Meme: headcanon vs real canon!

[betterthanaplan]

Hello yes yesterday was terrible and today I am having a Lump of Sad Day (that seems to include being incapable of typing without way too many typos, seriously I'm ahving to retype words liek four times to get tehm right), so I've dug up a meme that we, per Natalie's spreadsheet, we haven't done since 2014.

Headcanon vs real canon!

Even the most obsessive of canons (yes, Star Wars, I'm looking at you) leaves some gaps in information as you play a character. But canon also provides some truly random factoids. So today's meme:

Provide us five bits of things you totally made up headcanon for your character, as well as five things that are, sadly, canon but could sound like you made them up.

Bonus points if you go over five!

Show me all the weird!

Comments

[betterthanaplan]

Headcanons

1. Duke's taste in music. Somehow NO ONE'S taste in music is actually established on this show. Except for, like, Audrey's previous incarnation being into Elton John. So I got to decide he was into new wave growing up and as a teen obsessively listened to Counting Crows and learned the piano part for a Tori Amos song from the only other queer he knew in high school.
2. Also that he's bi. I mean, it's subtextually in all sorts of spots, but it's never actually made canon that he and Nathan were ever a Thing. Still. I mean. YOU HAVE AN ENTIRE HALLWAY BOYS AND YOU ARE STANDING CHEST TO CHEST.
3. He learned free diving from Japanese pearl divers after being ditched by his first serious pair of lovers shortly after leaving Haven for a life of crime at sea
4. Most of the details of how Duke spent his misspent youth in Haven. We know he was homeless for part of it and in high school "sold bootleg booze under the bleachers" and that he slept with lots of people. The rest is pretty much all me.
5. Duke never actually killed anyone directly until his trouble was activated. He's always been prepared to, and in some cases it was more out of an accident of fate than any real attempt not to kill. But Kyle Hopkins committing suicide-by-Duke was the first time anyone actually died by his hand, and Harry Nix was the first person he killed deliberately.

Real canon

1. Duke really plays the ukulele. Okay, so it was in ONE SCENE at a party to celebrate Nathan getting resurrected by a trouble. BUT THE UKULELE WAS PLAYED.
2. Duke's fucked up parents. I filled in some gaps but Duke's dad really did make him learn first aid at the age of like, seven, so he could patch him up when he came home all beaten up. And Duke really watched the man die at sea at the age of eight. And his mom really took him in only for the welfare checks after that, ditched him for good when he turned 18, and propositioned him in exchange for drugs when they met again afterward.
3. Young Duke was an asshole. He apparently got a bunch of guys together to stick thumb tacks in Nathan's back to see how many they could get in without him noticing. The answer: 16. This apparently also happened when Duke was eight. TRAUMA MAKES KIDS DO WEIRD SHIT. I mean, childhood makes kids do weird shit, trauma just makes it even more extra.
4. "Lucky for me I enjoy free diving."
5. Also, Duke "knows a guy" for basically anything. Fake IDs? Pfft, child's play. Need a greencard? Yeah, he can hook you up with that. Three specialized deep sea diving suits to wear while walking into a magic pressure bubble that's threatening to blow up the enire town? He's got you covered.
6. He has weapons stashed everywhere on his boat. Also, secret compartments and passages that he built in himself.

Technically the PB's headcanon:
From an interview done after the Haven finale:
1. "Even the original pilot script, well I guess it wasn’t really a pilot but the script for the first episode, - which changed. I remember there was a version where I was naked doing yoga in my boat. And then there was a version where the first time they met me I was fighting some Russian brawler in some unsanctioned boxing match"
2. "There was constantly a fight about that. Because I wanted Duke’s cell phone to be old and weird and - not as far as the old Saved By The Bell brick phone, but it shouldn’t look like a new iPhone. And they kept writing scripts where it would say; Duke uses an iPad, or he was using Bluetooth or whatever. And I was like; No! Everything in Duke’s world should be old and feel like it was from The Explorers where they built the spaceship but it was made from an old carnival ride. That’s how I felt everything in Duke’s world should be."

[knife_bender]

Headcanon

1. The whole gap in pop culture thing. The Hargreeves seem to be good on the music of the 80's and 90's but the whole "your free time is 30 min on Saturday" thing led me to believe that they don't know much about the TV/movies of their childhood.
2. Diego was labeled as "the dumb sibling" growing up.
3. He still keeps in regular contact with Grace and Pogo.
4. He had to sleep on the streets several times right after leaving home.
5. I have him getting his facial scars sometime after he leaves home while trying to superhero alone. He doesn't have the scars during Ben's funeral and he leaves home shortly after, so.

Real Canon
1. The ballroom dancing, knowing Shakespeare, speaking ancient Greek is all real.
2. His powers get stronger the longer he's around his siblings. This was confirmed by the showrunner in a post-season two interview when someone asked "Uh since when can Diego stop bullets?".
3. Because of this, I am very careful about not confirming or denying the comic canon superpower of being able to hold his breath indefinitely. He could do it in the pilot script, so who knows if they're going to throw it in again. The only person who might care about this power is Annie for, you know, dirty reasons.
4. Being a total momma's boy and crying a lot is real, yeah.
5. Pretty much everything terrible Sir Reginald did that I mention is either from the show or the comics.

[defenderofdesmoines]

Headcanon:

1. Annie caused a blackout in her neighborhood around the age of three or so. I don't actually have canon on this, but I do have a fun story from a different child prodigy Supe who burnt his house down, so it feels like a fair extrapolation.

2. This is less headcanon and more something I pulled from the comics because it would make sense and the show has yet to confirm, but Annie was on a superhero team right out of high school, primarily comprised of goody two-shoes heroes like herself. (But then, the show has sort of half-acknowledged this and then jossed me on her super-boyfriend's superhero name, so we'll see.)

3. While a lot of the products I've been rolling out under the Starlight brand are canon, such as her facewash Wish, the cereal I've been referencing is headcanon. She does have a teammate with his own cereal, but it seems silly to me that Frosted A-Trains would be all that's on the market.

4. Her lack of female friendships growing up -- she has an offhand mention of 'Countess,' who is The Boys' answer to Scarlet Witch, and I've fanwanked that they knew each other through pageants (even if canon continues to joss me, whatever), but given her record of winning and the constant competition of that environment, I've established that Annie didn't really have a lot of close girlfriends growing up because they were always in direct competition with one another, and plus Annie herself was kind of an awkward, conservative kid.

5. Annie's had kind of a fraught dating life up to this point, between trying to date normal boys and having to deal with ~fragile masculinity (that's canon, see below!), but also because she has a hard time gauging whether someone's interested in her, or in Starlight because her longest-running relationship before now was with another hero who's famous in his own right. I've also established she's freaked out at least one poor hapless dude with her glowy orgasm eyes.

Real canon:

1. Annie knows actor Greg Grunberg. She could also theoretically know Seth Rogen, but that's not confirmed.

2. She once kept the Heartland Beauties hero pageant going after a power outage by re-illuminating the auditorium with her own powers. (And then, naturally, took first place.)

3. The whole candy thing is, of course totally canon. Annie's top three candy bars are Almond Joy, Charleston Chew, and Bit O'Honey. She is gross. The love of doughnuts specifically is also canon. So is stress-eating as a general practice.

4. Annie uses her powers to turn off lights, break screens when she doesn't like what she's seeing, cauterizes a wound, blows doors off things, and there's a scene of her using her hands as flashlights. Also sometimes she uses them to beat up bad guys, even.

5. Annie once got into a fight at a high school party because someone shoved her date and she decked the guy; her date -- Sean Jakowski -- thanked her by never calling her again, and since then, Annie has been very resistant to the idea of showing a boy she likes how strong she really is.

Bonus: This soy sauce commercial from The Deep is canon, even if Annie isn't involved.

[badassprodigy]

Head Canon
1. Social Awkwardness - I figured as Barry got older he'd start to miss a lot of social cues when it comes to relating with people.
2. Being "Nice" - In the comics Barry is a grade "A" asshole. He got better as the comics went on but I figured by the time he through high school and his mid-twenties he'd learn how to be somewhat polite.
3. Ethical Science - After a plot that happened way back in 2015, Barry turned a corner and dedicated himself to making science help the world and others.
4. Virginity - See #1. In my mind Barry has a hard time making an emotional connection with people. And therefore he never made that step. Sorry about that Summer.
5. Fan of Horrible Movies - Because somewhere along the line he thought MST3K was a work of genius. And his favorite movie is still Sharknado.

Real Canon
1. His swearing. It is beyond filthy and offensive and I have toned it down for the game.
2. He has turned his best friend into a talking dinosaur
3. Anonymously won a Cannes film prize for his documentary on migrant workers. That he did at age ten.
4. Is a multi-billionaire because of his inventions and shady internet hacking
5. Can clone people and shift people's brain into another body.

Stark

[stykera]

Headcanons:

1. He doesn't like the cold. He grew up in Scarran space and Scarrans like it hot. Plus the ice planet in "Die Me, Dichotomy" has some very bad associations. And nobody who enjoys being cold has a giant Muppet fur coat like the one he wears.

2. That he grew up in Scarran space. We know he was on Katratzi as a boy. I've extrapolated.

3. The love of sugar. The cupcakes were a thing because BSG Anders made them for him. The rest is because this is a guy who almost certainly never ate anything nice until he ended up on Moya. Sugar is a frelling delight and he'll get as much as he can.

4. He keeps his apartment very clean. A little bit because he likes it that way and a lot just because he can. It's his space that he's in control of. It's also not that hard because he doesn't have a lot of stuff.

5. Hates wasting food, even the terrifying things Summer came up with, so he'll at least try whatever you put in front of him. Even if he's very unhappy about it.

Canon

1. He really did get executed by being "dispersed" but he got better because he's not entirely corporeal. And he did it to save the lives of all his shipmates.

2. He planned a (mostly) successful space bank heist. Then the slaves he was trying to buy to free all got spaced and the stolen money turned out to be metal-eating bugs and things just generally went downhill.

3. He's an excellent tipper, presumably due to that whole being enslaved thing. Canonically gave some porters more than a year's wage for carrying some bags for him and Zhaan because the server class is never rewarded enough.

4. Can cause accidental time travel under the right circumstances. Very much did not enjoy that experience.

5. Can see and interact with ghosts.

6. Once plugged himself into Talyn, who was bred not to have a Pilot, so he could fly the ship in an attempt to save a ghost (and everyone else). There was mist making everyone go to extremes. John and Aeryn got real horny, Crais got real mad, Rygel ate everything in sight, and Stark went all out trying to save everyone.

7. Has dealt with at least 15,000 deaths. Presumably that counts the 10k Baniks that Scorpy spaced since he collapsed screaming when it happened. Carries a little piece of every soul with him.

[thatwaslucky]

Headcanon
1. Some parts of Earth culture and pop culture are more ingrained in her than stuff from her galaxy because she was so insulated. So Rey will say things like "picture" instead of "holo" because she potentially has no memory of seeing a holo.
2. Rey likes the taste of spicy stuff but can't actually handle it. Dr. Pepper is like the spiciest she can do. She's kind of the same way with sugar.
3. Generally not a fan of alcohol, especially when she can actually taste it, but she's trying to learn to like Corellian brandy solely because it was Han's drink.
4. It is canon that Rey grew up having to handle heavy equipment so she's decently strong, but I've seen video of Daisy Ridley deadlifting 200 pounds and that's what sticks in my head.
5. Based off of *gestures at the trio throughout the entirety of TROS*, once she's comfortable with someone Rey can get touchy and is very much a hugger, and kind of a cuddleslut if she's really comfortable with you. She is all about contact from another person.

Real Canon
1. Anything from the time of Rey growing up on Jakku is all canon. She was abandoned at five/six, Unkar Plutt put a roof over her head for "a couple years" and then she was on her own, working for other people until she figured out they needed her more than she needed them. She learned to fly from a simulator on a computer she salvaged, and everything she learned after the age of five was something she had to teach herself.
2. She's been doing her hair in the three buns since she was a kid because she had figured that it would help her parents recognize her when they came back and she was older. YEAH.
3. Learned to understand Shyriiwook from Wookiee traders who would stop in at Niima Outpost. They told the best stories, and that's where she heard most of what she did about everyone, specifically Han and Chewie, growing up.
4. As someone who made her living off of crashed ships, she's fairly used to dead bodies and isn't squeamish at all. Their equipment was fair game to take but she'd leave their personal affects alone, and she'd give them a burial no matter what side they were on.
5. As of right now is designing herself a doublesaber that she fully intends to use someday. (She won't.)
6. It is absolutely real that she doesn't understand why people complain about eating ration bars, they are delicious and she's never eaten this well in her life.

[lovethatjourney]

Real Canon:
1. Child actor and teen model. Eventually she's going to try to become the next Jessica Simpson.
2. Went to the Playboy Mansion with her mom when she was seven. Hung out in the children's grotto.
3. Went through a gun-laden checkpoint in Johannesburg when she was 14, right after she got her braces off.
4. Her first kiss was with Jared Leto.
5. Dated all three Hanson boys for a summer for backstage passes to the Teen Choice awards.

Headcanon:
Don't need it.

[my_own_advocate]

Real canon:
1. Taught Mozart, Liberace and Elton John how to play piano, among other people.
2. Met Oscar Wilde "when he still thought he was straight", the implication being that the man did not by the time he left. (They call him 'The Skillet' because he's so good at flipping men, apparently ...though he doesn't like "your general blokes with ham-hands". He likes the boys pretty.)
3. Can be totally fussy domestic, obsessing about getting his charcuterie plate set-up just right for board game night and making many a casserole while he was fake!married to Tom Welling in the suburbs. (...He was fake!married to Tom Welling in the suburbs.)
4. Amenadiel, the oldest brother, and Lucifer were pretty much head of the pack of angels when they were young - emotionally, not physically. They played pranks on each other all the time, and all the other angels looked up to them. (The new season is likely to confirm this is a large part of the reason why everyone took Lucifer's fall so badly.)
5. Genuinely drinks alcohol constantly because he likes the taste. Per lightly-retconny recent Word of God, he can get drunk, but the amount of alcohol he'd need in a short time would be astronomical.

Headcanon:
1. He's fussy about his clothes pre-sex unless he's too distracted to think about it.
2. Is totally a secret snuggler in the sack because mmm, that emotional hit of affection, baby.
3. Pretty much every story I've had him tell about history, such as wasting much of the 16th through 18th century in France, missing the Age of Piracy because he was too busy screwing his way through French court. (... Look, Lucifer spending most of his time on Earth with naked humans is actual canon.) And Jesus. Lucifer canon likes to avoid Jesus.
4. He started off being distrustful of the ocean because there were too many wild animals out there. He's mellowed about that, but that's definitely where he comes from.
5. He REALLY HATES CAMPING.

... I'm not a great headcanonist.