#fanon character interpretations

[mmelolabelle]

My favourite lucemond dynamic is when they’re characterised as having very different reactions to committing ✨atrocities✨

Aemond: I am a monster. This is the price I pay for mine and my family’s ambitions and to keep the people I love safe. If I am to be called ‘evil’ by all men then so be it - let me be evil.

Lucerys: Idk man for me it was just ‘Tuesday’. Anyway—

[bereft-of-frogs]

There’s that post that’s like ‘everyone should get into a tiny niche fandom at least once’ fully agree, that was really fun -- but I would like to add that everyone should get into a fandom where their opinions run counter to major fanon because it really teaches you about sticking to your guns and trusting your interpretation of the text without having to rely on peer validation

because WHAT are people talking about sometimes

[itty-bitty-sunshine]

Needed an excuse to draw sun in his natural habitat (unpaid babysitter).

[clown-eating-pig]

I really love gertrude robinson bc how often do you get an older woman character who just really sucks? She sacrifices ppl that trust her. She is so focused on keeping the world from ending that she completely doesn’t notice one of her assistants routinely torturing the others. She dismembered a guy. She does her job badly on purpose. She’s cunning and sneaky. She dares her murderous, immortality seeking boss to kill her. She gets murdered by her murderous, immortality seeking boss. She’s not particularly friendly. She somehow had access to plastic explosives. She’s a manipulator and a liar. She’s bound to the avatar of destruction. She helped a guy get rid of a pig by telling him to put it in conk crete. She is like the opposite of a sweet little grandma and that’s beautiful.

[stealingyourbones]

I keep seeing the “Constantine is a soul whore” fanon interpretation. It’s fun and enjoyable to read but I do think it’s important to also know the canon and WHY he sold his soul.

he’s only sold his soul to three demons. All of which he did in rapid succession (same night) to trick them into curing his lung cancer because they didn’t want to deal with Satan being mad at them + causing a civil war in hell just because of this fuckers soul being claimed. The message more being that he’s the worlds best conman and less that he sells his soul all the time.

[wickjump]

i hope everyone who preaches about how the only way to enjoy fandom spaces (especially in this fandom) is by strictly abiding by canon interpretations and thinks everyone else is ruining fandom spaces remembers that uwu baby cutesy dream is not in fact fanon but very much so how dream is canonically portrayed so if you want to stick strictly to canon and villainize fanon you’re gonna have to make that guy fucking insufferable and infantilized to hell and back sorry. it’s canon and if you do anything else you don’t actually deserve to be in the fandom that’s just how it works i guess

[zinnie-zoloft]

“Crystal is the voice of reason” no tf she is not did we even watch the same show? She’s a mess, she’s 16, she’s angry and emotional and dealing with way too much at once.

Female characters are so often reduced to “the reasonable one” or “the one with the braincells” but Crystal clearly isn’t that, every character is dealing with their own shit and none of them are perfect, they’re teenagers who repeatedly fuck up.

Yeah, she tries to help Charles, but she’s no therapist. She pushes him and screams at him because she doesn’t know how to deal with any of this either. She isn’t any better at dealing with her emotions than he is and that’s the whole point.

She’s just as impulsive as him and just as angry. She constantly puts herself in danger in order to save the people she cares about, and would have absolutely reacted the same way Charles did with the night nurse if it had been her in that situation.

People love Charles for the same character traits they keep trying to strip away from Crystal, and this is a massive problem with female characters in fandom.

[tempestmothstorm]

crazy how the sanshee plush is one of the few actual direct confirmations on what a non-act 2 Natsuki’s home life is like because of how cagey she is on literally everything. Like this isn’t anything surprising or something you wouldn’t be able to extrapolate from the games but unlike everything else we know about her the implications are right there on the tin.

They literally did the character bio trope where where all the likes are normal but the dislikes are about their very specific trauma it’s just so funny they did that on the plushie card

[hipstersoulgushers-art]

Facecanons for the reds n blues now that I’ve been hyperfixating for over a year

[steelthroat]

When did people in this fandom start writing Prowl like a black butler character, impassive, logical and emotionless when, at least in the comics, both marvel and idw, he was literally always on the verge of an aneurysm and making weird faces once per issue AT LEAST????

Guys not even in the g1 cartoon when he had a sheet of paper for a personality (my favorite sheet of paper but still) he was like that.

So genuinely where does this "stoic prowl" come from?

[angelsdean]

already seeing bad fanon like "lol yea dean wouldn't want to talk abt the confession bc ~too repressed to talk abt feeeelings~" like, no<3 dean literally Understood and Processed the confession and the meaning of cas's words, romantic connotation and all, while he sobbed on that dungeon floor. and any future lack of discussion abt it is because they literally have an understanding that goes beyond words. there's nothing to discuss or clarify re: cas's words. dean is also incredibly emotionally intelligent in canon, empathetic, and self-aware of his own emotions AND has no trouble being open and vulnerable with others when it's not like, sam pushing his boundaries and trying to corner him into talking abt things before he's ready. also the idea that cas would automatically come to the conclusion that dean doesn't love him / could never love him if they don't immediately Talk About The Confession ?? when cas's whole entire speech to dean was about how he SEES all the love in dean, how dean is truly a being of love and that cas learned so much about love FROM dean. like hello ???

[sparvverius]

i'm intentionally out of the loop for any and all frevblr beef but it seems just a little bit silly to me to say that there's a "fanon" version of these historical figures and that people should like the REAL version instead. cause like. unfortunately the real version has passed on from this life.... so has every person that knew them....... we think and talk of these people in a speculative and interpretive way not out of preference but because that is the only way that anyone can have any access to them at all anymore! however if you ARE communing with the real saint-just PLEASE let me know

[ubepan]

mithrun thought of his lover as someone who's "untrustworthy". he looked down at her too, if this is anything to go by

she's a naga for ALL panels she's in with mithrun--you'd think if he wanted her to feel real, she'd atleast have been a doppelganger or something but she's been a chimera for most of the times we've seen her. mithrun's been dungeon lord for 5 years of his life, and his supposed lover has been a chimera for . probably all of it.

also consider: kabru is spinning the narrative about mithrun's time as a dungeon lord into something Laios can comprehend. i think that's critical. kabru says “his life in the dungeon couldn't have been happier” and i think he's being literal. there's little happiness in living in a lie, and personally—mithrun's expression here is pretty telling

is this anything

[welcometogrouchland]

Dick as Damian's third parent while also having bad parent Talia: stale, boring, relies on poor characterization of Talia. Yawn.

Dick as Damian's third parent with good mom Talia except Dick and Talia still hate each other: beautiful, talented, show stopping, never been done before, etc. They take Damian out for a day and constantly try to out do eachother in who can be the most fun. Dick takes him to the circus except the high wire act is actually the two of them doing an old Flying Grayson's routine. Talia takes him to the arcade and buys the cabinet for his favourite game right there on the spot (also she's surprisingly good at DDR. Dick gets demolished in a match with her). Damian's torn bc on the one hand he knows they're both losing themselves in the competition instead of just being in the moment with him but on the other hand. Richard and Mother are taking him to his favourite Lebanese restaurant where they plan to buy him an all you can eat buffet bc Talia thought he looked thin and Dick agreed bc he knows Bruce can't cook good meals for shit. So who is he to deny them their whims?

[iconicname]

Me: just trying to read jason todd centric angst fic in peace

Tim drake 95% of the time: what if I made everything about meeeee I'm such a uwu abused neglected baby genius boy 🥺🥺who could do no wrong! See how I flinch and panic when Jason looks in my way!! Even though I'm supposed to be such a smart and tough badass robin worthy of my title unlike that stupid idiot 2nd robin who got himself killed and everything that ever happened to him was his fault because he beat me up one time and he disagreess with the almighty batman! :((((( I'm so terrified of him, but I'll forgive him, im so brave to face my "abuser." I'm such a good person who puts the mission first and emotion second, and B-b-b-because jason was my robin!! How could my inspiration betray me like this? im so insecure about my position as robin! I keep invading Jason's boundaries because I'm soooo smart! And that stupid idiot jason doesn't know. This is just how Bruce and I show love aren't such a good person with no flaws whatsoever? I may be born rich, but I'm the perfect philanthropist who has no internal biases against poor people and know the ins and outs of how to handle crime alley! I may even teach Jason something! Any good that ever happens to Jason is because of my interference , he should be forever grateful for having a brother like me and also forever guilty for beating me up one timeee, let's ignore the fact I fought back just as much and was conically still standing by the end. Jason should feel sooo guilty for existing in my presence that he feels obligated to cater to my emotional needs like a parent even though he's only three years older..I'll even guilt trip jason into taking care of Bruce's emotional needs because he's soooo sad and repressed his emotions! Even though Bruce and I never had a day in our lives where our needs were unable to be met and we never had a lack of support systems and jason spent spent his who childhood taking care of adults who should have been taking care of him. But I'm just so small and frail! I need taking care of and Bruce neglects me for that evil 9 year old, look at these brittle thin bones I'm so unhealthy and don't know how to take care of myself I need jason to do it even though I'm medically fit enough to be a vigilante and had enough support growing up to have access to good medical care and consistent nutrition. Oh, but i just don't know how to care for myself. I'm such a genius, but i can't figure out basic math like getting no sleep, and relying on coffee will lead to burnouts. I just want to keep going because I'm so loyal and noble. I can't waste a moment of time to save people! :))) look at all of these cutesy quirks I have no character development needed in fact all of my perceived character "flaws" are positive flaws or flaws that only negatively affect my uwu sad boy self rather than other characters or the plot!

[burr-ell]

I'll preface this by saying that I don't by any means begrudge anyone their own personal headcanons or interpretations, but I kinda have to get it off my chest that I'm personally not very comfortable with significant deviations from canon character design on CR, and I really tend to side-eye people who have declared their fanart to be "better".

And sure, some of that is because i'm a cranky old bastard. But some of that is that I also have an animation degree and have studied character design. Creators generally give artists a fair amount of input as to how they want their designs to connote the characters' personalities—not just in terms of clothing or hairstyle, but in the overall shape of the silhouettes and body structures. And in the case of CR in particular, that's coming from a place of much closer familiarity with the characters because the creator is actually going to be embodying them for a fairly long period of time, so when the fan response is heavy deviation from that, I think it can feed into some unhealthy fanon perceptions and projections.

Like, for example, it's not so much that I think fanartists are "disrespecting the creators" or whatever when they keep giving Imogen a sweet little round face and big hips/breasts and cute circular glasses, but I've also studied shape language in art. You're communicating something when you design her this way; if a character's silhouette has a lot of circles, visually that connotes being friendly, sweet, and cute. The person who first suggested drawing her with glasses explicitly said they thought it would look cute—and no shade to them! They can like whatever they want!

But canonically, Imogen is a woman in her 20s who's been dealing with unanswered questions, abandonment, loneliness, and sheer exhaustion from trying to hold back and control powers that she never asked for—and who simultaneously uses those powers even when it isn't necessary if she thinks it'll help her achieve a goal or prove a point. She isn't unfriendly, and she wants to do the right thing, but she's also someone who's consciously chosen to keep to herself for most of her life, and yet simultaneously she's quite adept at persuading and deceiving people. I think we're meant to pick up that sense of world-weariness and cynicism from her angular facial features and thin frame. That's...kind of just how character design works.

I think the trend of disregarding the official art and giving her softer features has had an impact on the perception of Imogen as a character. I see a lot of views of her that really remove a lot of her agency, treating her like she's only ever been a victim of circumstance who's never put a foot wrong. Some fans got pushback for pointing out that it really wasn't cool for Imogen to openly contemplate whether or not the Ruby Vanguard might be right in front of three people who were killed by Otohan, insisting that imogen was just dealing with a lot right then. And yes, she was, but that doesn't mean that the way she was dealing with it doesn't say something about her as a character. I don't know if I'd call it coddling, necessarily (even though perhaps there are some very coddling takes I just haven't seen), but there seems to be some resistance, in some circles, to the idea that Imogen isn't a put-upon martyr. And in those same circles, round friendly-looking glasses-wearing Imogen abounds, to the point of editing the official art itself to "fix it".

Truth be told I'd be willing to bet that the rounder cuter Imogen actually came about because of the initial impression of her, given how much fanon at the start of c3 revolved around poor baby Imogen with her scary nightmares needing the wiser, worldlier Laudna to comfort her and kiss it better, but those visuals also proliferated rather quickly and well beyond past the point where that fanon was feasible anymore, and I think both aspects of that fanon ended up informing each other. It's not lost on me that the rounder and cuter-looking Imogen performs the literal function of sanding down her harder edges.

And like I said, I'm not here to be needlessly negative toward what other people want to do. If you want to draw the characters differently to their official art, I don't think either the cast or the artist are especially offended by it. But I personally dislike it, in part because I think some of these trends are a way for fans to claim a certain amount of ownership over the characters, whether they intend it or not. And the ultimate outcome of that is that when creators inevitably assert their ownership over a deeply personal story in a way that fans don't like, the backlash is much stronger than it reasonably should be, which is something I think the CR fandom has seen often enough not to continue doing as often as it does.