Fanon / Literature

• Discworld:
  • Many fans complained when later books established that Vetinari went to the Assassins' Guild school, when previous books had established he'd invented the modern, legal Assassins' Guild. They hadn't, although they did establish he'd legalized the Thieves Guild. A continuity problem is that the first Guild master introduced in the series, in fact in the very first book, is the distinctly shabby, low-life and down-at-heel Zlorf Flanellfoot, who leads a band of equally gutter-level killers. This character is totally against the evolving perception of the Assassins' Guild being a college for gentlemen of good family, which reaches its most detailed description in Pyramids. And the events of Night Watch Discworld occurring thirty years before the Discworld "present" clash badly with the Flanellfoot-era Guild (which must be in the same timeband): here we see the college for gentlemen killers with an entirely different President, the urbane and well-bred Dr Follett. So... which of two entirely different perceptions of the Guild is "right"?
  • The Assassins' Guild Diary notes that Flannelfoot was one of the few "scholarship boys" to attain high office in the Guild, suggesting his era was a brief anomaly between Follett and Cruces. Presumably, the low-status killers he surrounded himself with are fellow scholarship boys, either out of fellow-feeling or, more likely, because he didn't like the "proper" assassins very much.
• Phantom, Susan Kay's retelling of The Phantom of the Opera, has achieved this in some parts of the fandom, especially regarding the names of characters who went nameless in the original Gaston Leroux novel (eg. Nadir for the Persian).
• Many fans of His Dark Materials assumed that having a dæmon of the same sex indicated homosexuality. This is often considered truth nowadays by most fans, and when asked about the matter Philip Pullman said that he'd never thought about it, but that he liked the idea. One wonders what a bisexual would have. A hermaphrodite dæmon? To confuse the matter, some animals are naturally hermaphrodite.
• Animorphs:
  • Marco is gay or bi, and the fact that he's pretty openly interested in girls is just self-denial. In particular fans want to put him with Ax, both for Pair the Spares and because the two grow a bit closer near the end of the series, when they're temporarily forced to live together.
  • Marco had long hair up until book #10, where he mentions cutting it short. The covers reflect this. The fanart, however, is prone to showing him with long hair throughout the series. Ironically, the graphic novels went in the other direction and gave him short hair from the start.
  • The Yeerk hierarchy is called a Visserarchy. Note that, technically, the Vissers aren't even at the top, being subservient to the Council of Thirteen.
  • Many fans assume that Tobias' surname is "Fangor," since that's what his biological father was using at the time. The fact that Tobias thought a different man was his father, however, seems to discount this.
  • Near the end of the series, we learn that Jake's last name is Berenson. Technically the series never states that that's Rachel's name too, but they're cousins who seem to be related through their fathers, so it's what most fans assume.
  • While we'll never know for sure how he felt, it's a widely-accepted headcanon that the real Tom was okay with Rachel killing him.
• Good Omens:
  • That "Gadre'el" is Crowley's True Name. This actually comes from the passage 1 Enoch 69:6,
    And the third was named Gadreel: he it is who showed the children of men all the blows of death, and he led astray Eve, and showed [the weapons of death to the sons of men] the shield and the coat of mail, and the sword for battle, and all the weapons of death to the children of men. And from his hand they have proceeded against those who dwell on the earth from that day and for evermore.
  • After the TV adaptation came out, however, the general fanon of Crowley's angelic name has shifted to it being Raphael. This is based on Raphael being the only major archangel who never appears in the series and Crowley having helped create the stars when he was still an angel.
  • Pretty much every Good Omens fanfic describes Crowley as tall, lean, and wearing fashionable black clothes and Aziraphale as plump, blonde, and wearing outdated clothes made of tweed or tartan, even though the most we get in the book is that Crowley has dark hair, good cheekbones and Cool Shades, and Aziraphale's hands are 'exquisitely manicured' and 'plump'. This did become canonized when David Tennant and Michael Sheen were respectively cast as Crowley and Aziraphale in the TV adaptation and pretty much fit fans' longtime visual depictions of the characters to a T except for Crowley's hair being red.
  • Angels' wings being white and demons' wings being black. The book never specifies their wing colors and its description of angel and demon wings being surprisingly similar-looking except for demons' wings being better-groomed could even be taken to mean that both sides' wings are of the same color. Like with Crowley and Aziraphale's appearances, though, this became Ascended Fanon with the TV adaptation.
  • Crowley's snake-like traits extending beyond his slitted pupils and tendency to hiss his words when upset or drunk, like being cold-blooded, extremely flexible with his body, and/or having to shed his skin on occasion.
  • Angels being able to sense love, but demons being unable to do the same and/or being the only creatures angels can't sense love from. Frequently used as a plot device to make Aziraphale and Crowley misinterpret each other's feelings in fanfic.
  • Fans of the TV adaptation have universally accepted Michael Sheen's statement that Aziraphale realized he was in love with Crowley when the latter saved his books in 1941 and have also near-universally agreed that Crowley, in stark contrast, fell in love with Aziraphale almost at first sight in the Garden of Eden when the angel admitted to giving away his flaming sword to Adam and Eve.
• Jackie and Craig: It's become an increasingly popular fan theory that Jackie is Latina, because of her feisty personality and her immediate identification of the Chupacabras encountered early in the novel, considering that few people in 1997 (when the book is set) knew what a chupacabra was (the word having only been coined in 1995). Likewise, it's assumed the cannibalistic teenage sorceresses of Jackie and Craig are actually exiled conjurors, giving us a glimpse at the Big Bad of the sequel, The Rise and Fall of the Sky Valley Cult.
• The Chronicles of Narnia:
  • A lot of the fandom seems to firmly believe that the Pevensies got married and had kids while they were in Narnia. Canonically Susan considered marrying Prince Rabadash in The Horse and His Boy, but beyond that nothing is mentioned.
  • At least 50% of the fandom believe that The Lady of the Green Kirtle from The Silver Chair is actually Jadis the White Witch reincarnated. This partly comes from a character bio (which was not written by Lewis himself) for an updated version of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe - this describes Jadis as being evil, "even in The Silver Chair". It's never said how Jadis would find a way to resurrect (aside from a line in Prince Caspian that says "who ever heard of a witch that really died?"). The actual text only describes the Lady of the Green Kirtle as one of the "Northern Witches." The issue further gets confused by the BBC adaptations, which cast Barbara Kellerman in both roles. However this is ignoring that a few other actors doubled up and played more than one character (and that Kellerman also played the hag in Prince Caspian). As such, many fans want Tilda Swinton to play the role in the film adaptation of The Silver Chair.
  • If they don't think the Lady of the Green Kirtle is the White Witch, then they probably think she's related to her, or knew her in some way. The text does suggest that she may have come from the same place as Jadis (the north, not Charn) but nothing is confirmed. Additionally the character is also referred to as the Green Lady or the Emerald Witch, when neither name appears in the text.
  • Both Peter and Edmund are assumed to be a Master Swordsman. While there is no proof, they did survive many battles, and Edmund was able to beat Trumpkin in a duel at the beginning of Prince Caspian, so it's probable that they did get to be very skilled, even if not quite to Master Swordsman levels.
• Tales of the Frog Princess has loads where Garrid and his past is concerned. This is what happens when an author leaves so much of an awesome character's life up for interpretation. We have all agreed that:
  • Garrid had an emotionally abusive father (names tend to vary), but his mother (who is always named Lucia) loved him very much.
  • Furthering that, Lucia was not in love with Garrid's father. The most popular reasons for marriage are that it was arranged, or that Garrid's father was a Stalker with a Crush, and forced her to marry him.
  • Also, Garrid's mother was born a human, but his father turned her into a vampire when they argued. Bit of a nasty shock for her. She had also died young, when Garrid was a teen.
  • Garrid's best friends are Andrea "Andy" Blackskull and Benjamin "Ben" Toumbclaw. Ben and Andy have a thing for each other.
  • Garrid had a love for mischief and is also a Deadpan Snarker. Especially where Eadric is concerned, but he's totally sweet to Li'l. This isn't that far from Canon, really...
  • He met Li'l at the age of 19.
  • He ran away from home, due to his father not wanting him to marry Li'l.
  • His surname is Finnegan.
• The Hatter's famous riddle from Alice in Wonderland — "Why is a raven like a writing desk?" — was intended, according to Word of God, to have no answer. Even so, the fanonical answer is almost as well-known as the riddle itself: "Poe wrote on both."
  • The Annotated Alice gives other speculative answers, including "Because they should be shut up" and "The notes they are noted for are not musical."
  • Silverlock implies another tack by having the Hatter ask "Why is an angleworm like a parallelogram?" and when challenged respond "I don't know as they're alike."
  • Originally the raven riddle had no answer, but Lewis Carroll got so many letters begging for an answer that in a later edition he offered a solution to the riddle. The answer is, "Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front". The misspelling of the word nevar was intentional as it is raven backwards. But editors thought it was a typo and decided to "correct" it to never, which only served to make the answer nonsensical and to confuse fans for years on end.
• Percy Jackson and the Olympians has several character facts that are fanon:
  • The most prominent is that Annabeth can't swim. It does make sense within the canon; as a daughter of Athena, she would naturally be born a rival of Poseidon, and thus she and water do not mix.
  • Fans believe that Nico has Roman Blood in him, because he was able to find Camp Jupiter without help and was born to an Italian mother. It is implied, however, that his dad may have guided him. Some think he may even have Egyptian blood, due to him looking like Anubis. A few have even written him as his host (later crossover stories would seem to Joss this, as it's stated that Greek and Egyptian magic really don't mix, and Percy hosting Nekhbet is a pretty much one-time thing, though it's not conclusive).
  • It's the general consensus among fans that ALL campers from a certain cabin will have matching hair and eyes. Possibly justified by the fact that it's mentioned in Sea of Monsters that all of Annabeth's half-siblings have her eyes and hair (at least, the current ones). That being said, obviously not every child of Athena throughout history has been blond and gray-eyed.
  • Apollo demands the oracle is a 'virgin', so he can sleep with her. (Mostly in Rachel/Nico fics). Rachel is never mentioned as having Ship Tease with anyone following her ascension to Oracle, but that's not conclusive since she also doesn't get a whole lot of character focus afterwards, either.
  • The idea that Katie Gardner and Travis Stoll are dating is so widely spread that even the most knowledgeable of fans get confused. Bear in mind they are mentioned interacting once throughout the whole series; and that was a throwaway comment about a prank Travis pulled. Yet in fanfiction, they have almost as many stories as official couples Annabeth/Percy and Piper/Jason.
  • It was common fanon when discussing other pantheons that the Aztec Gods had all faded due to the total conquest of the Americas, particularly Mexico, by the Spanish. However this was Jossed in The Trials of Apollo series, with Apollo specifically mentioning the Aztec Sun God as still being around.
  • In canon Percy is usually portrayed as dumber and more comedic than he actually is in canon. This is probably due to the fact that in canon, he often employs Obfuscating Stupidity (and is something of a Ditzy Genius).
  • the seven are usually portrayed as a tight knit found family when in reality they are more like co workers.
  • Jason and Percy aren't that close as some would like to believe. While they are friends they aren't bros
• The 39 Clues has some prominent fanon.
  • Most fans believe that Kurt, who appeared in all of one book and was never mentioned thereafter, was an undercover Vesper, despite there being no canon evidence supporting this.
  • It's generally taken for granted that Isabel Kabra nee Vesper-Hollingsworth and Arthur Trent (revealed to be a Vesper) interacted with each other in their youth, with many fans going so far as to believe they were in a relationship prior to Arthur meeting Hope.
  • Quite a few fans are absolutely convinced that Amy's full name is Amy Hope Cahill.
• The Hunger Games:
  • Many fanfiction stories give Peeta's brother (who is never named in the book or film) the name Rye. This is based off the idea that their father is a baker and, because Peeta's name is vaguely related to bread (sounds similar to "pita"), this suggests that their other sons would have bread-related names too.
  • The idea that Katniss is a woman of color - and thus, the controversy when casting the white Jennifer Lawrence - results from the book mentioning that she had olive skin. What fans forgot is that many groups of white people also have olive skin, and failed to notice that some of the international covers showed she was white. Additionally, Katniss' sister Prim is explicitly described as being blonde. This fanon became so persistent that some fanart straight-up depicted Katniss as a black woman, with skin much darker than "olive". In the films, Katniss is a white woman with olive skin, and since we never see a color photo of her father, it's still possible she's still mixed-race. There's also quite a bit of fans who point to the Urban Segregation of District 12 as evidence for Katniss being mixed-raced, since the books describe people from the Seam as typically having dark hair, grey eyes, and olive skin, while people from the wealthier areas have blonde hair and blue eyes.
• The Mistborn Adventures novels, focusing on Wax and Wayne, are often described as Steampunk. This is due mainly to Wax being depicted with goggles on the cover of The Alloy of Law and Wayne holding an old flintlock pistol. However this is really more "Weird West" than Steampunk, there's no particular mention of steam powered anything and the power source for cars and electricity is never really discussed. Even when advanced technology like air ships and allomantic grenades appear they are powered by the world's existing magic systems.
• Cthulhu Mythos: The nickname of Miskatonic University's sports teams is the Fighting Cephelapods.
• David McDaniel (author of eight books in the Ace Books Man from Uncle series) introduced lots of fanon in what was, essentially official fanfic. These include (but are most definitely not limited to) the revelation that THRUSH evolved from the remnants of Professor Moriarty's organisation (and is an acronym for "Technological Hierarchy for Removal of Undesirables and the Subjugation of Humanity", that Solo is Waverly's designated successor, that THRUSH actively attempted to recruit Fu Manchu and that UNCLE has "stringer" agents (like "stringer" reporters for news agencies) and (in the unpublished "The Final Affair") that UNCLE and THRUSH are, essentially, subsidiaries of the same secret conglomerate.
• In Dracula, the title character has three female minions. Fans and virtually every adaptation ever makes them the Brides of Dracula; however, this is never made explicit in the book. Jonathan refers to them as "sisters," but that just seems to be a guess; an alternate theory is that their leader, a blonde, is Dracula's wife, but the others, who have Dracula's dark hair and aquiline nose, are their daughters.
• The Wicked Years:
  • Glinda's eye color is never described in the text. As a result, most fans depict her as either blue-eyed or brown-eyed.
  • Glinda and Elphaba had a romantic relationship between Shiz and their parting. The books heavily imply that Glinda was in love with Elphaba and this was later confirmed by Word of Gay, but they're much more vague on Elphaba's feelings towards Glinda.
  • Glinda's name is "Glinda Arduenna". She refers to herself as "Galinda of the Arduenna Clan", but she doesn't clearly have a surname in the first book. Son of a Witch jossed this by canonizing the musical's surname: Glinda Upland.
  • Nessarose's biological father is Turtle Heart. Wicked implies that Melena became pregnant from her trysts with Turtle Heart, not her husband, but it's never clearly defined. Nessarose has personality elements of both Turtle Heart and Frexspar. A Lion Among Men answers the question by showing she's Frexspar's daughter.
• The Moomins:
  • A lot of fan art depicts Snufkin (as well as his father, the Joxter) with a tail, paws, and/or other animal features, which aren't present in canon.
  • Fans often call Snufkin and the Joxter's species "Mumriks", due to Snufkin's Swedish name, "Snusmumriken". Canonically, their species is never mentioned aside from a mention of "Snufkins" in the first book, Moomins and the Great Flood, but a lot of fans don't consider said book canon due to its large amount of Early-Installment Weirdness.
  • In canon, Mymble's daughter is only ever called that or just Mymble. A lot of fanworks refer to her as "Mymble Jr." to distinguish her from her mother.
  • A lot of fanworks interpret the Joxter saying that he "doesn't understand signs" as him being illiterate.
  • Due to Snufkin and Joxter apparently never meeting before Moominpappa's Memoirs, it's a common theory/headcanon that the Joxter didn't know he had a son.
  • In the books, Moomins and Snorks look pretty much identical, and their only mentioned difference, Snorks changing their color according to their mood, only comes up in Comet in Moominland, and many adaptations treat them as the same species. Fanworks, however, tend to agree that Snorks have longer fur than Moomins, due to Snorkmaiden's fringe and Snork having hair in some adaptations.
• The Baby-Sitters Club:
  • Claudia will go to art school (usually in New York City).
  • The tomboyish Kristy is either lesbian or bisexual.
  • Dawn, Claudia, and Stacey are the most common female characters depicted as bisexual.
  • The characters all marry their middle school sweethearts. At minimum, Logan and Mary Anne end up together.
  • Bryon Pike is gay.
  • Stacey Really Gets Around in works set post-series.
• Encyclopedia Brown: A lot of fans have Sally repeatedly telling Encyclopedia, "That is because you are a boy." In fact, she says this only twice in the entire series.

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