Mystery Dungeon Franchise Wiki:Manual of Style (Canon)

Canon used by the MDFW may vary depending on various factors. We generally follow the rule of "If it's not in Mystery Dungeon, it's not canon." Examples include how Torneko made appearances in various Dragon Quest titles, or how Pokémon did as well. As this is not a Dragon Quest or Pokémon wiki, those series and their appearances are not our problem to deal with.

Borrowed Names

Exceptions to the rules stated previously are "Borrowed Names". Some Pokémon have "Formes", sometimes called "Form" or "Forme", and other times, the different formes don't have a name canon to Mystery Dungeon. For the sake of documentation, we've borrowed the remaining names from the main series. The same is true for Dragon Quest monsters, Etrian Odyssey monster, item, character names, and so on. If an official name exists, we prefer to use that and mark it with an template, to show it's not canon to Mystery Dungeon. Though that may not always be the case, due to editor preference, or to prevent articles from turning into a sea of obnoxious orange boxes. Where these borrowed names are sourced from can be found on Media:Rosetta Stone (Subject), for example, Magic Castle DS:Rosetta Stone (Monsters).

Media

Regarding media, we consider each piece of media to be canon to itself. While there are official timelines for Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wanderer series, or Evidence of Returning Characters in Pokémon Mystery Dungeon series, we don't try to force different pieces of media into fitting the timeline. Different iterations of a piece of media may contradict a previous release, a later release, a sequel, a spin-off, etc.

 BS Shiren the Wanderer: Save Surala seems to depict Shiren rescuing Surala, and then departing at the end of the game, while Gaibara inspects the mural in Amteca. This may work for Shiren 1 SFC, but not Shiren 1 DS, but it doesn't matter if it matches either, the novella, or the various manga adaptations. It's not our job to force these contradictory pieces of lore into working together when the timeline was clearly an afterthought. On lore pages, we list each piece of media as its own section with its own timeline of events, and if readers wish to connect the dots or try to make it work, that's on them. Trying to mesh these contradictory pieces of lore together to make them work is tantamount to fan-fiction, which isn't our job. Our goal is to simply present the information as it's presented to us.

Additional Examples Include:

• Dusknoir, Grovyle, and Celebi (shiny) appear in  Super MD, which may contradict  Explorers TD.
• The Shiren the Wanderer novella features additional lore not present in  Shiren 1 SFC and  Shiren 1 DS.
• While there's proof that Guildmaster Wigglytuff from the Explorers Titles and related media is the same one from the Rescue Team titles, on the lore page, each piece of media still retains its own lore backstory section.