Canon is that shining, golden, absolute of fiction. It is the be all, the end all. And piecing it together is one of the great joys of fandom, especially that of older and more sprawling works. However, there comes a time when canon isn’t really all that important.

Benjamin Bailey at Nerdist wrote that sometimes getting absorbed in what is or is not canon can ruin enjoyment of a work. Most importantly:

By dismissing stories that don’t “count,” a fan can miss out on some great stuff or, worse yet, they could write off something they previously loved merely because it no longer fits in a neat little continuity-approved package. If you want to pick and choose what you read so that it fits the prescribed canon, that’s fine, but to presume that something you read – something you loved – was a waste of time because it is no longer is considered a part of that canon is ridiculous.

This sentiment is entirely true. Who cares if the Lego Stars Wars video game, or even a late portion of the Star Wars expanded universe, isn’t canon? That doesn’t mean enjoying it is a waste of time. What does arguing over the canonicity of the Battlestar Galactica webisodes accomplish? Does it really matter that the large score or old DC and Marvel comics, even though so universally beloved, are considered no longer canon in the modern runs? These works enchanted and enrich the body of work they’re part of. Each contributes to a greater understanding of the world and its characters, even if some don’t consider it part of the actual continuity. But it exists, and it tells us something.

Getting bogged down in the canon even comes in attempting to find an ironclad rule of continuity. I’ve seen Lost fans get, well, lost picking apart the series for continuity errors. I’ve seen Marvel film fans rip each other apart over character inconsistencies across the films.

I myself have gotten nit-picky over timeline discrepancies between Firefly, Serenity, and the Dark Horse comics. Does it mean I love enjoy the parts of it that make no sense any less? Certainly not.

There comes a point when determining canon shouldn’t interfere with enjoyment of the work. When one learns to stop worrying about the canon, it becomes so much easier. In fact, worrying less about what’s in the body of the canon lets one wholesale ignore parts of the supposed canon. (It’s tempting to ignore elements of Leaves on the Wind for screwing up aspects of River Tam’s character, for one thing.)

Personal canon, the collection of stories that we enjoyed most out of a body of work and that we personally believe most important to our understanding of it, is what’s most important. We didn’t start loving a universe for its continuity. We started loving a universe for its story, its world, its characters, canon or not. So, should something being “non-canon” really stop you?