Black Rose (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
darkrosaleen) wrote2021-08-23 08:40 pm
darkrosaleen) wrote2021-08-23 08:40 pm
End of summer fandom thoughts
Here are a few random thoughts that didn't fit in my We Die Like Fen wrap-up post.
-I've been requesting Buzzfeed Unsolved in exchanges for years, but it doesn't have a big exchange presence and I don't really write or read in the fandom otherwise. But the clock is ticking: the hosts of Unsolved launched their own YouTube channel last year with another former Buzzfeed producer, and the final season of Unsolved: True Crime just finished, with the final season of Unsolved: Supernatural coming soon. The fandom peaked a while ago, but I don't know if it will survive the official end of Unsolved, especially if they don't launch a similar ghost hunting/true crime show on their own Watcher channel. It feels like I have one Halloween season left to get all my iddy spooky kinky stuff out of my brain before the show ends and nobody wants demon possession haunted house sleepover fic anymore. I really like the new Watcher content and it has plenty of Ryan/Shane ship fodder, but I'll miss watching Ryan freak out over radiator noises.
-Stranger Things had a great turnout in WDLF, but it really showed how mismatched my tastes are with both the exchange crowd and the fandom at large. I want Stranger Things fandom to be more like IT fandom: focused on the wonderfully written and acted child main characters, some of it in handwaved slightly-older-teen AUs and some of it just left ambiguous, dealing with sexuality and trauma and darkness and the deep loving bonds between the characters. The exchange crowd mostly wants innocent gen of the kids and shippy/dark fic of the older teens, and the fandom at large is very young and barely readable, with most of the well-written fic being written about the teen characters again. I also joined the fandom after the least popular season came out and everyone jumped ship, which is never fun.
-A random vagueing comment in an FFA venting thread somehow led me through the entire Red Letter Media RPF tag on AO3, a small but active tag that's dominated by one prolific longfic writer. There's something charming about tiny insular RPF fandoms, especially if the Real People aren't particularly attractive or glamorous. I've been subscribed to RLM on YouTube for years and they're a major comfort channel for me, and they've all been close friends for decades and made a career out of making weird creative projects together, which is my RPF catnip. The fic is delightfully cozy and familiar too, endless longfics of pining best friends with silly supernatural shenanigans and pining and kinky undertones. I thought it might blow up on meme's RPF threads like Gallaghercest did, but none of the threadstarters took off and it seems to have petered out.
-I've been requesting Buzzfeed Unsolved in exchanges for years, but it doesn't have a big exchange presence and I don't really write or read in the fandom otherwise. But the clock is ticking: the hosts of Unsolved launched their own YouTube channel last year with another former Buzzfeed producer, and the final season of Unsolved: True Crime just finished, with the final season of Unsolved: Supernatural coming soon. The fandom peaked a while ago, but I don't know if it will survive the official end of Unsolved, especially if they don't launch a similar ghost hunting/true crime show on their own Watcher channel. It feels like I have one Halloween season left to get all my iddy spooky kinky stuff out of my brain before the show ends and nobody wants demon possession haunted house sleepover fic anymore. I really like the new Watcher content and it has plenty of Ryan/Shane ship fodder, but I'll miss watching Ryan freak out over radiator noises.
-Stranger Things had a great turnout in WDLF, but it really showed how mismatched my tastes are with both the exchange crowd and the fandom at large. I want Stranger Things fandom to be more like IT fandom: focused on the wonderfully written and acted child main characters, some of it in handwaved slightly-older-teen AUs and some of it just left ambiguous, dealing with sexuality and trauma and darkness and the deep loving bonds between the characters. The exchange crowd mostly wants innocent gen of the kids and shippy/dark fic of the older teens, and the fandom at large is very young and barely readable, with most of the well-written fic being written about the teen characters again. I also joined the fandom after the least popular season came out and everyone jumped ship, which is never fun.
-A random vagueing comment in an FFA venting thread somehow led me through the entire Red Letter Media RPF tag on AO3, a small but active tag that's dominated by one prolific longfic writer. There's something charming about tiny insular RPF fandoms, especially if the Real People aren't particularly attractive or glamorous. I've been subscribed to RLM on YouTube for years and they're a major comfort channel for me, and they've all been close friends for decades and made a career out of making weird creative projects together, which is my RPF catnip. The fic is delightfully cozy and familiar too, endless longfics of pining best friends with silly supernatural shenanigans and pining and kinky undertones. I thought it might blow up on meme's RPF threads like Gallaghercest did, but none of the threadstarters took off and it seems to have petered out.