Fanon

Synonyms:	fanlore
See also:	head canon, canon, discontinuity, fanwank, Fannish Hive Mind, Word of God
Click here for related articles on Fanlore.

Fanon is any element that is widely accepted among fans, but has little or no basis in canon. Sometimes it's a small event in canon that gets exaggerated; sometimes it's something in a fanfic story that gets picked up on and repeated by other writers until it's so common that newbies might think it's a canonical fact.

Origin of the Phrase

The precise date that "fanon" entered into fandom vocabulary has not been established. One very early use was the description of a fan panel at 1992's Escapade. Discussions on the Virgule-L and Blake's 7 mailing lists over the spring and summer of 1993 used the phrases "fan canon" or "fan dogma" or "fan consensus" or "fan universe."

In Feb 1993, Sandy Hereld posted to the Virgule-L mailing list:

"We had a Pros panel at Escapade last year that turned out like a game show. The moderator would say something like, "Doyle eats health food" and people would yell, "canon" or "fan canon" (and then argue it out--what episode if canon, or what early story if fan canon). It was great fun. Weird, how our additions to a fandom take on life of their own."

The Blake's 7 mailing list eventually decided to adopt the phrase "fan canon" which then led to a few fans objecting:

"Since we are talking about "fan canon", I really wish to put my objections to the (mis)use of the word "canon" to describe what we are talking about.

Taking my trusty dictionary in hand, I find: canon [noun]:

1. a Church decree enacted to regulate morals or religious practices.

2. (often pl.) a general rule or standard, as of judgement, morals etc.

3. (often pl.) a principle or accepted criterion applied in a branch of

learning or art.

4. (R.C. Church) the complete list of canonized saints.

5. (R.C. Church) the prayer in the Mass in which the Host is concecrated.

6. a list of writings, esp. sacred writings, officially recognised as

genuine.

7. a piece of music in which an extended melody in one part is imitated

successively in one or more other parts.

8. a list of the works of an author that are accepted as authentic.

9. (formerly) a size of printer's type equal to 48 point.

Sorry, I put the whole lot there so you wouldn't think I was selectively editing for my benefit. I think we would agree that sense 6 (and maybe 8) are the ones that would apply to writings, such as fan fiction. If we call these themes "canon", that would immediately imply (quite strongly) that anything that didn't fit within these themes/assumptions/ characterisations (wot we are discussing) isn't "genuine" or "authentic" Blake's 7 writing. And that simply ISN'T so, and I would hate for us to imply this sort of exclusivity when we don't need to! So please, *please*, PLEASE stop using the word "canon" in this discussion!

Recurring themes, or something, but not canon.

In support of the use of the phrase "fan canon":

"My own use of the terms Canon and fan canon are influenced

by Sherlock Holmes fandom (and Holmesians would probably flay me for using fandom to describe them 8-). Following their use of Canon and Apocrypha, I would apply them to B7 this way:

Canon -- the series as aired.

Apocrypha -- scripts; stories told by TN, CB, the actors and others involved in the production; novelizations. Essentially, stuff from those who are not fans.

Fan canon -- ideas generated by fans, based on Canonical and Apocryphal sources, that are widely accepted among the community. Often these ideas form the basis of fan debate; 'is Avon pushing the sanity envelope' in the 4th season is fan canon IMO because the question is a frequent issue of debate and accepted as a valid matter for discussion by most fans whether their own answer is yes or no.

Fan canon is dynamic; it is always evolving. There is also substantial overlap among these categories. For instance, Blake is an engineer is Apocryphal under this scheme because it comes from a part of the script that didn't get on the air and was picked up in the Programme Guide and has now been accepted as a fact by most fans even when they don't know the source.

These are all matters on which reasonable minds may differ."

By August 1998, some 5 years later, the phrase "fanon" was being used by media fans on Usenet and in forums like Ci5 (The Professionals), Virgule-L and MUNCLE mailing lists. By October 1998, fanon was mentioned in a Friscon convention report on alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated. But the earliest known reference to the use of the word fanon was in April 1998 when Emily Salzfass used the word 'fanon' on alt.startrek.creative.erotica.moderated:

"I am very "out" about my Trek passion, and the paper I'm writing suggests as much. I am all over saying that Trek fandom is a great community, that fanfic is an empowering and positive forum, and that we as a group are thoroughly and effectively shaping an inadequate canon to fit our growing needs. [I've also coined "fanon" to mean "fan canon"...it's yours, if you want it...]"

Years later Emily wrote:

"I mean, of course I didn't actually invent this word. If nothing else, it's such an easy slushing together of words -- fan + canon -- that other folks probably stumbled across it just out of laziness, throughout the history of fans rewriting source material -- aka, since cave painting days."

Headcanon

A variation of fanon is "personal canon" or "headcanon," which is a set of "fanon"-like facts that are accepted as canon by an individual fan or a smaller group of fans, sometimes in the making of a shared universe.

Fanon Characterization

Characters Expanded by Fanon

Sometimes minor characters can become disproportionately popular in fandom, with fanworks being based almost entirely on fanon characterization. These types of characters are sometimes referred to as blank slates.

One reason this may happen is if a Big Name Fan or popular fanwork portrays them a certain way, and works inspired by that also use those traits, it can spread and popularize a version of the character which draws more from fanworks than from canon.

It has been noted that characters who receive the most widespread fanon characterization seem to be exclusively white. Thus the fanon characterization phenomenon has been connected to the racist bias of caring about and relating to the personal lives of white characters than people of color. These characters are also disproportionately male. When two of these characters are paired together who happen to be white and male, this can be an example of the Two White Guys trope.

Examples

• Draco Malfoy (see Fanon Draco), Blaise Zabini, and Daphne Greengrass of Harry Potter.
• In the Naruto fandom, Blackkat has written multiple fanfics where Uchiha characters are attracted to strong people who can beat them up, and this fanon Uchiha trait is now commonly seen from many different fic writers.
• In Inception fandom, Arthur and Eames are two characters with very little canon detail who became extremely fleshed out in fandom (and became the juggernaut ship). This can be attributed in part to a few big name fans who wrote works centered on them.
• In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the character of Clint Barton became a fan favourite despite having relatively little development in the canon; many fans drew on comics material for their fanon characterisations of Clint. The same applied to Phil Coulson (with whom Clint was popularly shipped) before he was fleshed out more in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series. Darcy Lewis is another MCU character whose characterisation drew heavily on fanon.
• RK900 of Detroit: Become Human

Unpopular Characters

Fanon characterization is also related to Character Bashing. Fans will portray characters they dislike inaccurately, exaggerating their flaws and minimizing their strengths and complexity. Bad characteristics may be entirely invented.

However, this can differ depending on the fandom. For instance, the character Yaldabaoth in SCP Foundation is generally disliked, but not excessively so and seen as fitting the universe's often dark tone. As such, fanon about her differs from more conventionally hated characters and involves various Sarkic groups, who are often seen as worshipping Yaldabaoth and hating the rival god Mekhane, when often, that is not what Sarkicism is about in-universe.

Examples

• Ron Weasley - see Ron the Death Eater

Female Characters

A number of fans have noticed the tendency of fandom to take favorite female characters and reduce their roles and/or simplify the nuances of their characters for a number of reasons.

Examples

• Yeah we put your girl in the fandom and they villainized her beyond comprehension. (2023)
• an excuse to never talk about any female characters but then they'll have an entire made up backstory and 700 fics on ao3 for background male character
• y’all love the morally gray, snarky, grief stricken characters until it’s a woman.
• fandom will see a female character with the most interesting backstory and inner turmoil in the entire media and be like...
• I absolutely hate it when slash fics feel like they gotta tear down the character’s previous relationship with a girl in some way.
• ngl it's pretty annoying to me when the response to any female character existing in proximity to a mlm ship (canon or not) is either...

When Fanon Becomes Canon

Officially

Sometimes fanon becomes canon because TPTB planned to reveal a canon fact all along, and fans merely beat them to the punch by figuring it out ahead of time.

Other times, bits of fanon are created by fans, then picked up by TPTB and made into canon. For instance, in Stargate SG-1 fandom, fanfic writers gave a recurring character, Major Davis, the first name "Paul." A few years later, the show's writers officially gave the character the first name Paul.

Similarly, in Highlander fandom, the fans quickly took to calling the unnamed U.S. city where Duncan MacLeod lived "Seacouver," because it was clearly meant to evoke the feel of Seattle while looking suspiciously like Vancouver (where the show was filmed). Eventually, the show creators officially adopted the name for the city, referring to it that way offscreen. (Although it was never mentioned on the show, it did appear as prop canon—a newspaper contained an ad for an event at the "Seacouver Community Center"—and in some of the tie-in novels.)

As an Established Fan "Understanding"

When plot points and characteriztions become entrenched in a fandom, it can be difficult to separate out what is "canon" and what is not. Often fans are entirely unaware where a fanon element originated

One example from 1980 from the Star Trek: TOS fandom. Like Kraith and other popular fan-created universes, the Sahaj Universe spawned much fanon, and even the fans had a hard time keeping it straight. When a fan used a word that Leslye Lilker had created in a story, the fan and the editor of the zine it appeared in had to apologize. "In "And God Against All" In R&R XII, Collette Mak used the term, Valjn'd'jt, which is a term coined by Leslye Lilker for the Sahaj universe. Collette thought it was one of the usual terms in Treklit. I knew it was Leslye's, but I missed It. Both Collette and I apologize; the term is Leslye's, and our use of it was unauthorized."

Another example, this one from the Blake's 7 fandom: in 1985 and 1986, there had been several instances of a fan named "Keith Black" selling bootlegged copies of Blake's 7 zines, one of them of the fic by Ann O'Neill called "Between Black and White" (see Between Black and White). This may have made fans extra-sensitive, including the producers of a zine called Mascarada, to any possible raised eyebrows regarding fanon, head canon, and canon. Susan R. Matthews, the author of this zine, included this statement in the preface to the story "The Portage" in "Mascarada":

AUTHOR'S ACKNOWLEDGMENT:

The first person to suggest that Kerr Avon had a sensitized allergy to standard drugs used for purposes of interrogation was Ann O'Neill, in her excellent story, "Between Black and White" (Standard by Seven, Number 9). The idea made such good sense to me at the time that, to my embarrassment, I find I had unconsciously assumed it was part of the "background" established for Kerr Avon in the course of the aired episode. I understand that the idea was original with Ann O'Neill, who has graciously consented to lend the plot device to me for the limited purposes of this story and its eventual conclusion. I feel the richer for it, and wish to thank Ann O'Neill, as well as acknowledge the source of the idea.

Even in newer fandoms where these origins may still be traceable. In November 1999, Laura Jacquez Valentine pointed out that:

One thing that's interesting about newer fandoms is that you can often peg these things. For example, the Sentinel canon vs. fanon page contains initial points for such things as Blair's unreliable car.

And in Star Wars fanfic, I'm personally responsible for the convention that Palpatine's first name is "Bob", and for Masters cutting and braiding their Padawan's hair and weaving their own strands into the braid ("Scissors", 09 Jun 1999).

It's interesting to watch these things spring up. I bet most of the people who use the cutting/braiding bit of fanon now, only a few months later, have no idea where it came from.

Controversies and Challenges

Some fans think fanon is a sign of lazy thinking or lazy writing, arguing that a fan writer should come up with her own story elements or interpretations, and not repeat the story elements or interpretations of others. For example, Victoria P. writes on fanon: "After a while, fanonical characterizations all start to feel the same, and isn't one of the aims of fanfic to produce diversity? [...] I mean, when the fanon is so incestuous that the new writers can't tell fanon from canon and accept the former as the latter, that's a problem, to me." ' In a related vein, there are fans that believe that overwhelmingly popular fanon acts like a stranglehold on the range of possible character and story interpretations, essentially creating an orthodoxy from which authors stray at their peril.

In addition, reusing even basic phrases that have become fanon have, in the past, stirred debate. The 1984 column "The Protocol Droid," published in the letterzine Jundland, Too, contains a letter from a fan saying she was worried because her fanfiction was about the fall of the Jedi enclaves, but that she'd learned that concept of "enclaves" was from another fanwriter's universe. She wanted to know if she could still use this term. The answer? Absolutely not without specific permission from the fan originator, and if any similar appropriation was done by accident, the fan needed to apologize by writing a personal letter. Many fans today would not require permission in this situation as the writer is not reusing a specific story or a character, only a concept.

One fan admitted to being tangled up in her own fanon as she read another fan's story. Maggie Nowakowska, author of ThousandWorlds, wrote in 1979: "... I thought the idea of using "Lucas" for the name of Luke's father a good idea ... wish I had thought of it. One problem I can see with future SW fanfic is the confusion of names for the same beings. I ran into this in a later piece when I found myself thinking, "No, Greedo's people are called 'Deseratines'" ... and I had to stop and remind myself that that name comes from the Thousand-Worlds series and that this author can call the creatures anything she damn well pleases.

Occasionally a writer's use of fanon can indicate an unfamiliarity with the actual source, as if she is writing fanfic based not on the show, but on other fanwriters' interpretation of the show. For instance, in The Sentinel fandom, it was once quite common to find stories that depicted Blair Sandburg as a life-long vegetarian; use of this fanon element became widespread, despite the fact that several key episodes of the show (such as "Blind Man's Bluff" or "Spare Parts") indicate that Blair is, canonically, an enthusiastic omnivore. As writing fanfiction without having actually viewed the source is generally looked down upon, use of fanon that blatantly contradicts canon can be taken as a warning sign to readers that they are about to encounter badfic. Similarly, stories that contradict fanon (but not canon) may be described by some readers as OOC or AU, in cases where fanon has become so powerful that it attains a force equal to (or surpassing) canon itself.

However, not all fanon contradicts canon. Certain types of fanon are created because certain details or interpretations invented by fans seem so right, so true or plausible or pleasurable, that they're repeated by other writers almost as a form of tribute, as if that's what must have really happened. From this point of view, fanon is an essential aspect of how fanfiction writers improve on or flesh out (often sketchy) source texts.

Canon, Fanon, and the VCR

In the days before VCRs and/or easy availability of home viewing, fans of television or film fandoms had extra challenges; not everyone was on a level playing field regarding memory and access to reruns of their favorite shows.

From a fan in 2000:

Actually, I can see both sides of this issue, especially when you're dealing with a show as canon-heavy as [ Starsky & Hutch ] has always been. Many fans writing now don't have the priviledge of having a library of uncut tapes from which to do their own research. And some things in SH *are* considered a given by fandom at large. We've all sat in fandom gatherings were stories were criticized because some critical issue in fanon wasn't used when the story called out for it, and it interfered with the believability of the story. I wrote my first SH story, Crystal Blue Persuasion, after having seen about 6 episodes (one of them the Shootout, from which the story takes off). My first readers had some problems with the story because of all the things I *didn't* know. I was able to edit it better with a few more episodes under my belt, so that it agreed more with canon and was more believable. (I'd come from Miami Vice fandom which didn't give a damn about canon.)

[snipped]

Of course, I totally agree with Suz re: not yielding to general fan belief if it doesn't suit you. I am a huge proponent of writing whatever it is you damned please, canon be damned, anyone's opinion be damned -- as long as you can make us BELIEVE it, and that is the major critical issue here.

Canon, Fanon, and the Internet

Online fandom moves a lot faster than print fandom did, and a fan (Sandy Herrold) in was quite amazed at how much quicker fans were to adopt fanon:

The moderators of the [1992 Escapade ] panel had spent some time coming up with a list of characteristics, and for each one, we had to decide whether they were show based or fanfic based. Some of them were easy, some were hard, and a lot of them sparked off their own conversations about which story we'd seen the idea in first, and why it was such a good idea that it was picked up by so many other writers, etc.

But, back then, it took years for new ideas to become fan canon -- i.e., to show up in so many stories that new fans could mistake them for 'real' canon.

Now... sheesh, I think it takes a couple of weeks. Now don't misunderstand me. I am NOT saying that net authors copy ideas any more than print writers did. It's just that now..., you wrote it today, posted it tonight, I read it tomorrow, thought one line really caught the character (or, I haven't watched all the episodes, and thought your line really described a show-based characteristic), and stuck it into my story (often without even noticing), which I publish to the net tomorrow or Wednesday, and by the end of the week it is everywhere!

Everytime I think I have grokked the power of the net, I realize how far behind I am.

Tracking the Elusive Fanon

Just where did that bit of fanon originate? Figuring it out can be difficult, as well as a lot of fun!

Fan's creativity knows no bounds, but what becomes fanon is elusive. A fan in 1999 mentioned several of her speculations that had been picked up by other fans. "And in Star Wars fanfic, I'm personally responsible for the convention that Palpatine's first name is "Bob", and for Masters cutting and braiding their Padawan's hair and weaving their own strands into the braid ("Scissors", 09 Jun 1999). It's interesting to watch these things spring up. I bet most of the people who use the cutting/braiding bit of fanon now, only a few months later, have no idea where it came from."

A fanon wiki is a type of wiki containing fan-created ideas, usually fanfics, OCs and other fanmade concepts. It is the fanon opposite of a canon-focused wiki.

Meta/Further Reading

Unknown Date

• Tiny Marshmallows Want to Be Free by Mer (1999 or early 2000s)
• Whose Story Is It Anyway?: Challenges, Fanon, and Injokes (perhaps mid-2000s)

1998

• The Amazing Speed of the NET! by Sandy Herrold

1999

• [1], ^{Archived version}, post at alt.tv.sentinel (1999)

2000

• Fanon versus Canon by Meimi (December 20, 2000)

2003

• Canon? NO! It's Fanon by Moyra (2003, updated later)

2004

• Canon/fanon, ^{Archived version} by Jane Davitt (2004)
• More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Canon and Fanon, ^{Archived version} by Melusina (2004)

2009

• Canon and Fanon and Points Between, ^{Archived version} (The Sentinel-centric) (2009)

2014

• Reading a 1977 zine in 2014: Zebra Three #1, ^{Archived version} (2014)

2015

• Do Characters Belong to Their Fans or Their Creators?, ^{Archived version} (2015)

2017

• Dean Winchester and Commander Shepard Walk Into A Bar: Why Fanon Matters - Uncanny Magazine, ^{Archived version}

Resources

• Fannish Glossary
• A Fanspeak Dictionary
• Fanon entry on TV Tropes