And with a green and yellow melancholy

In terms of content in fic or art, anything involving trauma to eyeballs or hands is particularly hard for me to stomach. The older I am, the less of an ability to stomach gore I have. I can't handle SAW, and I can't handle guro. I don't have much of a stomach for Bad Things happening to children, especially pre-pubescent children. They're just Not For Me. I also google if a pet dies in a movie every single time I start a movie, which is possibly a spoiler, but I do not care, because that shit bums me out, and I don't want to see it. But that isn't really fandom related, per-se. So hmm.

In terms of fandom things that squick...hm, probably anti-heavy spaces, generally. Mostly because the "shipping for great justice" sort of lifestyle isn't compatible with my id, which, as a friend once told me, can be seen from space, and mostly involves me going "WOW THESE TWO ARE FUCKED UP - WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF THEY KISSED?!?!" (Or, alternatively, what would happen if you gave them a baby?) Like, I know it's not healthy, generally; that's part of the appeal for a lot of those ships. I don't want to have to justify my ships or read The Discourse about why they're good or bad, actually. I just want to read my fic/art about my faves kissing. The whole judgmental attitude of having to prove your ship or your content worthy of being seen leaves a bad taste in my mouth, as does the idea that supporting fictional people kissing == any kind of meaningful social justice.

(I think it can lead to meaningful social justice, mind, in that it can introduce you to concepts and organizations you're not aware of and allow you to participate in organizations for meaningful cultural and political change -- but shipping is not, in and of itself, meaningful social justice.) 

 

Star Wars, in all honesty, and it makes me sad. TROS really removed any and all desire for me to do Star Wars outside of a couple fics I was fortunate enough to have started pre-TROS -- I'm still going to finish my "Padme as a monster" and "Vader + Leia rewrite the ST" fics some day. It wasn't just that it was a bad movie -- I'm a prequel fan, and I could have forgiven it that. Lots of bad movies have fun parts. Even TROS has some fun parts: Lando! Jannah! Rose's amazing silk blouse! But they didn't feel like they mattered a lot; the movie, to put it bluntly, did not spark joy. 

I think what bothers me is just mostly that it was such a mea culpa to the worst parts of the fandom: the way it bent over backwards to appease whiny fanboys who bashed the series for years for basically daring to do something different from the OT. We're sorry, the movie whispers, shoving Rose out of the way so no one has to see that pesky Asian lady again; we're sorry, the movie whispers, relegating their male lead of color into a man who just screams the name of a white woman for the entire length of the movie and tries to pass it off as growth. Here's Chewie, he's got a medal. (Which always especially annoys me because surely no one but the audience cares! Do you think Chewbacca worries that much about a medal ceremony he participated in 40 years ago??? It would be like me being upset that I didn't get a Presidential Award for Physical Fitness in 3rd grade and harboring an irritation about it to this very day. Similarly, it's hard for me to believe that Leia's most precious item is the Yavin medal -- like, she's lived forty years at least since the battle of Yavin. Considering that battle took place on the worst day of her life, when her entire planet was killed, I think that day probably wasn't much of a highlight for her.) 

The whole thing just says: We're sorry, we're sorry: Star Wars is for you again. Look here's Lando, remember him??? He's here and wearing teh same clothes he was in Solo so you know it's the same man! Leia's here too, but don't look too closely!!!!  Hey look, here's Luke, he's a badass, we promise! Did we mention Palpatine's back now??? In pog form! And don't worry, we made sure to incorporate a racist background for Poe, he's gritty now! Hahahaha, like Han Solo right??? Please forgive us, we're sorry we tried to make the series grow! Never again, never again! 

It casts a long shadow.

They should have done what GL did and shrug off the haters, who were never going to like what they made; instead, they embraced them. Now Star Wars is a fandom that will mostly be for older men in their thirties/forties/etc. instead of children, the original target audience. Everything is bad-ass and boring now. The Mandalorian couldn't even sell me on the father/son dynamics of it and I've been a slut for father/son stories since...well, Star Wars. I don't care about the Mandalorian, and I don't care about baby Yoda. (He's cute I guess?) Filoni isn't my favorite storyteller and I don't have a lot of interest in the last season of the Clone Wars. Bat Batch didn't grab me. Obi-Wan looks pretty blah. I tend to rotate in and out of Star Wars but I'm out for a while.

Except, of course, for the prequel trilogy politician's outfits, which I will pretty much always be there for because damn, the sheer FASHION. 

Day 7: What's the longest time you've been in a fandom. Not necessarily your oldest fandom, but a fandom that you started and still continue to read/write/create content for in some way.

I got into Greek mythology earlier -- honestly I got into Greek mythology before I could read -- but I wasn't fannish about it, per se; I don't think that really came on. I used to read Power Rangers fanfic back in the web-rings day, but I never really wrote much fic for it (and never posted it!),  and never participated in the community for it, unless you count playing with friends on the play ground. I don't think it would count because I've only really seen the MMPR-level stuff anyway, though I did read and enjoy some of the boom comics. 

But in terms of communities I've been active in and remain active in, probably Tekken easily is easily the fandom I've been in the longest. I was super online into forums in the late 1990s and I was posting all over the place in the tekken fandom (except, oddly, the late/great Tekken Zaibatsu -- but it was MUCH more strategy focused), I was a die hard reader and killed at least one tree printing out stories from the late, great Ultimate Tekken fanfiction archive  and even got a story into KMAS once (ngl I'm still proud of teenage me for getting a fic into an archive and, simultaneously, a bit glad that the URL has been lost and it returns a 404 now -- though lol, lord, can't believe teenage me hated titles so much I TITLED IT UNTITLED). My oldest extant fanfic on the internet is on fanfiction.net's Tekken section, which I also haunted the fuck out of, and it looks like I posted it in 2003.  I've dropped in and out of it as different installments of the game have come and gone - I didn't write a lot around Tekken 5, though I did love the game - but I came back in a good way around Tekken 6 and have my infrequently updated tekken tumblr to show for it. And although I haven't updated it since 2017, I do still read and write Tekken fanfiction, and still play the game from time to time. 

Honestly being in the same fandom so long, there's things from the old days I miss.( Pepperidge Farm Remembers 90s Tekken Fandom. )
 

 

King of Iron Mpreg, or, Why I Preggers?: The Devil gives everyone magical uteruses and honestly impressive because it never goes for the low-hanging fruit of making fun of mpreg fanfiction; rather its humor (and it is hilarious) is how the characters react to this terrible situation (with Hwoarang being my absolute favorite). 

Day 3: What's a favorite, or at least memorable fandom meeting/interaction that you've had?

Online:There are so MANY good interactions I have had online, but I very vividly remember going home on my lunch break to type out private messages on tumblr back and forth with someone who has become a dear friend. I was really stressed out at the time and nattering on about Tekken headcanon was really a bright spot and and I still deeply remember how much fun that was; I am beyond excited we are still friends, even if our lives now don't leave quite as much time to write meta and dead dove: don't eat fanfiction as we used to. The even CRAZIER thing is I'm pretty sure we were on the same websites (lurking or posting?) in the 90s so we must have been in the same orbit forever, off and on! She also taught me everything about exchanges, fashion magazines and a top-class fashion/horror manga, Rome, and walked me signing up for yuletide. And gave me Yakuza which is 1 of 2 of all the games I've played in 2020-2021! So basically she is the trend setter in my fandom life lol.

I also have to say pretty much everyone I talk to on Discord has been a memorable and pleasant interaction. I've met so many great friends through chit-chatting there and being able to talk to them about fandom things or about life on Discord made 2020 a LOT more livable. I'm so happy to have made the friends I have made there and it's been a bright spot in my life!

Offline: I haven't gotten to meet many fan-friends offline, but the few I have have been overwhelmingly pleasant! I'll forever be happy I went to the Star Wars convention a couple years ago and got to meet some online friends there. I still treasure getting to meet those people in person! I also really - at the time, somewhere between the buying of the ticket and the actual going, I started to get burnt out on Star Wars; it was really lovely to meet dozens of normal Star Wars fans in person who weren't...well, what you think of when you think of the Star Wars fan stereotype online. The fandom boost from Celebration turned out to be temporary, but I still love the friends I met there, and hope we get to meet in the real world again!