June Something #5 and #6

Day 5: Compare and/or contrast your very first fandom obsession and your very latest fandom obsession.

 
Oh, gosh, Tekken and Hadestown? Hm. They're very different -- one's a fighting game series primarily about dropping relatives off of cliffs, and Hadestown is primarily about the Unrelenting Approach of Capitalism + Climate Change. But there's a few through-lines there that I think highlight my interests: 

- A Supernatural Element:

 

Both of them feature some characters who have powers beyond humanity (the gods/the devils) and characters who don't (the men/everyone else who isn't a Mishima/Kazama). A big bit of catnip for me in both is that the people who aren't gods or godly powered often continue to show up and continue to try to make the world better, even with the Gods/Devils throwing their shit around and seriously fucking up the place. Maybe they can't make everything better, but they can do the one thing they can do, and sometimes it works out, and sometimes it doesn't.

- Mad, Bad, Dangerous to Know (because Daddy Never Loved Me)

Kazuya and Hades are both characters with profoundly bad childhoods cursed with far too much power and both rampantly abuse their power and hurt the people around them. Hades is a bit more of a glass cannon than Kazuya - it's clearer that beneath his strutting veneer he is a man who is terrified of losing his wife, but neither of them lose much sleep at making (most? all? of) humanity their pawns. Hades actions are particularly despicable in canon concerning Eurydice, as he's willing to do anything to make his wife look at him again; Kazuya's no less dark, willing to murder most of his family and, honestly, most if not all of the world, simply to attain more power. Oddly, both compare themselves with Satan indirectly.

- Unequal, often tumultuous, cyclical relationships

 In Tekken I am forever fascinated by how Lee Chaolan is in the shadows, but can't quite quit the Mishima family; he tried to walk away, but he can't, and he's caught in this same horrible relationship again and again and again. Hades and Persephone's relationship is more ...complicated, on the power front: it's very clear he calls the shots...and also very, very clear she subverts them. To some extent I think he likes the challenge (he loves his wife being a big big bitch) and to some extent I think he resents it (...why is she being a big big bitch to HIM???). And that push/tug has been in their relationship for thousands of years, because they're gods and their biggest dispute is pretty much unsolvable.

- Big Men in Big Suits With Big, Deep Voices and Big Leather Jackets

Yeah. Okay. ....I have a type. 
 

Day 6: What's a fandom that you wish had a bigger following?

( Rome!  )