Times when fanfic did it better
Aug. 15th, 2026 09:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petraTelanu's Snape/Harry version of lots of Harry Potter canon made much more sense than canon.
I am not going to revisit it via podfic because I am sure there are reasons the good author deleted it -- JKR sucking probably being foremost -- but I remember staying up late to read Telanu's version of Order of the Phoenix and being subsequently disappointed by Rowling's less interesting (and, of course, less sexy) version.
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The World That You Need is Dira Sudis's take on Aral Vorkosigan/Lt. Jole, Aral/Cordelia; I am not going to read the canon because I can no longer stomach "Biology is the only true wealth," but any canon in which Cordelia forms the concept that now that Aral is dead, she can have endless babies, is not going to live up to Dira's version that has Vorbarr Sultana's underground queer culture.
I have been informed by a reliable source that there is a scene I would enjoy in the novel as published; that's nice. It can continue to exist outside of my sphere of experience, and I will be fine with that.
For once, I am happier to not have it be a completed triangle; let them have their V in peace.
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The many takes on "All the Avengers live in Avengers Tower (and have a lot of sex)" that the Avengers 2012 fandom inspired beat the shit out of the MCU's lonely, miserable nonteam.
Extra bonus points for all the fic that took Winter Soldier to its "Someone with shared life experience" conclusion. While Steve was, of course, living in Avengers Tower.
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[deleted entry: Heart in Hand vis-à-vis Heated Rivalry because it is not fair to diss something when I flat-out refuse to engage with any of the canon]
I am not going to revisit it via podfic because I am sure there are reasons the good author deleted it -- JKR sucking probably being foremost -- but I remember staying up late to read Telanu's version of Order of the Phoenix and being subsequently disappointed by Rowling's less interesting (and, of course, less sexy) version.
*
The World That You Need is Dira Sudis's take on Aral Vorkosigan/Lt. Jole, Aral/Cordelia; I am not going to read the canon because I can no longer stomach "Biology is the only true wealth," but any canon in which Cordelia forms the concept that now that Aral is dead, she can have endless babies, is not going to live up to Dira's version that has Vorbarr Sultana's underground queer culture.
I have been informed by a reliable source that there is a scene I would enjoy in the novel as published; that's nice. It can continue to exist outside of my sphere of experience, and I will be fine with that.
For once, I am happier to not have it be a completed triangle; let them have their V in peace.
*
The many takes on "All the Avengers live in Avengers Tower (and have a lot of sex)" that the Avengers 2012 fandom inspired beat the shit out of the MCU's lonely, miserable nonteam.
Extra bonus points for all the fic that took Winter Soldier to its "Someone with shared life experience" conclusion. While Steve was, of course, living in Avengers Tower.
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[deleted entry: Heart in Hand vis-à-vis Heated Rivalry because it is not fair to diss something when I flat-out refuse to engage with any of the canon]
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Date: 2026-08-16 01:41 am (UTC)I've never understood people who continue to focus on the media canon even when they don't like it and insist that canon has to be accepted into fanfic - fine if you *want* to, but the people who act like "Well, it's a law now that Steve Rogers did X Y Z and we hate him for it."
Like, no? We can just disregard that movie or set of movies, and make all the fanfic we want where Steve and Bucky fight crime together. Or Steve and Tony, or Steve and anyone, whoever. Especially with comics-based fandoms! Comics disregards its own canon all the time! It's easy!
I was huge into Hawai'i 5-0 and I stopped watching it by the 3rd season. SPN, stopped in season 5. Didn't stop me from enjoying the fanfic.
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Date: 2026-08-16 02:39 am (UTC)Life is much, much too short to obsess over DC and Marvel Editorial's versions of fanfiction, or MCU's, or DCEU, or whatever.
I don't always extend that feeling to non-comics fandoms, but it's certainly been a factor in my comics fandoms.
...I feel like this is where I make a joke about Star Wars canon stopping after Return of the Jedi (chronologically by human timelines, not chronologically by in-story timelines) except that I have given the lie to that several zillion times over. :D
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Date: 2026-08-16 02:49 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-08-16 11:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-08-16 06:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-08-16 11:31 pm (UTC)and Rachel Reid's, it's a common problem. ;)no subject
Date: 2026-08-16 07:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-08-16 11:32 pm (UTC)But, well, yes.
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Date: 2026-08-16 10:34 am (UTC)I too love Arkady Jole, and I have no desire to read the canon version.
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Date: 2026-08-16 11:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-08-16 03:24 pm (UTC)I get that the fanon arose because people were looking for details to fill their Avengers fanfic with and that fandom then collectively assumed that surely the MCU dynamic was going to be kind of like, oh, pre-Civil War Bendis New Avengers in which everyone lives in the Tower and cares about each other (and borrowed some canon details from 616 via the usual game of fandom telephone), and that... none of that ended up happening in MCU canon.
And then we move on and now people don't remember that they ever got this from 616 in any form and it's just this funny fanon that fandom somehow invented, who even knows why. It's just... odd. IDK.
Other weird fandom developments: a lot of people literally do not know that The Sentinel was a TV show. They think it's a setting that fandom invented entirely, like A/B/O. And while, yeah, fandom sure invented a lot about Sentinel AUs, the TV show also very much existed.
(Source: I wrote a Sentinel AU and listed which episodes some elements of the AU came from, and I still get comments like "I had no idea it was a TV show.")
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Date: 2026-08-16 11:34 pm (UTC)It's just that as extrapolations of canon go, the fanon-based-on-616 tends to be more to my taste than where the MCU actually went.
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Date: 2026-08-16 07:08 pm (UTC)95% of my canon is just so I can appreciate the fanfic more entirely.
I let myself get actually fannish about BBC Sherlock and a lot of good that did me. (Yes this icon is from a fic)
no subject
Date: 2026-08-16 11:32 pm (UTC)*brr* Sherlock noes.