actually maybe i DO understand this fucking phenomenon cause i just remembered how often tumblr loves to take a piece of media, be it a tv show or movie or book, and make headcanons and AUs and fanfiction SO far removed from it that it becomes its own thing. the threads tying them to their original work is thin, it's just names and character design-- everything else can be different. and i see this happen in both a (Derogatory) way, when people headcanon and interpret a character in a way that is just NOT them and make someone else entirely, someone that is more fan content than original work, and an (Affectionate) way where people make such intricate AU's and redesigns and fanfiction, it's so detached from the original work, again it's more fan content than canon, but the fan contents fucking good and better than the original. it's genuine creativity

so of course everyone's nuts over goncharov. because all we have is a setting, a synopsis, faces and names. everything else is for us to play with.