schneefink: DQ from the past looking confused (Guardian confused DQ)
schneefink ([personal profile] schneefink) wrote2020-01-17 08:28 pm
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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.)
krait: Kuranosuke asleep on a sofa (sleepy Kura)

[personal profile] krait 2020-01-18 04:33 am (UTC)(link)
Sometimes it happens!

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
krait: dark-skinned alien in armour (Foreigner - security)

[personal profile] krait 2020-01-18 11:27 pm (UTC)(link)
Ha! It would be nice. But it would also be frustrating, because your Fannish Guardian Angel doesn't just tell you stuff; they steer you around it by other means. I woke up without any interest in that fandom one morning, which kept me out of its eventual devolution, but I still had all my fic subscriptions (come on, FGA, can't you unsubscribe me from WIPs at the same time you deleted my interest?), not to mention I'd already bought two seasons on DVD, and I didn't have a replacement fandom ready to divert my interest to so I ended up bored for a while.

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!
krait: a sea snake (krait) swimming (Default)

[personal profile] krait 2020-01-20 01:08 am (UTC)(link)
There we go! It might make disappointments easier to bear. "Too bad I never got around to jotting down that great plot bunny... but that was probably my fannish guardian angel protecting me from an outraged anti trying to doxx me over the pairing." "Sure wish I'd done that popular posting meme that was going around the week I was working overtime! Bet my fannish guardian angel was saving me from embarrassment because it will turn out to be horribly cringey in a couple years."