So I somehow found myself at the crack_van LJ community poking at fic reccs and fandom overviews and after a little while I looked up and honestly couldn't remember how I got there or why I was there in the first place. Sure, it is a great place to go when looking into new fandoms or re-familiarizing myself with old ones, and yes, I have been in need to something new, but how did I get there? Finally, I found a link to the fic that originally sent me there for a fandom overview of Grimm, which I haven't seen but which was the other series in an Avengers crossover that I had been thinking of reading. There had been a link on the summary of the fic on AO3 but since this was a good three or four hours ago it isn't too surprising that I forgot. The point is that this tends to be how I find new fandoms: by doing research into the 'other' fandom in a crossover with a fandom I'm already in. I've found a lot of great fics this way but I very seldom recall the exact route I've taken to get there afterwards so I thought I'd write it down today. Not that this means I've found my next fandom, because I haven't, but I've got a few ideas on where I want to start.
For the record, the last few fandoms I've been in are the Avengers, BBC Merlin, and oddly enough Teen Wolf which I still don't know how I got into. All three are active fandoms, but I've either already read the good lengthy fic in them and am waiting for new chapters and new fic, or I've gotten bored or just not finding anything to my liking.
The Avengers fandom has a lot of great stuff and will likely continue to, but I'm really getting sick of the fandom trope of 'let's redeem Loki by making him suffer incredibly out of proportion punishments that only making him crazier/a woobie, having not been responsible for the events of the Avengers movie after all, and make Odin/ S.H.I.E.L.D. a zillion times more evil than Loki ever was to compensate'. Yes, its possible that Loki was crazy/brainwashed/misunderstood, etc. and its possible that Odin was an even worse father than shown in canon, and yes there have been some really good fics with this premise, but seriously, it does not need to be the plot of every Loki centered fic ever. Personally I'd like to see more fic where he has some sort of elaborate plot that showcases his status as a trickster god, not a cliche villain or misunderstood woobie. Basically the Avengers fandom has done the exact same thing with Loki as the Dragon Age fandom did with Anders: taken the 'lets turn so and so into a woobie by piling on amounts of abuse that are insane and ridiculously overkill in order for character x to rescue and comfort/heal with true love/sex. Never mind that said characters already have back-stories explaining their issues that are bad enough that adding more angst isn't going to help. Meh.
BBC Merlin is where I headed once I started getting annoyed with the Avengers fandom but it didn't really become my new shiny favorite. There are some great fics in this fandom- I'm especially fond of some of the modern-verse reincarnation fics- but there was nothing really drawing me to read every single fic ever and then look for more in other archives. I think part of the problem is that a lot of the earlier fic has since been Jossed and that tends to bother me sometimes, and the other part is that I find of really dislike the 'secret identity' trope. Anyway, I think this will be a fandom I poke into every once in a while but never stay in long term.
Teen Wolf seems to have come out of nowhere and it took me a while to figure out who some of the the characters were, but once I got that down I found I really liked it. It is one of those series where the main character is regulated to side character in fandom- or at least the summaries I've read say that Scott is the main character and not Stiles, who may as well be according to fandom. I don't know, but there is something about a character who is allied with werewolves but stubbornly human and determined to help that is interesting. There is a bit more of the 'Mate' trope than I'd prefer in this fandom but at least they actually have the excuse of supernatural creatures and an overall genre assumption that werewolves are supposed to have mates- which is more than I can say for some fandoms.
The reason I dislike the 'mate' trope is that it is closely associated with the 'love at first sight' and 'soul-bond' tropes that I find to be poor excuses not to actually build up to or work on relationships- basically lazy if not outright terrible character building. Admittedly, I have seen one or two fic where 'mate' doesn't mean 'yay we were/are in love despite never giving the smallest indication we even knew or liked each-other as even friends five seconds ago' but they're uncommon and have a tendency of doing that romance novel trope where one of the characters are possessive and overbearing and the other is attracted but in denial and resisting for stupid reasons while wallowing in denial or obliviousness. Meh.
My favorite fic in the fandom is the one where Stiles and Lydia are a few years older than in cannon and are secret agents (ala X-Files but better funded and with more credibility) that deal with the supernatural sent to their old hometown to investigate the events of the first season. Its basically Teen Wolf from the perspective of competent adults who think the teen drama is ridiculous and that the teenage behavior of certain characters (ie, Scott putting his relationship with Allison above everything else including not killing people) is stupid beyond words. It is kind of a mirror of how when I was a teenager I was all apologist and 'we're not all that bad' and completely oblivious to the fact that half of the things I did or that were important to me then were genuinely stupid or just made no sense looking back. Now I'm one of those people who would be yelling at 'those kids to get off my lawn and turn down the damn music earphones were invented for a reason stop running around'. Of course I work in a supermarket and I hate everyone sometimes so teenagers are just an easy target since they aren't actually aware that they're crazy most of the time.
Anyway. New fandoms. I'm thinking of Hawaii Five-0 and poking back into the Doctor Who fandom now that enough time has passed since I was there last that there should be a bunch of new stuff. Also, I kind of want to see how fandom is reacting to how the Ponds were lost (*cries*). I've already read one good fix-it, but I kind of would like to see Amy and Rory being awesome in the past. Also I kind of want to see an Avengers/Doctor Who crossover focusing on that episode now.
In non-fandom news I've been playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion lately. I started it because people kept reccing Skyrim to me but I didn't want to shell out that much money if I didn't like the games and I figured Oblivion would be a good way to see. I didn't take into account how addicting it would be. Admittedly, it isn't my usual- I normally prefer my games to be heavily story and character based with at least a moderately sized fandom so I can continue to enjoy the game after I've finished it- but I love the open world concept where I can go anywhere and do anything with having to be in a certain order or in a certain way. Also, I've always loved collecting piles of loot. So, I'll probably get Skyrim when I can afford it, but meanwhile I'm having fun with Oblivion.
