Shadowman wrote: The problem with fanon is that is means nothing to anyone except the person who made the fanon. To most people, official canon is more valid. That's why it's official.
I don´t think so. I´m not talking about someone´s specific fanon, I´m talking about the whole concept. I´ll say it like this: If you consider official canon as the valid one, or the real one, then that´s your own fanon, not because you created it, but because you chose it as such.
What I mean is that whatever version anyone has in their minds, it´s the one they chose, so, whats the difference between choosing what Hasbro says and choosing something you made up? there´s no difference, Hasbro´s ideas are just as valid as mine and yours. With "valid" I don´t mean better, I mean that they are both equaly real to the person. Official canon can mean nothing to me, just as you described fanon to often be.
For example, I like to think that G1 Grimlock was always as goofy as he appeared in the 86 movie and season 3 of the cartoon, it´s just that he was playing cool in front of Optimus in the first 2 seasons. Who´s Hasbro to say I´m wrong? or to call me a lier?
I see your point, there are people who just talks crazy or come up with the most inconsistent stories, and get angry when someone tells them how weird their versions are, but there are two points about this. 1. We´ve all being that guy, let´s not be hypocritical, and 2. Don´t they have the right to choose? who really has authority to say they´re crazy? me? you? Hasbro? the answer is no one. Also, what Hasbro has to say some times isn´t very sane, is it?
I know this is a long reply, but I also have to say this: Transformers is a product, so it follows the taste of it´s market. The day that 51% of the fans decide that Arcee was really a trasvesti all the time and not a femmbot, then Hasbro will make that official. Does people want Optimus and Megatron to marry? then they´ll marry! Unicron to be Wheele´s father? he´ll be a single parent! to all be the dream of a sleeping turttle? light a candle and call him Primus!
So believing everthing Hasbro has to say is equivalent to believing what most people have to say, isn´t that fanon? isn´t the same thing as having you own story? not that you´re wrong and you shouldn´t, it´s just that if you do it´s because of you own decision and opinion, just as the people who doesn´t has theirs. Its not like an author´s work, we most belive everýthing Stephen King has to say about Dark Tower, if he says Roland has done the trip many times before, then he has, period. Transformers official status is hardly as strict... actually it isn´t strict at all.
So, in the bottom line (again), there´s no criteria to call any canon more valid than the other.