I just read an article about Dune (books, movie, general property) that suggested it holds a unique place in fandom for a variety of reasons, but largely because it's too vast to be limited, but also too obscure to be commercialized. (article at https://theoutline.com/post/5333/dune-revival-2018-david-lynch) And it got me thinking about fandom in general. Not just being a fan of something, but that desire to reach out to other fans, share your interest, and do something with it, whether it's fanfic or vids or essays or cosplay or art or edits or gifs or just general sleuthing and organizing.... It's something that's really important to a lot of people. Are any of you guys part of any fandoms? What do you do? Why do you do it? Do you think your participation in fandom has enhanced your appreciation of the source material, or is fandom something separate for you?
You have no idea. Okay, you might. Then we can be nerd-buddies. I'm a part of several fandoms that include "Assassin's Creed", "Batman", "Yuri on Ice", "Loveless", and "Gotham". If yaoi counts, I'm also a member of that club. I write fanfiction (right now it's primarily "Yuri on Ice" and "Loveless") and I cosplay along with attend comic conventions. I've cosplayed as a Renaissance version of female Loki, Harley Quinn (both versions), Winter Soldier, and Sha Gojyo from "Saiyuki". I'm intending on making a Joker outfit along with an Ezio outfit (possibly even an Arno one). I also want to make a Mink outfit (from "DRAMAtical Murder"). I like to participate in these fandom and groups because they understand my stupid and crazy obsession with certain characters, shows, and books. They get why I lost my mind because Newt Scamander had a Hufflepuff scarf on or why I giggled like little schoolgirl when watching "Assassin's Creed"; they totally get why I lost my mind during a certain part of a certain episode in the last season of "Gotham". I enjoy dressing up because not only do I get to present as my gender if I want to, but it also lets me just play around. It's really just a fun thing to do. I think my participation in fandoms hasn't really enhanced my appreciation because I already love the material. Fandoms are just places where I can nerd out and meet like-minded people.
I think I've come at it from the opposite direction. I've been independently obsessed with things in the days before the internet, but the only real fandom I've been part of was for Supernatural, and it was by accident. (I was playing around online one day, stumbled over a really interesting story that turned out to be novel-length, devoured it, and only then, when I looked for more by the same author, did I realize it was fanfic for a show I'd never watched. I read more of that author's fic, branched out to some other authors in the same fandom, and finally started watching the TV show to see what the fuss was about. Then eventually I wrote some fanfic of my own, but it was often inspired more by other people's fic rather than the show itself.) Do you think there are some original works that lend themselves to fandom more than others. I mean, there's often a SFF element to Cosplay, I think? It's more fun to dress up as a fantastic space creature than a contemporary teenager. But are there other elements that lend themselves to feeding fandom? (Not in a fanservice way, necessarily...) And do you see the corporate element to it? One of the ideas from the Dune article I linked to was that being a fan sometimes feels like you're "doing an unpaid PR internship for Disney or AT&T Time Warner." I never really felt that way in Supernatural, but I was there near the start of the show (I think maybe around the third season only?) before they seemed to really catch on to fandom culture...
I'm quite a big fan of a few things: Supernatural, Dragon Age, and The Flash (both character and show), to name my favorites. However, I don't believe I'm really a "traditional fan," as I tend to focus my excitement and passion for these fandoms inwardly. I fantasize about what it would be like to live in Thedas (the world of Dragon Age), or how I would use the powers of the Flash. I consider what life would be like if I knew monsters existed, and whether or not I'd have the strength and resolve to hunt them. I do understand that there's a certain level of commerciality in any fandom. The producer of said product will often use their fans for free advertisement by encouraging them to talk about the show in a variety of mediums. Hell, I remember a few years ago there was a huge upsurge of shows encouraging their fans to "live tweet" their reactions during the show's air time.
Video game fandoms are intriguing to me because games are already so interactive! But I can definitely see the appeal of dreaming your way out of the boundaries of the game.
The thing that draws me in about Dragon Age specifically is that it has a lot of lore that you can dig into, but they don't necessarily shove it down your throat. I'm a sucker for lore-rich games, being a storyteller myself.
I've been writing GoT fanfic lately. Sadly, the kid of fanfic I write means that both original fiction folk and fanfiction folk are rather uninterested in my stories. There are only two canon characters in the story I am working on at the moment, Brienne of Tarth and Podrick Payne. Everyone else is, by necessity, an OC. The story also takes place first on Tarth and then in the Summer Isles, both places that in the books and the shows are only given passing mention, so ffic aficionados don't seem drawn to these stories in any notable number. I've written a few other ffics in other fandoms that lean much more heavily into their source material (Legend of Korra, LotR, The Expanse, Altered Carbon) that have been well-received, but this latest story, not so much... Regardless, and to answer the original question, what attracts me to writing these GoT stories is that I'm always intrigued by side characters, especially when I like them better than central characters. I think a love of Larry Niven's Known Space stories as a kid has something to do with it. Those books are less a series of books and more a web of interconnected stories, so you can start with almost any of the books, doesn't really matter. If someone or some event gets a mention in one book, you can bet your bippy that there's another book that zooms in on that person or event and expands it into a complete novel, so no ancillary character or event remains ancillary for long within the greater web of Known Space books.
@BayView I think fandoms, at least the major ones, have a lot to do with timing along with "shock" factor in what they deal with. For example, GoT has a massive following and I think a lot of it had to do that it's an adult fantasy that deals with a lot of "shocking" things like sex, rape, and incest. It also has dragons and a lot of people like dragons. "Supernatural" involves, or involved, fairly complex story lines that dealt with a variety of factors of life. Both deal with things that weren't really in focus at the time they came out. Of course it's fun to cosplay fantastical creatures, but some fandoms don't have that. Many of the larger yaoi works like "DRAMAtical Murder", "Junjo Romantica", and "Gravitation" all have human characters and people routinely cosplay as them. "Yuri on Ice" is the same way. I'm nearly dying to do a Viktor cosplay. I see how it can be seen as PR and corporate based, but it doesn't bother me and I don't think it bothers most. I like my fandoms and my nerdiness, and I want to share that when I can. Plus, like you said, dressing up as something fantastical is fun.
I used to be very, very active in the Glee fandom, to the point that I made two separate trips to Los Angeles to meet up with my online friends at charity events for our favorite actor. It actually started my writing journey, as the first 32 stories I ever wrote were fanfic for that fandom (a couple were novel/novella length). Unfortunately the fandom was a toxic dumpster fire and the show went to absolute crap, so between the two I'm pretty soured on participating in fandom going forward. I do still have quite a few friends from those days that I keep in touch with, though we've all moved on from our original mutual interest. And I dedicated my first book to my fandom first readers!
Guns N' Roses The Simpsons Are like the roots of my 'fandom'. I like all good music from all genres from all of time, so I can be a fan of many artists over many genres but... GN'R, for me, held a special music introduction place in my heart. There's like two songs I remember liking, maybe three when they hit back in 1991, but, Guns N' Roses, I ran with that hit song until I was 8 years old, and then when I was 10, I had a The Spice Girls phase since GN'R got little love on the UK playgrounds when Take That, Blur & Oasis were all the rage. In secondary school, my rock music was stunted since I left secondary school thinking bands like KoЯn worshiped the devil and crazy lies like that from my UK comprehensive. I learned in this Community College type deal in the UK that that was all a lie when I was 16, 17... I was 15 when I got into Jimi Hendrix... I'm going to add Jimi Hendrix to my list. Guns N' Roses The Simpsons Jimi Hendrix but when I was 15 going to my school, only then did I share with my school friends I liked rock/Guns N' Roses and was more me when Grime and Garage was big in my school and Bashment; Guns N' Roses was what I was listening to, studying on guitar. Guitar.... I love guitar. I love how they feel, how they sound, what they do, how they look etc... I love guitar. Can't have any fandoms about me if we don't mention guitar. I am a guitar geek. I am such a guitar geek it's like... Since the age of 16 to present day, I've... Been designing my own guitars. Blessed to be in my hometown of Croydon in The London Borough of Croydon in South London which, growing up here, thanks to local businesses, have helped me have my own ideas, needs and wants made in guitars. I am a fan of; Gibson Custom Shop (and if not them, who ever did the R series in the early 2000's as well as them). Fender American Deluxe Guilde Dean's Dimeback signature vintage Stella by Harmony vintage Martin (but I haven't played on a vintage one, yet). Bearstarps guitar straps (handmade and I love it) - I love them so much I have them on my two Gibsons. Jim Dunlop Straplok Feline Guitars whom I trust with all of my guitars and enable me to do what I want to do Rockbottom Music who I love Martin Phelps Music whom sold me my first guitar and was how I met Feline Guitars who were once based there in Martin Phelps many years ago. Denmark Street, for the cool guitars. Slash signature amp Slash signature pickup Slash guitar strap I once ordered from Slash's fan website, some really long cool adjustable nylon strap, longest guitar strap I have. - Love it. Seymour Duncan Rio Grande Pickups Di Marzio EMG Pickups Whoever made that 9 volt battery box I love with the door! Bareknuckle Pickups (rewound an old vintage pickup for me once just because it was old and I love it because Bareknuckles rewound and potted and waxed it like new, think it's Alnico, but, I forget, but I love it). Fisherman Powerbridge Shadow Kill pot SH124 Schaller birdges Tone Pros bridges Floyd Rose Original Trem' 'floating' Gotoh machine heads Grover machine heads (^ If not stock machine heads on something really cool). Marshall Amps Peavey Amps and anybody else I may be forgetting.
Make: Gibson Model: Les Paul Gibson R7 (gold top dark back finish). (I have one, personal favourite). R stands for Reissue, 7 means 1957 reissue. Gibson R8 (cherry burst finish) R stands for Reissue, 8 means 1958 reissue. Gibson R9 (sunburst finish) R stands for Reissue, 9 means 1959 reissue. An original 1959 is considered 'The Holy Grail' of guitars.
He he he. Consider me part of that group. I honestly don't know why dragons are so popular... But I like them. so.... My remoteness of my current living situation prevents me from goin to any major meet-ups, events, or otherwise. But I am a fairly (okay massive) nerd when it comes to LotR*. Besides that, I am not really part of any fandoms. *I am what some people call a purist when it comes to Lord of the Rings. I only consider what was written by J.R.R. Tolkien as canon, anything else - even by his son/daughter is practically just heretical trash. I am also fanatically opposed to TV series, games, movies, etc... that is not a direct and true adaptation of the original work. But that goes into my views in regards to rights and ownership. I do not believe that rights, creative licenses, titles and overall 'authority' over an artwork, story, book series, world or otherwise can be sold, transferred or otherwise. It was the original author's work, and anyone who adds to it is marely just writing fanfic at best - even if they "own" the rights to the story/premise/whatever.
I've listed this as a book in my own private library in a book cataloging app I have on my phone that allows me to catologue and share . It's about their pickups that year. No prices, not a catologue, but the next best thing; with all specs and everything of all of their pickups, something my guitar guy just gave me because I was a having so many guitars worked on with so many different things and developed my own love for Seymour Duncan in doing that, so he gifted me this very handy reference tool for me. This is the 2005 one, so, it's an old one book and some would argue Seymour Duncans have changed now in, but, I LOVE this book for all the information about every pickup; in terms of who's using what and what it sounds like using words like 'soft, light, crunchy' which, tbh, is just the terms for these sounds and, I get them/understand these descriptions.
