Ye old fanfic: canon
I don't like total AUs, but I don't care about canon, either. Weirdo contradiction, huh? Well, not really. I don't get why a decent writer would waste his/her time writing a complete AU, where the only fandom things are two or three characters, and putting it up on the 'Net for free. Change the characters names, a few details and you've got your very own novel. Sell it. I think an AU really misses the point of fandom in an intrinsic way. I do understand that not everyone wants to be published or wants to mess with it. Some people just want to write and share with fandom friends.
But, when it comes to reading fanfic, I don't care that much about canon. I don't care of they're "in character" or "out of character" or if some point of canon happened as the story states or not. I've noticed that unless the characters are archetypically divergent from canon, a good writer using good character develop always writes "in character." Maybe not the best, but reviewers tend to agree that the writer's interpretation works with the character from canon. That's not character interpretation, that's just good writing technique. For example, Sunhawk's Duo from her Roadtrip Arc. I think he's totally out of character through the whole thing. I think there's a significant portion of the Gundam Wing yaoi fansect that would disagree. I just think she's an excellent writer and she totally sells you on her Duo that you can see it happening. And her Heero? Not even. Of course, what's IC/OOC is subjective, but there are things we know from canon. Does it matter to me? Nope. I don't consider it a problem. Who cares? It's a fantabulous story and don't start reading it without a lot of time because once you start, stopping is kind of out of the question.
But, when it comes to reading fanfic, I don't care that much about canon. I don't care of they're "in character" or "out of character" or if some point of canon happened as the story states or not. I've noticed that unless the characters are archetypically divergent from canon, a good writer using good character develop always writes "in character." Maybe not the best, but reviewers tend to agree that the writer's interpretation works with the character from canon. That's not character interpretation, that's just good writing technique. For example, Sunhawk's Duo from her Roadtrip Arc. I think he's totally out of character through the whole thing. I think there's a significant portion of the Gundam Wing yaoi fansect that would disagree. I just think she's an excellent writer and she totally sells you on her Duo that you can see it happening. And her Heero? Not even. Of course, what's IC/OOC is subjective, but there are things we know from canon. Does it matter to me? Nope. I don't consider it a problem. Who cares? It's a fantabulous story and don't start reading it without a lot of time because once you start, stopping is kind of out of the question.