#my Fandom journey

[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.

[lossie92]

I hope the hospital helps!! To help with boredom, can you tell us how/why you got into naruto and the founders?

It already is. Breathing is underrated 🥲

Hmm I actually got into Naruto way back in secondary school with my bff. We spent a whole summer holiday that year watching the show and reading the manga, and then we would come up with plots for our own AUs. It was pretty awesome ngl 😊

It's also why Naruto holds so much sentimental value for me.

When it comes to the founders fandom specifically, I've been on the outskirts of it for a bit now. The first ship I really got into was hashiizu. I did my first piece of fanwork in this fandom for them too. Also if I'm completely honest I was kind of indifferent about mdtb for a while 😅 I would read some fics with them, but it was pretty casual. Then in 2021 I fell down the proverbial rabbit hole lol and here we are now, I guess.

That's kind of it, really 🤔

[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 my freshman year of 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 14 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 :)

[tilliwriteapine]

Fandom Tracking: How I Got To Where I Am Today

Because sometimes it is wild to review how I got where I am today because of all the fandoms I have been immersed in. And someone once said, you don't forget fandom - it goes to sleep until it effing wakes up again one random day and oh no, you're back in deep!!! *lmao*

This is long and wordy, so if you do read my journey - thank you! And thank you to those who have influenced my fandoms over the years. So many have been through Tumblr, and I can say I continue to have multiple friends (that I still talk with!!) just from Tumblr because of fandom. And if we don't talk anymore, know that you shaped me, I am grateful for you, and I still care about you. <3

My first fandom was probably Adventures in Odyssey. And the internet proved to really fuel that obsession, especially with the Town of Odyssey website. Interacting with other fans was exhilarating (and pissed off my father because dial-up connection impacted his ability to call home during the day ;)) I believe I got into AIO in 2004 (maybe 2003, but the events of 2004 still ring in my brain that fueled some of my life choices about going into healthcare and nursing).

At almost the same time, I got into CSI:Miami, and then filtered through all of CSI (regular, Miami, NY) (this all happened really off the internet, tho, so it honestly was more of an obsession without the fandom). 2005/2006.

And that was in the early 2000s. I was staying up to watch CSI:Miami at 9/10pm even though I was barely an 8th grader *lmao* And I was a budding fanfiction writer - AIO, CSI:Miami, mary sues everywhere, crossovers left and right (I crossed AIO with CSI:Miami and NY so many times).

But my earliest fandom interaction on Tumblr (which was the typical medium of choice to fuel my trajectory through various fandoms since about 2009/2010) was for Firefly. I don't remember exactly how I got into Firefly—whether it was a combo of my sister mentioning it while we were watching Castle together or Tumblr—but I fell head-over-heels into It. Plus Castle became an obsession (the fanfiction I wrote - oof) - oh Nathan Fillion.

Firefly then led me to Chuck; I've noticed an unending trend of getting to new fandoms by just the actors alone (re: Star Trek). Adam Baldwin led to Zachary Levi.

Chuck (Zach, oh Zach) catapulted me into the Tangled fandom in 2010/2011 (there were so many glorious fanfics, both written and read!!). Tangled became my most-watched movie in theaters (11 times if I remember correctly).

Somewhere amongst the odds and ends of finishing high school and beginning college, I collected all of Prison Break on DVD (what a show). I wouldn't say I was ever "in" the fandom, but I certainly have held that show in my heart for *years*.

A friend in the Tangled fandom began posting Thor-related posts, and I was interested. Went to Thor in 2011 and walked out going, "Who is the sexy villain, and can I have that?!" - fell head-over-heels for Tom Hiddleston.

Hiddles was something else entirely for about three years - the movies I watched, the TV shows I watched, the absolute obsession with magazines and anything I could get my hands on. Bonkers time of my life! I saw The Avengers movie in 2012 twice on opening day (midnight, and then again later that evening). I would say Hiddles did get me into the Marvel universe (cinematic. I have never gotten into the comics).

Now this part is fuzzy. Which came first - the chicken or the egg? Did Hiddles get me to see War Horse, which led me to Benedict Cumberbatch? Or had I already been intrigued by BBC Sherlock? Not sure. Honestly, this time of my life was a blur. Nursing school. Needless to say, I then found Cumberbatch.

Watched all of his filmography (I think I did for Hiddles too), and then Cumberbatch was cast into Star Trek.

Growing up, I had watched some episodes of Enterprise. My sister seemed to enjoy bits and pieces, but I couldn't fully commit.

Well, considering Cumberbatch was cast into the sequel movie from the 2009 hit, I guess I needed to watch the first one.

At first, I kind of hated Chris Pine. No idea. Might have been the cockiness. Plus, I had to watch Star Trek 2009 about a million times to understand the entire plot. I do remember live-streaming ST 2009 for all my tumblr friends while working on care plans in nursing school. Bro, those were the days.

But now that I remember, I fell in love with Chris Pine when Rise of the Guardians came out Thanksgiving 2012. His voice acting was magical. And I was forever smitten.

Thus began the 12-year+ never-ending obsession with Chris Pine. And as we got closer to STID, I fell in love with Star Trek. 2012 changed my world - Star Trek was new worlds, galaxies, and adventures - everything I couldn't even imagine. Granted, I started off with only the new movies, but over the past 12 years, I have successfully watched every single series entirely at least once (I have been a loyal Trekkie of all the new stuff, love it so damn much!). I watched Into Darkness 13 times in theaters (still holds the record. Nothing beats my maternal grandmother and her 17 times seeing Devil Wears Prada, but ya know...)

But the friends I have made and still cherish today just from Star Trek and fandom alone was worth every single painful detail of growth I have had to experience to get to now.

I think I stagnated between 2013 and 2015. School ended, I started my first nursing job, and then in May 2015, I moved to North Dakota. Somewhere in there, I did watch Doctor Who and went to the Doctor Who-themed bar in Portland (so cool!). My first comic con was in - 2014? 2015? I got to see Alan Tudyk, Stephen Amell (my sister liked him a lot), Karl Urban, and a few from the cast of Agents of Shield. What a time to be alive! Also looks like this was the first budding relationship with Powell's Bookstore in Portland (best bookstore on the planet!). I was steady in my love for Star Trek. I likely watched many different tv shows and movies for various actors (Heroes was up there; Almost Human), but Chris Pine, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Tom Hiddleston reigned in my mind.

Cue Christmas. 2015. This orange round droid called BB8 has been all over the merch. I think he is adorable. I believe I had tried to get into Star Wars before, but it never stuck. I grew up watching the original trilogy, but never made the connection on how amazing Star Wars was. (there was also a lot of heat for fans liking both Trek and Wars - which, even now, I still don't get it. They are both so very, very different! I say BOTH, DANG IT!).

So I go to the first possible screening of the Force Awakens I can get. Magic. Pure magic.

Then this - this youthful man takes off the mask. And I'm like "Okay, who the hell are you and when can we get married?" (this was 2015, I wasn't mature - yet).

Oh Adam Driver. He sparked my interest for a short time (I watched a few of his movies after seeing TFA), but for some reason it wasn't meant to be.

I flitted with Star Trek some more - and then we lost Anton Yelchin and my world seemed to topple. I don't know why his death hit me so hard, but I was a wreck when I went to see Beyond, I was a wreck watching any of his beloved films, and in December 2016 I got a second Star Trek tattoo in memory of Anton and a patient I had cared for before moving to Denver.

I found myself getting into Hannibal somewhere in that first year in Denver - 2017 (I also then watched all of Chris Pine's filmography, and... maybe Cumberbatch's? I'm not entirely sure when Hiddleston slipped from my focus. I know sometime after BBC Sherlock ended and Cumberbatch got married I also let him slip from my focus). I know I saw The Last Jedi in theaters, but was so bored that I couldn't connect with Star Wars (yet). (ironically, TLJ is now my favorite ST movie, hands down.)

Things kind of blur again. I cannot for the life of me remember how I got into MacGyver 2016 (of course I had seen the OG, I was there when my father bought the DVD sets, and I can recite the very first episode of the entire series from memory (oh Richard Dean Anderson)). Something, something, maybe it was a tumblr influence? I know I binge-watched S1 & S2 right as S3 started in 2018. I don't know if the connection was between George Eads or Lucas Till (CSI vs X-Men First Class) that likely enticed me - but, well, look at me now. 6+ years strong and I'm still addicted to MacGyver. and Lucas Till.

Leverage happened somewhere in there.

And, of course, the next biggest fandom that fell into my lap actually became - Star Wars & Adam Driver. December 2019. I see TROS. And I see TROS again. And again. And again. I think I saw it around 9 to 10 times in the theaters. (When the pandemic hit and there was a delay in getting the physical copy of the movie, I was so mad. It was the thing keeping me going in that first period of isolation. Oh, and all the Adam Driver movies I was binge-watching, lmao). Needless to say, in December 2019, I fell in love with Star Wars and Adam Driver and literally haven't looked back. Ever.

It's been pretty steady since then. MacGyver, Lucas Till, Star Trek, Chris Pine, Star Wars, Adam Driver.

Until this past week when I finally watched S1E1 of The Legend of Vox Machina. GUYS, I THINK I'M A D&D FAN NOW. I just binge-watched 36 episodes of a masterpiece, I went to Powell's and bought three fucking books, and I'm literally about to start Critical Role; this is exhilarating!! Absolute insanity. That one came out of nowhere (Amazon Prime Video showed a picture sometime in October, and I was like "okay, what is this? Hmmm. I'm interested" - VEX AND PERCY WILL BE THE DEATH OF MEEEEEE!!)

I also cannot forget to mention Lee Pace ended up enthralled in there somewhere (Pushing Daisies! The Fall!!!). And a childhood favorite for life, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Crazy this journey. I'm sure it won't end like this - it will continue to always evolve.

Much love <3

[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

[marciaillust]

the post office is open for business!!

[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)

[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 ;)

[royaltea000]

Certified DILF chaser

[arcadeii]

update: the good thing about being into a musical i liked when i was 8 is that i still have all the songs memorized… the downside of that musical being cats is that everyone thinks its stupid lol

[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~