Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27229742-20150717200120/@comment-24947676-20150717203632

The definition of Word of God, from the TV Tropes page: (Because Crystal286 (wow, I have 286 clones of me?) failed defining it properly)

A statement regarding some ambiguous or undefined aspect of a work, the Word of God comes from someone considered to be the ultimate authority, such as the creator, director, or producer. Such edicts can even go against events as were broadcast, due to someone making a mistake.



Fans may look for the Word of God to settle Fanon disputes, but the Authority may have moved on and doesn't care to respond. In many cases the authority does not feel the need to respond; further pressure simply leads to suggestions that the fandom is misaimed and Viewers Are Morons.



Note that a number of people reject the notion of Word of God, considering something to be canon only if it appeared in the original source material, and that if the creator wanted a certain fact to be canon, they should have included it in the work to begin with. Some people go even further, considering the uncertainty and ambiguity of canon to be a good thing and decry the Word of God as shackling the imagination and interpretations of the fans — a belief supported by some modern literary criticism, notably in Wimstatt and Beardsley's "The Intentional Fallacy" and Barthes' Death of the Author essay, both of which argue that the interpretation of a work cannot be limited to attempts to discern the "author's intentions."

Another thorny issue is that not all stories have a single creator, and the collaborators may not actually agree with interpretations of their story that weren't made explicit in the work. This is especially likely if they no longer work together, and particularly if they had a real-life falling out. In this case, there are multiple "Gods" given potentially contradictory explanations, so whose word is to be considered correct? Likewise, in many cases the writers of a story are not the copyright holders, meaning that they're not the highest authorities on its meaning even if you do subscribe to the Word of God theory.



It's important to remember that if you disagree with the Word of God, there's nothing wrong with writing  fan fiction that contradicts it, just don't try to foist your preferred  Fanon  on fans who acknowledge the official canon or on the actual creator of the work.



If a work has more than one creator and they disagree with each other on a crucial point, you'll likely see fans embrace conflicting statements. What happens when multiple fans are equipped with the Word of God? What happens when one Word turns out to be more ridiculous than expected? Bible fight!  The term ' Story Bible ' is sometimes used for the definitive guidelines for writing an episode of a TV series. Two writers quoting the  Story Bible  back and forth are having a Bible Fight.



See also:  Revision ,  Canon Discontinuity ,  Creator Worship ,  Broken Base. When the word does not come from the creator themself but from someone involved in some ancillary role in production, that's  Word of Saint Paul. When the word does not come from the original creators but over time is still treated as such it is  Word of Dante. Doesn't always end up giving fans the answers they were looking for, such as in the case of a  Flip Flop of God  or a  Shrug of God. Cases of God deliberately misleading the audience go under  Lying Creator  or  Trolling Creator. Contrast  Death of the Author ,  What Could Have Been  and  God Never Said That. Word of Gay  is a subtrope. One way that a theory can be  Jossed. For actual scripture, see "Religion" under  Useful Notes.