#my Fandom journey

[awwyeah107]

The Battle of the Five Armies 10th Anniversary

So tonight (December 14th) I watched The Battle of the Five Armies in honor of its 10th anniversary. I'm posting this a few days later, on December 18th, because that's the official date I watched this movie 10 years ago. It's wild to me that it's been that long.

Here's a bit I wrote about BOTFA from my Forays Into Fandom post:

My Tolkien hyperfixation started when I went to go see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in theater. It was my first Tolkien movie, and although people often criticize The Hobbit movies (myself among them), I will always be grateful for that film. It drew me into Middle-Earth and kept me spellbound throughout the entire movie. I had read The Hobbit when I was younger, for a book club, so I was generally familiar with the story: I knew Bilbo and the dwarves journeyed to Erebor to take back the mountain from the dragon Smaug. Despite the changes in storyline that they made for the movie, I was able to follow along enough to enjoy it. This led me to watch the other Hobbit movies and some behind-the-scenes/making of videos.

I still have the 3D glasses from when I went to go see the movie :) I'm sentimental, what can I say. (It's also the closest thing I have to official merch, lol. I absolutely love that film logo was printed on the arm of the glasses!)

As I said, I had read The Hobbit—the only Tolkien book I had read—so I was familiar with the story, but it had been a while. And I hadn't seen the other Hobbit movies before, so I didn't have any point of reference for the changes in the storyline going into the movie. I remembered Bard the Bowman existed, and of course Bilbo and Thorin's company, and Gandalf, and Thranduil (only as the Elven-king, though). I had no idea who Tauriel was (though I picked up her name right away), or who the blonde male elf was (it took me a bit longer to pick up that his name was Legolas), or why some of the dwarves were in Laketown instead of Erebor. Although I was certain the romance storyline with Tauriel and Kili wasn't in the books, I really liked it and thought it was sweet (at the time). I absolutely adored Bilbo; whatever else they got wrong, they got his character right. I got chills when Thorin's company came out of the mountain to fight in the battle (that Sons of Durin track on the soundtrack still gets me to this day). I was pretty sure that Thorin, Fili, and Kili died in the end (and I teared up when that did indeed happen). I was captivated the entire time, even knowing there were differences from the book, and it was epic in a way I hadn't ever really seen before on-screen. Watching all this in 3D was pretty cool, too—I don't recall a lot of what that was like, but Smaug in 3D stands out most clearly in my memory.

Tonight, I was settled in on my couch with snacks and gave out loud commentary here and there (primarily to myself but my sister was there for part of it, lol). Mostly jokingly judging characters or scenes, pointing out themes in the music, quoting parts as the characters said them, and cheering characters on. (I also cheered when certain characters came on screen; for instance "it's my boy Feren!!!") I teared up at scenes with Bard and his kids. I smiled a little at the scene with Tauriel and Kili on the beach, because I remembered my much younger self being super into it, even though I'm not now. I rolled my eyes at the whole Tauriel and Thranduil standoff (come ON, this is kinslaying you're talking about doing, they would never actually threaten each other like this lightly). I enjoyed all the details of the locations and scenery and costumes/makeup and the work that went into making the town of Dale look real. I recalled clips from behind-the-scenes videos for certain scenes. I went "aaaaa NOOOO" when Fili, Kili, and Thorin died. (And subsequently got a craving for "everyone lives" AU fics for the battle, lol.) I felt warmth and fondness for Middle-Earth filling me up as Bilbo left Erebor and returned home and as "The Last Goodbye" began playing when the credits rolled.

The juxtaposition between how much I knew about Middle-Earth back then and how much I know about Middle-Earth now is crazy to me. XD It just really means so much to me because without this movie, I wouldn't be here now. And sure, I definitely could have found my way into this fandom some other way. But I didn't; it was through this final movie, and even though I hadn't been present or active in the fandom for any of the previous movies, I could feel the weight of emotion in wrapping up the final Middle-Earth movie. I wanted to know more and feel more, and so I found my way in. I watched the other Hobbit movies, read Lord of the Rings and The Silm, finally got around to watching LOTR, read parts of the Unfinished Tales and The Nature of Middle-Earth, and read so, so, so much fanfiction. I've written fanfiction now, too. And I've made friends with so many people, online and in real life, because of this world and this fandom. And yeah, The Battle of The Five Armies isn't the greatest movie of all time. It's not the greatest movie of the Middle-Earth movies, and it might not even be the greatest of the Hobbit trilogy. But it will always have a special place in my heart for opening the door further into the world of Middle-Earth and welcoming me back in, and for that I will be forever grateful.

[annabtg]

Between reading Commentarius for the first time in my life, and thinking about all the people who have come and gone in this fandom, I'm getting the sads about having stayed out of fandom for as long as I did.

Not having read more stories. Not having written more stories. Not having connected with more people. Not having kept in touch with the people I had.

I know everything happens for a reason but I always feel like everything in my life only happens too late. And that it's never enough.

[thirdtimed]

one more pearl & tilly for the road

[shield-and-sword]

My Kpop Fandom Journey post might be while... I'm still not really sure of how to format it also I wanted to throw in some throwback songs and I keep getting nostalgic and watching a bunch of old MVs haha

[dalvs-wife]

all i'm saying is that one of them probably had to carry clover's body to that coffin in the castle

edit: read the first tag, thank you

[casscainmainly]

Robins.

Robin (1993) #126 // Robin War // Robin (1993) #26 // Batman (2011) #45 // Robin (1993) #40 // We Are Robin #1 // Robin (1993) #126 // Batman & The Signal #1 // Robin (1993) #128 // Batman (2011) #47 // Robin (1993) #128 // Robin War // Batgirl (2009) #3 // Robin War

[fandomsandfairytales]

#i don’t think i realized just how influential some of these franchises were until I looked back on them as an adult#on one hand great and my media literacy skills have definitely deepened!#but on the other hand it’s just funny that I’m returning to these stories all at once

Girl I feel this. The Tolkien (and specifically Silm) fandom has had a death grip on me for the last couple years and I'm currently rewatching OUAT fully for the first time. It's like my teen fandoms are having a renaissance in my early 20s.

The fact that in the last two years I’ve watched Loki S2, new Doctor Who episodes with David Tennant and Catherine Tate, the entire Fullmetal Alchemist Brotherhood, began rereading LotR, and am rewatching OUaT for the first time……am I regressing to my formative years?????

[boomxyzu]

“This feels like home. Is this our home?” She wants to ask. She wants to know.

She wants to remember.

what if Zelda doesn’t remember anything after her dragonification. Pt3

>>1<<

>>2<<

>>3<< you are here

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

"What do you mean their name isn't Beef?"

(for @moondal514)

[awwyeah107]

Forays Into Fandom

I felt it would be appropriate for one of my first posts on Tumblr to be about fandoms, and I’ve had this bouncing around in my head for a little while, so I wanted to share it. Basically, it’s my timeline of discovering fandoms and hyperfixations on media as well as some thoughts on my experiences with fandom recently. Also, heads up, it’s pretty long XD

One day, when I was 8 years old, I was at over at my best friend’s house and found a book with an orange cat on the front of it. I was intrigued, and I asked to borrow it. From the very first page, I was captivated.

Thus, I was introduced to my first real fandom: Warriors (aka Warrior cats).

And the rest is history.

Over the years since then, I’ve had the joy of discovering many more fandoms. I was in many fandoms before I knew what the term was, and I wrote fanfiction and drew fan art before I was aware that those were things other people did.

Around the time I first found Warriors, I started discovering more fandoms, most of which were book-based and of the fantasy fiction genre. This kicked off what one might call my “fantasy phase,” which I would say is still technically going. Back when it started, however, it was marked by devouring any and all (mostly) age-appropriate fantasy books. As I said, I don’t think my fantasy phase ever stopped. But that time of my life was when my love for all things magical and mythical came alive. My tweens brought more fandoms, including bigger/more well-known fandoms like Percy Jackson, Harry Potter, and Avatar: The Last Airbender, as well as smaller fandoms like the Books of Beginning, the Land of Stories series, and Michael Vey.

The next major milestone in my fandom life came when I started watching the TV show Once Upon A Time. OUAT was the first fandom TV show I ever seriously watched, and it introduced me to my first OTP: Captainswan. I don’t think I have ever fangirled harder over a fictional couple nor shipped characters more intensely. I literally put their wedding anniversary (the date their wedding episode aired, that is) on my Google Calendar: May 7th, 2017. I love Once Upon A Time so much; I love how hopeful it is, I love the fantasy elements, and I love the characters and their relationships.

Then, my Tolkien hyperfixation started when I went to go see The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies in theater. It was my first Tolkien movie, and although people often criticize The Hobbit movies (myself among them), I will always be grateful for that film. It drew me into Middle-Earth and kept me spellbound throughout the entire movie. I had read The Hobbit when I was younger, for a book club, so I was generally familiar with the story: I knew Bilbo and the dwarves journeyed to Erebor to take back the mountain from the dragon Smaug. Despite the changes in storyline that they made for the movie, I was able to follow along enough to enjoy it. This led me to watch the other Hobbit movies and some behind-the-scenes/making of videos.

Right around the time I started watching Once Upon a Time and saw The Battle of the Five Armies, my mom started letting me use her Pinterest account (and then shortly thereafter, she let me create my own). Pinterest was my gateway into social media, and more importantly in this case, fandom media. I knew Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook existed, but I didn’t know of Tumblr until Pinterest. I was surprised and delighted to find that people posted online about books, TV shows, and movies that I enjoyed. Tumblr posts on Pinterests were how I learned of the term “fandom” in the first place. They were how I learned of the “golden age of Tumblr,” of SuperWhoLock, of iconic Tumblr posts (e.g., none pizza with left beef), and of fandom overall.

This marked another turn: I stumbled across a piece of fanfiction. And I was enthralled. Most of my reading was Hobbit and Captainswan fanfics. However, I felt quite guilty for reading it, because my parents had told me that I shouldn’t browse any websites they hadn’t approved first. I didn’t ask them because I was scared they would say no, since they didn’t know what it was. So although I enjoyed reading fanfiction, I felt like I had to hide it from my family. Finally, after two weeks of summer camp and vacation where I didn’t have access to any electronic devices that I could read fanfiction on, the habit was broken, and I stopped reading fanfiction. However, I dreamed that perhaps one day, I could admit what I had done to my parents and I could read fanfiction again. (More on this later.)

Because I needed something to fill the gap that fanfiction left, I decided to dive into Tolkien’s stories. I read Lord of the Rings and then took on The Silmarillion. Those took me into high school, along with Marvel movies—I started watching those with some of my friends, and Marvel was one of my top hyperfixations for quite a while. I also discovered a few other fandoms in high school that I really enjoyed: two of the more well-known ones would be Fablehaven and The Selection (the latter was my first taste of a romance-focused series). I was still an avid Once Upon a Time fan, though my hyperfixation on it waned when season 7 aired (I didn’t watch past the first couple of episodes because the majority of the main cast was gone and the overall story was different).

In late high school, after Once Upon a Time had finally ended and my Marvel hyperfixation started dying down, I began watching Doctor Who. I had always thought the show sounded interesting, but it wasn’t until a friend of mine insisted I sit down and watch the first couple episodes with her that I decided I wanted to watch it. (I have never, ever watched a show for which I have gotten SO many spoilers. Never. Most of that was definitely my own fault, because I had seen lots of SuperWhoLock content on Pinterest and I wasn’t super careful about avoiding spoilers once I started watching the show, but occasionally I would just run into something on social media or a friend would tell me something. I still haven’t fully caught up on the show, lol.)

When I started college, I found a roommate who, among the many amazing things about her, shared a love of fandoms with me. We had a lot of big fandoms in common, but also some smaller or less-known ones too. Because of this, we have had tons of discussions about different fandoms, watched TV shows and movies together, and freaked out about new announcements concerning fandoms. To this day we still do those things; we’ve been sending each other stuff about the upcoming Percy Jackson TV series, and we watched the first two Doctor Who 60th anniversary specials together.

Another turning point came when I discovered the band Greta Van Fleet in 2021. Before this, I had enjoyed different bands, but I had never really found a favorite band, so to speak: one where I liked all the songs, where I knew all the members’ names, where I kept up to date with their tours, where I watched interviews with the band, where I knew lots of background info about the band, etc. Most times, I heard a few songs from a band and went “They’re cool, but I’m not hooked.” This time was different. I really liked their first song I heard, Talk On the Street, so I decided to check them out. I listened to their songs and thought, wow. Their songs match my taste in music SO well! I was like “YES, I’ve found a band that plays the exact kind of music I like to hear!”. Another reason I liked the band was that the songs were not all about drinking, drugs, and sex. Most of them were about other, more philosophical things, without any loss of rock ‘n roll. This, I would say, is really where music and fandom collided for me. A band fandom (“banddom”?) definitely feels different than a media/fiction-focused fandom, because these are real people, and as such, I’ve drawn different boundaries in terms of how I engage with it. My hyperfixation on Greta Van Fleet has calmed down a bit, but they still have a very special place in my heart.

My newest fandoms are Inkheart and Shadow & Bone/Six of Crows, which I discovered in 2022. Inkheart was one of the books that had been on my to-read list for forever, and I finally decided to read it. I absolutely loved it (and the sequels); the style really took me back to the start of my “fantasy phase” when I was younger. As for Shadow and Bone, one of my friends persuaded me to watch it, and one night when I didn’t have any schoolwork, I decided to watch a few episodes. After the third episode, I was invested enough that I had to finish the first season, and then I read the books before the next season came out. I hadn’t realized before what a large fandom the Six of Crows books had, but upon reading the books, I immediately understood why—the character arcs and relationships are so compelling, and the setting and plot aren’t what I would expect of the typical fantasy world in fiction. (Interestingly, Inkheart and Shadow & Bone/Six of Crows are the first two fandoms I have published fanfic for!)

Sometime during college, I started reading fanfiction again on and off. And I found myself comfortable with admitting to my parents/family that I used to read fanfiction, and that I read it now. I haven’t discussed it with them further, and still don’t really talk about it much (though sometimes I'll tell my sister about fics I’m reading). January 2023 saw me getting back into reading Tolkien fanfiction, especially Tolkien fanfiction. I found some of the old fanfics I had read during my first fanfiction era, and I felt like I was a young teenager again, reading the stories I had read back then. I reached out to one of the authors, and it gave me so much joy to tell this person, “Hey. I couldn’t tell you back then, but I read your stories years ago and they’re some of my favorite stories. Thank you.” I’ve kept reading Tolkien fanfiction since then, and weirdly enough, it prompted me to read The Silmarillion again (it was my third time through, and it was the easiest time I’ve had reading it by far). I’ve been in the grip of the Tolkien fandom all year, and I’m planning on sharing a “Fanfiction Wrapped” soon (well, it’s going to be a fic rec list, but now I’m thinking of doing a real Fanfiction Wrapped…lol) for my favorite Tolkien fics I’ve read this year, as well as the handful of fics for other fandoms I discovered in 2023. I’ve found so many great stories and wonderful authors this year, and I want other people to get to experience the joy of new stories and authors too. Plus I love finding fanfic rec lists, so I thought it would be fun to do a rec list of my own.

For so long, I didn’t realize how much of a community aspect there is to fandom—and I think that’s because my parents kept me safe from the internet. I understand that and I will always be grateful that they kept me protected from really nasty, dangerous things that are present on the internet. I don’t feel any resentment towards my parents for that whatsoever. But now, as an adult in my early 20s, I’ve discovered that I can make my own choices about the community side of fandom and how much I choose to participate in it. It’s still something I’m pretty tentative about, at least when it comes to posting publicly; I’m very aware that anything that is put on the internet may very well be there forever. Public Discord servers feel a bit more private, because you have to join them to see the conversations taking place there, but they’re still public. Especially at this point in time, internet safety and privacy is quite important. However, you can still have fun while being safe, so that’s what I’m hoping to do. I’ve created this blog, I’ve joined some public Discord servers for fandoms, and I’ve even posted fanfiction. I have no idea how much further I’ll go into the online world of fandoms and fandom community—or just into the world of internet interaction and posting in general—but I’m interested in seeing where the journey will take me.

And who knows, maybe there’s a kid (or teen, or young adult) out there like me, who is tentatively taking their first steps into fandom and figuring out what this is all about. If that’s you, hello! And if not, hello to you too!

At the start of the year, I discovered the song “Still Into You” by Paramore through a YouTube compilation of Hobbit TikToks. (Yes, I know, I’m literally 10 years late to the game on that song, lol.) But it made me think of all my fandoms that I’ve had hyperfixations on and that come up now and again, like the Tolkien fandom.

So, to my fandoms: after all this time, I’m still into you :)

[2aceofspades]

A lil tribute...

Sappy times today waaah :')

I still remember the first time I watched the movie...I can't believe that was 2 years ago. I had to make a lil something to commemorate 💙✨

Here's a lil something from the past just cuz hehe~

Not quite from a year ago but it's fiiine...

If my memory serves me correctly, the first Rise stuffs I ever did was redrawing screenshots of Leo from the movie. How fitting~

(:

[crabsnpersimmons]

"Your heart was in the right place. Don't blame your earnestness and efforts for their lack of understanding—the right people will appreciate your heart."

EDIT: i mention this in the tags already, but please don't copy my vent tags in your reblogs. thanks for understanding.

[quantumghostart]

trigger finger ;)

[shield-and-sword]

My Fandom Journey: Manga

Yesterday I rambled about anime and today I'll be rambling about manga. How I got started what titles I've read and how I found what genres, authors and styles I liked. Again this is a broad topic so I'll get into more specific anime/manga fandoms later on.

So I started reading manga when I was maybe around 13-14, when I started high school (HS is 5 years in New Zealand). I found manga tankoubon in Borders (oof throwback). I'm not 100% certain about this but I think the first manga I picked up was either Death Note or Fruits Basket, and that was because I was familiar with the anime. So I read these manga series and realized that the original source material had way more info and subtlety compared to the animes. From there I would borrow manga from my local library in bulk (love libraries, I highly recommend).

I started with the manga that had animes that I watched. Obviously the library had a pretty limited stock at the time (it shared a bookshelf with western comics) but they had the mainstream titles. Obviously it wouldn't have a complete series so once I reached a certain point I would continue reading the manga online or wait until the library ordered the next volume. I think I only started reading online manga once I was 15ish and was a little more familiar with the internet.

My local library mostly had Tokyopop (another throwback), Madman Entertainment and Viz Media licensed titles. Eventually Kodansha would come around but initially we only had access to whatever titles Australia had access to (Madman Entertainment).

Again I ended up reading Shonen stuff first so, Bleach, Shaman King, Hunter X Hunter, Naruto (I still haven't actually finished Naruto...), Rave Master, Flame of Recca and One Piece. For Shojou titles I believe I started with Fushigi Yugi, Ceres Celestial Legend, Peach Girl, Vampire Knight (never finished this either), Nana and Honey and Clover.

The titles I listed were essentially my "starter" manga and I've read more than that at this point but when I look at the shojou manga that I read as a pre-teen and compare it to now it's very clear that my tastes have changed and I would not re-read a lot of the titles I read back then. Some examples of manga I would not re-read: Intant-teen: Just Add Nuts (This was hella weird, playing with age-gap relationships and I'm just not a fan of kids aging up in this way because their mind is still a kid!) and Absolute Boyfriend (I dunno, the android 2nd ML was kind of unique but I could not get into it). There was also that shojou about a dog that turned into a human and I am not about that life.

Moving on, this is getting kind of long. I've had a lot of phases with manga, I've read sports, romance, slice of life, supernatural, fantasy, martial arts, battle, food. I think the only genres I'm not that into are ecchi/harem, mecha and sci-fi (there are exceptions to this one). I might do separate posts on my favorite genres but I just wanted to do a little intro to my manga journey. If you've read my media consumption post you'll see what my current manga reads are.

I'll end things here, my next post will be my K-pop fandom journey so see you then.

Bye-bee~

[meegan-123]

Furby dancing to music gif

[royaltea000]

Certified DILF chaser