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visualjyushi) wrote2025-01-03 11:46 am
visualjyushi) wrote2025-01-03 11:46 am
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Snowflake Challenge #2: Fannish Origin Story
In your own space, talk about your fannish origin story...Whether you've been in fandom for a while or just discovered fandom, we'd love to know how you came to fandom! Was it that one book or a TV show or movie or anime/manga or a band/song that gave you that first spark? Or a character or characters that you wanted more of but the canon material just didn't have enough of them? Or were you introduced to fandom by someone?
I discovered different aspects of fandom in a few ways! Under the cut is a short narrative of how I came to be in fandom through some of my fannish "firsts".
The first time I was obsessed with a form of speculative fiction was probably Kingdom Hearts. I remember watching my older sisters play the first game as a kid, but I also had a particular fascination with Chain of Memories. I actually have a tattoo of a Kingdom Hearts themed GBA SP to commemorate this interest. However, I was extremely young at the time (likely around 4-6 years old), so I didn’t quite understand how the card gameplay worked. Even so, I found myself often loading up a new game so I could rewatch the opening scene where Sora, Donald, and Goofy run after Pluto and end up at Castle Oblivion. I think little me probably had a crush on Sora, so this was the first time I felt a "spark" of serious interest in a fictional character.
It wasn't until I was hyperfixated on the Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokemon games that I found out about the wonders of fanworks. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to the Sonic games as a kid, but I did have access to a computer and Youtube. I don't remember how, but I stumbled upon videos about the Sonic series. I spent hours online watching gameplay/cutscenes from several of the Sonic games, and this ultimately led to me finding out about and watching AMVs. A bit later, I was gifted an R4 card for the Nintendo DS lite that had Pokemon SoulSilver on it, which quickly became a staple game of my childhood. While Sonic was a more short-lived interest, Pokemon became one of my favorite series as a kid, and I was very vocal about it at school. Around this time, some of the girls in my class began taking an interest in BL and shipping (we were probably around age 10 or so). A friend of mine, with her own fannish interests, frequented Deviantart and began sending me fanart of Pokemon characters, notably Red and Green. She introduced me to the idea that people would draw slash depictions of their favorite characters. My spark of interest in the Kingdom Hearts series remerged when I was around 12-13 years old, and in my thirst for more information about the characters, I ran into some Sora/Riku fanfiction online. This was my introduction to fanfiction, and likely fandom as a community. I remember signing up for Tumblr to see more Kingdom Hearts fanworks a couple years later, after constantly seeing those posts pop up in search results.
I began to only participate in fandom passively by reblogging posts on Tumblr, making the occasional ramble on Twitter, or by leaving kudos on AO3 fics until the middle of highschool. It pains me a little to say Voltron: Legendary Defender was the fandom that made me start writing my own fanfiction. Although I no longer find interest or solace in V:LD the way I once did, I'm grateful that it sparked that interest to create in me. I have met some absolutely wonderful people and friends as a result of participating in fandom.
I discovered different aspects of fandom in a few ways! Under the cut is a short narrative of how I came to be in fandom through some of my fannish "firsts".
The first time I was obsessed with a form of speculative fiction was probably Kingdom Hearts. I remember watching my older sisters play the first game as a kid, but I also had a particular fascination with Chain of Memories. I actually have a tattoo of a Kingdom Hearts themed GBA SP to commemorate this interest. However, I was extremely young at the time (likely around 4-6 years old), so I didn’t quite understand how the card gameplay worked. Even so, I found myself often loading up a new game so I could rewatch the opening scene where Sora, Donald, and Goofy run after Pluto and end up at Castle Oblivion. I think little me probably had a crush on Sora, so this was the first time I felt a "spark" of serious interest in a fictional character.
It wasn't until I was hyperfixated on the Sonic the Hedgehog and Pokemon games that I found out about the wonders of fanworks. Unfortunately, I didn't have access to the Sonic games as a kid, but I did have access to a computer and Youtube. I don't remember how, but I stumbled upon videos about the Sonic series. I spent hours online watching gameplay/cutscenes from several of the Sonic games, and this ultimately led to me finding out about and watching AMVs. A bit later, I was gifted an R4 card for the Nintendo DS lite that had Pokemon SoulSilver on it, which quickly became a staple game of my childhood. While Sonic was a more short-lived interest, Pokemon became one of my favorite series as a kid, and I was very vocal about it at school. Around this time, some of the girls in my class began taking an interest in BL and shipping (we were probably around age 10 or so). A friend of mine, with her own fannish interests, frequented Deviantart and began sending me fanart of Pokemon characters, notably Red and Green. She introduced me to the idea that people would draw slash depictions of their favorite characters. My spark of interest in the Kingdom Hearts series remerged when I was around 12-13 years old, and in my thirst for more information about the characters, I ran into some Sora/Riku fanfiction online. This was my introduction to fanfiction, and likely fandom as a community. I remember signing up for Tumblr to see more Kingdom Hearts fanworks a couple years later, after constantly seeing those posts pop up in search results.
I began to only participate in fandom passively by reblogging posts on Tumblr, making the occasional ramble on Twitter, or by leaving kudos on AO3 fics until the middle of highschool. It pains me a little to say Voltron: Legendary Defender was the fandom that made me start writing my own fanfiction. Although I no longer find interest or solace in V:LD the way I once did, I'm grateful that it sparked that interest to create in me. I have met some absolutely wonderful people and friends as a result of participating in fandom.