cheesecake

(Come on, I'll even create the explanatory graphics for you. Where else can you find someone like me? XD) On a scale of importance, understood as authoritativeness, canon is at the top of the pyramid and that's what counts. Next comes all the information that's part of the secondary, tertiary, and expanded canon. Below that are the HCs, which must be consistent with the canon and not completely distort it. (I refer you to a very interesting post by @justcallmemrslupin that discusses exactly what HeadCanon really means HERE) Below all of this are the Fanfiction. Mind you, by below, I don't mean they have less dignity, just that in terms of authority, they're worth less. Silly example: if I'm a Dramione fan and read a lot of FF about them, I can of course do so, but it has no canon value. Dark Harry? Incredibly interesting, but it's not canon. So FF is below, and there are further distinctions between them. Canon-compliant stories are a step above, again not because the others aren't respectable, but simply because, from a canon expansion standpoint, they're more functional. For example, the Star Wars fandom has lived for years with an expanded canon, with wonderful, original, and profound stories that, however, were always as consistent with the canon as possible and that sought to create a true expansion, often by having various authors collaborate. This has truly created something incredible. Something that's somewhat lacking in the HP fandom (not entirely, there are some very interesting cases). This in itself isn't a bad thing; it means there's more creative freedom, but also less cooperation. Yet the Marauders fandom has created something truly impressive that deserves respect.

The problem is that this subfandom operates in a completely fanon context (a bit like the Slytherin Boys) but takes itself very seriously. Not all fans do this, of course, but the most vocal ones do. We've reached the point of witnessing a sort of collective hallucination in which "fans" take a truly absurd FF and HC series as canon. What's the problem? You might ask. Well, if it remained within the personal context, the problem wouldn't exist. Like the friends who ship Dramione, they live in their own part of the fandom, write incredible stories, create beautiful fanart (some are truly amazing), but they don't claim their ship is canon or canon-compliant. None of them would dream of saying it's legitimate because Emma Watson had a crush on Tom Felton and therefore this shows in the movies. No one dares to say that Draco actually had a crush on Hermione, and we don't see it just because the books are from Harry's POV. Everyone is extremely honest and knows perfectly well the difference between canon and their FF. The Marauders Fandom, however, isn't. Fans have become increasingly convinced that their Fanon characters, who are effectively OCs, are canon. They've altered the timeline, significantly distorting some parts, swapped roles and personalities, and started spreading false informations to new fans. This isn't acceptable, it's a bit like the early Slytherin Boys era, where fans gaslighted other fans to make them believe Mattheo Riddle was canon. The difference is that this started as a joke, a bit like Darryl Crouch, and after a while, they stopped. Because, as we all know, a joke is best when it doesn't last long. The Marauders fandom, on the other hand, isn't stopping; they've been doing this for so many YEARS that even they've forgotten what's canon and what's not. The point is, in their minds, this isn't a problem. I've grouped together some of the main beliefs they use as justifications:

The Marauders fandom is completely detached from the canon, it's just for fun.

Creating fanon versions of the characters and changing the plot isn't a problem because it's just a game.

Fk jkr, the Marauders fandom is a protest to the author, so we made everyone Queer to annoy her.

Characters who die in canon also die in the fandom, and that's enough to define the stories as canon-compliant.

We know nothing about the characters from the Marauders era, so we can do whatever we want.

There are bound to be others, but these are the points that come up most often, and I have to tell you honestly that some of them might even make sense. For example, the first two:

the Marauders fandom is completely detached from the canon, it's just for fun.

It's fine, like the aforementioned Slytherin Boys subfandom, no one claims it's canon. I mean, they split Voldemort by giving him three or four children, one of whom looks exactly like Tom Riddle. They create inconsistencies with the chronology by inserting characters from the trio's era, those of the Marauders, and those of Tom Riddle into the same timeline. It's clearly a game that has its place, and it's right that it stays that way.

creating fanon versions of the characters and changing the plot isn't a problem because it's just a game.

Related to the point above, that's fine, and that's why the OOC, AU, etc... they're fine as long as they're tagged correctly and it's clearly stated that they're not canon compliant.

fk jkr, the marauder fandom is a protest against the author, so we made everyone queer to annoy her.

Here we're already starting to make less sense. I understand not agreeing with the author; I myself disagree with her on many things. And I understand wanting to interact with her world while trying as much as possible not to directly profit her. So the FF are a great way to do this. The point is that actively distorting the story by changing the characters, their personalities, their backgrounds, and making everyone queer doesn't harm the author. I hate to destroy your dream, but she already has the money, and the fact that you're making everyone queer doesn't interest her. You know, it's like someone who takes two Darth Vader and Palpatine action figures and pretends to make them kiss. It's not subversive, it doesn't harm Lucas or now Disney. I repeat, if it's fun for you in your space, that's fine, but then you're part of the first two points. Don't hide behind this fake, performative side where you pretend to be champions of minorities. I'm telling you as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community: seeing most of the characters from the Marauders era forcibly made queer, distorting their entire personalities and histories, is not an act of liberation; it won't give us any more rights or make us more popular. In fact, unfortunately, it sometimes has the opposite effect. Nowadays, if you ship straight couples, you're the weird one; if you stick to canon with certain characters' appearances, you're the weird one; if you say that in canon, the character the Marauders fandom made a snobbish bully was actually poor and a victim of bullying, you're branded a racist (yes, that actually happened).

You have no idea how much saying these things irritates me, because I'm usually the first to laugh when someone shouts "The world is upside down now, this representation is boring and unnecessary!" Because, my friend, I am part of some minorities, I am part of those categories that want representation. But a functional representation, not commercialized, not exaggerated. Queer people exist and it's right to represent them, and yes, sometimes it's even useful to break a pattern and something that's taken for granted and "normality" to make people understand that that normality is actually a distorted and imposed idea. But the right way isn't just to invert the system. (Making characters gay only to then insert them into completely heteronormative relationships, giving one of them the physical characteristics of the opposite gender. Seriously, dude, just write that straight couple.) To give another social example: Machismo exists and has governed society for centuries (it still does in certain areas and countries). The solution is not misandry. The real solution is feminism, the real kind, the kind that believes in equality, not in the superiority of women, and that hates men. That's misandry. If there's discrimination, as there is, the solution isn't just to shift the focus to another category of people. But once again, if you do this for personal enjoyment, that's fine. My point is this: Don't pretend to do it for activism, you're doing it for yourself, and that's fine. If, however, the point is that you despise the author and want to destroy her world, then I'm sorry, but you're immature. I don't mean this in a malicious way; it simply means that you think ruining part of the fandom experience for other fans is the right way to harm the author, and that really doesn't make sense. I've said it before: respecting characterization and especially tags in fanfic isn't about respecting the author, but rather respecting other fans. Nowadays, on sites like Ao3, it's incredibly easy to avoid reading content that contains elements we don't like, so the classic "I don't like it, I won't read it" is an excellent rule of civil coexistence. And it allows everyone to have their own space. The problem is that if you don't respect the tags and, in fact, deliberately use the wrong ones, you're harming other fans. I'll use another silly example. If I tell you I want to eat vegan and ask you for advice on a vegan meal, Someone suggests I eat a steak, that's a problem. If I say: "No, look, thank you, but steak isn't vegan." Your response can't be: "Yes, it is, don't you see there's salad on the side?" "Okay, there's salad, but steak isn't vegan." "Oh, listen, if you want to eat there, there's salad. I'll eat meat even if it's not vegan. Stop ruining everyone else's fun. We can eat whatever we want."

Absurd, right? But that's exactly what happens in fandom. And you'll say: "Well, it's not a problem. You know steak isn't vegan, so you don't eat it." Of course, I know. But If someone is new to fandom, they don't really know what's canon and what isn't. You have no idea how many people have approached the fandom (especially during the Covid period) asking what canon-compliant content they could read to learn about the Marauders, and have received ATYD as a recommendation. These new fans don't have the tools to understand that the story isn't canon-compliant, so they create the wrong idea that they'll pass on to others. Yes, I can already hear you saying: "Well, it's not a problem." And yes, going back to the previous example, if we start saying that someone can be vegan while eating steak, then the very meaning of the term vegan is distorted and disappears. And that's exactly what's happening with "canon-compliant."

And we come to the next point:

characters who die in canon also die in the fandom, and that's enough to call stories canon-compliant.

Nowadays, there are tons of people genuinely convinced that simply ki***g off characters who died in canon is enough to call a story canon-compliant. (Yes, okay, my story presents James Potter as a poor orphan, and his friend Sirius Black leads the Power Rangers and fights evil aliens, but hey, in the end, James and Lily die, so my story is canon-compliant.) This is a problem. I know many don't mean it maliciously, they truly believe this, but by doing so, they distort the fandom and gaslight other fans. Besides mischaracterizing all the characters. You know, I'm a Snape Stan (not an Apologist) and I like to delve into the story's dynamics, studying the characters' positive and negative sides. I can't stand people spreading falsehoods while hiding behind "different visions." There are no different visions when it comes to facts. You can like a character I don't like, and vice versa, yes, but you can't describe a character as totally different from the one in the canon. Or at least you can't do so by passing them off as canon-compliant. I'll repeat it endlessly: you can read and write whatever you want, but you have to respect the rules and boundaries. Presenting non-canon-compliant FF characters as if they were is wrong and there's no question about it. Just like mischaracterizing characters we know and passing off those characterizations as canon is wrong. And no, you can't hide behind the following:

We don't know anything about the characters from the Marauders era, so we can do whatever we want

because that's not true at all. We have a lot of canonical information about that period. If you're willing to dig in and discover it, you'll find so many canonical facts you can use to expand the fandom. I'm working on a collection of canonical information about the first wizarding war, and there's a lot of material. Just like this idea that you can describe the Marauders however you want because we don't know what they were like when they were young is wrong. I'd like to remind you that out of four Marauders, we know three in person in the narrative present, and they're consistent with how they were as kids. And we see them even as teenagers, and we're told how they behaved. You can't tell me we don't know anything when we have an entire chapter about them in the third book, and when details about their behavior, both positive and negative, are scattered throughout the saga. We know how they behaved, we know what they were like, and we know from their canon biographies what kind of childhood they had. Introducing absurd HCs that contradict canon is simply ethically wrong. Once again, not towards the author, but towards the fans.

I'll repeat all this for the umpteenth time. It doesn't mean you can't read or write FFs that deviate from canon. You can fantasize, write, and rework the canonical story in a thousand different ways. Some rewrites are truly interesting. The point is not to pretend that those stories are the true version of the story.

And yes, I know some people make ironic comments like: "The Wolfstar is canon," "ATYD is the real Prequel." If you say that ironically and don't mean it, then this post isn't about you. But if you think that stories like ATYD are truly canon-compliant and that it's right to recommend them as a first approach to learning the story in canonical form, then I'm sorry, but there are no opinions; it's just wrong.

In conclusion, I'll add just one point that's close to my heart. It's obvious that everyone has different views on what to all intents and purposes are just names on the pages, but about whom we know nothing. Just as it's obvious that even if you want to write a canon-compliant story, you need to invent things, because there are some grey areas. And that's precisely what makes reading the various FFs interesting. Each author contributes their own creativity and imagination. No two stories will ever be the same, and even more so, no story will ever be exactly the same as the one you have in mind. All the more reason to start writing your own. But there are so many carefully crafted stories out there that truly strive to be canon-compliant, and I can tell you from experience: it's damned difficult. Because you have to get into the heads of many characters, make them act in a way that's consistent with the canon, even when narratively it would be easier just to change them. You have to see them make mistakes, and you can't deviate, because the end point is already written. You also have to do a crazy amount of research to intertwine the events, understand the true chronology. And you really have no idea how much time and effort it requires. Just as you have to dig into the expanded canon, interviews, or old Pottermore posts to find that little detail to insert into a chapter. That newspaper blurb that practically no one will notice but that you spent hours finding. You can't insert an event when it might be useful; you have to stick to the canon and change part of the plot you had in mind.

All this effort will never be fully understood by those who have never tried it. And in reality, it isn't even repaid, because FF is free (and should remain that way). The only thing you can hope to receive is a little appreciation, but even that is lacking in most cases. People these days complain that there are no longer long fics, but then they say things like "I don't start reading a FF until I see it's finished." And as much as I understand where this comes from (the fear of being left hanging and without an ending), it means you only want to receive from the fandom without giving. You're not ready to support a story while it's in progress. You don't support the writers, you don't give kudos, you don't talk about the story with others, you don't create content, and you don't even bother writing a measly comment to show you've read and appreciated the chapter. But do you expect writers to continue publishing for months or even years for what it appears to be an empty audience, for ghosts who perhaps one day, after years, will click on the finished story and understand what they've missed? Or perhaps that author has truly abandoned the story because they lack motivation. Abandoned stories are the result of the indifference of selfish fans who only want to receive without giving anything in return. This is then followed by seeing these canon-compliant stories put on a par with those with incorrect tags, where the authors simply wrote whatever they wanted, inserting OCs with canonical names just to attract readers. And these stories are elevated and taken as a foundation, forgetting all the others that deserve so much more.