See, I would consider that "fanon that was confirmed by canon" or something like that. I don't think something can co-exist simultaneously in both canon and fanon. Once it's canon, it's no longer fanon.

Which is pretty much how I'd see it too. But that was the only handwavy thing I could do to make it make any kind of sense.

Meanwhile - where is your tagline from? I find myself wanting it to be from that cracktastic La Femme Nikita fic, and almost remembering it as such, but I'm probably making this up.

Where else? It's the "Today Antiques Roadshow, tomorrow Armageddon!" fic.

I would say "Nuh uh! You're making that up!" but I remember the go-carts so I can't.

So that really was LFN fic?

Wow.

I don't think something can co-exist simultaneously in both canon and fanon. Once it's canon, it's no longer fanon.

If we were talking about reasonable people, I would posit that there might be a middle-category of "canon states A explicitly, and implies B, and C is fanon", where B is mixed canon-fanon and C, being logically derived from A and B, an even murkier mixed state.

E.g., the Angel episode Dear Boy implies strongly in a visual manner that Angel raped Drusilla, but never states it as such in outright words (or conclusive images). So speaking about that rape should be a mixed canon-fanon discussion.

But, where fanon is concerned, I don't think very many people are reasonable. (*cough* strawberry-scented hair *cough*)

SPN: there's a writer putting up "Drunken Sam" pieces. She posits that instead of drunk dialing, Sam Winchester gets sloshed and writes hate mail to Stephen King. [link]

My mind went to a number of hilariously scary due South places with that.

Mine too!

Another supernatural: someday (never comes) is a fantastic gen story about the life of John Winchester. Oh, it's just beautiful and heartbreaking.

I think the key to fanon for me is that they're the non-canon bits that are mentioned in passing -- as character notes, mood-setting, backstory, or the like. To beat Nutty's example of "Dear Boy" into the ground, Angel raping Dru is so strongly implied that in my mind it's canon that they just couldn't show onscreen. A story in which Dru rather unaccountably turned to Darla for comfort and Darla gave her a tender and sisterly footrub would be (bad)fic, and ten such stories would be drearily derivative badfic that the first fic author would be quite right to be cranky about. However, it's not until there are a whole assload of stories about completely unrelated plots that reference Darla's footrub skills as a way of demonstrating her hidden tender side, that I call fanon.

No such thing as "both fanon and canon".

I've been enjoying the The Msscribe Story way more than I should. It's the (allegedly) true story of the rise and fall of a Harry Potter BNF. Weird stuff.