Fandoms have existed for a long time but the internet has really propelled fandoms into new heights that would never have been thought possible. What would have been a small local community talking amongst themselves about their favorite series or book is now a large global community with subgroups all united by a similar interest. Fanon is interesting because it stems from a general agreed upon supplement or divergence from the canon lore. Sarah Z’s video on fanon highlights the point that although canon lore attempts to direct its audience to a certain direction, the audience still decides how to interpret the lore and sometimes, it’s interpreted in a way that the canon lore never predicted.

In Sarah Z’s video, she presents several fanons throughout different fandoms such as the wide acceptance of the Mormor ship of Moriarty and Sebastian Moran in BBC’s Sherlock and the fandom generally agreeing that the ship exists in fandom canon. It should be noted that Sebastion Moran is an existing character in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s writing but not in the BBC imagining of his work. Another would be the existence of the notice me not spell in Harry Potter fanfiction which never existed in the books or movies. But there is also how the fandom tries to correct the writing of the creator such as that from the Danganronpa character Chihiro Fujisaki who was generally accepted as a trans character in protest of the transphobic writing of their character.

This sudden interest in the logic behind fanon comes from the idea of polysemy where multiple meanings coexist and how its messages are coded and encoded. It’s interesting to see how society at large is able to create these divergences from the original goal of the message and fanon embodies that. The audience takes social cues and interprets it in a way that is picked up by the general fandom and they as a whole agree that it is accurate. It’s also interesting to see individual actors play their role in creating a fanon that is accepted by the fandom and it becomes almost indistinguishable from the canon lore. And I think society and socialization plays a lot in that–especially in the time of the internet where many individuals are more vocal online about their political and ideological biases and that can affect the interpretation of the content of the media presented. It should also be noted that these fandoms, based on my experience, congregate in sites such as tumblr, fanfiction.net and AO3 where the most dominant beliefs within the fandom will be at the forefront and will also likely influence the members of the fandom more easily because of the immersion of individuals in these groups. And these fandoms in these sites tend to have very strong left leaning ideologies where they are vocal about their support of the LGBT community, are more willing to accept far fetched ideas and are just generally a wild and crazy bunch that latch onto anything that leans towards their biases.

Fanon is such an interesting topic because it doesn’t come out from a vacuum. Members of the fandom actively create content and consume that content and given enough support and fanfare, that content can weave itself into the fandom and transform itself into the fandom canon–fanon if you will. There are so many actors in play–the individuals, politics, belief systems and society at large, that factor into how a piece of media in the fandom that is just created for fun becomes part of the lore of the fandom and becomes generally accepted and sometimes indistinguishable from the canon.