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[netgirl_y2k]

Today I was told that I was a very attractive female with lovely hair. Okay, I was told this by an eighty year old resident of my grandmother's nursing home, but take your compliments when they come, I say!

I have a suspicion this meme originated on tumblr, but as I have already proved, I cannot use tumblr in any halfway sensible way, so I'll do it here.

Pick a number from the list and I'll answer it in the comments.

1 - Your current OTP
2 - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind
3 - A pairing you have never liked and probably never will
4 - A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t
5 - Have you added anything stupid/cracky/hilarious to your fandom, if so, what
6 - What’s the longest you’ve ever been in a fandom
7 - Do you remember your first OTP, if so who was in it
8 - Do you prefer characters from real action series or anime series
9 - Has the internet caused you to stop liking any fandoms, if so, which and why
10 - Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over the internet
11 - How do you feel about the other people in your current fandom
12 - Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for
13 - Your favorite fanart or fanartist
14 - Your favorite fanfiction or fanauthor
15 - Choose a song at random, which OTP does it remind you of
16 - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)
17 - A ship you’ve abandoned and why
18 - A pairing you ship that you don’t think anyone else ships
19 - Show us an example of your personal headcanon
20 - Do you remember what your first fanwork was?
21 - Self-rec: What's your favorite fanwork you've created?
22 - Are you one of those fans who can’t watch anything without shipping
23 - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms
24 - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms
25 - A fandom you’re in but have no ships from
26 - Just ramble about something fan-related, go go go

Comments

[doyle]

#19 please - headcanon time! (Wait, is tumblr calling it personal headcanon now? As opposed to, erm...)

Show us an example of your personal headcanon

[netgirl_y2k]

Maybe they're big believers in the collective unconscious over there? Or perhaps they're just really fond of redundancy?

Okay, um, on Merlin the whole destiny thing is a crock of shit. The dragon made it all up, at first he was just trolling Merlin for shits and giggles, because there wasn't a whole lot to do in that cave. But then he noticed that Merlin, well, believed him and seemed highly suggestible when the subject of Arthur or destiny came up, so he started turning up the "glorious future of Albion" and "the witch is not to be trusted" rhetoric, by way of setting up the eventual destruction of Camelot in the battle between Arthur and Morgana, wiping out Uther's kingdom and both his children in one fell swoop.

Which is why the dragon turns on Camelot as soon as Merlin releases him, because why play a long game with an uncertain ending when you can just burn everything to the ground now. And also why Merlin almost immediately goes back to trusting him as a reliable source of information because he has basically no identity by this point outside of his "destiny" and can't countenance, even for a second, that he might have been wrong about this.

tl;dr Merlin is the story of a well-meaning young man's transformation into a hubristic dick who will be the ultimate destruction of everything he holds dear.

[karatam]

14, 23 and 24 please :)

(and I'll answer any of them for you, if you want)

[netgirl_y2k]

Your favorite fanfiction or fanauthor

I am a huge fan of dollsome*, like, slightly frightened to talk to her, did a happy dance when she commented on one of my fics huge fan. It's somewhat embarrassing.

calapine is one of the best reasons to be in Doctor Who fandom, I don't think she's ever written a bad fic.

hibernate is a one stop shop for happy-making femslash.

*If you haven't read her Sansa & Shae fic she'll cover me with grace, it's wonderful.

23 - 5 favorite characters from 5 different fandoms

1. Sansa Stark (Game of Thrones)
2. Morgana (Merlin)
3. Donna Noble (Doctor Who)
4. Gwen Cooper (Torchwood)
5. Anya (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Is that a pattern, it feels like a pattern?

24 - 3 OTPs from 3 different fandoms

You know, I'm not really an OTPing fan. I tend to have one favourite (or little black dress, as the kids say nowadays) and ship them with all and sundry. But I do feel pretty strongly about:

HG/Myka (Warehouse 13)
Bo/Lauren (Lost Girl)
Donna Noble/Her awesome Time Lord Brain (Doctor Who)

And, yes, that last one totally counts.

(for you, 2, 12 &16)

[karatam]

2 - A pairing you initially didn’t consider but someone changed your mind

Hmmm, well I never watched past season 3 of Lost, but my friend got me to watch all the Juliet Burke (Elizabeth Mitchell) scenes and made me ship Juliet/Sawyer a lot, though I've never been into the fandom much.

12 - Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for

To get ainsleyaisling to finish her epic Wicked fic, because it's actually my favourite fanfic ever and it was never completed.

16 - Invent a random AU for any fandom (we always need more ideas)

What if Morgana was the heir to Camelot?

(lol that's probably not new, I just haven't read it yet)

[netgirl_y2k]

What if Morgana was the heir to Camelot?

I don't know if you ever read The Ivy Crown, but that has Uther naming Morgana his heir and then 70k of Morgana being the awesome warrior queen of Camelot.

[cest_what]

How about 13, fanart?

Your favorite fanart or fanartist

[netgirl_y2k]

you know, this was a really hard question, because I'm not a fanart person. I don't seek it out. It's why I can't get together with tumblr as a fannish platform, because I'm not a visual person. Even in my real life, I'm that person in art galleries who's wondering where the cafe is and if they've got a license to sell alcohol, you know?

So, I was ready to take a pass on this question, until I remembered A Partial Map of Your TARDIS (Subject to Change). It's just--the thought involved, and the effort, and the creativity, and the love.

I mean, it's objectively a wonderful a thing, of course. But what it really did, was yank me out of my default mindset that writing things (fic, episode reviews, meta) was the only way to participate in fandom. And, frankly, that's a mindset I really need to make more of an effort to get out of.

Re: Your favorite fanart or fanartist

[cest_what]

It's a pretty great fanwork, for sure :)

I've always thought of fic as the primary purpose of creative fandom, but in my current fandom (Homestuck), fanartists are arguably actually in the majority. It's been really interesting to see how that changes things.

[amaresu]

10, 17, 21, and much like starbuck_rive I'll take some in return if you like.

[netgirl_y2k]

Name a fandom you didn’t care/think about until you saw it all over the internet

It's odd, given my all consuming love for it now, but I doubt I'd have made it through more than a few episodes of S1 of Warehouse 13 if the internet hadn't been dangling HG Wells under my nose like a carrot.

Of course, the show deciding that Pete & Myka weren't, in fact, suave secret agent types, but were, in fact, giant doofs helped too.

A ship you’ve abandoned and why

I don't know that I shipped it as such, but I was intrigued by the Doctor/River relationship that I thought we were going to get, where River was mostly off having fabulous adventures of her own and occasionally crashed into the Doctor's life bringing chaos and sexiness in her wake. But the more of her backstory we got, the more the show stripped her of any sense of character or identity that wasn't about the Doctor, the more unpleasant I began to find it.

Self-rec: What's your favorite fanwork you've created?

Um, for objective quality Her Heart Beat Like a Wolf (ASOIAF, Sansa Stark gen) for ridiculous self-indulgence I'm fond of The Trouble with Witches (at least the evil get to go home early on Fridays) (Merlin, Morgana & a wee bb dragon)

(And for you, 4, 12 & 25)

[amaresu]

Pete and Myka as giant doofs makes just about everything better. Where is HG? I thought Artie got her pardoned?

River was, in a lot of ways, more interesting when we didn't know who she was. I hope S7 expands her character away from living for the Doctor. I also hope the Doctor comes up with a better plan to save her, the past can be changed after all.

A pairing you wish you liked but just can’t

So many actually. McKay/Sheppard being a big one as I really wanted to like Atlantis fandom, but I can't stand the pairing. Or, really, Sheppard. Batman/Superman would be another big one I just don't like. Thinking about it, it's often the big slash ships I just can't get behind. Iron Man/Captain America is a no go for me. Sherlock/Watson as I prefer them to be platonic BFF. I don't even understand Vimes/Vetinari or Dresden/Marcone. I could go on. And they each have their own special reason why I just don't ship them.

Your favorite fanartist/author gives you one request, what do you ask for

I have no idea. Especially as I only have favorites in fandoms, not overarching favorites. I suppose I'd make eponymous_rose write the Sapphire and Steel/Deep Space Nine crossover I've always wanted. You could write the Susan/Unity (Discworld) roadtrip fic. And somehow I would magically be in the same fandom as suzvoy again and then I would just read her fic. Chaerring would just write me lovely Darcy Lewis/Bruce Banner fic all the time. paperclipbitch would only ever write amazingly off-the-wall brilliant Avenger AUs. I could go on, but I think it's obvious at this point that I find the idea of one favorite author to be weird. It depends entirely on what I want to read.

A fandom you’re in but have no ships from

So much as a fandom exists for it, I'm going to say Sinbad. I don't currently ship anyone beyond them all being a found family and wonderful. And learning how much they're willing to sacrifice for these people is brilliant. As well as how they get to be angry about things and Sinbad gets no free passes on this show. I realy need to get caught up here.

[netgirl_y2k]

Where is HG? I thought Artie got her pardoned?

I've been assuming it was her that Artie was on the phone to at the end of episode 2, when he said he needed an artifact found on the quiet, without Pete and Myka getting involved, and that's what she's been doing. I think it's either next week or the week after that she's back, though.

A lot of the juggernaut ships, both slash and het, baffle me too, and as far as I can tell the only common theme is that a lot of them contain an element of, um, borderline stalking, that I have trouble seeing past. But Vimes/Vetinari just breaks my brain, and the first time I saw Dresden/Marcone mentioned I had to stop until I'd remembered which one Marcone was.

Okay, Sinbad was already on my to-watch list, but found family and no free passes are two of my favourite things, so I'm moving it up the list.

[amaresu]

Oh, good call. I'd forgotten about the phone call, but having her out running erronds for Artie would make sense. I'm so excited to have her back. I just want her and Myka to be cute together again.

I can tell the only common theme is that a lot of them contain an element of, um, borderline stalking

Yes, this. Also the ones I would be okay with if not a fan of myself, the fans tend to have the habit of warping the source around them. Like with Dresden/Marcone a huge portion of the fanbase threw a fit when Changes came out and Marcone wasn't in it. There was mass outcry that this was the first time Marcone hadn't been in a book. I'd just finished my re-read and could say with complete certainty that wasn't the case. He hasn't been in several books and only briefly shown in others. (Why is the Dresden Files fandom so obsessed with this pairing? Why?)

And all the really big ships do this sort of thing. I think it has something to do with echo chambers and not reviewing the source material with a critical eye, but it's annoying and puts me off pairings I would've been so-so about.


Sinbad is just a fun show to watch. The characters are their own people and not just there to be Sinbad's supporting cast. Sinbad makes terrible decisions and has to deal with the consequences of those. He does have some of the main character warping effect, but I think the writers are at least aware of the dangers of letting your main character get away with things.