Hello, and welcome back. My name is A.J and I’m going to talk about why headcanons hurt nobody, if it does not erase canon. This is an updated 2022 version from my 2020 article
I wrote this purely because people seem to be against me saying Hope Mikaelson (From The CW’s show “Legacies”) is autistic, and believe that for it to happen, it would require the rewriting of the entire show. Happy Autism Acceptance Month, right?
Firstly, what IS a headcanon? Well, by definition:
A headcanon is simply what’s in the name, it’s canon in your head. It doesn’t hurt anyone unless it is erasing canon.
An example of a good headcanon: Kara Danvers is pansexual
An example of a bad headcanon: Alex Danvers is straight
Those two are different because Kara has no canon sexuality, while Alex is canonically a lesbian.
If someone wants to headcanon Kara as pansexual, they can freely do so because the headcanon doesn’t hurt anybody. Just like if someone wanted to headcanon Hope Mikaelson as autistic, they can freely do that as well, because that headcanon hurts absolutely nobody.
If a headcanon bothers you, you may want to question why. Especially if the headcanon has something to do with sexuality or something to do with neurodivergency or mental health. It might be time to unpack things and figure out exactly why it bothers you.
Headcanons do not hurt anyone. Nobody is forcing you to agree with a headcanon, they just want you to respect the headcanon
Let’s also discuss how this does not affect canon at all.
Autism does not change who a person is. If a character were to be written as canonically autistic, it would not change who that character is nor would it affect the show. Autism does not change a person.
ADHD does not change who a person is. If a character were to be written as someone with ADHD in canon, it would not change anything about who that character is. It would not affect the show either. ADHD does not change a person
With that being said, this also applies with sexuality. Someone being written as canonically bisexual or pansexual per audience beliefs, it would not change who someone is at all. It would not affect the show. Sexuality does not change a person.
This also applies to a character being trans or non binary. (Although I do prefer if the actress or actor was trans in real life) Being trans does not change a person.
To conclude this article, I just wanted to reiterate once again that autism or adhd does not change a character, neither does a sexuality. Please allow others to have headcanons. Especially if that person wishes to see representation in their favorite comfort character, for some people, headcanons are the closest things to canon a person can get. Especially in a society that’s ableist, transphobic and homophobic. Headcanons are very personal and in some cases, are the only way a person can picture a character, if they aren’t allowed to consume lgbt+ media due to a homophobic household or said otherwise.
Once again, please allow lgbt and neurodivergent people to see themselves in a character. Please let us have our headcanons.
Wishing you all the best, A.J
Happy Autism Acceptance Month
