#fellow RoL Fan/nibals back me up pls our fandom is a mess and we have to stand by that I think

[definitely-not-an-alb]

Okay this might seem like a weird question, but @ Tiny Fandom, what’s your opinion on (pre-emptively, and by someone who’s more mother-languagely in English then me) putting in a request ticket for an ‘Peter Grant - Extended Universe’-Fandom-Tag at the OT3? I’m assuming a Tag for the Series will be happening anyways, but here’s my reasoning: 

This fandom is still very small, so preemptively sorting will be a lot easier.

We’re barely 8 year into this ‘universe’ and current (!) canon is already spread out over at least three mediums and a shit ton of publications/platforms (Books (+Short Stories, +Novellas, +Moments), Comics/GNs, Audio Exclusives) with a fourth on the way

The Show is definitely going to establish a separate canon

There was talk of spin-offs before, and the novellas are already heavily inching in that direction

(Worst/Best Case Scenario there might be an American Knock-Off Show)

We’re already all making up our own continuities re: Which parts are canon and which aren’t (Which is a great way to approach canon, as long as everyone stays civil, which we are generally quite good at, I dare say)

I’m bringing this up because I feel like I’m life watching the start of a similar thing as the Hannibal Lecter Extendet Universe is right now, and we have a tag over there, and oh boy do we need that tag.

For those unfamiliar, there wasn’t really much of a fandom in the sense we’d think off until the show happend, at least on A03, and that fandom’s general approach to canon is ‘has been taken out back, shot, disassembled, but though a grinder and served as Tatar to the unsuspecting reader’; there’s currently the four Books, the four Movies*, the Manhunter Movie from the 70′s and the Show, and that’s only the stuff I know off. There might be more. It’s a sprawling mess.

Now here’s the thing: The movie and book fandoms are relatively normal and literally no one gives a shit about Manhunter, but the Show’s fanon timeline is A Mess. As in generally a Hannibal TV fic might include: The Show, Hannibal Rising (The book or the movie or both, they don’t match up with each other or the rest and are both kinda bad), one of the tree Clarices OR an unholy agglomeration of all three (four, if you count Miriam Lass), random shit from Hannibal (the novel), Hannibal (the movie) or both of them, James Bond - Casino Royal, Charlie Countryman, any other movie Mads Mikkelsen and/or Hugh Dancy ever starred in. I’m not talking about crossovers, I’m talking about this fandom randomly colonizing a James Bond Movie and a Romanian romance drama staring Shia LaBeouf and declaring it ours.

A lot of this, I think, is down to Bryan Fuller not (re)establishing backstories, so people used the one from the books, except the series takes place during the early 2010′s, making backstories and birth dates written for the 70s a right mess. And then there’s the weird stuff, of course.

There’s weird fanon, and then there’s the Hannibal TV Fanon Timeline. I’d draw you a map, but quiet frankly skdjksbvksv

Basically what I’m saying; The ‘Rivers Of London’ Tag might devolve into a giant mess really fast, and preemptively clearing house and making a specific tag for the people who want to pick and choose canon from all properties vs the people who only want the books/only want the series etc. might be a good idea. Especially because I already see us running into the ‘no clear backstory in this property but in that other one over there’-problem, and also conflicting worldbuilding.