Not a request for recs, I swear.

[dira]

terrio and I were talking last night about the tragedy that is fanon!Rodney McKay's childhood--rivalled, she pointed out, only by fanon!John Sheppard's.

Oh, I don't know, I said. Fanon!Daniel Jackson and fanon!Xander Harris could give both of them a run for their money.

Hmmm, I said a little later. Surely there is a way to determine ~empirically~ who fandom has bestowed with the most horrible fanon!childhood! How about a poll?

But I can't do an ~authoritative~ poll until I have had some help coming up with contestants, so, fandom, tell me: who has the worst fanon!childhood?

To be clear: this is neither about who has had, say, for instance, a canonical childhood bad enough to turn him into a canonical serial killer, Dexter, nor about the fact that one time you read this one story where it turned out that the Kents belonged to a Satanic cult that tortured young Clark over and over and he developed multiple personalities in response so that while Clark/Superman is totally well-adjusted after an idyllic Kansas childhood, Kal-El is a time bomb of psychotic rage.

Uh, not that that story exists. As far as I know.

Anyway: I'm looking for the general trend of fanonical horrible childhoods, not canon or outlying crackfic/evil mirrorverse, is what I am saying. Help?


This entry is crossposted at http://dsudis.livejournal.com/536931.html.

Comments

[jmtorres]

I think fanon decided reboot!Kirk got molested by his stepfather?

[dira]

As soon as I typed mirrorverse I realized who I had been forgetting. Reboot!Jim is definitely on the list!

[fox]

Obi-Wan Kenobi, dude.

[dira]

On the list! With a little asterisk because I am still kind of scared of TPM fandom!

[sanj]

- Dean Winchester: TWoP still calls John "Bad Touch Daddy" or something.
- Severus Snape, though that's basically canon.

... thinking about this, might have more after coffee.

[dira]

On the list!

[cereta]

Tom Paris, hands down. Well, maybe not hands-down, but it was pretty bad. IIRC, in canon, his father was one of those demanding, distant types. In fanon, that turned into physical and sexual abuse.

[dira]

Oooh, all right. I would have missed him. :)

[minoanmiss]

OMG, THAT'S RIGHT. I used to write Tom Paris, how could I have forgotten?

[taffimai]

Totally who I came over here to nominate!

[rheanna]

The first one that springs to mind for me is Fox Mulder - as I recall, there was a lot of fanon about him being abused by his father as a child.

[dira]

OMG, how did I not immediately think of Mulder? The ~MANPAIN~ started early!

[silver_spotted]

Harry Potter himself. Staying with the Dursleys, to quote Cereta, "turned into physical and sexual abuse."

[dira]

Duly noted!

[ellen_fremedon]

Bruce Wayne. Actually, the entire Bat family probably belongs on this list.

[dira]

Does Bruce have a fanonically horrible childhood apart from the Single Horrendous Incident? I'm trying to figure out if he goes with Dexter in the "yes, that's canon" category.

[alexseanchai]

I don't know if Sam and Dean Winchester count, because their canon childhood was pretty awful, but...

[dira]

Eh, we'll put them on the list and let the poll work it out. :)

[noracharles]

Harry Potter. Canonically it wasn't very nice, but in fic he regularly suffered outright torture and rape. I read primarily Harry+mentor!Snape, Severitus, and Harry/Severus, it might be different in other subgenres.

[dira]

Yeah, Harry's going on the list. :)

[kuwdora]

I cannot, for the life of me, read this entry and the comments without laughing my ass off.

[dira]

What, no fanon horrible childhood for Sylar? :D

[fox]

... How can it be that nobody (self included) has mentioned the entire cast of due South?!

[dira]

Fraser, yeah? More of a silent despair, mostly, with the librarians and all. And Vecchio, right, that's more or less canonical and I'm sure fanon elaborates on it in amazing ways. Does RayK have much fanon track record of childhood misery, though?

[kinetikatrue]

If we're taking more HP people, I feel like the third member of their terrible fanon childhood triumvirate is actually Draco Malfoy.

(Tom Riddle, of course, has it worse than all of them, canonically, but, then, he's also the one who actually turns into a mass-murderer. So.)

Also, both halves of the Sentinel team, in entirely different sorts of emotionally-neglected ways.

[dira]

Harry, Snape, and Draco, Jim and Blair, all definitely on the list. :)

[turlough]

Well, if being a total outcast and having a horrible time in high school count I guess you could include Gerard and Frank :-)

[dira]

I think we're aiming for fanon!Ryan Ross levels of childhood misery here. :)

[taffimai]

Fanon Jack Harkness' childhood was so much nicer than his canon one, having him growing up in a loving group marriage and the apple of his mothers' eyes.

Pesky RTD and his angst.

[dira]

Awwww, Jack! I think I got into Torchwood when RTD and his stupid angst had already ruined Jack's lovely fanon childhood, but it sounds wonderful. Good to know the trend's gone the other way once in a while. :)

[missmollyetc]

GRACE VAN PELT'S SECRET TRAUMA!

Or, more fanonically since I haven't seen any fic that actually picks up the little tidbit Jane threw down, is Blair Sandburg too traditional? Because I seem to remember fic where the Evil Hippies Did Evil Hippy Things(tm) to Lil' Blair.

[dira]

Blair is definitely on the list! Hutch and Ezra Standish and Bowie Bodie are on the list! We fear no traditionalism. :)

[sliad89]

Tony DiNozzo, NCIS. Canon has given several hints of any unhappy childhood. From these facts, fanon went wild with every type of abuse possible.

[dira]

On the list!