hi there, hello, i don't know genshin impact, but i was summoned by The Discourse (tm), so i am here to make a case for why you should reconsider whether or not to allow canons. since uh. a lot of the reasons why you're reconsidering them now aren't really good arguments, in my opinion, for a variety of reasons.

since uh. y'know. animated panfandoms exist to lower some of that competition for canons in the first place (since imo you're only gonna get people with a make-or-break canon experience if they're wanting to play a canon only in the canon setting, for obvious reasons). but also real talk? as someone who admined canon-focused superhero sites for three years and now runs an atla site that allows canons and ocs........ you tend to have more problems with getting canons taken at all between the member turnover and who actually gets picked up on the site than you do people throwing fits about xyz canon being taken (since imo if someone wants childe and childe is taken, they just won't join).

i also honestly disagree with treating them any different than you would an oc in regards to a lot of policies (like the app process) because just..... honestly, who cares if a canon reveal yeets out a headcanon? that's the risk you take with any active series, and part of rping a canon in the first place means you're going to be picking and choosing what you're using and what you're ignoring (plus imo it's not as if the panfans are hand-wringing about it), not to mention that this is a problem that can apply to ocs as well since, y'know, if it's a world-building lore drop, that can mess people up. and real talk, an rp sample is honestly not gonna give you any more context of how "in-character" a canon is that a freeform app would. it just. isn't. and as far as the racism concerns go...... listen, as someone who is currently running a site where we're making a conscious effort to be respectful to the original cultures in the world inspiration..... we actually tend to have more issues with ocs than we do canons in that regard (since the canons tend to be a little more researched or at least have a canon to work around that an oc just doesn't).

from a more personal standpoint on a different rp site in this kind of a vein (arknights, it's arknights) - i actually find that a lot of the appeal of that setting isn't there without the canons. in a small way, yes, it is because i do want to play them, but much more poignantly for me, it's because taking out the canons leaves the world feeling much more hollow and flat, like it's missing that spark and drive that make the setting so vibrant. i feel the places where those canons are missing, even if they're filled with site canon ocs instead, and it ends up feeling like a lost tooth where my tongue can't help but poke at that gap.

personally, if it were me? i'd make the canons available period with the caveats of, like, you can't take two of the major canons or two canons who heavily interact with each other. and on the flip side, with ocs, you can't stuff the canons into them in an influential manner without that canon's blessing (whether that be a relative or a childhood best friend or something) just because imo that's going to add on extra baggage that might make it harder to get that canon taken. and then just..... make sure that you create a world where canons and ocs can have equal footing in terms of impact on the site and hype for plotting that gets followed through on. (honestly, the last one tends to be a lil harder, but given how animanga shies away from canons, i actually think it's more likely here than in rl tbeh.)

........ i'll get down off my soapbox now. this is just. a topic i'm really passionate about. it's 2021, my friends, can't we have more fandom sites where canons and ocs can exist together in harmony?

i will. reply to this once and then let it be. because i honestly don't want to clog up an interest check for a site i'm not actually interested in joining just to debate whether allowing canon characters on a fandom site is a good move or not in the abstract.

for a brief overview - i actually do have experience running a canon-focused site in an active fandom since i used to run a marvel/dc site between 2016 and 2020 (which dumped me in the middle of civil war and infinity war just in the mcu alone) so uh. i'm not speaking out of my rear to say that running a site in an active fandom means you have to roll with the punches period and that it's honestly not that much of a stretch to let canons do what they have to do to make things work. and that you'd be surprised how many popular canons end up open between just "i can't believe no one picked them up" and "wow we just can't seem to keep this canon played huh".

again. i am not intimately familiar with genshin impact. for all i know, it's a fairly easy transition to convert the canon characters into canon roles and have it be fine. but i also know that this transition is not always seamless and sometimes doing that can be a detriment to the wider universe (since imo characters drive the plot that changes the setting that shapes the characters), especially if it's not done well (such as replacing giovanni with basically a giovanni clone using ookurikawa or replacing silver's role with an n clone without understanding the full consequences of this).

my entire purpose of the op was to just. put a hand gently on mad's shoulder and just. "it's okay for you to let canons and ocs co-exist in the same space if you think you can bring the world to life better this way. you would almost definitely have people interested in playing them, and as long as you're willing to put in the work to make sure the combination works as fleshing out the universe and expanding it as opposed to putting the canons on an untouchable pedestal or walling off the ocs from any impact on the site, i think you could actually pull it off really well. so please don't be afraid to make space at the table for both since, trust me, it's not going to be half as much of a headache as you're fearing it is unless you actively make it that."