June Something III

Last third of the June Somethings questions. These were fun, you're tagged if you wanted to do any/all of them. :) 

Day 14: What fandom broke your heart?

I've talked about others when "franchising" got into them, but Star Wars was probably the one that still stings the deepest if we're being honest, especially what mando'ade side of fandom looked like before and after Disney took over. I don't consider anything that they've done (or the janky 3D-animated TCW cartoon) to be canon because I still consider it a mistake to completely reject the very interesting, patchwork quilt sort of world that the writers and comic creators (and games) had been sketching out before - Republic Commando, Open Seasons, KOTOR, the old 2003 Genndy Tartakovsky series, 501st costuming with verpine rifles oh my, and the even older ~90's books on Fett and Thrawn.

It'd be a whole essay to describe what is it that i loved so very deeply about those, (to the point I very seriously considered a mythosaur tattoo pre-aquisition) - but it boils down to the authors bringing in their own mindsets and lived-lives, some deeply anti-jetiise authors, some more neutral, some colored more by military experience than others, some here just to make a really damn good story like a fanfic author would - with texture. Shit had texture back then, it wasn't all out there to make the most optimized amount of money ti possibly could with carefully crafted marketing campaigns. These days you can't whole-sphincter crap on the jettise "officially" via a story because it would somehow go against the carefully constructed moral narrative of them as the heroes, and just - bah. (Sorry, sorry, i have Feelings about this lol)

There was also some personal friendship breakups that happened right when Disney took over that colored that fandom. Vau (the asshole) will always have a special place in my heart but there's a reason I don't draw RC fanart anymore.
 

Day 15: What fandom pairing took you over like Venom took over Eddie?

Alutegra from Hellsing! I remember for the longest time I always "said" I thought about making a NSFW art blog but never did it .... until those two finally, finally convinced me. I had shipped characters before, but their chemistry was different - not only stronger in my mind (may have been a bit of a dawning moment as far as personal sexuality goes) but the flavors were a riot when it came to the inherent humor, teasing, M/s deeply tilted kink dynamic in their public and personal life. They remind me a lot like the Addams Family - the roles-as-weirdness both is and isn't the point. It is simply who they are and they rejoice in it.

 

Day 16: Do you have a fandom that you follow - either regularly or casually - with little to no knowledge of canon?

Detroit: Beyond Human was probably the closest to this I got; watched a liveblog of the game once on youtube but quickly fell in love with the artwork and fics that came out of the game, even if I only made one or two works.  That, I think was the last/most recent fandom that I think I sincerely enjoyed since it got surprisingly dark and mature and deceptive with the creations.  imo there's a sense of flawed media giving birth to some of the most creative fandoms kind of like how plants love to grow out of the worst fucking looking block of asphalt on the ground possible.

(Also some delicious gunplay and robo-ero-guro fics. ahem.) 

 

Day 17: Do you prefer art, fic, or vids?  Why?  Bonus: If someone was to give you a fandom gift, what format would it be?

Fic to consume, by far.  Artwork I tend to be unreasonably picky with what stylistic flavors I like (as well as being very, very tired of the "uwu cute" vibe as a whole.)  With fic, I feel like I see a lot more creativity in range of tone and mood - crack is equally as punchy as smut or humor fics or all of the above. I've found some long fics like And Wolves Beneath Their Seams that not only dragged me by the balls into a whole new game series, but hit on a very particular facet of living and surviving that ... I haven't seen breathed before. That really fucking mattered in a few rough years, and to the point I have that fic bound on the shelf behind me.

re: creating fanworks, however, I vastly prefer those lil' short comic strips I'm most known for. A friend of mine commented once that Makani probably had one of the largest impacts on people in fandom by her sheer style in comic strips, and I can see it through how she influenced me and others of my cohort.

 

Day 18: Recall a time when two of your fandoms collided, at least in some way.  For example, a song that you fell in love with from one fandom showed up in a second fandom.

I don't really have a good example cross-fandom, but I'll never forget finding Hellsing through an AMV via two bands I always enjoyed (E Nomine and Eisbrecher, respectively.)

The fact that first video is still fucking online gives me some hope for the internet. : P 

 

Day 19: What is something that you associate with a character in fandom, but aren't sure if it's canon or fandom?

Pip being Jewish in Hellsing. I personally think it's subtly nodded to in canon (Pip's speech before the fight with the Captain), but also love the yet-another-layer of vicious righteousness that it adds in the karmic payback against the Major and his forces. Plus it's really cute when you think about how he and Seras celebrate their remaining (undead) wedded years in the Hellsing Mansion in the years after. :') 

 

Day 20: A random character shows up at your doorstep at dinnertime saying a friend sent them.  Why did your friend send that person, how does it go, and what do you talk about? 

tbh, buddies would probably send me half the FE9 cast because of my favorite characters, they tend to be the most stable, non-murderous, pleasant to chat with folks with ideally some common interests that wouldn't leave either one of us bored. :P  I'd like to chill with Micaiah a bit, if it's just a dinnertime thing. She's fascinating - given her fortune-teller background, she'd have a few stories at minimum to share, and probably would like to hang with somebody that has no lurking ulterior motive "at her" (and knows about her brand and doesn't give a fuck) other than simple friendship.