Fanlore

This week's Featured Article is Crack Van!

Active from 2003 to 2014, Crack Van was a multifandom fanfiction and vid rec community on LiveJournal that became, for a generation of fans, the first stop when exploring a new fandom. At its peak, it was one of the most organised and wide-ranging rec communities the internet had ever seen, with nearly 25,000 recs over ten years.

The community worked by recruiting volunteers from individual fandoms to "drive the van" for a month at a time, posting regular recommendations and writing fandom primers: overviews designed to help total newcomers understand the source material, the characters, the ships, and where to find the good stuff.

Crack Van closed permanently in January 2014, signalling a broader shift in fandom culture, as Tumblr, AO3, and Twitter had changed how fans discovered fanworks and connected with each other, making the curated, collaborative structure of Crack Van feel like a different era entirely. Many fans mourned it as the end of something irreplaceable.

Crack Van also inspired a wave of fandom-specific rec communities in its image, like Crack Impala for Supernatural.

Curious about the community that helped hundreds of thousands of fans find their footing in new fandoms? Head over to Fanlore to learn more!

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What happens when America’s First Son falls in love with the Prince of Wales? The premise of the book Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston, a M/M new adult romance that follows Henry and Alex as they gradually go from being enemies to lovers.

As the British prince and the son of the first female American President, they communicate mainly through letters and subsequently fall in love.

Though it has never been confirmed, the book sparked rumors that it might have originally been a fanfiction with the serial numbers filed off since many aspects of it were strongly reminiscent with its use of tropes and its writing style.

With a live adaptation released in 2023 and the sequel officially in the works, we could use your help to expand the Fanlore page of this growing fandom.

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This week’s Featured Article covers the legendary brain child of vidder hath5712, a 2012 fanmade fake trailer video titled “the lonely assassins trailer” that depicts the super team up of SuperWhoLock's extraterrestrial Time Lord from Dr. Who, the ghoul fighting trio from Supernatural, and the crime fighting duo from Sherlock to take on the terrifying Weeping Angels from the Dr. Who TV series. At the height of the SuperWhoLock's fame on Tumblr, this video was shared extensively across the site and praised for its use of music and editing to create a realistic and terrifying crossover event.

The vidder combined the strengths of the SuperWhoLock teams. The opening is the Tenth Doctor almost calling out to the world about the dangers of the Weeping Angels, with the iconic warning to not even blink. Flashing shots of Sherlock and John from Sherlock show them searching out answers along with images of Dean Winchester, Sam Winchester, Castiel, and Bobby Singer from Supernatural in their element hunting. All of our iconic characters in transitioning shots that lead up to the horrifying encounter with the Weeping Angels as they get closer and closer to the viewer. The use of the song “Judge and Jury” by Automachine creating a tense and building momentum up until the end, truly calling back to the horror aspect of many of these shows that the commenters agree on.

Ready to feel that spark of fear of the early days of SuperWhoLock or even just looking for a bit of nostalgia? Read more on the Fanlore page for this lovely work and take a peek for yourself – if you dare.

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To the underworld we go! This week’s Ship Sunday is Hades/Persephone!

One of the most enduring het ships in Greek mythology fandom, Hades/Persephone has inspired countless reinterpretations across books, musicals, comics, fanfiction, fanart, and modern adaptations like Lore Olympus and Hadestown.

Fans are drawn to the pairing’s tropes of death and rebirth, light and darkness, pomegranates, devotion, transformation, and complicated power dynamics. Some interpret Persephone’s story as one of agency and personal growth, while others critically examine the mythology’s roots in abduction narratives and patriarchal traditions. The tension between those readings has made the ship a lasting source of fannish discussion and reinterpretation.

From fanvids and zines to dramatic retellings and modern AUs, Hades/Persephone continues to evolve alongside fandom itself.

Curious? Head over to Fanlore to explore the ship’s history, symbolism, fanworks, and fandom conversations!

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This week’s Featured Article, we’re spotlighting Han/Luke! The evolution of this Star Wars ship is an intriguing piece of fandom history by itself.

Once upon a time in the early 80s, publishing Han Solo/Luke Skywalker fic was met with swift resistance and even boycott threats. In the 1970s and 1980s, all slash fanfiction, even non-explicit, was considered adult and fell under Lucasfilm's prohibition against adult content. As a result, the majority of Han/Luke fanfic was not published until the 1990s.

Fast forward to 2015, The Force Awakens was released featuring an older Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in small yet pivotal roles. Younger generation fans started jumping on the ship – now more commonly referred as Skysolo.

Are you curious? Head over to Fanlore and learn more!

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Today is all about the platonic friendship between Aragorn & Legolas from The Lord of the Rings.

Their friendship is its own popular genre of fanfiction within the fandom, inspiring action and drama-driven works. They are often depicted going on doomed adventures, where they’re kidnapped or tortured, so that angst and hurt/comfort can follow. Some popular tropes are the recurring themes of Aragorn’s growing ability as a healer, Legolas being afraid of and hating caves, and them blaming each other when the other gets hurt.

Many stories are set in a time period preceding the War of the Ring and depict a younger Aragorn, musing on how the two would have met prior to events in Fellowship of the Ring. The scene in Peter Jackson’s movie adaptation, in which Legolas defends Aragorn against Boromir, might allude to them having met earlier. A/L Friendship stories include quite a bit of fanon.

One of the best-known stories in this subgenre is the collection Mellon Chronicles by Cassia and Siobhan. The series of stories is so influential that it not only has its own Fanlisting but also its own fansite.

What are your favorite friendship moments between the two? Let us know in the comments, and remember to check out their Fanlore page.

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Get cozy with your coffee and pastry of your choice, because it's time for Fanlore's Annual Bingo Challenge! Join us from June 16th-29th to complete your bingo cards. There will be two bingo cards, one for beginners and one for more advanced editors (or you can complete both for a total blackout!). Fulfill the challenge by getting a bingo, blackout, or total blackout, and you could earn yummy badges!

To join the fun all you need is a Fanlore account. Sign up now, and check out the Help page to learn more!

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Today, the J-Rock fandom takes center-stage! Since its rise to prominence near the turn of the century, fans have drawn from the theatrics and stage personas of Japanese rock bands to establish an RPF community, complete with ships, role-plays, and fanworks.

The fandom had its start primarily through mailing lists and blogging sites. It grew in later decades thanks to online music streaming and increased interest in J-Rock outside of Japan. Buying and selling second-hand merch, such as CDs and cheki, is a common fan activity. In addition, Japanese-speaking fans often recap live performances and translate lyrics or interviews.

Do you know any fun trivia about the J-Rock fandom? Come share it with us on Fanlore!

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For Terminology Thursday, we're covering Folksonomies, a term for classification systems created not by site owners, but by the users themselves. Instead of a formal, top-down taxonomy, folksonomies grow from people tagging content in ways that make sense to them, making it easier for themselves and others to find things later.

The portmanteau was coined in 2004 by Thomas Vander Wal as a blend of folk and taxonomy. You may also see it referred to as social tagging, social indexing, or collaborative tagging.

As online communities grew, it evolved into a shared system shaped by many users adding, reusing, and remixing tags, appearing across various platforms, from social bookmarking sites to image-sharing communities like Flickr. In fandom spaces, user-driven tagging plays a significant role on platforms such as AO3, Tumblr, and FanFiction.net, where collective tagging helps fans organise, discover, and navigate content.

Discussions around Folksonomy often focus on its strengths and limitations, including its flexibility and community-driven nuances, as well as the potential for inconsistency or overwhelming tag variation. Still, for many fans, this organic, communal system is part of what makes online fandom so vibrant and searchable.

What are your experiences with user-created tagging systems? Join the discussion on Fanlore!

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This week’s Featured Article is all about the Fairy Tale AU—fanworks that take characters and put them in situations and/or settings from fairy tales! Since fairy tales are often universal and well-known, these AUs are popular across fandoms.

Tropes and elements often seen in fairy tale AUs include magic, curses, True Love’s Kiss, and Fairy Godmothers. Princes and princesses, and a Happily Ever After ending, are also common. AUs can incorporate the original fairy tale in a variety of ways, from merely invoking the atmosphere, to using a few elements or tropes, to a full retelling. Some AUs will take the original fairy tale and explore darker themes and topics than typically expected of a fairy tale AU. These are not full trope subversions, because they usually still end happily, but they definitely take a darker perspective on the tale.

Do you enjoy fairy tale AUs? Let us know in the comments!

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Fanlore is finding a new way to thank our editors: Milestone badges!

Fanlore is nothing without our hard-working volunteer editors, who create pages, categorize files, update fandom information, and more. Now when editors reach certain editing milestones, like making 10 edits, 100 edits, etc., they will be able to claim triumphant new badges.

Are you a Fanlore editor? To find out how to check your editing statistics, and how to claim your badges, please visit our help page.

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Our Featured Article this week is Sussex Retirement!

A popular trope in Sherlock Holmes fandom, Sussex Retirement imagines what happens after the great detective leaves Baker Street behind. Inspired by canon references to Holmes retiring to the Sussex countryside, fans have spent decades reimagining his post-detective life, often with Dr. John Watson by his side. Whether Watson retires with Holmes, joins him later, or reunites with him for one last case, Sussex Retirement stories blend domesticity, nostalgia, romance, and mystery.

The trope appears across countless adaptations, from the original stories to Sherlock Holmes (2009), BBC Sherlock, and more. For many fans, Sussex Retirement represents the ultimate happy ending: a chance for Holmes and Watson to find peace together after years of adventures. The setting has inspired everything from emotional reunions to late-life love stories, making it one of the most enduring concepts in Holmes fandom history.

Want to learn more? Check out its Fanlore page!

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