Six fandom terms FanFic Survivor leans on. If you've ever argued about what really happens in your favorite franchise, you already know most of these — but here's how we use them in the game.
The official source material — what actually happens in the book, film, or specific version listed at the top of each scene. In FanFic Survivor, picking the canon choice is how you advance to the next stage.
We pin canon to a specific version on purpose. The book sometimes disagrees with the film, and a remake can disagree with the original. The version label removes the ambiguity.
Community-invented “facts” that get treated as canon by readers but were never actually in the source. A line you swear you remember from the film, a relationship the fandom treats as confirmed — fanon is the stuff that feels true after enough fan art. In FanFic Survivor, picking fanon ends your run.
A reader's personal interpretation that fills in gaps the source leaves open. Not wrong, just not official. Headcanon belongs to you and your friends; canon is what survives a rules-lawyer with the book in hand.
Short for “retroactive continuity” — when canon itself changes after the fact. A sequel rewrites earlier events, or a later book reveals the "real" backstory. Retcons are why deep-lore stages can get tricky: the canon answer for stage 5 sometimes depends on which version of the timeline the scene cites.
Obscure canon — the stuff buried in appendices, supplementary material, or a single line of dialogue most viewers missed. FanFic Survivor saves deep lore for stage 5, where casual fans wash out and the lore-flexers earn their crown.
A FanFic Survivor term: one wrong choice ends the run, full stop. You get up to three sudden-death attempts per daily challenge. Each attempt is one mistake from a Demise Screen and an AI-generated alternative ending.