The Marauders fandom has become toxic
The Harry Potter fandom has been fragmented for years. It is one of the few fandoms to have such active and separate sub-fandoms. And this has led many people to be fans of the story, or rather the world, of the setting of Harry Potter even without really knowing the saga.
We have reached the point where there are fans who have never read the books and who are not even interested in doing so. and mind you, I am not talking about those who have only seen the films and are fans of those, that's fine, I am referring to those who are not interested in the canon and live the fandom only within a sub-fandom, like the Marauders that denies and distorts the canon. Even boasting about this. Obviously everyone should be free to experiment with their passion in a free and personal way, but in recent years they are reaching ridiculous and at times toxic levels.
The Marauders fandom was born with a fantastic intent and a commitment that I have always respected. fans have tried to deepen and expand the era of the first magical war and to give characterizations and backgrounds to characters barely mentioned. this led to a wonderful period made of elaborate fanfiction, various characterizations, which still respected the canon. and to the birth of headcanons that really stood up without, I repeat, distorting the canon. Today, however, the Marauders fandom does practically the opposite. Years ago the original OC characters were very trendy, some of the most famous fanfictions had an OC as the protagonist, but then over time they often became Mary Sues who ended up being very powerful and who overshadowed the canonical characters, becoming the real heroes of the story, distorting the entire plot. this led many fans to avoid the OCs.
Yet the Marauders fandom ended up doing the same thing. Original characters were created, with new characterizations, and not consistent with the little we know from the canon, and they were given the names of canonical characters. And if this can be accepted for characters named only once in seven books, like Marlene, Mary, Benji, Caradoc etc... it cannot be accepted for canonical characters about whom we have a lot of information. Writing AU fanficton, therefore with declared drastic changes is fine, be careful, some of the most famous stories are crossovers, with changes of setting and drastic modifications, as in the case of What If. They are fascinating stories that have their own dignity. But precisely this is what they are, AU, crossover, What If, nothing to do with the canon, and they do not pretend to be.
The real problem arose when some fans began to impose their own vision, forcing other fans to respect their fancasts, their headcanons and facts that not only conflicted with the canon but even drastically changed the story. The most toxic fans of the Marauders ended up creating fanon versions of their favorites that are totally the opposite of the canonical ones.
James and Sirius, complex characters with flaws and dark sides have been transformed into sunny, carefree and kind-hearted characters. erasing their being arrogant bullies, one of the few canonical information we have.
Peter Pettigrew, chubby and insecure boy has been transformed into an immediately ambiguous and casually very thin caricature in the most famous fancasts. And Remus Lupin...
Merlin protect us, he was tortured, transformed into a popular boy, desired by everyone, described as the Casanova of Gryffindors. yes, him, the boy affected by lycanthropy, insecure and who tried to push Tonks away for months because he didn't want to have a relationship. and what's more, in one of the most famous fanfics, passed off by fans as canon compliant, Remus is described as an orphan boy.
Oh yes, Remus is an orphan, his father was abusive and violent and Remus grows up in a Muggle orphanage. Grows up full of anger and problems managing aggression.
Now is it obvious that fans have robbed other characters of their traumas and foisted them on Remus? Tom Riddle grew up in a Muggle orphanage, abandoned to his own devices. And Severus Snape canonically had an abusive father who beat him. But hey for the Marauders fans all this happened to Remus. Who cares about poor Lyall and Hope Lupin, Remus' loving parents in canon, they are as good as dead. While Severus Snape, the half-blood, dirt-poor kid who has to wear his parents' clothes and is bullied for years is instead portrayed as a snobbish, arrogant boy who bullies his classmates just because he can. The fans of this distorted sub-fandom gave Snape the canon personality of James and then started loving the fanon they themselves created. Nine times out of ten, those who tell you they love the Marauders don't actually love them, what they means is that they love the original characters they created and gave them the names of the Marauders. It is ironic then to see how these people hate Severus Snape, in this snobbish, arrogant and bully version when in reality they should hate the canon James who is exactly like that.
And what is worse is that these fans have become so convinced of their own fantasies that they have started to spread confusion in the general fandom, claiming that Snape attacked his classmates, that Sirius and Regulus were tortured by their mother with the Cruciatus, that poor Regulus was forced to take the dark mark and many other absurdities that clearly deny the canon. I repeat, all these things can also be fine, but inserted in fanfiction set in parallel worlds, with what if or separate stories. Passing them off as pertaining to the canon makes no sense and above all is not respectful of the story. And yet these Marauders fans do not care about the canon. They say it themselves with pride.
“We don’t care about the canon.”
And yes in recent years their excuse has been that they don’t share Rowling’s transphobia ideas and they don’t want to have anything to do with her saga.
A more than respectable decision, everyone decides for themselves.
I don’t support Rowling’s ideas either and for this reason I have decided not to support her financially as much as possible. I don’t buy official merchandising, I don’t buy books from which she makes money etc...
But saying they want to completely detach themselves from the story means they have nothing to do with it, they don’t steal the names of the characters, the setting of the story and then rewrite everything confusing new fans and attacking those who instead stick to the canon.
I don’t know if I can convey the idea, but I’ll try.
Imagine arguing with a friend of yours who owns a restaurant, you have supported him for years, you love his food, but after the argument you tell him that you don't want to have anything to do with him anymore, you distance yourself, you badmouth him to everyone and then in the meantime you have stolen all the recipes of his dishes and every day you eat his recooked food, you gain fame from re-cooking his recipes, you receive compliments and you try to convince as many people as possible that those dishes belong to you, that the real recipes are the ones you make. And you attack anyone who tries to say that in reality those same recipes belong to someone else.
You are not obligated to remain in a fandom, you are not obligated to support an author if you don't want to do so and yes you can certainly take refuge in fanfiction if you love them, but you must respect the clear distinction between canon and fanon.
Do not try to forcefully convince other fans of your fantasies.
The canon is only one, made of nuances, complex characters, periods of which we know little and names barely mentioned. the beauty of fandom is also trying to fill these gaps that history brings with it, to delve deeper with personal versions. fandom is freedom, but it must be free for everyone, and not exclusive to those who stick to the versions that have been forcibly made more famous. if you only love the fan versions of some characters then you don't love those characters.
Forgive the comparison, but it would be like me saying that I love Darth Vader because he is a pure, candid and altruistic soul who fights for the light side of the force, since in my mind he is Obi-Wan with the mask.
You understand that by saying this people would think I'm crazy and point me out as not a fan of the saga. In the Marauders fandom, however, most people live in a collective hallucination, created at the table where the canon no longer has any importance and those who are part of it today often don't even remember how and why this sub-fandom was born. It was not born to distort the original story, nor to wage war on the author, but to create what we have never had, that is, an expanded Harry Potter universe with multiple visions. A free space where everyone can give their contribution without distorting the story (except in AU, What If etc. declared and not passed off as canonical) Instead, by challenging the desire to create a more tolerant and free space, the loudest fans have ended up limiting the freedom of others, imposing their visions that, I repeat, are in direct conflict with the canon.
If you really want to love characters created by you, do not pollute the Harry Potter fandom, create a new original story, with new characters and new names, detached from Harry Potter.
It is too easy to steal characters, stories and setting and then attack those who created all this while vandalizing the story.
Have the courage and strength to create something new, or if you want to stay in this fandom stick to the canon or modify it but in a declared way without pretending that your prosternal vision is canonical. Fandom is freedom and it must remain so.
No one should set themselves up as the holder of truth, especially if that truth is invented.
izzy806
turnnoffyourmind
vaporwave
andulkaphoto
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