I think there's been some confusion of terminology here. Now, I haven't read the entire thread - in fact, I've read very little of it - so there may be a good reason for why that is and you may be aware of it. Bear with me.
Canon is not open to debate. Canon is a fact established on the show that cannot be open to interpretation by its very nature. It is indisputable.
Canon:
Lois Lane keeps fish.
Perry White has an Elvis obsession.
Clark Kent can fly.
What is open to interpretation is how we view the characters beyond the narrow limits of canon that the show gives us. It's a human truth that no two people will view things in the same way. If they did, there'd be no debates on TV show forums. Everyone would see exactly the same thing. Clearly, this doesn't happen. How many times have you read a forum debate on an episode of your favourite show and found yourself thinking, "Huh? How on earth did you come to that conclusion? Where you watching the same thing I was?" or even "You know...I never thought of that. You're right, he did look guilty..."
So even for a story which adheres to canon, there's an awful lot of wiggle room for character interpretation.
And then, of course, there are stories and authors who toss canon in the bin and leap off into the wild unknown. That's called 'exploring all of the possibilities'. Or 'what if...?'. And that's been a basic of fanfic for the entire three decades I've been involved in fandoms. It's probably the most cited reason why someone begins to write fanfic in the first place. "I was watching TOGOM and I suddenly thought, what if...?", "I always thought it was a shame that the clone died and thought I'd change that..."
Of course there are stories which diverge so wildly from canon and the general consensus of characterisation that they are OOC...but even these can work within the basics of the show if they are handled correctly. I'd personally find a story where Clark murdered someone wildly OOC. But if the author presented a very good, logical reason why he committed murder - and more than one author has successfully done so - then I'll go with it, believe in it, and it won't be OOC at all. It will make perfect sense and still be my Clark.
What constitutes exploration, what if, OOC or Elseworld is of course open to interpretation, too, and will depend on how you see the characters. One reader's OOC is another's Elseworld.
I think the debate here in most recent posts has been about character interpretation - which, as the name suggests is open to interpretation
- and not about canon - which isn't.
LabRat
