A small rant about headcanons, fanfiction, and why words actually mean things
I’ve been thinking (dangerous, I know) about the way the Marauders fandom uses the word "headcanon", and I think we need to talk about it.
Because apparently, in 2026 fandom discourse, headcanon no longer means what it used to mean.
What a headcanon actually is:
By definition (and you can ask Uncle Google) a headcanon is:
A reader or viewer’s personal interpretation of a fictional work, especially an imaginative addition that is not explicitly confirmed or contradicted by the original text.
The key part being: "not contradicted by canon."
A headcanon is something that fits so well within canon that you can plausibly imagine it being true, even if the text never states it outright. It is canon… in your head. Simple.
What the Marauders fandom thinks a headcanon is:
According to TikTok discourse, a headcanon is: anything you invent, regardless of whether canon directly contradicts it, regardless of whether it requires rewriting the characters from the ground up.
At which point… that’s not a headcanon. That’s just a wish.
And wishes are fine! Everyone has them. But let’s not pretend they’re something else.
An example, because apparently we need one:
In my mind, Remus Lupin didn’t really die. He was in a coma, having a near-death experience, and woke up later. Is that contradicted in the books themselves? Not at all. Could it theoretically be a headcanon? Yes.
But it isn’t one, because his official biography explicitly states that he died.
So I don’t call that a headcanon. I call it what it is: wishful thinking. Or canon fix-it, if you will.
This is where fanfiction comes in:
Marauders fans love to say: “You can’t criticise fanfiction!”
And normally, I’d agree. Fanfiction is about exploration, creativity, and “what ifs”.
Except… most Marauders “fanfics” aren’t actually engaging with canon at all. Are they really fanfiction or "haterfiction"?
They change personalities, rewrite backstories, erase established dynamics, and replace the entire emotional core of the characters.
At that point, you’re not writing fanfiction about Harry Potter characters. You’re writing original characters and giving them borrowed names.
Which is fine! But again, call it what it is: AU (and never Canon Compliant!!!).
Why I jokingly call it haterfiction:
Because when you strip characters of their values, ignore their trauma, erase their motivations and flatten their moral complexity... what you’re really doing is writing against them.
You clearly hate the Harry Potter characters, so you change their whole essence. And that's fine, just call it AU!
And when people point that out, suddenly canon is “irrelevant”, criticism is “gatekeeping”, and words don’t matter anymore.
In conclusion:
No, inventing things that are directly contradicted by canon are not headcanons.
They are wishes, alternate universes or completely original stories wearing canon as a costume. Which is fine. Just be honest about it!!
Because if everything is a headcanon, then nothing is... and canon stops meaning anything at all. And some of us still care about the text we actually read.
Words matter. Canon matters. And fandom could really use a dictionary.
