Headcanons

I've been writing fanfiction for a long time.

As I mentioned in my other Representation entry, I didn't grow up seeing myself represented in Media. On the rare occasion that I did see Autism, or Asexuality, represented, it was usually as a caricature, or the punchline of a joke, or a problem to be solved. Other times, as diversity became a popular thing to include, it would be shown as an excuse for poor behaviour, or, more rarely, as Inspirational(TM), to make a character more impressive for having already overcome their hurdles due to their Special Interest being seen as valuable, like Rain Man or The Good Doctor.

Fanfiction was a way to satisfy that lack of representation.

To take the tiny glimpses of myself, that the studio or author would never actually confirm, and turn them into fully-fledged character traits through Headcanons.

Headcanons, for those unfamiliar with the term, is when fans take character or personality traits that that Creators or text/script haven't confirmed, and fleshed them out.

Headcanons range from exploring minor characters, to relationship speculations, to expanding a throwaway line into an actual personality trait, to writing characters as LGBTQ+ or disabled, to realistic PTSD for Child-/Teen-Superheroes, and "this Canon Thing makes no sense, so I'm re-writing it sensibly to stop my brain from exploding."

Commonly, exploring and expanding characters was done with fan-favourite minor characters that didn't have much in the way of Canon Backstory.

Way back in the mists of time, in the early 00s, when the Lord of the Rings Trilogy came out, there was an elf character who appeared at the Council of Elrond, and later in The Return of the King. Fans went wild inventing a name, a role in Elrond's household, a backstory, and probably a large number of self-insert fanfiction wives for the character.

The early interwebs were equally baffled and impressed. It was perhaps the first commonly-accepted headcanon, but by no means the last...

The Star Wars Expaded Universe/Legends also suffers a lot from this. With so many different contributors, and fanfiction really taking off around the same time, there are some commonly-accepted fan theories that people don't even realize are just common headcanons.

When Bridgerton Season 3 came out (especially in the long wait between episodes 4 and 5) fans went nuts over Lord Remington and Lord Debling, They may have disappeared from the screen and the narrative after maybe half an hour of screen-time, but not from our hearts.

Another popular reason was to create representation where there was none. In short: "If I can't find representation in existing media, I'll make my own!"

Often this is based on the chemistry between actors, but just as often, from fed-up minorities (Disabled, LGBTQ+, or other demographics) who think something would make a lot more sense if a character was a minority.

Percy Jackson, for example, was often headcanoned as being Mixed Race, both because of his Greek God father, and because teachers and other authority figures singling him out or writing him off so easily makes much more sense than if he was White. (Being from a low socio-economic background does go some way toward explaining this, but Mixed or POC-presenting goes a lot further). It also helped that Rick Riordan went out of his way to include non-white, non-straight, non-Abled characters in the Percy Jackson universe, as soon as he got too big for Publishing Houses to stop him.

I have a very long history of writing "If I can't find representation in existing media, I'll make my own!", both in fanfiction, and in my original published works.

I'm Autistic, but not the "cute and quirky" kind of Autistic that you see in shows like The Good Doctor, or other shows with an Autistic protagonist. I'm the sort where holding down a full-time job uses up all my spell slots, so trying to cook on a daily basis and keep up with the housework is like trying to run a marathon on two broken legs. (But the government insists that I'm not "disabled enough" to get disability benefits...)

I'm Asexual, but I'm sex-neutral/indifferent, so I can't be framed as my sexuality being a problem to be fixed by finding the right romantic partner. Nor can it be played for laughs in a Comedy Sketch, with me dramatically leaping away from any kind of physical contact, like The Big Bang Theory.

To paraphrase Katherine in 'Hidden Figures': "There is no representation for me here."

So, instead, I write characters that are trying their hardest, struggling under an invisible weight, sometimes succeeding and sometimes not. They don't have all - or even most - of the answers, and they never will, but the network of people who love and support them despite their differences makes things easier.

Recently, inspired by Spite general frustration at how many high-profile writers treat disability accommodations as something easily accessible to everyone, and disabled characters as little more than stereotypes, I wrote 6000 words of thinly-veiled Miraculous Ladybug fanfiction that I did NOT expect to blow up in popularity the way it did.

• All you need to know about the fandom, at this point, is that the main cast is written rather inconsistently, depending on the needs of the episode, and also suprisingly diverse in race and body type, and several characters are very easy to headcanon as some variety of neuro-spicy and/or disabled. Also, that the main creator is NOT the type to expolore that diversity in any real depth.

I started with a deep-dive into the Research Rabbit-holes of various disabilities, finding ones that reasonably matched up with certain characters' canon behaviours. Then I did more research on symptoms, treatment, and the impact on the disabled person's daily life, because I wanted to get this right. I refuse to write a stereotype and pretend that that's all there is to a character.

Next came writing the first chapter, interspaced with research about various accommodations in school settings. (Yes, I'm still salty that Individualised Education Plans didn't become a thing until after I'd graduated...)

Immediately after that, was taking a good look at the characters, and turning the stereotypes into something realistic. I'm usually something of a Planster, writing along a vague outline, but for this story, I actually sat down and plotted out what I wanted to happen.

The highly creative character who couldn't go five minutes without doom-spiralling, until the plot required them to leap into confident action, still had Anxiety and was somewhere on the Autism Spectrum, but she also had coping mechanisms, and worked hard on herself.

The chronically ill character had supports in place for the Bad Days. The ADHD character had exemptions and special permissions to let them self-regulate. Synthasia and Mythomania were treated sympathetically, rather than with "oh-ha-ha-aren't-they-quirky?" condescension.

I hadn't expected much of a reaction, but apparently I wasn't the only person who had been waiting for someone to write realistic Invisible Disability characters...

Lack of representation can be easily overlooked, because people often don't realise what's missing.

Feeling invisible, then finally feeling seen, is something indescribable.

You can find the fanfic HERE, if you want to read it for yourself.