Fanon
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"Oh, no — another fan with ideas..."
—Sokka's Actor, Avatar: The Last Airbender.
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Ultimately, Canon is much smaller than the people who throw the term around like to think it is. Canon is limited to that which has actually been described in the source material. Especially in groups of writers, it boils down to what the writers specifically need to worry about for the purposes of the ongoing plot.
Fanon is the set of theories based on that material which, while they generally seem to be the "obvious" or "only" interpretation of canonical fact, are not actually part of the canon. Occasionally, the explanation seems good enough to just be "common sense." The salient point to remember is that when someone shouts, "That episode was terrible because it violates canon!", they are very often totally incorrect.
Fanon fills in holes that the writers may have deliberately left in order to have fodder for later stories. In addition to arising from a point of vagueness in the canon, Fanon can come into existence as a fact gained from a popular but non-canonical source, or taken from a different Adaptation. Because many fans mistake their own Fanon for actual Canon, they tend to get riled up when a new fact is introduced which does not literally contradict anything canonical, but invalidates what were formerly the most obvious assumptions. Many examples of Retcon and Continuity Drift that are imagined to be violations of Canon really only explicitly contradict Fanon.
Popular subjects of Fanon include character backstories, full names of characters with No Name Given, what characters actually do for a living, and Shipping — a whole other world of its own.
Since many creators in the aftermarket series universe are fans, Fanon often shows up there, and if those creators in turn start writing for the actual show, Fanon may actually become Canon. Alternatively, you just have Memetic Mutation within the fandom.
Fanon often also refers to the body of information provided by otherwise-official sources. Television and movie scripts are a continuing source of fanon material — Captain James Kirk, for example, had a middle initial ("T.")...but his actual middle name ("Tiberius") was originally revealed in an episode of the Trek animated series; since that show's canonicity is debatable, it was considered "fanon" until revealed canonically in the 6th Star Trek movie. Note that this usage blurs the line between fanon and deuterocanon, though.
Warning: Fanon and accusations of Fanon are a classic Internet Backdraft, with the accusation commonly leveled by fans that have a different interpretation of the material — even when their theory is just as vulnerable to Schrödinger's Gun.
Compare Broad Strokes, where the events of a story are referenced in passing without taking everything said and done as having "officially" happened, and Headcanon , where the unofficial material is known and admitted to be unofficial, but personally satisfying. If the fanon was repeatedly hinted at by writers until it became fanon, but never actually confirmed in canon, it's Writer-Induced Fanon. See also Fandom-Specific Plot. Not to be confused with this Fanon or the Pope's robe.
Music
- Vocaloid: The only things officially canon are the characters' names, appearances, and voices. Usually. (Some have a couple more minor things, like age and height, while others only have a name and a voice.) Personalities, backstories, relationships, and some characters are pure fanon.
Newspaper Comics
- Many fans believe that Garfield and Jim Davis's lesser-known second strip, U.S. Acres, take place in the same universe. While this is true on the Garfield and Friends side, it's never been confirmed or debunked in the strips.
Tabletop Games
- The Ordial Plane is a concept that turns up very frequently in Planescape fan work, based on the assumption that the Astral and Ethereal Planes should have a third counterpart in accordance to the Rule of Three and which would complete the circle between the Inner, Outer, and Material Planes.
- Warhammer Fantasy deliberately leaves a lot up in the air concerning some of its mysteries, but a great deal of fanon proclaims definitive answers to these questions. One common example is the nature of the Bretonnian goddess: many fans declare that she is merely a deception by the Wood Elves to be holy writ, but this is only one of several possibilities vaguely hinted at by the actual canon.
- The above applies to Warhammer's sister game Warhammer 40,000 as well. There's even some (semi-) Ascended Fanon.
- There are fans who insist that the Eldar created the Tau Ethereals, based on some vague hints in the Xenology book, which had a decidedly Unreliable Narrator (and the narrator himself dismissed the idea out of hand.)
- Also, most issues related to memes that aren't pure gameplay bugs (and some of those, too) seem to have some fanon to them. E.g. it's canon that Ultramarines are generally by-the-book sort (the book in question happens to be written by their Primarch), think themselves "first among the equals" and try to act accordingly, though they do use unconventional moves if necessary. Fans tend to extend this toward more obsessive or stuffed and arrogant "Ultrasmurfs" a la Matt "Spiritual Liege" Ward. Like this.
- The fandom seem to be easily fascinated... in various ways... with the concept of Death Cults - and loves to build upon this.
- Rogue Trader has "death cult" as one of 20 common ship complications, but start discussing the ship quirks and...
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Anonymous 1: I love the emerging theme that, given any excuse at all, a crew will form a death cult. It's not a question of IF a ship will have a death cult, it's a question of how long until it DOES get one. |
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- There was that joke about temple assassins (as grim professionals) showing resentment toward death cultist assassins (as annoying fans, Harley Quinn style). It doesn't help that at some point death cult assassins somehow became bouncier than Dark Eldar Wyches.
- Then there was that whole deal with the Squats...
- Dreadnoughts[1] theoretically are "revered", but there are... inevitable issues. Fanon has the quintessential "Grandpa Dreadnought", but existing ones tend to be interpreted as having various "Cranky Grandpa" personalities too. And they fit for this, though it's probably would be more accurate to assume they are trying to stay more than a part of a ritual and have little time for chat.
- Bjorn the Fell Handed of the Space Wolves. He is the oldest human alive in the Imperium, not counting the Emperor[2]. He evidently has superhumanly keen instincts, and even back then was a berserker who can keep his head cool - which is to say, one of the most dangerous things around. Which is also the obvious reason why Leman Russ left him to look after his "boys". Fanon: Bjorn is awakened every century or so, to let the Space Wolves learn from his ancient wisdom - that is, ask him to tell the newbies of the few best known stories about Leman Russ - then it's back to sleep... and he is understandably fed up with this.
- Black Templars have Tankred (from Damnation Crusade, comic about Black Templars), who supposedly is in it for the bitches (and booze). Also, Tankred endures. One, he refers to himself in third person. Two...
- There's a meme of a Dreadnought that wakes up and voices his complaint - coming from Turn Signals on a Land Raider, but with many variations from NSFW versions that expound on the details to a page with Tankred. The latter take makes it not clear whether this was plain truth, a joke to brush away other concerns, a way to guilt-trip his Battle-Brother, or all of the above. It's not even that his revelation only barely stays within Double Entendre territory, it's that Dreadnoughts have No Indoor Voice (and why would they?) - as far as he knows, a whole Company may hear this:
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Tech-Marine: Hello, old friend. |
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- Alpha Legion is everywhere. And behind everything (unless it's Tzeentch or some Eldar Farseer this time).
- Speaking of the eldar messing with the humans, "Eldrad Ulthran is a dick".
- Speaking of the manipulations, various Stormtrooper (Tempestum) units may be unwitting pawns/allies of various forces, possibly including Alpha Legion and/or Isha (why else those guys are unusually resistant to diseases?).
- Speaking of the eldar being friendly with the humans... how many Eldar-Human hybrids there really are around?
- Many players assume Abyssal Exalted are undead. They're actually living people "tainted by the essence of the Underworld", much like Half Vampires in many other settings.
Web Original
- In Neopets, a popular fanmade Neopian Times piece ("Poor Dr_Death") managed to define everything pertaining to the owners of the pound/adoption center. Most notably, the anonymous Uni was given a name, and nobody has found cause to dispute Dr_Death's characterization as a lovable Deadpan Snarker. (At least, not until his official appearance suddenly became much Lighter and Softer with the rest of the website, but that's another issue.)
- It's become Fanon in the shipping community that Ask That Guy is The Nostalgia Critic's twin brother and that he lives in his house. And that they're very close.
- And that The Other Guy is the older, slightly saner brother that the Critic goes to when he needs to lick his wounds.
- Again with them, any fic that takes place when they were younger calls them Doug and Guy. For common sense purposes really, it'd be silly for their parents to call them "Critic" and "Ask That Guy".
- Spurred by Ask That Guy's love of his pipe and Doug's penchant for blowjob jokes, Critic being really good at oral has become almost a meme in fics.
- Also that Dr. Insano's son is named "SOI" (Son Of Insano). And he goes to school.
- After Kickassia was finished, it's usually accepted that the Critic was exiled to a hotel room and the others had fun on his tab. What tends to happen next is, unfortunately, wishful thinking.
- Humanized versions of the Happy Tree Friends characters almost always follow a certain design.
- ↑ Space Marine so horribly mangled that replacing parts with bionics doesn't cut it, and as such buried in a life support sarcophagus, which is then stuck in a Mini-Mecha, and have to be set on hibernation most of the time
- ↑ who was immortal to begin with