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The term is sometimes used pejoratively by purists to refer to such explanations as faulty or illogical given the nature of a story, or "common lore" copied amongst fans, especially in webpage proliferation, that actually contradicts a simpler explanation that was even alluded to in canon. This is especially common for foreign works which are sometimes mistranslated or to when backstory and exposition elsewhere in a work has not been ported over (for example, manga that was associated with a commercial anime, but of which only one has been translated.)

Fanon is sometimes well known by creators and may even be accepted as true (or at least as reasonable an explanation as any) to something they have not explicitly explained. On the other hand, some creators of serial works specifically introduce facts in subsequent installments of their work which invalidate fanon.

In a series with a substantial Expanded Universe (official, but not necessarily canon, additions to the series proper), such as Star Wars, Star Trek, or Doctor WhoDoctor Who spin-offs refers to material created outside of, but related to, the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who''. Both during the main run of the series from 1963 to 1989 and after its cancellation, numerous novels, comi, elements of fanon will sometimes become extablished as part of the expanded canon; this is particularly common when fans become contributors to the Expanded Universe.

A variation of fanon is "personal canon", which is a set of "fanon"-like facts that are accepted as canon by an individual fan or a group of fans. Proponents of "fanon" or "personal canon" have been known to be offended when these terms are used, as "fanon" facts have often become better accepted than canon. This is widespread among Star Trek fans; for example, the prequel TV series is rejected by many Trekkers on the basis that it violates "fanon" regarding the history of the Federation (rather than canon facts seen on earlier series). Similarly, some Trek fans have also seen fit to reject and "decanonize" individual episodes or films that don't fit with their vision of the Star Trek universe (or, alternately, the perceived vision of the late Star Trek creator, Gene RoddenberryStar Trek Eugene Wesley Roddenberry ( August 19, 1921 October 24, 1991), was born in El Paso, Texas, USA, spent his boyhood in Los Angeles, California, and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series Star Trek''. Life and work Ro).

A list of fanon facts

• AndromedaAndromeda is a science fiction television series, a posthumous creation of Gene Roddenberry. It stars Kevin Sorbo as High Guard Captain Dylan Hunt. The series premiered in the fall of 2000 and as of April 2004 was in its fourth season. At the start of the
  • There is some speculation that Andromeda may be linked to Star TrekStar Trek collectively refers to six science fiction television series, ten motion pictures, and hundreds of novels, video games, and other works of fiction all set within the same fictional universe created by Gene Roddenberry in the early to mid 1960s., another franchise developed by Gene RoddenberryStar Trek Eugene Wesley Roddenberry ( August 19, 1921 October 24, 1991), was born in El Paso, Texas, USA, spent his boyhood in Los Angeles, California, and is best known as the creator of the science fiction television series Star Trek''. Life and work Ro.
    • episode 404 introduces Dr. Arik SoongArik Soong is a fictional geneticist and later cyberneticist, portrayed by Brent Spiner on Star Trek: Enterprise''. Soong appeared in a three-episode story arc consisting of " Borderland", " Cold Station 12", and " The Augments". Arik Soong is a criminal, the grandfather of Dr. Noonien SoongIn the fictional Star Trek: The Next Generation universe, Dr. Noonien Soong (played by Brent Spiner) is a human cyberneticist who lived on the colony Omicron Theta for several years, where he created six androids with positronic brains, the last two being, who is the the creator of the androids Data and Lore (of ). It is possible that the ancestors of the Nietzscheans in Andromeda are the genetics augments who hijacked the Klingon ship in the same episode, as there was a brief mention of Nietzsche in the episode.
    • Also the future technological mention of slipstream in episode 506, presumably linked the Systems Comonwealth of the Andromeda universe to be a possible future to the Star Trek universe.

• Battlestar Galactica ( ABC TV series)
  • The Battlestar Pegasus definitely survived the battle against Baltar's basestars and is now assisting the Galactica by continuing its campaign against the Cylons. This diverts Cylon resources that could otherwise have been deployed to hunt the refugee fleet.
  • Starbuck later managed to escape the desert planet he was marooned on by salvaging the Cylon wreckage to create a working ship that allowed him to reach the Galactica.

• Doctor Who
  • The real reason that Davros survived the betrayal by the Daleks was that he prepared defenses in his life support chair after learning about the treacherous nature of his creations from the Doctor.
  • The reason that the Time Lords never showed disapproval of the Doctor failing to prevent the creation of the Daleks in Genesis of the Daleks was that that they were aware that the Doctor's intervention inadvertently allowed Davros to survive when his creations turned on him. When he was revived, his presence created profound schisms in the Daleks which crippled their threat to the universe. Thus they considered the Doctor's mission accomplished.
  • The Colin Baker era story, The Two Doctors, depicts the second Doctor ( Patrick Troughton) and Jamie on a mission for the Time Lords. The Doctor's origins and the Time Lords were not introduced until the final Troughton serial ( The War Games) where he calls them for help. This resulted in his trial and exile to Earth, while Jamie and Zoe are returned to their respective eras with no memory of the Doctor past their first adventure. Fans have theorized that the Doctor's exile didn't occur immediately: the Doctor and Jamie were on secret missions for a period prior to exile and this period was erased from both of their memories before the beginning of the Doctor's exile period and eventual regeneration. This is supported by the fact that contrary to most regeneration episodes, the change-over from Troughton to Pertwee occurred off-screen between the end of The War Games and the beginning of the next story, Spearhead from Space. It also provides an in-story explanation for the change in appearance of the second Doctor and Jamie due to the actors being twenty years older. Because season 6 was Troughton's final season, fans often call this theoretical period season 6(b).
  • The reason why The Doctor stole his TARDIS was to flee Gallifrey, which was consumed with the Prydonian Academy Rebellion instigated by The Master.
  • The Jon Pertwee era of the series, featuring UNIT, takes place in the 1980s. This is actually a case of fanon supporting facts that were initially established but later ignored by canon. The UNIT stories were originally to have been set about 10 years in the future, and there are references to this in a number of episodes, however a number of episodes place the stories as happening in the 1970s.

• Digimon Adventure
  • The anime ends with Oikawa turning into butterflies after Belial Vamdemon's defeat, anything occurring afterwards didn't actually happen and is not admissible for evidence in coupling wars, though it has made for some good fanfics.

• Dragon Ball Z
  • Chi Chi uses a frying pan as a weapon, often to reprimand Son Goku or her sons ( Son Gohan and Son Goten).
  • Bulma is very bad at cooking.

• Mobile Suit Gundam
  • The demise of the high ranking Zeon officer Makube (or M'Quve) is depicted in the TV series but, like many other scenes, was cut out for the movie compilations. Many fans have specualted that the battle resulting in Makube's death never happened in the movies. Thus he survived the entire war and took Dozul's (Dozuru) widow and infant daughter Mineva, the last surviving members of the Zabi family into hiding (Mineva would play a small part later in Zeta Gundam), though there are no lines in the movie that clearly state this as the sequel series Zeta Gundam still had yet to be conceived.

• Harry Potter
  • Ginny Weasley's full first name being Virginia, later disproved when J. K. Rowling revealed it was actually Ginevra.
  • Lily Potter was in Slytherin, despite comments by Rowling to the contrary.

• Mario video games
  • Wario and Waluigi are brothers (or at least half-brothers).
  • The Mario Brothers were born in the Mushroom Kingdom, but transported to our world and raised in New York (TV shows, movies, and games, are all contradictory on this matter). Furthermore, the ending to shows both Mario and Luigi held by parents in a Mushroom Kingdom style house, suggesting they never came from Earth.

• The Prisoner
  • Number 6 is John Drake, the hero of Patrick McGoohan's previous series Danger Man aka Secret Agent. McGoohan has publicly denied it, although series co-creator and script editor George Markstein always maintained it was true. There are some minor hints in established canon that Drake and Number Six are the same person. Most obvious is the Prisoner episode The Girl Who Was Death which sees Number Six sent on a mission by a character named Potter. Potter was one of John Drake's associates in Danger Man and was even played by the same actor in both series. It is also true that the officially sanctioned novels based on The Prisoner establish clearly that Number Six is John Drake.

• Star Blazers: The Quest for Iscandar.
  • The first Gamilons (Gamilus) seen during the battles in the Solar System (including Major Bane and Colonel Ganz) had the skin color of ordinary Earth humans, in this case Caucasian skintone. Also, in the first appearances of leader Desslok, he had a more mauve skin tone. Like the Klingon issue on Star Trek, this has never been explained but a widespread postulation (found on some fan web sites) jokingly suggests that the Gamilons were originally filmed under bad lighting and that Desslok had that film crew shot.

• Space Battleship Yamato movies (Star Blazers)
  • The 1983 movie Final Yamato is set in the Year 2203. According to publications about the 1980-81 TV series Yamato III (aka Star Blazers: The Bolar Wars), Yamato III is set in the Year 2205. Many fans believe that because Yamato III did not measure up to the standards set by the previous two TV series (it was cut from a planned 52 episodes to a 25 episode series and it shows in the choppy animation and pacing), producers intended to remove the Bolar Wars from the continuity by setting Final Yamato two years earlier. In the opening narraration for Final Yamato, however, references are made to the Bolar Federation and to Garuman, thus establishing their importance in events between Be Forever Yamato and Final Yamato. As a result, many fans have also taken it upon themselves to switch the dates for the Bolar Wars and Final Yamato.

• Star Trek
  • Ensign Pavel Chekov served on the USS Enterprise in the period depicted in the first season of Star Trek before being promoted to the bridge crew in the second season and encountered Khan Noonien Singh during that time.
  • The reason why Mr. Spock was so emotional during his time with Captain Christopher Pike was that he was briefly dabbling with emotion in his youth.
  • The Klingon homeworld is also known as Klinzhai.
  • The ridged-forehead Klingons that debuted in Star Trek The Motion Picture are sometimes unofficially referred to as Imperial Klingons thus denoting a difference between them and the more human-looking Klingons of TOS. A related piece of fanon is that the human-looking Klingons were discommoded as a race (origin: the DC Comics graphic novel, Debt of Honor). Various episodes of have contradicted all of this.
  • Fleet Captain is a rank between Captain and Commodore.
  • The events of were followed by a new five-year mission. (The movie was based upon a script for a never-produced second Trek series, and the new five-year mission is referenced in the Star Trek Expanded Universe, but has yet to be acknowledged in canon.)
  • Uhura's first name is Nyota. (Although some novels have chosen Nyota and some reference guides give this as her first name, no first name for the character has ever been mentioned on screen, and Gene Roddenberry said that Uhura had only one name, which meant "Freedom" in Swahili.) In the early 1980s, a fan-produced book series, The Best of Trek suggested that Uhura's first name is Penda but this was not widely adopted by the fan community. On the other hand, Sulu's first name, Hikaru, which was considered fanon for years, became part of official canon when it was mentioned in . The fact the writers didn't take the opportunity in that film to officially give Uhura a first name, too, is seen as confirmation she doesn't have one. (In the movie , it seems that Kirk may murmer "Nyota" when speaking to Uhura at one point.)
  • Mr. Spock was the first Vulcan in Starfleet. This has been suggested by non-canon novels and comic books, but has never been established in any television series or movies. To the contrary, has established that the first Vulcan in Starfleet is Commander T'Pol.
  • The new Enterprise NCC-1701-A given to Kirk at the end of was formerly the U.S.S. Yorktown. This has been suggested by non-canon sources but was never stated on screen.
  • Lt. Saavik is half- Vulcan and half- Romulan and stays behind on Vulcan at the start of Star Trek IV because she is pregnant with Spock's child as a result of helping him through the pon farr mating drive in . Both these major plot points were included in the early scripts of and Star Trek IV, respectively, but were dropped from the final versions and thus are not considered canonical. A scene in which Spock and Kirk discuss Saavik's mixed heritage was actually filmed for Star Trek II but was cut from the film.

• • The 22 episodes of this animated series are not considered part of the Star Trek canon by Paramount Pictures (reportedly due to a request by Trek creator Gene Roddenberry). As a result, TAS provides a rare occasion in which officially licenced story developments shown on screen, which normally would fit the definition of canon, are instead rendered fanon. This is very controversial among Trek fans, as TAS established several major elements of the Trek universe, including details about Spock's childhood, and the introduction of the Enterprises first captain, Robert April, which are not considered official and therefore many be contradicted by future movies or TV series. References to TAS occasionally sneak into scripts for recent Trek series, most recently the episodes "The Catwalk" and "The Forge" which included direct references to concepts from the TAS episode "Yesteryear". TAS references are widespread in the Expanded Universe of novels and comic books.