Updated on
Oct 23, 2026, 15:49 IST
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With its growing presence in mainstream media, it’s time to have a conversation about fan fiction etiquette
Fan fiction has become one of the most interesting and addictive parts of being in a fandom. For years, the genre thrived under the covers, with works on platforms like Archive of Our Own (AO3) and Wattpad racking up millions of views. Yet, it largely remained outside mainstream conversation, carrying the energy of standing under a bridge and quietly passing around something illegal, except what you’re exchanging is an AO3 link.
It's Cool To Consume Fan Fiction (Finally!)
Over the past few years, however, the culture around fanfiction has undergone a shift. People are increasingly comfortable admitting that they write it, read it, and actively participate in fandom spaces built around it. Shows such as Heated Rivalry, the Canadian queer romance series starring Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie, have only accelerated this shift. The show’s unprecedented success turned its two leads into overnight stars and brought renewed attention to the fanfiction culture surrounding their characters. The Shane Hollander/Ilya Rozanov tag on AO3, a nonprofit fan fiction archive, has accumulated over 42,000 works since the show’s release in November 2025, with its most popular fic crossing two million views.
And while Hollanov, the pairing of Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov, gained immense popularity, so did Hudcon, the ship name for Hudson Williams and Connor Storrie. Real-person fiction, commonly known as RPF, most popular among queer pairings, is hardly a new concept. It has existed for decades, from John Lennon/Paul McCartney (McLennon) for the ’60s girlies and Dan and Phil (Phan) for the YouTube veterans to Charles Leclerc/Max Verstappen (Lestappen) for the F1 crowd, not to mention the countless golden pairings that have emerged from K-pop fandoms (BTS’s V/Jungkook, EXO’s Chanyeol/Baekhyun to name a few). But this is where the conversation starts to get a little uncomfortable.
AO3 most popular ships data collected by user centreoftheselights
At its core, fan fiction takes characters from an established fictional world, whether a film, television series or book, and places them in a setting of the writer’s choosing – alternate universes such as high school, fantasy, historical fiction – the possibilities are endless. Writers can reinterpret personalities, explore different relationships and imagine versions of characters that may never exist in canon. A brooding villain can become a lovesick romantic; sworn enemies can become soulmates. The characters belong to a fictional universe, and the writer gets to play with its possibilities.
But when those same rules are applied to real people, things get murkier. This isn’t to say that writing or reading RPF is inherently unethical. It isn’t that simple because the problem arises when the fan-created version of a person begins to clash with their real-life identity, or when the boundary between fiction and reality becomes difficult to distinguish.
When The Fiction Starts Seeping Into Reality
Take YouTubers Dan Howell and Phil Lester, whose relationship had been the subject of years of fan speculation before they publicly confirmed it – a monumental event for anyone who lived through the “Phan craze”. But what’s concerning is that the pair have spoken about the uncomfortable side of being at the centre of intense fan scrutiny, including the way fan fiction, fan art and constant speculation surrounding their relationship could become overwhelming. At one point, the couple said that the attention felt like an “FBI hunt”. When fan engagement begins to make people feel watched, investigated, or pressured to explain their private lives, the conversation moves beyond harmless entertainment.
The issue is that the internet can turn real people into characters to be consumed, dissected, sexualised, and rewritten for entertainment. In doing so, fans might begin to prioritise their own expectations of a celebrity over that person’s autonomy. A public figure’s popularity does not mean every aspect of their life is public property, nor does being the subject of fan fiction make them responsible for acknowledging or validating it.
More recently, another incident reignited the conversation around the fanfiction-ification of real people. Hockey’s newest golden boy, Macklin Celebrini, found himself at the centre of discussions linking his image to the charming hockey boy trope found in this year’s two most popular teen shows, Heated Rivalry and Off Campus. In an interview profiling the young hockey player, Macklin was asked about fanfiction and his much-discussed close friendship with teammate Will Smith, with whom he has been shipped immensely by fans. Macklin, who is still only 20, appeared fairly reserved on the subject, saying he occasionally comes across fan-created content but doesn’t think about it much.
This can also lead to real people being reduced to a particular persona or trope, with fans becoming attached to a version of them that may have little to do with who they actually are. The moment a celebrity says or does something that doesn't fit the image fans have built around them, the reaction can be swift, ranging from disappointment to outright backlash. In a way, the person is being judged not for who they are, but for failing to live up to a character they never agreed to play.
Back in 2024, when news of Aespa's Karina's relationship with actor Lee Jae-wook broke out, it sparked massive backlash from some fans who felt her dating life contradicted the image they had built around her. The reaction was severe enough that a protest truck was sent to her agency, prompting Karina to issue a handwritten apology. While the incident wasn't directly related to RPF, it serves as an example of how fans can develop expectations of celebrities that leave little room for them to live outside the personas projected onto them.
So, What's The Etiquette?
Step one of consuming or producing Real People Fiction should be to keep the people you’re shipping or writing about as far removed from the content as possible. Some celebrities have admitted to reading fanfiction and publicly stated that they don’t mind it, but that shouldn’t become the standard everyone is expected to meet. No one should be made to sit through stories about an alternate version of themselves and then explain or defend themselves against a character they never chose to be. When RPF spills beyond fandom spaces and the boundaries of imagination, that’s when fan culture can start getting toxic, feeding into a sense of entitlement to a celebrity’s personal life and relationships.
The takeaway is that, regardless of how you feel about RPF, whether positively or negatively, it’s important to remember that it’s fiction and to keep it within that realm. The conversation around this will always be divisive. Celebrities are public figures, and parasocial relationships are an inherent part of fandom, not necessarily in a negative sense. People connect with their favourite celebrities and use that connection as a starting point for creativity, community, and self-expression. No one should feel guilty about enjoying RPF, but there is a difference between engaging with it privately within fandom spaces and making the people it depicts confront it in public. Perhaps the simplest rule of etiquette is to treat RPF as a guilty pleasure, if that's how you view it, rather than something to bring up in an interview or expect a celebrity to comment on. Enjoy the fiction, but leave the people it’s about out of it.
Also Read: Best Love Advice From Fictional Characters
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