Here's the third instalment of
these fandom questions from
trobadora!
A pairing – platonic, romantic or sexual – that you initially didn’t consider, but someone changed your mind.I'd never thought about Kirigiri/Togami before, but
doreyg opened my eyes to the ways in which the characters echo Light and L, and that was all I could think about on my next
Danganronpa playthrough. Before I knew it, I'd
written a fic.
What was the first thing you ever contributed to a fandom?A genuinely terrible Pokémon website, which I have since seen cited in multiple places as an example of bad website design. The first fic I contributed was
Rachel's Pokémon Journey, a thinly veiled self-insert I started writing at the age of twelve; you can find an annotated version in my
Old Fanfiction Book Club tag.
Do you remember your first OTP? Who was in it?The first pairing I shipped was Squall/Zell from
Final Fantasy VIII. The first pairing I got
really invested in was probably James/Mary from
Silent Hill 2, which absolutely broke my heart, although Satoshi/Daisuke from
DN Angel might also be a candidate; I definitely shipped Satoshi/Daisuke earlier, but I can't remember quite how invested I was. The first pairing I wrote fanfiction for in large quantities, rather than just a fic or two, was the Ninth Doctor/Rose Tyler from
Doctor Who.
What is your favourite source text for fandom stuff (e.g. TV shows, movies, books, anime, Western animation, etc.)?Videogames! Most videogames contain a lot of detail that isn't strictly plot-relevant and let you personally explore the setting, meaning you can get to know the world very intimately. They also tend to be long, so you have plenty of time to get to know the characters. And the popularity of Let's Plays on platforms where it's easy to skip to a specific timestamp, such as YouTube, means it's often easier to double-check a canon detail in a game than in, say, a TV show.
All of this means that, when writing for videogames, I'll usually have a strong grasp of the required elements, and there's plenty of scope for fanfiction ideas. I've written about 1.25 million words of fanfiction in total, and over half of it is for videogames.
How many fandoms have you written for? How many have you been in, and how many are you still in?Oh, God. The exact number depends on how you count, but I've definitely written for slightly over a hundred fandoms.
How many I've been
in is trickier. Going by the 'five fics, or 10,000 words across three fics' criteria I use for '
my fandom history' writeups, I've been in about forty fandoms.
If we take 'being in a fandom' to mean 'belonging to and actively participating in spaces dedicated to discussion of a particular fandom', things narrow further:
Pokémon,
Final Fantasy,
Red Dwarf,
Jak and Daxter,
Silent Hill,
Doctor Who,
Scrubs,
Top Gear,
Glee, British comedy RPF, Derren Brown RPF,
Assassin's Creed (sort of; the fandom space in question was a series of Google Docs in which two fellow fans and I enthusiastically plotted out a lengthy cowritten AU),
Life Is Strange,
Your Turn to Die,
Lost,
The Quarry,
Death Note and, weirdly,
Lord of the Rings, a canon I enjoyed but have never actually been that into. And, uh, I went to a
Supernatural convention, so that probably counts.
How many am I still in? I'm not actively in a community for any specific single fandom at the moment, but there are plenty of canons I still talk about and occasionally write about, and I'm always just a rewatch or replay away from flooding your reading page with rambling about something I haven't thought about in years. I am still in all and none of my fandoms.
Has social media caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why?The author's social media has severely complicated my feelings about
Harry Potter.
For the most part, social media doesn't usually harm my feelings about a canon. If I don't like what I'm seeing from fans on social media, I'll just seek out fans whose approach I prefer.
What fandom broke your heart?Oh, dear. That would, of course, be Linkin Park. The lead singer died right when I was at the peak of fannish obsession, and I, er, didn't handle it very well. On reflection, I think my subsequent year-long mental breakdown would probably have happened sooner or later anyway, but that's what ended up breaking the dam.
Linkin Park recently reformed with a new singer, which I was excited to see! I think going with a female singer is a smart choice; any male singer would inevitably be compared to Chester constantly, whereas welcoming a woman to the band makes it clear that they're doing something new, rather than trying to replace him. Their new single, '
The Emptiness Machine', is pretty cool.
Say something genuinely nice about a character who isn’t one of your faves. (Characters you’re neutral about are fair game, as are characters you dislike or even loathe.)I'm going to stick specifically to characters I dislike so much I wish they weren't in the canon at all, which makes this a challenge!
I like the way that, after his time in prison, Sam Drake of
Uncharted is a little out of step with modern technology; that's a fun little detail.
Pierce of
Community has a few good lines; 'If it's so serious, why don't they call it meningitis?' really got me.
Teddie of
Persona 4, er. Oh, God, I can't do it. I'm so sorry.
Probably one instalment of these questions to go!
( Dreams from April, May and June. )
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