I don't really have the words for it, but I feel like there is parasocial-like phenomenon that occurs when people give fictional characters agency that exists outside of their creators.

A character being played in an improv scenario might do something just because the actor thinks it was fun. But fans will go to great lengths to make the action connected to lore and craft decision making on behalf of the character that the creator never considered.

It's essentially head-canoning, and it can be *fun*, but it can also go very south very quickly when we try to give 3-dimensional agency to a fictional character.

Fiction absolutely exposes our beliefs and biases, but again, it turns into this parasocial type of relationship when we ascribe motivation to characters that has never been demonstrated by the creators.

Thinking of fictional characters as real people is really fun, but wow does it lead to a poisonous kind of possessiveness if you're not careful.

It just... strikes me as really unhealthy when fans unironically are talking about what [character] is *really* thinking.

Real people's motivations are messy enough as it is. But sometimes fictional people's motivations are just "the creator though it'd be fun to do."

Sure, the end result can cause IRL harm or joy all the same, but the real motivation still lies with the creator, not the character.

I know fans know fiction from reality, but we too often talk about character "agency" exactly in the same was as IRL people's agency, and it isn't helpful at all to divorce the creation from the creator in these conversations.

Fictional characters don't have IRL agency. Their creators choose what the characters will do. If you only focus on head-canoning why a character acts the way they do, it becomes all too easy to project motivations that don't exist upon the creator.

As you can guess, I'm not a fan of "death of the author" because it often results in fans refusing to acknowledge that beloved characters can still betray the hidden biases of a creator who is a terrible person. Fans want to just think of the character in a vacuum.

You can reclaim and remold that character for yourself, yes, but then we're back to the who parasocial-like nature of what's going on.

It's fine if you are aware of how you turned someone else's creation into one for *you*. But it can become a problem when that transformative act is wielded as a weapon.

Shipping is a transformative activity and it's unsettling to see it consistently treated more like data-mining an unreleased DLC.