#dc fandom discourse

[its-your-mind]

one thing that I have noticed in fandom spaces (this is about the comics fandom(s) in particular, but I’ve also seen it happen in other fandoms that have a Lot Of Lore) is the tendency to make sweeping generalizations about what is “canon” vs what is “fanon.”

and when I say “sweeping generalizations,” I’m not talking about like… the times when an AU or headcanon or straight-up misinterpretation of a Specific Event or Quote or whatever gets Telephone-Gamed into the fandom’s collective consciousness as True And Canonical or smth like that.

I’m talking more about “this character is X in canon but Y in fanon” or “it’s totally fanon that character A and character B hated each other” or “fanon!character C is always doing X but canon!character C would NEVER” or (and this is one of my personal favorites) “character D has never once called character E [insert name/nickname/title/insult here] in canon, but in fanon they do it all the time!”

bc the thing is. like.

are you sure?

there isn’t a single piece of canon that could support that interpretation of that character? in every story where those two have interacted, their personalities or values never seemed like they might interact in that specific way?

in however many dozens or hundreds of comics, that character has never said “I love you”?

are you sure???

and bc this is the piss on the poor site, I wanna be so clear: this is not a convo about characters being written OOC, or different writers negating what has already been established in canon, or other shit like that. that’s a different topic, and one I’m MORE than happy to get mad about. it’s also not about how much members of a fandom need to engage with the source material in order to participate in fan spaces; I’m not interested in touching that conversation with a thirty-nine-and-a-half foot pole.

what this IS about is the fact that I’ve seen so. many. damn. posts. with like hundreds or thousands of notes. accusing “fanon” of being Fundamentally Incorrect about something. while I’m just sitting there thinking “🤨 okay well I can think of at least two different parts of canon that actually directly support the ‘fanon’ that you’re claiming is complete bs, so mayhaps it is time to stop accusing other members of the fandom of being out of touch with canon??” (and to be clear it is absolutely buckwild to expect anyone to have an encyclopedic knowledge of a canon that is almost a century old and has gone through several (dozen) rewrites at this point)

bc here’s the thing!! u are allowed to feel upset that people are Being Wrong About Your Blorbo Online!! that is your fundamental right as a user of this hellsite!!

but here’s the other thing!! sometimes the people who are Wrong About Your Blorbo are occasionally the people who Create Your Blorbo!! that is one of the fundamental tenants of fandom!!

so be mad about it!! scream your outrage to the sky about all of the reasons why your blorbo would fucking NEVER.

but don’t blame the fandom for something when the source material is Right There and Fucked Up As All Getout!! and remember that part of the fucked up nature of it all is that sometimes the same character is several different people, and it is possible to consume a Great Deal Of Content and come away with a Very Different Interpretation than someone else. (this is what can make the comics fandom so much fun! two completely opposing points can both be Pretty Much Correct with a Great Deal Of Textual Support behind them, and so you just get to keep pulling out uno reverse cards until you run out of steam and both of you walk away knowing more about The Character than you did before!)

(in fact, I bet if someone asked in a way that wasn’t an Accusation of Being Bad At Enjoying Media, there’d prolly be a Big Lore Nerd who would be happy to do a deep dive into the possible reasons/supports for a particular popular interpretation, even if that interpretation is one they Despise With Their Whole Being)

tl;dr: stop say the fandom made up an affectionate nickname unless you’re prepared to say with your whole chest that you have consumed literally every piece of media with the character in question talking to/referencing the nicknamed character and you are ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN the nickname appeared Not One Single Time

[shyjusticewarrior]

At some point "fanfic can be as good as professional writing" became "fanfic should be as good as professional writing" and that's caused major damage to fandom spaces.

[webshood]

not gonna elaborate it rn, but people diminishing Jason's experience with homelessness, malnourishment, childhood abuse and neglect, because he got adopted by a billionaire while also hcning Tim Drake to be abused and starved by his wealthy parents is rooted in racism and classism

[glitter-stained]

"why does fanon love making Jason care about his goons when he kills them in canon" I'm sorry to tell you that Jason's Robin run is a significant work for his characterization. And that Willis Todd was in fact a goon. Like, that's a significant thing that happened.

(jaybin fans exist not every Jason fan is a hardcore UTH fan who thinks everything about Winick's writing is pure and just and the right way)

[who-always-pays-their-taxes]

Why do you (as in the royal you) as a member of a fandom,, seem to believe that things need to be,,, canon??? in fanfiction??? why would? that ever be? if you wanted to read pure canon, you could,,,, idk,,, read canon? pick up the source material,,, and if you wanted to read pure canon fanfiction just search the ‘canon compliant’ tag. that’s how ao3 works. so silly.

[moranamorena]

If I see one more person saying that Jason Todd's fans only like him because they don't read comics I'm gonna lose it

Dude, they're the only ones who actually read his comics, especially his Robin runs. The amount of times I saw Jason's hater making a statement about him that isn't true to most if not any canon is riddiculus And I saw the even higher amount of people arguing and disagreeing with Jason's fans over facts based on actual panels from comics

If you hate Jason for being and angry Robin who disobeyed Bruce and got himself killed you already lost an argument

If you hate Jason for being a stupid brute who stands out only because he kills people and uses guns you already lost an argument

If you hate Jason for "stealing" from other characters and not having story elements unique to his own character you already lost an argument

Jason Todd fanbase is as intense as it is because OTHER COMIC BOOK READERS AND BATFAMILY STANS DON'T READ HIS COMICS

It's really frustrating to have other fans claiming you don't know your favourite (or one of your favourites) characters when you know for a fact that you had read so much more about him. And that you have to witness his character being butchered by both the new comic writers and people in fandom over and over again

[bestangelofall]

The thing is that Jason haters get his relationships with the other bats much better than people who like Jason but are generally Batfam fans.

Those characters do not like Jason, they will always throw him under the bus when needed. He's the convenient scapegoat and it's easy to just put him aside because they don't need to inconvenience themselves with his presence there.

Also, whether or not you see them as a nuclear family, they do not support the member of the family that is just a bit harder to deal with - and no one is obligated to, but the thing is that, at the end of the day, the other bats will be there for each other, but they won't for Jason, because that would be just a bit harder.

(also, before anyone says "but they tried to reach out" - no, they didn't, not in any way that would be understood as such).

[skylathescholarly]

Okay... I never called myself a Super Serious Batfamily fan. I read what I want and pick things I like from canon and fanon like strawberries. So maybe I just don't have enough information or dedication.

But.

I really, really don't understand why liking one character necessitates hating another? I'm primarily a Tim Drake stan, but Jason Todd is my babygirl too. Damian is a sweetheart and doesn't deserve a bunch of the crap the Tim Drake fandom gives him. Dick isn't perfect either. Tim has made many mistakes. Steph has. Bruce has. Almost everyone has (I feel like Cass and Alfred might be exempt but I don't know lol) and I really hate that there's this attitude of "Batfam member vs Batfam member".

Like, welcome to having siblings. My brother could absolutely say the meanest thing he's ever said to me, and I'll give him crap but I'll sit next to him at dinner.

I don't know, and I know there are such things as AUs where a sibling is more intense than other universes, and vice versa, and I fully utilize my ability to move on from a fic if I don't like it, but I just hate the character bashing that seems to take some parts of the fandom by storm.

It makes me sad, ok? 😭😂

[windybluebelles]

Are we all aware that JayRoy is only an okay thing to do when Jason is already Red Hood/an ADULT?

Are we chill with the fact that him as Robin (aged 12->15) should NOT be in a relationship with a guy 5ish years older than him?

Cause that’s like, pedophilia. It’s not cute it’s weird and freaky

This also entirely applied to JayKori but I see less people shipping that with JayBin.

[vampynocturne]

my point is, please FOR TH LOVE OF GOD stop trying to defend evil/morally gray characters😭 they act the way they do for a reason, you’ll just lose your mind trying to redeem fictional characters that are clearly irredeemable

[areyoufeelingwhelmedyet]

This is what I’m talking about, this is what fandom spaces are missing in 2025.

BRING BACK CRACK/PROBLEMATIC SHIPPING.

BE CRINGE! BE WEIRD! EXPLORE FUNNY TROPES! EXPLORE TROPES THAT WOULDN’T WORK!

[kessfansworld]

i’m gonna ask the question that has been on my mind for a while. what do people think about the fact that there’s accounts who have ai generated voiceover reading tumblr posts, because these videos get so many views. sometimes they even go viral. sometimes the username from the original user is cut down and there’s just no way to find the original account and give them love. it’s mostly from dc fandom, which i frequent. i don’t know, just how do people feel about this? how does the fandom feel about this, because what i would perfer is them sharing the original tumblr post, leaving a link for us to find the og post and give them our love and respect, and also leave the username in, don’t cut it out and not that ai voiceover. that’s what i would perfer but this isn’t about me. i just can’t imagine coming up with an idea and seeing it going viral and my username isn’t even there, and it’s ai voiceover. i don’t know—something about it is just off. i know i’m big believer of generative ai having no place in fandom

[glitter-stained]

Ngl it really peeves me when the debate about Jason's ethics regarding killing in the batfam mixes up the question of him being a moral character in regards to sticking to his own philosophy (aka compromising with what he thinks is right to salvage relationships, but also exploding trains to evade capture, killing random goons in a gang war, etc) and the question of him being a moral character in regards to whether his philosophy is right. And even with regards to his philosophy there is his philosophy on politics, crime control and harm reduction, and his ethical philosophy itself (utilitarianism, aka focusing on intended positive consequences of actions for the greater good rather than the action being fundamentally moral or immoral in itself). Those are different things. Those require different debates and should not be conflated together. I'm not even saying Jason is right! I think utilitarianism and deontology both suck and fail at providing sufficient guidelines for moral behaviour. ("Everybody still loses" like the nihilist clown says. The symbolism of that one scene is pretty cool on that regard.)

And I think some people at dc would very much like for you to make the connection that because Jason is harming civilians/killing unnamed goons, he is a bad person, and as such you don't need to examine the way his stance on moral philosophy (utilitarianism) opposes Batman's. But that's not right, they don't get to wiggle out of the fact that utilitarianism vs deontology is a complicated debate that has been going on for ages, that there is no clear-cut answer where Batman fundamentally comes out on top, they don't get to use the fact that Jason (in the era currently discussed) is a villain to saddle us with a false dichotomy of "well jason is wrong about stuff so batman has to be right" to avoid addressing the actual question. The traits of the people being tied on the tracks do not change the shape of the trolley problem. The traits of the person deciding to pull the lever do not change the shape of the trolley problem. It's still one lever, three people tied on one track, one on the other, do you pull the lever. That's it. Yes, bending the metaphor to address other questions (such as "who keeps tying people to the tracks" to question systemic violence or "how does my bias, my prejudice and empathy impact my decision to pull the lever depending on who is on the tracks") are interesting but that's not what the debate is about. If I wrote an essay about the trolley problem in high school and focused primarily on the nature of the people being tied on the tracks, I'd get a big fat zero with "off-topic" written in red all over my essay, so I'm not inclined to allow DC comics to get away with it.

[webshood]

DC doesn't let Jason go past his death and desvincule himself from the batfam, because then they would lose their cautionary tale and someone to use when aggrandizing other members of the batfam, they do it all the time with Damian, erasing years of character development just so they can make Tim interesting again

[myfandomrealitea]

Omegle is dead. RIP to a generational gem.

For those of you who used it for fandom roleplay, EmeraldChat is a good, similar alternative. You can add interests in the same way, and there are additional options like sending images and saving chats.

[iwasnotaslasher]

Oh great the newest Superman movie isn't out and Superman fans already have to tolerate horrible characterisation from Batman fans who ship them but don't care about Superman

Dear Anon, are you up to a real discussion?

First: how old are you? And I don't mean it in a condescending way, I'm just curious.

See, I turned 40 this year and I'm writing this while on break during my shift as a grocery cashier.

I'm in the fandom since I was in my early twenties, when I was a college student with a lot of free time and mental energy. Now I'm married with two children, a mortage, a potpourri of both physical and mental health issues... I swear I got so many commitments that sometimes I'm on the verge of a burnout.

Still, it's a pretty normal life with a pretty normal amount of stress, and I Iove what I've achieved. Only, the time for engage with fandoms and writing fanfics is now very short and very very cherished. Some days I wish I can turn back time and be carefree again, just for a little bit, so I would be able to truly enjoy the fandom life like before. Though I would do it in a different way: I wouldn't care in slightest about other people opinions.

Because now I can see it: such a waste of time and energy! Who cares about what some stranger enjoy to write or read in their spare time? Does this affect my life in any way? Nope! So why should I give it any fuck?

Why should you give any fuck to me and my  personal view on some fictional characters and their dynamics?!

Anon, I'm giving you this advice with the same spirit of an old wise auntie: do yourself a huge favour and enjoy your time in the fandom without giving a shit about others' preferences. I should be a no one to you. Anyone should be no one to you. You are choosing to give us a relevance that we don't have and don't want, and I'm begging you to stop.

Do it for yourself, since nobody else is gonna do it for you.

That being said, if anyone is actually interested engaging a honest conversation, feel free to submit an ask. But since I'm really too old and tired for any kind of anon hate, I'm unabling the anonymous asks.

Sincerly,

A well seasoned, grey-haired, presbyopic veteran fangirl