Deep diving into a niche of the internet is never a good idea, but when you are trapped in an endless spiral leading to the "wrong side of the internet", things get dark real fast. And it all started with YouTube kids. Hear me out. If you are a parent, prepare to be freaked out. Because if you aren't already, it's high time you are. So a couple of months ago, I was at a friend's place. The kids, after much deliveration and back and forth, collectively came to a decision to watch Peppa Pig. Innocent enough. So I put in the words "Peppa pig" into the smart TV. The first video that popped up was, at a glance, a knock off Peppa video. Peppa looked off, a little darker pink than usual, holding a syringe in her hand. I didn't think much of it at the time, but I made sure the kids didn't click on that video because I thought it was some sort of fan made horror film starring Peppa. And that was it, we watched a couple of episodes in the official channel
Along the way, somewhere, someone decided they were not happy with the way an author decided to do things, and fanfiction was born. And what a wonderful premise it was. It gave us the freedom to explore the world we had grown to love, it gave us an insight into the world of inception, it gave us an opportunity to share our thoughts with like minded souls who yearned for more, and who appreciated the endangered art of penmanship. For, fanfiction is, at it's very best, an opportunity to float a piece of ourselves into a the universe we have known and loved. At its worst, it can be non-canonical swill that exists only because someone who had a random thought owned a keyboard and an internet connection. For what it started out to be, fanfiction signaled hope. Character redemption arcs were soulful and touching. Missing pieces of a puzzle were carefully crafted into place. Non-canon, if it did exist, maintained a semblance of credibility and remained true to character development. Dedi