Let's Talk January: Conflicting Headcanon!

tropicsbear asked about when fans' head canon disagrees with mine. I'm a real fan of "Live and let live" when it comes to fannish readings of canon, but I admit sometimes it can put me to the test. Recently I've been trying my hand at making gifsets, particularly of the 1980s Sherlock Holmes series with Jeremy Brett. The funny thing is I'll make gifsets of a scene that I think has a really clear reading, and then discover other people read the exact same moment very differently. Like this tiny moment, when Holmes returns from the dead and surprises Mrs. Hudson at Baker Street, then steps forward and gathers her into his arms:



Someone reblogged it with the commentary "You can totally see how uncomfortable he's getting and how he wishes this hug would be over already." Suffice to say that's not how I read it, but really, there's nothing in that moment that absolutely rules out either reading. Or another moment, where a nervous little girl thanks the very daunting Holmes and he gravely shakes her hand, and then:



I didn't read that as a particularly forced or fake smile (I know people whose natural smile is that little lip-twitch, that might be the reason), but based on the tags and commentary, others did. So putting up gifsets has been an interesting exercise in getting steady reminders that it's very possible to read exactly the same canon moments in dramatically different ways.

This tendency is exacerbated in comics, where there's just SO MUCH canon for key characters that there's no way it all fits into one continuity. I'm pretty sure there's been something like 50 Christmases celebrated in what was at most fifteen years of Batfamily continuity, for example. What that means is that however you wish to interpret a character, there is a LOT of canon to support your interpretation. For example, I hate the idea that Bruce was abusive or cruel to Dick when he was Robin. But there's no denying there are moments across the decades and decades of titles showing their interaction that could well be classified as cruel treatment. In fact, if you piled them all together, you could well have what would look like years of misery.

You could also put together enough scans to "prove" that Dick's time with Bruce was an idyllic time filled with tender moments! Comic book canon simply overflows the time available; as a result, one can cherry-pick the canon that they want.

Because of this, I have come to find it relatively easy to accept alternative versions of comic book characters I love: they've just contructed their version of the character from a different assortment of canon than I have. If someone prefers to see Batman as a child abuser, or Superman as an arrogant dick...well, that makes me sad (because I love my versions of them and I do rather wish everyone could see them as I do) but it's also got nothing to do with the characters I love, in some ways. I'm able to go on my merry shippy way.

So I don't tend to mind when someone's interpretation of characters is different from mine and they just don't like the characters. But I do confess the thing that puts me to the test are people who believe Bruce is a child abuser (or Sherlock is a sociopath or Thorin is horrible) and still write my OTP. If they write them off or make them the villain, I can ignore them. If they think they're awful but still put them into the pairing with the other character I love...well, that's back-button-and-brain-bleach time, usually followed by ranting at my long-suffering husband for a while. But that happens so rarely that my fannish experience is generally a positive one!