A casual Google search will yield millions of results saying that JK Rowling needs to stop. (Seriously, just Google search "JK Rowling needs to stop", I got about 24,100,000 results in 0.60 seconds). But even as fans cry that JK Rowling is ruining Harry Potter, many still create new fan theories and accept collective headcanons to the point where a large subsection of the fandom now accepts that Draco Malfoy is a Werewolf.
Did she ever worry about how she was going to get married and produce heirs during all her years in icy confinement? Even after learning how to control her powers, Elsa is perfectly happy just spending time with her sister and creating ice sculptures. She’s too busy having fun with her magical powers to have time for romance, sex, and continuing the family line.
Moving forward, let us examine the specific overlap between UPG (Unverified Personal Gnosis) and headcanon, as well as the consequential overlap between SPG (Shared Personal Gnosis) and fanon. So, I guess what I am saying is, like what you like and hate what you hate - but there is a lot of misinformation out there and a lot of people who just don’t know any better. Educating the masses to the truth will only strengthen our community. But please, don’t be a hypocrite when doing so and perhaps more importantly, don’t be one to further spread misinformation. It's easy to get into the mindset that Crey is evil top to bottom, but the company is MASSIVE. For every one illegitimate operation they do, they likely have two that are totally on the up and up.
Ultimately, official canon is much smaller than the people who throw the term around like to think it is. Canonicity is limited to that which has actually been described in the source material. Especially in groups of writers, it boils down to what the writers specifically need to worry about for the purposes of the ongoing plot. Now don’t interpret this as me saying you must like or even read all of the EU. I absolutely detest Barbra Hambly’s writing style and the Invasion comics were a legitimate pain for me to get through.
Generally, works created or endorsed by the original author(s) are considered canonical. Not all original content is considered canon and not all canon is original content. Sometimes creators will rewrite the canon (called a retcon) and make things that were previously canonical non-canonical. For example, the origins of a character may be rewritten, thus invalidating the portions of the works that speak to the old origins. Other times creators will incorporate non-original content and therefore incorporate the canon of these borrowed works. In literary studies, the meaning of canon has broadened to encompass the works of a writer or any group of writings considered as sanctioned or accepted within a circle.
So before we talk about how you can utilize canon to make your headcanon for roleplay, it’s important we talk about the three arbitrary types of canon that I made up for the purposes of this write-up. A notion behind canon is that conversations about literature rely on shared reading experiences—so long as everyone reads the same books, readers will know they are talking about the same ideas. Naturally, this use of canon extended to fan circles, referring not just to the books and movies that concern the same group of characters, but to the narrative universe that exists inside those works. While character headcanon generators are undoubtedly valuable tools, they also come with challenges.
