CountVonNumenor
Onshi
This is a question I have come up with after reading a long discussion on the classic "canon vs fanon" question regarding some of the depictions fans have come up with through time. And this time, instead of having me write a long text, I will instead allow for the original discussion to unfold in front of your eyes, reproduced with everything except the names of the users (conveniently renamed "User A/B/C/etc").
Therefore, let's get into the topic itself:
I will let everyone get their own conclusions from here, then we can come up with the discussion. From my brief re-reading of the discussion of the thread, it seems to be, just like Alpharius noted, a discussion between a canon purist and a fanon person. But the question is actually very good. Where do things go too far when it comes to fan interpretation. And how toxic can be the fanon interpretation for the image left by a character for posterity? Quite a few interesting things if you stay to think about them. I hope this thread will get a bit of traction here at the Shrine, especially since recently there has been a little bit of resurge in activity and people discussing things. So why not use the chance and come up with a thread I was planning for a little while.
(even if very long and filled with essays, I definitely recommend reading the material in spoiler - that's just where the extract is, and the base to start the talk on)
Therefore, let's get into the topic itself:
User A: Touhou fans when they have to stick to the canon material (they can't say Meiling is lazy or Eiki is a shortstack)
User B: Well, being Honest is good ain't it?
User A: User B, All of these fanon characteristics were funny, but only at the very beginning. Meiling is a badass martial artist who CAN and WILL kick your ass, yet people treat her as a useless sack of shit. Cirno being "the smartest" or "the strongest" pisses me off to no end in sight. Yuyuko being a gluttonous fuck is old. Shortstack Eiki is an insult. And many more that I don't feel like mentioning. (Not so) honorable mentions to the men in hentai doujins, because they can literally hypnotize or trick Touhou girls into doing sexual stuff, when, in reality, the girls have the ability to kill the fat bastards and tear their insides apart INSTANTLY.
User C: User A, Touhou got as big as it is by those "stupid fan characteristics". It used to be like 95% fanon, 5% canon. I dont know how much more canon there is these days, and frankly i dont care. What i always loved about the franchise is that everyone got their own little version of Gensokyo as their headcanon and that's that. Complaining about a lack of sensible plot in a "thinbook" is akin to complaining about lack of acurate newtonian physics in a science fantasy novel.
User D: User A, yep no way those guys can beat the girls dude also im not very smart or informative with Touhou since i skip every dialogue doesn't read any of the "books ,but i think the girls resisted the insanity or something from the fake moon? In imperishable night pls don't roast me i dont have a good memory.
User A: User C, Everyone can have their own headcanon, yes, but when they're passing shit as the utmost truth and as canon, that's where I draw the line. Let me give you an example, Koishi. In canon, Koishi is just a lonely girl that wants someone to play with. What did the fanon do? Turn her into a murderer with KKHTA. If it was just a little thought on a random someone's mind, I could forgive that, but it got so popular, people now think Koishi being a murderer is canon, when it's not. They literally changed CANON MATERIAL (although sometimes indirectly) because they felt like their headcanons were better, or just because people popularized shit for some ungodly reason. Yuyuko being slightly gluttonous IS mentioned in the canon, but fans basically turned it into Kirby levels of hunger. You and the other people who deny that the fanon is becoming cancerous with how they portray characters, assuming that "what they think the character does is what actually happens in the series" are the problem here. Get over yourself.
AND ANOTHER THING TO MENTION is the point of a headcanon, which I doubt you understand. Canon means something that is of genuine importance to the plot of a specific media, something that actually happened in the timeline and is important to its development. A headcanon is you making stories in your mind that, for your own perception of said media, COULD be considered relevant to the plot and timeline. But this only works in the concept of, for example, AUs. You CANNOT pass a headcanon as true, because the information wasn't given by the official creators/directors of that specific media, or anyone else that DOES have permission to determine whether or not something is, again, relevant to the plot AND timeline. A headcanon is NOT the official information of the media UNLESS specified otherwise by those with the rights to say if it is, or if it is not.
Tl;dr: Canon: official information that is relevant to the media and shapes its continuity. Headcanon: stories and scenarios made by fans that somewhat work in the form of AUs, but are NOT relevant to the original work, UNLESS stated otherwise.
User E: User A, Thank you thank you THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Finally someone sane here, i honestly agree with everything you say especially the last part which is beyond insulting and brings out how sexist mucho of the fandom sadly is.
User C: User A, what would i need to get over myself with lmao? I'm not the one getting upset over other people interpreting material as they enjoy it. its literally non of your business. You honestly sit there typing all that shit up thinking that you are the arbiter of what can and cannot be fanonized when the actual creator of the franchise, the one person that could actually make a comment on the subject as its his intelectual property that's getting bastardized, does not given the singelest of shits and last i checked even tacitly endorsed it so long as its not blatant cash-grabs or created purely for monetary gain without any regards to the fandom. If that version of Koishi got popularized and completely overshadowed her actual canon - which by the way i can just say anecdotally speaking for myself, it absolutely didn't and this is the first i hear of an 'epidemic misrepresentation of her character to the point people think its actual canon', but then again, i havent really followed discourses about the franchise since about UFO - then evidently that version of her was a more compelling character and makes her more popular then she would ordinarily be. I repeat myself. the reason diper-heads are as popular as they are is because the fandom has this insane amount of artistic licence. You dont get to chastise people for likening what they like, its non of your business. If someone really cares about the pure and unaltered canon, nothing stops them from exploring that and i am by no means shaming you for wanting to enjoy the franchise as you see it was intended. but if someone explored it and decides "man but i liked my yandere waifu more", leave them the fuck alone. if someone doesn't care to explore it because they like their headcanon as it, leave them the fuck alone. If you want more fanworks created, more in the spirit of what you had in mind: go right ahead and create. Thanks for making assumptions about my capacity to understand basic English. You're missing the point entirely and nothing you said in this entire segment has anything to do with what i said, or contradicts it in any way.
Edit as an afterthought because i somehow managed to forget to mention it: everyone fucking knows that fanworks are fanworks - you know, like the name implies - and not canon. No one's trying to pass of anything as canon, unless they are actually unaware of it, in which case, if they confront you with it in a discussion regarding canon (or in an attempt to establish a common ground for both your interpretations, but i have a feeling you have next to no interest in that, feel free to correct me), feel free to elucidate them, more power to you, but otherwise, mind your own business.
User D: Wow this comment thread is starting to reach toxicity level's as high as damage in Terraria.
User A: User C, like you just did, I'll repeat myself and say that a bunch of these people really do believe that their headcanons are actual original material. Not all of them think like that, but a good chunk of the community does. Honestly, I couldn't give two shits if AT THE VERY LEAST, different people had different perceptions of their characters. I'm not saying every person should think differently, but at least more than just two, or at the very maximum, three perceptions of the characters. But I don't think the fandom constantly showing only one headcanon aspect, or characteristic for these characters is really "each individual's own, or at least, slightly different view of them", is it? Instead of being a creative pot of ideas where everyone can enjoy making up stories and headcanons about how their favorite characters act and behave in their own minds, which I WILL admit, is actually fun, it's a deep fucking pit filled with a hot, bubbling stew of crap that's the fanon portraying the characters with only two or three personalities max, most of which are just downright disrespectful to the characters themselves, instead of just harmless fun, like it should have been. If people are allowed to enjoy portraying the characters the way they want, then I'm also allowed to criticize them if what they're doing is just disrespecting and bastardizing the characters.
User C: User A, in regards to people believing their headcanon to be true canon: refer to my response to your second answer. That's down to ignorance and if it comes up, buy all means, feel free to elucidate them. In regards to "diversity of depicted traits": again, i cant speak for how it is now because i have no idea how much original work has been released. back in the day, there was EXTREAMLY little to go off of in the first place. a lot of the things that stuck are blown out of proportion references to single text bubbles, in part because the character didn't really have any more information about them other then the little dialogue in the game. A most extreme example of this would be Koakuma (and i hope im not confusing her with another midstage boss, my love for the franchise is big, but its getting close to a decade since i last cared to inform myself). She literally didn't even have a name. The entire character, other then general appearance from the in-game stage model and general existence, has been willed into canon by the fandom. Including her name. If you wanna make an argument about the Touhou fandom become toxic. Well no shit, that tends to happen if something becomes more mainstream. What i take issue with is that you appear to be completely oblivious to the circumstance that you are adding to that toxicity by making proclamations of arbitrations of what other people can or cannot do with their fanworks, even going as far as saying their imagination is disrespectful to the characters. Let's take the thinbooks as an example: is their plot in 99% of the cases complete bogus? yea, sure. im pretty sure the author wouldn't disagree lol. Now why was the work created? surely it was because the autor hated the franchise and had 100 hours to spend on drawing a character they hate, just to piss you off and be "downright disrespectful" }:=) Nah, that doesn't sound right. fanworks are created for their love of the franchise, or character no matter how taste - or distasteful you personally may find them. ZUN gave the people a nearly blank canvas and the Fans ran with it. once they ran out of canvas, they painted on the floor and walls. What you are effectively doing is exactly the opposite. you essentially wanna restrict what people see in the characters to what you feel is appropriate and that is simply not how the fandom EVER functioned. My favorite character is Youmu (I liked her before she was cool, shut up). There is a metric fuckton of fanworks i dont like. Solution: I dont consume them. I am not entitled to other people creating fanworks according to my tastes.
User A: Since I could be doing actual productive stuff here (although I'll still stick with my opinions), I'll just ask you a question, after a brief explanation. Yes, I do agree that people are free to make their own fanworks. That's the beauty of the Touhou community. A lot of people show to have good potential in thinking of actually creative, fun, and inventive ways to portray their favorite character(s) as. Giving them unique traits, characteristics, and a good personality, even if it's not canon material. Even I will admit that it's fun to think of your favorite character(s) in alternate scenarios with alternate personalities and traits. I am aware of that, and I do not doubt this information. The question is, why aren't people doing it then? The fanon established, like, two or three characteristics for most characters. Some serious, some just plain bastardizing. Think of how fun it would be with all of these different ideas and perceptions of these characters in place! Wouldn't it be fun? I think it would. But instead of doing that, they accept these characteristics or personalities as their true selves, which are not. Instead of showing any effort to try and portray these headcanons in a different manner, they jump onto the train and follow the damn thing all the way until last stop. The fanon HAS shown the ability to portray these characters in creative ways, scenarios and with good traits and personalities. So, why aren't they doing it? You can't tell me they're doing "whatever they want", because that's false. They're not doing what THEY want, they're doing what the FANON wants them to do. Don't get me wrong, I do agree with some of your thoughts, but that's a question that I REALLY do want an answer for.
User C: User A, as always, correct me if im wrong, but thats more two questions is it not? One being: "Why do people depict characters in a fanonized interpretation that (depending on character) might not align with available canon", and the other being "How did these interpretations came to be so popular to begin with?" The answer to the first is fairly obvious, people enjoy them. Theres realy not anything more to it. People enjoy what they enjoy and that is non of anyone elses business. You might think "⑨=the strongest" is old, I find the popular trope of her character quite enjoyable to this date and ill just make an attempt to list a view interpretations of that that i have witnessed in my time:
- Being a hopelessly overconfident idiot that actually believes she is the strongest
- Her being revered by her fairy gang for being the strongest and that egging her on to actually think about herself that way
- Her fairy gang being fully aware she is a moron and will believe them if they tell her she's the strongest and essentially gaslighting her into that state of mind for shits and giggles
- Her being an idiot that thinks she's the strongest, obviously isn't, but displaying an impressive strength **of character**, giving credence to the title in a way she probably doesn't understand herself, but Daiyousei does.
... the list is long.
I will repeat though: I have retreated from online discourses about Touhou years ago and I experience Gensokyo though my own interpretation, rather then being lambasted with regurgitated memes, so i suppose i get how one could get annoyed by an overused "hahaxd" thing. Completely overdone joke, boring, I sleep. Move on. The other question is a bit harder to answer and i dont think there is one universal one. I cant speak for the new characters at all. For the older ones, i kinda talked about that already. I would suspect that a lot of the traits that solidified their place in the fanon did so before more canon work to the character existed and then continued to stick around regardless because the concept was very well established already. In other cases i would guess it just comes down to tradition that is sort of unique to the fandom based on those early years where there was very little information available and some interpretation or the other garnered big popularity despite that not quite aligning with canon material that would be available, purely because it was entertaining and then stuck around.
User A: User C, As much as there are some fanon interpretations that I feel like mock the characters (although sometimes in a humorous manner), I can understand your point.
User C: I don't mean to secure the last word or anything, id just like to leave you with this just because its sort of related to the original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zryr7eUgjrEThese numbers are flipped deliberately for illustrative purposes. Headcanon as you rightly established is an extension of the Canon, so the first interpretations that make it into the fandom are mostly headcanon. The Fanon then is a conglomeration of the Headcanons most people seemed to have agreed upon (this happens pretty much by natural selection) and hence create a collective base on which other people then expand further again. So then 'headcanon' of people in the fandom is created based on or at least influenced by the fanon, which was initially based on headcanon. Its not unlike a very short round of Chinese Whispers. I would suspect that you find a correlation between how much canon material is available (at time of character release) and how far the Fanon ends up diverting from the Canon. The more Canon there is, the Less creation of headcanon is necessary to build a basis for the character to exist within the Fanon.
[...]
User F (I said I will not use the real names of the users, but "Totally Alpharius" is too good of a name when associated with the image of the Primarch of the 20th Space Marine Legion): Ah, the eternal battle between canon purists and fanon enjoyers. As old as time itself. Reminds me of why I don't frequent any Touhou forums or Discord servers anymore.
[...]
User G: User A ...dude, as someone who's been a part of this fandom for 10 years, aware of it for 13 and that had huge issues with these stupid fanon interpretations even way back in the day, I still think you need to majorly chill out. This is coming from someone who has Meiling as a huge contender for their favourite character of all time. It's really not the end of the world and it really does seem like over time, the more stupid fanon interpretations are slowly but absolutely surely being weeded out. You really don't see pad jokes about Sakuya anymore, virtually nobody thinks of KHTA when they see Koishi nowadays (heck, the "vicious merciless invincible killer" archetype used to be applied to virtually every single character the fanon could get away with, nowadays those are really niche interpretations at best)... stuff absolutely used to be much worse. Even for the fanon stereotypes that are still alive and well, I feel like they're far less mean spirited than they used to be.
[relevant discussion ends here]
User B: Well, being Honest is good ain't it?
User A: User B, All of these fanon characteristics were funny, but only at the very beginning. Meiling is a badass martial artist who CAN and WILL kick your ass, yet people treat her as a useless sack of shit. Cirno being "the smartest" or "the strongest" pisses me off to no end in sight. Yuyuko being a gluttonous fuck is old. Shortstack Eiki is an insult. And many more that I don't feel like mentioning. (Not so) honorable mentions to the men in hentai doujins, because they can literally hypnotize or trick Touhou girls into doing sexual stuff, when, in reality, the girls have the ability to kill the fat bastards and tear their insides apart INSTANTLY.
User C: User A, Touhou got as big as it is by those "stupid fan characteristics". It used to be like 95% fanon, 5% canon. I dont know how much more canon there is these days, and frankly i dont care. What i always loved about the franchise is that everyone got their own little version of Gensokyo as their headcanon and that's that. Complaining about a lack of sensible plot in a "thinbook" is akin to complaining about lack of acurate newtonian physics in a science fantasy novel.
User D: User A, yep no way those guys can beat the girls dude also im not very smart or informative with Touhou since i skip every dialogue doesn't read any of the "books ,but i think the girls resisted the insanity or something from the fake moon? In imperishable night pls don't roast me i dont have a good memory.
User A: User C, Everyone can have their own headcanon, yes, but when they're passing shit as the utmost truth and as canon, that's where I draw the line. Let me give you an example, Koishi. In canon, Koishi is just a lonely girl that wants someone to play with. What did the fanon do? Turn her into a murderer with KKHTA. If it was just a little thought on a random someone's mind, I could forgive that, but it got so popular, people now think Koishi being a murderer is canon, when it's not. They literally changed CANON MATERIAL (although sometimes indirectly) because they felt like their headcanons were better, or just because people popularized shit for some ungodly reason. Yuyuko being slightly gluttonous IS mentioned in the canon, but fans basically turned it into Kirby levels of hunger. You and the other people who deny that the fanon is becoming cancerous with how they portray characters, assuming that "what they think the character does is what actually happens in the series" are the problem here. Get over yourself.
AND ANOTHER THING TO MENTION is the point of a headcanon, which I doubt you understand. Canon means something that is of genuine importance to the plot of a specific media, something that actually happened in the timeline and is important to its development. A headcanon is you making stories in your mind that, for your own perception of said media, COULD be considered relevant to the plot and timeline. But this only works in the concept of, for example, AUs. You CANNOT pass a headcanon as true, because the information wasn't given by the official creators/directors of that specific media, or anyone else that DOES have permission to determine whether or not something is, again, relevant to the plot AND timeline. A headcanon is NOT the official information of the media UNLESS specified otherwise by those with the rights to say if it is, or if it is not.
Tl;dr: Canon: official information that is relevant to the media and shapes its continuity. Headcanon: stories and scenarios made by fans that somewhat work in the form of AUs, but are NOT relevant to the original work, UNLESS stated otherwise.
User E: User A, Thank you thank you THANK YOU SO MUCH!!! Finally someone sane here, i honestly agree with everything you say especially the last part which is beyond insulting and brings out how sexist mucho of the fandom sadly is.
User C: User A, what would i need to get over myself with lmao? I'm not the one getting upset over other people interpreting material as they enjoy it. its literally non of your business. You honestly sit there typing all that shit up thinking that you are the arbiter of what can and cannot be fanonized when the actual creator of the franchise, the one person that could actually make a comment on the subject as its his intelectual property that's getting bastardized, does not given the singelest of shits and last i checked even tacitly endorsed it so long as its not blatant cash-grabs or created purely for monetary gain without any regards to the fandom. If that version of Koishi got popularized and completely overshadowed her actual canon - which by the way i can just say anecdotally speaking for myself, it absolutely didn't and this is the first i hear of an 'epidemic misrepresentation of her character to the point people think its actual canon', but then again, i havent really followed discourses about the franchise since about UFO - then evidently that version of her was a more compelling character and makes her more popular then she would ordinarily be. I repeat myself. the reason diper-heads are as popular as they are is because the fandom has this insane amount of artistic licence. You dont get to chastise people for likening what they like, its non of your business. If someone really cares about the pure and unaltered canon, nothing stops them from exploring that and i am by no means shaming you for wanting to enjoy the franchise as you see it was intended. but if someone explored it and decides "man but i liked my yandere waifu more", leave them the fuck alone. if someone doesn't care to explore it because they like their headcanon as it, leave them the fuck alone. If you want more fanworks created, more in the spirit of what you had in mind: go right ahead and create. Thanks for making assumptions about my capacity to understand basic English. You're missing the point entirely and nothing you said in this entire segment has anything to do with what i said, or contradicts it in any way.
Edit as an afterthought because i somehow managed to forget to mention it: everyone fucking knows that fanworks are fanworks - you know, like the name implies - and not canon. No one's trying to pass of anything as canon, unless they are actually unaware of it, in which case, if they confront you with it in a discussion regarding canon (or in an attempt to establish a common ground for both your interpretations, but i have a feeling you have next to no interest in that, feel free to correct me), feel free to elucidate them, more power to you, but otherwise, mind your own business.
User D: Wow this comment thread is starting to reach toxicity level's as high as damage in Terraria.
User A: User C, like you just did, I'll repeat myself and say that a bunch of these people really do believe that their headcanons are actual original material. Not all of them think like that, but a good chunk of the community does. Honestly, I couldn't give two shits if AT THE VERY LEAST, different people had different perceptions of their characters. I'm not saying every person should think differently, but at least more than just two, or at the very maximum, three perceptions of the characters. But I don't think the fandom constantly showing only one headcanon aspect, or characteristic for these characters is really "each individual's own, or at least, slightly different view of them", is it? Instead of being a creative pot of ideas where everyone can enjoy making up stories and headcanons about how their favorite characters act and behave in their own minds, which I WILL admit, is actually fun, it's a deep fucking pit filled with a hot, bubbling stew of crap that's the fanon portraying the characters with only two or three personalities max, most of which are just downright disrespectful to the characters themselves, instead of just harmless fun, like it should have been. If people are allowed to enjoy portraying the characters the way they want, then I'm also allowed to criticize them if what they're doing is just disrespecting and bastardizing the characters.
User C: User A, in regards to people believing their headcanon to be true canon: refer to my response to your second answer. That's down to ignorance and if it comes up, buy all means, feel free to elucidate them. In regards to "diversity of depicted traits": again, i cant speak for how it is now because i have no idea how much original work has been released. back in the day, there was EXTREAMLY little to go off of in the first place. a lot of the things that stuck are blown out of proportion references to single text bubbles, in part because the character didn't really have any more information about them other then the little dialogue in the game. A most extreme example of this would be Koakuma (and i hope im not confusing her with another midstage boss, my love for the franchise is big, but its getting close to a decade since i last cared to inform myself). She literally didn't even have a name. The entire character, other then general appearance from the in-game stage model and general existence, has been willed into canon by the fandom. Including her name. If you wanna make an argument about the Touhou fandom become toxic. Well no shit, that tends to happen if something becomes more mainstream. What i take issue with is that you appear to be completely oblivious to the circumstance that you are adding to that toxicity by making proclamations of arbitrations of what other people can or cannot do with their fanworks, even going as far as saying their imagination is disrespectful to the characters. Let's take the thinbooks as an example: is their plot in 99% of the cases complete bogus? yea, sure. im pretty sure the author wouldn't disagree lol. Now why was the work created? surely it was because the autor hated the franchise and had 100 hours to spend on drawing a character they hate, just to piss you off and be "downright disrespectful" }:=) Nah, that doesn't sound right. fanworks are created for their love of the franchise, or character no matter how taste - or distasteful you personally may find them. ZUN gave the people a nearly blank canvas and the Fans ran with it. once they ran out of canvas, they painted on the floor and walls. What you are effectively doing is exactly the opposite. you essentially wanna restrict what people see in the characters to what you feel is appropriate and that is simply not how the fandom EVER functioned. My favorite character is Youmu (I liked her before she was cool, shut up). There is a metric fuckton of fanworks i dont like. Solution: I dont consume them. I am not entitled to other people creating fanworks according to my tastes.
User A: Since I could be doing actual productive stuff here (although I'll still stick with my opinions), I'll just ask you a question, after a brief explanation. Yes, I do agree that people are free to make their own fanworks. That's the beauty of the Touhou community. A lot of people show to have good potential in thinking of actually creative, fun, and inventive ways to portray their favorite character(s) as. Giving them unique traits, characteristics, and a good personality, even if it's not canon material. Even I will admit that it's fun to think of your favorite character(s) in alternate scenarios with alternate personalities and traits. I am aware of that, and I do not doubt this information. The question is, why aren't people doing it then? The fanon established, like, two or three characteristics for most characters. Some serious, some just plain bastardizing. Think of how fun it would be with all of these different ideas and perceptions of these characters in place! Wouldn't it be fun? I think it would. But instead of doing that, they accept these characteristics or personalities as their true selves, which are not. Instead of showing any effort to try and portray these headcanons in a different manner, they jump onto the train and follow the damn thing all the way until last stop. The fanon HAS shown the ability to portray these characters in creative ways, scenarios and with good traits and personalities. So, why aren't they doing it? You can't tell me they're doing "whatever they want", because that's false. They're not doing what THEY want, they're doing what the FANON wants them to do. Don't get me wrong, I do agree with some of your thoughts, but that's a question that I REALLY do want an answer for.
User C: User A, as always, correct me if im wrong, but thats more two questions is it not? One being: "Why do people depict characters in a fanonized interpretation that (depending on character) might not align with available canon", and the other being "How did these interpretations came to be so popular to begin with?" The answer to the first is fairly obvious, people enjoy them. Theres realy not anything more to it. People enjoy what they enjoy and that is non of anyone elses business. You might think "⑨=the strongest" is old, I find the popular trope of her character quite enjoyable to this date and ill just make an attempt to list a view interpretations of that that i have witnessed in my time:
- Being a hopelessly overconfident idiot that actually believes she is the strongest
- Her being revered by her fairy gang for being the strongest and that egging her on to actually think about herself that way
- Her fairy gang being fully aware she is a moron and will believe them if they tell her she's the strongest and essentially gaslighting her into that state of mind for shits and giggles
- Her being an idiot that thinks she's the strongest, obviously isn't, but displaying an impressive strength **of character**, giving credence to the title in a way she probably doesn't understand herself, but Daiyousei does.
... the list is long.
I will repeat though: I have retreated from online discourses about Touhou years ago and I experience Gensokyo though my own interpretation, rather then being lambasted with regurgitated memes, so i suppose i get how one could get annoyed by an overused "hahaxd" thing. Completely overdone joke, boring, I sleep. Move on. The other question is a bit harder to answer and i dont think there is one universal one. I cant speak for the new characters at all. For the older ones, i kinda talked about that already. I would suspect that a lot of the traits that solidified their place in the fanon did so before more canon work to the character existed and then continued to stick around regardless because the concept was very well established already. In other cases i would guess it just comes down to tradition that is sort of unique to the fandom based on those early years where there was very little information available and some interpretation or the other garnered big popularity despite that not quite aligning with canon material that would be available, purely because it was entertaining and then stuck around.
User A: User C, As much as there are some fanon interpretations that I feel like mock the characters (although sometimes in a humorous manner), I can understand your point.
User C: I don't mean to secure the last word or anything, id just like to leave you with this just because its sort of related to the original video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zryr7eUgjrEThese numbers are flipped deliberately for illustrative purposes. Headcanon as you rightly established is an extension of the Canon, so the first interpretations that make it into the fandom are mostly headcanon. The Fanon then is a conglomeration of the Headcanons most people seemed to have agreed upon (this happens pretty much by natural selection) and hence create a collective base on which other people then expand further again. So then 'headcanon' of people in the fandom is created based on or at least influenced by the fanon, which was initially based on headcanon. Its not unlike a very short round of Chinese Whispers. I would suspect that you find a correlation between how much canon material is available (at time of character release) and how far the Fanon ends up diverting from the Canon. The more Canon there is, the Less creation of headcanon is necessary to build a basis for the character to exist within the Fanon.
[...]
User F (I said I will not use the real names of the users, but "Totally Alpharius" is too good of a name when associated with the image of the Primarch of the 20th Space Marine Legion): Ah, the eternal battle between canon purists and fanon enjoyers. As old as time itself. Reminds me of why I don't frequent any Touhou forums or Discord servers anymore.
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User G: User A ...dude, as someone who's been a part of this fandom for 10 years, aware of it for 13 and that had huge issues with these stupid fanon interpretations even way back in the day, I still think you need to majorly chill out. This is coming from someone who has Meiling as a huge contender for their favourite character of all time. It's really not the end of the world and it really does seem like over time, the more stupid fanon interpretations are slowly but absolutely surely being weeded out. You really don't see pad jokes about Sakuya anymore, virtually nobody thinks of KHTA when they see Koishi nowadays (heck, the "vicious merciless invincible killer" archetype used to be applied to virtually every single character the fanon could get away with, nowadays those are really niche interpretations at best)... stuff absolutely used to be much worse. Even for the fanon stereotypes that are still alive and well, I feel like they're far less mean spirited than they used to be.
[relevant discussion ends here]
(even if very long and filled with essays, I definitely recommend reading the material in spoiler - that's just where the extract is, and the base to start the talk on)
is the epitome of this. Bomber Grape is another example. Well written doujins like The Gensokyo of Humans are what keeps the higher echelons of people inside the Touhou sphere. Both are appreciated. If anything, middling work is the boat anchor here. It's not funny enough in any capacity, nor is it insightful. It's just there. It uses Touhou characters. I could've read any Amazon special self published fantasy novel and felt about the same.
Also, everyone don’t care about why Wriggle Nightbug was supposed to be in Th12.3 or why Sakuya and Eirin are already very familiar to each other, I’m sure once again that it could be more interesting and original 
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