Fanon / Webcomics

• Spoofed in a Shortpacked! comic. One of the characters discusses striking a TV commercial with Doc Brown from Back to the Future from her personal canon, because she can't see where it could fit in with the trilogy.
• Check, Please!:
  • Many fans believe that Bittle will go on to have a culinary career after leaving Samwell, though whether he will become a writer of culinary books, open a bakery or even have a cooking show depends on which fan you ask.
  • The idea of Jack having panic attacks is actually quite common.
• Bob and George:
  • The comic almost single-handedly created the idea of the Cataclysm in Mega Man fandom, as an explanation for the absence of the original series characters (or any mention of them) in the X series. The most common interpretation of it is that Zero went on a rampage after his initial activation, killing Dr. Light, Mega Man (as well as the rest of the Light-bots), Bass, and even Wily himself before being shut down by Sigma; this interpretation has absolutely no basis in the canon itself. Other authors also attempt to explain why no records of Dr. Wily or Mega Man (among others) seem to exist in 21XX. Possibly the best version of this story can be found here. Around about the time of the release of Mega Man 9, Word of God more or less Jossed the apocalypse theory, when Keiji Inafune basically said, "no, Zero did not kill the Light family".
  • A slightly more sane theory is that the general populace of 21XX do know about Dr. Light, Dr. Wily et al (the first game's instruction manual has Dr. Cain recognizing Light's name, after all), it's just that nobody wants to talk about a series of wars that happened 100 years before while they're busy fighting for their lives against renegade robots.
  • Another example is fan-made character Ran Cossack - there are people that are absolutely sure Ran was in one of the Mega Man games.
• The last page of The Adventures of Dr. McNinja has the doctor assuming the name of Patrick Goodrich. This led fans to believe he's time traveler Chuck Goodrich's father. Since Doc's Love Interest Hortense has similar hair to Chuck's, some fans assume she's the mother, too.
• In a weird example of Memetic Mutation, the fan-webcomic The Last Days of FOXHOUND created a lot of this in the Metal Gear Solid fandom. Most of the slightly more plausible concepts are considered pretty iron-clad — such as Mantis and Ocelot hating each other, and Mantis's working for The Patriots. Decoy Octopus suffers particularly; as he was never actually given a personality in the games, most FOXHOUND-centric fic including him will involve the witty, easy-going character from the comic. Octopus also suffers from (read: enjoys every minute of) a huge power-up — the character in the canon was simply a skilled mimic who had undergone extensive plastic surgery in order to flatten his face for better use of latex masks. The comic, however portrayed him as an out-and-out shapeshifter capable of morphing into anyone by drinking their blood and taking a small cocktail of drugs. The fandom generally gravitates towards the more mundane explanations for events in the Magic-Realist canon, but Octopus is an exception.
• Megatokyo:
  • Due to its slow pace and tendency of its author to keep quiet about everything from age to hair colour, the comic tends to amass enormous amounts of fanon, examples including Ed's hair colour being red, Junko being the class rep and Miho living at the Cave of Evil. Only one of these ended up being correct.
  • Another commonly held notion was that Ping is anatomically incorrect. Supporters of this theory cite an off-hand comment from Tsubasa claiming that Ping is a "Non-H model", although he never elaborated on that point. This idea has in fact been on jossed no less than three occasions first by Miho, who had just finished bathing with Ping, mentioning that she is indeed anatomically correct; second by Word of God implying that Ping is capable of giving birth; and finally (and conclusively) by Ping herself in this strip.
• The Order of the Stick:
  • Because it often parodies the rules of the Dungeons & Dragons game, many fans hold the game rules as fanon, creating game statistics for the characters and then using those statistics (or really, any rules they can find) to argue why certain events in the comic should not have happened the way they did. This, despite the author's repeated Word of God insistence that he doesn't follow the rules closely when writing scenes and fans shouldn't expect them to line up. And even if he were adhering to the rules strictly, he's already specifically mentioned custom classes and feats, so there's no way to know what stats any given character has anyway.
  • There was also the idea that Lord Tyrinar and Elan & Nale's father are one and the same. It seemed to many like this was where the plotline was going, and it would have made such perfect dramatic sense that it was almost universally assumed by the fans for years, but it was eventually Jossed, to the joy of the smaller contingent of fans who disagreed with the theory all along. (With a little Flip-Flop of God along the way: Elan's father did rule Tyrinaria, but Lord Tyrinar was just one of his figureheads and is dead in the present time.)
• Pixie and Brutus:
  • A lot of fanmade dubs give Brutus a Western or Southern twang, due to him ending some words with "n'" instead of "ing," and saying "ya" instead of "you."
  • A lot of readers think that Brutus suffers some PTSD from his time as a military dog, though this has only been hinted at in canon so far. Believe it or not, this is based in reality. Dogs that have been through traumatic events can get PTSD, same as any human — especially working dogs.
• Girl Genius:
  • Gil and Zeetha are siblings, although whether they're half-siblings or not is debated. Everyone knows this (to the point where the spoiler tags are probably unnecessary). It's definitely where the storyline seems headed, but it still hasn't actually been confirmed by either canon or Word of God.
  • On a less spoilery note, the Girl Genius Wiki has a list of construct classifications, which was invented wholesale and has never been mentioned in the comic.
• Homestuck:
  • There's a common notion that Troll sex involves the couple vomiting into a filial pail after making out. This can be traced back to one single piece of Sollux/Aradia fan art, and has no basis in canon.
  • There's also the idea that all trolls have tentacle penises, and do an assortment of things (depending on who's telling the headcanon) to acquire genetic material from them. The concept has become so popular in the fandom that there are headcanons about this headcanon regularly being made.
  • The trolls' nipples are also generally drawn as being the same colour as their blood; however, they are later shown as being grey, matching their skin. That hasn't stopped the fanartists, of course.
  • Trolls are often drawn in fanart with a ring around their irises corresponding to their blood colour. This continues even after Word of God has Jossed it, probably because it would give away that Karkat has mutant blood. However, later updates seem to have canonized it: although the Ancestors are stylistically depicted with either no eyes or solid colors, Nepeta's Ancestor (the Disciple) is depicted as having green-ringed, orange eyes in one panel, furthering the theory of the "main twelve" Troll kids being too young to have developed eye colors.
  • There's also the notion that Dave is a redhead. According to Word of God, he's blond.
  • A number of fanfics give Ms. Lalonde's first name as Lily. This is likely to go with her daughter's name, Rose.
  • Bro's first name was often assumed to be "Broderick". It was later jossed by the revelation that Mom's first name is Roxy and Bro's is Dirk.
  • There's also the idea, which is relatively common in some fanfics, that the trolls' horns are erogenous zones.
  • Vriska being overweight, although in canon she looks no larger than the other troll girls. Andrew Hussie's Formspring posts regarding this haven't helped...
  • Feferi is often portrayed as being overweight as well; one artist even posted a scientific explanation for it.
  • Similarly, sometimes Aradia is drawn as chubby or overweight.
  • Eridan's lusus has no importance to the canon whatsoever. In fanon, he gives Eridan a Freudian Excuse for his assholery.
  • A number of fanworks have taken to portraying Terezi's love of red chalk as being akin to a drug addiction. It helps that another character in canon actually suggests something like this.
  • The fandom has decided that Karkat is shorter/smaller than most of the other trolls (excepting Nepeta in some cases) thanks to Equius describing him as a "tactical midget" at one point (although whether he was referring to Karkat's physical height or strategic capacities is anybody's guess).
  • In the same vein, Gamzee is often drawn as the tallest of the trolls.
  • One common tendency in fanon is to apply colours to the original clothing of each of the kids, which is all drawn as white. Generally the colours match their respective merchandise shirts from Topatoco (John = pale blue, Rose = pale purple, Dave = red, Jade = white with black sleeves), but everything else they wear doesn't have similar basis. Within an hour of his first appearance, people decided that Jake's jacket was a medium-green in order to match his shirt logo.
  • It's also very common to depict Bro as a big anime geek. This was originally based on the fact that his Triangle Shades resembled Kamina's, though Andrew originally had no idea of the connection. It was also a very popular theory that Dirk would be the same, though this was ultimately Jossed. Andrew has included a few Fandom Nods to all this, firstly with a reference to Bro's glasses as being 'dumb pointy anime shades' and then a mention of 'roaring manga fires' and the like shortly after Dirk's introduction, but that's all.
  • It's common to depict Karkat using two sickles, something that he has never done in canon. This becomes Ascended Fanon in Collide.
  • It's pretty common to see fanfics referring to Dave's full first name as being David; likewise, Roxy is generally said to be short for Roxanne. Despite this being a reasonable interpretation, it's never been corroborated by canon, and Hussie has explicitly stated that their names are not nicknames—with the (possibly) joking exception of Sollux, whose full name is supposedly Solluxander.
  • A related, but more minor, example involves Dave's middle name being Elizabeth (no, really). That one started out as a joke, but it's taken on something of a life of its own.
  • Because Her Imperious Condescension is always shadowed except for some minor details, it is unknown where her clothing ends and her skin begins, the only clues being that it is at least the glowing Pisces sign on her body, skin-tight, and includes something that covers her feet. Fan art depicts her outfit as ranging from a full bodysuit to a bikini. According to an Imagine Spot from Meenah, it's a bodysuit.^note Hover the mouse over the third square in the top row.
  • Eridan is often depicted as tall and gaunt, to fit his intimidating, lonely personality.
  • For whatever reason, Dad's first name is almost always said to be James in fanfiction. In canon, all we know is that his surname is Egbert (or, in the post-Scratch universe, Crocker); everything else is nothing but speculation.
  • Despite the dream bubbles being strictly tied to SBURB and only canonically containing the ghosts of dead players, many fan works and headcanons have characters with no ties to the game, such as the trolls' Ancestors, persisting within them as well.
  • In artwork depicting the trolls as humans, it's very common for Vriska to be depicted as tall and blonde and Terezi as short and redheaded.
• Hanna Is Not a Boy's Name: Fans seem fond of the idea that {...} was a police officer or detective before he ended up as a zombie. Could have something to do with how great he looks in the trenchcoat and fedora.
• Rain: Emily's mother is often given the name "Katherine" by the fandom.
• Roommates:
  • Fans will tell you that everything William Shakespeare has ever written is Brown Note and quoting or referencing his works is just asking for trouble. Predictably this means instant Mass "Oh, Crap!" when it happens in comic. Which it does... a lot... and always^note Even the 29th sonnet wasn't an exception. terrible things happen afterwards. Let's just say there is a reason why this fanon was born.
  • A lot of the comic's Recursive Fanfiction features Javert having a drinking problem like his roommate and Valjean taking issues with this.
• Stand Still, Stay Silent:
  • The ages of the child characters are subject to this. Veeti and Mia from the Distant Prologue were both assumed to have been ten years old before invokedWord of God mentioned them to be closer to seven. Ten also seems to be the upper limit for Håkan, Sune and Anna Västerström's ages.
  • The aforementioned Håkan, Sune and Anna Västerström are The Dividual and look quite close in age to each other, leading many to have decided they are triplets.
  • The Rash being referred to by that name in the story's main timeframe. Characters in that era are only ever seen calling it the Illness in the comic proper, while the "Rash" name only ever actually appeared in the Distant Prologue. Someone in the present day is seen using the "rash" name early in Adventure II.
  • Lalli being on the autistic spectrum.
  • Norway being the country Iceland considers its closest kin in the comic's era has lead to the assumption that Norwegian is the Scandinavian language that Icelanders learn when necessary ^note It's Danish in the real-world present day. This got confirmed via the Icelanders that came to pick up the crew at the end of the first story arc.
  • Ensi, Lalli's grandmother who looks like an older female version of him, but has gotten little development as a character, is frequently assumed to share his personality as well, down to the possible autistic spectrum disorder.
  • Reynir at some point mentions he suspects to have been a case of A Mistake Is Born. Fanfics focusing on his birth tend to run with the idea of that suspicion being true, and outright make him a pre-menopause baby.
  • The fandom is very big on Ho Yay and Les Yay pairings, leading to the frequent assumption that the comic's world is overall accepting of same-sex couples.
• Dumbing of Age:
  • A lot of people like to think that the male-presenting, grouchy TA named Alex in Amber's class and the female-presenting, more bubbly and encouraging Alex who replaced him are the same person, pre and post transition respectively. Word of God says it's a good idea but does not want to think of male Alex as the same as female Alex because that would be insulting to the real life person they were based on. (Who, incidentally, also transitioned. Make of that what you will.) He hasn't ruled out changing his mind though.
  • Fans (somewhat jokingly) believe that Booster Sanchez, a new character created for the comic, is actually the Anthropomorphic Personification of the Power Booster Rod from the Walkyverse.
  • Fans also are convinced (some jokingly, some seriously) that the pharmacist that gave Joyce her birth control is Joyce from the future setting her past self on the right path, noting a striking resemblance between the two and the fact that the pharmacist doesn't have her name tagged. A patreon only strip also shows she loves mac and cheese like Joyce, and her wife resembles an older Dorothy. But this IS David Willis we're talking about here. He could just be fucking with his fans.

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