hi this drives me crazy
canon is what happens in the text. e.g. merlin tries to poison morgana
a headcanon is a fact that you have personally made up as an elaboration of canon. it is your invention. e.g. i think morgana and gwen had a teenage lesbian situationship before the events of canon. or, i think modern morgana would love evanesence.
an interpretation is how one reads the existing text. it is not an invented fact nor is it a headcanon, it is a reading. e.g. i think merlin tries to poison morgana out of misplaced self-hatred. or, i think that one line was delivered with suppressed malice and shows a nuanced relationship.
fanon is the general fandom’s accepted headcanons and interpretations that elaborate or recontextualize canon. e.g. merlin is a badass waif and morgana is a bitch.
these are all different words with different meanings.
Oh yeay someone finally said it.
Actually, I'm adding to it:
Word of God is the author's explicitly stated intention with canon and/or the author's interpretation of canon. e.g. Author says "Merlin tries to poison Morgana because he thinks her staying alive is too dangerous and had nothing to do with misplaced self-hatred."
Death of the Author is the concept that a reader's personal interpretation is more important than an author's intention and therefore Word of God is not canon. e.g. The author intended for Merlin to express his fear of Morgana by having him try to poison her but most readers interpreted it as misplaced self-hatred.
Queer coding is giving characters stereotypical queer traits to imply a character is queer without explicitly stating it so it can adhere to censorship requirements.
Queerbaiting is giving characters stereotypical queer traits or hinting at queer relationships with the explicit intention of attracting and exploiting queer fans without upsetting homophobic fans.
Explicit means fully expressed with no ambiguity.
Imply means to express indirectly and ambiguously.
Gay panic disorder is a now defunct categorisation of psychological disorder in which a person experiences intense anxiety due to experiencing gay attraction.
Gay panic defence is a homophobic legal tactic in which a perpetrator defends their violent crimes by claiming they were provoked by unwanted sexual advances that made them react in self-defence or temporary insanity.
