Lois & Clark Forums Forums Fan Fiction Fanfic Related Fanon versus Canon

Well, amidst the highly active discussion over in the Clark Quiz Poll, Labrat asked this:

So I thought I'd start a new thread so this subject doesn't get lost.

I believe that many points of fanon are a direct result the absence of introspection on the show. I know I've read several episode rewrites (or even extentions) that have made me stop and think: Wow, I never thought of that while I was watching the show, but it makes *so* much sense. Lois or Clark's emotions and rationalizations for the way they behave are something we can only speculate on, but they are very real aspects that make up their characterizations. When we take these speculations and incorporate them into fanfic, we supplement the show's canon. Reading story after story in which many authors either draw the same conclusions or mimic what they've seen in other stories, causes us to create a new and improved canon in our minds. Fanon.

I'll go ahead and list a few off the top of my head, then everyone else can chime in with their own. Numerous authors have made Clark cry, and believably so, in their stories.

Canon: Clark doesn't cry.
Fanon: Highly emotional situations will bring Clark to tears.

Possibly due to rating restrictions, or the nature of the Superman myth, or even because Clark is just a darned good guy, we never hear him curse on the show. More than a few authors have included Lois and/or Clark swearing in their stories. Some people may still believe this to be too far out of character, but for me, when Clark curses followed by another character's introspection: Lois flinched. He never cursed. Only when he was *really* angry.

Probably a poor example, but I'm sure you know what I mean.

Canon: Clark doesn't curse.
Fanon: Clark curses when highly emotional (scared, angry, frustrated, etc).

Here's one where the line is kind of blurred, at least for me. Lois's furniture is highly uncomfortable. It looks to be that way on the show, but I don't think it was ever strictly mentioned. Several authors have made it a point to describe Lois's furniture as decorative, but uncomfortable.

And what about that endearing curl of hair that's always falling over Clark's forehead and so tempting to brush back?

I'm searching my brain for more right now, but I thought I'd go ahead and let others start adding theirs, too.

Sara

Brought across from the other thread:

There are plenty of fics which make reference to Clark being a terrible singer. Not from the series at all! As far as I recall from someone explaining it, that came from Dean Cain apparently not being able to carry a tune in a bucket.

And what's Clark's favourite film? The Princess Bride? Um... why? That one's not in the series either. Again, I think Dean Cain might have said once that he liked it, and it's found its way into dozens of fic.


Wendy

The lock of hair, I've always believed, was inspired by the comics. There, Clark has always had a single lock of hair that curls in front of his forehead. In the movies, Chris Reeve had it as Superman but not as Clark. (In what I always thought was a pretty cool touch, Chris Reeve's Superman also had slightly blue-tinted hair, another neat little homage to the character's four color origins.) The Lock is part of Superman's signature hairstyle, and, thanks to his invulnerability, remains there no matter what. It has, quite literally, popped right back into place after a nuclear explosion. Personally, I was always a little disappointed that it was never seen on the show, so I was happy to see it begin to appear in fic.



Hmm. I take it back. Looks like the Lock actually did make it into the series:

As for fanon, the best example I can think of is Clark's discomfort with airline travel. I don't think that was ever mentioned in the show. In fact, the only time I can think of when Clark would have been on a passenger plane (as opposed to Baron Sunday's private jet or Trask's military transport) in the show was when he flew to Smallville with Lois in GGGoH. We never saw the plane, but it was never mentioned, either. All we see is Clark driving from the airport with Lois, and in that scene, he's so relaxed it's grating on Lois's nerves. Despite that, though, it's fanon that Clark hates, perhaps even fears, being on commercial flights.

A more blurry example is that Superman was being intentionally cruel to Lois when he came to see her after she'd rejected Clark in BatP. It makes sense to me, and I'm not sure I'd have seen it any other way, but that has become the accepted interpretation.

Paul

Yes, the fear of flying is a popular one. One that I also think was influence by Dean. I remember him saying he hated flying, everyone thinking that was a good chuckle since he played Superman.

Though it may have been actor-influenced, I think this characteristic is really valid. Perhaps, because it's been so well justified in fanfic. It makes sense that someone who's used to flying under his own power would feel highly uncomfortable in an airplane that he doesn't control and is trapped in.

Sara

Yes, it does make sense. Especially if you add in the clausterphobia established in "Never on Sunday."

I think the fact that it does make so much sense is probably the reason why it's become so commonly accepted. It's probably the most important quality of a successful bit of fanon. If it makes sense and it fits in with what we already know, if it seems like a natural extention of the character, then it probably will be picked up by others and added into the general understanding.

Paul

P.S. I hope I didn't go too far overboard with the pictures in my last post. I just got into finding images from different incarnations. It was there in the beginning. It was there in the movies. It was there after a nuclear explosion. It's still there now. It always has been and always will be there. It is... The Lock.

With the inability of Clark to sing... I never knew that Dean Cain couldn't sing. What gave me the impression that Clark couldn't sing was the Christmas episode in forth year. When Lois is trying to inspire hope in people, she starts trying to encourage them to sing Christmas songs. At first she isn't very successful. But Clark gives her a look which, to me, was meant to encourage her to continue trying. At that point, if he had really wanted to help, he would have joined in, singing with her to encourage others to do the same. The fact that he didn't told me that Clark Kent couldn't sing.

This is great guys - all fascinating and I was right, now that you're mentioning them most of them are obvious things that I was aware of - just hadn't thought about in years. Sara, thanks for starting the thread. I'm intrigued by all the posts so far. Keep them coming!

I think the forehead curl though comes from the show. At least, I have a very vivid picture in my mind of Lois reaching up and brushing it back. Don't ask me which episode it would be though. Might have been more than one. Anyone else remember that? Or am I making it up as I go along now.

The flying thing. I used that in one of the first nfic romps I wrote. Although it wasn't fear of flying as such as it was just that Clark was bored and felt confined and restricted. I took that from the show. Well, I extrapolated that from the show, is more accurate. <g>

In one of the Lex Files episodes Clark has been off interviewing a murderer before he is put to death and in the scene where he returns to the DP and Lois greets him he just looks so weary and fed up that I got the notion flying on a plane wasn't exactly on his list of favourite things to do. And once that thought was in my head, it seemed logical to me that if you can fly like a bird with all that freedom and sky to wander around in, being cooped up on a much slower plane must be immensely boring and frustrating.

You know, this is even more interesting than I figured it would be. Anyone else out there who have written fanon moments care to share what inspired them to do so?

Oh and one of my own. When I posted last I wasn't sure if it was what people meant by fanon - but I think there are a few fanfic out there where Clark and Lois's favourite restaruant is Angelina's (think I got the name right). And I think that was taken up from one fanfic author and carried on by others.

BTW, it's a personal bias but I just hate that word fanon. <g> Anyone else hate it too? Now that my memory is coming back online, I seem to remember having a similar conversation to this on the fanfic mailing list, oh, ages ago, and someone calling it FoLCLore. Much cuter for me. <g>

LabRat

Copying over what I wrote on the other thread:

I used to know this stuff... the one example of "fanon" I can remember is from way back -- Zoomway wrote You Made Me Love You and in it, she portrayed Mayson as xenophobic, as in this exchange:

A lot of people adopted that idea, consciously or not. Actually, I remember being slightly surprised to look back at the show and see that the characterization of her *wasn't* supported there.

The only other one I remember is that someone (Chris Mulder, maybe) created a restaurant called "Angelina's" and it showed up in other stories subsequently; I think some people thought it was the name of the place L&C went in Lucky Leon.

Rivka reminded me of another one (I think) -- the idea that Lois's sofas are incredibly uncomfortable to sit on. I don't think that's from the show, but it sure shows up in a lot of fanfic.

PJ

The one that is most prevalant to me is the reason the writers of fanfic have adopted as the 'reason' for Lois totally illogical behavior in dating and agreeing to marry Lex in the House of Luthor and Barbarians at The Planet.

The 'fact' that she agreed to his advances and proposal was because she didn't love him and therefore he couldn't hurt her like someone she actually loved could when the relationship fell apart has been picked up and used a lot in many different fics. I don't think this idea was ever really supported in the show beyond Lois admitting that she 'had feelings' for Lex but probably didn't love him. Their explanation was that Lois was taken in by the fact that someone like Lex (at least the person she thought he was)would be interested in her.

Tank (who never bought into the idea since he believes that Lois is really a closet romantic and might have a 'relationship' of convenience with someone she doesn't love, but would never marry them... that was reserved for the 'Prince Charming' she never really believed would come along)

This one has always baffled me. It never, ever occurred to me that he was being cruel, either intentionally or otherwise. I just don't accept it. I don't think the writers intended it to be cruel. His tone is apologetic; regretful, even. The moment is poignant, not hurtful. If there's an emotion, it's that he's accutely conscious that he's not normal - he's Superman, a being with these cursed powers that make him different. If his words are hurtful (and I don't think they are), then it's only because he's being clumsy - the facts are out of his mouth before he realises that it might be a rather embarrassing thing to remind her of.

Yvonne

I don't think he was being deliberately cruel as such, but my viewpoint does differ from your take on it, Yvonne. I do see him as angry in that scene and I think his anger gets the better of him at points in it.

Lois is obviously discomfited by his robe remark and embarrassed, yet he makes no attempt to apologise for it. Which tends to make me think he meant it to embarrass. Otherwise, knowing our Clark, he'd be tripping over himself to say he didn't mean it that way. Plus it's always struck me as a weird thing for him to say. I don't recall him ever making that kind of personal remark before. But my memory of episodes is definitely hazy these days, so I could be forgetting something there.

Regardless, he does strike me as being more remote and colder towards her than he is normally. And that makes sense to me - he's just been rejected by her and then she thoughtlessly asks him to contact Superman for her for a conversation the intent of which is AFAIR made quite clear in the park scene. The man's only human. So it's never surprised me that in that apartment scene he'd let that hurt and rejection spill over into anger. Actually, all things considered and given how thoughtlessly cruel Lois has been to him, what surprises me is that he's so restrained.

I've never heard anything apologetic in his tone when he makes the robe remark - I do remembering wincing at that point when I first saw the episode as it came across as ice-cold to me. He was wounded, so he was lashing out in return.

But without asking the writer exactly what he (they?) meant we'll never know for sure what the intent was either way or who has the right of it and it's the ways in which we interpret such moments differently that make fanfic so interesting anyway. Would be boring if we all saw the same things all the time. I know I've often looked at something differently after reading a fresh interpretation of it in fanfic. That's part of the fun.

LabRat

A quick note about Lois's furniture...

I used that idea in EMII and, at the time I wrote it, I thought it was original. My reaction to Lois's love-seats was clearly akin to Wendy's; who on Earth would want those as sofas of choice?

Between writing and posting -- and you have to bear in mind that I worked on that story over a very long period of time -- I saw at least one other story which made reference in less than complimentary terms to Lois's love-seats. (I think, unsurprisingly, it was one of Wendy's.)

Is this a case of convergent inspiration?

Chris

I'm with Labby, I think there has been a FoLClore discussion before.

This discussion is ringing bells in my head.

Although that might just be the dancing pixies.

Helga

Um, I just saw that Zoom just posted something about that, Pam. See here:

http://www.zoomway.net/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=get_topic;f=12;t=001138;p=1#000000


And as for fanon, there's also the one where Lois wears cucumber oil... For the record, it's cause Teri wore it when she and Dean were doing love scenes because he liked it.

Laura

I think much of the fanon is derived from the feel people got from watching the show.

Lois' furniture - I'm sorry but they just don't look comfortable and Lois and Clark never looked particularly comfortable on them. However they did look comfortable on Clark's soft stuffed sofa.

Clark's fear of flying - seems reasonable to me because of the claustraphobia, the fact that the flight time of a plane is so long compared to him under his own power. Then also I always thought it would bother him because he is trapped. If there was a problem where he needed to rescue the plane he couldn't do it without reavealing himself.

The robe comment. First off Lois had asked for Superman to come see her so why wasn't she wearing a robe in the first place. Plus the other times we she her in the show she is wearing frumpy pjs. So why the sexy nightgown other than to entice Superman. As for Clark's comment I think he didn't mean to be nasty, rude or hurtful but here she is in a sexy nightgown knowing he is probably coming. Then she calls more attention to the fact by saying she'll get a robe instead of just saying be back in a second and getting it. So when she made the comment of getting the robe he acted by his reaction to her state of undress, his hurt feelings and anger that she would ask him as Clark to send Superman to her. I think maybe subconsciously he might have wanted to hurt her a little as he had been hurt. Not only by what had happened in the park but because of her "flaunting" herself in front of him as SUPERMAN - whether she meant to do it or not.

I think the lack of cursing on the show was that it was the early '90's and it was on at 8 pm - family viewing time. Not that I think Clark would do much - couldn't afford to might slip and do it as Superman plus I can't picture Martha and Jonathan allowing that kind of speach when he was a kid or that they did it. I would think Lois could get pretty down and dirty if she cussed.

Actually, we know she would. Perry told us she did. Remember that ski-ing incident where she broke her ankle? I can't remember the phrase he uses and the script is no help because what it says doesn't match with what I remember him saying, but he definitely indicates that Lois turned the air blue when they were bringing her down off that mountain.

LabRat

Sara mention that
I recall only one time Clark cried. After Lois said yes to Lex's proposal he flew to the artic screamed out his heart. When he finished he buried his head in his hands and his shoulders were shaking. I always thought he was sobbing.

Also:

I notice that many fanfics show Clark flying to the artic often to think or when frustrated by Lois and/or his feelings towards her.

They also have him bathing in the oceans and lakes to clean up after extremely dirty rescues. Is this canon or FoLClore?

TLAT

Interesting, Tlat - I've done both I have no idea if I was the first and others have followed (not imitated so much as instinctively feeling it sounded logical and going with it), or whether I've done it so many times in my stories that it feels as if it's very, very common in fic. Or whether I followed others in making Clark do the same thing.

Going to the Arctic to scream - definitely based on the scene you reference, in BatP. I figured that if he went there then, he might go in other situations when he was in so much emotional agony he didn't know what to do.

As for taking a dip in the ocean to clean off, I know I've done that - not sure when I did it first, but again it seemed like a logical thing for him to do if he'd been involved in a very messy rescue and he and his Suit were covered in mud or dust or some such - sure, he could shower, but the ocean is bigger.

Kmar, you're absolutely right about Lois's furniture: that's exactly why I've made a point of writing references to it as uncomfortable. It looks about as comfortable as an old-fashioned Chesterfield. Ever tried slouching and vegging out on one of those? You can't!

Oh, and while I'm here, I did think of another example of 'fanon' - or perhaps it's better described as contested fanon. :p Does Clark prefer Lois with short hair or not?


Wendy

What kind of question is that? Shoulder-length hair of course!

Kaethel (who can already hear Lex's meaningful scream: THIS... IS... WAR!!!! )

As for Lois' furniture being uncomfortable... I think I saw that idea first in fanfic. But then I went and looked at the furnature and had to agree. It really didn't look very comfortable. So if something is pointed out to me which appears (at least to me) to be backed up by the show, is that canon or is that fanom? I know I've used that idea in my stories - but at this point when I have a scene with Lois and Clark getting... ummm... comfortable , I find myself unable to quite picture it on Lois' couch. In Midnight Gambit, I actually put in my intro that I'd given Lois a more comfortable couch. Otherwise, the story just didn't work for me .