Flying in Fanon's Face
Fanon, they call it, in the more developed communities about, say, Star Wars or Harry Potter. Things left out of the original series, but so prevalent in fan-created work that people just assume they're true.
If you've ever created some fanart, or written a fanfic, or pretty much done anything with "fan-" in the name, you've probably used some... well, I hate the overly-clever name, but it's become, er, fanon.
Most fanon is born out of necessity; the best EarthBound example is Ness's last name, a relatively important detail The Creators decided was unnecessary. Back when I was writing a lot of IFs and fanfics, they were split into two groups: one used a genuine, unmistakeably Anthaddian pun and named him Lee. (Say it aloud, and then cringe a little; it's natural.) The other used Franklin; if I remember, this was selected by PSI322 simply because she liked how it sounded, and because of her considerable influence both in fanfiction and on the message boards it stuck.
What are some other examples? You might not even notice yourself using them. For one, most anything about Ness and Paula going out is fanon, and extremely prevalent. (I don't know, as a nerd I always pulled for the ladies to be wooed by Jeff...) Think Ness's father is PSI-adept? Fanon too... unless you want to bring more fanon in it, and say that the striped-shirt-wearing, bat-toting boys in EarthBound Zero and EarthBound are the same. You can see where this starts getting complicated fast, as Ness-Ninten's sprawling family spreads itself over two similar-but-not-at-all-identical continents; were EarthBound 64 to come out, it would be worth considering whether or not the Franklins (ha!) were being moved around by the Witness Protection Program, having had their son save too many worlds for them to remain safe in Onett.
Where can it lead? Why, total fanon meltdown! Take caution, authors: As the Harry Potter fan community was burgeoning, certain things were just taken for granted, among them that Ginny Weasley's name was short for Virginia. Perhaps just to mess with the captive fans, J.K. Rowling eventually revealed it to be... Ginevra, leading to several thousand fanfics of varying quality suddenly featuring a character that technically never existed. We in the EarthBound community, unfortunately, haven't had to worry about new things being revealed for a while. But before you reveal that Paula acquired her powers after she ran over the Human Torch while driving KITT from Knight Rider, just remember that it could all come crashing down. (Go get her, Jeff!)
Fanon, they call it, in the more developed communities about, say, Star Wars or Harry Potter. Things left out of the original series, but so prevalent in fan-created work that people just assume they're true.
If you've ever created some fanart, or written a fanfic, or pretty much done anything with "fan-" in the name, you've probably used some... well, I hate the overly-clever name, but it's become, er, fanon.
Most fanon is born out of necessity; the best EarthBound example is Ness's last name, a relatively important detail The Creators decided was unnecessary. Back when I was writing a lot of IFs and fanfics, they were split into two groups: one used a genuine, unmistakeably Anthaddian pun and named him Lee. (Say it aloud, and then cringe a little; it's natural.) The other used Franklin; if I remember, this was selected by PSI322 simply because she liked how it sounded, and because of her considerable influence both in fanfiction and on the message boards it stuck.
What are some other examples? You might not even notice yourself using them. For one, most anything about Ness and Paula going out is fanon, and extremely prevalent. (I don't know, as a nerd I always pulled for the ladies to be wooed by Jeff...) Think Ness's father is PSI-adept? Fanon too... unless you want to bring more fanon in it, and say that the striped-shirt-wearing, bat-toting boys in EarthBound Zero and EarthBound are the same. You can see where this starts getting complicated fast, as Ness-Ninten's sprawling family spreads itself over two similar-but-not-at-all-identical continents; were EarthBound 64 to come out, it would be worth considering whether or not the Franklins (ha!) were being moved around by the Witness Protection Program, having had their son save too many worlds for them to remain safe in Onett.
Where can it lead? Why, total fanon meltdown! Take caution, authors: As the Harry Potter fan community was burgeoning, certain things were just taken for granted, among them that Ginny Weasley's name was short for Virginia. Perhaps just to mess with the captive fans, J.K. Rowling eventually revealed it to be... Ginevra, leading to several thousand fanfics of varying quality suddenly featuring a character that technically never existed. We in the EarthBound community, unfortunately, haven't had to worry about new things being revealed for a while. But before you reveal that Paula acquired her powers after she ran over the Human Torch while driving KITT from Knight Rider, just remember that it could all come crashing down. (Go get her, Jeff!)
