Fanon/Web Comics


 * 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.
 * Bob and George 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.
 * And eventually, round 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.
 * Other example can be fan-made character Ran Cossack - there are people that absolutely sure Ran was is one of Mega Man games.
 * 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.
 * Due to its slow pace and tendency of its author to keep quiet about everything from age to hair colour, Megatokyo 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.
 * Because it often parodies the rules of the Dungeons & Dragons game, many fans of the Order of the Stick 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.
 * This is bound to get more interesting now that 4E is out, as the author has stated that he will use 4 when necessary to make a good joke even though the strip remains centered on 3.5.
 * 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: )
 * Girl Genius has a few, most prominent being that 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). After several hints (visual and implicit in characters' actions), it was eventually confirmed by the Word of God via portrait depicting father of the Princess in "good old times" (but not in the canon materials yet).
 * 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.
 * In Homestuck fanart, there's the 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, though given Andrew Hussie's habit of appropriating cool ideas from the fandom, there is at least a minor possibility that it will make it into the comic.
 * The Trolls' nipples are also generally drawn as being the same colour as their blood, but that one has no chance whatsoever of being confirmed or denied.
 * The idea that troll even have nipples is also purely fanon.
 * Not anymore. They are, however, coloured grey.
 * Similarly, 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
 * Recent updates seem to have canonized it, however: 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.
 * Rose is also generally considered by the fandom to be blonde. Given the above Word of God about Dave's hair, this is now all but explicitly Canonical, considering
 * Actually, Rose was canonically stated (by John) to be blonde.
 * 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 is often given as "Broderick".
 * Now Jossed by the revelation that Mom's first name is and Bro's is.
 * 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.
 * Of course, Andrew Hussie's Formspring posts regarding this haven't helped...
 * It should also be noted that Feferi is often portrayed as being overweight as well; one artist even posted a scientific explanation for it.
 * Eridan's lusus has no importance to the canon whatsoever. In fanon, he gives Eridan a hell of 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 pretty much decided that Karkat is shorter/smaller than most of the other trolls (excepting Nepeta in some cases). However, there's no mention of this anywhere (and due to the art style, it's impossible to tell how tall/short anyone is).
 * Equius refers to Karkat 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.