#fanarchive

[meandhisjohn]

Good morning from Germany.

Enjoy hump-day and stay safe and happy.

And now....coffee..

[microwavedmetal]

Posting the header I made for @byler-au-fanarchive

(second pic is the cropped version for better resolution)

Reminder to visit the blog mentioned above if you're searching for a particular byler AU fanart and can't find it in the website tags. You never know, it could be in there (I am actively working on finding and categorizing them all so everyone has an easier time locating them).

[stardust-make-a-wish]

unfortunate news. i have thought more abt the joke genshin mid to late 2000s fandom au, and things are starting to come together. each of the seven nations run a major fan site/fan archive for the same source material called teyvat celestia or whatever it doesn't matter, and the archons are like the site owners/head mods/archive maintainers or whatever. what this MEANS is that zhongli, like, vanishes off the face of livejournal or something (faking his fan death), and the two main mod factions, the adepti n the qixing, now have to figure out how to quickly save all the content on the liyue archives, transfer the domain to someone else ("but WHO?" is a big question for the charas) bc zhongli owns the domain and the server but he's gone now, and migrate stuff somewhere else. just. a retelling of the liyue arc in the game, but set in pre-ao3 online fandom. for some reason this idea is just so compelling to me

ZHONGLI FAKING HIS FAN DEATHEHRNRGEKGEJFBGMHMGNM does he resurface as a totally normal casual fan tm who doesnt know every minuscule detail abt this media. also i need to know the details of how gq's distaste for each other translates here.... is keqing a hater or do they have beef regarding zhongli mod reputation or something LMAO

[arshipweek]

AR Ship Week - A History of Alex Rider Fandom

This is the second weekly post in the lead up to Alex Rider Ship Week. Only 2 weeks to go!

This week we’re looking at what Alex Rider fandom used to be like.

A History of Alex Rider Fandom by rirren and pongnosis

Alex Rider fandom is about as old as Alex Rider himself. The first book was published back in 2000 but it wasn't until around 2005 that we find any traces of fannish activity on the internet.

There was no AO3 back then, and fanworks could be found on fandom specific archives, fanfiction.net, adult-fanfiction.org, Livejournal, DeviantArt, Quizilla, and many others. Unfortunately, many of this history has been lost to the ravages of time but what we do know is that before 21 July 2006 there were at least 79 fics for Alex Rider published on fanfiction.net. Most fics were adventures in the style of the books, but there were a handful of Alex/Sabina and Alex/Original Female Character fics, as well as one Yassen/Alex and one John/Yassen fic!

It was a tiny fandom, and then on 21 July 2006 the movie Stormbreaker was released. Although it was panned by critics and performed badly at the box office the movie opened up the canon to a wider audience. The movie was an investment, intended to be the first in a franchise, and the cast list reflected that. Popular actors like Ewan McGregor and Damian Lewis were meant to provide recognisable names and draw in the audience, but they probably also helped fannish activity. The most enduring imprint left by the movie is probably the rooftop scene at the end of it and Yassen's upside-down helicopter antics, a legacy that endures to this day.

In the years following the movie's release fan activity spread to other platforms--an Alex Rider specific fanarchive was created, communities opened up on Livejournal, fanfics exploded on fanfiction.net, and even a few fics were posted to adult-fanfiction.org!

Taking another look at Fanfiction.net now we see a slightly different picture for ship breakdown:

[see note 1 for methodology]

Yassen/Alex is still the most popular, but Sabina/Alex takes second place! This was the het ship with the most canon content--Sabina appeared in 4 books, as well as the movie. As for other pairings, Alex/Wolf and Alex/Fox both appeared in a number of fics as well, revealing the comparatively larger popularity of K-Unit back then. The popularity of Alex/Original Character is no surprise given the limited number of recurring characters in the books, and Alex/Tom also appears, a small but consistent rarepair that has remained strong through the years of fandom.

More fanfics meant that a shared understanding and way of looking at canon started to develop in fandom. New ideas sprung to life and became tropes as they grew increasingly popular, some of which will still be familiar to new fans of the series, while others will seem a little more unusual:

⭐ The most popular tropes centred around the wall between Alex's spylife and his civilian school life being breached. What if Alex had to stop a terrorist at school? What if Alex's class went to Brecon Beacons with him and Alex had to hide his spying and combat skills?

⭐ K-Unit was much more popular back then compared to now, and a popular trope featuring them was "K-Unit adopts Alex". Only Wolf and Fox had any substantial characterisation from the canon, and other bits were filled in by fanon. One writer who had a large influence on K-Unit fanon (e.g. Snake was the medic, etc) was amitai, who also wrote one of the most popular takes on the "Alex's class goes to Brecon Beacons" trope (Hell is Other People).

⭐ Other K-Unit tropes involved Alex joining the SAS and K-Unit finding out about Alex's Scorpia training. Again, fandom was very interested in Alex's secrets being found out and the inevitable fallout that would follow. This is probably because the books have Alex much more isolated compared to the TV series which gives Alex several adult allies and allies of his own age.

⭐ One trope that is still popular today is "Alex joins Scorpia". Although many fans will know this trope from the popular fic Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by pongnosis, this was also common in old fandom. This trope was born from the book Scorpia and the glimpses of the world Alex might have found himself in if he had made another choice in canon, but might also be explored in the TV show in the potential season 3.

However, although fanfiction.net held the majority of AR fics (as it still does even today), a large drawback was the ban on adult content. Despite inconsistent modding, fandom in general was wary after the purges of NC-17 fics. An alternative was the blogging platform Livejournal, which offered fans control over their own space through moderation tools like locking posts to friends and the ability to delete comments. It also encouraged socialising through communities and the ability to chat in comments.

Communities encouraged fan activity through prompts and challenges such as the drabble comm AlexRider100 and the flash writing comm Flash Rider. The Fic Exchange Spy Fest was started on Livejournal and is still going today (although it had a short break from 2011-2015).

Some communities were slash focused - the popular yassen_alex comm was mostly for Yalex content but also welcomed other slash ships. It amassed 329 posts and more than 2,700 comments from 2009-2014. Unfortunately, fandom in the past was in a much more precarious position than fandom today. Many authors and companies had opinions that fanfiction was illegal and immoral, and a lack of legal ruling left fanfic in a murky space. The old disclaimers of "I don't own canon, don't sue!" were not just jokes, but a shield to hopefully protect fans. 

In 2009 the worst happened--several posts on the community yassen_alex were reported to the Alex Rider publishing company, who in turn sent Cease & Desist letters to Livejournal. Livejournal deleted the fics and the community locked all posts to members only (but later reopened in 2020).

Around this time an Alex Rider fic archive ARchive was created. We can only speculate on the motivations but an independent archive could at least offer fans protection from their works being suddenly deleted when companies and advertisers found something to be offended by. 140 stories were posted (many reposts from other sites) and the category statistics show a focus on angst and slash (see note 2). 

In terms of fanart, early fandom had a surprisingly large amount for its size. Fanart was popular in exchanges, and some diligent digging around on DeviantArt would uncover a treasure trove of fanart - some of which can still be found on the site. Fandom tended to gravitate towards the red-headed Yassen of the movie and less the blond version from the books, though both could be found.

The fandom chugged along for several years but in 2011, Scorpia Rising arrived as the perfect storm of fandom decline. The definitiveness of its ending with Alex Rider's retirement along with Anthony Horowitz's adamant insistence the series was done put something of a dampener on fans' enthusiasm. Russian Roulette was released two years after but this was a prequel that focused on Yassen and only briefly touched on Alex's canon timeline. The lack of new material and new tropes, and the inevitable "aging out" of fans as time went on meant that fandom went into a slow decline. Fandom output slowed down and BNFs (Big Name Fans) left. The release of a new Alex Rider book in 2017 and the promise of more revived some interest in the fandom but could not bring back the activity of days gone …

...not until the release of an Alex Rider TV series 😉

______

Notes:

(1) Ship statistics from fanfiction.net were gathered manually on the 5th of February through various search methods, making sure to remove duplicates that appeared in more than 1 category:        1 – Check tagged pairings        2 – Check tagged characters and "Romance" genre        3 – Search for pairing name in summary

(2) The largest category is angst with 63 tagged fics. Out of 33 ship fics 31 are tagged slash (the two remaining fics are Jack/Wolf and an unspecified pairing.

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

T - 2

Title: The Red House

Author: LowDesert

Title: The Request

Author: Godstaff

Title: The Silver Eye Plague

Author: SabriAleelLena

Title: The Truth About Santa

Author: Arcadia

Title: The Wait

Author: Ronnie K.

Title: The Waiting Room

Author: David Schock

Title: The Wedding

Author: ComixFan1224

Title: The Weight of a Word

Author: Ben10987654321

Title: The Wonder of Woman

Author: Man in Black

Title: The World of David Schock: Project A-ko

Author: David Schock

Title: Three Sumos and a Baby

Author: David Schock

Title: Through the Looking Glass

Author: IDefy Gravity

Title: Throwing Down the Gauntlet

Author: VF Snake

Title: Tonight, Tonight

Author: Emil Feist

Title: Trinity: Anchor

Author: Tracey Claybon

Title: Trinity: Deepest Secrets

Author: Tracey Claybon

Title: Truth or Dare: Young Romance, The Aftermath

Author: Hellacre13

Title: Truth, Justice, and the Amazon Way

Author: Mark Question

Title: Turn Me On

Author: Trinity Angel

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

D

Title: Date with Superman

Author: Amazonia V

Title: Deceiver Fruit

Author: PervyFicGirl

Title: Different Worlds

Author: Arcadia

Title: Dinner Engagements

Author: PervyFicGirl

Title: Dinner Plans

Author: Athena-Phoenix

Title: Doomsday Sanction Epilogue

Author: Arcadia

Title: Dramatic Realizations

Author: VF Snake

Title: Dust to Dust

Author: Ingrid Matthews

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

E

Title: Enchanting Wedding

Author: Arcadia

Title: Encounters of the Universe

Author: Ben10987654321

Title: Evening Ritual

Author: Ronnie K.

Title: Everybody’s Got to Learn Sometime

Author: Emily Feist

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

F

Title: Falling Stars

Author: Starlight

Title: Fathers and Sons

Author: PervyFicGirl

Title: Fire and Ice

Author: Ronnie K.

Title: First Date

Author: Arcadia

Title: First Meeting

Author: Ronnie K.

Title: Flash’s Halloween Party

Author: Arcadia

Title: Following Footsteps

Author: Jessesgirl1549

Title: Forbidden

Author: Merlin Missy

Title: Forces Aligned

Author: Arcadia

Title: Four Funerals and a Wedding

Author: Man in Black

Title: Four Sided Triangle

Author: Athena-Phoenix

Title: Friends

Author: Amazonia V

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

G

Title: Gateway City Sunrise

Author: Athena-Phoenix

Title: Gods and Heroes

Author: Wentworth360

Title: Good Vibrations

Author: Arcadia

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

H

Title: Happiness, Daydreams, Drool, and a Letter

Author: Unoaranya30

Title: Happy Pre-Thanksgiving from the Super Family

Author: PheonixRose76

Title: Heroic Suburbanites

Author: Wentworth360

Title: His Name is Clark Kent

Author: DC Lady

Title: Honesty

Author: TrinityAngel

Title: Honor Thy Love

Author: VF Snake

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

I

Title: I Can See Forever In Your Eyes

Author: SepatownSon

Title: I Can Wait Forever

Author: Mami02

Title: I Find You

Author: Diezel

Title: I Just Died In Your Arms (Songfic)

Author: Trinity Angel

Title: I See You

Author: Diezel

Title: Ice: A Love Story

Author: David Schock

Title: Impulse

Author: Amazonia V

Title: Inappropriately Timed Conversations

Author: Janus3003

Title: Interlude in the Dark

Author: Ronnie K.

Title: Interrogation Session

Author: Emily Feist

Title: Intervention

Author: David Schock

Title: Intimacy

Author: Athena-Phoenix

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

K

Title: Kent and Prince at the Movies

Author: SepatownSon

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

L

Title: Lara’s Christmas

Author: Mami02

Title: Last Kiss Goodbye

Author: Ronnie K.

Title: Legacy

Author: Arcadia

Title: Living for Tomorrow

Author: SepatownSon

Title: Love Drug

Author: SabriAleelLena

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

M

Title: Metropolis Sunrise

Author: Athena-Phoenix

Title: Midnight Madness

Author: David Schock

Title: Milestone

Author: Ben10987654321

Title: Mind Games

Author: Arcadia

Title: Missing

Author: Shani

Title: Monitor Duty

Author: Hellacre13

Title: More Than Friends

Author: Arcadia

Title: Morning Ritual

Author: Ronnie K.

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

N

Title: Never Tires

Author: Ben10987654321

Title: New Year’s Resolution (2008)

Author: Ben10987654321

Title: Not According to Script

Author: Ronnie K.

Title: Not Alone

Author: SabriAleelLena

[lovedrr]

Superman Wonder Woman

Fanarchive Story Listing

O

Title: Of Prizes and Claims

Author: PervyFicGirl

Title: Of Strawberries, Chocolate, and Batman

Author: PervyFicGirl

Title: One Dark Night

Author: Ronnie K.

Title: One Night Stand

Author: Arcadia

Title: Only You

Author: Arcadia

Title: Open House at the Hall of Justice

Author: Unoaranya30

Title: Open Your Eyes

Author: Hellacre13

Title: Orchids and Fire

Author: Hellacre13

Title: Out to Eat

Author: Arcadia

Title: Over Ice Cream Floats

Author: WonderCat