On Fandom

Feb. 5th, 2011 05:13 pm
sulwen: (candle)
I love fandom. I love it in the general sense, the basic idea of people with a common interest coming together in the spirit of community and creativity. I've been in many fandoms over the past 10+ years, and I've seen a lot. I've seen talent and joy, love and support. I've also seen drama and wank and hatefulness. It's always going to be a mixed bag - that's just life. But I do think that there are some basic truths to what we do that apply to everyone, and sometimes people need to be reminded.

I don't profess to be in charge of anything, and what I say here is my opinion alone. Take it or leave it as you see fit.

You will also notice that fandom, for me, is ALWAYS about fic at heart. Adam fandom seems to be quite an anomaly in this respect, and some of what I've seen there is what inspired me to make this post.

Read more... )
sulwen: (j2kiss)
There's a post here about the top ten celebrities written into fanfiction. Clearly, whoever was doing this research does not actually know shit about fandom.

Here's their list:

01. Taylor Lautner
02. Selena Gomez
03. Chace Crawford
04. Megan Fox
05. Ian Somerhalder
06. Dakota Fanning
07. Ashley Greene
08. Logan Lerman
09. Taylor Swift
10. Zac Efron


Umm...WHAT? I don't even know who half of those people ARE, and I definitely haven't seen them in fic. Ever.

I mean, MAYBE if you restricted your search to ff.net, but still. What about all these people?

- Jensen Ackles
- Jared Padalecki
- Adam Lambert
- Kris Allen
- Zachary Quinto
- Chris Pine
- Bradley James
- Colin Morgan
- Orlando Bloom
- Viggo Mortensen
- Pretty much the entire rest of the cast of LotR
- Johnny Depp
- Robert Downey Jr
- ALL OF BANDOM, FOR GOD'S SAKE!

Also, LOL at all the fandom outsiders commenting on the post at ONTD. Christ, what do you even DO with LJ if you're not in fandom?
sulwen: (wtf fandom?)
Big-time SPN fandom racefail happening, and it is some bad shit. I mean, I'm not the most racially sensitive person out there (having lived in a veritable sea of whiteness my whole life), but this absolutely repulses me.

Some of the worst bits have been compiled here. I definitely recommend this post and its comments. Pretty much a primer of what NOT do to.
sulwen: (cracktastic)
I am SO AMUSED that this exists! [livejournal.com profile] turtlecest - a highly active TMNT comm with LOTS of adult fic. They were showing the new movie on Cartoon Network today and we were watching it, and I remembered how ridiculously slashy it is. So I bet Matt that I could find fic for it. I was right!
sulwen: (annoyed sammy)
So there's some serious drama going on in SPN fandom right now, big enough that I feel like pretty much everyone knows about it at this point.

And...it makes me sad.

I have people on my flist on both sides, and they are extremely impassioned, all of them.

Personally, I have no idea what actually happened, so I feel like it's none of my business and I'd just like to go back to porning, thanks.

Unfortunately, I don't know if I see that happening. And it really, really sucks.

It'll blow over, as these things do, but still. I was enjoying my little fantasy of us all being one big happy community. No more.

I suppose this is what comes of stalking BNFs. Wank is bound to come up sooner or later. I just wish it had been more FANDOM wank rather than RL wank.
sulwen: (cracktastic)
What with Lady Godga and RDJesus, I think it's high time internet fandom became classified as an official religion, don't you? I know I do my share of worshiping!

Also, I think it says something about my brain that "worshiping" looks like it's spelled wrong to me because I'm so much more used to the word "shipping"!
sulwen: (rainbow)
Hello, new friends! This is all your fault, you know, spamming my flist with memes of interest!

Down, down, down the rabbit hole... )
sulwen: (chess)
I find it amusing how different the attitudes toward certain things are in different fandoms.

In the Torchwood fandom, for instance, they seem to be INCREDIBLY touchy about RPS. Like, I had to be approved to even see the fic. After years of J2, that seems absolutely ridiculous to me.

Anyone know why this is? Was there some big wankfest that scared everyone away or something?
sulwen: (blind mag 1)
I am a fangirl (and person, but we're not talking real life in this post) who is, for the most part, resistant to change.

This works quite well for me most of the time. I tend to like the main characters in the fandoms I'm in, and they're usually protected from change, particularly when it comes to TV shows, movie trilogies, and book series, as those things have to be able to continue.

SPN is a great example - Sam and Dean, despite everything they go through, generally end up much the same at the end of the episode as they were at the beginning. When this doesn't happen, it is immediately fixed in the next episode. S4 and a few episodes at the beginning of S5 played with that a bit, but at the end of the day, we still have Sam and Dean, saving people, hunting things. Same as it ever was.

HOWEVER.

Doctor Who and Torchwood are upsetting me greatly in this respect. Or perhaps that's not the right word, upsetting. More, they're pushing me out of my comfort zone, and that makes me nervous.

Torchwood presented itself one way in S1, pretty much stayed exactly the same in S2 (following traditional serial mentality), and then TRANSFORMED ENTIRELY in S3, even down to the show format. That threw me. I've never seen anything on TV quite like it. And I can't even say if it's a good change or not, not until I see S4. Right now, I feel very much in limbo, as I bet most of the fandom does.

When it comes to Doctor Who, it's a different story, but no less unsettling. I started watching Nine, and I fell in love with him, particularly toward the end of that season. Then, suddenly, there's Ten, and I'm thrown for a loop. I knew this was coming, knew that was part of the character, but I'd JUST had enough time to get into the character I'd been presented with. Now I had to do that all over again?

I was extremely wary of the new version at first. This was unfamiliar and strange and I didn't like it at all. Of course, within the space of a few episodes, I was more in love with Ten than I'd ever been with Nine, more than I'd ever THOUGHT I could be in love with this character or this show. And so he sticks around, and there's a lot of sameness for a few seasons, which I absolutely love.

But now it's about to change again, and again I feel extremely unsettled. I love the way things are now, and I feel extremely resistant to the new choice. It's nothing in particular against that actor - I haven't seen a thing from him yet, so I can't judge - but still. Not at all what I would have preferred. And there's a chance that I'll love the change, but there's also a chance that I'll hate it, and I DON'T LIKE NOT KNOWING.

In conclusion, CHANGE IS WEIRD. ALSO, I CARE WAY TOO MUCH ABOUT FICTIONAL CHARACTERS.

Oh lord...

Dec. 2nd, 2009 05:06 am
sulwen: (taken)
In which I talk about kink a bit, in a non-graphic way )

Also, in non-kink news: Sam/Ianto crossover awesomeness!

Gonna Teach You Tricks That'll Blow Your Mind by [livejournal.com profile] immoralilly.

Hot and perfect and awesome with a killer ending. I love how the author picks out the similarities between the characters, and the difficulties of two different world views colliding.

ETA: Also, and this is entirely random and has nothing to do with the rest of the post, but I love how John Hart is pretty much exactly Spike, only as a time agent instead of a vampire. *loves on James Marsters and his prettiness*

Random

Nov. 18th, 2009 12:50 am
sulwen: (blind)
Angsty J2 breakup fic just made me cry. Literally. Cry.

Caught up on all (important) shows. WIN.

Latest Merlin was sweet and sad and I liked it quite a lot.

Latest House was sad and (kind of in a way) shippy and had only one or two awesome parts, but they were worth it.

I really should not read more than one [livejournal.com profile] fandom_secrets post at a time, because my tolerance for wank is not that high.

Apparently there's going to be a book about SPN fandom. I have mixed feelings on this.

In work-related news, I am scheduled thirty parties in twenty days next month. I also have only three days off in that stretch of twenty.

Also, I am almost 10k behind on my NaNo. Damn you, ChiCon, for getting me behind! (Not really, bb, I lurve you and am super sad you're over, hugs&kisses)

*sleepy Sarah should probably not post when sleepy as her writing ability kind of goes to shit, and for this she apologizes*

ETA: Random internet rumors about Jared and Gen are annoying me. Can't we all just mind our own business until something official comes out, if it ever does? *angry eyes*

Random...

Oct. 1st, 2009 06:14 am
sulwen: (green)
Ok, it's bothering me that there's a fandom for The Babysitter's Club series. I mean, yeah, I guess I see it, but do I really want to destroy my childhood any more than I already have?

Changes

Apr. 16th, 2009 12:46 am
sulwen: (sarah1)
So I felt like reading some Snape/Hermione tonight. It was my first really serious OTP, and there will always be a special place in my heart for it, but it's been quite a long time since I've read it. It shouldn't have been any problem to find a nice, short, porny oneshot - fucking in detention and the like...not with my collection of links.

It was quite a nasty surprise to find that the quality of the fic - and these are the ones I'd saved as favorites - is depressingly low. There's still good stuff out there...but it's not at all as I remember.

I thought about this for a long while. I think a combination of things has happened. I've matured, of course, and fandom has certainly matured as well. Mostly, though, I think there are just different expectations when it comes to fic these days. I expect my fic to be just as good as published original fiction. I want even my porn and my crack to be exceptionally well written, and the more serious pieces should be downright literary.

Maybe it's just that the SPN fandom has spoiled me. We have the best writers on the internet, bar none. It's hard to go from that level of passion, talent, and dedication to ordinary, casual fandom.

I worry for my other fandoms. Are they as still as good as I remember?
sulwen: (peek)
Because my flist absolutely explodes with SPN reactions. Forty minutes of Show at a time is never enough, and reading everyone else's squee makes it better.

This is also why I love Fandom In General:

things that are good + Fandom = things that are AWESOME
sulwen: (fandom whore)
Stolen from [livejournal.com profile] broken_moons

1. Bold the names of guys you'd definitely shag.
2. Italicize the names of guys you might shag after a little persuasion.
3. Leave the guys who don't do anything for you alone.
4. Put a question mark after the guys you've never heard of.
5. Strike the guys you wouldn't touch with a ten-foot pole.
6. ADD FOUR OF YOUR OWN AT THE END

NOTE THAT THESE ARE THE FICTIONAL CHARACTERS, NOT THE ACTORS THEMSELVES...

Read more... )
sulwen: (ceiling jareth)
Here

There is some awesome shit in there. Go find it!
sulwen: (believe)
Serious, serious fangirling ahead. I'm not even kidding.

Fandom = Crack )
sulwen: (path)
I felt the need to make a post about this, since I just had a bit of a wank-fest about my dislike for my gender in general and feminism in particular. Must restore some semblance of balance to the universe!

Awesome female characters, in no particular order )

And a bonus female character that I HATE WITH THE BURNING FIRE OF A THOUSAND SUNS )

So have I made my point? Some women are awesome. They have to have a few key qualities, which sadly seem to be very rare, but that's all.

There. *balance restored*
sulwen: (adventure)
Know what word I love?

Fangasm.

Because I know exactly the feeling it's meant to describe, and it's the perfect word for it.

In other news, I've been watching The Office. I'd never seen it before, but we got NetFlix instant watch through our Xbox recently, and so I thought I'd give it a shot. It's fantastic. It's been years since I was this into a canon het couple. Seriously. I'm so infatuated with Jim and Pam's storyline that I don't even want to look for other pairings (not that there would really be any, for me at least). I know, I'm late to this party...but I LOVE THEM SO MUCH.

*annoyed*

Oct. 20th, 2008 02:45 am
sulwen: (pron)
Look under the cut for a rant about anal sex in fanfic, which includes what is probably way too much information about my own sex life:

Click if you want... )

Profile

sulwen: (Default)
sulwen

October 2012

S M T W T F S
 123456
78910111213
14151617181920
21222324252627
282930 31   

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jun. 7th, 2025 03:11 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios