Sometimes fanon gets confirmed later, or just adopted because it is actually a quite nice take on the story.
Like Vault Tec being the ones to drop the nukes, or the Xenomorphs being made intentionally as a weapon.
Sometimes the fanon is basically canon but there’s just not textual confirmation.
Like Jon Snow being the son of Lyanna Stark
But most of the time fanon either fulfills a need for the story to be better than it was, or it just refers to established conventions for fan fiction purposes.
I disagree. Spoilers for everything::
spoiler
Sometimes fanon gets confirmed later, or just adopted because it is actually a quite nice take on the story.
Like Vault Tec being the ones to drop the nukes, or the Xenomorphs being made intentionally as a weapon.
Sometimes the fanon is basically canon but there’s just not textual confirmation.
Like Jon Snow being the son of Lyanna Stark
But most of the time fanon either fulfills a need for the story to be better than it was, or it just refers to established conventions for fan fiction purposes.
A delusion
If we can spin subtext into a more lesbian story then what some corporate board of market researchers approved, you’re not gonna stop us.
Some of that is better described as fan theories.
It can do both