#Fandom: Where you make up shit to explore the world you daren't in life

[rpedia]

[Ask RPedia] Fanon Overwriting Reasonable Headcanon to Detriment of Play?

Anonymous asked: You give a lot of good advice. (Hi, longtime listener, first time caller.) I was wondering if you might have any for playing a canon character with unfavorable fanon interpretations that the fandom just refuses to see any other way? I hesitate to call my portrayal “canon divergent” because it’s not, but many potential partners seem to have their own ideas of this character burned into their heads and refuse to accept my portrayal as my own. Many refuse to play with me at all because they dislike this character based on unfair fanon characterization, so I don’t even get to make my own impressions. Any advice?

Oh god-- pause here to reflect and realize that you’ve been reading for a while, thank you!-- and return to the horrible memories of playing characters with decent, responsible portrayals based on your own reading being dissed. Oh my god. Oh god. Fuck. So many memories. Because apparently that’s all I fucking do half the time. I’m forever reading canon and going off into something easily read, but generally ignored in the fandom. 

I had this one character who was super soft and lovable in canon, but I read into his actions some passive aggression, sarcasm, short temper, and typical teenager groaning. The fandom did not see that. The fandom believed there was nothing more to this character than a soft smile, warm affection, and a fatherly sense of confidence and kindness. To say that the negative opinions leveled towards me were not annoying as shit would be a misunderstanding of fact. (Luckily, canon proved out he did have a temper on him, and was sarcastic as hell. So bite me, I did him right before you knew what right was because I read into gestures instead of going with fanon.) 

So, yes I have some experience dealing with people who are trying to enforce their headcanons on you in order to get what they want, rather than playing with the character you’re actually playing! ... I’m just gonna be angry about it all post, but let’s watch...

SO. This shit, I’m gonna repeat, is annoying as fuck. I’ve again got a habit of picking up characters that are interesting in a certain light, and hated by the fandom because fanon’s primary interest is making them out as assholes with no redeemable qualities whatsoever or characters who are kind of boring if you don’t read into them. And I’ve played everything from villains, to heroes, to anti-villains, to anti-heroes so it’s not a matter of ‘well you just play bad guys and try to make them look nice!!!’ It’s a matter of reading between the lines and not immediately dismissing everything but the shallow scan tells you.

Congrats, fair question asker, you have done this. You’ve actually looked at the character, felt a connection, understood their background and/or motives, and are trying to play up what you find there. Whether it’s a misunderstood and understated part of a character, or simply a different read on what is avaliable. You are different, unique, and genuinely trying to play the character true to canon, but how canon came off to you rather than everyone else. The only issue here is people aren’t catching onto what you’re laying down.

This is suffering. I’m not gonna sugarcoat it, this is just something that comes with roleplaying. No one will read the same character the same way every single time. Every time you rewatch you catch that little quirk of the mouth that makes something previously serious into a joke and suddenly that character is entirely different for you. Everyone has their own interpretation, and if they can’t handle yours they’re better off playing with someone else or writing fanfics, that’s just facts. 

That’s honestly the best way to handle them if they can’t accept you. Say goodbye, move on, let them suckle at the teat of fandom alone. It’s better to just keep moving than start fights, let them see you RP, let them see your headcanons all fleshed out, let them make their own decision. If they don’t like how you play, that is their prerogative and they can follow their own dreams with other roleplayers. They aren’t wrong, and neither are you, they are incompatible which doesn’t mean someone involved is wrong, just their your views don’t mesh.

Doesn’t mean it don’t hurt, I know. So to help you feel better, and to build a defense against more bullshit, build up an explanation.  Create a page, a site, a profile section that details everything supporting your character decisions. Explain your character in depth, and offer canonical things to back it up. Do you think they’re a secret crybaby? Bring up instances where they’ve hidden their face, or wiped away tears, or been shown crying when no one is looking. Support your claims and explain how you got to this idea. If people have an open mind, they may read it and decide ‘well shit, this sounds neat’ and play with you. Even if they don’t agree, they might enjoy it anyways.

That brings up an important point too. Roleplaying is not canon. Just period, you’ll never be canon because you’re not writing canon, but that’s not the point of roleplaying anyways. Who the hell wants to rewrite canon exactly? Roleplaying is the “What If? World” and in it, you explore possibilities and ideas and viewpoints that may have been missed or overlooked by canon. Moments that may not go against canon but were not shown in it, or hell, moments that completely rewrite canon.

To assume that canon is that important to a roleplay is to snuff out all creativity, life, and change. You character ceases to grow because it is forced to conform to the series, and not to the events happening to it. This is horrible, honestly. This is just not something that is fun for other people by any stretch of the imagination. Every jump, every leap, every change your make together in some deep scene where you spill your feelings and desires being immediately erased? Because you wanna stick to canon? Nuh-huh, no thank you. I’m sure roleplayers like that exist, and good luck to them, but that is not what most people want out of roleplay.

Roleplaying is to enjoy things in new lights, to see other interpretations, to bring new life to a series that may be dead, on hiatus, or finished. This is what happens after Happily Ever After (or if they took another route to it, or if the writers focused on a different character as the main-- and so on and so on.) To close down someone else’s interpretation has two outcomes: you limit their happiness and creativity, and you also push things closer to what you want and expect. Sometimes this is good! Sometimes you want to see something more, specifically in line with your concept of the show so far. Coolios, picking your favorite canon route is fine. You want what seems real to you, and breaking suspension of disbelief is huge. Sometimes this is bad, when you take it too far and start telling people they’re bad or they suck at roleplaying a character just because you two came away with a very different idea.

Sometimes people actually suck at the character, and don’t add anything about them from the series at all, and play a bland rice pudding with no seasonings, and slowly eliminate everything that makes them a character. Turning them into some cardboard cut out with their face, and a self-insert. ... Yeah I wouldn’t play with that either. But shhh, they can just RP elsewhere.

Which is what I suggest. Simply, make your argument. If they disagree and refuse to play, they disagree and it’s not your job to fix that. If they disagree and give you a chance to show it in RP, then by jove, show it. If they agree that that’s a possible read, although not what they came away with, roleplaying is great. This is what I hope people aim for. AND THEN OF COURSE THERE’S THE TOTAL CONVERTS. I love those. They’re fun, if rare.

At worst, you too can write fanfics! Show the world your version, explain, show don’t tell, bring about a fandom change. When some really good fic gets passed around, that interpretation takes root. You can totally fuck up a fandom with your ideas just by getting them out there in a consumable form. People start picking it up, people who may not RP with you, but also RP the character. The whole thing shifts, and suddenly you’re validity meter shoots up. It’s tricky, you gotta nail the right tone and get some interesting fanwork out there, but by god it’s hilarious to watch if you can manage it. Just be you. If no one likes it, their loss. There’s always someone out there willing to play, and it’s no skin off your back.

#roleplaying #fanon #fandom #character interpretation #writing #RPedia #Ask RPedia #Ah yes #my usual advice #go write some fics #and tell everyone to fuck themselves if they don't like it #Fandom: Where you make up shit to explore the world you daren't in life