Better Than Canon

"The Apollo Justice you played was a depressing alternate universe. Here's how it really gets started."

—Job Hunting, an Ace Attorney fanfic

Most fans just aren't content to accept absolutely everything the canon offers. In fact, visit any forum and you'll find a lot more complaints about pretty much every aspect of the canon than compliments. In some cases, this may be warranted. But what can one actually do about these things? Simple: just exercise some "creative re-interpretation".

Better Than Canon refers to when fans (in their minds) start ignoring and/or rewriting the disliked aspects of a fictional canon in order to "improve" upon it. Results may vary. Compare Headcanon.

No examples, please; we'd be here all day. This is an Omnipresent Trope.

Tropes invoked in this attitude often include:

• Alternate Character Interpretation
• Alternate Universe Fic
• Creator's Pet (same as The Scrappy)
• Dark Fic
• Elsewhere Fic
• Fan Fiction (a good chunk of it in general)
• Fan-Preferred Couple
  • Crack Pairing (what the above can lead to)
• Fanon
• Fanon Discontinuity
• Fix Fic
• Headcanon
• Patchwork Fic (using characterization or elements from Alternate Continuity to tweak "mainline" continuity)
• Possession Sue (rewriting a canon character to fit the author's ideals and/or tastes)
• The Scrappy (desire to kill or otherwise just remove the character)
• Slash Fic (when the characters are straight in canon, at least)

When taken too far, may result in Canon Defilement. When some fans get the chance to force this on the official work, it's Running the Asylum and Armed with Canon.

Some of the works on the Fan Fic Recommendations pages might be this.