is no doubt that it is tied to G1. There is no doubt that Cheetor is young and inexperienced, Rhinox is smart, Rattrap is sarcastic, Silverbolt is squeaky clean, Megatron takes baths with a rubber duck, and Waspinator gets blown up a lot. All that is canon.
Canon is also there whether people like it or not. Don't like Beast Machines? Too bad, it's there. Don't like TF:TM and G1 Season 3? Too bad, it's there. Don't like any of the Japanese series? Well...they're there, but they don't really affect anything, so it's not like anyone had to worry. Of course, that does NOT mean that you HAVE TO like it. (A lot of people tend to go into raving anti-fan mode when somebody else brings up a story arc they don't like, thinking that if
anyone considers it canon, then they'll be forced to like it. Or that they'll violently implode, one of those.) If somebody doesn't like a part of the canon, they don't have to watch it/write about it. Fic writers can just make an alternate universe (AU) that goes around it. Hey, free country. But outright denying something is canon when it clearly has Hasbro's seal of approval on it is well...denial. Of course, there is that exception with
Gargoyles where the authors tore the seal of approval off something. But Hasbro's never done that so far, so we can't celebrate yet.
Now what about those things that were open-ended? Transformers has plently of plot holes where no one knows what really happened, and Hasbro's never given the official word on anything. The best example I can think of right now is from G1 (I can't think of a good BW one right now) - which Decepticon got what upgrade from Unicron. There's no doubt that Megatron turned into Galvatron...but they other guys? Uh... They were all discolored at the time, so nobody can really tell who is who. Furthermore, everybody looks the same. In that case, there really is no canon - it's all interpretation. You can say that that Character A became Cyclonus and Character B became Scourge - or vice versa. There's even folks who say that they were all extras, not official characters. That's perfectly okay, because there's no official word on it (though it looks like there's an exception for the Dreamwave universe. Apparently, Cyclonus and Scourge are mass produced).
Now what I think IS relative is "ficverses" - or "fic universes," whatever. These would be everybody's individual interpretations of canon along with personal quirks. This is where incorporating Dark Glass into fics would come in. This is also where people can make AUs to go around something, or address something that was never answered (like Outtie's script). You can also add stuff like Megatron's duckie is named Disco Duck. Everything's okay, since it's all interpretation and/or extra stuff you made up (of course, there's a problem with writing it out correctly so that readers understand a ficverse...but that's something else entirely). And because it is simply your interpretation/ficverse, people (well, most people) won't treat it as Serious Business. Chances are, if you say, "I think that Characters A and B getting together is canon," the other person might freak out and say something like "EWWW! THAT PAIRING IS ICKY!" or "NO! CHARACTERS A AND C GET TOGETHER, YOU TARD!" If you explain that it's just your interpretation/ficverse, then there probably won't be as much wank (unless you're talking to a rabid shipper).
Of course, there's also the problem with fanon. For those of you that don't know, fanon is "fan created canon." It can be either an interpretation that is very popular, or what fans generally agree on what happened even if it hasn't. A good example is Rampage being related to Starscream, because they both have "immortal" sparks. Are they? Well, nothing is said about that in the series, so there's no proof that they are or are not. I've never bought it myself, but plenty of people out there seem to like it. Fanon should NOT be confused with canon, however. That doesn't mean you can't use it in your own fics, but don't get confused.
I don't think "Dark Glass" is quite fanon yet, but I wouldn't say it's canon. But, there's no reason not to use it in fics. It's pretty interesting.
*whew* I think this post qualifies as "filibuster."
