The Marauders Fandom defies the natural state of fandom culture. Within the realm of the spiderweb of links, clicks and likes, fandoms have been born, have been nurtured and have been destroyed. Typically these fandoms follow a particular mould: by focusing on canon events, characters, and relationships between said characters, more art, writing and wonder is born. However, the Marauders fandom is unlike any of its predecessors or any fandoms being born today. Though its characters were once residents of the world of Harry Potter, in the eyes of the fans they are no longer bound to the confines of their original character archetypes (and their minimal development) as provided by writer J.K. Rowling. The internet has created a fandom renaissance - a rebirth of the characters who were originally solely there as ancestors and side characters to the so-called Golden Trio.
With this rebirth comes a subversion of what people think they know. James Potter (the father of Harry Potter) and his friends are no longer the distant memories of a forlorn, mistreated young boy. Through headcanons, fanfiction, edits, and fanart, and the "fanon" versions of these characters, they are given substance, personalities and backstories much richer than those that were scrawled into the pages of the Harry Potter series. From All The Young Dudes by MsKingBean89 (the most-read fanfiction on Archive Of Our Own) to Crimson Rivers by bizarrestars, formerly known as zeppazariel, these characters are given new life.
A queer utopia - perhaps that is the best way to describe and define this fandom. As it has settled into its cozy corner of the web, the fandom has become more bold and outlandish in their ideas. Debates have run riot over romantic pairings and sexual orientations projected onto any and all characters clawed into the cast that is beloved by this ever-growing group of people. Is Remus Lupin "as gay as the day is long" (as he was described in the original print of Casey McQuiston's Red White and Royal Blue) or is he a bisexual man (as unfortunately rare as they are in the literary world)? That is just one of the many questions thrown around from tongue to tongue, from text to text, in this fandom. The importance of queer representation has been established again and again in our modern world, but it has existed and prevailed within the world of the Marauders Fandom.
The pairings in this fandom range from canon, sensible and strongly backed up with evidence from the original books (like James Potter and Lily Evans), to wild, wacky and completely obscure (like James Potter and Regulus Black). However, the fandom has decided to take their own route, no longer caring what words the creator Rowling has to say about her characters. On numerous occasions, J.K. Rowling has stated that Sirius Black and Remus Lupin do not have romantic feelings for each other, and yet 'Wolfstar', as they are so-lovingly nicknamed, is one of the biggest ships in fandom history. Alongside this, after the proclamations of Rowling's transphobic views mid-2020, the fandom took a stand declaring many of the characters (especially Regulus Black) to be transgender in their eyes. Through this, the Marauders Fandom has made these characters even more relatable for those who read about them. Even more notably, they have used these characters to take a political stand - to make it clear that we must stand up for those in our society who are shoved aside and discriminated against.
Fandom culture is taking art and making it into something even more beautiful, making it something that people relate to and adore even more than they did before. While the art originally belongs to the person who creates it, once it is put out into the world it becomes open to interpretation. People project onto songs, onto books, onto art and it helps them to escape the trials and tribulations they face within their realities. After all, isn't that what entertainment is truly made as - an escape? As a result of the Marauders Fandom, we can look towards a future where fandom is no longer defined by its canon, where it becomes a group of people who love something and share creative ideas together. As a result of the Marauders Fandom, fans have the ability and the opportunity to have a sense of more artistic expression, which ultimately leads to more media and literature for us to enjoy. The Marauders Fandom is a fundamental and quintessential part of fandom history - it is a story of its own, born and bred of minuscule threads and mere sentences about interweaving characters. It shows just how we as people are powerhouses of creativity and that, as is said in Dead Poet's Society (1989): "poetry, beauty, romance, love - these are what we stay alive for".