Canon vs. Fanon

Submission 12,759

Part of a series on Fan Art. [View Related Entries]

About

Canon vs. Fanon refers to a series of memes and sketches that depict popular tropes in fanon, juxtaposing canon and fanon versions of characters. The format achieved popularity on X / Twitter in mid-March 2024.

Origin

On March 10th, 2024, X^[1] user @DaGamah_ wrote, "What's yalls favorite canon vs fanon depiction chat." The post (shown below) received over 2,200 reposts and quotes and 3,100 likes in four days.

In the following hours, users on X^[2] / Twitter responded with both their favorite and disliked tropes in fanon, often drawing comparison memes juxtaposing canon versions of characters with their fanon versions. On March 10th, 2024, X user @FectoPrisma posted the earliest notable meme within the trope (shown below) garnering over 2,600 reposts and 19,000 likes in five days.

Spread

More users submitted their Canon vs. Fanon memes in mid-March 2024: on March 10th, 2024, X^[3] user posted a drawing depicting the animorphism trope in fanon that received over 7,000 reposts and 50,000 likes in four days (shown below, left). Later that day, X^[4] user @ElUnicoCosta posted a meme about Headcanons that gained over 3,700 reposts and 29,000 likes in four days (shown below, right).

The trend continued on X / Twitter through mid-March 2024, with multiple submissions going viral.