#I guess not so much anymore?

[crowtwink]

I'm so tired of people using the word "fanon" in the DC fandom. 99% of "fanon" is just canon that the person using the term hasn't encountered.

The "no metas in Gotham" rule is based in (as far as my memory serves) two things, one of which is definitely mainline canon and I have a source for and one of which I admittedly do not have a source for but I think is canon and is at the very least a reasonable extrapolation from mainline canon. I literally have no clue which Elseworlds you think it's based on, but if the Elseworlds in question was published after 2011 I can tell you for a fact that this is older than that.

First things first, you need to understand that this started showing up based on 90s/early 00s Batman. Duke didn't exist at that time, so the Bats were 100% human. It's also worth noting that 90s Bats were very different from their current counterparts and this was peak dark and gritty comics era. For example, the Bats were canonically urban legends whose existence had never been proven. Yes, this is after years of openly working with the police in mainline canon. Yes, Bruce was still canonically a founding member of the Justice League over in that comic. Yes, this was all 100% explicitly stated in the text canon. With me so far?

(tossing the rest under a readmore because it got long)

I'll start with the maybe-not-fully canon thing, which is Bruce asking metas not to do their hero thing in "his" city. This is usually portrayed as less of a meta-phobic stance and more of a practical stance (although Bruce has canonically been anti-meta in a phobic way and we'll get to that). Bruce - aside from being in his peak angsty I must carry this burden alone era - didn't want to put an even bigger target on Gotham by having superpowered heroes show up there and potentially lure in their superpowered villains. This is mainly a Watsonian excuse for why Superman doesn't just show up and trounce the Joker, or Flash doesn't come in and just find the hidden bomb by looking everywhere. The implication is usually not that metas cannot exist in Gotham but simply that they have to, like, not be in costume and not openly act as superheroes. I really think I've run into this in canon more than once, but I don't have an issue on hand so I admit it could just be a really well established fan theory that took on a life of its own. But it is at the very least a reasonable extrapolation from the fact that Bruce doesn't ever call Wonder Woman to borrow her lasso for interrogations.

Okay, so, the source I do have. The main source here is Superboy #85.

So, uh, explicit anti-meta sentiment from Bruce in canon? Check. Explicitly wanting a meta escorted out of the city and telling him to stay away from Batgirl (who operates in Gotham) in canon? Check. Worth noting that neither Tim nor Cass here tells Kon he's wrong about Bruce having an "anti-meta" agenda. (This was around the time that DC was trying to do with metas what Marvel does with mutants. It didn't really work out and was dropped for the most part but it still happened.) There are a couple other times Tim tells Kon and/or Bart to get out of Gotham because of Bruce. I'm not going searching for exact issues, but I can think of at least two instances. Now, whether that's because they're metas or because they're.... Kon and Bart... is up for debate (Bruce was not a huge fan of Tim's friends), but it's still right there in mainline canon. It doesn't come from nowhere. And even if it DID come from an Elseworlds, that wouldn't make it non-canon. It's just canon in an Elseworlds. Which is different from Post-Crisis Canon. Which is different from Nu52 Canon. Which is different from Rebirth Canon. All of which are different from the canons of various TV shows and movies and games which are still canon.

Which brings me to my actual point. "Canon" in comics does not function like canon in most fandoms. Everything that is officially put out by DC is canon. Yes, even that stupid video game tie-in comic you hate. Canon actively and often contradicts itself. Yes, even "mainline canon" which is the term I've been using here for all comics that were set in the main comics universe at the time of their publication. You cannot even define with certainty what color a Lazurus Pit is in mainline canon (it's been green or gold most commonly, and I believe a few other colors as well). Why do so many people think they can look at a concept in fanfiction and say with certainty that it is has never appeared at any point in 80 years of canon and is fully fan invented? (And that's not even getting into the fanon elements that have become canon due to the fact that the overlap between fandom and official creator is extremely high)

Can it be worth it to articulate "hey this element doesn't match up with other aspects of canon that this person claims to be following and I find the contrast jarring?" Sure. You can even say "I don't like this particular element and I don't want to acknowledge it" or "I've never encountered this particular element outside of fanfiction and I think maybe its oversaturation in fandom is giving people an unrealistic view of what most/current canon is like which kind of bothers me" but unless you have a link to a specific post in which a fan says they are inventing a thing based on absolutely zero comic evidence, it's probably not entirely fanon. And even then I wouldn't be surprised if some nerd pulls up an issue from the 50s like "Well, actually..."

You don't get to decide that something another fan is using isn't canon because it doesn't match up to your personal taste. It's the same rhetoric that's been around ever since I got into comics in 2012 but now instead of calling people "try-hard fake geek girl" for dressing up as "steampunk genderswapped Joker" (an actual thing someone said referring to a cosplay of canonical character Duela Dent), we call things "fanon" and insist that certain stories or ideas are too OOC to "count" as canon. Sorry, but Red Hood and the Outlaws is just as canon as Under the Red Hood. Just because you don't know where in canon something came from doesn't mean that the people using it made it up. Just because you have evidence in canon that contradicts something doesn't mean that thing cannot also be equally canon. (Bruce is canonically a very good father in some comics. He is also canonically an abusive father in other comics. A lot of people have trouble with that one in particular.)

Everyone makes sense of DC's canon in their own way. And that's okay. That's awesome even. But as a fandom we have to get better at acknowledging this and realizing that our own understanding of canon is not an immutable fact but an interpretation. Other people will have different interpretations. And unfortunately some of those interpretations are going to be insufferable. But that does not mean those interpretations aren't valid and looking down on people for having them isn't cool.

Lots of fanon concepts haunt me but none do it more like "no metas in Gotham" bc this is not only 1.) false 2.) it was a concept for an elseworld's comic 3.) Bruce didn't say it 4.) do you really really think Batman has the authority to outright BAN an entire people from a city? and 5.) Duke.

[t4t4t]

Hi !

I got bottom surgery on July 25th :3

I'm recovering well but I'll be on bedrest for a while. Collie and I will need rent help for September/food/gas/utilities/etc. Two disabled trans women. Anything helps ! Thank yall so much for all you've helped so far, it's saved my life ❤️

https://venmo.com/u/nora-esther-rose

https://www.paypal.me/NoraEstherRose

https://venmo.com/u/Leah-Esther-Rose

https://www.paypal.me/androgynophore

[why-the-heck-not]

me, a responsible being, working on the coding project as I should vs. me, a dysfunctional shithead, getting distracted by reading about brains (once aGAIN damnit (it's my favorite "I need to study my field but bc I should do that it's an impossible unthinkable feat now, so I'm reading about something else to fool my brain I'm still being productive"-topic))

[zivazivc]

the JD loosing touch with society adventures

imagine him rattling and sweating more and more the longer this goes on

While I patiently wait for @picory to make his 'how JD and Rhonda met' animatic I had to get this stupid idea out of my system...

bonus:

next step: they steal the car

[letraspal]

Happy Birthday Baz Pitch! Never forget you were brought to this world with love.

(Also, happy birthday to the one and only @rainbowrowell)

[arkarti]

Oiled up William real!? 😳

I might have used the wrong oil idk

Twitter: X

[ribbononline]

Sylv/Gard + Shiny fusion

[cowardlykrow]

Even a hero needs some hope

[majimaisms]

hes being very normal about saejima being in prison

[infernal-lamb]

the lamb: yall mind if i explode into tentacles

havin a little fun with the lamb and potential tentacle body horror because i think sometimes they should be gross. why SHOULDN'T these God creatures be an affront to the nature of creation

[mbat]

yknow what i honestly never realized that bill canonically called ford 'fordsy' though like i kept reading that in fics and being like. yeah i can see him saying that but idk why everyone latched onto that-

but no i went and watched some clips from the show to remember how bill sounds and when he said fordsy it was a fucking jumpscare. WHY DID ANYONE EVER THINK THESE MEN WERENT GAY AS FUCK?

[mikayesha]

i know the greatness lies in you.

[megamagimugi]

He's-a Gone

Luigi time! To suffer, that is.

(CW: character death)

This is obviously a sort of comlementary piece to I Was-a Too Late. But it's more than just that as it also illustrates a certain fun, dark what-if idea I had. Please keep reading if you're intrigued!

Lore:

Luigi's Mansion, the first game. Everything goes the same as in canon until the final boss fight, when Luigi defeats King Boo in his Bowser costume. After King Boo comes out and Luigi intends to suck him in, the villain laughs and reveals the truth: Mario's painting was an illusion, so was everything Madame Clairvoya saw. All just to mess with Luigi. Meanwhile the real Mario wasn't just captured by the Boos, he was immediately killed by them on their King's orders. The only physical thing that's left of him in this realm is the five items Luigi found - hidden by the Boos for Luigi to find, another part of King Boo's sick game.

Luigi is able to finish the fight despite his shock and grief, fueled by the anger King Boo never expected from him. After getting out of the painting the plumber discovers that it is indeed empty, no Mario or anyone else in the portrait.

Heartbroken and guit-ridden, Luigi goes back to Professor E. Gadd's lab and gives him back the Poltergust 3000. He doesn't even want to stay long enough to see what is going to happen to the ghosts. Of course the Professor tries to offer some semblance of comfort, but we all know it's not his forte.

So Luigi leaves, only taking Mario's five items with him. He notices that the mansion has disapeared without a trace. The reality of it all finally hits him, and he practically collapses onto a nearby tree's large root protruding from the ground, putting down the precious items around himself, only leaving the matching red hat and the letter in his hands. He should have known something was off. After all, the Mario he saw in the painting was wearing his hat and both gloves.

Looking at all these items, to his growing horror he can't help but imagine what exactly might have happened to his brother and what his last moments might have been like. He hugs the hat to his chest and rereads Mario's note several times, knowing that the brief warning was his brother's last words to him.

Luigi can do nothing but cry for the beloved brother he couldn't save, desperately wishing it was his warm, living and breathing body pressed to his chest rather than just a couple of his belongings.

But Mario is truly gone, apparently having met such a horrific fate that not even a single part of his body is left in the physical world.

[Good night]

…I'll leave the rest up to your imagination ;) Sorry if I got carried away with my description. Occasionally even I enjoy being a little dramatic, though I'm no writer whatsoever.

Yeah, I'm not apologizing for making this one - I was nicer to Luigi than to his bro, at least here the Mushroom Kingdom and everyone in it (except for Mario lol) is still okay!

But alas,

You can no longer play as Mario

Rest in spaghetti, funny wahoo man.

@federthenotsogreat I'm tagging you because you said you wanted more Mario art like I Was-a Too Late, thought you might like this one too!

@drones-of-innocence Also tagging you because you were interested in my idea.

Edit: Tagging a few more mutuals who might want to see this based on their reaction to my previous angsty work just in case, feel free to ignore. Or ask me to remove the tag if you want, no problem.

@silenzahra (remember, no rush) @c-lavanda @jell-o101 @stripetkattelalala54-gf

@luigixfanxayjay @itsavee4117

And you @giddlygoat just because you have a Luigi's Mansion AU and I thought you might appreciate this... Also because I'm a fan 👉👈

[gotchibam]

Commissioned piece for Gabriel!

[3amsnek]

weird (not quite) autumn- one layer practice Mae with some vague leaves stuck on for funsies

[kkst0904]

kakisatober24