schneefink (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
schneefink) wrote2020-01-17 08:28 pm
schneefink) wrote2020-01-17 08:28 pm
My weirdest fandom break-up yet: Guardian
By now there are quite a few fandoms I've lost interest in. Sometimes it was very sudden – The Magicians, for example – and sometimes it was long and drawn-out, like with hockey (RPF). Sometimes the reason is something to do with canon, sometimes I just got distracted by other things. But there usually is a reason, which is what makes "Guardian" so strange, because I don't really know what happened.
I watched Guardian in mid-2018 and enjoyed it a lot. So many beautiful tropes I love! I knew pretty much from the beginning that it'd never be a fandom I'd be very active in in terms of fic-writing, there's just too many plot holes and I'd find that too frustrating, but fortunately other people are less bothered by that. I enjoyed the pretty gifs and the amounts of great h/c fic and the discussions etc. and I was excited when more people got into the fandom. After a while I stopped seeking out new Guardian fic, and I thought I was in the cool-down phase of a fandom crush and the slow fading-out would continue as usual.
Instead, from one day to the next I completely lost interest in Guardian fic. Well, probably not literally, but that's what it felt like. People were still updating WIPs I'd loved and posting new fics with tropes I like and I had zero desire to read them. Which is very strange especially considering that I have no problem reading fics for fandoms I feel neutral about or don't even know, and if it's an author I like sometimes even for fandoms I dislike. And I don't dislike Guardian canon - I don't have strong feelings about it anymore, but I still have fond memories, I still enjoy screenshots when I happen to see them on my Tumblr dashboard, and I might even rewatch a few of my favorite episodes at some point. I just don't feel like reading fic about it. No clue why. It's weird. Not really bad – there's more than enough other stories to read, so it's not something I have a desire to "fix" somehow, and I was never deeply enough in the fandom that I miss it, though I did sometimes almost wish I was because it was nice seeing friends so excited about it. Just odd. Maybe it'll change again at some point, who knows. One of the things I've learned is that I can never predict which fandom will catch my interest next. (Makes life more exciting.)
I watched Guardian in mid-2018 and enjoyed it a lot. So many beautiful tropes I love! I knew pretty much from the beginning that it'd never be a fandom I'd be very active in in terms of fic-writing, there's just too many plot holes and I'd find that too frustrating, but fortunately other people are less bothered by that. I enjoyed the pretty gifs and the amounts of great h/c fic and the discussions etc. and I was excited when more people got into the fandom. After a while I stopped seeking out new Guardian fic, and I thought I was in the cool-down phase of a fandom crush and the slow fading-out would continue as usual.
Instead, from one day to the next I completely lost interest in Guardian fic. Well, probably not literally, but that's what it felt like. People were still updating WIPs I'd loved and posting new fics with tropes I like and I had zero desire to read them. Which is very strange especially considering that I have no problem reading fics for fandoms I feel neutral about or don't even know, and if it's an author I like sometimes even for fandoms I dislike. And I don't dislike Guardian canon - I don't have strong feelings about it anymore, but I still have fond memories, I still enjoy screenshots when I happen to see them on my Tumblr dashboard, and I might even rewatch a few of my favorite episodes at some point. I just don't feel like reading fic about it. No clue why. It's weird. Not really bad – there's more than enough other stories to read, so it's not something I have a desire to "fix" somehow, and I was never deeply enough in the fandom that I miss it, though I did sometimes almost wish I was because it was nice seeing friends so excited about it. Just odd. Maybe it'll change again at some point, who knows. One of the things I've learned is that I can never predict which fandom will catch my interest next. (Makes life more exciting.)
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It's only happened to me once, but it was almost exactly like you described. I quite literally went from "bought the S2 DVD and devoured two episodes, eagerly looking forward to watching the third as soon as I have time" to, well, I still haven't actually watched that third episode...
There was no definable trigger, there was still plenty of fandom activity, I was following WIPs and fic series, people were still discussing it, but somehow every ounce of interest evaporated almost overnight. All I've got is *shrug emoji*, though given how things unfolded over the following seasons I now joke that my fannish guardian angel was behind it. :D
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Now I'm thinking about fannish guardian angels: "Don't start this WIP, it'll never be finished," "don't engage with this topic, it'll soon turn extremely wanky," "don't forget to start your fic for this exchange on time"... Would be very convenient :D
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So your fannish angel would probably keep you from starting a WIP by crashing your word processors, keep you from commenting on a post that will turn wanky by making you get home too late from work to see it, and remind you to start your exchange fic by making it the exchange the absolute only thing anybody on your flist is talking about, or something. :D Convenient in the long run, but annoying in the moment!
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no subject