Fanon/Live-Action TV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Examples of Fanon about Live-Action TV include:

Battlestar Galactica (2004 TV series)

  • Battlestar Galactica fans have been known to take a deleted scene where Elosha refers to a jealous god starting a war on Kobol as canon -- despite it being, y'know, deleted -- and thus extrapolating that the Thirteenth Tribe were monotheists. The most current Word of God is that they were polytheists like the others (as evidenced by their Temple of Aurora), and the exodus from Kobol was the result of man "stealing fire" from the gods by creating life. The last five survivors of the Thirteenth Tribe became monotheists after meeting the monotheistic Centurions.
  • There was also a very common misconception that Tigh and Adama had served together during the First Cylon War. This was actually shown not to be the case in Season 2, Episode 1, Scattered. They met years after the war, on a freighter. It apparently didn't register with many fans, which is why there was a general uproar when Tigh turned out to be a Cylon.
  • No one's ever said there are twelve Lords of Kobol, but it's taken for granted by many a fan. Given that they've mentioned gods outside the traditional twelve Olympians and have only used "Lord of Kobol" as a synonym for "god", not a subset, there are probably more than twelve. The Caprican establishes that Illumini, the second major city on Gemenon, is built around a huge pantheon devoted to dozens of deities.
    • In the Original Series episode "Lost Planet of the Gods", it is explained that the Lords of Kobol were the leaders of that highly advanced civilization until they are wiped out in a vaguely-mentioned ecological disaster. Long afterward, they were deified by their descendants, the inhabitants of the Twelve Colonies. The last Lord of Kobol was the Ninth Lord of Kobol, into whose tomb Adama enters looking for a map to Earth (which he finds, and which is then immediately destroyed when the Cylons attack Kobol). Side-note: In order to enter the tomb, Adama uses his Council of Twelve Badge of Office as a key. The other surviving Council Members also had them, but didn't seem to realize their true significance, and Council Members elected after the Destruction didn't have them.
  • Leah Cairns (the actress who played Racetrack) mentioned in several interviews that she believed her character had Unresolved Sexual Tension with Helo (who was a former Raptor pilot himself), and that she purposely played Racetrack in this mindset during the show. It's never been overtly suggested what's going on between Racetrack and Helo (even though there are a couple of broad hints), but most fans consider that fact canon.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

  • Fandom reacted badly to Andrew being seen heading off for a night on the town with two attractive women, since he's "obviously" gay (it's actually more ambiguous with hints of possibly bisexuality). Joss Whedon has since stated that Andrew was supposed to be headed off for a night on the town with a mixed-sex group. Remember, it's Italy.
  • There's also the fanon that Spike absolutely hates his last name, Pratt. Admittedly, since he never mentions it and goes by William the Bloody, which was actually an insult, before going by Spike, it's logical.
  • There was a belief among some fans that "Buffy" was a nickname, and the Slayer's "real" first name was actually "Elizabeth". This has apparently has been Jossed by Joss, but there still seems to be a faction that clings to it (in the real world, "Buffy" derives from "Elizabeth" through the toddler mispronunciation "Ewizabuff").
  • After she came out during the fourth season, the fandom quietly decided that Willow had a huge crush on Giles' girlfriend Jenny during the second season. It's one of those things that just makes sense, what with Jenny inspiring Willow to start dabble in magic, the thing that later would become a not-so-subtle metaphor for lesbian sex. Whether she had/has similar feelings for Buffy is debatable.
    • S8 makes it a little less debatable since Willow grills Satsu on what Buffy's like in bed (including how she sounds when she orgasms). Then denies ever having a crush on Buffy to Buffy. Likewise, Buffy denies having one on her, acting identical to Willow, who we know is lying, is acting. Hmmmm...
  • Fanfic tends to portray Anya and Tara as best friends, since neither canonically had one.
  • Conventional wisdom is that Anya starting life as a human was a Retcon, but this was in fact part of the character from her first appearance. Giles refers in "The Wish" to the destruction of her power center making her an ordinary woman again. The original script, available on the DVD, included a line about her becoming Anyanka after she summoned a demon who cursed her.
  • There is also a common idea that vampires can choose "mates" from the humans around them. Not "mates" in the sense of turning someone into a vampire for companionship, but that a human can be bitten and marked by a vampire, thus taking a form of ownership over that particular human. This would, in turn, offer a sort of protection from other vampires, who would sense the mark, and leave that human alone. There is nothing, repeat nothing, in the Buffy or Angel series that indicates a vampire could do this, or would even be inclined to do so. They are much more likely to either kill or turn a person.
    • There's more fanon about Buffyverse vampires. Like that they have a psychic connection with the vampires they sire, which is sometimes true, but that only showed up once, and even then it was only in the form of Angel dreaming about the other vampire's kills; it didn't let Angel control him as it does in fanfiction. The fandom also seems to believe that a newly turned vampire is called a 'fledgling.' They are never once referred to as such in canon. Also, while vampires do get stronger with age, there's no particular point at which a vampire becomes a 'master'; it just seems to be a general term used for the leader of a large group of vampires, who is typically the strongest because vampires usually operate on Klingon Promotion and Asskicking Equals Authority.

Doctor Who

  • In order to justify the belief that Time Lords are sterile, it is widely accepted that although Susan always referred to the Doctor as her grandfather, and other characters always treated her as such, the two are not biologically related, and she just calls him that as a sign of affection.
    • This has been repudiated by a couple of off-hand comments in the new series; the Doctor, at the very least, considers himself a father and a grandfather, and likes being thought of as a being with a sex drive.
    • On the other hand, the somewhat more fan-friendly Big Finish Spin-Off audios have had the Doctor repeatedly claim that he never had children, and never ever does the thing you typically need to do in order to have children.
    • I still can't figure out how all this Fanon got built up when Canon has Leela marry a Time Lord! Did everyone fall asleep halfway though The Invasion of Time?!
    • The Expanded Universe novels Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible and Lungbarrow by Marc Platt, derived partly from the aborted Cartmel Masterplan (a back story never fully revealed because of the series' cancellation), explained everything. They said that a curse had made the ancient Time Lords infertile. They now reproduced artificially, using devices called Looms to genetically "assemble" new Time Lords. The second book also explained the backstory for the Doctor's relationship with Susan. In simple terms, the Doctor just time-traveled back in time to when they still had children, met the granddaughter of his past life The Other, and took her with him (of course, their relationship had already gotten explained away by an Expanded Universe short story entitled "Birth of a Renegade", written by Doctor Who's then-script editor, Eric Saward, who had gotten canned by the time the Cartmel Masterplan got going, so he had no input there).
  • Similar attempts have been made to excuse the much-derided statement in the TV movie that the Doctor is half-human: besides the obvious "his mother was human and his father was a Time Lord" one that people seem to hate, there are things like "he was given human blood just before his regeneration and that made him half-human", "he regenerated into a half-human on purpose", "his mother was a Time Lady who used the Chameleon Arch from the new series to become human", "he was joking"... The new series has not, and probably never will, address this (Lungbarrow gave a jokey rationale for this, as well, but only in passing).
    • As of "Journey's End", this is no longer canon in the new series. The metacrisis clone of the Doctor is disgusted to be part-human and implies that such a thing has never happened before.
      • IDW's The Forgotten comic (Issue 5, for the pedantic) gives us this lovely line: "I once convinced my most-hated enemy that I was half-human with nothing more than a wide-eyed expression, a few words and a half-broken Chameleon Arch." Writer Tony Lee, a Promoted Fanboy, is very definitely One of Us.
  • According to some fans, any spin-off which claims Time Lords have two hearts before they regenerate for the first time is clearly in violation of a couple of lines in the series which suggest that the very elderly first Doctor only has one.
    • The series was making up continuity as they went along, and in fact, the two hearts bit didn't come up until the third Doctor, after two regenerations.
    • But it is clear, Fanon-wise, that the First Doctor only had one heart, and not just from dialogue--Ian Chesterton took his pulse and likely would've noticed if there was more than one pulse going. Assuming that the extra heart came at the Doctor's first regeneration, and not later, is the Fanon equivalent of Occam's Razor.
    • But, the medical scan of the Second Doctor in The Wheel in Space showed no abnormalities, i.e. no second heart.
    • The Second Doctor's lack of abnormalities can be put down to another fan theory: the transition between the First and Second Doctors was a "renewal", not a "regeneration", therefore the second heart still comes with the first regeneration: the Third Doctor.
  • A popular fanon theory speculates that the Doctor and the Master were brothers, before RTD made very clear that it wasn't so. The show itself even poked fun of the clichedness of the theory in the new series.
    • The TVM was supposed to have a line revealing they were brothers, but thankfully this was cut. Interestingly enough, another fan pet theory (one going way back to the Seventies) insists the Doctor and the Master are exes (or that the Master at the very least has an unrequited, bitter crush on the Doctor) has been hinted at in the new series. David McIntee and Paul Cornell have both speculated on this possibility.
  • Since the TV series has never revealed the various Time Lord renegades' original names, the fans who write fic about their lives on Gallifrey rely on the books' names for them: Koschei for the Master, Ushas for the Rani, and Mortimus for the Meddling Monk (the Gallifrey-era Doctor typically goes by Theta Sigma, his academy nickname from the TV series. Some fans apparently think it's the Doctor's actual name, which it isn't).
  • In the EU sections of fandom, it is almost universally believed that the Ninth Doctor's leather jacket originally belonged to Fitz.
  • Doctor Who refers to Time Lords almost exclusively as a species. On several accounts. Twice in series three alone -- Smith and Jones, Utopia. Even specifying the word "species," both times. Most fans disregard this and insist that the Doctor's just lying to sound impressive, even though there are no hints within the narrative. Most of the evidence to the contrary tends to consist of redshirts getting shot, and Expanded Universe stuff. That said, you can ask almost anyone on the internet and they'll emphatically tell you that "Time Lord" is a title. Not a creature.
    • Actually this has some basis in the plans for the show before the hiatus, the plan eventually for Ace to leave the show was for her to become a Time Lady.
    • In Series 6, Amy and Rory's daughter is conceived in the TARDIS while traveling through the Time Vortex, and once born exhibits some Time Lord-like properties. The Doctor claims similar exposure to the Untempered Schism caused the original Time Lords to develop over several generations, and Madame Kovarian must be aware of this since she wants to use Melody/River as a weapon against The Doctor. While not conclusive, it presents the possibility that "Time Lords" can rise from different species.

Heroes

  • Sylar has superhuman endurance, and also the Jossed idea that he eats brains.
  • Lyle is adopted.
    • Confirmed in a deleted scene from the first season; it may or may not still be canon. The on-line comics also mention that HRG and Sandra could not conceive a child.
  • Adam is the ancestor of most, if not all, of the Heroes.
  • Mohinder went to boarding school or to university in England, hence the accent. It's also common fanon that his native language is Tamil (which makes sense, since this is the primary language spoken in Chennai, where he grew up) and that he is an atheist (arguably implied in the comic "Monsters", but contradicted at several points on the show) and a vegetarian (this one has some support; the Heroes Wiki notes that the religious symbols at Chandra's funeral imply that he is a Vaishnava Hindu of the Sri Sampradaya sect, and most of them are [traditionally vegetarian] Brahmins).
  • Nathan is eleven years older than Peter (his exact age is unknown, but presumably he's at least 35 in the "Five Years Gone" alternate future to make him legally eligible for the U.S. Presidency; Peter is stated to be 26 as of Volume 1).
  • Mohinder's unnamed mother tends to be called Anjali in fics.
  • Sylar's original ability has the side-effect of allowing him to always know the exact time.
  • Claude is either bisexual or completely gay, along with the rest of the male characters. Some people think he named his pigeons.
  • Elle is the mother of Sylar/Gabriel's son Noah in the future. While it's widely recognized that it's not technically canon, few realize it's not even hinted or implied.
    • Making Kid Noah a biological descendant of either (but especially both) creates not only time line, but casting problems. The actor appeared to be about five to eight years of age when Knox kills him. Yet, if the Exposed Future is four years after the Volume 3 Present, then how did Kid Noah grow from an embryo to a very-mature three-year-old in that little time period? Then again...

Star Trek

  • The claim that Mr. Spock was the first Vulcan in Starfleet is not canonical, but it didn't stop fans from becoming outraged with Star Trek Enterprise when T'Pol — who was emphatically not a member of Starfleet — was assigned to duty on the Enterprise. Star Trek Enterprise also violated Fanon by having an Earth Starfleet prior to the existence of the Federation, resulting in many fans complaining the date of the Federation Starfleet's founding had been changed. (How the people convinced that Spock was the "first Vulcan in Starfleet" explain the entire crew of the Intrepid, the Constitution-class starship manned entirely by Vulcans that was eaten by the Giant Space Amoeba in the Original Series, is something of a mystery. The existence of the Intrepid crew clearly shows that Spock cannot have been the first Vulcan to attend the Academy. However, he may easily have been the first half Vulcan to do so).
    • T'Pol being in Starfleet before Spock could be integrated into the "Spock was first" fanon if instead of first Vulcan in Starfleet, he was the first Vulcan to enter Starfleet Academy
    • That doesn't necessarily violate fanon. U.S.S. Intrepid had her keel laid down after the Enterprise did, and a good while after at that. It's possible her crew is made up of Vulcans who followed Spock into Starfleet.
      • So basically you're saying that for almost 200 hundred years, (from the time of the twenty-first century scenes in the motion picture First Contact to the time of The Original Series), no Vulcan served in Starfleet despite the fact that Earth and Vulcan were allies for such a long period of time. Think. About. That.
      • I always just assumed that starships were segregated with Vulcan ships being kept hotter with higher gravity etc. and thus Spock's presence on a Terran ship was indicative of some type of disagreement with Vulcan. Although, I suppose as a half breed, he's stuck unless he can round up enough half-Vulcans to staff a full ship.
      • From the perspective of Vulcans, who are canonically described as having much longer lifespans than humans (Spock's father lives until the middle of TNG, and Spock himself much longer than that) 200 years isn't all that long. And given the corruption of Surak's teachings described in Enterprise it's plausible that a generation or two was needed to overcome bigotry to the point that Vulcans felt comfortable in Starfleet in large numbers, with Spock leading the way. Even he had to overcome the generation gap between himself and his father (who was progressive enough among Vulcans to take a human wife). Also, Starfleet as a fully-integrated entity may be a relatively new thing during TOS--prior to that, the humans, Vulcans, Andorians, etc. maintained separate space fleets (Kirk refers to 'UESPA'--United Earth Space Probe Agency--in an early episode; he may have been a holdover from the Earth contingent incorporated into the Federation's Starfleet. And we know from Enterprise that the Vulcans and Andorians--at the time bitter enemies--had separate space fleets). There are any number of ways, alone or in combination, that canon and fanon can be reconciled believeably on this point.
  • Star Trek Enterprise also aroused outrage in some circles with its portrayal of Vulcans as being capable of underhanded deviousness (but entirely logical underhanded deviousness) and arrogance. Evidently those fans based Vulcans on the character of Spock, who was generally noble. This despite examples such as the sole episode of the original series set on Vulcan where underhanded deviousness and arrogance were on display front and center, the traitorous Valeris in Star Trek VI, and Spock himself.

Saavik: You lied.
Spock: I exaggerated.

    • Enterprise's Vulcans were later retconned into followers of the flawed interpretation of Surak's teaching, which may suggest that "real" Vulcans generally are supposed to be as noble as Spock, or at least nobler than they were portrayed.
    • Spock himself was capable of pulling some fast ones back then, too. The plots of The Menagerie and The Enterprise Incident depend entirely upon Spock's ability to lie directly to his friends and comrades and violate multiple regulations in the process. His actions in both episodes at minimum risked the loss of the Enterprise and at worst full-scale war. Spock's character is redeemed in the first instance by a desire to help the permanently-crippled Captain Pike and in the second instance by acting upon higher orders (although those orders were themselves questionable... and why not at least brief the entire senior staff? If Kirk and Spock are both caught and killed by the Romulans, Scotty -- just as out of the loop as McCoy was and now in command -- has no contingency plan to get the ship and the crew out of there!)
  • Another thing the fandom agrees is that, because of their telepathy, Vulcans avoid physical contact like the plague, even though Vulcans on-screen have shown no qualms about touching or being touched. In fact, Enterprise established that for a long time it wasn't general knowledge among Vulcans that all Vulcans could mind-meld, and it takes training and concentration to be able to do it. Therefore, accidental touch-telepathy is not a thing.
    • It wasn't established in Enterprise, it was established in The Original Series when mind-melding was first introduced that it was something that required focus and concentration, wasn't a well-known technique. Every time Spock used it, he had to focus. That said, the original series also gave us moments where Spock could sometimes telepathically detect events without any physical contact whatsoever. One episode in particular implied he was actually a touch telepath solely because he was merely half-Vulcan, the implication being that he wouldn't be so limited if he was full-blooded Vulcan.
  • Spock being the first ever Vulcan-human hybrid (to live to adulthood) is not actually confirmed in canon, but you wouldn't know it from the fandom.
  • Also on Star Trek: Lt. Sulu was originally only given one name, but the fans came up with a first name for him: Hikaru. This name was then used in the sixth movie, thus turning Fanon into Canon.
    • Ditto with Nyota Uhura. It took almost 40 years before we heard that name on-screen (never mind that the name "Nyota" was suggested for the character by the very actress who played her -- Nichelle Nichols)!
  • Separating the saucer section of the Enterprise from the remainder of the ship was long speculated in Fanon before it happened on screen. The potential was hinted at in promotional and supporting materials though (e.g. the Star Trek Technical Manual).
    • This results from the TOS episode "the Apple" in which Kirk gives an order to prepare for "emergency saucer separation."
  • It is generally accepted among fans of the new movie that Kirk was sent to Tarsus IV after the "car incident", even though it's an alternate time line, and so was present for the massacre as Kirk Prime was. It's not unusual for this to be a profound influence on his character in fic. The notion has also crept in that nu!Kirk studied under Hoshi Sato, who was said to be on Tarsus IV at the time of the massacre.
    • Which leads directly to the Fridge Logic of why Kirk Prime was sent there...
    • And to the Fridge Brilliance regarding from whom Kirk did learn all those linguistic terms, which he uses in his attempt to flirt with Uhura in the bar.
    • Also, the vast majority of reboot fanfic writers write Kirk's stepfather as an alcoholic, ultra-abusive, evil child molester and his mother as depressed and emotionally distant.
    • Deleted scenes from that movie do reveal that Kirk's stepfather was at least mean, loud, and both kids hated him. Kirk's brother left home because he hated the guy so much. Remember the stepfather yelling at Kirk to bring back "his car"? The same deleted scene shows that the car belongs to George Kirk, and that the stepfather was trying to sell it. The line "[Mom] doesn't know what he's like when she's not around," just adds fuel to the fire.
  • Enterprise also caused fits when it introduced Captain Erika Hernandez, commander of the second warp-five starship (Columbia NX-02). This stems from the TOS episode "Turnabout Intruder", in which Janice Lester wails about how women are not allowed to captain starships. Of course, Janice Lester wasn't exactly too sane to begin with...
    • One theory is that given her exact wording, "your world of starship captains has no room for women" she could have simply meant that Kirk's life as a captain left no room for a stable long term relationship. Of course blaming him being The Captain on his Anything That Moves libido just shows how nuts she was.
  • It's commonly suggested (often taken as fact) that Voyager's bio-neural gel packs, which arrange information in a similar manner to the human brain, are the reason Voyager's holograms had a tendency to become sentient (while those on the Enterprise-D did not). However, it was never stated on the show.
    • It's easy to see why people believe this. The gel packs were described in the pilot episode, so the Law of Conservation of Detail suggests they should become important later on (though, canonically, they did not). And this theory plausibly explains something that was otherwise quite implausible.
  • Because alcohol does not affect Vulcans in the same way it does humans, fans often turn to chocolate or copious amounts of sugar when they need to get Spock drunk. This does have some deuterocanonical basis, as it shows up in the Star Trek IV the Voyage Home novelization as an explanation for why Spock spends most of the movie acting loopy.
  • Gene Roddenberry made a comment during the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation that there were six Galaxy class starships in service. So far so good — Word of God, but does not contradict anything in canon. It was one of those odd scraps of fanon that became very persistent, especially when one takes to counting Galaxy class starships. I remember during the late part of DS9‍'‍s run, meeting someone who insisted that they "got it wrong" by depicting too many Galaxy classes in the fleets... I was given cause to wonder, even if we can accept that there were only six around early in TNG (which was never stated canonically), is there something preventing them from building more? Did they lose the schematics or something?

Other works

  • Dark Angel: Many, many, many fanfics have other transgenics refer to Max and her siblings as "the '09ers" because they escaped in 2009, even though this nickname appears nowhere in the show.
  • Despite the fact that we've only seen them dating men, Olivia and Alex on Law & Order: SVU are claimed as lesbians by the show's large lesbian fanbase. Some of these fans were outraged when, in the episode "Ghost", Alex told Olivia about the man she'd been seeing. The term "manvil" was coined to describe the show supposedly dropping anvils that Alex likes men. Said accusation neatly ignores the possibility of bisexuality, but as always Subtext is where you find it. And of course, it wasn't nearly so bad as Serena Southerlyn's last minute coming out.
    • Word of God declared that there was, in fact, UST between the two women. The actress who plays Alex basically admitted that something was going on:

Stephanie March: I'm not saying we're not... I'm not saying we're not in love.

  • On Gilmore Girls, the character Tristin repeatedly called Rory "Mary" as a nod to her innocent appearance and actions. In fanon, Rory and other characters often call Tristin "Bible Boy" though it was never spoken on-screen.
  • With 500+ significant characters in 17 seasons, Power Rangers has a fairly hefty showing of this, to the point where some of the fanon actually conflicts with itself, and not just canon. Rangerwiki, a PR Wiki, has a list of some of the more common instances of fanon.
    • One notable example of PR fanon becoming canon happened in 2002: a long-time fan began writing for the show in its tenth season, and made multiple references to an older fandom-wide missing episode hoax in a pivotal episode, suddenly canonizing the hoax's storyline.
    • Some of the more popular bits of fanon are:
      • Billy's last name (he was never given one in-show, but the fans made it up, and when the official website was put together, they just threw it in).
      • After the death of actress Thuy Trang in 2001, the fandom has generally agreed that her character Trini Kwan passed away as well.
      • Z Delgado of SPD is the daughter of Danny Delgado of Wild Force.
      • One bit of fanon acknowledged by the creators is the idea that Operation Overdrive's Mack was created as a Sex Bot, to explain why Hartford would create a robotic "son" that's already an adult. According to Word of God, concerns were raised about this during the show's production, but dismissed because Bruce Kalish didn't think anyone would be warped enough to reach that conclusion. He was wrong.
    • Somewhere between fanon, Actor Allusion and fandom inside-joke is the idea that Taylor (from Power Rangers Wild Force) and Tommy (from... well, everything) hooked up. This is because their actors were in a sex scene together on the MTV show Undressed.
  • There is a recent mounting wave of fanon locating the home of The Addams Family somewhere in New Jersey -- sometimes in the midst of the Pine Barrens, sometimes in Edgewater, and sometimes in Charles Addams' own hometown of Westfield.
    • Jossed by the fact that their car was registered to either the production company or George Barris, and on those occasions where the front or back is shown, no effort was made to conceal or disguise the California plates.
      • Then again, one episode showed that they were somewhere close enough to a Soviet embassy that a phone book local to the embassy would list them. In the 1960s, that would place them within an hour's drive of either Washington or New York, making Westfield or Edgewater good candidates, but anywhere in California somewhat unlikely.
  • Many Firefly fanfics have River referring to herself exclusively in the third person. This only occurred on two occasions in canon, one of which was in sarcasm.
    • The fans are adamant that Book was a former Operative, to the point of decrying The Shepherd's Tale which says otherwise, and many people considering it non-canon.
    • Likewise, the belief that River's parents knew what the Academy was and had been either paid or coerced into sending her there, possibly even having conceived her solely for that purpose, is fairly widespread. This is implied in the episode "Safe", where River is shown to be The Unfavorite and they brush off Simon as imagining things when he shows them her coded letters, but it's never directly stated and it's possible they really did believe nothing was wrong, or else realized Simon was right but were too afraid of losing their money and status to do anything about it.
  • About half of the episodes of Highlander the Series are set in an unnamed city in the Pacific Northwest. Fans unanimously referred to this city as "Seacouver" (a portmanteau of "Seattle" and "Vancouver") but this was never explicitly stated on the show itself. The "Watcher CD" given away with VHS box sets (and, later, the DVD extras) finally made this name official.
  • Fanon for The Lone Gunmen can be traced back to a handful of very old fanfics. These include: the idea that Langley used to be addicted to drugs, and giving him the nickname "Ree," the speculation that Frohike had served in Vietnam as a sniper, and that Byers was a widower. Another fanon element defiantly ignores the aptly-named episode "Jump the Shark" to state that Fletcher was lying through his teeth (with the Gunmen's strangely OOC behavior being offered up as "proof") and/or that the Gunmen faked their deaths.
  • The Shield has Ronnie Gardocki, an Ascended Extra character who was the subject to much fanon as far as fans of the character grafting onto him a personality of Ronnie being a geeky cop who fell in with the bad crowd that was the Strike Team, as opposed to be being inherently corrupt. While the show and actor David Rees Snell largely embraced this fandom-based viewpoint towards the character (indeed, a plot point in the season seven premier was based around the notion of Ronnie having never killed a man in cold blood until that episode), it didn't stop the actor from acknowledging how his fans often downplayed his character's willingness to do bad things, pointing out that Ronnie had to been somewhat evil in order to have been recruited into the Strike Team.
  • Lost fanon is mainly theories that become so widely accepted that they're taken as canon. Of course, this is generally because of massive hints. Jacob's nemesis being the Smoke Monster, and Richard being first mate of the Black Rock are all common.
    • Season Six tells us yes and no, but close on those two (Richard was actually a prisoner on board the Black Rock).
    • Some fans have taken to calling the Smoke Monster Esau, after biblical Jacob's older brother. This may be Better Than Canon since the Man in Black's name ended up being, essentially, "Hey You".
      • As per his original casting call (and confirmed later by Kristin Dos Santos), his name is meant to be Samuel, although this is never properly stated.
  • Alias fandom became eaten alive with various pieces of fanon that rapidly became totally disconnected from the actual characters and events seen on the show, especially where Irian Derevko was involved. Many of these were ship-linked, but not, and enormous fury was unleashed when it became clear that the series had no chance of following the path the fanon assumed.
  • Supernatural: fanfic featuring Anna before she became human will almost invariably call her 'Anael'.
    • It's surprisingly accepted that Dean was either sexually abused (by someone else, not John) or at least used sex inappropriately when he was younger. Hell, even his actor thinks he whored himself out to pay with the bills.
    • The brothers have been Mistaken for Gay on multiple occasions, denied it, and have had numerous heterosexual relationships. Fandom is convinced that they're not only gay, that they're only gay, and they are interested in each other. This was directly Jossed by canon in a Fandom Nod, yet it hasn't stopped the shippers. Then again, this is the same fandom that believes the actors themselves are dating, to the extent of believing that their longtime girlfriends, now wives, are both The Beard and hired by CW marketing.
      • There's a difference between the Fandom and the Fan Dumb. A much more popular theory is that Dean is a closeted bisexual. Be certain of hearing about Doctor Sexy.
    • I once read a review of a fanfic where the reviewer said that "Dean wouldn't be able to call Sam 'Samantha' anymore". As a matter of fact, Dean has never used that particular insult outside of fanfics (and not this one, other ones). Apparently this meme got to the point of the reviewer thinking it had happened in the show.
  • Fans of Merlin generally assume that Gwen's mother is dead (often she is said to have died in childbirth, to parallel Ygraine) and that Merlin was named for the falcon. They also sometimes use 'Ambrosius' and 'Myrddin Wyllt' as some of the 'many names' for Merlin mentioned by the Dragon. And whether Gaius being Merlin's uncle is this or, Word of Actor (Richard Wilson believes Hunith to be Gaius' sister) or Word of God is a matter of some confusion.
    • Also, some fans say that Merlin is a warlock and not a sorcerer because he was born with his powers, and sorcerers have to learn magic. This is because Merlin is referred to as a warlock in the show, but all others are called sorcerers (some Fan Fiction has him angrily defending himself against accusations of being a sorcerer on these bounds). However, it's never addressed in the show, so we don't know if that's canon or not.
  • Strangely common in Glee fanfic is the idea that Quinn Fabray is a brilliant pianist. Occasionally added is the idea that her parents sold her beloved piano after she became a Cheerio.
    • Kurt and Puck adore Harry Potter. If one of them only shows up in a fic once, it will be to agree with the other one that HP is totally awesome.
    • Warblers Wes and David are more or less crazy. Sometimes, they are also utter failures when it comes to matchmaking.
    • Up until Kurt mentioned in The Sue Sylvester Bowl Shuffle that he still lived at home, the fandom generally assumed that Dalton Academy was a boarding school.
    • The name of Puck's little sister is as of yet unknown, but lots and lots of fanfic writers call her Sarah.
      • All the others call her Hannah.
    • At the end of the only episode Kurt's car has shown up in, Kurt tells Mercedes that his dad took it away from him. That was almost two seasons ago, and the car hasn't even been mentioned since then. Still, there are very few, if any, Kurt-centered fanfics in which he doesn't have his car.
      • How else would he get to Westerville and back? If someone else was dropping him off and picking him up, s/he would have to drive an hour and a half each way, making two trips. Six hours of driving each day.
    • Two about Dave Karofsky: he's a math nerd/whiz (from his father mentioning he was an A and B student, and his taking Calculus even as a high school junior) and he's a terrific singer (from Will's compliment in Sue Sylvester Shuffle and the fact that Max Adler is the only actor who plays a student who's actually been in a real glee club).
      • Dave is also almost always an only child and quite commonly, his mother is dead/gone (which is almost certainly based on the fact that during the two meetings with the principal and Kurt and Dave's families in Canon, only Dave's father has been there and there is never any mention of a mother.)
    • If Blaine's aspirations are brought up in a fic, they'll almost invariably center around law or medicine.
  • My favourite piece of fanon ever is that Law and Order 's Serena Southerlyn is every subsequent female lawyer's fabulously bitter/sarcastic/promiscuous best friend. Particularly prominent in SVU Alex/Olivia fics, it must be said, proving the age-old trope that beautiful blonde ADA Birds of a Feather will be stuck together in fanfiction.
    • Abbie Carmichael seems to be gay in a terrifying number of fics, considering how conservative she was, and the fate of her successor (you sort of don't care if she's paired with Olivia Benson).
    • And until recently it was very, very well accepted fanon that Olivia was at least bi. This was given a Fandom Nod, then promptly Jossed.
  • Parts of the iCarly fandom are quite convinced that Carly and Sam are lesbians based on many moments between the two.
  • In Victorious fanfiction, Jade and Beck often reveal their full names are Jadelyn and Beckett. There's been no indication in canon that their names are anything but Jade and Beck.
  • Sheldon of the Big Bang Theory displays classic signs of Asperger's Syndrome, but the creators have shot down that idea. It doesn't stop the fans from making this guess though.
  • One bit of widely accepted NCIS fanon is that Ziva was raped at some stage, most likely multiple times. Somalia is pretty much the epitome of Ziva going through hell.
    • She was an attractive woman, tied up in an all-male camp of violent terrorists who enjoyed hurting and torturing her, and saw her as less than human. It's not exactly jumping far to get to that conclusion.
      • Especially since she still refuses to talk about it.
    • Up until it was confirmed in season eight, it was very well accepted that Abby's father was dead, even though both of her parents were mentioned in present-tense in the pilot.
  • In The West Wing fanfics, C.J. calls Josh "mi amore" (a one-off pet name) regularly and very frequently.
    • It's basically considered a given that in the future, Sam becomes the President and Josh his Chief of Staff. Writing a story that implies or outright says this didn't happen is tantamount to AU (however, this future is strongly implied/foreshadowed in canon, so it's not just a fan bandwagon).
    • There's a widely accepted explanation for why the presidential election years in TWW are two years offset from when they are in real life (Bartlet was elected in 1998 and re-elected in 2002, as opposed to the real life elections of 2000 and 2004): in the show's universe, when Nixon resigned, instead of Ford succeeding him, there was a special election, the winner served a full four-year term, and things carried on as normal from there. This fits neatly into canon since no nonfictional presidents more recent than Nixon are mentioned on the show.
    • A strange mix of fanon and Fanon Discontinuity — in one episode, Leo states that he has only been friends with Jed for eleven years, but has known him for 32. Fans usually ignore this, partly because a contradictory statement that implied Jed was friends with Leo for 40 years just made more sense to the fandom and is taken as canon instead, partly because the whole "eleven years friendship, 32 years acquaintance" thing was never explained, implied, or mentioned again.
  • Super Sentai:
    • Samurai Sentai Shinkenger:
      • Chiaki went to college after the events of the series. Ryunosuke tells him to study for college entrance exams (and Chiaki complains) but he never expressed a desire to go to college - he considered traveling like Genta.
      • Most fans accept that Kotoha is the youngest of the Shinkengers but there's nothing in canon to state this. She could just be the same age as Chiaki, but he treats her as a little sister figure.
      • Kaoru is somehow related to Shun from Denji Sentai Megaranger. Both he and Kaoru's father are played by Masaya Matsukaze.
    • Some Gosei Sentai Dairanger fans believe Kou and Lin are married by the time of the Where Are They Now? Epilogue. This is probably based on Lin having photos of Kou in her house (he does not appear in person) but given the age gap of at least 10 years, and Lin's distaste at Kou hitting on her, it seems unlikely they would have hooked up.
    • Engine Sentai Go-onger: Hiroto and Miu are twins. Their Power Rangers counterparts are twins, but while Hiroto is acknowledged to be older than Miu (and looks much older) their ages are not confirmed.
    • Choujin Sentai Jetman: Fan opinion differs on whether or not Gai is really dead. The tie-in manga sequel states he is, but not all fans take it as canon.
    • Sugishita from Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger is a wizard, time-traveller, or controls entry to different dimensions. Comes from the Dino Curry House being used as an Inn Between the Worlds in the Vs specials, but this appears to have been dropped as of Shinkenger vs Go-onger with the death of Sugishita's actor.
    • Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: Umeko is the leader of the Dekarangers. Appears to be more of a Running Gag than anything else. The closest they have to a leader on-screen is Doggie.
    • Tensou Sentai Goseiger: The Goseigers are Really Seven Hundred Years Old. Word of God gives them ages between 17 (Moune) and 24 (Hyde).
    • Ninja Sentai Kakuranger: The Kakurangers all have the same family names as their legendary ancestors: Ōhōri Tsuruhime, Sarutobi Sasuke, Kirigakure Saizou and Miyoshi Seikai.
    • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: Marvelous was born and brought up on a pirate ship, or otherwise joined his first pirate crew while still a young child.
  • Blakes Seven: Vila is not dead. He fell backwards, therefore he is still alive.
  • Kamen Rider:
    • Kamen Rider Double: Shotaro was a petty criminal in the past. This is based on a flashback in one of the Jewel Dopant episodes to him running from Jinno when Jinno was a beat cop.
      • Ren Akiyama is the father of the little girl featured in episodes 5-6, because the doll her father gave her resembles Kamen Rider Knight.
    • Kamen Rider Kuuga: Yuusuke Godai is dead. Possibly a theory to explain his absence from Kamen Rider Decade, where the Riders who appeared in the movies were all implied to be the originals, except for Kuuga, replaced by his AU counterpart Yuusuke Onodera. This is because Godai's actor now considers Kamen Rider an Old Shame and does not want to be associated with the franchise.
    • Kamen Rider OOO: Chiyoko Shiraishi is related to Mako Shiraishi from Samurai Sentai Shinkenger, or (since Decade states that the Shinkengers' world has never had a Kamen Rider) is some kind of AU counterpart to Mako or her family. Both OOO and Shinkenger were written by Yasuko Kobayashi.
  • Most members of the Sliders fanbase tend to hold the fanon claim that the Professor Arturo who had his brain sucked out, was shot and left to die on an exploding planet in "The Exodus, Part 2" was a double of the team's real Arturo, who was left behind by the team (by accident) in "Post Traumatic Slide Syndrome". This is supported by producer Tracy Torme, who said in interviews afterwards that there was a loose plan to have the "real Arturo" be found when the Slider team return to the planet he was stuck on, but she was shown the door before she ever had a chance to put this plan into motion.
  • The Sherlock Kink Meme has spawned the idea that Anderson has a dinosaur fetish.
    • There's also a great deal of Crossover-y fun involved in figuring out who the "married ones next door" are.
    • Because of Benedict Cumberbatch and Mark Gatiss' real life redheadedness, Sherlock and Mycroft are occasionally "secret gingers".
      • In post-Reichenbach fics, Sherlock sometimes dies his hair red while he's pretending to be dead.
    • Sherlock's eventual reunion with John post-Reichenbach is normally after three years (as it was in the novels) and John either punches Sherlock, kisses him, or faints (depending on whether or not ther person is a shipper and if they've read the originals).
    • John also seems to have a jam fetish.
    • Lestrade apparently got Sherlock off of drugs as a condition for letting him consult.
    • It's commonly accepted that the Holmes family is very, very rich. Many stories involve the "Holmes Estate".
    • John's father was either an alcoholic or a soldier, or both.
    • Lestrade has a young daughter.
  • In The OC, fans think Alex's ex-girlfriend Jodie is an emancipated minor and also a lesbian Casanova.
  • Babylon 5: Although not strictly speaking canon, the generally accepted theory is that Delenn went Beyond the Rim at the end of her life and joined Sheridan (and Sinclair) there.
  • Smallville: There is a reasonably prevalent theory that Lana is also a meteor freak with the ability to make everyone, or alternatively just Clark and other meteor mutants, love her in some form. Lana herself is typically unaware of her power.
    • Lex has mutant healing powers. It explains his quick recoveries, the fact that his constant brain injuries haven't killed him yet, and why he's so interested in meteor mutants.
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