fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5349 ]

[ SECRET POST #5349 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5349 ⌋

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

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 41 secrets from Secret Submission Post #766.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I don't understand. Isn't the whole point of headcanons is that people can imagine whatever they want, regardless of what the canon is?

This. I'd side-eye someone headcanoning a character who was canonically gay or bisexual as straight. But people can headcanon what they want. Others don't have to like those headcanons.

There are different types of headcanons, too. There is headcanoning where you develop your idea of the character based on canon and then expand on it. But there is also completely original headcanoning where you imagine something about a character that has no basis in canon.

i believe op means that headcanon is reserved for filling in missing detail in canon, not replacing canon with what you prefer. that's more like, alternate universe

that's what i thought the concept was about at least tbh but i don't particularly care

DA - you're mostly right, with the caveat that most characters in media are "default straight," not "we had an in-universe discussion about how incredibly straight I am" straight, so there's often a lot of wiggle-room when it comes to sexuality. But if you're turning a character that has gleefully enjoyed many sexual relationships into a sex-repulsed asexual, that's an AU, not headcanon.

Exactly. Headcanon is about filling in the blanks for things that aren't shown in canon.

For instance, there's a character in one of my canons who is shown to be very flirtatious with women but who also has a very deep, emotionally intimate relationship with another male character. You can headcanon that this character is bi and has more-than-platonic feelings for the male character, but you can't headcanon him as being gay because canon makes it very clear that he is also attracted to women.

i believe op means that headcanon is reserved for filling in missing detail in canon, not replacing canon with what you prefer. that's more like, alternate universe

If that is what OP meant, they are operating on a very outdated definition of headcanon.

Generally speaking, a headcanon is something that people make up or imagine that fills in spaces not already established by canon.

For example for a trans headcanon:

Canon = character is shown to be or explicitly refers to self as trans in the story
Headcanon = character is not shown to be and does not explicitly refer to self as trans but fan likes to imagine they are and there is nothing in the canon that directly refutes this so it could have been true all along
Not canon = character explicitly is shown to be cis, any trans fic would then be "AU" not headcanon

I imagine OP meant you can't headcanon something that has direct canon evidence against it, like turning an established gay character bi. "Straight" characters usually have more leeway with this because tons of them are only "straight by default" without it being explicitly mentioned anywhere in canon that they are exclusively straight, and just because the only onscreen romances are opposite-sex doesn't mean they can't be bi, etc.