#general fandom

And then I remember that some fans simply are there for the (self)indulgence, for meta themes they fish within the story (ie Tumblr being able to make everything queer coded), for character smashing of all sorts and so on making their own thing out of the thing they're a fan of.

And then I realize that to a certain degree, I'm doing the same as they do.

And I leave the feeling and thus the non conventional fan be.

Even though it's really hard for me to accept that others don't want to explain every single thing they do different to the original media they're a fan of... I do. Mainly to not needlessly argue with others over what is and what is not. Fuck fandom policing unless it's *actually* hurting people, not just annoying them / us.

I’m starting to see a divide in shipping between people who will only seek out fic and content for cannon couples and people who’s fandom revolves around couples that have little to less than zero chance of being cannon.

And I have a theory on this that also ties into the rise of things like character ai and chat bot.

It boils down to this: the former is a consumer, wanting to consume content and not wanting any part in the creation of it. They only wants to be served already thought of plots and characters. It’s why they are so ready to use character ai to make new one shots of already existing couples in traditional romance stories.

The later wants to create. They ingest a piece of media or content or anything and it sparks an idea in them. The media is the starting point of the fandom for them not the end. They want to take part in the building and creating of something new.

This is super general but it’s just something I’ve had rolling around in my head recently.

I also think the people who want to stay canon compliant are also a little scared and overwhelmed by all the possibilities fandom allows for and that makes them afraid of all the fandom freaks out there.