Date: 2011-11-29 02:53 (UTC)
auronlu: (Plot Device)
From: [personal profile] auronlu
Interesting point.

I think there is a spectrum, gradient, or slippery slope that extend from, "Blast, my favorite OTP just got Jossed-- well, I'm going to ignore canon and keep playing with it, because I enjoy it" to "the game designers don't know what they're doing; how DARE they screw up this perfectly canon thing [which is actually fanon]!"

I dislike the latter only when it causes a lot of fanon vs. fanon flame wars and sniping. It seems to crop up most often in ship wars which don't have a very firm footing in canon.

In lieu of getting too annoyed, sometimes I try to remind myself of the psychological reason for the possessive aspect of fanon and fandom.

Young people often arrive in fanon before they're very sure of themselves or their self-constructed identities. Fandom and fanfic allow them to work on self-identity by borrowing someone else's tools, tropes and symbols, rather than having to start from scratch. Prior to the internet, we did this by writing fanfiction in spiral bound notebooks under the covers by flashlight. Now, young writers come up and start sharing early. The fanon they build up is two parts canon and one part them. No wonder they feel entitled, defensive, possessive of a chunk of their own embryonic self-identity which is still in the process of being formed. They almost certainly don't realize that fanfiction/fandom is serving that function for them.

As writers mature, they become more aware of which parts are "their" stuff and which are innate to the material.


"It bends canon, but I like this ship, so I'm doing it— read or not as you like!" takes a slightly more mature fan.
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