Andraste

2024 Fandom Year In Review

Thu, 02 Jan 2025 13:27:05 GMT

Stolen from Selena, a meme about my 2024 fandom year! Which was pretty good even though finishing an entire novella in February seems to have exhausted my creative powers for the rest of the year. (My resolution for this year is to write literally anything.)

1. Your main fandom of the year?

Not sure I had one, unless we're counting Our Flag Means Death because it's the only one I actually produced any content for. If we're looking for the one I spent the most emotional energy on, though, I spent ten months impatiently waiting for more Dragon Age and then two months playing The Veilguard, so that.

2. Your favorite film watched this year?

Conclave! A tense thriller about the internal politics of the Catholic church that has the plot of a dumb high school film. If it sounds like those to things should work against each other, let me reassure you that they are in fact a perfect combination. Definitely recommended if you're interested in church politics and/or dumb high school films only everybody in the story is a grown adult cardinal (or a nun.)

3. Your favorite book read this year?

I finally got around to reading The Name of the Rose (yes, yes, I know, at least I've caught up now!) and unsurprisingly I adored it.

In terms of books published this century: I think I loved Translation State even more than the rest of Ann Leckie's Imperial Radch books. Honourable mentions to Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh and The Brides of High Hill by Nghi Vo.

4. Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?

My self-created Will Wood playlist on Tidal probably got the most playtime, especially Laplace's Angel because I'm trying to vid it. (I just need IWtV Season Three to exist first …)

5. Your favorite TV show of the year?

This was such a good year for TV, I cannot choose! What the hell, let's do a top ten, in alphabetical order.

Agatha All Along: a terrific sequel to WandaVision with a great bunch of new characters and a glorious return for the titular (anti)heroine. Disney should let Jac Schaeffer do whatever she wants.

Fallout: Proving that The Last of Us wasn't just a fluke and Hollywood has actually learned something about making good video game adaptations. All three leads are terrific and Kyle McLachlan is perfectly cast. Can't wait for more.

Dandadan: A contender for my most surprising fandom of the year. 'Raunchy high school anime with a romance between two teens and a generous helping of fanservice' doesn't sound like my thing at all but I checked it out because I was so impressed with the animation and ended up staying for the plot and characters and delightfully weird world-building. It helps a lot that the female characters are properly developed and the male lead ends up in just as many absurd situations in his underwear. Also has one of the single best episode of any anime I have ever watched.

Helluva Boss: Speaking of dark horses: in the space of two weeks in the middle of this year, I went from, 'ugh, I guess I have to watch Hazbin Hotel if I want to hear Keith David sing, even though I'm pretty sure I'm too old for edgy cartoons' to marathoning every episode of that an its sister show and becoming profoundly invested in the relationship between an imp and an owl. Sometimes fandom is like that! Anyway, if you like musicals and/or unnecessarily tall owls and are not too old for edgy cartoons you might as well give it a shot, since it's free on YouTube!

Interview With the Vampire: I continue to be amazed at how this show turns the fascinating but flawed source material into television that is actually good. I think I liked Season Two even more than Season One, and I look forward to more.

A Man on the Inside: Michael Schur and Ted Danson team up again for a comedy about a widower who's hired by a private detective to infiltrate a retirement community. Not as good as The Good Place, but one could say that about most TV shows, and Danson is in excellent form. Netflix should be doing more of this kind of thing and by 'this kind of thing' I mean shows that tell a satisfying story in the space of eight episodes. (And then they renewed it any way! Fingers crossed Schur sticks with a self-contained story for the second season as well.)

Orb: On the Movements of the Earth: An anime about the discovery of heliocentrism that might have been made for me. Almost all of it is people sitting in rooms having philosophical discussions about science and Renaissance Catholic church doctrine, presumably because they have to save all the animation budget for glorious vistas of the night sky and the occasional fight scene. It makes me tear up every single week.

Skeleton Crew: Four kids from the most boring planet in the entire Star Wars universe end up very far away from home and have to find their way back. Is it basically The Goonies in space? Sure. Does it work perfectly on its own terms? Yes. The kids are all great and Jude Law is wonderful. Here's hoping it sticks the landing.

X-Men '97: I made a whole post about this one earlier in the year but the short version is that I loved it and was extremely relieved that it lived up to the legacy of the show that got me into my most enduring fandom and introduced me to my favourite fictional character.

Yatagarasu: The Raven Does Not Choose Its Master: Stunningly gorgeous anime set in a fantasy kingdom that's far too complex to explain in a couple of sentences. If you love interesting world building, court intrigue and complicated master/servant relationships I would give this one a look.

Honourable mention to Brilliant Minds which is bad House M.D. fanfic but if House was nice to his patients, canonically gay and played by Zachary Quinto. (The first episode is outright terrible, but the clunky expository dialogue reduces by about 80% after that and I sincerely recommend it if you like American network procedurals and/or staring at Zachary Quinto.)

6. Your favorite online community of the year?

The FFA Discord, again <3. Amazing how the chat belonging to a hive of scum and villainy consistently manages to be one of the most chill fandom spaces I've ever been in.

7. Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

Probably either Dandadan or the Hellaverse, since most other things on my list I at least knew about before 2024 or they were laser-targeted at me so I was bound to find them eventually.

8. Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?

The fourth season of Umbrella Academy, in the sense that it had some very good bits but I want to take a red pen to the whole thing. (I know the episode order got cut down but I don't think they cut the correct things to squeeze it into six episodes.)

Additionally, Doctor Who had some brilliant individual episodes but the season arc as a whole didn't end up working for me. Oh well, I've never thought that RTD was any good at finales. At least I love Ncuti Gatwa's Doctor to bits and look forward to seeing more of him.

9. Your fandom boyfriend of the year?

I mean, predictably it is my fandom boyfriend for life: X-Men TAS Charles Xavier! And also his boyfriend Magneto.

If I have to pick new characters: Emmrich and Davrin, my joint favourite new Dragon Age boyfriends. Stolas. Also Jude Law's many-named character from Skeleton Crew arrived at the last minute to sweep me off my feet <3. That man is very good at his job.

Also, honourable mention to Daniel Molloy - he was already my favourite but even more so after the second season. (Sometimes I just randomly think about him playing telenovela music or asking Louis if he's the Zodiac killer and laugh.)

10. Your fandom girlfriend of the year?

Agatha Harkness and it's not even close. (I will have to admire her from afar, though, as I am not dumb enough to fight her girlfriend for her hand.)

Honourable mention to Lace Harding. BioWare finally gave me a dwarf romance after twenty-four years and I was not disappointed <3.

11. Your biggest squee moment of the year?

The end of Dragon Age: The Veilgard contained the most satisfying scene in the entire series for me. (Specifically ( endgame spoilers. ))

12. The most missed of your old fandoms?

I'm glad X-Men '97 came along because oh boy do I not enjoy X-Men comics in the post-Krakoa era. I know that they had to put the toys back in the box eventually and that some other iteration I like will be along eventually but god it all feels so boring by comparison :(.

13. The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?

Still need to catch up on Batman: Caped Crusader, Shogun. Not to mention the latest seasons of From, Silo, and Slow Horses.

14. Your biggest fan anticipations for the New Year?

The second season of Severance starts in just a couple of weeks!

Also Alecto the Ninth is meant to come out this year. The next season of The Wheel of Time. More Helluva Boss episodes when they eventuate.

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A New Year's Meme

Fri, 01 Jan 2021 11:14:09 GMT

Finally, we have vanquished 2020! May it get in the bin and stay there.

That said, not everything about 2020 was a complete disaster. I will always remember it as the year that I got rid of my stupid gall bladder and America got rid of Donald Trump. (One of these things was doing damage on a much greater scale than the other, but then again, about the only good thing I can say about Donald Trump is that he never woke me up at three in the morning and/or stopped me consuming dairy products.)

Anyway, some of the other things that were pretty good in 2020, via a meme stolen from various people on my reading list.

Your main fandom this year?

I started reading X-Men comics again from the start of the Hickman reboot, and they are making me so, so happy. Given that 50% of my (very modest) fandom output in 2020 was X-Men, I'm gonna declare the mutants won this.

Your favourite film watched this year?

Of things that actually released in 2020: The Old Guard was an absolute delight. I also got around to several classics I'd never seen before, notably The Thin Man, The Magnificent Seven and North by Northwest. Oh, and I finally watched Skyfall and I think that's probably my favourite Bond film. (Casino Royale may be more elegant and better-paced, but Skyfall just has so much excellent stuff in it.)

Your favourite book read this year?

An impossible question! I bought Gideon the Ninth on a whim because idiots were being mean to the author on Twitter, and it's the best impulse book purchase I ever made. Especially since it lead me to the equally excellent sequel. But I also adored Arkady Martine's A Memory Called Empire. So I guess I'm declaring 2020 the Year of the Space Lesbian?

Your favourite TV show of the year?

The Mandalorian! Caught up on the first season and fell in love, and the second just cemented its position as my favourite Star Wars thing that is not a video game. Bring on the third, please.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?

Hmmmmm. Not sure if The Mandalorian counts here since it's part of an existing universe? If not, I'm going to give this prize to a video game, specifically Hitman 2016. (I only jumped on the bandwagon this year, after long being under the impression that it was some kind of boring shooter franchise. Turns out it is actually a puzzle game, where every puzzle is 'how do I kill this complete jerk in the funniest way possible without getting caught?' I am very eager for the third instalment of the current trilogy, which is arriving later this month.)

Your biggest fandom disappointment?

I am with Selena on this one: Doctor Who's The Timeless Child. A series of stupid and unnecessary retcons and a boring episode wrapped around them! Even the wonderful Sacha Dhawan could not save it for me.

Your favorite online fandom community of the year?

I mostly hung out in the FFA discord, which is lovely. (Possibly because everyone saves their wank for failfandomanon proper, it is very chill there. And full of cat pictures.)

Your TV boyfriend of the year?

Din Djarin <3 <3 <3.

Your TV girlfriend of the year?

She wasn't in Steven Universe Future much, but Peridot is the answer anyway. Love that tiny, angry slice of key lime pie.

In the interests of a more complete record of my fannish loves: my book boyfriend was Kim Secretan, my book girlfriend was Harrowhark Nonagesimus, my comics boyfriend was Charles Xavier (even more than he is every year!) my comics girlfriend was Fey Truscott-Sade. And I'm having a video game threesome with Agent 47 and Diana Burnwood, please.

Your biggest squee moment of the year?

I think the thing that drew the most high-pitched noise from me was the ninety-second Dragon Age trailer that revealed nothing new but made me very happy anyway. God, I am tired of waiting for DA4.

The most missed of your old fandoms?

Dragon Age has been dormant too long. (Well, we're still getting books and comics, which are nice, but I wanna PLAY. Maybe in 2022?)

The fandom you haven’t tried yet, but want to?

Still really need to see the Watchmen TV show. Also Doom Patrol. And I've seen the first five episodes of the Umbrella Academy adaptation but need to finish catching up on that. Soooooooo many superheroes on TV these days.

Your biggest fannish anticipation for the New Year?

A bunch of sequels to stuff I mentioned above, specifically Hitman 3, A Desolation Called Peace and Subtle Blood. Also Season Three of The Mandalorian, and its spin-off. (I did not expect to ever be interested in Boba Fett, but hey, 2020 was a strange year.) Plus: more Hickman X-Men! Another ninety-second Dragon Age trailer that says nothing new!

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Well, half of it works ...

Sun, 06 Dec 2020 11:44:36 GMT

I saw a thread on meme today where you take your two favourite pairings and swap the partners and see if the results are still pairings you would like. This brought me to the realisation that G'Kar/Magneto is a perfectly cromulant pairing of freedom fighters bonding over REVOLUTION and I would certainly be into it.

On the other hand, Charles Xavier and Londo Mollari would just would not work as a pairing on any level. Charles would find Londo fascinating and entertaining in small doses, but also exhausting, and I just can't see Londo being interested at all. Besides which, if Charles was in the B5 universe somehow he would be far too distracted taking over the Psi Corps to date anyone from there. (Obviously he is intending to run it in the best interests of the telepaths rather than EarthGov! Which I'm sure would work out for the best with absolutely no negative consequences at all ...)

Meanwhile, I do not think Jean Valjean and/or Javert have done anything to deserve being anywhere near any of these people. (Javert deserves lots of things, but being dragged into the complexities of mutant rights and/or a very confusing space station is not it.)

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AO3 Stats Meme

Mon, 04 May 2020 05:45:04 GMT

It has been literally years since I've done one of these. Let's see if anything has changed!

( Navel-gazing about fanfiction statistics ensues. )

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Behold, A Meme

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 03:57:12 GMT

Now that I am back home and sort of mostly caught up with my life, a meme.

Give me a show/movie/fandom and I'll tell you:

my favourite female character
my favourite male character
my favourite book/season/etc
my favourite episode (if it's a tv show)
my favourite cast member
my favourite relationship
a character I'd die defending
a character I just can't sympathize with
a character I grew to love
my anti otp

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More Memeing

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:31:21 GMT

Another response to my 'shipping meme from the other day.

( This time Londo/Timov. )

And because I was thinking of doing it anyway and amatara already nominated G'Kar, a character meme as well. Give me a character, and I will tell you:

1. Do you love/hate/don’t feel strongly about this character?
2. What’s your favorite trait of this character?
3. What’s your favorite moment/event involving this character?
4. If you could have one power/attribute/etc. of this character, what would it be?
5. Have you ever pictured this character naked?
6. When did you fall in love/hate with this character? I you don’t have any strong feelings toward them, why not?
7. Who’s your OTP for this character, if any?

( Answers about G'Kar below the cut. )

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Londo and G'Kar: Shipping Meme

Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:53:55 GMT

For selenak because this got far too long to be a comment.

who cooks normally?

Vir.

Oh, you mean it has to be one of them? G'Kar, obviously. Because I cannot imagine Londo has ever had reason to learn, and he could probably burn water. G'Kar, on the other hand, seems to like cooking. I think Londo would really prefer it if Vir did it, given what Narn food is like.

how often do they fight?

Ahahaha. I think a better question would be 'how many conversation do they manage to have that aren't fights?' And they wouldn't have it any other way.

what do they do when they’re away from each other?

Well, Londo becomes Emperor and is miserable for a couple of decades. G'Kar roams the universe and is happy but has to appear in Legend of the Rangers. Clearly they are better off together.

( This is also too long for a post. Rest of the questions below the cut. )

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'Shipping Meme

Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:39:38 GMT

Purely because, given the 'ships you people are likely to ask me about, I feel confidant this can only end in hilarity. Especially question two.

If you can think of a ship i will answer these questions for them:

who cooks normally?:
how often do they fight?:
what do they do when they’re away from each other?:
nicknames for each other?:
who is more likely to pay for dinner?:
what would they get each other for gifts?:
who remembers things?:
who cusses more?:
what would they do if the other one was hurt?:
who kissed who first?:
who made the first move?:
who started the relationship?:
who uses all the hot water in the morning:
what they order from take out:
what is the most trivial thing they fight over:
what was their first kiss like:
where were they their first time having sex:
who’s louder:
who wakes up first:
if they had to choose a third+ person to include who would it be:
their general feelings on sex in the relationship:
how careful are they about using protection:

I feel like I should add 'how careful are they about using capital letters?' to the end of this for some reason.

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Valentine's Day Quotes of Love

Fri, 15 Feb 2013 14:45:33 GMT

Yesterday people on ... uh, a place I visit on the internet (I'm never sure if we're meant to talk about Fight Club or not) ... were talking about their favourite 'ship moments in honour of the date. I started making a list of quotes, and then realised that I would be taking up the whole page. So instead, I'm posting them here. Name the source of the quote, win a prize! And by prize I mean some kind of ficlet about the pairing in question. (I am going to have to make a 'one per customer' rule, though, because some of you could probably name more than half of these.)

Some of them are so easy that anyone familiar with the sources would remember them, but there are also a couple that I doubt anyone will get. Feel free to surprise me, though.

I've refrained from including multiple versions of the same characters, although there's one instance of blatant cheating. They are listed in an order that makes logical sense to me, for what that's worth.

( People - well, mostly people - in love below cut. )

You know, I saw that 'name the character types and tropes you think I like' meme going around and decided it would be too obvious. I think this sort of proves it.

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Dating Meme

Wed, 29 Aug 2012 13:03:36 GMT

Stolen from deborah_judge and selenak:

Name a fictional character and I'll tell you three reasons I wouldn't want to date them.

In some cases, I could probably come up with three hundred reasons *g*.

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Thirteen

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 04:57:38 GMT

13 – Do you prefer canon or fanon when you write? Has writing fanfic for a fandom changed the way you see some or even all of the original source material?

In my opinion, fanon is the icing and canon is the cake. Cake without icing is edible, but lacks finishing touches. On the other hand, serving up a pile of icing with no cake underneath is just silly.

There are plenty of bits of fanon I like, and some I've made up myself and use over and over. I find fanon most useful when it fills in details that the canon is never going to cover - it's not like we were ever going to get Word Of God on what the Centauri call their tentacles, so when I needed to put that in a story I consulted Selena for ideas and made something up. (This? Is my most enduringly popular bit of fanon. Which I find hilarious.) Fanon that contradicts my view of canon annoys me, especially when it becomes all-pervasive, but I don't see it as harmful in and of itself.

I don't think I've ever changed my mind about the source material because of writing fanfic, but I've certainly written fanfic because of changing my mind about the source material.

( The rest of the questions ... )

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A Meme I Cannot Resist ...

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:49:33 GMT

... despite being behind on my other meme.

Give me a pairing and I will tell you:

1. What they most commonly do during sex
2. Who has prettier hair
3. What they argue about most often
4. Who'd cope best if the other one died
5. The happiest plausible happily-ever-after I can think of for them.

Obviously you will get better answers if I'm familiar with the pairing in question.

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Twelve

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 11:41:48 GMT

12 – Have you ever attempted an "adaptation" fic of a favorite book or movie but set in a different fandom?

No, I have not.

... well, that wasn't a very interesting answer *g*. So, I suppose I should add that there's one I'd like to write one day: the Transformes version of Casablanca.

Well, sort of. The plot isn't quite the same, since is post-war. Ultra Magnus got disillusioned with the Autobot cause after the Great War ended and Optimus Prime was killed (again) and is now running a bar on an out-of-the-way asteroid. One day, Cyclonus walks into it. (You get three guesses about whether Galvatron is really dead or not. The first two don't count.)

( The rest of the questions ... )

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Eleven

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 03:48:10 GMT

11 – Genre – do you prefer certain genres of fic when you're writing? What kind do you tend to write most?

Is 'two people sit in a room having a conversation' a genre? Because if it is, that is by far my favourite one *g*. Fandom uses the word 'genre' in many ways, so I'm not sure if this is talking about fannish genres (het, slash, gen, angst, etc.) or non-fannish genres like 'comedy' and 'romance'.

Since - humor aside - most of my stories don't fit comfortably into any non-fannish genres, maybe I'll answer the first question instead. According to my stats on ff.net, I have posted ninety-nine gen stories, thirty-four slash stories and twenty het stories. There are also five that fall into more than one of those categories, two that I filed under other, and one femslash drabble. (It was a Chrstimas present for a friend.) So, unsurprisingly almost two-thirds of what I've written is gen, with the rest unevenly divided between different types of 'ships. Sometimes I write angst, occasionally I write PWP, and sometimes I write comedy. I have a fondness for alternative universes and I love crossovers.

( The rest of the questions ... )

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Ten

Sun, 10 Jul 2011 07:17:46 GMT

10 – Pairings – Have you ever gone outside your comfort zone and written a pairing you liked, but found you couldn't write, or a pairing you didn't like, and found you could?

I don't think I've ever failed at writing a story because I unexpectedly discovered I couldn't write the pairing. (I have failed at writing stories for lots and lots of other reasons, but not that one.) I have always been a pretty good judge of which characters and relationships I can write about.

The reverse has occasionally happened, though - mentor/student pairings squick the hell out of me, but I still managed to write an Xavier/Rogue story that was intentionally disturbing. I also found G'Kar/Morden surprisingly entertaining to write and discovered that I actually could wrap my brain around Londo/Vir as long as it took place in a universe where things were ... different.

( The rest of the questions ... )

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Nine

Sat, 09 Jul 2011 13:09:18 GMT

Tired and about twelve hours behind on my usual meme-posting schedule, but it's still technically Saturday here, so ...

9 – Pairings – For each of the fandoms from day two, what are your three favorite pairings to write?

I haven't written three different pairings in most of my fandoms! In many of the smaller ones, I haven't even written one, since I write a lot of gen. It's quite rare for me to write any pairing more than once or twice. (I think people familiar with my work can guess what the two big exceptions to that rule are.)

X-Men: Xavier/Magneto is one of my top two all-time OTPs. In any version of their universe, they intrigue me. I've also written Charles with Amelia Voght on more than one occasion, as she's my favourite of his canon love interests. (Not that I don't love Lilandra! I'm surprised and kind of disappointed to find that I've never actually written any Charles/Lil. I think it's because the pairing was well and truly off the boil in canon by the time I started reading. I didn't go back and read the older stuff with them until later, and by then any fic ideas seemed redundant. And, wow, that was a long digression.) I have also enjoyed writing individual stories that were Charles/Hank, Charles/Rogue (it was intentionally creepy!), and most recently Charles/The Entire Brotherhood of Mutants. Charles/Everyone really is my OTP to end all OTPs.

Farscape: I like both Scorpius/Sikozu and Scorpius/Braca in this fandom. Some day, I will write that Scorpius/Braca/Sikozu threesome story ... I've also got a soft spot for Crais/Aeryn, although it was only while I was watching Season Four that I actually thought she'd be better off with him than John. (Luckily The Peace Keeper Wars got Aeryn back into character.)

Babylon 5: Londo/G'Kar is my other all-time OTP winner! I've also written Kosh/Lyta and Londo/Urza in this fandom, but those were isolated cases among a pile of stories about Londo and G'Kar. (Several of which are gen.)

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Giles/Ethan is the only pairing I have ever actually written in this fandom, although I also 'ship Andrew/Warren in a 'this is actually a Very Bad Idea' sort of way. Of course, Giles/Ethan is also a Very Bad Idea for various reasons. It's that sort of show!

Doctor Who: I am very fond of both Doctor/Master and Doctor/Romana, in no particular order, and have written both. I also like Doctor/River and (of course!) Doctor/TARDIS, but I have never written about either of those.

due South: I'm not sure that Vecchio/Fraser/Kowalski counts as a 'pairing', exactly, but it is my favourite. I've written several Vecchio/Fraser stories set before Kowalski showed up, and one Fraser/Kowalski drabble, but the OT3 is my happy place for these guys.

Alias: Another fandom where I'm all about the OT3, although I never actually finished that Sloane/Jack/Irina story. I like Sloane/Jack and Irina/Jack individually, too, and Sloane/Emily as well. (Although, um, there's another story I never finished.) I also have a twisted thing for Sloane/Sydney. (That one is actually a vid that is not finished. Or, indeed, started.)

The Authority: The only pairing I ever wrote in the fandom was Apollo/Midnighter, and that was because somebody requested it. I always had weird thing for the Doctor/the Engineer (by which I mean Jeroen and Angie) but never got around to writing any.

Transformers: Starscream/Megatron was probably my first ever OTP! My ambition in this fandom is to write more of Starscream/Everyone, though. (No, brain, the logically conclusion of this train of thought is not that you should write Charles Xavier/Starscream.) I keep telling my friends about the 'Starscream and Octane Make A Porno' story and never writing it.

Blake's 7: It came as a surprise to nobody that I fell hard for Blake/Avon when I watched this show, and I've written a couple of stories. I don't feel the need to write more than that, though, because there's so much about them already.

( The rest of the questions ... )

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Eight

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 02:28:58 GMT

8 – Do you write OCs? And if so, what do you do to make certain they're not Mary Sues, and if not, explain your thoughts on OCs.

Sometimes I write OCs. Since none of them have had super powers, violet eyes or romances with the canon characters I don't really lie awake at night worrying that they're Mary Sues. Most of the time my OCs have been purely functional inventions - I needed Larrell to have a new captain after Crais left, so I made one up. More rarely, I've written stories where the original character was the star. I wrote an Astro City story like that years ago, and one X-Men common people story. (There was a whole tradition in the Old Skool X-Men fandom that centered around OTL and CFAN of writing stories about mutants who were ordinary people rather than superheroes.)

I've also written a couple of stories about characters we know exist in canon but have never seen - one about Crais's mother and one about Vir meeting Londo's first wife. They're not technically inventions of mine since Crais must logically have a mother and we know Londo had a wife before the three we encounter in canon, but their characterization is all me.

My main feeling on OCs is that they should serve the story being told. I read fanfiction because I want to hear more about the canon characters and the world they live in, and if introducing an original character advances that goal then I'm all in favour of them. My main problem with Mary Sue in fanfiction isn't actually the super powers, the violet eyes and the romances, it's that she tends to take attention away from the elements that I find interesting.

( The rest of the questions ... )

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Seven

Thu, 07 Jul 2011 05:20:15 GMT

7 – Have you ever had a fic change your opinion of a character?

Given that this is a meme about writing rather than reading fanfic, I take it this means a story I've written rather than one I've read? In that case, no. Other people's stories have frequently given me new insight into characters, but I've never changed my mind about a character after writing about them. However, I have found some people surprisingly easy or fun to write - Stephen Franklin from B5 was one of those when I wrote about him and Londo and G'Kar once.

( The rest of the questions ... )

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Six

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 01:19:11 GMT

6 – When you write, do you prefer writing male or female characters?

For fanfiction? Predominantly male characters. There are lots of reasons for that, but what it boils down to is that the fictional archetypes I love rarely show up in female form. If I want to write about middle-aged women arguing about politics and then trying to kill each other, well, there aren't many source texts that are going to provide me with the basic material. I've written more female characters in my recent fandoms (notably Doctor Who) because more of them appeal to me.

I used to feel bad about mostly writing men, until I started writing more original fiction. Not that I've ever finished any of it, but almost all my protagonists in those stories are female. When I make them up, the female characters can be the types of people that appeal to me most as a writer. Almost all the original characters I've ever written fanfiction about have been female, as well. (Not that there are a lot of them, but there was that story about Crais's mother and also the female Peace Keeper captain who shows up in that story about Larrell and a few others here and there. I'm also generally more likely to write about minor female characters than the major ones.

( The rest of the questions ... )

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Five

Tue, 05 Jul 2011 03:47:34 GMT

5 –If you have ever had a character try to push their way into a fic, whether your "muse" or not, what did you do about it?

This doesn't usually happen to me. (Not with fanfiction, anyway - when I write original fiction, I frequently have character who were meant to be minor demand centre stage.) Normally when I have a fic idea I know exactly who's going to be in it, although sometimes I bring in more characters if the story turns out to need them.

( The rest of the questions ... )

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Four

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 04:48:21 GMT

4 – Do you have a "muse" character, that speaks to you more than others, or that tries to push their way in, even when the fic isn't about them? Who are they, and why did that character became your muse?

Oh, boy, yes. *points wordlessly at icon*

As for how Charles Xavier became my One True (Fictional) Love, that's a bit of a long story.

I started watching X-Men: The Animated Series around 1993, and the first episode I saw was Deadly Reunions. I can actually tell you that my first thoughts on my future beloved were "who's that guy telepathically tormenting the hottie in the red and purple outfit? And why is he wearing that awful green suit?" So, you know, not exactly love at first sight *g*.

If you'd asked me who my favourite mutant was in those early days, I'd have told you it was Magneto, and it would have been true. He won me over in minutes with his sexy voice acting and his tortured past. But Charles had my interest, too, and by the time they were running around the Savage Land fighting dinosaurs together, I'd started to wonder about what made him tick. (This was also around the time I invented slash fiction all by myself.) The Dark Phoenix Saga made me even more interested.

A few years passed, and I had a geeky friend who was able to lend me some comic books - including a reprint of Uncanny X-Men #12, which is Charles' origin story. And I think by then I was already hooked. When I went on a work experience trip to Melbourne in 1996, I went to Minotaur and bought everything in the back issue bin or on the racks that had Charles Xavier on the cover, and then I knew it was love. (This was around the time of Onslaught, so at least he was on the covers sometimes. Even if the story as a whole wasn't very good, it had plenty of interesting stuff in it for a budding Xavier fangirl.) By them time I actually discovered the internet in 1997, I was disappointed to find out that there was almost no fanfiction about him. (Thank goodness for Alara Rogers, or I might have wandered off into some other fandom, feeling sad.)

I think that covers the how, but it doesn't cover the why. As for that, well, there are a lot of reasons. Like all kinds of love, it accumulates over time. Because he genuinely wants to make the world a better place. Because he's Lawful Good for values of 'lawful' and 'good' that other people find extremely confusing. Because he'll forgive his enemies and open his door to anyone. (Because he's genuinely that compassionate, and also because turning away a potentially useful tool would be unwise.) Because he always has at least three reasons for doing anything. Because he wants to be a teacher, not a general, no matter how much he keeps screwing that up. Because he believes killing people never fixed anything. Because of the time he gave Wolverine demerits. And more recently: because Patrick Stewart. (And James McAvoy, who does not have the voice but has the right colour eyes. So I can find it in my heart to love that version, too.)

For the past month, I've been back writing bits and pieces of X-Men stories. It's like he's never been out of my head.

( The rest of the questions ... )

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Three

Sun, 03 Jul 2011 02:40:07 GMT

3 – For each of the fandoms from day two, what were your favorite characters to write?

I don't think anyone is interested in me listing my favourite characters for all forty of those fandoms, are they? So let's just stick with my top ten.

X-Men: Almost every X-Men story I've written (the exceptions are some drabbles, a 'common people' comicverse story and a remix) has Charles Xavier in it. He's not just my favourite X-Men character to write, but my favourite fictional person full stop. I've also written a lot of Magneto.

Farscape: This is an unusual one for me, in that instead of just sticking with my favourites I've written most of the characters at some point. The Farscape Friday drabble community encouraged me to stretch myself during the time I was most actively writing it. My clear favourites to write are Crais, Scorpius and Zhaan, but I had a lot of fun writing Harvey and Braca, not to mention Talyn and Sikozu. I have more favourite characters in Farscape than any other fandom.

Babylon 5: I am all about the Centauri and the Narn in this fandom, and Londo and G'Kar talking to each other is one of my favourite things to write in the whole world. (They may or may not be having tentacle sex at the same time.) I've also written lots of Vir, and I think I've doubled the number of Na'Toth stories on the web single-handedly. I enjoyed writing Bester, although I've only done so once thus far. Some day I must write something about Kosh, but Vorlons are difficult.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer: I am all about Giles and Ethan and also the Trio, especially Andrew Wells. Some day I will write a story that has Giles and Andrew interacting, even.

Doctor Who: I think this is the only fandom where I don't really have a set of favourite characters. Or, rather, I have so many of them it's a meaningless list. I mean, I love all of the Doctor, and I have more than a dozen favourite companions and also the Master. What I enjoy most is having all of that available to play with, so I love writing stories that cross eras and have characters who never met in canon interacting.

due South: I am a Vecchio girl all the way in this fandom. Not that I don't love Fraser and intead Kowalski, I just can't see myself writing anything longer than a ficlet that doesn't have RayV in it.

Alias: First Generation Spies 4 Eva! Jack, Sloane and Irina are my equal favourites.

The Authority: I love the Doctor, and by the Doctor I mean Jeroen, not whoever they replaced him with. *sadface*

Transformers: I am a predictable Starscream fangirl, and almost everything I've ever written or planned to write in this fandom has him in it. I'm very attached to Megatron, too, though, and one of these days I need to write more about Soundwave and Galvatron and Cyclonus.

Blake's 7: Blake and Avon are my characters of choice here. I may love Blake slightly more, I think, but they're both fun to write. The reason I've never written more in this fandom is that there's so much fic about those two already, it seems unnecessary for me to add any.

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day Two

Sat, 02 Jul 2011 01:24:14 GMT

2 – Name the fandoms you've written in, and how much you've written in that fandom, and if you still write in it.

I think I'm just going to copy-paste my AO3 stats here.

Farscape (31)
X-Men (Comicverse) (25)
Babylon 5 (21)
X-Men (Movies) (16)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (8)
Doctor Who (6)
due South (5)
Alias (5)
The Authority (4)
Transformers Generation One (4)
Blake's 7 (4)
Star Trek: The Next Generation (3)
Red Dwarf (3)
The Sandman (3)
Ultraviolet (TV) (2)
Heroes (2)
Arthurian Mythology (2)
Trigun (2)
X-Men (Ultimateverse) (2)
Tintin (1)
Lucifer (Comic) (1)
X-Men: The Animated Series (1)
American Gothic (1)
Lord of the Rings (1)
Planetary - Warren Ellis (1)
Bubblegum Crisis Toyko 2040 (1)
The Matrix (1)
Gyakuten Saiban | Ace Attorney (1)
Astro City (1)
Blood Ties (1)
Star Wars Original Trilogy (1)
Books of Magic (1)
Transformers Animated (1)
Crusade (1)
Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling (1)
Elvis Cole - Robert Crais (1)
DCU Animated (1)
Watchmen (comic) (1)
Fantastic Four (Ultimateverse) (1)
Battlestar Galactica (2003) (1)

Quite a few of those one-off fandoms are accounted for by drabbles/ficlets/crossovers. It's probably worth noting that if you combine all the X-Men universes together, I've written a total of forty-one stories about mutants, making it the clear winner. As for whether I still write in these fandoms, well, I haven't posted must of anything for a while now. I never really leave fandoms, though, and if I've written something more than once or twice there's a good chance I have other ideas I'd like to get around to. I definitely have more X-Men, Babylon 5, Transformers and Doctor Who stories in me.

( The rest of the questions ... )

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Thirty Days of Fanfiction: Day One

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 04:08:41 GMT

Well, hey, why not? (Not that I've posted anything in ages. I am writing First Class fanfic, but it keeps developing a plot. And inconsiderate customers keep ringing me up in the middle of sentences.)

1 – How did you first get into writing fanfic, and what was the first fandom you wrote for? What do you think it was about that fandom that pulled you in?

My first fanfic was X-Men comicverse, posted back in 2000. I discovered fanfiction within weeks of getting online in 1997. I don't actually remember whether I found X-Files or X-Men fanfic first. Somewhere in between looking through episode guides and newsgroups, I discovered that some people wrote down their stories about TV and comic book characters instead of just telling them to themselves in their heads. This was obviously the BEST IDEA EVA.

One way another, X-Files fandom failed to hold my interest, but X-Men comics drew me in more and more. Soon I was lurking on OTL and CFAN's message boards and trying to write stories of my own. I spent three years doing that before I actually posted something, which puts the more recent droughts into perspective. The reason for why that fandom and not any of the others probably boils down to the guy in the icon *g*. It was also a lot easier in those days for me to catch up on comics than it was to catch up on television - I'd barely heard of DVDs and I didn't have easy access to a VCR at university. (Avoiding the common room was my other hobby.) On the other hand, I could go to Minotaur and Comics 'R Us and buy piles and piles of X-Men back issues for relatively little money.

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Fannish Five: Kickass Female Characters

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:52:02 GMT

When I see 'kickass', I think 'kicking arse and taking names'. (To give that part of anatomy its proper British/Australian spelling *g*.) So this is a list of female characters who are awesome and who might also literally kick you.

1) Leela

Whenever someone complains about Amy Pond's short skirts, I think of Leela's leathers and roll my eyes. As with Amy, the potentially exploitative nature of Leela's outfits did not stop her being a great character. While she wasn't the first action girl in Doctor Who - we can't forget Sara Kingdom or Jo Grant's spy skillz - her warrior upbringing and willingness to kill provided an interesting philosophical contrast with the Doctor. Her childlike sense of wonder gave her more depth than many companions got to have, and it was always interesting to watch her learn about the universe. Honourable mention: to Ace, for killing Daleks and Cybermen.

2) Ororo Munroe

I'll always be grateful to Chris Claremont's obsession with powerful female characters. Not only did it give us a vastly upgraded Jean Grey and the introduction of Mystique, it provided us with Storm. My favourite X-woman channels both the strength and wildness of a hurricane and the serenity at its centre.

3) Irina Derevko

There are a lot of arse-kicking women in Alias, and most of them are related to Irina Derevko. A Russian agent turned freelance who has grown from action girl to action woman and spymaster. Irina Derevko is indeed The Man.

4) Helena Bertinelli

The DC universe is not short on women who kick arse, but I love Helena because she can be a great anti-heroine, and there are never enough of those. Huntress walks the line between superheroine and costumed vigilante, and you do not want to get on the wrong side of that crossbow.

5) Olivia Dunham

Superpowered FBI agent and leading lady of Fringe, she also looks great in a fedora. Don't make her shoot you.

(Prompt from fannish5.)

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