@Background Pony #52C0  
First, rude.  
Second, its IS all about owning IPs, that’s what ownership means, you set the rules.  
There’s plenty of other examples outside MLP. Disney bought the Star Wars franchise, and they immediately wiped the EU off the table as 100% non-canon  
You own, it, you’re god.  
DHX can do NOTHING without Hasbro’s approval first. Whereas Hasbro can do whatever they please. The word canon literally means that the “truth value” is set by the authority figure of that domain. It’s not us the fans, not DHX, only Hasbro.
 
@DanielTepesKraus  
While it did not use the word “canon”, it did speak about continuity. “It happens in between episodes”, that’s about continuity. Happening in between episodes also means that it happens in the same universe/timeline/etc otherwise the statement makes no sense. And acknowledging the truth value of an event (e.g. what happens in a comic) is exactly what canon means.  
It’s like saying “the sky is cloudy and there’s water falling down from the sky”, that’s saying it’s raining without using the word rain.

@Background Pony #9E5B  
You’re out of your mind. The comics are not canon, no matter how much you try to twist it, that’s just a fact. Something being licensed by Hasbro changes nothing, all it amounts to is permission to make money with the IP, and anyone could potentially get one if they have a marketable product to sell. That does not equate to canon though, that would be a completely braindead false equivalency.
 
IDW is, and will remain, non-canon. The ONLY thing that is canon is the source material, which is the show, and maybe EQG, but that’s a topic of hot debate so let’s just avoid that. Either way, the cartoon and DHX is the only source of canon material, no matter how many people try to ignorantly claim otherwise.
 
@Background Pony Number 17  
That’s nonsense, they absolutely are a completely separate canon, and in many cases they do contradict the show (alongside often having godawful writing and characterization, but the show does that sometimes too, and the comics do also have their good moments and issues too of course). In many other cases they also don’t, but this doesn’t make them canon, in the same way a fanfiction happening to not contradict the show doesn’t make it canon either. The Legends of Magics comics were a potential clear exception, but since the characters weren’t even designed by IDW people apparently, that is apparently not canon either.
 
We’ll wait until the episode to see what happens with it though.

@DanielTepesKraus  
in fact, one could argue this statement states the comics aren’t canon:  

because other works, particularly the novelizations of resident evil by s.d. perry, used that terminology to make it clear the books were not canon with the games.

@Background Pony #9E5B  
that may be, but interpreting a vague statement from three years ago that doesn’t explicitly say anything about continuity or what is canon to what when literally everything else screams out loud that they’re not just seems like an odd thing to do.

@ChuymaruZ  
Honestly i don’t know what canon means anymore, it just means nothing IDW original is on the show yet.

@DanielTepesKraus  
Again, DHX is not Hasbro. Entirely different company.  
Hasbro is a toy company, DHX is an animation studio.  
Hasbro is the owner of MLP, DHX is not. Hasbro has employed DHX, they are DHX’ boss.  
Jim works for DHX, not for Hasbro.
 
@ChuymaruZ  
Read further below in the comments

@Background Pony #9E5B  
he’s pretty high on the food chain, and if they were canon he would have said so. especially since the vast majority of people don’t care whether or not they’re canon. there’s a small but loud group that desperately wants them to not be, and a slightly larger and considerably louder group that desperately wants them to be.
 
@ChuymaruZ  
yup.

Look, if I don’t have to read the comics to understand the show, then I won’t. Everything outside of the show is supplementary, imo.

@ChuymaruZ
 
“Canon” and what it is has been blurred to the point of irrelevancy.

so… thats mean idw is still non-canon, right?

@DanielTepesKraus 
You are right that people disregard the true meaning of words, but that doesn’t mean they’re right. If a lot of people claim the earth is flat, it doesn’t stop being round. 
Words have meaning, and we shouldn’t just start twisting that. Otherwise we can start calling a table a chair and a car a horse.
 
As for what Big Jim says, it doesn’t matter, he’s DHX, not Hasbro, therefore he has no authority to make claims about canonicity. Furthermore, all thes econflicting statements on twitter from various DHX people are just attempts at pleasing whoever asked the question. In your example it’s clear Jim doesn’t care about the technicalities of anon, he just want to do his job well and make a great show. So when people keep poking him over and over again he obviously says “make up whatever makes you happy”, which translates as “stop bothering me with those things”
 
As for your other link, it matters not which medium follows which, all what matters is what Hasbro said about its own property. 
Besides, it’s not even 100% true that the show never follows the other media. Maud Pie was first introduced in the novels long before she appeared in the show. She was mentioned in Pinkie’s novel, if you want to check it. So, luckily canonicity doesn’t rely on media x following media y, or we’d be having a serious canon-existential crisis.

@Esteban 
I meant to add you in the reply@Background Human 
True, there are also a poopload of denominations and there have been a poopload of religious leaders in Christianity, so that can become complex.  
But when talking about MLP, it’s simple. Hasbro isn’t as old as the Church and there aren’t a bunch of ideological factions. 
The fact that Hasbro works with a lot of external companies doesn’t really change much. The DHX/IDW and all the other contracted companies have no owner rights over the franchise and thus do not decide what is canon. Everything they create, every animation frame, sound bit comic page, etc is greenlighted by Hasbro and can thus be seen as part of Hasbro’s vision. And one would think Hasbro just skims the material, just checking overal storylines, but examples have shown they are surprisingly nitpicky and go into deep detail. For example refusing Trixie being part of a background drawing in comic #40. That was not a plot decision, Hasbro just thought Trixie didn’t fit in there. The fact they go to such levels shows that they do indeed check literally everything. 
Here’s the text about Trixie in comic #40: tedlyanderson dot tumblr dot com/post/141149825933/annotations-for-my-little-pony-40-twilight-and

@Background Pony Number 17 
I’m pretty sure that the show actually limits what IDW writers can and cannot do now.

@Background Pony Number 17 
What the hell that means? the characters here were designed by the show runners first and given to IDW plus their scripts, they still aren’t IDW’s originals added to the show.

With Legends of Magic, the comics have become “duterocanon”: they add extra details not provided in the show, but are neither a separate canon nor do they contradict the primary canon of the show.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

@Background Pony #9E5B 
yeah… but the thing is people use canon in this context, have for a very long time, and will continue to do so for time to come. people brandishing a dictionary and saying “you’re using the word wrong” are just going to get ignored or laughed at.
 
besides, the man himself has bent over backward to go out of his way to not give an answer on whether they are or not. that, what i said about the show not following the events of the comics, and what Background Human about them pretty much screams out loud to me that they’re not canon with the show.

@Background Pony #9E5B 
Even in its original meaning, “canon” is a relative term. There are a poopload of scriptural canons, corresponding to the various Christian traditions. One should similarly expect a poopload of canons for a property that has been licensed to several companies, each working more or less independently in different media.

@DanielTepesKraus 
I aree that canon has a well defined meaning and that it’s not related to the quality of the product. However, most just fling that word around based on their personal preferences. 
Canonicity in its origin is a word derived from theology. The pope decided which texts became part of the Holy Scripture (canon) and which didn’t (apocrypha). 
Outside theology the word maintained its concept, the relevant authority deciding the truth value of a work. 
When it comes to fiction it is the owner of the franchise who decides what is canon and what is not. The franchise owner need not be the same entity as the content creator. In our case Hasbro is the franchise owner, not DHX, nor IDW, nor the fans. As such only Hasbro’s word is the Word of God, even DHX’s statements about canonicity have no value (and are often just diplomatic answers to deal with pestering fans, trying to piss off as few people as possible).  
So canon is what Hasbro says it is, and that is the only condition to be canon. Canon does not need to be consistent (though it’s obviously preferable), any large work of fiction contains errors and inconsistencies, so if consistency had been a requirement, canon work would simply not exist. Other “conditions” such as being referenced, or needing to be the same media etc are all irrelevant too. If something is declared canon, then so it is. 
This all means that the various statements on twitter by DHX personnel (such as Big Jim) have no bearing on canonicity. Nor do fan’s wishes have any relevance. 
As shown in the link in my previous post, Hasbro has said that the comics and all happen in between episodes, that means 1) they happened and 2) it’s the same universe, and thus they are true and thus they are canon by very definition.
 
People are free to reject parts of the MLP franchise if they wish, but that is the realm of fan theory, not of official canon. If you want your personal wishes to be canon, buy the MLP franchise, then your will is law.

@DanielTepesKraus 
As a practical matter, the show can’t take the comics as canon. The writers have to assume that their audience only watches the show. Likewise, the IDW writers can’t assume knowledge of the chapter books, and vice versa. Each medium is its own self-contained offshoot of the main universe. (EqG enjoys a privileged position, because it airs on the same network as the show: the comics cite it freely, and the show could take it as canon if the writers were so inclined.)

@Background Pony #9E5B 
If the event’s of the comic aren’t mentioned or referenced in tv show, then it’s not canon. Same goes with Equestria girls, Berrows book and EVEN the official movie.

@Background Pony #9E5B 
canon and not canon are tried and true concepts of the comic world. it’s why marvel had to create their multiverse to begin with, with the “main canon” being earth-616. the avengers movies aren’t canon with the main canon as they take place in earth-199999.
 
not canon doesn’t equal “low quality” (spike sums it up here), which seems to be the misinterpretation on the “they’re canon” side that causes a lot of the arguing to begin with. right now the show doesn’t follow the events of any comics (and often contradicts them, as was the case with nightmare moon), firmly setting them as non-canon.
 
honestly, i was really surprised the first time i said “the comics aren’t canon” and people snapped at me like i’d insulted the comics or something. it’s probably worth pointing out the first time i said it i was still an avid fan of the idw comics.

@Esteban 

 
Except that Hasbro has already stated that the books, comics and movies happen in between episodes. Therefore they aren’t alternate universes or different timeslines, otherwise the word “in between” has no meaning. Ergo it’s canon by very definition.  
But no matter, people water down the term canon to just mean “canon is what I like”. Words just don’t have meaning anymore in post-modernism, it seems. 
Source: www dot licensemag dot com/license-global/hasbro-magic-branded-play 
Quote: 
“We give kids and consumers the opportunity to relive the story, but what sets us apart is that we are not quite interested in telling you what happened in a particular episode, but more interested in telling you what happened between episodes,” explains Michael Kelly, director of global publishing, Hasbro. “When the TV goes off and the movie theater goes dark, those characters are alive in your imagination. We build that story out and give you stories that happen in between the episodes and movies.”

i’m glad they stepped up and sank the incoming “the comics are canon now!!!1!” battleship before it even came within firing range. hats off to you, ms. hickey!