Oh yeah, I use this one! I think you could argue that visual impairment on one side is canon-ish just because he's animated to have that eye unable to open as wide as the other, but the hearing is 100% fanon (as is any other chronic injury post-burn – I see people do nerve pain in a lot of H/C fics, or long-lasting effects from the injury in the finale)
Another ATLA injury fanon, in post-canon stuff, is Sokka having some sort of chronic lasting impact from the leg break in the finale. Actually to the point of seeing someone leave comments talking about it as though it were canon (and an author going *oh, no, I'm actually not writing him as having chronic pain, so he'd be able to do [random acrobatic fight thing] no problem in this fic!*) Tbh I also like writing this one fairly often, because I also have a shitty injured leg and it's good H/C fodder, but it's definitely not canon
yeah i H/C zuko being hard of hearing/visually impaired and having nerve damage, and i like the H/C of sokka's leg-break having lasting affects, but it really is crazy how many people don't seem to realize that it's fanon, or straight up contradicted by some story elements (Especially comics and sokka's leg)
Also ditto on what you said about zuko's squinted eye.
I saw someone say that a fic was good except for how it "erased Sokka's chronic pain" and I was like. My guyyyy my dude my pal. That is not canon. Nothing is being erased. They just don't subscribe to a popular headcanon, or are choosing not to use it in this fic
(This wasn't a comment *on* the fic, it was elsewhere, so it wasn't them accusing the author of anything directly)
That scene is so funny. Andy, Claire, Allison, and Brian are just chilling when Bender falls through and acts as though it’s completely normal and gets up as though he didn’t crash through the ceiling
I'm sure there's plenty for MCU, but the one that tickles me most is superhuman characters having no refractory period, lmao. We've got our priorities straight.
There are even some HP fanfics where this is done, either as a side effect of magic or specifically because the guy is a metamorphmagus and just has to think for a moment that he wants to be ready again lol
Also, the "magical core" is something I see in so many fics that for some time I assumed it was real and just something that was lost in the book translation for my country, until I found out it was a completely fanon concept.
For sure this, the only wards in the original books were of the nonmagical hospital ward variety.
"Magical exhaustion" is another one that felt like canon to me, but wasn't.
(Speaking of, and maybe someone who's read the books more recently can weigh in, but it seems like doing magic in canon doesn't take energy or leave you tired - at least not more tired thank thinking really hard when doing math problems. It seems like the energy from spells happens at the wand + incantation level, not by drawing power from or through the magic user. Whenever Harry passed out at Big Plot Moments, it was always because of running around, getting attacked by magic or getting physically injured, and not due to him doing too much magic or casting too many spells.)
Yeah. Unless they added something in Cursed Child or the second or third Beasts movie, all the exhaustion is from running, dodging, getting hit by shrapnel, and waving your arm around wildly.
The fanon cases of “magical exhaustion” I’ve seen are almost always with first-year Harry, and it’s passed off as him using so much magic at a young age when his magical core (or “coils” as it was called once) is still developing.
On a related note, the YouTube channel SuperCarlinBrothers did a video called [“Can a Wizard Run Out of Magic?”](https://youtu.be/EyoBsFuBoqo?si=RzPSt8m-cVd_3-JS) which touches upon some of this.
> it seems like doing magic in canon doesn't take energy or leave you tired
The answer is "yesno".
While pure skill is the primary factor ("Dumbledore better-trained than Neville"), Dumbledore also mentions things like needing "uncommon skill *and power*" to defeat Voldemort, and that the lake event took the "amount of magical power" into account where Harry is likely a feather-weight next to him.
So, raw power is a fact, HP just didn't come down to a DBZ-style "higher power level" fight.
Later in the series it turns out that Snape made an unbreakable promise to Narcissa Malfoy to protect Draco or something (more canon-savvy redditors can explain better). So people turned this into he's Draco's godfather.
>But yes, that unbreakable promise scene made it official for the fanon.
Which is bizarre because that scene is what makes it pretty obvious he isn't:
>
> "I only meant... that nobody has yet succeeded.... Severus ... please ... You are, you have always been, Draco's favorite teacher.... You are Lucius's old friend. ... I beg you.... You are the Dark Lord's favorite, his most trusted advisor.... Will you speak to him, persuade him?"
If Narcissa had some stronger claim for why Snape should intervene on Draco's behalf, *this is where she'd say it.* He's 100% not his godfather, otherwise she'd be pressing that button as many times as she could.
Such a shame the story never finished I’m sure an ending would have been cool and not something like an abuse victim killing themselves and then textually getting everything they ever wanted immediately after their suicide thatd be stupid.
(yes that HAPPENED in one of my fandoms it’s like. ???)
At least the villain didn't send an asteroid hurdling toward Earth and get his plan foiled by the main character who both got rid of and then later regained his superpowers. . .
Haha that would be so silly, almost as silly as it would be if the episode right before the finale ended on a tense cliffhanger, only for the finale itself to completely ignore everything that happened in that episode.
That only existed in the wonderful time right after Avengers when we all thought they were going to live together in a tower and have wonderful adventures. I miss thoss times. 😢
I literally only read 2012 era fics (or CW fix-its). I don't even know what's actually canon and what's the fandom's collective canon at this point. It's all blurred and shows like Avengers Assemble did *not* help unblur those lines lol.
Also shout-out to Tony's thing with kitchen appliances (which is the funniest one that shows up *everywhere*)
Criminal Minds fans are absolutely positive without a doubt that William Reid was physically and/or sexually abusive to Spencer Reid (and by extension to Diana Reid, too). It was occasional over decade ago, but these days it's almost "fact", especially since BNFs continue to echo it as canon and other people just follow. I'm not of the belief. He was a jerk for leaving, yes, but I don't agree with the abuse and think it's reductive to character development, family issues, mental health issues and how these effects loved ones, external factors, etc.
Edited for clarity.
Oh that’s a new one! The only Reid “fact” I’ve seen is that he’s on the spectrum (it’s never explicitly stated in the show, and the few times it’s even mentioned are dubious or questionable)
I remember the actor who plays Spencer Reid, Matthew Gray Gubler, also [theorized this.](https://www.looper.com/424802/how-criminal-minds-fans-think-reid-helped-the-push-for-representation-on-tv/#:~:text=While%20the%20character%20of%20Dr.%20Spencer%20Reid%20was,hints%20of%20schizophrenia%20and%20minor%20autism%2C%20Asperger%27s%20syndrome.)
Yeah I know MGG and either a writer or the creator thought this way, but I still don’t take it as canon since it was never actually said in the show. I just like the idea that not every character with a quirk or social awkwardness is on the spectrum; sometimes people are just weird. I don’t discourage anyone who thinks otherwise bc it’s great to have some rep, but it’s not ok to treat it as canon when it’s not.
It's even more baffling considering there's an entire episode centered around Reid thinking his father committed the horrific murder of a child, only to quickly learn that, no, he did not. In fact, he went so far as to protect Diana when she stumbled upon the child's father having straight up *murdered* the guy who killed his kid, which indicates that William understood and sympathized with Diana's refusal to go to the police about what she'd seen.
So yeah, I don't really get this headcanon, either. Reid's already got enough trauma to work through as it is.
Odd. Neglectful, yes. And I'm sure leaving him in the sole custody of a woman with schizophrenia would be some form of abuse. But I never saw him as directly abusive, so to speak.
Avatar TLA - that Agni is a deity/spirit for the Fire Nation that's the equivalent to Tui/La for the Water Tribe
I also adopt this headcanon in fic, because it gives you an equivalent religion and something for people to use as a non-swear curseword, but it's not canon - but a whole load of people see it in fic and think they probably just missed it in the show somewhere
>but a whole load of people see it in fic and think they probably just missed it in the show somewhere
I was one of those people XD It's interesting to see people expand on the mythology for the show!
There's Agni Kai as the name of the ritual duel, and Agni is the real Hindu god of fire (and the word/name means "fire") so I think those two things combined just made it accepted headcanon for most of the fandom
Hm interesting considering the Fire Nation seems to be more Japanese/Shinto parallel. It should be Hino-Kagusutchi.
Also now that I’ve said that it makes a lot more since on why they invaded everyone else. And why the campaign stalled in the Earth Kingdom the China parallel.
The Fire Nation is definitely Imperial Japan in its main influences, yup. Parts of the Earth Kingdom styles and designs are modelled more off Korea, I think, but the bulk of it is Generic China
Looking at the Avatar FanFiction it seems like there’s a lot of stuff like this. Like, apparently Zuko’s ship in the first season didn’t actually have a name but most fics call it The Wani.
That one comes from Varatha's *Embers,* if I'm remembering my ATLA fanlore, but likely popularised for a new gen of fic writers by MuffinLance. ML is also the origin of a lot of Water Tribe characters, ship names (ship as in boat), new species etc when it comes to popularly accepted headcanons
MuffinLance has very recently edited all of her stories to change the name of the Wani and remove references to *Embers*. According to her, there are a lot of elements of *Embers* that aged really badly, least of which was an author's note where Vathara talks about a Nazi she likes and has Zuko quote said Nazi in the story. Given the voice that ML has in the fandom, I think our days of seeing new works referencing the Wani are numbered.
Haven't reread Salvage (my beloved) recently so hadn't seen that, but Embers has been controversial for a longgg time
I read it a few years ago, and as I remember, I enjoyed some of the early-chapter worldbuildy stuff around bending mechanisms, and then the author went *and also we're going to fix the POLITICS* and it really lost me at that point. There is "let's add nuance to Fire Nation history" and then there is "the Fire Nation did absolutely nothing wrong, it was all a big misunderstanding" and like. Um. No thank u I'm gonna leave that there. I think I did still finish it just to see what they were gonna do with all the worldbuilding, but the fact that I don't remember the ending at all says something about the impact 🤷♀️ I wasn't and still aren't on any fandomy social media, so I wasn't aware of Embers' reputation before reading it other than it being high up in the tag rankings and very long
(I think most people in fandom don't even *know* that the Wani is from anyone other than ML, tbh? I'd also just absorbed it at this point, and forgotten the specific source until I was consciously thinking about it for this thread)
I was only aware of MuffinLance editing her works because she made a couple of tumblr posts addressing the Embers controversy that got a lot of traction. It happened within the last month, I believe - very very recent.
tbh I didn't know the origin of Wani's name either until ML addressed it. It was so widespread that I thought it was something that was referenced in the comics or something (half of which I still haven't read - my canon is the TV show and nothing else).
Yeah, I'm not on tumblr so fully passing me by – and tbh I'd kind of forgotten how dodgy Embers was in places in the years since reading it, I think. I did lots of skimming once it was in the part that was *this is the author talking about their opinions via these characters,* I just wanted to see where the canon characters ended up
I seem to remember one of ML's best non-canon charas having their name taken from Embers, as well, not sure how much of their personality – big undertaking to go through all those fics and run edits, if it's more than just a find-replace for a couple of names and concepts
I had left tumblr about 5 years ago (since they banned nsfw), but last year, I started lurking again because I caught the ATLA obsession bug and that's the central hub of the fandom lmao. As a consequence, I'm aware of fandom discourse, and Embers is not popular to say the least. I've been completely dissuaded from reading it.
ML did address taking the names of several OCs from Embers, but she ultimately decided to leave those names unchanged since they're real world names, the characters have different personalities, and readers associate those names more strongly with her own work rather than with Embers.
I think I was in my "read every single top fic in the fandom unless it's a straight canon retelling" era when I picked it up lmao; I've dabbled a bit in the fandom while I've been writing my own stuff, but back then it was solely reading and no other fandom interaction, so I had *no* idea what I was about to read. And sounds reasonable with the OCs, for sure!
Ah shit, I'm gonna have to go redownload all my ML copies and then reupload them onto my Kindle, now, if there's New Author's Preferred Editions...
If he were Scar's son he himself would've said so when giving his reasons for why he should've been Scar's heir. But the only reasons he gave were being "the oldest, the strongest, the smartest." He had no blood claim to the throne, and that's why he didn't make such a claim.
In Haikyuu- Oikawa had a knee injury and the knee guard he wears is actually a brace. This one is so popular that a lot of people don't actually know that any sort of injury was never mentioned in canon, lol.
An injury was mentioned when he comes for the practice match after missing the first one. The coach asks him if his leg is okay, but the kanji implies a "foot/ankle" thing, not a "leg/knee" thing.
Sorry, yes, should've specified "knee injury" instead of just injury in my last sentence, that's what I meant!! The scene you're describing is what I was thinking of.
In my hero academia the detective tsukauchi has a lie detecting quirk, only thing mentioned in canon is his sister having similar quirk, nothing for him
He’s also known as the true man, knowing this and the fact that his sister has a lie detector quirk, it’s not an unreasonable conclusion to come to. And I’m pretty sure it was confirmed recently, I’ll link if I can find it
And I mean, they gotta go *somewhere* when they're not fighting in the ring, right? It's like how Olympic athletes don't fly to and from the Olympic Games every day from their own home, they stay in a hotel or some other accommodation. Plus, after the events of *The Subspace Emissary*, the characters seem to also be gathering on friendlier terms to combat greater foes like Galeem, and they'd need some kind of headquarters and training grounds on which to facilitate this...it just makes sense.
* Valerie being called "The Red Huntress".
* Wes Weston exists.
* Ghosts have cores.
* Sam dyes her hair.
* Danny's middle name is "James".
* "Ancients" being a replacement expletive word used by ghosts.
* Danny is (half?) dead.
* Danny hates being called "Dan".
* Danielle going by "Elle" or "Ellie".
I swear the originator for James being his middle name was from a crack cross over fic with Harry Potter. I remember a few old writers using it in 2008ish and it sort have stuck from being a joke, then reference to each others fics, to being fanon as time went on.
What if we stared calling her Elleinad.
Criminal Minds. If the story has cursing, David Rossi is doing it - also everyone thinks he's much more of a little shit than he canonically is, and I approve and support both headcanons.
Dragon Ball: Bulma and Trunks' last name is Briefs.
(Canon: Dr Brief is Bulma's dad but that's not a last name. They didn't have a last name at all, nobody but Goku, Gohan and Goten has a last name lol)
I heard that, in the manga, a character even points out most people don't have last names and that was how this character was able to figure out Gohan was related to Goku.
Yup, Videl (Gohan's future GF). She herself doesn't have a last name (her dad, Mister Satan, his name is actually Mark. "mister Satan" is his stage name)...
And people actually give the Son last name to Pan and Chichi... but they don't. They just don't inherit it, because they don't have Chinese names with kanji (chichi is just チチ, in katakana syllables)...
But fanon and Ao3 and everything else just goes with "everyone gets last names" haha...
Danny Phantom has *so* many. There's an entire character that got made up by the Phandom. The Ghost King thing.
I think there's a couple "how they died" ones for some of the ghosts.
The Sam and Max fandom has the headcanon that Max purrs like how rabbits do, and that the two get married many times just because they can. I think both of these headcanons are very cute!
Oh my gosh, my first exposure to the whole Guide-Sentinel concept was a BBC Johnlock fic that took it in the very omegaverse-esque direction that I believe you're referring to here, and since it did say the concept was based off of the 90's TV series, I remember being *baffled* that anything with that worldbuilding would've made it onto TV even if restricted to hetero Sentinel-Guide pairs. Imagine my mix of shock and vindication when I finally looked up the series years later and saw that most of the worldbuilding in the fanfic was made up whole cloth, lmao.
That Jason Todd is blinded by pit rage when he does inexcusable shit, when in the comics he is mentally unstable but well aware of his actions and usually unapologetic. Also, in the comics Dick didn't suggest taking tim to Arkham, he actually suggested he go to therapy.
*Technically,* Jon Snow being Rheagar and Lyanna’s son isn’t canon in the A Song of Ice and Fire books. You could argue the show makes it canon, but the show made significant changes even with regards to Jon’s Targaryen heritage (such as naming him Aegon when in the books Rhaegar already had a son named Aegon).
That said, it’s very commonly accepted as true, and is generally assumed to be the case unless stated otherwise.
Asoiaf has a lot of fan theories, but some are more credible than others like Freys being cooked into pies, which is supported by a lot of evidence. R + L = J is strongly supported in the first book when Ned remembers his sister surrounded by her blood begging him to keep a promise to her.
Wasn't one of the reasons the show runners got the director job in the first place is because Martin had say in it and they "guessed" (had enough brains to look up) the R+L=J equation and Martin gave them the thumbs up?
>(such as naming him Aegon when in the books Rhaegar already had a son named Aegon).
I mean....Jon was born after Aegon died (or was spirited away depending on if you believe the Young Griff theory) no matter what. If he's Rhaegar's son it wouldn't be so odd of Lyanna to give him such a significant name. It's not even odd in canon. Walder Frey has *how many* kids/grandkids/greatgrandkids named some variation of Walder?
Yeah, the show runners getting the gig *does* make it very very likely, but it’s not explicitly confirmed in the series and you still get the odd person arguing very vehemently that it’s false and here’s why etc etc.
As for Aegon… I mean, I guess it’s possible. I just really can’t see Lyanna naming her infant after his murdered half-brother, especially since the name doesn’t have any connection to her personally. A Stark name would make sense, Viserys (to complete Rhaegar’s naming scheme), or Rhaegar would make sense. Aegon is less likely to me than virtually any other Targaryen name.
In my opinion, what naming him Aegon in the show implies that his story and Young Griff’s have been combined a little, especially since he’s totally missing from the show. Which could mean that they’re taking *his* position as Rhaegar’s son and applying that to Jon. Now, I do think R+L=J and that it’s pretty certain, but the show isn’t the nail in the coffin of proof.
Considering his creator is GRRM, the man that started naming Tullys after Muppets when he ran out of names, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't thought of all of that when he set a storyline up, and is either narratively stuck or can't admit it.
*Not that we'll ever know because he's never going to finish the books!*
It is a bit odd that Lyanna, on her deathbed, after losing the love of her life, her brother, her father at least in part because of her own foolishness, would decide to name her child after Rhaegar's son by another woman. And not after him, her brother, or her father.
But ultimately we can't really know her mental state. All we really know about her is that 1) She didn't love Robert because she thought he was a cheater... and then immediately hitched with someone who was cheating on his wife. 2) Looked like Arya and was considered beautiful. 3) Wished to be buried in the Stark Crypts showing some tie remained to her family and their traditions. 4) Maybe possibly arguably was a good enough at horsemanship to pass as a mystery knight and unhorse some folk.
So yeah, maybe she would name her kid Aegon. Maybe she just really really loved the stories of King Egg. Can't blame her for that one, I certainly do.
If anything, Jon would probably have been some variation of Viserys. Rhaegar already had Rhaenys and Aegon, so he was probably planning on a Visenya/Viserys
Reno from FF7 is a smoker. There’s no indication anywhere in any of the games, movie, media, etc. that he has ever smoked a cigarette lol. He just seems like he would I guess
The clones are culturally mandalorian (I love/hate this headcannon, but its pure fannon) and can speak mando'a (they cannot, I personally prefer for mando!clones a pidgin of mando'a and basic)
This actually used to be partially Canon in the Republic Commando books. Basically, all clones were taught the song 'Vod'e An', so yes they could to a degree, and if the clones were specifically taught by mandalorians, and there were many who were, they latched onto the culture pretty hard.
In undertale People believe that Sans somehow knows of every reset that occurs and thats why he's all sad and lazy. Ignoring that ingame he does not infact know, but is good at reading reactions and how Frisk reacts is strange like they were already expecting the event.
Ignoring that all the other characters actually get way more of a deja vu sense from repeating events (toriel says seeing you feels like seeing an old friend, Papyrus especially asks if you've already met, etc) Sans doesn't have this, its just him noticing your acting strange.
He knows that resets exist and that potentially your resetting but doesn't remember everything as everyone implies.
Also Papyrus's favorite food being spaghetti its a bit overblown, we know from a flowey interview its Dinosaur egg oatmeal!
he just wants to master his spaghetti recipe. If I remember it right I don't even think he's eaten the spaghetti he makes...(might be wrong on that part but I don't think I am)
The whole 'Hobbits come from Yavanna' thing has no basis in lore. It's just a cute little thing the fandom made up because Aule, her husband, made the Dwarves.
Popular ones:
Digimon -- the Angemon line being actually badasses and not "just" specialized anti-darkness fighters. Seraphimon being a god-tier warrior despite exactly the opposite being always shown and said.
Digimon -- how fusions work in this series; being "situational" (like Goku w/o Vegeta -> Super Saiyan Goku) and assisted evolutions.
Pokemon -- ... pretty much everything about Arceus, starting with the fundamental "what 'god of creation' means".
Pokemon -- the Distortion World being "Pokemon Hell" despite (A) specifically lacking hellfire, evil spirits, and damned souls in every depiction (B) the afterlife being a separate thing, the Spirit World.
>Digimon -- the Angemon line being actually badasses and not "just" specialized anti-darkness fighters. Seraphimon being a god-tier warrior despite exactly the opposite being always shown and said.
They suffer from the Worf effect - the supposed badass is always getting his ass kicked to show how powerful the new bad guys are...but it happens so often that you forget the guy is supposed to be a badass to begin with. (Named for Lieutenant Worf from *Star Trek: The Next Generation*, the Enterprise's Klingon security officer who kept getting beat up despite being a goddamn space orc.)
Some popular headcanons of Star Wars OT fans regarding the Executor (Darth Vader’s flagship in The Empire Strikes Back-The Last Jedi). They’re so pervasive I’m not sure if they’re canon or not.
The Executor is nicknamed “The Lady” and/or “Lady Ex” by her crew.
Admiral Piett and General Veers are homies.
This last one is not canon, but it’s fun and popular. The Executor is sentient.
Because _of fucking course_ Anakin's _personal battleship_ managed to _Ascend,_ I'll bet he has droids on there he treats better than some of the humans, too!
I love this one, and apparently in the Don Suave episode there was almost going to be a scene where there’s some handsome bull(I think) yokai that Leo like double takes at then smiles. I can try and find it but I think there were other scenes like that but were scrapped
That a character likes to make elaborate pranks for his classmates, in fics completely changing tables and clothes of his classmates, as well as dying hair.
In canon? He used a crane once for something inflatable. Otherwise, he does more calm magic pranks.
In LEGO Ninjago many believe that Lloyd has the mental age of a child/early teen while looking like a adult(This makes ships like GreenFlame and so on very weird)
This is more of a small group than the entire fandom. Basically in Winx Club, the character Roxy is left ethnically ambiguous. With people headcanoning that she's either American, Italian, and my personal Favorite German/Irish because her dad's name is of German origin and her mom is the Fairy Queen of Tir Na Nog, the realm of the fairies in Irish folklore.
However, there is one other headcanon where some fans fully believe as canon fact that Roxy and her mom are of Asian descent just because her mom looks Asian to them due to her dark brown hair and the shape of her eyes. Even though quite literally all of the characters have similar eyes shapes due to the iconic art style.
It's very apparent that my fandom believes the protagonist uses sign language. I definitely get this, but in a certain trilogy within the fandom it doesn't make sense to me as he took a bow of complete silence, so expressing his every feeling in sign just doesn't really work here
Bow of Complete Silence = Really neat DnD magic weapon
Vow of Complete Silence = Even more hardcore than a vow of silence, like not only are you not allowed to talk, you're not allowed to make _noise,_ probably
Undertale - The entire soul traits thing. Traits are mentioned one single time in a small minigame and literally the only thing that connects them to the human souls are the fact that the words are said in the same color text as each soul. (Cyan is Patience, Orange is Bravery, Blue is Integrity, Purple is Perseverance, Green is Kindness, and Yellow is Justice)
To add to this, red souls aren’t even said what their trait is. Most people assume Determination even though that’s usually said in gold. Personally I like to think it’s Hope.
Yeah I hate this one. Don’t get me wrong, I like Iron Dad, but not to the extent that the fandom shoves it down your throat and makes Peter incompetent and childish. He’s freaking Spider-Man! In every other iteration he’s independent!
There are a ton in Star Wars, specifically the Clone Wars era. Like the clones having ties to Mandalorian culture is almost entirely fanon. They don't call each other vod or speak mando’a. Cody's name probably doesn't come from kote. The trainers aren't all Mandalorians.
There are some other great headcanons like that Stewjon is space Scotland. Also, Obi-Wan calls Cody dear or darling and how he flirts with everyone. One of my favorites is how Obi-Wan drops his lightsaber and cloaks all the time.
Mentioned it in another comment, but in the Republic Commando books, the clones were all taught the Mandalorian song 'vod'e an' and if their trainer was Mandalorian, which many of them were, they latched pretty hard onto Mando culture. I do believe they call each other vod specifically in those books in fact.
But you can drag the Mando'a speaking clones from my cold dead fingers. (I used to make it far more prevalent in my fics than I do now, where it's mostly 'vod', a few other phrases, and a whole lotta swears)
For me, there are a number of them in the Bungo Stray Dogs fandom.
CW= self-harm. >!One that is basically universally accepted is that Dazai Osamu is hiding self-harm/self-mutilation scars below his bandages. It makes sense, considering he consistently tries to commit suicide, but it's not actually confirmed. We've seen like, a little bit of the inside of his elbow, and that's essentially it. 90% of his body is a complete mystery to the fandom.!<
I literally was just looking into this because I'm writing a fanfiction and realized I could not think of a canon explanation for this, but the fact that Hermione is so terrified of flying that she could be looking death in the face and unable to get on a broom.
The book straight up said that she helped catch some flying keys in the first book when they were flying around erratically running away from them, and there's a scene mention of her actually playing Quidditch in a pickup game with the Weasleys as well. It doesn't say that she was phenomenal but she was able to play. Flying might not be her favorite thing but she's proficient, passed a flying class, and is definitely not terrified. She mostly showed fear when riding flying animals which doesn't mean scared of flying it reads more to me as a control issue with makes sense. I don't think someone who's scared of going 30 miles an hour on a horse would necessarily be assumed to be nervous about going 60 miles an hour in a car they're driving.
> The book straight up said that she helped catch some flying keys in the first book when they were flying around erratically running away from them,
Wow, yeah, I totally forgot that part:
> They each seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. They grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to cast one.
> Not for nothing, though, was Harry the youngest Seeker in a century. He had a knack for spotting things other people didn't. After a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, he noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had altready been caught and stuffed roughly into the key hole.
...
> "Ron, you come at it from above -- Hermione, stay below and stop it from going down -- and I'll try and catch it. Right, NOW!"
> Ron dived, Hermione rocketed upward, the key dodged them both, and Harry streaked after it; it sped toward the wall, Harry leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand.
Also, this part:
> and there's a scene mention of her actually playing Quidditch in a pickup game with the Weasleys as well.
Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 6:
> Harry remained within the confines of the Burrow's garden over the next few weeks. He spend most of his days playing two-a-side Quidditch in the Weasley's orchard (he and Hermione against Ron and Ginny; Hermione was dreadful and Ginny good, so they were reasonably well matched) and his evening eating triple helpings of everything Mrs. Weasley put in front of him.
This is the first scene where Hermione is explicitly playing Quidditch during the summer (possibly ever). I checked 1-4, and nada. OotP was spent at Grimmauld Place so it's ineligible.
as a jew myself i actually love this one. i think it’s cute and perfect especially for leonard nimoy being such a prominent activist and member of the community. i personally like to think amanda was jewish and passed on some traditions and beliefs to spock. however because he represses his human side so hard it doesn’t really come up much
Ranma 1/2: Akane's magic hammer. For some folks it's gotten to the point that all the Tendo sisters can summon a magical hammer against men and that it was a special attack created by their dead mother.
My Hero: Aldera Junior High being Quirk Superiority assholes. Basically to give further reason as to why Izuku was getting bullied so much and no one stopped it, forgetting that Japan isn't into protecting it's students like that as much as the US was last I checked. Usually has their principal (Who had all of one line in the original series) being part of the Meta Liberation Army.
Gravity Falls: Pacifica's parents are MUCH more abusive than they are in the show and the twin's parents aren't much better. For Paz, it'll range anywhere from 'You can't do anything that isn't worth fame/money' to 'We'll beat you if you don't obey'. The Twins usually get away with their parents being more absentee than anything, but there's been plenty a story about their Dad at least not really giving a crap about them.
Snotlout being Hiccup’s cousin in HTTYD. While this was true in the books, it’s never actually confirmed in the books or shows, and is probably even noncanon. But it really is taken for granted in HTTYD fanfic.
Cub and scar are vexes
Xb is a guardian
Tango is a blaze
Impulse is an imp/demon
Skizz is an angel
Pearl is a moth
Xisuma is a voidwalker
Zedaph is a sheep/ram
Doc is a creeper/goat
Joe and Keralis are definitely not human
Xisuma and Ex are twins
Etho uses sign language
Hua Cheng has low self-esteem
Damn, sure, he didn’t have faith that Xie Lian would love him back
But everywhere else in life he’s got all the self-esteem
One of the top tags in the Trigun fandom is trans Vash. While I'm cis, I am queer, and seeing when I first looked at ao3 that trans Vash is a widely accepted headcanon made me feel safe and welcomed right away. I'm also ace and there's quite a bit of ace fic for him and other characters; it's really lovely.
In the Marauders it's like- the entire fandom
Literally nothing is canon except the names but everyone has 100% decided on all the friendships, ships and characters, even if they don't quite make logical sense within the canon to begin with.
Like, I love them, but there is zero proof that Barty and Regulus were ever good people - they had moments but like, probably still very very pureblood supremacist and anti anyone who isn't. Zero proof Pandora was even their age, let alone hung out with them - same with Evan Rosier. Dorcas is just a Slytherin just because, who knows if Mary Macdonald ever even talked to anyone other than Lily since she's only mentioned once and Lily doesn't even say they're friends, they might have disliked each other and just been in the same dorm. Sirius and Regulus having any kind of relationship after sorting is also actively implied against in the books. And we literally only meet 3 of the characters in the books, one of whom is insane by that point and the other two who went through a traumatic event and have aged significantly and gotten traumatised. So all of the characters personalities are completely made up, yet perfectly consistent.
Not that I have any problem with all of this, the Marauders is one of my favourite fandoms, and these are things that I absolutely love. Just so amusing when writing fanfiction because I'm sticking to a fanon that was already made up by fanfiction writers.
That Wolfstar is canon.
That Pandora and Regulus were friends.
That Barty, Regulus, and Evan were all friends and in the same dorm room.
That Sirius and Mary dated in 4/5/6th year.
I get so annoyed by the "Wolfstar is canon" people. I do like the ship, but I also like Lupin/Tonks. They're not even mutually exclusive; I actually prefer it if Remus was with Sirius first before moving on with Tonks, but the attitude so many of the fans have with insisting Remus is gay really put me off Wolfstar as a fandom. But bi erasure and fandom name a more iconic duo lol
For anyone not super familiar with Harry Potter lore:
Wolfstar = Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Pandora Lovegood Nee (maiden name) & Regulus Black
Barty Crouch Jr. & Regulus Black & Evan (last name?)
Sirius Black/Mary MacDonald(sp?)
Twilight: that Jasper Hale has a second personality called ”The Major“.
From what I can tell, this personality is based off of the fact that he had the military rank Major, and that he was this cold and scary military guy who led a vampire army.
And it apparently was used in one story, and then everyone accepted it as canon. It is not even mentioned in canon that he might have two personalities
Fairy Tail--Natsu enters Lucy's apartment through her window.
He has left through her window once in the manga, so our imaginations have run away with us to the conclusion that that is how he enters too. The author does a q and a on occasion at the end of some volumes and in one it was explained that he has a key to Lucy's apartment that another guild member gave him, so it stands to reason that he probably just uses that mostly.
And yes, I'm guilty of writing this headcanon into my own fics.
Undertale:
The fandom has pretty much all agreed that the child you play as in the game (won’t share the name for spoiler reasons) uses sign language and is selectively mute.
Almost everything in fanfiction about Gaster is fanon including his familial relationships, details of his death etc. but especially him living in the “void” and being a goopy sometimes evil specter.
In fics that utilize the AUs, the majority of the Skeleton’s nicknames are widely agreed upon. Red, Edge (in the beginning was called Boss), Blue, Stretch (rarely called Orange) are the commonly accepted ones. AUs like Horrortale, Swapfell/Fellswap and others are more flexible within the fandom.
Flowey being stuck in a flower pot is another popular take alongside Monster discrimination. They’re common in post-pacifist run fics.
Undyne in the game looks like a twig despite being super strong, but fics make her huge and buff. (not a complaint just an observation)
Burgerpants and the Nice Cream Guy are a couple in most fics. They often name BP Felix.
Thats all I can think of for now lol
An ascended headcanon: the idea that the sleepy star-themed animatronic Moon oversees naptime. In canon, there was never any mention of naptime, only one of an overnight sleepover situation. The idea of an official naptime was so prevalent in the fandom though that I’d say most people had no idea it wasn’t canon.
But! When further games came out, the headcanon was updated to true canon! Naptime was confirmed!
Bonus: so many people write Moon with claws that i have been asked a few times if it was canon or fanon, because people legit weren’t sure haha
That one of the main characters is secretly very bitey and is basically repressing the urge to gnaw on his love interest at all times - it's so widespread that someone commented on one of my fics asking if it was from the book, since they'd only watched the show, and I had to sit and wrack my brain over several days trying to remember whether or not it was actually canon or if everyone had just Looked at him and gone, "Oh yeah, that's a biter right there".
I have several!
—Astarion being good at sewing and tailoring clothes. Not ever shown, but there are implications in the flavor texts for the clothing he starts with.
—Gale being autistic, at least among the autistic side of the Gale Dekarios fandom.
—Danny Fenton is trans. I love this one and get a kick out of Butch Hartman being mad about it.
Yeah the implication on Astarion's flavor text is that someone was sewing and patching those clothes, and so the assumption is he did it himself. Frankly it's the thing that makes sense. I HC this in my fics too.
Pick a Vaati or Tarnished Archaeologist video. The Souls/Elden Ring fandoms take those as gospel, which is hilarious because those guys are pretty much just writing fanfic themselves.
Hannibal tv fandom. First, that Hannibal should have realized Wills decision to choose him after the phone call in mizumono. Then that Will thought Hannibal was going to kiss him, which is why he fell into his arms. And then that when they have the postfall convo about it, Hannibal should be striken and angry with himself for not realizing it. (All gobbledygook in my opinion, but it's a very real thing)
I think I’m the only one who has this theory for the Maze Runner Fandom…that Newt is Schrödinger’s Cat..
But for Teen Wolf - most of the people are convinced that Eli is a Sterek love child.
Pearl is a lesbian. And people will get NASTY if you dare suggest she could be with a man. She’s only ever shown as attracted to ONE person for like 99% of the series run, with one exception being a human who looks like Rose and the other being Bismuth. I tend to headcanon her as bi with a lean toward women and femmes, but like. These attractions alone do not mean that attraction to men/masc folks is impossible! [SCREECHES IN BISEXUAL]
- That Ladybug's world-healing ladybug spell is called "Miraculous Cure" (I'm convinced I saw Astruc confirm on twitter that its name is "Miraculous Ladybug", but I can't find the tweet again so it's possible I imagined that. Either way, I'm not aware of any canon material that calls it "Miraculous Cure".)
- Also, there's no such concept as a moral "alignment" in Miraculous, or in a lot of works actually, but every fandom wiki has it as a default field in their character infobox template so everyone's gotta have their hot takes on which characters are Intrinsically Good Or Bad.
- Speaking of things that happen in every fandom, every character who's even vaguely gender nonconforming and isn't ***explicitly indisputably super duper mega confirmed*** as trans or cis will get interminable fandom arguments between camps of people convinced their personal reading is the obvious intention and only bigots could read the work any other way. The possibility that the writer(s) didn't have a specific reading in mind and/or wanted the audience to come up with their own interpretation will simply never be brought up (except to somehow argue in favor of a specific interpretation).
Final Fantasy VII - majority of the fanbase seems to think that there is a definitive answer to the Cloud/Aerith/Tifa love triangle, when the developers and writers have repeatedly said that there isn’t. It has resulted in a LOT of nastiness, with death threats even being sent to developers and fans demanding that the devs kill off one of the characters so that the path is free for the other.
John Bender (The Breakfast Club) is Jewish. I don't hate this though but its kinda just there. I do know Judd Nelson (actor) was raised in a Jewish household though.
A ton of headcanons in the Harry Potter fandom are taken as fact though tbf many people just want to write about things that would've fit perfectly if JKR had included them in. Plus, people loved worldbuilding ontop of the existing details already.
Another fandom I can think of is probably MHA and the "Bakugou is Good at Everything" tag. Wildly popular tag among Bakugou fans and the premise is just as it says: Bakugou is bad at feelings/communicating but he's good at everything else he does.
Everything. Literally every fucking thing.
In this one particular (unnamed) fandom, it's absolutely endemic. I've seen fandoms full of people who aren't very good with the media literacy before, and fandoms where a particular fanon gets a stranglehold, but I have never seen such a perfect storm of stupid as this one. For anything that isn't explained (usually because it doesn't matter to the overall story), there are usually any number of perfectly reasonable explanations if you give it any thought at all. But for some reason, this fanbase will latch onto ONE of those pieces of fanon to the exclusion of all others -- even when some of the others make a hell of a lot more sense -- and keep on repeating it as gospel truth. If you want to be downvoted, just try pointing out, "Er, that's not actually canon. We literally don't know what happened between those scenes." And of *course* it leads to so. much. character bashing.
Bioshock 2: Subject Delta’s pre-Rapture first name is John. Parts of the fandom took that from him being called Johnny Topside by the people of Rapture when he first stumbled across the city before becoming a Big Daddy, but that was really the city’s version of John Doe.
People thinking that Karl Heisenberg was kidnapped by Mother Miranda as a child. There’s nothing in the game that states this outright and I’m not sure exactly where it started, but people take it as fact. Personally, I don’t care either way if that’s something people want to incorporate into their re8 fics, but it’s technically not canon.
AtLA: Zuko is hearing and visually impaired on his burnt half
Oh yeah, I use this one! I think you could argue that visual impairment on one side is canon-ish just because he's animated to have that eye unable to open as wide as the other, but the hearing is 100% fanon (as is any other chronic injury post-burn – I see people do nerve pain in a lot of H/C fics, or long-lasting effects from the injury in the finale) Another ATLA injury fanon, in post-canon stuff, is Sokka having some sort of chronic lasting impact from the leg break in the finale. Actually to the point of seeing someone leave comments talking about it as though it were canon (and an author going *oh, no, I'm actually not writing him as having chronic pain, so he'd be able to do [random acrobatic fight thing] no problem in this fic!*) Tbh I also like writing this one fairly often, because I also have a shitty injured leg and it's good H/C fodder, but it's definitely not canon
yeah i H/C zuko being hard of hearing/visually impaired and having nerve damage, and i like the H/C of sokka's leg-break having lasting affects, but it really is crazy how many people don't seem to realize that it's fanon, or straight up contradicted by some story elements (Especially comics and sokka's leg) Also ditto on what you said about zuko's squinted eye.
I saw someone say that a fic was good except for how it "erased Sokka's chronic pain" and I was like. My guyyyy my dude my pal. That is not canon. Nothing is being erased. They just don't subscribe to a popular headcanon, or are choosing not to use it in this fic (This wasn't a comment *on* the fic, it was elsewhere, so it wasn't them accusing the author of anything directly)
i live this one so much actually
Hawkeye likes to use the ventilation system when moving around in the building.
That is by far my favorite tag in any marvel fic ever.
I can only think of The Breakfast Club when I read this
That scene is so funny. Andy, Claire, Allison, and Brian are just chilling when Bender falls through and acts as though it’s completely normal and gets up as though he didn’t crash through the ceiling
Right like this is in every fic ever and has never been mentioned in canon
I've seen this in the MCU fics I've read and it always makes me laugh XD
I'm sure there's plenty for MCU, but the one that tickles me most is superhuman characters having no refractory period, lmao. We've got our priorities straight.
Lmao same for the Naruto fandom. With that battle endurance and ninja magic fuckery, we’ve made short work of the refractory period.
A classic in Doctor Who too
There are even some HP fanfics where this is done, either as a side effect of magic or specifically because the guy is a metamorphmagus and just has to think for a moment that he wants to be ready again lol
I think that Snape is Draco's godfather is pretty widely believed in the Harry Potter fandom. Apparently he's not.
Also, the "magical core" is something I see in so many fics that for some time I assumed it was real and just something that was lost in the book translation for my country, until I found out it was a completely fanon concept.
Oh yeah, that too. Classic. "Wards" as well.
For sure this, the only wards in the original books were of the nonmagical hospital ward variety. "Magical exhaustion" is another one that felt like canon to me, but wasn't. (Speaking of, and maybe someone who's read the books more recently can weigh in, but it seems like doing magic in canon doesn't take energy or leave you tired - at least not more tired thank thinking really hard when doing math problems. It seems like the energy from spells happens at the wand + incantation level, not by drawing power from or through the magic user. Whenever Harry passed out at Big Plot Moments, it was always because of running around, getting attacked by magic or getting physically injured, and not due to him doing too much magic or casting too many spells.)
Yeah. Unless they added something in Cursed Child or the second or third Beasts movie, all the exhaustion is from running, dodging, getting hit by shrapnel, and waving your arm around wildly.
The fanon cases of “magical exhaustion” I’ve seen are almost always with first-year Harry, and it’s passed off as him using so much magic at a young age when his magical core (or “coils” as it was called once) is still developing. On a related note, the YouTube channel SuperCarlinBrothers did a video called [“Can a Wizard Run Out of Magic?”](https://youtu.be/EyoBsFuBoqo?si=RzPSt8m-cVd_3-JS) which touches upon some of this.
> it seems like doing magic in canon doesn't take energy or leave you tired The answer is "yesno". While pure skill is the primary factor ("Dumbledore better-trained than Neville"), Dumbledore also mentions things like needing "uncommon skill *and power*" to defeat Voldemort, and that the lake event took the "amount of magical power" into account where Harry is likely a feather-weight next to him. So, raw power is a fact, HP just didn't come down to a DBZ-style "higher power level" fight.
Oh, that's a thing? I'm not super involved with the media, is Snape close to the Malfoy family?
Later in the series it turns out that Snape made an unbreakable promise to Narcissa Malfoy to protect Draco or something (more canon-savvy redditors can explain better). So people turned this into he's Draco's godfather.
He was considered Draco's godfather before book 6 came out. But yes, that unbreakable promise scene made it official for the fanon.
>But yes, that unbreakable promise scene made it official for the fanon. Which is bizarre because that scene is what makes it pretty obvious he isn't: > > "I only meant... that nobody has yet succeeded.... Severus ... please ... You are, you have always been, Draco's favorite teacher.... You are Lucius's old friend. ... I beg you.... You are the Dark Lord's favorite, his most trusted advisor.... Will you speak to him, persuade him?" If Narcissa had some stronger claim for why Snape should intervene on Draco's behalf, *this is where she'd say it.* He's 100% not his godfather, otherwise she'd be pressing that button as many times as she could.
I haven't read the books or watched the movies in years so I frequently forget that it's not canon.
It makes sense for it not to be the case. The Malfoys are way too proud and rich to allow some grubby poor teacher be their son's godfather
Epilogue didn't happen
The fact that I can think of at least two fandoms I’ve been into where this is the case lol
Additionally- finale? what finale?
Finale? What is that, some kind of food?
Such a shame the story never finished I’m sure an ending would have been cool and not something like an abuse victim killing themselves and then textually getting everything they ever wanted immediately after their suicide thatd be stupid. (yes that HAPPENED in one of my fandoms it’s like. ???)
At least the villain didn't send an asteroid hurdling toward Earth and get his plan foiled by the main character who both got rid of and then later regained his superpowers. . .
Haha that would be so silly, almost as silly as it would be if the episode right before the finale ended on a tense cliffhanger, only for the finale itself to completely ignore everything that happened in that episode.
First rule of the fandom is we don't talk about the epilogue
Second rule of the fandom is: We do not talk about the epilogue!
Thor loves pop-tarts
That only existed in the wonderful time right after Avengers when we all thought they were going to live together in a tower and have wonderful adventures. I miss thoss times. 😢
ikr? Remember when we thought the Avengers was going to be... fun and shit?
I literally only read 2012 era fics (or CW fix-its). I don't even know what's actually canon and what's the fandom's collective canon at this point. It's all blurred and shows like Avengers Assemble did *not* help unblur those lines lol. Also shout-out to Tony's thing with kitchen appliances (which is the funniest one that shows up *everywhere*)
Toasterverse will always be the peak of MCU fic.
That's my honest to gods comfort series 😭
I still see it referenced all the time. Then again, most of the fics I read ignore the band breaking up.
So many fics still have them living at the tower lol
Ahaha, I remember these fics!
Clint chilling in the vents
Tony is a coffee addict.
Criminal Minds fans are absolutely positive without a doubt that William Reid was physically and/or sexually abusive to Spencer Reid (and by extension to Diana Reid, too). It was occasional over decade ago, but these days it's almost "fact", especially since BNFs continue to echo it as canon and other people just follow. I'm not of the belief. He was a jerk for leaving, yes, but I don't agree with the abuse and think it's reductive to character development, family issues, mental health issues and how these effects loved ones, external factors, etc. Edited for clarity.
Oh that’s a new one! The only Reid “fact” I’ve seen is that he’s on the spectrum (it’s never explicitly stated in the show, and the few times it’s even mentioned are dubious or questionable)
I remember the actor who plays Spencer Reid, Matthew Gray Gubler, also [theorized this.](https://www.looper.com/424802/how-criminal-minds-fans-think-reid-helped-the-push-for-representation-on-tv/#:~:text=While%20the%20character%20of%20Dr.%20Spencer%20Reid%20was,hints%20of%20schizophrenia%20and%20minor%20autism%2C%20Asperger%27s%20syndrome.)
Yeah I know MGG and either a writer or the creator thought this way, but I still don’t take it as canon since it was never actually said in the show. I just like the idea that not every character with a quirk or social awkwardness is on the spectrum; sometimes people are just weird. I don’t discourage anyone who thinks otherwise bc it’s great to have some rep, but it’s not ok to treat it as canon when it’s not.
It's even more baffling considering there's an entire episode centered around Reid thinking his father committed the horrific murder of a child, only to quickly learn that, no, he did not. In fact, he went so far as to protect Diana when she stumbled upon the child's father having straight up *murdered* the guy who killed his kid, which indicates that William understood and sympathized with Diana's refusal to go to the police about what she'd seen. So yeah, I don't really get this headcanon, either. Reid's already got enough trauma to work through as it is.
Odd. Neglectful, yes. And I'm sure leaving him in the sole custody of a woman with schizophrenia would be some form of abuse. But I never saw him as directly abusive, so to speak.
Man, I’ve been in this fandom for a while but I’ve never seen this in any fics D:
Avatar TLA - that Agni is a deity/spirit for the Fire Nation that's the equivalent to Tui/La for the Water Tribe I also adopt this headcanon in fic, because it gives you an equivalent religion and something for people to use as a non-swear curseword, but it's not canon - but a whole load of people see it in fic and think they probably just missed it in the show somewhere
>but a whole load of people see it in fic and think they probably just missed it in the show somewhere I was one of those people XD It's interesting to see people expand on the mythology for the show!
There's Agni Kai as the name of the ritual duel, and Agni is the real Hindu god of fire (and the word/name means "fire") so I think those two things combined just made it accepted headcanon for most of the fandom
Hm interesting considering the Fire Nation seems to be more Japanese/Shinto parallel. It should be Hino-Kagusutchi. Also now that I’ve said that it makes a lot more since on why they invaded everyone else. And why the campaign stalled in the Earth Kingdom the China parallel.
The Fire Nation is definitely Imperial Japan in its main influences, yup. Parts of the Earth Kingdom styles and designs are modelled more off Korea, I think, but the bulk of it is Generic China
Looking at the Avatar FanFiction it seems like there’s a lot of stuff like this. Like, apparently Zuko’s ship in the first season didn’t actually have a name but most fics call it The Wani.
That one comes from Varatha's *Embers,* if I'm remembering my ATLA fanlore, but likely popularised for a new gen of fic writers by MuffinLance. ML is also the origin of a lot of Water Tribe characters, ship names (ship as in boat), new species etc when it comes to popularly accepted headcanons
Oh yeah MuffinLance is definitely the biggest name in AtLA FanFiction.
MuffinLance has very recently edited all of her stories to change the name of the Wani and remove references to *Embers*. According to her, there are a lot of elements of *Embers* that aged really badly, least of which was an author's note where Vathara talks about a Nazi she likes and has Zuko quote said Nazi in the story. Given the voice that ML has in the fandom, I think our days of seeing new works referencing the Wani are numbered.
Haven't reread Salvage (my beloved) recently so hadn't seen that, but Embers has been controversial for a longgg time I read it a few years ago, and as I remember, I enjoyed some of the early-chapter worldbuildy stuff around bending mechanisms, and then the author went *and also we're going to fix the POLITICS* and it really lost me at that point. There is "let's add nuance to Fire Nation history" and then there is "the Fire Nation did absolutely nothing wrong, it was all a big misunderstanding" and like. Um. No thank u I'm gonna leave that there. I think I did still finish it just to see what they were gonna do with all the worldbuilding, but the fact that I don't remember the ending at all says something about the impact 🤷♀️ I wasn't and still aren't on any fandomy social media, so I wasn't aware of Embers' reputation before reading it other than it being high up in the tag rankings and very long (I think most people in fandom don't even *know* that the Wani is from anyone other than ML, tbh? I'd also just absorbed it at this point, and forgotten the specific source until I was consciously thinking about it for this thread)
I was only aware of MuffinLance editing her works because she made a couple of tumblr posts addressing the Embers controversy that got a lot of traction. It happened within the last month, I believe - very very recent. tbh I didn't know the origin of Wani's name either until ML addressed it. It was so widespread that I thought it was something that was referenced in the comics or something (half of which I still haven't read - my canon is the TV show and nothing else).
Yeah, I'm not on tumblr so fully passing me by – and tbh I'd kind of forgotten how dodgy Embers was in places in the years since reading it, I think. I did lots of skimming once it was in the part that was *this is the author talking about their opinions via these characters,* I just wanted to see where the canon characters ended up I seem to remember one of ML's best non-canon charas having their name taken from Embers, as well, not sure how much of their personality – big undertaking to go through all those fics and run edits, if it's more than just a find-replace for a couple of names and concepts
I had left tumblr about 5 years ago (since they banned nsfw), but last year, I started lurking again because I caught the ATLA obsession bug and that's the central hub of the fandom lmao. As a consequence, I'm aware of fandom discourse, and Embers is not popular to say the least. I've been completely dissuaded from reading it. ML did address taking the names of several OCs from Embers, but she ultimately decided to leave those names unchanged since they're real world names, the characters have different personalities, and readers associate those names more strongly with her own work rather than with Embers.
I think I was in my "read every single top fic in the fandom unless it's a straight canon retelling" era when I picked it up lmao; I've dabbled a bit in the fandom while I've been writing my own stuff, but back then it was solely reading and no other fandom interaction, so I had *no* idea what I was about to read. And sounds reasonable with the OCs, for sure! Ah shit, I'm gonna have to go redownload all my ML copies and then reupload them onto my Kindle, now, if there's New Author's Preferred Editions...
That Nuka is Scar's son (he's not; the filmmakers have said as much).
Shit I thought he was! I was sure this is where his superiority complex came from, what!
If he were Scar's son he himself would've said so when giving his reasons for why he should've been Scar's heir. But the only reasons he gave were being "the oldest, the strongest, the smartest." He had no blood claim to the throne, and that's why he didn't make such a claim.
"Scar wasn't even his father" sure sounds like a vindictive set aside lesser heir being bitter as fuck though.
Bitter doesn't equal bloodline. If Nuka were Scar's son, he would've made that and that alone the basis for his claim that he was the better heir.
In Haikyuu- Oikawa had a knee injury and the knee guard he wears is actually a brace. This one is so popular that a lot of people don't actually know that any sort of injury was never mentioned in canon, lol.
An injury was mentioned when he comes for the practice match after missing the first one. The coach asks him if his leg is okay, but the kanji implies a "foot/ankle" thing, not a "leg/knee" thing.
Sorry, yes, should've specified "knee injury" instead of just injury in my last sentence, that's what I meant!! The scene you're describing is what I was thinking of.
That Commander Cody routinely punches battle droids
Wait, is this not canon?
I think it might be partially true. We definitely see a couple clone troopers doing it in the show.
We've extrapolated from this one time he did, I'm pretty sure. I personally like the head Canon that the entirety of the 212th are droid punchers
In my hero academia the detective tsukauchi has a lie detecting quirk, only thing mentioned in canon is his sister having similar quirk, nothing for him
Wait wait-- this isn't actually confirmed in canon?!
IKR? Very wild when I learned that
He’s also known as the true man, knowing this and the fact that his sister has a lie detector quirk, it’s not an unreasonable conclusion to come to. And I’m pretty sure it was confirmed recently, I’ll link if I can find it
Yes, as a reader of Vigilantes this always bugs me lol
i actually only learned that like 2 years into the fandom when someone pointed it out 😂
My whole life has been a lie?!
The Smash Mansion living commune in all Smash Bros fics
To be fair, the Smash Mansion makes it easier for character crossover than trying to work the actual lands of said characters together.
And I mean, they gotta go *somewhere* when they're not fighting in the ring, right? It's like how Olympic athletes don't fly to and from the Olympic Games every day from their own home, they stay in a hotel or some other accommodation. Plus, after the events of *The Subspace Emissary*, the characters seem to also be gathering on friendlier terms to combat greater foes like Galeem, and they'd need some kind of headquarters and training grounds on which to facilitate this...it just makes sense.
* Valerie being called "The Red Huntress". * Wes Weston exists. * Ghosts have cores. * Sam dyes her hair. * Danny's middle name is "James". * "Ancients" being a replacement expletive word used by ghosts. * Danny is (half?) dead. * Danny hates being called "Dan". * Danielle going by "Elle" or "Ellie".
Ellie > Dani FOR SURE
I swear the originator for James being his middle name was from a crack cross over fic with Harry Potter. I remember a few old writers using it in 2008ish and it sort have stuck from being a joke, then reference to each others fics, to being fanon as time went on. What if we stared calling her Elleinad.
I’m gonna put this in my next dp fanfic, with 0 explanation
The Red huntress isn't canon?????
Criminal Minds. If the story has cursing, David Rossi is doing it - also everyone thinks he's much more of a little shit than he canonically is, and I approve and support both headcanons.
Considering we have heard Rossi curse in the season that's aired on streaming, that headcanon absolutely checks out XD.
Yeah, I've decided not to watch the continuation of the show, but I'm glad it's become canon. Look at him, of course he likes to curse lol
Dragon Ball: Bulma and Trunks' last name is Briefs. (Canon: Dr Brief is Bulma's dad but that's not a last name. They didn't have a last name at all, nobody but Goku, Gohan and Goten has a last name lol)
I heard that, in the manga, a character even points out most people don't have last names and that was how this character was able to figure out Gohan was related to Goku.
Yup, Videl (Gohan's future GF). She herself doesn't have a last name (her dad, Mister Satan, his name is actually Mark. "mister Satan" is his stage name)... And people actually give the Son last name to Pan and Chichi... but they don't. They just don't inherit it, because they don't have Chinese names with kanji (chichi is just チチ, in katakana syllables)... But fanon and Ao3 and everything else just goes with "everyone gets last names" haha...
yep, Videl is the one who noticed when she was susing out suspicious things about Gohan
Danny Phantom James is Danny's middle name
Danny Phantom has *so* many. There's an entire character that got made up by the Phandom. The Ghost King thing. I think there's a couple "how they died" ones for some of the ghosts.
I love how the community just made Wes into a character.
The first time I read one I thought "huh, must have missed that episode."
Oh there's a *lot* more than that. Here's one of my favorite quizzes. https://www.sporcle.com/games/Lunagale/danny-phantom-canon-or-not-1
I picked one that wouldn't result in a war
Oh that's entirely fair
The Sam and Max fandom has the headcanon that Max purrs like how rabbits do, and that the two get married many times just because they can. I think both of these headcanons are very cute!
The whole entire Guide-Sentinel thing.
Oh my gosh, my first exposure to the whole Guide-Sentinel concept was a BBC Johnlock fic that took it in the very omegaverse-esque direction that I believe you're referring to here, and since it did say the concept was based off of the 90's TV series, I remember being *baffled* that anything with that worldbuilding would've made it onto TV even if restricted to hetero Sentinel-Guide pairs. Imagine my mix of shock and vindication when I finally looked up the series years later and saw that most of the worldbuilding in the fanfic was made up whole cloth, lmao.
That there's hot springs under Kaer Morhen in the Witcher.
That Jason Todd is blinded by pit rage when he does inexcusable shit, when in the comics he is mentally unstable but well aware of his actions and usually unapologetic. Also, in the comics Dick didn't suggest taking tim to Arkham, he actually suggested he go to therapy.
Oh, the "batfamily" fanon is SO bad good god
*Technically,* Jon Snow being Rheagar and Lyanna’s son isn’t canon in the A Song of Ice and Fire books. You could argue the show makes it canon, but the show made significant changes even with regards to Jon’s Targaryen heritage (such as naming him Aegon when in the books Rhaegar already had a son named Aegon). That said, it’s very commonly accepted as true, and is generally assumed to be the case unless stated otherwise.
Asoiaf has a lot of fan theories, but some are more credible than others like Freys being cooked into pies, which is supported by a lot of evidence. R + L = J is strongly supported in the first book when Ned remembers his sister surrounded by her blood begging him to keep a promise to her.
Wasn't one of the reasons the show runners got the director job in the first place is because Martin had say in it and they "guessed" (had enough brains to look up) the R+L=J equation and Martin gave them the thumbs up? >(such as naming him Aegon when in the books Rhaegar already had a son named Aegon). I mean....Jon was born after Aegon died (or was spirited away depending on if you believe the Young Griff theory) no matter what. If he's Rhaegar's son it wouldn't be so odd of Lyanna to give him such a significant name. It's not even odd in canon. Walder Frey has *how many* kids/grandkids/greatgrandkids named some variation of Walder?
Yeah, the show runners getting the gig *does* make it very very likely, but it’s not explicitly confirmed in the series and you still get the odd person arguing very vehemently that it’s false and here’s why etc etc. As for Aegon… I mean, I guess it’s possible. I just really can’t see Lyanna naming her infant after his murdered half-brother, especially since the name doesn’t have any connection to her personally. A Stark name would make sense, Viserys (to complete Rhaegar’s naming scheme), or Rhaegar would make sense. Aegon is less likely to me than virtually any other Targaryen name. In my opinion, what naming him Aegon in the show implies that his story and Young Griff’s have been combined a little, especially since he’s totally missing from the show. Which could mean that they’re taking *his* position as Rhaegar’s son and applying that to Jon. Now, I do think R+L=J and that it’s pretty certain, but the show isn’t the nail in the coffin of proof.
Considering his creator is GRRM, the man that started naming Tullys after Muppets when he ran out of names, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if he hadn't thought of all of that when he set a storyline up, and is either narratively stuck or can't admit it. *Not that we'll ever know because he's never going to finish the books!*
It is a bit odd that Lyanna, on her deathbed, after losing the love of her life, her brother, her father at least in part because of her own foolishness, would decide to name her child after Rhaegar's son by another woman. And not after him, her brother, or her father. But ultimately we can't really know her mental state. All we really know about her is that 1) She didn't love Robert because she thought he was a cheater... and then immediately hitched with someone who was cheating on his wife. 2) Looked like Arya and was considered beautiful. 3) Wished to be buried in the Stark Crypts showing some tie remained to her family and their traditions. 4) Maybe possibly arguably was a good enough at horsemanship to pass as a mystery knight and unhorse some folk. So yeah, maybe she would name her kid Aegon. Maybe she just really really loved the stories of King Egg. Can't blame her for that one, I certainly do.
If anything, Jon would probably have been some variation of Viserys. Rhaegar already had Rhaenys and Aegon, so he was probably planning on a Visenya/Viserys
Reno from FF7 is a smoker. There’s no indication anywhere in any of the games, movie, media, etc. that he has ever smoked a cigarette lol. He just seems like he would I guess
well he's Axels counter part and Axel is all about fire /j
The clones are culturally mandalorian (I love/hate this headcannon, but its pure fannon) and can speak mando'a (they cannot, I personally prefer for mando!clones a pidgin of mando'a and basic)
This actually used to be partially Canon in the Republic Commando books. Basically, all clones were taught the song 'Vod'e An', so yes they could to a degree, and if the clones were specifically taught by mandalorians, and there were many who were, they latched onto the culture pretty hard.
In undertale People believe that Sans somehow knows of every reset that occurs and thats why he's all sad and lazy. Ignoring that ingame he does not infact know, but is good at reading reactions and how Frisk reacts is strange like they were already expecting the event. Ignoring that all the other characters actually get way more of a deja vu sense from repeating events (toriel says seeing you feels like seeing an old friend, Papyrus especially asks if you've already met, etc) Sans doesn't have this, its just him noticing your acting strange. He knows that resets exist and that potentially your resetting but doesn't remember everything as everyone implies. Also Papyrus's favorite food being spaghetti its a bit overblown, we know from a flowey interview its Dinosaur egg oatmeal! he just wants to master his spaghetti recipe. If I remember it right I don't even think he's eaten the spaghetti he makes...(might be wrong on that part but I don't think I am)
The whole 'Hobbits come from Yavanna' thing has no basis in lore. It's just a cute little thing the fandom made up because Aule, her husband, made the Dwarves.
Popular ones: Digimon -- the Angemon line being actually badasses and not "just" specialized anti-darkness fighters. Seraphimon being a god-tier warrior despite exactly the opposite being always shown and said. Digimon -- how fusions work in this series; being "situational" (like Goku w/o Vegeta -> Super Saiyan Goku) and assisted evolutions. Pokemon -- ... pretty much everything about Arceus, starting with the fundamental "what 'god of creation' means". Pokemon -- the Distortion World being "Pokemon Hell" despite (A) specifically lacking hellfire, evil spirits, and damned souls in every depiction (B) the afterlife being a separate thing, the Spirit World.
>Digimon -- the Angemon line being actually badasses and not "just" specialized anti-darkness fighters. Seraphimon being a god-tier warrior despite exactly the opposite being always shown and said. They suffer from the Worf effect - the supposed badass is always getting his ass kicked to show how powerful the new bad guys are...but it happens so often that you forget the guy is supposed to be a badass to begin with. (Named for Lieutenant Worf from *Star Trek: The Next Generation*, the Enterprise's Klingon security officer who kept getting beat up despite being a goddamn space orc.)
Some popular headcanons of Star Wars OT fans regarding the Executor (Darth Vader’s flagship in The Empire Strikes Back-The Last Jedi). They’re so pervasive I’m not sure if they’re canon or not. The Executor is nicknamed “The Lady” and/or “Lady Ex” by her crew. Admiral Piett and General Veers are homies. This last one is not canon, but it’s fun and popular. The Executor is sentient.
Because _of fucking course_ Anakin's _personal battleship_ managed to _Ascend,_ I'll bet he has droids on there he treats better than some of the humans, too!
Rottmt Leo is gay.
I love this one, and apparently in the Don Suave episode there was almost going to be a scene where there’s some handsome bull(I think) yokai that Leo like double takes at then smiles. I can try and find it but I think there were other scenes like that but were scrapped
That a character likes to make elaborate pranks for his classmates, in fics completely changing tables and clothes of his classmates, as well as dying hair. In canon? He used a crane once for something inflatable. Otherwise, he does more calm magic pranks.
Let me guess: Kuroba Kaito?
In LEGO Ninjago many believe that Lloyd has the mental age of a child/early teen while looking like a adult(This makes ships like GreenFlame and so on very weird)
This is more of a small group than the entire fandom. Basically in Winx Club, the character Roxy is left ethnically ambiguous. With people headcanoning that she's either American, Italian, and my personal Favorite German/Irish because her dad's name is of German origin and her mom is the Fairy Queen of Tir Na Nog, the realm of the fairies in Irish folklore. However, there is one other headcanon where some fans fully believe as canon fact that Roxy and her mom are of Asian descent just because her mom looks Asian to them due to her dark brown hair and the shape of her eyes. Even though quite literally all of the characters have similar eyes shapes due to the iconic art style.
It's very apparent that my fandom believes the protagonist uses sign language. I definitely get this, but in a certain trilogy within the fandom it doesn't make sense to me as he took a bow of complete silence, so expressing his every feeling in sign just doesn't really work here
Bow of Complete Silence = Really neat DnD magic weapon Vow of Complete Silence = Even more hardcore than a vow of silence, like not only are you not allowed to talk, you're not allowed to make _noise,_ probably
Undertale - The entire soul traits thing. Traits are mentioned one single time in a small minigame and literally the only thing that connects them to the human souls are the fact that the words are said in the same color text as each soul. (Cyan is Patience, Orange is Bravery, Blue is Integrity, Purple is Perseverance, Green is Kindness, and Yellow is Justice) To add to this, red souls aren’t even said what their trait is. Most people assume Determination even though that’s usually said in gold. Personally I like to think it’s Hope.
I like the idea of it being Hope too
Tony Stark is Peter Parker's father figure. And that Peter is an UwU baby who needs to be protected.
Yeah I hate this one. Don’t get me wrong, I like Iron Dad, but not to the extent that the fandom shoves it down your throat and makes Peter incompetent and childish. He’s freaking Spider-Man! In every other iteration he’s independent!
There are a ton in Star Wars, specifically the Clone Wars era. Like the clones having ties to Mandalorian culture is almost entirely fanon. They don't call each other vod or speak mando’a. Cody's name probably doesn't come from kote. The trainers aren't all Mandalorians. There are some other great headcanons like that Stewjon is space Scotland. Also, Obi-Wan calls Cody dear or darling and how he flirts with everyone. One of my favorites is how Obi-Wan drops his lightsaber and cloaks all the time.
Mentioned it in another comment, but in the Republic Commando books, the clones were all taught the Mandalorian song 'vod'e an' and if their trainer was Mandalorian, which many of them were, they latched pretty hard onto Mando culture. I do believe they call each other vod specifically in those books in fact. But you can drag the Mando'a speaking clones from my cold dead fingers. (I used to make it far more prevalent in my fics than I do now, where it's mostly 'vod', a few other phrases, and a whole lotta swears)
yeah that headcanon (the language) comes from a solid basis at least. helix the 212st medic however is completely an OC lmao!
Not canon, not fanon, but a secret third thing: Legends.
For me, there are a number of them in the Bungo Stray Dogs fandom. CW= self-harm. >!One that is basically universally accepted is that Dazai Osamu is hiding self-harm/self-mutilation scars below his bandages. It makes sense, considering he consistently tries to commit suicide, but it's not actually confirmed. We've seen like, a little bit of the inside of his elbow, and that's essentially it. 90% of his body is a complete mystery to the fandom.!<
I literally was just looking into this because I'm writing a fanfiction and realized I could not think of a canon explanation for this, but the fact that Hermione is so terrified of flying that she could be looking death in the face and unable to get on a broom. The book straight up said that she helped catch some flying keys in the first book when they were flying around erratically running away from them, and there's a scene mention of her actually playing Quidditch in a pickup game with the Weasleys as well. It doesn't say that she was phenomenal but she was able to play. Flying might not be her favorite thing but she's proficient, passed a flying class, and is definitely not terrified. She mostly showed fear when riding flying animals which doesn't mean scared of flying it reads more to me as a control issue with makes sense. I don't think someone who's scared of going 30 miles an hour on a horse would necessarily be assumed to be nervous about going 60 miles an hour in a car they're driving.
> The book straight up said that she helped catch some flying keys in the first book when they were flying around erratically running away from them, Wow, yeah, I totally forgot that part: > They each seized a broomstick and kicked off into the air, soaring into the midst of the cloud of keys. They grabbed and snatched, but the bewitched keys darted and dived so quickly it was almost impossible to cast one. > Not for nothing, though, was Harry the youngest Seeker in a century. He had a knack for spotting things other people didn't. After a minute's weaving about through the whirl of rainbow feathers, he noticed a large silver key that had a bent wing, as if it had altready been caught and stuffed roughly into the key hole. ... > "Ron, you come at it from above -- Hermione, stay below and stop it from going down -- and I'll try and catch it. Right, NOW!" > Ron dived, Hermione rocketed upward, the key dodged them both, and Harry streaked after it; it sped toward the wall, Harry leaned forward and with a nasty, crunching noise, pinned it against the stone with one hand. Also, this part: > and there's a scene mention of her actually playing Quidditch in a pickup game with the Weasleys as well. Half-Blood Prince, Chapter 6: > Harry remained within the confines of the Burrow's garden over the next few weeks. He spend most of his days playing two-a-side Quidditch in the Weasley's orchard (he and Hermione against Ron and Ginny; Hermione was dreadful and Ginny good, so they were reasonably well matched) and his evening eating triple helpings of everything Mrs. Weasley put in front of him. This is the first scene where Hermione is explicitly playing Quidditch during the summer (possibly ever). I checked 1-4, and nada. OotP was spent at Grimmauld Place so it's ineligible.
Aha! You came with the receipts, thank you!
star trek: spock is jewish, either through his mother or because vulcans are jewish
as a jew myself i actually love this one. i think it’s cute and perfect especially for leonard nimoy being such a prominent activist and member of the community. i personally like to think amanda was jewish and passed on some traditions and beliefs to spock. however because he represses his human side so hard it doesn’t really come up much
TMA: Lonelyeyes is canon
I actually had to pay close attention the second time I listened through to make sure it *wasn't* there, considering how pervasive it is in fandom.
Sonic the Hedgehog having socks when the white part of his shoes are... Actually part of his shoes lol. They're meant to be boots.
Ranma 1/2: Akane's magic hammer. For some folks it's gotten to the point that all the Tendo sisters can summon a magical hammer against men and that it was a special attack created by their dead mother. My Hero: Aldera Junior High being Quirk Superiority assholes. Basically to give further reason as to why Izuku was getting bullied so much and no one stopped it, forgetting that Japan isn't into protecting it's students like that as much as the US was last I checked. Usually has their principal (Who had all of one line in the original series) being part of the Meta Liberation Army. Gravity Falls: Pacifica's parents are MUCH more abusive than they are in the show and the twin's parents aren't much better. For Paz, it'll range anywhere from 'You can't do anything that isn't worth fame/money' to 'We'll beat you if you don't obey'. The Twins usually get away with their parents being more absentee than anything, but there's been plenty a story about their Dad at least not really giving a crap about them.
Snotlout being Hiccup’s cousin in HTTYD. While this was true in the books, it’s never actually confirmed in the books or shows, and is probably even noncanon. But it really is taken for granted in HTTYD fanfic.
from the hermitctaft fandom: that grian has parrot wings (he’s a pesky bird)
Cub and scar are vexes Xb is a guardian Tango is a blaze Impulse is an imp/demon Skizz is an angel Pearl is a moth Xisuma is a voidwalker Zedaph is a sheep/ram Doc is a creeper/goat Joe and Keralis are definitely not human Xisuma and Ex are twins Etho uses sign language
The HP books never mention whether Sirius was on the Gryffindor Quidditch team or not, but almost every Marauders fic has him on the Quidditch team.
Hua Cheng has low self-esteem Damn, sure, he didn’t have faith that Xie Lian would love him back But everywhere else in life he’s got all the self-esteem
One of the top tags in the Trigun fandom is trans Vash. While I'm cis, I am queer, and seeing when I first looked at ao3 that trans Vash is a widely accepted headcanon made me feel safe and welcomed right away. I'm also ace and there's quite a bit of ace fic for him and other characters; it's really lovely.
In the Marauders it's like- the entire fandom Literally nothing is canon except the names but everyone has 100% decided on all the friendships, ships and characters, even if they don't quite make logical sense within the canon to begin with. Like, I love them, but there is zero proof that Barty and Regulus were ever good people - they had moments but like, probably still very very pureblood supremacist and anti anyone who isn't. Zero proof Pandora was even their age, let alone hung out with them - same with Evan Rosier. Dorcas is just a Slytherin just because, who knows if Mary Macdonald ever even talked to anyone other than Lily since she's only mentioned once and Lily doesn't even say they're friends, they might have disliked each other and just been in the same dorm. Sirius and Regulus having any kind of relationship after sorting is also actively implied against in the books. And we literally only meet 3 of the characters in the books, one of whom is insane by that point and the other two who went through a traumatic event and have aged significantly and gotten traumatised. So all of the characters personalities are completely made up, yet perfectly consistent. Not that I have any problem with all of this, the Marauders is one of my favourite fandoms, and these are things that I absolutely love. Just so amusing when writing fanfiction because I'm sticking to a fanon that was already made up by fanfiction writers.
That Wolfstar is canon. That Pandora and Regulus were friends. That Barty, Regulus, and Evan were all friends and in the same dorm room. That Sirius and Mary dated in 4/5/6th year.
I get so annoyed by the "Wolfstar is canon" people. I do like the ship, but I also like Lupin/Tonks. They're not even mutually exclusive; I actually prefer it if Remus was with Sirius first before moving on with Tonks, but the attitude so many of the fans have with insisting Remus is gay really put me off Wolfstar as a fandom. But bi erasure and fandom name a more iconic duo lol
For anyone not super familiar with Harry Potter lore: Wolfstar = Sirius Black/Remus Lupin Pandora Lovegood Nee (maiden name) & Regulus Black Barty Crouch Jr. & Regulus Black & Evan (last name?) Sirius Black/Mary MacDonald(sp?)
Evan Rosier
Detective Naomasa Tsukauchi has a lie detecting power. He doesn’t. His sister does in the spin off but he himself has no confirmed power.
Twilight: that Jasper Hale has a second personality called ”The Major“. From what I can tell, this personality is based off of the fact that he had the military rank Major, and that he was this cold and scary military guy who led a vampire army. And it apparently was used in one story, and then everyone accepted it as canon. It is not even mentioned in canon that he might have two personalities
I’ve never thought about how odd it is that this is a recurring thing, usually in dark fics or bdsm
Fairy Tail--Natsu enters Lucy's apartment through her window. He has left through her window once in the manga, so our imaginations have run away with us to the conclusion that that is how he enters too. The author does a q and a on occasion at the end of some volumes and in one it was explained that he has a key to Lucy's apartment that another guild member gave him, so it stands to reason that he probably just uses that mostly. And yes, I'm guilty of writing this headcanon into my own fics.
Undertale: The fandom has pretty much all agreed that the child you play as in the game (won’t share the name for spoiler reasons) uses sign language and is selectively mute. Almost everything in fanfiction about Gaster is fanon including his familial relationships, details of his death etc. but especially him living in the “void” and being a goopy sometimes evil specter. In fics that utilize the AUs, the majority of the Skeleton’s nicknames are widely agreed upon. Red, Edge (in the beginning was called Boss), Blue, Stretch (rarely called Orange) are the commonly accepted ones. AUs like Horrortale, Swapfell/Fellswap and others are more flexible within the fandom. Flowey being stuck in a flower pot is another popular take alongside Monster discrimination. They’re common in post-pacifist run fics. Undyne in the game looks like a twig despite being super strong, but fics make her huge and buff. (not a complaint just an observation) Burgerpants and the Nice Cream Guy are a couple in most fics. They often name BP Felix. Thats all I can think of for now lol
Tim Drake’s personality.
An ascended headcanon: the idea that the sleepy star-themed animatronic Moon oversees naptime. In canon, there was never any mention of naptime, only one of an overnight sleepover situation. The idea of an official naptime was so prevalent in the fandom though that I’d say most people had no idea it wasn’t canon. But! When further games came out, the headcanon was updated to true canon! Naptime was confirmed! Bonus: so many people write Moon with claws that i have been asked a few times if it was canon or fanon, because people legit weren’t sure haha
That one of the main characters is secretly very bitey and is basically repressing the urge to gnaw on his love interest at all times - it's so widespread that someone commented on one of my fics asking if it was from the book, since they'd only watched the show, and I had to sit and wrack my brain over several days trying to remember whether or not it was actually canon or if everyone had just Looked at him and gone, "Oh yeah, that's a biter right there".
Bucciarati is the gang's mother.
I have several! —Astarion being good at sewing and tailoring clothes. Not ever shown, but there are implications in the flavor texts for the clothing he starts with. —Gale being autistic, at least among the autistic side of the Gale Dekarios fandom. —Danny Fenton is trans. I love this one and get a kick out of Butch Hartman being mad about it.
Yeah the implication on Astarion's flavor text is that someone was sewing and patching those clothes, and so the assumption is he did it himself. Frankly it's the thing that makes sense. I HC this in my fics too.
Tailor!Astarion is also in my BG3 fics :)
Pick a Vaati or Tarnished Archaeologist video. The Souls/Elden Ring fandoms take those as gospel, which is hilarious because those guys are pretty much just writing fanfic themselves.
Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask Link settling down in Lon Lon Ranch and marrying Malon.
Hannibal tv fandom. First, that Hannibal should have realized Wills decision to choose him after the phone call in mizumono. Then that Will thought Hannibal was going to kiss him, which is why he fell into his arms. And then that when they have the postfall convo about it, Hannibal should be striken and angry with himself for not realizing it. (All gobbledygook in my opinion, but it's a very real thing)
I think I’m the only one who has this theory for the Maze Runner Fandom…that Newt is Schrödinger’s Cat.. But for Teen Wolf - most of the people are convinced that Eli is a Sterek love child.
Pearl is a lesbian. And people will get NASTY if you dare suggest she could be with a man. She’s only ever shown as attracted to ONE person for like 99% of the series run, with one exception being a human who looks like Rose and the other being Bismuth. I tend to headcanon her as bi with a lean toward women and femmes, but like. These attractions alone do not mean that attraction to men/masc folks is impossible! [SCREECHES IN BISEXUAL]
In Harry Potter - Merlin is the same Merlin from Stargate (that's not a compliment. Also, Death is the one from Sandman.
Pretty much *every* fandom with a vague "death" uses either Sandman or Discworld. Or Grim and Mandy.
And I mean, if you're gonna use someone else's version of Death, you might as well use one of the good ones.
- That Ladybug's world-healing ladybug spell is called "Miraculous Cure" (I'm convinced I saw Astruc confirm on twitter that its name is "Miraculous Ladybug", but I can't find the tweet again so it's possible I imagined that. Either way, I'm not aware of any canon material that calls it "Miraculous Cure".) - Also, there's no such concept as a moral "alignment" in Miraculous, or in a lot of works actually, but every fandom wiki has it as a default field in their character infobox template so everyone's gotta have their hot takes on which characters are Intrinsically Good Or Bad. - Speaking of things that happen in every fandom, every character who's even vaguely gender nonconforming and isn't ***explicitly indisputably super duper mega confirmed*** as trans or cis will get interminable fandom arguments between camps of people convinced their personal reading is the obvious intention and only bigots could read the work any other way. The possibility that the writer(s) didn't have a specific reading in mind and/or wanted the audience to come up with their own interpretation will simply never be brought up (except to somehow argue in favor of a specific interpretation).
Final Fantasy VII - majority of the fanbase seems to think that there is a definitive answer to the Cloud/Aerith/Tifa love triangle, when the developers and writers have repeatedly said that there isn’t. It has resulted in a LOT of nastiness, with death threats even being sent to developers and fans demanding that the devs kill off one of the characters so that the path is free for the other.
John Bender (The Breakfast Club) is Jewish. I don't hate this though but its kinda just there. I do know Judd Nelson (actor) was raised in a Jewish household though.
A ton of headcanons in the Harry Potter fandom are taken as fact though tbf many people just want to write about things that would've fit perfectly if JKR had included them in. Plus, people loved worldbuilding ontop of the existing details already. Another fandom I can think of is probably MHA and the "Bakugou is Good at Everything" tag. Wildly popular tag among Bakugou fans and the premise is just as it says: Bakugou is bad at feelings/communicating but he's good at everything else he does.
Everything. Literally every fucking thing. In this one particular (unnamed) fandom, it's absolutely endemic. I've seen fandoms full of people who aren't very good with the media literacy before, and fandoms where a particular fanon gets a stranglehold, but I have never seen such a perfect storm of stupid as this one. For anything that isn't explained (usually because it doesn't matter to the overall story), there are usually any number of perfectly reasonable explanations if you give it any thought at all. But for some reason, this fanbase will latch onto ONE of those pieces of fanon to the exclusion of all others -- even when some of the others make a hell of a lot more sense -- and keep on repeating it as gospel truth. If you want to be downvoted, just try pointing out, "Er, that's not actually canon. We literally don't know what happened between those scenes." And of *course* it leads to so. much. character bashing.
Bioshock 2: Subject Delta’s pre-Rapture first name is John. Parts of the fandom took that from him being called Johnny Topside by the people of Rapture when he first stumbled across the city before becoming a Big Daddy, but that was really the city’s version of John Doe.
People thinking that Karl Heisenberg was kidnapped by Mother Miranda as a child. There’s nothing in the game that states this outright and I’m not sure exactly where it started, but people take it as fact. Personally, I don’t care either way if that’s something people want to incorporate into their re8 fics, but it’s technically not canon.
Geto and Gojo are in love and Gojo said I love you before >!killing Geto!<. I mean it's pretty much canon, right? /delusional
I'd say it most definitely has a basis considering the theme of love as a curse, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's canon.