what is officially canon to DOOM

[shadowrider78]

I know that something like this was asked some time ago and I did look at the thread but I still didn't get the answer I was looking for since it was just you guys posting your opinion on what you think is canon and what is not,but now I want a strait answer(as in what ID software considers canon to the DOOM story and what is not)as to what games and novels are officially canon to DOOM and if both the comic and movie are also canon.

[Blastfrog]

I probably take everything too seriously, but Doom 2's manual pretty much makes it impossible for it to be the same Doomguy as Doom 1 if one were to take it literally. Doom 3 actually seems a good candidate to be a Doom 2 prequel, taking place parallel to Doom 1 (which did NOT take place on Mars).

Unless they meant you were the first one to report to duty when Phobos sent an emergency communication when still stationed on Mars. Meh.

[Linguica]

There isn't really any Doom canon.

Doom 1 ends with you emerging from a portal from Hell to find yourself back on Earth, which has already been attacked (gasp!). But then in Doom 2, the backstory claims you ended up back on Mars and came back to Earth the normal way via spaceship while being celebrated as a hero for your deeds, only to find the world devastated once you arrive, and Doom 2 starts there.

Then Ultimate Doom apparently retcons BOTH of these to suggest that Ep4 takes place on Earth just after Episode 3 and just prior to the events of Doom 2.

And then there's TNT and Plutonia, which both have their own storylines about reformed UACs and more hellspawn.

Then Doom 64 claims that you didn't actually manage to wipe out all the demons on Mars (despite not ever actually fighting on the surface of Mars before) during the now apparently classified demon incursions, so you are sent back to finish the job. Then at the end you decide to STAY IN HELL FOREVER to stop demons from ever returning.

Then in No Rest For the Living I guess you got bored of that since you pop back down to Hell to take out another Cyberdemon who I guess took over Hell and was threatening Earth or whatever.

Then of course Doom 3 wipes the slate clean, and apparently Doom 4 is going to do it again.

So yeah, it doesn't make any sense and it's not supposed to. The upside is that all of this makes it easier to just accept any Doom game and any PWAD as starring "THE Doomguy" since, you know, you see his face and all.

[Maes]

Well, I would say the Rocket Launcher is officially used the way you'd use a cannon (artillery piece). The monsters are also officially cannon fodder.

[PRIMEVAL]

BFG9k could also be considered a type of plasma cannon, maybe.

[nxGangrel]

I usually see it this way; First there's Doom and the Ultimate Doom's story. Doom 2 happens at the same time as the ultimate but with a different doomguy. TNT and plutonia happen after Doom 2 to either Doom 2 guy or a third doomguy. And Doom 3 and 4 are just re-tellings.

[Mithran Denizen]

I think the idea of 'canon' in fiction is a silly idea and potentially an impedement to storytelling.

[Blastfrog]

How canon is Doomguy's Pimpventures?

[fraggle]

Linguica said:

There isn't really any Doom canon.

It's a good summary but I feel it could do with a diagram.

Maybe the explanation is that each Doom game takes place in its own parallel universe, subtly different to all the others, like Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 series.

[Jaxxoon R]

Mithran Denizen said:

I think the idea of 'canon' in fiction is a silly idea and potentially an impedement to storytelling.

But that's the equivalent of living in a universe where the laws of physics are in constant flux and there are no definite laws.

[Maes]

Sodaholic said:

How canon is Doomguy's Pimpventures?

Dunno about canon, but its cannon sure knows how to make a big boom *hint hint nudge nudge*

[GreyGhost]

fraggle said:

It's a good summary but I feel it could do with a diagram.

Maybe the explanation is that each Doom game takes place in its own parallel universe, subtly different to all the others, like Arthur C. Clarke's 2001 series.

This picture might sum it up nicely. Multiple protagonists in parallel universes that intersect in a way which allows events in one to influence the others, but without Doomguy bumping into himself.




I tried turning it into a map but had to stop when my brain imploded.

[Jaxxoon R]

And then David Bowie just roams those kinds of locales no problem.

[fraggle]

GreyGhost said:

This picture might sum it up nicely. Multiple protagonists in parallel universes that intersect in a way which allows events in one to influence the others, but without Doomguy bumping into himself.

The research conducted on the Mars bases that leads to the invasion is described as, "research on inter-dimensional space travel". If hell is another dimension then it's not such a stretch to think that there could be other dimensions that are parallel Earths too.

Actually, Linguica's characterization of the Doom II story isn't quite right. Here's how it begins:

Back at last. After days of hard fighting in space, you've
returned home on well-earned leave. You're one of Earth's
crack soldiers, hard-bitten, tough, and heavily-armed. When
the alien invasion struck Mars, you were the first on the
scene. By killing, killing, and killing, you won. You
stopped the invasion, saved Mars base, and became a war
hero. What they don't talk about so much is that you were
the only survivor.

So it doesn't actually state that you're the same marine from Doom 1. You travel back by spaceship, sure, but you're a veteran of fighting on Mars, not the Mars moons. A simple explanation is that you're just a different marine, and there is a whole unseen episode set in parallel with the Doom 1 storyline where Doom2Guy fights demons on Mars.

An even crazier idea: Doom 3 is that episode.

Meanwhile, there's the matter of Episode 4, which somehow follows on from the end of Episode 3.

the spider mastermind must have sent forth
its legions of hellspawn before your
final confrontation with that terrible
beast from hell. but you stepped forward
and brought forth eternal damnation and
suffering upon the horde as a true hero
would in the face of something so evil.

besides, someone was gonna pay for what
happened to daisy, your pet rabbit.

but now, you see spread before you more
potential pain and gibbitude as a nation
of demons run amok among our cities.

next stop, hell on earth!

It's not clear where exactly Episode 4 is even happening. It says "next stop, hell on earth!" implying that you weren't previously fighting on Earth. But "someone was gonna pay for what happened to daisy, your pet rabbit" implies that Doom1Guy has gone on a rampage after his discovery at the end of Episode 3. But Episode 3 sees you step out of a portal onto the fields of Earth.

So the only seemingly logical explanation seems to be that:

1. Doom1Guy defeats the Spider Mastermind, steps through the hidden doorway and "emerges from the door to see the green fields of Earth!"
2. Doom1Guy sees a rabbit head on a spike that is somehow "Daisy, his pet rabbit". (Was she left behind on Earth by Doom1Guy and coincidentally killed by the demons when they emerged? Or did the demons abduct Daisy from the Phobos base, as some kind of vindictive "fuck you" to Doom1Guy after he defeats their master? That's a whole other discussion.)
3. Doom1Guy flips out in some kind of psychotic rage and travels back into hell to take revenge on the demons, because apparently he's just that much of a badass and enjoyed being in hell so much that he goes back for more?
4. Having defeated the second spider mastermind he reemerges out of the same portal again (was he carrying the rabbit head the whole time?)
5. "Next stop, hell on earth!" - Doom1Guy is now in the same position Doom2Guy finds himself in at the start of Doom II, but he's off fighting his own battles that we've never seen.

As a quick thought, there's potential here for any mod makers looking for ideas for a new megaWAD: Doom Episode 5: Hell on Earth (documenting Doom1Guy's role in the battle for Earth) and Doom II: Hell on Mars (documenting Doom2Guy's battles on Mars before he gets shipped back to Earth).

Final Doom is a whole other matter. Both make clear that they're sequels to the first two games. But only the TNT story seems to imply that you're playing the same character (one of the same?) from the first two games:

Only one man escaped death or zombification. The marine
commander. You. You weren't at the base when the skies
opened and devastation poured from the stars. You were
miles away, enjoying a walk across the moon's rough-hewn
landscape. Then you heard a snortling gurgle behind you and
whirled to face one of them. The beings that still haunted
your nightmares. Your reflexes weren't dulled by your
experiences, and you pulled out your pistol and blew the
imp to gory shreds.

There doesn't seem to be anything comparable in the Plutonia story that implies you're the same protagonist, only that you're a lowly marine who happened to be in the right place to survive the initial attack.

And then there's Doom 64, which also portrays itself as a sequel. How does this fit in?

Your fatigue was enormous, the price for encountering pure
evil. Hell was a place no mortal was meant to
experience. Stupid military doctors: their tests and
treatments, were of little help. In the end, what did it
matter - it was all classified and sealed. The nightmares
continued. Demons, so many Demons; relentless, pouring
through.

Doom1Guy and Doom2Guy are both established as having been to hell, so the introduction is ambiguous. But the story continues:

Far Away...

The planetary policy was clear. An absolute quarantine was
guaranteed by apocalyptic levels of radiation. The empty
dark corridors stand motionless, abandoned. The
installations sealed.

Doom 1 was set on moons rather than on a planet (Mars), so this implies Doom 64's protagonist is Doom2Guy.

[Fonze]

Idk to me if you just ignore the exact locations it all fits pretty closely together.

After Doom 1 the "only survivor" would be a war hero. Also, with the ending, "next stop, Hell on Earth!" it leaves the impression that it is the same marine. Never mind the fact that every Doomguy has the same exact face.

There was another thread discussing the different Doomguys not long ago... it got me thinking that all the marines, including the Doomguy, could be clones of Jango Fett, which would explain why most of them seem to die very easily.

[shadowrider78]

so all in all pretty much everything that ranges from books to the games(including the comic and DOOM movie)is canon to the doom lore and story line but just takes place in parallel universes or some other points in time

[Quasar]

shadowrider78 said:

so all in all pretty much everything that ranges from books to the games(including the comic and DOOM movie)is canon to the doom lore and story line but just takes place in parallel universes or some other points in time

Every ~100k years, humankind's history is reset by a demonic invasion when we rediscover teleportation. Each of these cycles in history is one of the Doom timelines or canons :P The Doomguy pictured with the soul cube and buried in the tomb from the "ancient" Martian civilization in Doom 3 was just a Doomguy from the previous cycle. Since the demonic invasions set us back to the stone age and we go back to acting like chimps banging rocks together for a while, we mostly forget all this history every time. Apparently some records remain - while you could interpret Councillor Swann's reference to the demons once possessing Earth and losing it as a reference to Abrahamic religion's Earth being "void and without form, and covered by darkness", it could equally be considered a reference to Doom II, residing in an earlier cycle ;)

[shadowrider78]

alrighty then

[Fredrik]

If you ask me, the storyline of every wad in /idgames is canon and takes place in the same universe. Doomguy is just like Santa Claus.

[shadowrider78]

so I guess that means that it also works with the doom novels,movie and comic too

[fraggle]

Fredrik said:

If you ask me, the storyline of every wad in /idgames is canon and takes place in the same universe. Doomguy is just like Santa Claus.

Or every WAD is its own separate universe, part of a shared multiverse.

Then we just need a "crisis on infinite WADs" PWAD that will merge them all together.

[Fredrik]

fraggle said:

Or every WAD is its own separate universe, part of a shared multiverse.

Then we just need a "crisis on infinite WADs" PWAD that will merge them all together.

Well, according to Tegmark's "ultimate ensemble" version of the multiverse hypothesis, every "mathematically possible" universe actually exists, meaning in particular that every universe ever depicted in a Doom WAD exists. Even Mordeth E2.

[Lvangundy]

Don't forget about the books...

j/k.

Those good ol' talking imps.

[Dave The Daring]

Doom 4 will fix all this as the SnapMap will also be bundled with the Doom Canon Construction Kit, which will allow users to create their own personalised Doom canon which can then be shared with the entire Doom community in a wide variety of formats.

I for one can't wait!

[Quasar]

Fredrik said:

If you ask me, the storyline of every wad in /idgames is canon and takes place in the same universe. Doomguy is just like Santa Claus.

Yeah I like to place Sunder somewhere after Doom 64, as part of his eternal never-ending quest to destroy the hordes of Hell. Which are endless, by design.

[CapNapalm]

I'm pretty certain wow.wad is the only canon pwad.

[karacho]

I extrapolated information about the Doom storyline out of every data and cross-reference i could find. Then i went to CSI and clicked "enhance" on some pixelated shots. I studied countless interviews and paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to bartenders all over the world.

Then i found out. I wanted to be sure, so i ate some funny cookies that made my slam my fist on the table and shout "damn i am sure!".

The revelation was glorious. I hereby present to you the official canon of doom:

Some guys from hell act funny. But "not on my watch!" you say. The rest is (personal) history.

If that Doom Canon Construction Kit is as fake as it sounds, somebody should program it. But Dave wouldnt lie tu us.

[CODOR]

This is a one Doomguy multiverse. There's only one Doomguy, but he's travelling through time, space and dimensions in such a way that he can be in several places (and several distinct universes) at once.

This theory also implies that there is an anti-Doomguy, who happens to be the regular Doomguy but going through time backwards. This may explain Repercussions Of Evil, I'm not sure...

[esselfortium]

As far as I'm aware, this is the only example of Doom Canon.

[HorrorMovieRei]

^oh you