fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3018 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3018 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[Gunnerkrigg Court]

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[One Punch Man]

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(Victorian Farm)

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[Jojo's Bizarre Adventure]

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[Totally Spies]

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[The Middle]

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[The Blacklist]

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[Biolabs (Ragnarok Online)]

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[Gravity Falls, Adventure Time, My Little Pony, Steven Universe]

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[One Piece]

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[Vikings]

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[American Horror Story: Freakshow]

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(Major Crimes)

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[Kids in the Hall]

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[Twin Peaks]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 036 secrets from Secret Submission Post #431.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom (if you're going to ship politicians, go ahead, but this is just pure politics) ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 1 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

My main exposure to headcanon wank is on here, so I'm getting to the point where I'm tired of people reacting to the word "headcanon" by giving a lecture on how headcanon definitely isn't canon even if the person had given no indication that they don't know that. I believe that what you're talking about happens and is annoying, but it's just not what I see most of the time.

I see it a lot, especially in fandoms where the predominant headcanon is linked to a character's gender/sexuality.

I guess it depends on what you're defining as headcanon wank?

Most often I see it in the sense that one group -- let's say shippers of pairing A/B to keep it simple -- will read something subjective into an interpretation of something, and then claim that as definitive proof that it's 100% canon. They'll then proceed to spew hate onto B/C shippers who either don't read that vague interpretation the exact same way they do, or point out alternatives.

Switch out the shippers for "that character's totally gay/trans/asexual/whatever because the way the leaves were blowing in that scene is absolute proof and if you disagree you're a bigot!" or "that character's totally a racist/homophobe/whatever because of a vaguely tangential line that I've taken completely out of cultural context and if you disagree with my assertion that this makes them Problematic then you're a disgusting human being."

Basically it's people who think their wholly unconfirmed and subjective interpretations literally PROVE something's canon.

I really don't understand how you've avoided people with that mindset because they're everywhere in fandom, and have been there for a long time. They're more vocal and widespread now because of Tumblr, but they existed in LJ days too.

I know that's what everyone is complaining about, but I really do see more people jumping on anyone who mentions having a headcanon because they're probably doing this than what you're talking about.

It could be that we're interpreting some arguments differently. I see someone pointing to what made them have that headcanon in the first place and assume they know it's not really canon while you see someone claiming that it's actually canon. I'm not going to defend attacking people who disagree with them though. Still the proportion of complaints I've seen to times I've actually seen this happen is pretty high.

But I'm apparently very lucky in general. I find most of the stuff people complain about on Tumblr really easy to avoid.

No, I think you misunderstand me.

"I see someone pointing to what made them have that headcanon in the first place and assume they know it's not really canon while you see someone claiming that it's actually canon."

I'm not 'seeing' anything. That's literally what the people who do this do. They literally make posts not to say "Hey, I saw this scene and then got this headcanon!" but rather posts that say "This tiny scene is 100% concrete proof that I'm right because I somehow psychically know what the writers intended there, and if you disagree you're wrong."

My last fandom -- the one that drove me from not just Tumblr, but fandom as a whole -- was nothing but this. One set of shippers would write pages and pages of meta that brooked no argument whatsoever. It wasn't "this is what I think, guys!" it was "This IS, 100%, total canonical fact, and if you argue you're a hater from that other ship I hate who's just trying to tear my ship down." No one was jumping on them, they were the ones jumping on everyone else who dared see something different. They weren't saying "this is my headcanon based on what happened in this scene" they were saying "my subjective interpretation IS canon, and the rest of you are wrong." D'you see the difference?

It wasn't about mistaking their expression of headcanon as thinking they don't know it's not canon. It's that they genuinely think it is canon (and therefore not really a headcanon at all, even though that's what it is because there's no actual factual canon evidence to back it up). Hence they keep shoving what are essentially headcanons at everyone in the fandom who disagree, because they don't accept that they ARE headcanons.

You must be inhumanly lucky. There isn't a fandom I've been in over almost twenty years where this hasn't happened.

Ah okay. It's not that I never see this, it's just that I don't see it nearly as often as you and the others in this thread seem to. And I do still think there are some people who read another person's headcanon and assume they think it's canon, but I get that it's not you.

I just have a big pet hate for people replying to innocuous comments about headcanons with "that's nice but you realize it's not canon, right?"

It might be that we're in different types of fandoms, but in my experience I've only seen the "that's nice but you realize it's not canon, right?" comments in relation to someone's shipping preferences, rather than any specific headcanons (though you could argue that non-canon ships are technically headcanons too). As in "Why do you ship/write/draw A/B, you know they're not canon right?"

There's some overlap there sometimes with the people who're convinced their equally non-canon ship really is secretly canon and TPTB will validate them in the end. "Why do you ship A/B, you know they're not canon right? Because my ship is going to be canon. I win, you lose."

One of my other former fandoms had a propensity for trans headcanons for some reason. I can't say I ever saw anyone playing the concerned "you know it's not canon right?" citizen with any of those. I did, however, see the "No, Character A really is trans in canon, it's a fact, they just can't make it obvious for some big conspiritorial reason probably to do with ratings or advertizers or religion or something, but they 100% are and if you say they're not or write them as cis then you're transphobic because I'm right" stuff.

[ SECRET POST #3018 ]

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