canon is what happens in the text. e.g. merlin tries to poison morgana
a headcanon is a fact that you have personally made up as an elaboration of canon. it is your invention. e.g. i think morgana and gwen had a teenage lesbian situationship before the events of canon. or, i think modern morgana would love evanesence.
an interpretation is how one reads the existing text. it is not an invented fact nor is it a headcanon, it is a reading. e.g. i think merlin tries to poison morgana out of misplaced self-hatred. or, i think that one line was delivered with suppressed malice and shows a nuanced relationship.
fanon is the general fandom’s accepted headcanons and interpretations that elaborate or recontextualize canon. e.g. merlin is a badass waif and morgana is a bitch.
these are all different words with different meanings.
This could either be a primarch x reader, or an emperor x reader. Hang with me for a sec-
Something happens and you end up in a world that's kind of familiar, but you can't place it. You find yourself the child of a noble, and are given all kinds of riches. You think you surely must be in a fantasy novel you read, like in all those other fantasy novels you've read.
You decide to just go with it. Clearly you're some background extra that doesn't matter to the story, otherwise you'd remember things better. It was fine, no big deal. You were living in luxury, and your family took care of you, so cool. You embrace your new life as best you can, understanding that there is probably no way back home. You mourn, but you move on.
You live like this for a few years, eventually giving up figuring out where exactly you were. It didn't really matter, it wasn't like you were in danger.
But one morning, you wake to find your household in an uproar. Servants scramble around, your parents in full panic mode. You ask your father what's going on.
"We got a message from the king this morning- The Emperor and his sons are visiting, and we have been chosen to house them. We must make everything perfect, and we don't have long!"
Unease shudders through you. You have a king, but also an emperor? Your father must have misspoken in his rush. This Emperor was surely from a neighboring country. Regardless, you understand now why everyone is so on edge.
You offer whatever you can to help, as is your duty, and spend the next few days rushing around and preparing for your illustrious guests. But that sense of wrongness never leaves you, an anxiety like none other making you feel sick.
When the day comes for the Emperor and his sons to arrive, you put on some fine clothes, and plaster a polite expression on your face despite how badly you want to vomit. Everything was going to be fine, you were going to meet these people, they were going to stay a while, then they would leave and you could return to your life. Easy peasy, you could do this.
That is, until a man you've only ever seen in artwork from your former life steps into your home.
He's massive, and more beautiful than any artist has ever given full credit, with a kind of glow that makes him both ethereal and utterly terrifying. At his side are two men- his sons- nearly as large as him, and beautiful in their own individual rights.
It's then that you understand where you are. You are in the grimdark future your cheating ex boyfriend had once laid on your bed and talked about for hours while you listened because you loved him and thought he loved you. You'd had figures you painted with him in your old room, and hadn't been able to throw them away once you learned the truth.
You try to hold your mask of calm nobility, silently hoping they don't look at you closely enough to see the cracks. But they do. Of course they do. And suddenly, you have the unwanted attention of very powerful, frightening men, and have to figure out how to survive their extended visit.
reblog if you believe fanfics are as valid as books that were published and sold by authors who write as their main careers. I'm trying to prove a point
