Hey guys, we need to talk. Because a certain little something in TMAGP 8 is causing what is genuinely the most toxic part of the Magpod fandom at large to once again rear its ugly head.
So let’s talk about podcast character appearance head canons, shall we?
I’m tagging this with the Magnus Archives, TMA and Magpod tags because I am absolutely calling all of you out, but if you don’t want spoilers for The Magnus Protocol episode 8 then stop reading right now.
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Okay, so, Gerry exists in the TMAGP universe. He’s happy (or at least acts cheerful). And some people have headcanoned this to mean that he is no longer goth, or at the very least isn’t dying his hair black with bad box color.
And other people have decided to get seriously agro over this. I have literally seen with my very own eyeballs someone call “un-gothing” Gerry a “hate crime” and calling the person they were talking to “gothphobic.”
Let me make this absolutely clear for all of you: podcasts are a purely audio medium and unless a physical trait of theirs is explicitely stated, everyone’s headcanon for how a character appears is valid.
Goth TMAGP Gerry is valid.
But also
Rainbow Goth TMAGP Gerry is valid.
Pastel Goth TMAGP Gerry is valid.
Not Goth At All TMAGP Gerry is valid.
Bald Gerry who has actually gotten his brain cancer diagnosed in time and is getting treated for it is valid.
Somebody’s headcanon of a character that has no canonical description to them, or whose headcanon matches the few crumbs of canonical description we have but otherwise doesn’t look the way you imagine them to, is not going to take away from your own headcanon of what a character looks like. If someone imagining or drawing a character looking a different way from how you imagine them looking somehow takes away from your enjoyment of the fandom or otherwise makes you feel like you need to barge in and tell them that they’re Wrong and need to conform to your headcanon or else, that is a reflection on you, not them.
And this problem way predates TMAGP, let alone TMAGP 8.
The only description we have of John is that he is in his early 30’s and has prematurely greying hair.
If someone thinks he looks like the pastiest motherfucker to ever dwell in a basement, an extra-in-the-Adam’s Family or Tim Burtan protagonist of a man, let them.
What’s that? You want to tell them that John is BROWN and if they don’t headcanon him looking that way they’re WRONG and RACIST? Back away from the keyboard and go outside.
(Ironically, as someone who started getting grey hairs in my hair in my 20’s myself, I’m pretty sure everyone’s headcanon of John, with tiny little whisps of grey in his hair, is wrong, because if he was so grey that people were surprised to learn he was “a child of the 90’s,” he was probably full on salt-and-pepper when he was in his 20’s.)
The only description we have for Martin is that he (man who canonically has the self esteem of a used doormat) describes himself as “not the smallest guy”, Not-Sasha called him “roomy”, Melanie is skinner than him, and Jonny said he imagined him as a “bigger guy” who would beat Alex in a physical fight.
If someone decides to take this information and conclude that it means he’s tall, broad and has muscle, rather than that he’s overweight, fucking let them.
If your first instinct to this is to run to your keyboard and call them “fatphobic” or otherwise bash them for it, I once again urge you to back away from your keyboard and go outside.
Someone headcanons Basira not wearing a headscarf? We have exactly 0 canonical physical description of her and the people who headcanon her as having one are basing that purely off of her name alone. Fucking let them.
Someone headcanons Melanie and/ or Georgie as a skin color you don’t agree with or a hairstyle you don’t like? Fucking let them.
As long as someone’s headcanon of a character’s description doesn’t contradict the few canonical descriptions we have of a character, why do you care? Them having a different headcanon from you doesn’t take away your right to imagine the characters looking however you like, anymore than it should take away their right to do the same. Someone headcanoning John as white (or Black, or Asian, or Mixed, or whatever) isn’t going to make all of the fanart of John as brown with long hair suddenly disappear, nor the fanfiction describing him as such (although I do often wonder if the opposite is not true; is the fact that John looks the same in so much of the fanart I see on here really because of fandom “consensus”, or is it because people are absolutely awful to anyone who draws him Different?). Someone headcanoning Martin as not fat isn’t going to make the mountains of fanart of him as a fluffy little marshmallow vanish into the void (although I do remember hearing about someone getting bullied off the internet for daring to draw Martin as not fat). And someone headcanoning Gerry in TMAGP as not being goth isn’t going to take away your preciouse goth TMAGP Gerry headcanon.
That should be part of the fun of it, shouldn’t it? Seeing what different images people have conjured in their heads of these characters we only get to experience with our ears, and celebrating the differences as well as the similarities? Why are we bullying people into conforming to one appearance of a character when no actual canonical appearance of them exists?
