#such as fanon vs canon. and they’re fun to poke at and figure out

[think-thonkin]

Some thoughts about canon vs fanon

Canon ship fandoms tend to feel entitled to the imaginary rank of "most valid" because "the creators approved it" and oftentimes attack or act mean towards fanon ones that include one of their own ship's characters with claims like "you lost!!!/Give up!!!/You're disrespecting canon!!!" etc., insulting their ships and overall act as if those ships are lesser somehow.

So in turn, non-canon ships retaliate and get defensive, trying to defend their opinions in any and every way they can... Until the canon ships fight back bc now they feel insultef and try to devaluate the others further.... Usually resulting in the two fractions fighting each other relentlessly and continuously.

... Both sides entirely forgetting that they're fighting about something as mundane as the conceptual romantic potential between nonexistent people.

Hurting each other, insulting one another and trying to invalidate each other's opinions... Over virtually nothing. Ships are after all still all imaginary and so very, very subjective. There's no right or wrong when it comes to opinions after all.

Of course, some ships are better written than others or portray a conceptually more healthy relationship than the other, but that's the brilliant thing about fiction: it's just hypothetical concepts, you can change whatever you don't like and twist and interpret or rewrite it in your favor! It's fun to poke around the source material for inspiration and make up AUs!

The result of that is what I've come to understood "fanon" refers to - transformative fiction that has been adjusted to fit the consumer's preferences.

Canon really mostly means the same, only reduced to the creator's preferences. Some people though have made it mean something else, they made it mean "creator approved/validated" and use it as a reason to put down others (which is something I personally greatly dislike about shipping culture, there's just no need for you to be so mean and aggressive about it?).

However, I think the two terms can and should coexist, neither is more or less valid than the other, it's (imo) just a matter of who the credit of the concept and resulting content goes to.

Calling fanon ships "canon" solely to spite haters and make yourself feel better is (imo) doing the plethora of creators that made the ship what it is a disservice and invalidates their work more than it elevates them and in turn makes you seem ignorant and in denial to the source material, thus exposing yourself to more hate and negativity since it's easy to misinterpret your well-intended claim as an attempt to provocate more beef.

You're just adding to the imaginary rift between canon and fanon... because there really is none, there shouldn't be one, ships are ships, whether the creator approves or not, they'll continue to exist either way and calling something fanon does not mean that it's any less valid or "doesn't exist". It merely means that the ship in question grew from and flourished through the fandom instead of the source material and I personally think that that's one of the most beautiful things about shipping culture.

We worked hard and made them our own thing and we deserve the credit for it. Fanon is not a bad word. Quite the opposite. It shows how much our communities are capable of creating and adapting.

Don't let the negativity and hate get to you, let the haters seethe behind a neat wall of "block this user" if they love wasting their energy on getting angry about nonexistent people so much. Let them power themselves out and move on in the knowledge that it's not your problem to deal with. Engaging with these people only gives them more leverage.

Likewise, everyone should know better than to try and put down other people for having a different opinion from their own. We all just want to have fun, if you go out of your way to invalidate someone else because you simply don't like their preferences, you're part of the problem.

In the end we're still all just nerds that want to see our favorite nonexistent people happy and in love, whether our preferences align with the creator's vision or not, you shouldn't need anyone's approval to like what you like as long as it harms nobody else.

Note:

I made this post vaguely in response to some more fandom specific posts I've seen that are dealing with this topic in a way that I personally see as bit unhealthy and figured it couldn't hurt to offer a more neutral stance on the subject matter. I'm very sorry though if I ended up offending anyone, you're free to hit me up in dms or my ask box to confront me about it. I really do not mean harm.

#Shipping #Zutara #Kataang #Bc I've seen the issues I described in this post the most between those two ships lately #It's just the fandom I'm active in atm but there's plenty others that this applies to #Hazbin hotel for example is one of those and I'm frankly getting tired of watching people genuinely fight over something so stupid #Stay safe y'all and take care of yourselves