Anghraine

I've never been the audience for "humorous headcanons that don't quite make sense as part of the joke", and I know that my sense of humor is even more muted than usual because of RL stresses. But even before that, I've been put off by this increasingly common genre of fandom joke post that's like ... "I don't remember/know the canon and I'm not going to check but wouldn't it be hilarious if [thing contradicted by about seven different elements of the story]" that then becomes some inescapably viral fanon. Sometimes the OPs don't acknowledge being unfamiliar with the story (though often they do!), but it's usually fairly clear regardless, and the OPs tend to be aggressively indifferent to the story they're ostensibly talking about. They're not so much in the fandom for that thing as in social media fandom, and it feels like the snarky, joking aspect of these headcanons is partly there to justify neither knowing or caring about the story they're talking about.

Additionally, it seems likes there's really no way to interact with this approach that isn't "yep, hilarious, this is canon to me now" or pedantic nitpicking. I don't even add the pedantic nitpicking in most of these, but some fandoms are more prone to it, and when the OP of this kind of post acknowledges the responses at all, it'll generally be with some tongue-in-cheek "explanation" of why their headcanon actually does work that makes no more sense in terms of the story, but which is presumably funny, and forceful enough to be convincing if you're not particularly into the fandom. Some of them, in fairness, will admit that they simply forgot or don't know the story that well and just thought it'd be funny, or "I choose to reject X because my headcanon is funnier, but I know it's there." But more often, I see half-mocking "actually I'm right [but you're a humorless asshole if you actually engage in any way other than agreement]" defenses.

Of course, nobody appointed me god empress of fandom or anything. There's nothing wrong per se with people making posts without being obsessively into the original material or enjoying fandom in a way I don't. But that form of defensive humor really does not work for me. And there's something about an approach to fandom that's dominated by snide, viral BNF humor that doesn't need to make any sense in terms of what it's ostensibly about, that doesn't even need its audience or author to know what it's about beyond the vaguest pop culture osmosis/online memes and is better if they don't, that I find both obnoxious and just kind of ... sad, I guess? I didn't come into fandom in the truly early days, but it was early enough that everyone I encountered had intense feelings about some aspect of the thing they personally had read or seen or heard. Even people with incredibly bad takes seemed to generally be an emotionally invested fan or hater of the actual story.

me: what if I worked in some Tatooine headcanons into the aasimar fic? mAYBE. at least Anakin comes from this enslaved diasporic people and is fiercely proud of them and of being one of them, esp when people reduce him to his aasimarness (which happens. a lot.)

me: part of me wants Anakin to be a woman, though. and maybe more of the Jedi. maybe ALL the Jedi. WARRIOR NUNS IN SPACE

me: and what if it’s like that old AU idea I had where Palpatine subverts the Jedi instead of slaughtering them outright, and the Empire is generally … like, still bad but less obvious about it. it’d have this sort of patina of sunny pseudo-utopia

me: AND what if Padmé actually didn’t die but escaped with Luke, and lived long enough to gently break the truth of Anakin’s fall to him and he knows but doesn’t tell anyone, including Han

me: who is somehow the POV character for everything

me: …this is an original fic, isn’t it

[ETA 9/22/2023: It very much is and grew into this sprawling universe from this point over the last three years.]

There are definitely things I like from this era of SW, but ... uh, really not enjoying the return of the "Anakin probably mind-tricked Padmé into loving and marrying him" theory as anything but asinine fanwank that is wildly incompatible with SW film canon as well as the most boring conceivable approach to Padmé's character in AOTC.

[briefly PT critical under the cut]

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I reblogged a gifset of the death scenes of the entire Skywalker family (from Shmi to Ben), and added:

...fuck. Their story always had Greek tragedy vibes, but now it's just ... ;_; ;_; ;_;

I think these were just publicity shots or something, but I like these shots of Anakin, Padmé, Leia, and Luke:



It seems suitable that Anakin and Padmé are frolicking in an idyllic field, and Leia and Luke in an icy wasteland.

(Originally posted April 2012)

An anon said:

You updated the Lucy AU! Yaay! Is the "Lucy is not fully human" thing a reference to her being the granddaughter of the Force or something? Also it occurred to me that, here, the most important people for Vader are three women: his mother, his wife, and now his daughter

I replied:

You know, I honestly hadn’t thought of that! But yes, it’s very true—Shmi, Padmé, and now Lucy occupy a vast amount of space in his psyche.

[ETA 8/26/2021: they were right about my take on the Skywalkers' origins in that fic!]

I reblogged a nice comment on my elaborate Avatar/Star Wars plotbunny + the original (May 2013) post, which is:

I’ve written Avatar in the Star Wars ‘verse in varying ways, but what I really want is Star Wars in the Avatar verse. I mentioned some vague ideas before, but what I’d really to either see or get around to writing someday is this:

Air

- The Order of the White Lotus is highly visible and active as a body of warriors. Originally, they were neutral peacekeepers from all four nations, and guardians of the Avatar. Now they’ve largely evolved into defenders/diplomats for the Fire Nation. They also take command of all benders they find as young children and train them in the bending arts and traditions of the Order, but plenty are never found and have to make their own way.

- Qui-Gon Jinn is an earthbender and unorthodox Lotus warrior. Through some various adventures involving his apprentice Obi-Wan (an airbender) and the (disguised, non-bender) Southern Water Tribe chieftainess Padmé, he discovers that the Avatar, believed to be vanished from the earth for generations, has reincarnated as a young boy named Anakin Skywalker. Anakin is a suspiciously golden-eyed slave in the Earth Kingdom.

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This has multiple dates because I did a writing meme, and I figured I'd compile the responses into one post.

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“Anakin is not Leia’s real father” is really quite different from “Padmé is not Leia’s real mother.”

(/represses essay)