My main current fandom is The Avengers. It's very different from site-to-site, I've noticed. AO3 has an entirely different feel from LJ which has an entirely different feel from tumblr, etc.
My favorite slice of the Avengers fandom, and the most unique and amazing and high-caliber — is the non-text tumblr fandom. The gifsets, the meaningful/symbolic collages with quotes and themes and other photoshop tributes, the visual construction of parallels and echoes and character development via gifs and photosets, the glorious inventing of mythology and symbolism and fusion with other fandoms and concepts (like the Avengers as Disney characters, or as mythological figures, or biblical angels, or GoT houses), They're glorious and amazing and I have never been in a fandom that produces this kind of stuff so well.
The text-based part of the tumblr fandom is an insane mess of wanky entitled brats and/or Loki stans who can't understand that their headcanon =/= everyone else's headcanon and are really possessive and presumptuous about their favorite characters. I'm still wondering where the wall that keeps them separate is hidden.
AO3 is a mixture of unbelievably self-indulgent bullshit that happens to be well-written, and actual really good stories. Also, it's 1/4 AUs, especially high school AUs, and 1/4 Loki/Everyone, often overlapping.
I really hate how dominant the kinkmeme is. See, in kinkmemes, it's extremely rude to shame people for their prompts and it's not the place to give constructive criticism, but so many people — the vast majority, I'd say — post their fics outside of the kinkmeme that there's this whole avenue through which horrible OOC idfic gets dumped into the fandom outside of the kinkmeme without the criticism it would get otherwise, and enters the fanon consciousness.
Zero shipwars that I'm aware of, probably because every single popular non-canon pairing is of the type that would be impossible to be made canon. Therefore, no bashing of canon love-interests and no wars between people who, say, ship Bruce/Tony vs Steve/Tony, since neither of those ships are or ever will be canon.
Shipping is way too dominant within the fandom for my tastes, since I care about the gen and the plots far more than the ships, but the shipping is generally civil and live-and-let-live, so I don't whine too much.
Somewhat wanky — not very wanky across the board, but in some areas, the wank is over 9000. Especially the Loki wank.
Stupid cliches like moron!Thor, CAPSLOCK!Thor, blushing!innocent!Steve, brainwashed!innocent!Loki, terrifying!robot!Natasha, etc, are unfortunately so ubiquitous they're annoying instead of entertaining.
Re: Describe Your Fandom! (take 2)
My favorite slice of the Avengers fandom, and the most unique and amazing and high-caliber — is the non-text tumblr fandom. The gifsets, the meaningful/symbolic collages with quotes and themes and other photoshop tributes, the visual construction of parallels and echoes and character development via gifs and photosets, the glorious inventing of mythology and symbolism and fusion with other fandoms and concepts (like the Avengers as Disney characters, or as mythological figures, or biblical angels, or GoT houses), They're glorious and amazing and I have never been in a fandom that produces this kind of stuff so well.
The text-based part of the tumblr fandom is an insane mess of wanky entitled brats and/or Loki stans who can't understand that their headcanon =/= everyone else's headcanon and are really possessive and presumptuous about their favorite characters. I'm still wondering where the wall that keeps them separate is hidden.
AO3 is a mixture of unbelievably self-indulgent bullshit that happens to be well-written, and actual really good stories. Also, it's 1/4 AUs, especially high school AUs, and 1/4 Loki/Everyone, often overlapping.
I really hate how dominant the kinkmeme is. See, in kinkmemes, it's extremely rude to shame people for their prompts and it's not the place to give constructive criticism, but so many people — the vast majority, I'd say — post their fics outside of the kinkmeme that there's this whole avenue through which horrible OOC idfic gets dumped into the fandom outside of the kinkmeme without the criticism it would get otherwise, and enters the fanon consciousness.
Zero shipwars that I'm aware of, probably because every single popular non-canon pairing is of the type that would be impossible to be made canon. Therefore, no bashing of canon love-interests and no wars between people who, say, ship Bruce/Tony vs Steve/Tony, since neither of those ships are or ever will be canon.
Shipping is way too dominant within the fandom for my tastes, since I care about the gen and the plots far more than the ships, but the shipping is generally civil and live-and-let-live, so I don't whine too much.
Somewhat wanky — not very wanky across the board, but in some areas, the wank is over 9000. Especially the Loki wank.
Stupid cliches like moron!Thor, CAPSLOCK!Thor, blushing!innocent!Steve, brainwashed!innocent!Loki, terrifying!robot!Natasha, etc, are unfortunately so ubiquitous they're annoying instead of entertaining.
I could say more, but I'm lazy.