#fandom treats it like it’s canon

[some-pers0n]

I'm always entertained by people doing those "canon VS fanon" memes where both are misunderstanding characters to such a violent degree 'cause like

[bean-spring]

Hot take and not to be a killjoy or the shipping police but people treating Viktor or Jinx's aroace headcanons as if they were canon is not the revolutionary take people think it is.

Headcanons are always all right but we have to acknowledge that they are somehow damaging when they apply to stereotypes. It might not be the case for everyone but most of the time people unconsciously assume that disability/mental illness=asexuality. These headcanons erase the freedom of attraction from people who are already seen as unable to have sexual/romantic experiences/desires, when it's completely untrue and harmful.

You can headcanon Viktor and Jinx as aroace, but I have seen people changing their minds once Viktor is no longer disabled (s2 with all of his other forms) and Jinx is no longer as mentally ill (alternate universe Powder). And it speaks wonders of how people see these characters.

"I never thought about Jinx being able to feel romantic/sexual attraction until s2!" To believe she's actually only capable of that when she's not "damaged" is incredibly disturbing. Especially since Jinx has always had a bit of a flirty personality too.

"I've always seen Viktor as asexual, I don't know why!" That's fine. You can headcanon him as ace. But I believe there is a reason behind it, most of the time, if for some inexplicable reason the "vibes" of the disabled character are making you think he's ace.

I say all of this being aroaspec myself, by the way. Headcanon all you want but going to people's posts commenting how "it's weird for you that they have romantic/sexual plots when they're clearly aroace" is not a win at all. It's a headcanon, after all, and it should be treated as such, and that's fine. But it also is damaging to spread stereotypes like these.

Of course the disabled character is asexual. Of course the mentally ill character is aromantic. It's not as revolutionary as you might think, tbh.

Fandom is not activism and it's all right to have any headcanons you want BUT some of them are filled with damaging stuff and perhaps we should look into ourselves more before treating these assumptions as something canon.

[idyllghost]

Guess me and Eddie Munson have another thing in common

[jaguarys]

I really wish Gaara's arc had been a little more involved because I truly don't think the sheer horror of it all is delved into enough. In the end it's sort of like he just. Snaps out of it. But then you start thinking about it and you're like. Oh. This kid literally could not sleep for years. Oh this kid was being tormented by Ichibi 24/7. Oh this kid had everyone trying to assassinate him when he was tiny. Oh this kid trusted one single person and they tried to kill him too and then died in front of him. Oh this kid was told everyone including his family hated him and that he was a monster and should die. Oh ok. Like sure murder was not the answer but also considering the circumstances he should've been even more out of it than he was

[cruelplatonic]

actually i think it's interesting that practically everyone's interpretation of valentino is that he has severe substance abuse issues & is high 50% of the time, when in the show he's shown disparagingly talking about addicts in a way that implies he doesn't see himself as one. and i'm not using "interesting" as a substitute for "oh boy do i fucking hate this" i just genuinely think it's fascinating. the juxtaposition of him looking down on addicts while refusing to acknowledge his own substance abuse problems is direly under explored and it's like, Right There. it's prime character study material

[takaraphoenix]

Absolutely in love with the fact that the "Stiles Stilinski is Part of the Pack" tag automatically redirects to the "Stiles Stilinski is Part of Derek Hale's Pack" tag.

Because. That's not what that tag, with that phrasing, HAS to mean. The Pack could refer to... ya know... the canon pack he's a part of, in that "reassurance of sticking to canon" way that isn't even rare on AO3.

But no. Nope. AO3 knows what pack we're talking about. And it delights me.

[myimaginationplain]

I've come to the conclusion that being assigned the fandom-mandated "sunshine character" is the worst possible fate a character could face

[revvethasmythh]

it's so funny to me that caleb and veth really did just trade off the job of intensely pining for the other at like the halfway point of the campaign. like, imo, nott in the early days did not behave in any real romantic or even romance-adjacent ways toward him--I imagine it would be very hard to even think in that way when you hate what you look like so much, have such low self-esteem, and are actively lying about your entire past, including a secret husband. caleb, on the other hand, is kind of diving directly back into the sort of relationship he had with astrid and eadwulf. very close, very intimate, we-huddled-for-warmth-together-and-oops-it-led-to-something-else sort of thing. he is the one who expresses that he's fine with it if people think he and nott are romantically together when they're talking to keg. nott is the one who pushes back on that. he calls her his life partner. unknowingly, he compares his feelings for nott to nott's feelings for yeza. his behavior only really starts to change after he finds out about veth's husband because suddenly all of that other stuff is rendered inappropriate in retrospect. but even then he compliments her to yeza over dinner in the most awkward of ways, he admits to being jealous, he calls yeza "a lucky man" to have her, he stares at veth and yeza closed bedroom door for far too long, he creates an entire arcane tower with room for her family just so she'll stay with him. in general, his behavior is not, um, totally and completely platonic about it, you know?

like, veth's feelings for caleb are canonical and therefore indisputable in their existence, but caleb in the early days was not that dissimilar to how veth was acting near the end of the campaign. it really paints a picture of "right person, wrong time" in the way things just didn't line up for them. or, as veth would say: "in another world, maybe"

[blindmagdalena]

i wish folks could better appreciate that fic, headcanons, etc don’t necessarily have to come from a place of “this thing i am saying about this character is Factual and all of fandom should accept it as The Truth” and can instead be from a place of “this is the way i choose to interpret this character/media because that is how i personally best enjoy them”

[rambunctioustoons]

"It's funny. Laugh."

[aingeal98]

Thinking of Cass and Damian got me thinking of the New 52 and how the dynamic between Batgirl and Robin there is even more proof of the travesty that was Babsgirl. She's been the longest running Batgirl to Damian's Robin, has witnessed most of the events of his life as Robin and yet their dynamic is just... A nothing burger. She's there in batfamily group reactions in the New 52 as the most heinous use of the Smurfette Principle I've seen in a long while. Tim isn't Tim, Dick isn't fully treated as Bruce's son, Jason exists mostly to say funny one liners, and yet despite the shallow characterisation there are still moments and events you can point to and say look. This happened. They interacted with Damian and it meant something. With Babsgirl? Nothing. How can there be anything when they're shoving a grown woman into a role she's outgrown for years now and forcing her to be the Batgirl of a preteen Robin? Her original Robin gets his own mantle, gets to be an adult with a legacy. She's shoved back into this role she doesn't fit in and because they know damn well she doesn't fit in it and they're just doing it for misogyny, they don't even try to make Batgirl and Robin a thing. Any interaction they had during the new 52 was so unremarkable and flavourless, devoid of character and heart, that I've never seen a single panel of the two of them in my 16 years as a DC fan.

Steph had a 24 issue batgirl run where she interacted with Damian a few times. Cass got even less than that with a six issue miniseries to bond with him. And yet the characterisation, writing and dynamic created in those stories was interesting, entertaining and impactful enough to last in the fandom for YEARS when Cass and Steph got erased. When you think of Damian's big sister you think of Steph, Cass, Maya etc long before you think of Babsgirl.

It's just infuriating to me. All those years of potential Batgirl and Robin stories wasted on a duo with as much cultural impact on the Batgirl and Robin team up as the James Cameron Avatar movies had on the word Avatar. All so they could erase the women of the batfam and reduce the sole one remaining down to The Girl Bat. Yeah whatever she was there in Damian's life when Steph and Cass weren't why am I supposed to care when her standing there gave me nothing to work with emotionally compared to a single conversation Steph or Cass had with Damian back in 2011. Compared with them or even Oracle Babs, I care about Babsgirl and Damian's dynamic and bond as much as DC and it's writers do. Which is to say, not at all.

[aunhinged]

Sherlock and House: Oddest shows of affection.

Sherlock: I’ve programmed an algorithm that can diagnose medical conditions within 0.05% accuracy. Much better than your pathetic clinic work. I think John will appreciate it.

House: Cute. I just pretended to go into cardiac arrest so Wilson would rush in and declare me his one true love. Try faking death next time, it’s a real conversation starter.

Sherlock: How is that even remotely intellectual? John prefers logic, not melodrama.

House: Wilson likes grand gestures. I know my audience.

John (to Wilson): Are they seriously doing this again?

Wilson: I’m pretty sure I’m dating an emotionally stunted teenager. What’s your excuse?

[shadelorde]

Ace community can we please for the love of god stop calling sex-favorable or sex-neutral aces “exceptions.”

I’ve seen one too many angry shipping discourse posts where yall are complaining about your ace blorbo being headcanoned to have sex by some people because of “exceptions.”

We are not exceptions. We are just as much a part of the ace community as you are. We are allowed to talk about our experiences and we are allowed to also project our experiences onto fictional characters as much as you are, and the fact you assume it’s just allo people talking about these “exceptions” is a part of the problem.

[dilf-phoenix-rights]

Something I do think is kinda worse (but definitely less prevalent) than “fandom religiously treating fanon as canon” is when someone convinces themselves that something that is canon actually isn’t, and that everyone else is stupid when in actuality most people are just like… picking up on the very obvious and purposeful implications presented in the story that you have just refused to accept mean anything if it isn’t literally spelled out for you.

[leonardalphachurch]

you know what. i say that all chucker is actually chuckboose in disguise but you know what the same is true for tuckington. caboose is there. he needs to be there. why are you writing tucker and wash together without their third. where is he.

[kindaorangey]

idk why it's taken me this long to think about it like this but the real reason i don't like 70s/80s era DM in the show timeline is because it's cheating. and i don't mean infidelity, i mean it's a cheap way to cut around all the issues armand and daniel have with each other in the modern day. like it's a massively difficult thing to write these characters getting from point A (armand's life being ruined by daniel and daniel hating armand/being highly distrustful of him) to point B (a sincere romantic relationship) but if you invent a Secret Romantic History That Daniel Forgot But Will Remember then it's a piece of cake for them to forgive each other. but no! i say no! i want the writers to put the work in!!!!