Fandom love-lives.
Oct. 14th, 2007 10:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
elwenI've been meaning to do this meme, stolen from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kalquessa, for more than two weeks now, but I just kept being busy. (Not that I'm no longer busy, but I can only do law non-stop for so long, especially when I have a cold that inhibits brain activity.)
So here are my fandom loves. Likekalquessa, these refer more to the series themselves than the fandom, because I tend not to be involved in many fandoms.
The one who seduced you, screwed you over, broke your heart in a million pieces, and then laughed about it.
Code Geass. I used to be excited about original series that were not based on novels or manga. [I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps because then there wasn't the chance that the source was unfinished and the anime would have an inconclusive ending. Or maybe out of a sense of self-preservation, because I always end up wanting to go back and read the original. Or maybe I just wanted to know that I was watching something original and that an anime could be good by itself without having drawn on something else.] Code Geass taught me that not having even a supposed template to work off of can be just as bad as an unfinished template. Because it lets producers decide, "Hey, this is popular and making money. Let's drag it out." I was absolutely in love with Code Geass until around episode 20. Then I started getting more and more suspicious that it was not going anywhere I liked. By the time the postponed episodes aired, I practically hated it. And yet, there's no way I'm not going to watch the sequel. D:
The old flame you don't see very often any more but whom you still really enjoy getting together with for a few drinks and maybe a pleasant nostalgic romp in the sheets.
Piers Anthony. One of those authors I used to raid the library for, and read all his series out of order based on whatever was available at the time. I still enjoy rereading his stuff whenever I get around to it -- like A Spell for Chameleon and the Tarot trilogy recently -- and I keep making plans to do a more comprehensive and ordered reread of Xanth and Incarnations of Immortality. Not that his stuff isn't incredibly immature sometimes, especially when sex is involved.
The mysterious, dark, gothy one with whom you used to sit up talking until 3 a.m. at weird coffeehouses and with whom you were quite smitten until you realized he really was absolutely crazy.
Robert Ludlum. Perhaps less "absolutely crazy" than "ridiculously dorky and lame." I can't believe I actually thought it was cool that he reused and shuffled around surnames [I still remember that "Scofield" was one of his favorites] and liked to randomly drop lines in foreign languages [which I then tried to translate, armed with nothing more than a dictionary, with no knowledge of grammar or verb conjugations]. Of course, what really should have made me suspicious of his novels is that at the end of about 90% of them the good guys find a list of every member of the evil global conspiracy that is inevitably the cause of what's going on. [Notable exceptions, which I still love dearly, are the Bourne trilogy, and the Matarese . . . er, duology?]
The one you spent a whole weekend in bed with and who drank up all your liquor, and whom you'd still really like to do again although you're relieved (s)he doesn't actually live in town.
Angel Sanctuary. Wow. That fling was really intense and went by really fast. Sometimes I think I should reread the series in Japanese (especially since Candace went through all the trouble of buying it for me), but I just have so much else to read. So all that remains is an iconfiend100 claim that I can barely keep up with.
The steady.
Lord of the Rings. Almost all of my flames tend to burn out, no matter (or perhaps because of?) how strongly they burn at first, but Lord of the Rings has managed to never get quite completely snuffed out. There are times, like right now, when I haven't revisited the fandom in more than a year (if you exclude the time the dentist randomly decided to show Fellowship of the Ring during my cleaning), but I'm pretty sure I'll be back at some point.
The alluring stranger whom you've flirted with at parties but have never gotten really serious with.
Highlander and Xena, which are basically in exactly the same position: I used to watch them on TV, but it was hard to keep track of what was going on, especially when I missed episodes. For both, I saw parts of what seemed like the huge, world-shaking climaxes, but never the resolution. I'd like to Netflix them . . . someday . . .
The one you hang out with and have vague fantasies about maybe having a thing with but ultimately you're just good buddies 'cause the friendship is there but the chemistry ain't.
Saiunkoku Monogatari. If you count my current level of involvement with the series (which is more than for most) being "just good buddies." The reason I put it here is because I really, really like the series, but somehow I have yet to find the motivation to (1) write long fanfiction, (2) make copious amounts of icons, wallpapers, or Winamp skins, (3) read the novels or manga, and/or (4) investigate the backstories and mythology of the series.
The one your friends keep introducing you to and who seems like a hell of a cool guy except it's never really gone anywhere.
Legend of Zelda. I'm always curious about the stories and the mythology, but just none of the routes to learning about them work for me. The manga didn't keep my attention, and I suck too much to play the games. =/
The one who's slept with all your friends, and you keep looking at him and thinking, "Him? How the heck did he land all these cool babes?"
Naruto. Seriously, what's the big deal? I couldn't make it through the first episode.
The one your friend has fallen for like a ton of bricks and whom she keeps babbling to you about on the phone for hours, and you'd be happy for her except you just know it's going to end badly.
BLEACH. Sorry, I just have no faith in shounen series. Just look at what happened to Rurouni Kenshin and Hikaru no Go. And those were some of the best.
The one who gave you the best summer of your life and who you measure all other potential partners against.
I think I have to say the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. It is such a huge roller coaster, and yet everything comes together so beautifully, and, without having to tediously explain every little thing, it still manages to leave me satisfied at the end with my understanding of the story.
The one that you will cheat on your steady with.
David Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon. Because sometimes I get sick of how perfectionist Tolkien had to be with his world-building and with how ideallized his characters and story can be, and I just want a fun romp with at least the illusion of the same depth of world-building and millennia of history.
The one that you'd change the locks on.
The Sailor Moon fandom. D: I was never even that involved with it, but it sounded scary. Plus, the little of it that I did see was scary, too. (But definitely not representative of the fandom in general, considering I had to be the only person insisting that Haruka and Michiru were, in fact, lesbian.)
First love.
I can't remember when Lord of the Rings really matured into a love, but I guess it would be hard for anything else to have come first.
The guilty secret affair that you haven't quite come to terms with yet.
Er, reality TV? It all started with that Survivor season where Yul (the lawyer turned management consultant) won for being a politician rather than an athlete. [That's the one that started with them being in racially segregated teams, I think, though I didn't start watching until after the producers finally embraced Brown v. Board of Education and the teams merged.] Then I watched Pirate Master with all of its fatal design flaws. And now I'm getting addicted to the new Beauty and the Geek. (Go Nicole!)
The one you have casual sex with in the bathroom and would totally date if he wasn't so high maintenance.
Mirage of Blaze. The anime series and OVA were so beautiful and fascinating, and their major flaws (rushed pacing, lack of explanation and resolution) would easily be fixed by the novels, but . . . 40+ volumes with Japanese occasionally so old-fashioned that native speakers have trouble with it is a little too much of an investment for me at this point.
The new love interest that is threatening to make you stray from your one true love(s).
In a sense, I almost feel like I'm past that stage in life where I could develop another love like Lord of the Rings. I'm too busy these days to so heavily invest in a series. And Lord of the Rings is unique in having such a pool of backstory and scholarship available that I want to seek out (again, "someday").
The ex that you still share a lot of friends with, so you try to be polite at parties and not make anyone uncomfortable by talking about how glad you are to be out of the relationship.
Pokémon. Not that I haven't found other things to replace it as a timesink, and not that I don't occasionally get sucked back in. (Considering I finally beat Emerald over the summer, and started Fire Red, and would still be addicted to Mystery Dungeon if it weren't for Purity Tower.)
And, because I feel guilty about leaving them out... notable fandoms that didn't make the list: Harry Potter, Fushigi Yuugi, X, Gokusen.
kalquessa, for more than two weeks now, but I just kept being busy. (Not that I'm no longer busy, but I can only do law non-stop for so long, especially when I have a cold that inhibits brain activity.)So here are my fandom loves. Like
kalquessa, these refer more to the series themselves than the fandom, because I tend not to be involved in many fandoms.The one who seduced you, screwed you over, broke your heart in a million pieces, and then laughed about it.
Code Geass. I used to be excited about original series that were not based on novels or manga. [I'm not exactly sure why. Perhaps because then there wasn't the chance that the source was unfinished and the anime would have an inconclusive ending. Or maybe out of a sense of self-preservation, because I always end up wanting to go back and read the original. Or maybe I just wanted to know that I was watching something original and that an anime could be good by itself without having drawn on something else.] Code Geass taught me that not having even a supposed template to work off of can be just as bad as an unfinished template. Because it lets producers decide, "Hey, this is popular and making money. Let's drag it out." I was absolutely in love with Code Geass until around episode 20. Then I started getting more and more suspicious that it was not going anywhere I liked. By the time the postponed episodes aired, I practically hated it. And yet, there's no way I'm not going to watch the sequel. D:
The old flame you don't see very often any more but whom you still really enjoy getting together with for a few drinks and maybe a pleasant nostalgic romp in the sheets.
Piers Anthony. One of those authors I used to raid the library for, and read all his series out of order based on whatever was available at the time. I still enjoy rereading his stuff whenever I get around to it -- like A Spell for Chameleon and the Tarot trilogy recently -- and I keep making plans to do a more comprehensive and ordered reread of Xanth and Incarnations of Immortality. Not that his stuff isn't incredibly immature sometimes, especially when sex is involved.
The mysterious, dark, gothy one with whom you used to sit up talking until 3 a.m. at weird coffeehouses and with whom you were quite smitten until you realized he really was absolutely crazy.
Robert Ludlum. Perhaps less "absolutely crazy" than "ridiculously dorky and lame." I can't believe I actually thought it was cool that he reused and shuffled around surnames [I still remember that "Scofield" was one of his favorites] and liked to randomly drop lines in foreign languages [which I then tried to translate, armed with nothing more than a dictionary, with no knowledge of grammar or verb conjugations]. Of course, what really should have made me suspicious of his novels is that at the end of about 90% of them the good guys find a list of every member of the evil global conspiracy that is inevitably the cause of what's going on. [Notable exceptions, which I still love dearly, are the Bourne trilogy, and the Matarese . . . er, duology?]
The one you spent a whole weekend in bed with and who drank up all your liquor, and whom you'd still really like to do again although you're relieved (s)he doesn't actually live in town.
Angel Sanctuary. Wow. That fling was really intense and went by really fast. Sometimes I think I should reread the series in Japanese (especially since Candace went through all the trouble of buying it for me), but I just have so much else to read. So all that remains is an iconfiend100 claim that I can barely keep up with.
The steady.
Lord of the Rings. Almost all of my flames tend to burn out, no matter (or perhaps because of?) how strongly they burn at first, but Lord of the Rings has managed to never get quite completely snuffed out. There are times, like right now, when I haven't revisited the fandom in more than a year (if you exclude the time the dentist randomly decided to show Fellowship of the Ring during my cleaning), but I'm pretty sure I'll be back at some point.
The alluring stranger whom you've flirted with at parties but have never gotten really serious with.
Highlander and Xena, which are basically in exactly the same position: I used to watch them on TV, but it was hard to keep track of what was going on, especially when I missed episodes. For both, I saw parts of what seemed like the huge, world-shaking climaxes, but never the resolution. I'd like to Netflix them . . . someday . . .
The one you hang out with and have vague fantasies about maybe having a thing with but ultimately you're just good buddies 'cause the friendship is there but the chemistry ain't.
Saiunkoku Monogatari. If you count my current level of involvement with the series (which is more than for most) being "just good buddies." The reason I put it here is because I really, really like the series, but somehow I have yet to find the motivation to (1) write long fanfiction, (2) make copious amounts of icons, wallpapers, or Winamp skins, (3) read the novels or manga, and/or (4) investigate the backstories and mythology of the series.
The one your friends keep introducing you to and who seems like a hell of a cool guy except it's never really gone anywhere.
Legend of Zelda. I'm always curious about the stories and the mythology, but just none of the routes to learning about them work for me. The manga didn't keep my attention, and I suck too much to play the games. =/
The one who's slept with all your friends, and you keep looking at him and thinking, "Him? How the heck did he land all these cool babes?"
Naruto. Seriously, what's the big deal? I couldn't make it through the first episode.
The one your friend has fallen for like a ton of bricks and whom she keeps babbling to you about on the phone for hours, and you'd be happy for her except you just know it's going to end badly.
BLEACH. Sorry, I just have no faith in shounen series. Just look at what happened to Rurouni Kenshin and Hikaru no Go. And those were some of the best.
The one who gave you the best summer of your life and who you measure all other potential partners against.
I think I have to say the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons. It is such a huge roller coaster, and yet everything comes together so beautifully, and, without having to tediously explain every little thing, it still manages to leave me satisfied at the end with my understanding of the story.
The one that you will cheat on your steady with.
David Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon. Because sometimes I get sick of how perfectionist Tolkien had to be with his world-building and with how ideallized his characters and story can be, and I just want a fun romp with at least the illusion of the same depth of world-building and millennia of history.
The one that you'd change the locks on.
The Sailor Moon fandom. D: I was never even that involved with it, but it sounded scary. Plus, the little of it that I did see was scary, too. (But definitely not representative of the fandom in general, considering I had to be the only person insisting that Haruka and Michiru were, in fact, lesbian.)
First love.
I can't remember when Lord of the Rings really matured into a love, but I guess it would be hard for anything else to have come first.
The guilty secret affair that you haven't quite come to terms with yet.
Er, reality TV? It all started with that Survivor season where Yul (the lawyer turned management consultant) won for being a politician rather than an athlete. [That's the one that started with them being in racially segregated teams, I think, though I didn't start watching until after the producers finally embraced Brown v. Board of Education and the teams merged.] Then I watched Pirate Master with all of its fatal design flaws. And now I'm getting addicted to the new Beauty and the Geek. (Go Nicole!)
The one you have casual sex with in the bathroom and would totally date if he wasn't so high maintenance.
Mirage of Blaze. The anime series and OVA were so beautiful and fascinating, and their major flaws (rushed pacing, lack of explanation and resolution) would easily be fixed by the novels, but . . . 40+ volumes with Japanese occasionally so old-fashioned that native speakers have trouble with it is a little too much of an investment for me at this point.
The new love interest that is threatening to make you stray from your one true love(s).
In a sense, I almost feel like I'm past that stage in life where I could develop another love like Lord of the Rings. I'm too busy these days to so heavily invest in a series. And Lord of the Rings is unique in having such a pool of backstory and scholarship available that I want to seek out (again, "someday").
The ex that you still share a lot of friends with, so you try to be polite at parties and not make anyone uncomfortable by talking about how glad you are to be out of the relationship.
Pokémon. Not that I haven't found other things to replace it as a timesink, and not that I don't occasionally get sucked back in. (Considering I finally beat Emerald over the summer, and started Fire Red, and would still be addicted to Mystery Dungeon if it weren't for Purity Tower.)
And, because I feel guilty about leaving them out... notable fandoms that didn't make the list: Harry Potter, Fushigi Yuugi, X, Gokusen.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-15 07:38 am (UTC)Eheheh about Bleach. That's probably my fault there. :) As for Naruto... recent anime is driving me nuts with its excruciatingly slow pace (1 ep = 1 chap). I've kind of given up on that for now.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-15 09:15 pm (UTC)Even my sister still follows Naruto, though she was the first to bail out on Bleach.
no subject
Date: 2007-10-16 06:34 am (UTC)Get rest, drink fluids, sleep, and don't give yourself too much stress! :)
I wouldn't blame anybody for bailing out on the first few spectacularly poor filler eps in the Bount Arc. Compared to Naruto filler they were better, but compared to canon Bleach, it'd make you cry.