by Mayv 'SpearBourne' Amaia

Created on: August 24, 2010   Last Updated: July 22, 2011

Jossed is a term used by some fan fiction writers to denote that a story has been made incompatible with the canon storyline by an episode or chapter aired or published after his or her own fan fiction story was composed.

The term comes from the name Joss Whedon, creator of both the movie and the television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as the series Angel. These two series and their fictional universes, rife with demons and vampires, are called the Jossverse, though Buffyverse was the preferred term prior to Angel becoming a spin-off series.

A fan fiction story is said to be jossed when subsequently released canonical information does not match with what was written in that story. For example, if a fan fiction author wrote a story about Willow and Xander having a serious romantic relationship after Oz left Sunnydale, this would be said to be jossed by later episodes when Willow met and fell in love with fellow magical witch, Tara.

Such a story might have followed the canon material up to that point, or what had aired prior to its being written, but was subsequently contradicted by the Powers That Be that control the actual series or source material. With fandoms such as the Jossverse, it is often difficult to predict what might come later, and so much fan fiction winds up being invalidated when yet another unexpected surprise pops up in the canon storyline that fan fiction writers felt a need to coin a term for it.

Another example of this would be Dawn’s appearance. Buffy had always been an only child, but to protect a mystical key to other dimensions, some monks magically created a “younger sister” for Buffy to look after so that the evil deity, Glorificus/Glory would not be able to destroy the world.

Fan fiction authors might have written Buffy attending college and having a normal life, or as normal a life as the Slayer’s could be, but suddenly having a sister would drastically change things and would also throw a wrench in the plans of many writers.

An author might see things one way and write it as such based on the source material known at the time he or she composed a story. It would retroactively be invalidated by later airings or publishings that contain information different from what had previously been considered canon.

There have been times, to the consternation of fans, that canon events change the prior established canon or storyline.

A story written that contradicts canon backstories or characterisations after they have been established would not, in the strictest sense, be considered jossed; rather, this might be called an alternate timeline where events unfolded a little differently. Alternate timelines tend to be looks at “what if” a character had not been killed off or a certain romantic pairing had never occurred.

Terms related to or synonymous with jossed include Kripked, named after Supernatural’s creator Eric Kripke, and Russelled, after Russell T. Davies, executive producer of the revival of the British series Doctor Who. While followers of a particular fandom might use the name of that series’ creator in a similar fashion, jossed remains the most widespread and commonly used, even outside of the Jossverse.

Sources:

http://wiki.fandomwank.com/index.php/Jossed

http://fanlore.org/wiki/Jossed

http://www.fanhistory.com/wiki/Jossed

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