#category fandom
Yeah, for those who need some of the context, this was the article I was referring to. No one responded to my dropping it as a reference here, so it does seem like a trope that’s completely fallen by the wayside.Reading Symposium articles is WILD because I had never even heard of elf-fic before but apparently it was huge thing???hahah whaaaat
this is a tolkein thing, isnt it
The Sentinel fandom was full of elf=fic for a while, usually with Blair as the elf since he was physically smaller. I am really surprised no one has written Harold-as-an-elf fic yet. Or a half-elf (we know nothing about his mother!)
It really is amazing reading this stuff, particularly to see the blindspots, and the social-justicey arguments that have been since deemed their own kind of problematic. In some cases, the writing quality for fandom meta has definitely increased.
It’s also fascinating to see how this was a specific sub-section of fanfic type (the type that has dominated what people think of as fanfic and, of course, permeates AO3 as some of these people went on to found it), which has a blindspot for the types of fanfics I preferred for a while: those SpaceBattles types, the anime fandoms, video game fandoms, etc.
My fandom backstory has all but no overlap with the community that produced the Symposium, which makes some of their assumptions extra fascinating to read.
#Kristina’s RPF article is still one of the best things ever #and it was so awesome to realize she had published further academic stuff about the topic
Mind you, Gwern there is referencing Azuma’s book “Otaku: Database Animals”, and do you want the anime industry model to expand to the West? Do you really? The current Isekai Plague, and before it, the Magic School Scourge, and then the Fake Music Group Tie In Hot Mess multimedia properties, they have some merits, but do you really want that much more media disappearing up its own geek-references ass? Do you really?Thinking about the Alec Guinness thing brings up the old question: why exactly did Star Wars become so popular and create its own subculture?
To me, the answer is clearly that, like Star Trek or even The Lord of the Rings, it has a detailed, foreign world that isn’t all presented upfront to the viewer (or reader, in the latter case). The viewer wants to know more about the world, which seems larger than merely a setting for the main characters to have an adventure. So people read and write stories about that world, and are interested in all the little minutiae of it.
The question for me is why movie studios don’t make more of an attempt to create original settings like this which will be their own new Star Wars. Yes, to a large extent, it’s because they’re afraid of a flop. But it’s not like they never make original films. Inception andInterstellar were in original settings, but certainly not the kind of space opera or “fantasy opera” that can inspire a fan following.
I don’t know, maybe they’re waiting until they get tired of making comic book movies. (TV, on the other hand, really does seem to strive for this a lot more consistently.)
(Also, perhaps related to this, I find the continued success of the Pirates of the Caribbean series fairly inexplicable. There is absolutely nothing compelling or interesting about the setting, and—at least I don’t think—there’s not a particular strong core audience. But maybe it’s like 007, where people aren’t necessary interested in the internal coherence of the Bond-verse and just like the spectacle every few years.)
I like the Pirates of the Caribbean / Monkey Island setting!
It’s purely an aesthetic coupled with a set of rusty old tropes, but honestly so is Star Wars and 99% of most other fantasy settings.
Reminds me of gwern on MLP’s unexpected popularity:
> Could fandom be more deliberately designed for? Series which have good fandoms seem to share a number of traits: large ensemble casts, an equally large world with many locations, multimedia excellence (not just good animation or acting or special effects, but a whole package) of which music may be particularly important, and clear archetypal themes which are not necessarily contemporary. Worldbuilding particular invites fandom and ‘database’ behavior—while a true auteur like Tolkien might well have developed an entire legendarium around the occasional references and allusions in their work, most artists simply intend them as throwaways to create an illusion of depth.
The current anime industry is what happens when it’s consumed by subculture, driven by the need to create new franchises.
I feel kind of peeved that apparently my lot in the fandom is to keep pointing at canon and going “YOUR FAVORITE SHOOT FIC TROPES HAVE NO BASIS IN CANON” but… (1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
When did Root start “”“"stalking”“”“ Shaw, and was it of her own volition?
#whoops look at me crapping all over shoot week my bad #oh yeah I should expand the line analysis to include the new s5 data #oh man I’m gonna feel sorry for people who try browsing my blog for more Shoot stuff #blacklist the idol tag guys it’ll make your life much easier! #that or only browse the PoI tag! #although I’ve touched on PoI when talking about other shows too so maybe go with the TV tag instead #to be clear there are still plenty of writers who write shoot very true to canon! #and everyone has the right to write shoot however they please #but…naw let’s be honest I’m still drunk on power from people not writing 3-night rule shaw anymore >:D #even though yes sometimes I still get in the mood to read 3-night rule shaw lolThe reason I go “YOUR FAVORITE SHOOT FIC TROPES HAVE NO BASIS IN CANON” in a fan culture that often takes pride in ignoring canon is that for the ships I like, the prevalence of tropes are almost always less interesting than the canon ship I fell in love with. The “Root stalking Shaw” cliche makes both Root and Shaw less complex characters, as well as shortchanging their relationship dynamics.
Sometimes (oftentimes)….[fanons] are worse
