The official structure of fulminate looks like this:
from wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulminate
However, this structure does not minimize formal charge, since nitrogen has a formal charge of +1, while carbon has a formal charge of -1.
Instead, it would make more sense for fulminate to look like this:
In this structure, the nitrogen and carbon now both have formal charges of zero, and the number of electrons is the same as the official structure.
Carbon seems like it can exist with six electrons, as shown in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dichlorocarbene. However, the article says that it is an intermediate.
My question is, why is the first structure of fulminate the official one and not the second one? Does the octet rule take precedence in this case?