What is *up* with all the gender-swap fics lately? And not the occasionally fun and amusing so-and-so gets turned into a girl (or a guy, though that's actually very uncommon) and wacky-hijinks ensue kind, but the 'so-and-so main character was born a girl' kind. I mean, the 'gets-turned-into' kind is usually either hilarious or a horrifying study in anti-feminism (because, clearly the first thing any guy is going to do upon becoming the opposite gender is to become the ultimate cliche girly-girl, acquire a new personality (or lack thereof), and either a new sexual preference or discover that their usual love-interest is a closeted lesbian). Very rarely is the gender-swap thing done in a way that is either believable or realistic (I've seen a few Stargate fics that actually are both, yay for cannon wacky Ancient tech insanity) and most of the time it's just an excuse to have a yaoi relationship without it technically being 'yaoi' by squemish newbie fangirls who think they're being clever.
This 'main character is *born* female' thing that seems to be all over fandom (I've seen it in Naruto, HP, DGM, and a few other places as well) appears to be both a 'lets have a yaoi couple without the gay' thing and a 'lets insert my oh-so-very-cool original character in the place of the main character, keep some of said characters background angst or give said character *more* angst because angst is the most attractive and fun to read thing ever and pair said character up with so-and-so male character because he's so awesome' thing, aka a not so very cleverly disguised Mary Sue. I mean, I *suppose* that it might be possible that one or two of these fics may be a valid AU whereupon said main character genuinely was born female and is still essentially the same character with minor differences (because realistically there would be some character differences if born a different gender, but not to the point where the character is completely unrecognizable and suspiciously is 'so-much-cooler' than cannon) but it's very unlikely except in the case of dimensional travel whereupon the MC travels to a universe where he was born female- because those ones are usually done well, or at least aren't Mary Sues.
Still, if you're going to write yaoi or a Mary Sue, then just do so- don't try to get around or hide it by destroying perfectly good cannon characters (though considering how OOC all the other characters usually are in said fics, maybe it's a mercy for said characters to be 'killed' and replaced by a defective wrong-gender quasi-clone (because usually appearance, name, and most defining characteristics are erased as well, other than a few physical points such as a scar or tattoo, or seal of some sort). If only people would stop spamming fandom with this new trend... if I want to read a fic staring Naruto, or Allen, or Harry, then I *don't* want to read a fic staring Naruko, Alanna, or Harietta - or Kelly, Melissa, and Chrysanthemum, because half the time they don't even bother to keep the 'new' names anything close to the old, and in the case of anime, the names are either mysteriously western or clearly borrowed form another popular anime (you can tell, because said names are usually uncommon or unique in Japanese to begin with). You aren't as clever as you think you are fangirls and boys.
Sunday, September 6, 2009
I can has an update?
As for fandom, well I finally got around to the D.Grey-Man fandom a while back, and boy was I disappointed. Why was I disappointed? Well mostly because I sat down and read the entirety of the manga that has been published and found it to be *made* of awesome to the extent that I was really looking forward to seeing what fandom could have done with all that potential. However, what I found instead was a bazillion bad high school AUs, too many bad vampire AUs, a tonn of pointless and OOC pairing fics (mostly yaoi, which I wouldn't mind if not for the fact that the characters were almost never IC, actual plot was almost non-existent, and most of them were AUs to boot). I won't deny the existence of a few good one-shots, nor that there *was* a few good fics here and there, but there was *nothing* in the fandom that truly *shined* like the manga itself. Usually there is at least something in fandom that is as good as (or in some cases better than) the source material, but here I was disappointed. Thus, the manga was awesome, the fandom not so much (unless you're in it for the Pr0nz, because there *are* a few good fics in that category with some interesting psychological insights on certain characters).
After that fandom disappointment I've mostly been drifting in and out of old fandoms again, rereading old favorites, looking for updates, and occasionally finding a good new fic. I've also been playing Crisis Core and reading ahead in two of my classes. Occassionally, when I'm up to driving myself insane with frustration, I go and play Mario Kart Wii (my sister bought a Wii last month, and a few months prior to that we got an Xbox 360, so now all we need is the PS3 and then collectively our family will finally have all the latest game systems for the first time in years, instead of just one).
And that's about it for my life now.
Monday, June 15, 2009
Also
Come to think of it, now I want an X/Stargate crossover where they realize just how pointless it would be to end the world since humanity exists throughout the whole damn universe and are not anywhere near as ultimately damaging as some of the other races. Or a fic where several years after humanity is 'wiped out' an Ancient device automatically repopulates the world, or people start coming back through the stargate (with the presumption that the apocolypse wasn't instantanious and that enough people knew the world was ending to evacuate). There: that's my new X/TB apoco-fic canon.
Update
Wow, I haven't updated this in ages. Probably since everything started to look up since my last post and the only things I had left to whine about was my own laziness and tendency to procrastinate. That said, I have a month and a half to finish my three courses- I'm way behind schedule because I'm the laziest essay-writer ever and because the classes are so painfully easy that I could have finished them months ago if I'd really wanted to. I *so* need to stop being so lazy.
So- what have I been doing if not what I should be doing?
Yeah, I've been doing that obsessive compulsive fandom thing I do. Since January I've done the usual 'go back to old fandoms' and look for new fandoms thing I do, looking for a new shiny. I spent a great deal of time in the Naruto-fandom reading a lot of the fic that's been written since the last time I was there- I found a few good fics, one or two great fics, and a lot of average fic. The usual. After/during that I also poked into the Bleach fandom a bit, various other 'on-going' fandoms such as KH and FF, and read everything (nearly) there was to read in the KHR! fandom. There were probably a few others in there too, but my most recent 'obsession' was the Death Note fandom- which is weird, since its one of those fandoms where practically everyone ends up dead in cannon, and there are surprisingly few amount of AU fics where said characters survive. I still looked for them though.
Anyway, about a week or so ago I decided enough was enough. I'd read nearly everything that looked even a little bit interesting in the DN fandom and I was getting sick of the angst (and the badfic) so it was about time to find something new. This wasn't so much a conscious decision as something that just happened. I'd already been beginning to pull out, since the DN fandom isn't prolific enough to support me now that I've read all the good finished stuff, but I hadn't fully done so until I chanced upon the fact that the website of some of my old favorite authors had been updated.
And that's how I suddenly got all nostalgic for the TB/X/1999 fandom and decided to go on a quest to find some of my old favorite fics and see if anything new had been written in the years since I was so obsessed with it. Great way to get rid of the angst right? *L*
Interestingly enough there seem to have been something of a small revival of the fandom, and I'm not the only one who's been feeling nostalgic lately. Not only have a few old favorites been updated, but there are a few LJ communities and people who've been writing new fic lately- possibly because of the X/2009 challenge.
Said challenge was to show 'ten years later', either if the apocalypse had been diverted, it had happened and there were survivors (typical post-apocofic), or in one notable case if the apocalypse had been postponed ten years in order for Kamui to be able to make an 'informed decision' about the end of the world. It was this last fic that I just put aside, having realized that it was not going to end well at all. Essentially, by making the characters ten years older and putting them into 'now' things only got worse. Especially since several of the characters already had issues, and giving them more time to dwell on them with the knowledge that the world might still end wasn't a good one. Especially since ten years can change a person a lot, and if nothing gets resolved, if those ten years are just bidding time, or if the issues get worse, the decisions made my a cynical twenty-five year old, or someone in their thirties or forties, will be drastically different than those of a teenager or young adult.
The story itself is brilliant and chilling, and it *works* in the realistic context- but it isn't what I want to read at all- or think about. I had been hoping for something else when I found it. So even though the story is quite possibly one of the better pieces of fandom literature in any fandom, I don't think I'll be finishing it any time soon. I think that what bothers me the most about it is that it's written by a well-informed, academic type person who's realist views clash with my own hopeful views that things (and by things I mean life, the planet, society in general...) are not anywhere near as 'doomed' as people seem to think, and that we can and will fix things- even if we delay it until the last possible moment, it *is* going to be fixed. Or everything we see as needing to be fixed will fix itself and everything will balance out in the end. Or everything we think needs to be fixed doesn't and isn't as much of a long-term problem as we seem to think.
Anyway, my point is that my view of humanity isn't as cynical as hers and I hate apoco-fic in any fandom (though at least in the Stargate fandom the destruction of the Earth isn't necessarily the end of everything).
So *why* did I ever go back to the X/TB fandom?! Probably because I'd liked the characters and I love AUs where they either live happily ever after, sensibly decide to veto the apocalypse, or at least survive it. Actually, I'm kind of fond of fic where the characters get over their issues and realize that they don't *need* to follow destiny's path. Meh.
Well at least there's Tsubasa... though really, turning Kamui and Subaru into vampires... was it *absolutely* necessary? *L* Speaking of Tsubasa, I do believe that's my next fandom- even though CLAMP hands out angst by the buckets, and from what I've read of the plot there are are more twists and turns than you can shake a stick at... well at least its pretty.
And so, there I go.
So- what have I been doing if not what I should be doing?
Yeah, I've been doing that obsessive compulsive fandom thing I do. Since January I've done the usual 'go back to old fandoms' and look for new fandoms thing I do, looking for a new shiny. I spent a great deal of time in the Naruto-fandom reading a lot of the fic that's been written since the last time I was there- I found a few good fics, one or two great fics, and a lot of average fic. The usual. After/during that I also poked into the Bleach fandom a bit, various other 'on-going' fandoms such as KH and FF, and read everything (nearly) there was to read in the KHR! fandom. There were probably a few others in there too, but my most recent 'obsession' was the Death Note fandom- which is weird, since its one of those fandoms where practically everyone ends up dead in cannon, and there are surprisingly few amount of AU fics where said characters survive. I still looked for them though.
Anyway, about a week or so ago I decided enough was enough. I'd read nearly everything that looked even a little bit interesting in the DN fandom and I was getting sick of the angst (and the badfic) so it was about time to find something new. This wasn't so much a conscious decision as something that just happened. I'd already been beginning to pull out, since the DN fandom isn't prolific enough to support me now that I've read all the good finished stuff, but I hadn't fully done so until I chanced upon the fact that the website of some of my old favorite authors had been updated.
And that's how I suddenly got all nostalgic for the TB/X/1999 fandom and decided to go on a quest to find some of my old favorite fics and see if anything new had been written in the years since I was so obsessed with it. Great way to get rid of the angst right? *L*
Interestingly enough there seem to have been something of a small revival of the fandom, and I'm not the only one who's been feeling nostalgic lately. Not only have a few old favorites been updated, but there are a few LJ communities and people who've been writing new fic lately- possibly because of the X/2009 challenge.
Said challenge was to show 'ten years later', either if the apocalypse had been diverted, it had happened and there were survivors (typical post-apocofic), or in one notable case if the apocalypse had been postponed ten years in order for Kamui to be able to make an 'informed decision' about the end of the world. It was this last fic that I just put aside, having realized that it was not going to end well at all. Essentially, by making the characters ten years older and putting them into 'now' things only got worse. Especially since several of the characters already had issues, and giving them more time to dwell on them with the knowledge that the world might still end wasn't a good one. Especially since ten years can change a person a lot, and if nothing gets resolved, if those ten years are just bidding time, or if the issues get worse, the decisions made my a cynical twenty-five year old, or someone in their thirties or forties, will be drastically different than those of a teenager or young adult.
The story itself is brilliant and chilling, and it *works* in the realistic context- but it isn't what I want to read at all- or think about. I had been hoping for something else when I found it. So even though the story is quite possibly one of the better pieces of fandom literature in any fandom, I don't think I'll be finishing it any time soon. I think that what bothers me the most about it is that it's written by a well-informed, academic type person who's realist views clash with my own hopeful views that things (and by things I mean life, the planet, society in general...) are not anywhere near as 'doomed' as people seem to think, and that we can and will fix things- even if we delay it until the last possible moment, it *is* going to be fixed. Or everything we see as needing to be fixed will fix itself and everything will balance out in the end. Or everything we think needs to be fixed doesn't and isn't as much of a long-term problem as we seem to think.
Anyway, my point is that my view of humanity isn't as cynical as hers and I hate apoco-fic in any fandom (though at least in the Stargate fandom the destruction of the Earth isn't necessarily the end of everything).
So *why* did I ever go back to the X/TB fandom?! Probably because I'd liked the characters and I love AUs where they either live happily ever after, sensibly decide to veto the apocalypse, or at least survive it. Actually, I'm kind of fond of fic where the characters get over their issues and realize that they don't *need* to follow destiny's path. Meh.
Well at least there's Tsubasa... though really, turning Kamui and Subaru into vampires... was it *absolutely* necessary? *L* Speaking of Tsubasa, I do believe that's my next fandom- even though CLAMP hands out angst by the buckets, and from what I've read of the plot there are are more twists and turns than you can shake a stick at... well at least its pretty.
And so, there I go.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Days of Yore
It has been a good thirteen (if not more) years now since I first officially became an an anime fan, and about twelve since I acquired the internet and discovered fandom. Even before then my favorite kind of video games were RPGs and I had read a good three quarters of the fantasy/sci-fi section at the local library. Though I didn't know it back then, I was writing fanfic back in primary school. I just kind of think it's funny that even though the precise focus of my interest has changed (evolved) over time, the basic core of my interests has always remained the same.
What I'm getting to is that in the past few weeks I've encountered a few remnants of 'the good old days' of fandom and the internet that have got me feeling nostalgic.
The first thing I ever looked up on the internet (willingly) was information about the anime 'Slayers'. That was the series that got me hooked on anime, a good year before I ever even knew about the internet as anything more than a pricey computer thing that I didn't know anything about. I rented nearly every anime in the video store back then- though that isn't really saying much since this was back before anime was 'cool'- back during the first run of Sailor Moon (I think, if not before then) when even the networks refused to even use the word 'anime'. I can't help but wonder now though, if my obsession would have lasted all that long if I hadn't moved to a town that actually taught students how to use the internet in school as part of the curriculum and allowed them to use the computer labs and the library for non-school based activities. Possibly my interest could have been renewed when anime became more mainstream, but it's hard to say.
Anyway, even with a specific series to obsess over and nearly unlimited internet access at school I didn't actually really encounter fanfic until a few months later when we had gotten dial-up (which was all that was available for home-internet then- at least where I lived) and was looking up info on Final Fantasy VII- namely, I believe, a rumor of a possible way to make it so Aeris didn't die (heh, those were all over the place back then). I'd seen links for 'fan fiction' before then, but had for some reason been under the impression that this mysterious category had something to do with gossip or some such trivial thing and had thus avoided it before then. It hadn't even occurred to me before I clicked on that link that people were writing *stories* about my favorite characters and worlds. And so a new era began for me.
Back in those days there weren't any automated archives or blog communities- in fact, though my memory isn't too precise, those didn't start popping up until a year or so later, and when they did they weren't anything to write home about. No, in those days if you wanted fanfic (at least anime fanfic- I never looked for book or TV or movie based fanfic until years and years later) you had to look for personal web-pages, hosted archives and collections made by people who often (though not always) screened the submissions, and places like the old FTP 'public archive of anime fanworks' site. It was a hit and miss process, and there wasn't really all that much available for a while, unless you were into Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball- which I wasn't really- or Ranma 1/2, which I was.
I can honestly say that the Ranma fandom is one that I've always been able to fall back on. A lot of the old story archives are still out there (at least they were last I checked) and although fans aren't as prolific for it as they used to be, the fandom hasn't *died* like a lot of the older anime fandoms have.
Anyway, I think I'm loosing focus on my original point, so I'll finish up with a list of things I recall with fondness from the 'good old days' both *way* back in the day and more recently (as in lost or forgotten within the past 5 years):
Random List of Fandom Nostalgia:
- I remember the old Anipike site, before it became a crappy wanna-be search engine and was just a pretty definitive list of nearly every anime-based site online sorted by series, type, and a few other things. I occasionally use the Wayback Machine to find old favorites or places I know once existed through the Old Anipike. I never liked the new one, and haven't been there in years, if it's even still there.
- The Slayers Trilogy by Twoflower. It's been a while since I re-read it, but I still believe that it is the single best Slayers fanfic epic ever. The website still exists too, though last I checked the author was writing original fic and hilarious Neverwinter Nights modules.
- Ranma fanfic in general. I read nearly all the great old Ranma epics, didn't particularly care about the 'Fiance Wars', and was sad to have lost my old favorite archive for it.
- The day I accidentally downloaded my first mp3, thinking it was a midi and was just downloading very slowly- it didn't hurt that the site I got it from was entirely in Japanese except for the song titles. I believe the song was either 'Get Along' or 'Give a Reason' from Slayers. Before then it had never even occured to me that mp3s could exist. Back then my computer was so tiny I could only fit three songs on it before deleting things.
- Finding the occasional full anime episode, then more, and realizing how much *better* they were in Japanese with subtitles.
- How before auto-archives and the centralization of fandoms into LJ and auto archives everything was connected by Web-Rings.
- How nearly everything used to be free for real, even if it wasn't as shiny as it is now, and how the internet used to feel (to me at least) a lot more close and friendlier when there wasn't everyone and their cat online.
- How people in fandom used to be more respectful towards the source material and how people wouldn't *dare* to do anything so crass as show their porny fanfic/art to the actors/creators. It makes me feel old when I see how the newbies act sometimes. I mean, if random people decided I was sleeping with a co-worker because we argued, or were friends, or even just looked 'pretty' together and started writing graphic porn about it, well I certainly wouldn't want it shoved in my face. That is one of the things that I regret about fandom entering mainstream- technically a lot of what we are doing is if not outright illegal, certainly objectionable to some people- and unless a creator or actor says outright that they don't care or that they approve, it isn't wise to do anything that would *make* them object. People used to know that, but I'm not sure as many do anymore.
- I remember the old list of RPG cliches and the Evil Overlord list. They both still exist, though the formor was really out of date last I saw it and the later has become infamous enough that it will likely never be forgotten.
- I miss the Gaming Intelligence Agency, which was the best site for online RPG news in it's day. RPGamer isn't so bad now, but the GIA will always hold a special place in my memories.
- There was a huge epic crossover fic called the 'Dance of Shiva' that I really need to track down again someday.
- The Gundam Wing fandom before it started to fail. I got into it by accident, about a year or so after it started to become so popular (I'd downloaded the first episode way before then and nearly died of boredom, and so avoided it and it's fandom when it started airing on TV) because I wanted to add in some cameos that my friends, who were huge fans, would recognize in the crossover I was writing. My research involved reading a few fic to see how the characters were generally portrayed, and it didn't take long for me to get sucked in- especially since much of the fandom way more character driven then boring political/action/war-is-bad stuff. This was also where I first seriously started to encounter the yaoi/shounen ai genre- again, by accident. Before then I had mostly avoided anything 'adult' rated out of habit and since most yaoi labled fics I'd seen before then (without a lable of what it *was* since I wasn't looking for it) were also accompanied with the 'lemon' lable, I just never really read any until then. As it happens, around that time I was a huge Mercedes Lackey fan, and anyone who's read her books (at least her earlier ones, at any rate: she's gotten a lot less 'controversial' in the few books of hers I've read in the past few years) knows that she is (was) one of the few fantasy authors who made sure to have at least one canon gay/lesbian/bi couple in each book. Suffice it to say I wasn't disturbed in the slightest by the yaoi genre, and since I finally knew what it was I stopped avoiding it- and occasionally followed it. (I won't get into why I like it, as my answers will likely match that of any other yaoi-fangirl.)
Hmm. It's difficult to recall exactly which anime fandoms I pursued in the early years, and I can't quite recall exactly how I left the anime fandom- or rather, branched out from it, since I still linger there, though not as much as I used to. I think it might have been a combination of changes in my real life and new leanings towards original fiction written by non-anime fans which started to open my eyes to how unrealistic and immature a lot of the anime fandom was becoming (this was about the time when auto archives had begun to really take off, anime was becoming popular among more and more people, most of whom were younger then me and prone to all sorts of newbie-ish behavior that I just didn't find as amusing or cute as I would have back when I was a newbie myself). Actually, come to think of it, everything started to change near the end of my CLAMP obsession (aka, overload on the angst of X/TB) which also coincides with me reading more and more original fic, branching out more to TV fandoms (like Xena/Hercules, Highlander, Buffy, and some X-Files I think), and my decision to stop writing fanfic since reading too many bad anime fanfics were accepting my writing (and also that I sucked at writing fanfic. I tended to want to write SIs and put in way too many original characters in combination with making AUs in several attempts at 'fixing the angst'- to the point of Mary-Suism in one story, much to my disgust. Although, if I'd written more of that fic it might have evened out, since that character had a lot more depth planned but not shown in what little I'd posted- maybe someday I'll re-write it). Anyway, I think the real thing that got me completely out of my anime rut was my brief but absolutely obsessive fling with the Marvel-comics verse- specifically X-Men and directly associated comics (I was never a Spiderman or Fantastic Four or Iron Man fan). The general style was so different then what I usually found in anime fandom that, after getting over how uncomfortable the 'directness', for lack of a better term, in comparison to that found in anime-fic (especially in slash- which, though technically the same thing, is *way* different than yaoi) I was able to move into TV/mainstream based fandoms a lot easier. And so, there I was.
Eventually I did go back to anime/game fandom, but no longer to the exclusion of everything else. Except Real Person based fandom, which frankly squicks me so *very* much- it's one thing to write fiction about characters who are fictional (or long-dead and unable to complain), and another altogether to write fiction about *real* people who might someday read what you've written about them- I'm not too fond of gossip-magazines for the same purpose.
---
So what is my current fandom? Well, I've mostly left Kingdom Hearts, I have a few on my list of 'to-read' fics for FFVII (like the Ranma fandom, it lives on!), I'm hoping the new anime will encourage people to write more Tales of the Abyss fic- but have otherwise moved on from the Tales series and Zelda (except to read updates of old fics and look for potentially good new ones every once in a while) and am in limbo. I've mostly been dipping into the waters of various new small fandoms in lately- or into old ones. I've found a Tekken fic that looks promising, and there's a few good Jak and Daxter fics- the Vampire Knight and YuGiOh GX fandoms looked promising, but only had one or two fic worth reading. There've also been a few good Buffy crossovers, and one or two Naruto AU and Timetravel fics. Occasionally I find a Harry Potter fic that doesn't want to make me strangle someone (very AU, because canon irks me). I poked briefly into the Silent Hill fandom- was horrified and squicked, and left. Nothing but pointless drivel in the Devil May Cry or Resident Evil fandoms (as usual, though sometimes there's something good there). Mostly, I'm currently fandomless- though I'm thinking of trying out D-Greyman and subscribing to another original fic site.
-
What I'm getting to is that in the past few weeks I've encountered a few remnants of 'the good old days' of fandom and the internet that have got me feeling nostalgic.
The first thing I ever looked up on the internet (willingly) was information about the anime 'Slayers'. That was the series that got me hooked on anime, a good year before I ever even knew about the internet as anything more than a pricey computer thing that I didn't know anything about. I rented nearly every anime in the video store back then- though that isn't really saying much since this was back before anime was 'cool'- back during the first run of Sailor Moon (I think, if not before then) when even the networks refused to even use the word 'anime'. I can't help but wonder now though, if my obsession would have lasted all that long if I hadn't moved to a town that actually taught students how to use the internet in school as part of the curriculum and allowed them to use the computer labs and the library for non-school based activities. Possibly my interest could have been renewed when anime became more mainstream, but it's hard to say.
Anyway, even with a specific series to obsess over and nearly unlimited internet access at school I didn't actually really encounter fanfic until a few months later when we had gotten dial-up (which was all that was available for home-internet then- at least where I lived) and was looking up info on Final Fantasy VII- namely, I believe, a rumor of a possible way to make it so Aeris didn't die (heh, those were all over the place back then). I'd seen links for 'fan fiction' before then, but had for some reason been under the impression that this mysterious category had something to do with gossip or some such trivial thing and had thus avoided it before then. It hadn't even occurred to me before I clicked on that link that people were writing *stories* about my favorite characters and worlds. And so a new era began for me.
Back in those days there weren't any automated archives or blog communities- in fact, though my memory isn't too precise, those didn't start popping up until a year or so later, and when they did they weren't anything to write home about. No, in those days if you wanted fanfic (at least anime fanfic- I never looked for book or TV or movie based fanfic until years and years later) you had to look for personal web-pages, hosted archives and collections made by people who often (though not always) screened the submissions, and places like the old FTP 'public archive of anime fanworks' site. It was a hit and miss process, and there wasn't really all that much available for a while, unless you were into Sailor Moon or Dragon Ball- which I wasn't really- or Ranma 1/2, which I was.
I can honestly say that the Ranma fandom is one that I've always been able to fall back on. A lot of the old story archives are still out there (at least they were last I checked) and although fans aren't as prolific for it as they used to be, the fandom hasn't *died* like a lot of the older anime fandoms have.
Anyway, I think I'm loosing focus on my original point, so I'll finish up with a list of things I recall with fondness from the 'good old days' both *way* back in the day and more recently (as in lost or forgotten within the past 5 years):
Random List of Fandom Nostalgia:
- I remember the old Anipike site, before it became a crappy wanna-be search engine and was just a pretty definitive list of nearly every anime-based site online sorted by series, type, and a few other things. I occasionally use the Wayback Machine to find old favorites or places I know once existed through the Old Anipike. I never liked the new one, and haven't been there in years, if it's even still there.
- The Slayers Trilogy by Twoflower. It's been a while since I re-read it, but I still believe that it is the single best Slayers fanfic epic ever. The website still exists too, though last I checked the author was writing original fic and hilarious Neverwinter Nights modules.
- Ranma fanfic in general. I read nearly all the great old Ranma epics, didn't particularly care about the 'Fiance Wars', and was sad to have lost my old favorite archive for it.
- The day I accidentally downloaded my first mp3, thinking it was a midi and was just downloading very slowly- it didn't hurt that the site I got it from was entirely in Japanese except for the song titles. I believe the song was either 'Get Along' or 'Give a Reason' from Slayers. Before then it had never even occured to me that mp3s could exist. Back then my computer was so tiny I could only fit three songs on it before deleting things.
- Finding the occasional full anime episode, then more, and realizing how much *better* they were in Japanese with subtitles.
- How before auto-archives and the centralization of fandoms into LJ and auto archives everything was connected by Web-Rings.
- How nearly everything used to be free for real, even if it wasn't as shiny as it is now, and how the internet used to feel (to me at least) a lot more close and friendlier when there wasn't everyone and their cat online.
- How people in fandom used to be more respectful towards the source material and how people wouldn't *dare* to do anything so crass as show their porny fanfic/art to the actors/creators. It makes me feel old when I see how the newbies act sometimes. I mean, if random people decided I was sleeping with a co-worker because we argued, or were friends, or even just looked 'pretty' together and started writing graphic porn about it, well I certainly wouldn't want it shoved in my face. That is one of the things that I regret about fandom entering mainstream- technically a lot of what we are doing is if not outright illegal, certainly objectionable to some people- and unless a creator or actor says outright that they don't care or that they approve, it isn't wise to do anything that would *make* them object. People used to know that, but I'm not sure as many do anymore.
- I remember the old list of RPG cliches and the Evil Overlord list. They both still exist, though the formor was really out of date last I saw it and the later has become infamous enough that it will likely never be forgotten.
- I miss the Gaming Intelligence Agency, which was the best site for online RPG news in it's day. RPGamer isn't so bad now, but the GIA will always hold a special place in my memories.
- There was a huge epic crossover fic called the 'Dance of Shiva' that I really need to track down again someday.
- The Gundam Wing fandom before it started to fail. I got into it by accident, about a year or so after it started to become so popular (I'd downloaded the first episode way before then and nearly died of boredom, and so avoided it and it's fandom when it started airing on TV) because I wanted to add in some cameos that my friends, who were huge fans, would recognize in the crossover I was writing. My research involved reading a few fic to see how the characters were generally portrayed, and it didn't take long for me to get sucked in- especially since much of the fandom way more character driven then boring political/action/war-is-bad stuff. This was also where I first seriously started to encounter the yaoi/shounen ai genre- again, by accident. Before then I had mostly avoided anything 'adult' rated out of habit and since most yaoi labled fics I'd seen before then (without a lable of what it *was* since I wasn't looking for it) were also accompanied with the 'lemon' lable, I just never really read any until then. As it happens, around that time I was a huge Mercedes Lackey fan, and anyone who's read her books (at least her earlier ones, at any rate: she's gotten a lot less 'controversial' in the few books of hers I've read in the past few years) knows that she is (was) one of the few fantasy authors who made sure to have at least one canon gay/lesbian/bi couple in each book. Suffice it to say I wasn't disturbed in the slightest by the yaoi genre, and since I finally knew what it was I stopped avoiding it- and occasionally followed it. (I won't get into why I like it, as my answers will likely match that of any other yaoi-fangirl.)
Hmm. It's difficult to recall exactly which anime fandoms I pursued in the early years, and I can't quite recall exactly how I left the anime fandom- or rather, branched out from it, since I still linger there, though not as much as I used to. I think it might have been a combination of changes in my real life and new leanings towards original fiction written by non-anime fans which started to open my eyes to how unrealistic and immature a lot of the anime fandom was becoming (this was about the time when auto archives had begun to really take off, anime was becoming popular among more and more people, most of whom were younger then me and prone to all sorts of newbie-ish behavior that I just didn't find as amusing or cute as I would have back when I was a newbie myself). Actually, come to think of it, everything started to change near the end of my CLAMP obsession (aka, overload on the angst of X/TB) which also coincides with me reading more and more original fic, branching out more to TV fandoms (like Xena/Hercules, Highlander, Buffy, and some X-Files I think), and my decision to stop writing fanfic since reading too many bad anime fanfics were accepting my writing (and also that I sucked at writing fanfic. I tended to want to write SIs and put in way too many original characters in combination with making AUs in several attempts at 'fixing the angst'- to the point of Mary-Suism in one story, much to my disgust. Although, if I'd written more of that fic it might have evened out, since that character had a lot more depth planned but not shown in what little I'd posted- maybe someday I'll re-write it). Anyway, I think the real thing that got me completely out of my anime rut was my brief but absolutely obsessive fling with the Marvel-comics verse- specifically X-Men and directly associated comics (I was never a Spiderman or Fantastic Four or Iron Man fan). The general style was so different then what I usually found in anime fandom that, after getting over how uncomfortable the 'directness', for lack of a better term, in comparison to that found in anime-fic (especially in slash- which, though technically the same thing, is *way* different than yaoi) I was able to move into TV/mainstream based fandoms a lot easier. And so, there I was.
Eventually I did go back to anime/game fandom, but no longer to the exclusion of everything else. Except Real Person based fandom, which frankly squicks me so *very* much- it's one thing to write fiction about characters who are fictional (or long-dead and unable to complain), and another altogether to write fiction about *real* people who might someday read what you've written about them- I'm not too fond of gossip-magazines for the same purpose.
---
So what is my current fandom? Well, I've mostly left Kingdom Hearts, I have a few on my list of 'to-read' fics for FFVII (like the Ranma fandom, it lives on!), I'm hoping the new anime will encourage people to write more Tales of the Abyss fic- but have otherwise moved on from the Tales series and Zelda (except to read updates of old fics and look for potentially good new ones every once in a while) and am in limbo. I've mostly been dipping into the waters of various new small fandoms in lately- or into old ones. I've found a Tekken fic that looks promising, and there's a few good Jak and Daxter fics- the Vampire Knight and YuGiOh GX fandoms looked promising, but only had one or two fic worth reading. There've also been a few good Buffy crossovers, and one or two Naruto AU and Timetravel fics. Occasionally I find a Harry Potter fic that doesn't want to make me strangle someone (very AU, because canon irks me). I poked briefly into the Silent Hill fandom- was horrified and squicked, and left. Nothing but pointless drivel in the Devil May Cry or Resident Evil fandoms (as usual, though sometimes there's something good there). Mostly, I'm currently fandomless- though I'm thinking of trying out D-Greyman and subscribing to another original fic site.
-
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Another Rec
Batman and DC Comics-verse.
The Misfits, by Matt the Batman Fan.
Summary:
A Batman/DC comic AU/divergence that takes place just a bit before the recent crisis, and manages to change everything. As the author's own very brief summary says: "It's amazing how only two people can screw everything up."
My review:
This has got to be one of the very best fics in the entire fandom- and by this point I've read a lot of them. The plot-line is engaging, pretty unique in this fandom, and actually does a few shocking things without being over-dramatic or tasteless. Even though it is an AU, it does take note of and somewhat follow current cannon- though not all of it, and not always for the same reasons. The most interesting thing about this fic, and one of the things that makes it most unique compared to a lot of fic in this fandom, is that it both focuses on a group of characters that do not get a lot of 'air time' in fandom, especially together, and that it generally does not focus on the more 'popular' characters in fandom at all. This is not a 'fix-it' fic, even though some people are saved, don't die, are brought back, or at least are more sane and happy- some of the characters who have died in cannon recently are still dead- some of the living are still angsty and crazy- but it isn't their story anyway. I can't really say who the main characters are without spoiling some of the best initial plot-points, but I will say that this is the very first fic that actually made me like Batman as a character. Go: read.
The Misfits, by Matt the Batman Fan.
Summary:
A Batman/DC comic AU/divergence that takes place just a bit before the recent crisis, and manages to change everything. As the author's own very brief summary says: "It's amazing how only two people can screw everything up."
My review:
This has got to be one of the very best fics in the entire fandom- and by this point I've read a lot of them. The plot-line is engaging, pretty unique in this fandom, and actually does a few shocking things without being over-dramatic or tasteless. Even though it is an AU, it does take note of and somewhat follow current cannon- though not all of it, and not always for the same reasons. The most interesting thing about this fic, and one of the things that makes it most unique compared to a lot of fic in this fandom, is that it both focuses on a group of characters that do not get a lot of 'air time' in fandom, especially together, and that it generally does not focus on the more 'popular' characters in fandom at all. This is not a 'fix-it' fic, even though some people are saved, don't die, are brought back, or at least are more sane and happy- some of the characters who have died in cannon recently are still dead- some of the living are still angsty and crazy- but it isn't their story anyway. I can't really say who the main characters are without spoiling some of the best initial plot-points, but I will say that this is the very first fic that actually made me like Batman as a character. Go: read.
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Fanfic Rec
Final Fantasy VII
Butterfly Effect, by Bard Linn and Kiraya.
Summary: A FFVII AU that follows the premise of a young Cloud Strife finding Vincent in the basement of the Shinra Mansion by accident. This changes everything, from Cloud's reasons for joining SOLDIER, to the events of the Nibelheim Mission.
My Review: I really like this fic because, although it uses some of the themes that have become way too over-done in this fandom, it does it in ways that work and don't seem trite or unrealistic. I especially like that, even though there are hints of potential romantic pairings, both het and slash, they are not the entire point of the story- or even a small part of it. The characters are all realistically portrayed, with no bashing or over-dramatizing of certain character aspects, and the relationships (friendships, acquaintances, co-workers, ect.) actually make sense. The story itself is actually pretty unique in ways that I won't go into here, simply because it does not religiously follow the game (even though it's technically pre-game for half the story) but still takes into account the bits of cannon that probably would not be effected by the changes made. If nothing else, read it for competent, non-emo Cloud, fun, yet still well-rounded Zach, non-insane General Sephiroth, fairly portrayed Aeris, likable Tifa, and the ever-cool Turks. Mostly though, read it for non-angsty, Vincent who actually uses the talents he would have had as a Turk... and also his demons, who actually seem to be important to the plot.
Butterfly Effect, by Bard Linn and Kiraya.
Summary: A FFVII AU that follows the premise of a young Cloud Strife finding Vincent in the basement of the Shinra Mansion by accident. This changes everything, from Cloud's reasons for joining SOLDIER, to the events of the Nibelheim Mission.
My Review: I really like this fic because, although it uses some of the themes that have become way too over-done in this fandom, it does it in ways that work and don't seem trite or unrealistic. I especially like that, even though there are hints of potential romantic pairings, both het and slash, they are not the entire point of the story- or even a small part of it. The characters are all realistically portrayed, with no bashing or over-dramatizing of certain character aspects, and the relationships (friendships, acquaintances, co-workers, ect.) actually make sense. The story itself is actually pretty unique in ways that I won't go into here, simply because it does not religiously follow the game (even though it's technically pre-game for half the story) but still takes into account the bits of cannon that probably would not be effected by the changes made. If nothing else, read it for competent, non-emo Cloud, fun, yet still well-rounded Zach, non-insane General Sephiroth, fairly portrayed Aeris, likable Tifa, and the ever-cool Turks. Mostly though, read it for non-angsty, Vincent who actually uses the talents he would have had as a Turk... and also his demons, who actually seem to be important to the plot.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)