| Subject: My thoughts on the Fandom (don't read if you insult easily) |
Author:
C
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Date Posted: 05:00:27 09/19/03 Fri
I woke up this morning, and there was a question on my dear Ari's livejournal that I simply could not resist.
"..in any case, i wonder why fandom is such a catty place..."
Having never been one to step into it, I think at this point I have a better understanding than most of what's wrong with us in the X fandom. And I'd be more than happy to offer my explanation of just why those humans that call themselves "X fans" can be such disagreeable people.
First, we're fans of a series that is very popular in Japan, so naturally there will also be a lot of North American fans, right....? Well, yes. At least the ones that can understand Japanese.
Because the manga and the anime and the movie have all been relatively slow to license and translate (partially because CLAMP has been slow to put them out in the first place), it makes the fandom a prime target for only the truly OBSESSED. Those who *know* enough Japanese to read the Asuka updates on their own. You have to be a very dedicated anime fan already in order to even have the means to keep current on what’s happening in your series.
It makes for people that are elitist about their fandom, because their series is harder to come by than say, Digimon or Gundam wing. We actually have to work to keep up with the manga, no company is doing it for us. (as you can WELL see with the graphic novels. What are they on now, ten?)
So hey, we're already better than all the other Yu-Gi-Oh, GW, DBZ, Pokemon 'pulp anime' fans, right? For a while we could even say "We have Tokyo Babylon and it *isn't* licensed." and stick out our tongues and worship those who worked on the scanlations like sick little puppydogs. (not to say I don't want to perform nasty oral sex for Leareth, I don't claim to be any better, you see. ;3)
It's not a massive cognitive leap when people in the fandom see that and want a piece of it themselves. This breeds a venue where talent isn't the only thing that gets you recognized. Write a good fic and you'll get a few good reviews on the clampesque board and several dozen on ff.net... but no one knows who you are after the next fic Leareth or RackhamRose puts out, or the next chapter of And From The Ashes.
So... naturally, this leads to the people like Aenagwen. Those who want a name SO BAD, that they have to flame, bash, hell- write whole ESSAYS on why these people aren't good at writing and they are, just so they can get someone to look at what they do. Essentially a higher form of, 'Ur GEY fuckin faggit.' with a tart literary twist. Mmmm.. acidic.
Not to leave out those people that also love to constantly throw these examples onto fandomwank, seemingly to satisfy some sort of inner quota. I'm looking at you, Shoiryu. n.n
Now let's look at another side to it.
We, as fans in this series, seem to have taken it upon ourselves to create little ‘microfandoms’ within the fandom itself- just so more of us can have something 'special' to cling to. Hence: the 'pairing' cliques.
You know them well, love them, hate them - in the cases of a few I know, absolutely refuse to believe some could ever even exist - and can probably name them all. S/S, F/K, S/K, Sorashi, F/Kyou… the list goes on a LONG WAY.
Like I said, this happens because it gives more people something to cling to; something that sets them apart from the VASTLY more popular S/S crowd. Those who can say, "I don't like Subaru and Seishirou so much, I like Fuuma and Kakyou better." automatically have something to flaunt that makes them different from the rest of us.
It's also something to get NASTY about. There are about five cliques I can think of right off the bat that many people subscribe to for the love of Subaru and Seishirou and NO ONE IN BETWEEN. Kamui, Fuuma, Yuuto, you're out. There'sNOonetheycanbepairedwithbuteachotherEVEReverEVERorIkillyou,nowFUCKoff: kinda mentality.
There's also the S/K answer to those. The "OhmiGOD, Subby-chan and Kamui-chan! Tru luve for ever! Seishiro is sooooo meeeaan!"
Which leads me to the third and final debate that makes us lose our cordiality as a group:
Characterization.
Because so many people are so intensely militant about who should be with whom; according to everyone else, no one is ever allowed to get it right by everyone's standards. Oh, you can get it mostly right, but there's always something just a little off. ESPECIALLY with Subaru.
Seishirou, of course, if you manage to write him as something other than a maniacal pedophilic rapist with bad depth perception, is always perfect. For most, the enigma of this character is the only safe haven for fiction. No one but clamp gets the exact reason for why he does what he does, and those who maybe get a little more than the rest of us are cherished and lavished praise upon.
Unfortunately for the rest of the characters, all of us think we understand their motivation, goals, and desires. Subaru much more so than others - matter who else writes him we tend to think we could do better, so he's always 'just a little off'. 'Something's not quite right'.
HOWEVER. The second someone tells us this we take it as a personal insult. OUR characters couldn't possibly behave WRONG. We KNOW in the deepest cavernous recesses of our beings that they think exactly the way we imagine them to, because no one could possibly love them and consider them and speculate about them more than we do.
In short, we all develop severe Autism as soon as the word 'Subaru' is mentioned.
Except those Seishirou writers, bless you darlings, most of you can admit you don't understand what the fuck Subaru is on about. ;3
And what does this all add up to? Well, you see it for yourselves everywhere you go. X fans. Pure and simple. We are catty, petty, argumentative, attention craving elitists. I'm one, and if you're reading this, you're likely one too.
Then again, if you're reading this and you're still not taking it in good humor, you're probably an S/Ser.
Or Aenagwen.
Don't ever change.
-C
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