Canon Blind

Synonyms:	Fandom Blind, Fanwork-Only Fans
See also:
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Canon Blind is a term used to describe fans engaging with a fandom where they have no knowledge or experience of the source material. This can include reading fics canon blind, but it can also extend to creating canon blind transformative works.

A reader seeking canon blind fic recs may include a list of their current fandoms in the request, or otherwise indicate the genre, tropes or character dynamics that they're interested in reading.

The very popular Witcher fic, The Accidental Warlord and His Pack, is an example of canon blind work - the author did not consume any canonical material (books, video game or TV show) before writing this story. Instead, the author's complete knowledge of the canonverse came from consuming fan created works in the Witcher fandom.

Appeal

The appeal of reading canon/fandom blind isn't immediately obvious, even to readers who enjoying reading fandom blind:

A lot of the reasons people give for liking fanfiction don't really make sense when you're reading fandom blind.

I'm not reading it (1) because I love the characters and I want more from them or (2) because there's some particular part of canon I want to fix or (3) because I want more worldbuilding for that universe.

I don't particularly think that the plots I like are entirely restricted to fanfiction (although I do on occasion enjoy For Want of A Nail or Time Travel AU fics - even in fandoms I'm not familiar with).

Events & Communities

• Fandom Blind Review Exchange hosted at /r/fanfiction, 2023

Fannish resources

• Fanwork-Only Fans at TV Tropes