Introduction[]
So the purpose of this blog is to deal with a matter that even after having being told several times before and explained as well, its still getting overshadowed by lack of understanding, lowball and others spreading lies with the popular opinion basically. Which by the title you can figure as well what this is about, that being the canonicity of the two tag games and the CGI movie to the series, claiming they contradict the canon, they arent meant as canon etc. So im gonna address the matter and put an end to this topic once and for all, especially as its a pretty big deal too.
Tekken Tag Tournament 1[]
So to start it off, one of the first things is this outfit of Kazuya from this game, if you seen the main outfit for Kazuya in Tekken 7 you will see the similarities they have, no need to stretch it out on that and that is supported by the fact that in the opening cinematic of the game, this scene, can be seen briefly in the Tekken 7 story near the end of Heihachi vs Kazuya final battle during the flashbacks of previous events, right here, as well as this scene, can be seen right here shortly after the first one i presented moments ago too and even this cinematic scene as well being displayed right here among other scenes from main games of the series. They could be missed as they go over them pretty fast, but its not impossible to spot them even if give it a good attention.
That isnt the only thing we have though, we also have this scene with the character Bryan Fury, why is that important though? Because according to the Tekken 3 bio of his we are informed about Bryan past life before he became cyborgnized, which that scene from Tag 1 shows us a glimpse of, which we dont see it anywhere in any of the main games ever again that he appeared from his debut ever, you can as well check his endings and story from Tekken 3 till Tekken 7 in case any of you wanna do it, neither do it, meanwhile this game does that and it makes sense, Tekken 3 was released in 1997, then Tag 1 released in 1999, so they were back to back with one another.
Lei Wulong is also mentioned in the bio and in Bryan ending they make interactions between the characters, which they did it first, before Tekken 5 in his story do it again for different reasons. We getting this ending of Heihachi also briefly shown to us in the Tekken 7 story too like the previously mentioned scenes from the start of this section. And yet another ending, of the character Xiaoyu, which shows us a piece of story that no other game gives off for it a glimpse at, besides Tag 1, Tekken 4 would show a nod to it in Panda ending years later, acknowledging from what we were given previously.
Tekken Tag Tournament 2[]
Moving on with Tag 2 now, we go over the character Jaycee or better known as Julia, which existed only in this game and the first time we see this wrestling persona of hers, until Tekken 7 came next and shows us Jaycee is in fact canon, which already tells us about tag 2 canonicity, this is also a big deal as it tells us how because of Jaycee being a thing changed Julia the way she is now in Tekken 7, so in other words, it is an important plot point for the character.
Another plot point important for one of the characters is Steve, Tag 2 gave us this ending of his, which covers about his past, something that ever since his debut we didnt get to see into it till at that point, let alone it tells us about this doctor Kliesen, which is the mother of the character Leo, which is yet another important plot point for this character as well, on which we dont see much about it till this game and Leo ending further adds to Steve ending on the lore, Tekken 7 then finally shows us flashbacks from the endings and information of that doctor, sealing the deal on that matter with the canon. One last ending being shown as being a thing in our current game in the series is Panda ending, which shows us what she was thinking about there, that same thing happens again in Tekken 7, canonizing tag 2 even more, this detail will be brought up again in the upcoming sections.
Also like i said in the previous section regarding Kazuya design from Tag 1 carrying in Tekken 7 and what not, same goes for Heihachi main look he had in Tag 2, that being this one, which can be seen in the story mode of Tekken 7 to carry there as well, from the very start of the game, during the story about what happened with Kazumi and her death, even during the final battle between Kazuya and Heihachi where the former hallucinates the latter as he looked in his younger days, not to mention they recap the start of the game events too. Tag 2 gave us the young version of the character and Tekken 7 used that to show it was indeed how the character looked, nothing more to say.
For the last thing left, we got Baek ending, which shows us about the character past, about how he killed his father by accident, something which even the Tekken 2 bio tells us about it, but never have we seen it be went ever in any of the games he has been prior to Tag 2 and we are talking about the very first lore info of the character in its first debut, this game bothered to get into something as old as this, which just by playing the games you dont know about (unless you got from a manual or such info), especially from those old games. There are more points to tell, but those will fall mostly under the next section.
Tekken Blood Vengeance[]
Next on we have got the CGI movie of the series, which besides the fact that the director of the series has answered on the matter of the canonicity, saying it is half-canon to the series lore and being shown as well in the Tekken 7 story mode during the flashbacks from Kazuya vs Heihachi final battle, which is literally a scene from here taken from, there is also like in the previous sections when we talked about them, looks/outfits from this movie put in Tekken 7 once again, one such example is Xiaoyu outfit from the movie, which even Tag 2 has also included it in its game during that time, but Tekken 7 also added it too years later, suggesting the movie canonicity by existing in those two games, but especially Tekken 7, she never had this outfit in any of the games before, the movie is where she had it, later to be implemented in these.
Another example of that is Nina outfit from the movie, which she wears through the whole Tekken 7 story and exists in the game too, she never had this outfit in any of the games before Tekken 7, so it was only from there, again to be implemented later in a game. Another one is Kazuya outfit from the movie which made it in the story of Tekken 7, the Kazuya vs Akuma fight one to be exact. But another piece of the puzzle we have on this in the devil forms we got from the movie, those two forms made it in the Tag 2 game as well, for Kazuya that form also appeared in two endings of that game as well, then later Tekken 7 added the same form in the game story as the final boss (excluding the special chapter), these cant be anymore in your face proof then that. Yet another evidence is how Harada says this regarding Alisa skeleton and outer skin of the body, in the games we dont see about that at all visually, but in the movie we do and goes well with the explanation given about it as well, once again showing how things from the movie show us stuff the games didnt yet.
Additional things to include here is that Harada when he talked with Dai Sato, the one who wrote the script, said he wanted to exclude this scene which they had a convo about, Harada expresses to us how he told him to not remove that scene from the movie, a scene which many point it out about the film that doesnt make it fit with the story of the games, yet Harada approved of that to be left in. Saito also said he didnt wanna bring to the character Xiaoyu anything more then the games already did, suggesting he wrote the plot in mind by not doing something the games didnt already do with her lore wise, so its not like he wrote whatever he pleased without thinking, especially as he is a fan of the series, even mentions when he was offered to do the movie, he went to get familiar with the series again, nail in the coffin is the mentioning how it exists in the tekken universe, which goes with all we talked by far on canonicity so far, so it is part of the lore.
Debunking Counter Arguments[]
As there will be obviously some counter arguments of all sorts thrown around we will address them right now too.
>The devil form from the movie and Tekken 7 arent the same, they look clearly different<
Thats not an argument, going by that logic, by this logic you might as well tell us for other franchises the same, like Dante devil trigger from DMC3 and DMC4 or Ben 10 with one of his aliens called Shocksquatch in a movie, then in the show, its still the same thing even though redesigns happened and they arent treated as any different, same goes for Kazuya, plus you cant even claim they look totally different, you even see similarities here and there side by side, the idea is still there regardless just changed after years since then.
>The director of the series says about the movie that just a little is canon, how is that half canon to you? It contradicts the games too<
This is just lack of basic understanding you learn in school, half doesnt mean just two equal sides, it says down there to its definition as well it can mean "to a certain extent", synonyms for it also being barely, slightly, almost, nearly, those words dont even point towards what the usual meaning of half is known by people and this meaning goes in line with him saying not everything but a little by the definition.
Even so parts of the movie which people point it as contradictory either can be ignored or just go with all of it, makes no real difference anyway, you have pretty much all fighting games take non canon endings as possible scenarios for certain feats or display of abilities, because they arent impossible things, just cuz in some of them they may have beating a final boss in it when canonically wouldnt be capable for example, you dont just disregard the whole thing, you simply dont take that part simple as that, or once again in DMC series in one of its novels, has a character which Dante doesnt meet until much later in the games, also he gets killed too in there, it goes with some of those moments against the canon, yet the director of that series still counts it in the canon, let alone references it in the latest game among other games and so on.
Its not the first time nor the last one to do this, the movie in our case is no different, its implemented in the lore and considered as a past event, considering the previous points from earlier, it is really unreasonable to count it off. Also as earlier brought at the end of the previous section, why would he have it non canon when in the talks with the script writer of it he never denied the idea and didnt do it later since then either, let alone adding all these things brought up in Tekken 7.
>Even Death Battle proved the movie is non canon and contradictory<
Not only is this really bad argument, but Death Battle is a controversial show when it comes to their episodes of their battles and regularly proving to be unreliable with their stats or verdicts, but that fight Jin was in ignores almost all we talked about so far in this blog that says otherwise to their words, their argument against the movie canonicity was this tweet, which doesnt even address the matter at hand, the person points that Kazuya can control his power, while Jin couldnt and it messed up with the canon, when the lore clearly showed us since Tekken 4 the former got control over it, meanwhile the latter didnt managed to do that till Tekken 6, where he could use lasers and forcefields, the movie takes place between 5 and 6 chronologically, then Harada answers that he never said its canon, which people interpret it as meaning non canon, he never said non canon anywhere in there and it doesnt contradict with the other tweet i presented where he says its half canon, he wasnt lying when he responded he never said its canon, cuz he said its half canon actually way later.
Matter of fact, the one Death Battle shown its 2 years older the one i provided here, so the most recent one holds more weight, that being mine as its more recent and they had that available too but ignored it, if you wanna believe them, many will laugh at you. To add one more thing the fight Heihachi had this year also debunks whatever they said in the one with Jin, like mentioning how the former pile drives the latter and his father down a building, which is literally from the movie where he does that, not to mention the researchers mentioning it as well in a blog of theirs, further proving whatever was years back in the previous one amounts to zero upon realization they messed up, lets see now anyone actually wanting to take their word now to argue against this.
>Tag games are non canon and they bring characters back that arent suppose to be back<
First of all, nowhere is said they are non canon, besides the fandom wikia of the series, which mind you, has no citations for that, let alone this idea is mainly cuz they are spin off games, which doesnt take away from canonicity at all, especially not with the canon these days indicating otherwise of their place in lore.
Second of all, characters being back when they shouldnt be is a poor argument as well, Heihachi is in Tekken 5 roster despite being told he didnt even participated in it or that his wife Kazumi is in Tekken 7, despite getting killed decades before the events of the first game, not to mention that the tag games have no main story like the other 7 games, so it doesnt contradict anything from the canon to begin with, so the presence of some dont affect anything nor it changes anything significantly, they dont mention they returned canonically at all, plus other fighting games do the same thing to add characters that shouldnt be in them normally, they are there just for the sake of playing them and see whatever what if endings they bring out with them.
>Alisa and Xiaoyu act like strangers in Tekken 6 scenario campaign, meanwhile the movie contradicts it by telling us they knew each other<
Tekken 6 came out in 2009, even earlier if we count arcade release and all that, Blood Vengeance came out in 2011, with them thinking of it as early as of January of 2010 to make one, so they didnt thought of the movie by the time the game was out already, also Tag 2 already shows them in Alisa, Miharu, Xiaoyu and Panda endings (latter one being shown in tekken 7 as explained earlier), that they know each other which is more recent then Tekken 6 and closer in release date with the movie as well where its been already out in arcades in 2011 and releasing next year after, so whatever that one had it got overwritten by Tag 2 and the movie.
>Alisa being awaken before Tekken 6 in the movie is contradictory, since Lars is the one who awakens her<
Alisa also says in scenario campaign of the game this and this, meaning she wasnt asleep ever since creation till Tekken 6 happened, therefore it isnt contradictory at all, suggesting she was active even before that game, not to mention she was made to serve Jin, makes no sense she would be left there the entire time without using her.
Conclusion[]
The two tag games and CGI movie therefore are canon to the series lore and gives us pieces of info that the others didnt do or which are pointed out to be a real thing in the main games later from those medias, that gave existence to them long before the others did.
Big names or individuals whom say they know the series since little and the like, claiming otherwise on them shouldnt be taken for granted by their word, as far as i saw in many vs sites or social medias in half a decade, they dont know as much as they say or arent up to date on them or as familiar in reality to really speak up the topic.