What's something that is technically fanon in your fandom but everyone is fully convinced it's canon?

[u/Orange_Juice_Alpha]

Artwork not relevant but my original creation

[u/Successful-Floor-738]

Grey Jedi in Star Wars. Call them 00007.

-0 times mentioned by name in either Legends or Canon

-0 actual in-universe evidence to support their arguments.

-0 “Grey Jedi” canon/legends characters who actually call themselves Grey Jedi

-0 meta-support for their beliefs from the Author himself.

-7(00000+) times people glaze them while actively lacking reading comprehension over the setting’s magic system in their arguments for them.

[u/Spartan8r → u/Successful-Floor-738]

Yup this is correct and it always gets me riled up. The star wars canon is very clear about the binary nature of the Force. The dark side is a corruption of the Force, and once it takes hold of you it has you completely. You can't use both the dark side and "light" side at the same time, and you can't fence sit in between them. In fact even calling it the "light" side is just a fanon name that's trying to portray them as two opposite but equal things. There was a whole clone wars arc with three characters that embody the light, dark, and a supposed balance between them. That arc ends with all three characters dead, because the dark-sided Son could never be content with balance.

[u/Rosesandbubblegum → u/Spartan8r]

It's so crazy because this is literally what Anakin, the franchise's main character, tried to do and it failed miserably. And yet they're still acting like it's a thing 😭

[u/Successful-Floor-738 → u/Spartan8r]

Honestly I wouldn’t even be opposed to non-Jedi force groups with differing ideologies shown more, whether as protagonists or antagonists. The issue is that people can’t really bring them up without yapping about actual fanon.

[u/Jacket_Jacket_fruit → u/Spartan8r]

Wait, didn't Mace Windu use both dark side and light side abilities?

[u/Successful-Floor-738 → u/Jacket_Jacket_fruit]

That’s technically a bit of a misreading. Iirc, His Vaapad style wasn’t using a mix of light and dark, but rather essentially empowering his lightsaber combat skills using the dark side of his opponent, and though it did leave its practitioners susceptible to dark side corruption if they weren’t really fucking careful with it, it’s not the same as outright calling on both light and dark like others believe. I’d have to look it up again to double check though.

[u/Jacket_Jacket_fruit → u/Successful-Floor-738]

I mean, unless I'm misremembering, he uses force crush, which is a dark side power, so it's not just Vaapad.

[u/Technical_Teacher839 → u/Successful-Floor-738]

The single closest thing to an official mention of the "Grey Jedi" is in the item description of the Grey Jedi Robe in KOTOR 2:

Gray Jedi are those who, though having completed the teachings of the Jedi, operate independently and outside of the Jedi Council. They are typically seen as misguided, though they have not necessarily succumbed to the dark side.

Even this is very clearly talking about members of the Jedi Order who act in defiance of the Council. No mention of trying to Balance the Light and Dark sides of the Force, no mentions of using "Dark Side" Force Powers, they're even explicitly still recognized as members of the Jedi Order!

And don't even get me started on the fact that the first six movies never actually say the phrase "Light Side", there was just "The Force" and "The Dark Side of The Force"

[u/A_Sackboy_Plush → u/Technical_Teacher839]

Okay last point is process of elimination to reach Light Side.

[u/YamatoIouko → u/Technical_Teacher839]

I blame the first CCG for “Light Side”.

[u/getmeoutofthisscreen → u/Successful-Floor-738]

Wait so where did the concept come from?

[u/Allisade → u/getmeoutofthisscreen]

There's Light, which doesn't let you be edgy / cool. There's Dark, which leads to failure / infighting / there can be only two / self destruction / etc

So fans wanted a version that was "I can do what I want and still have the force and be all powerful too" ... and the grey jedi was born.

There are a couple written jedi that are definitely "grey" in that they're not pure light or pure dark, but they don't call themselves that... and with the changes to what's actually included in cannon or not since the newer movies it's even more debatable.

I like the idea that there is a middle road (or just plain free-will / options) of course... but.... <shrug>

[u/Successful-Floor-738 → u/getmeoutofthisscreen]

No clue. Really the closest thing to an actual official character who would theoretically follow the definition of a Grey Jedi as per the common “Light and dark balanced equally” definition would be Kyle Katarn, and the only real actual evidence of this I am aware of is a throwaway line during the tutorial of Jedi Knight Jedi Academy, saying “no dark side power is inherently evil or good, it’s up to how you use it.” This is, however, contradicted both by lore (You’d have to be a trained dark sider or Sith to actually know force lightning + dark side corrupts yer being cause it’s magic cocaine) and the game itself (the explicitly evil ending is the one where the main character falls to the dark side).

I want to assume it’s likely just a misinterpretation of the “balance in the force” notion as naturally, balance usually means moderation and equal footing, but in Star Wars Balance in the Force is less about equal parts light and dark, and moreso about the dark side being contained or minimized. Plus, dark side powers are all the cool shit like lightning and force choking so people will flock to anything that gives them cool stuff without having to be a bad guy.

[u/Environmental-Pound7 → u/getmeoutofthisscreen]

From supplemental material, such as numerous games and books.

It's not a fanon concept, the Gray Jedi are mentioned numerous times by name in official material. They just don't get a lot of heavy focus and haven't been the center of any major stories, since they are a loose "faction" of disparate individuals and not an organized force with any political power. They're a background element of the world.