[ SECRET POST #2097 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #2097 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

01.


__________________________________________________



02.


__________________________________________________



03.


__________________________________________________



04.


__________________________________________________



05.


__________________________________________________



06.


__________________________________________________



07.


__________________________________________________



08.


__________________________________________________



09.


__________________________________________________



10.


__________________________________________________



11.


__________________________________________________



12.


__________________________________________________



13.


__________________________________________________



14.


__________________________________________________



15.


__________________________________________________



16.


__________________________________________________



17.


__________________________________________________



18.


__________________________________________________



19.


__________________________________________________



20.


__________________________________________________











Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 06 pages, 129 secrets from Secret Submission Post #300.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 1 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

09. http://i.imgur.com/7RYgy.jpg

[(Anonymous)]

I'm pretty sure your "secret" is shared by almost everyone whose favorite character is the fandom darling. Nothing wrong with that, but seriously--we know you love it when your characters are loved, and that you don't care much about the unloved characters. It's really obvious.

[(Anonymous)]

So basically, you're driven by straight-up self-interest, and you try to cover up that fact (or assuage occasional feelings of guilt) by sympathizing with others.

Congrats on being like most people.

[(Anonymous)]

It's been said on different secrets before, but yeah, you're an ass, and I really don't care about whether you like and write about your pwecious "fandom darlings" or not.

[creambun]

Good for you, then.

I complain more about which characters get merchandise rather than being a fandom favorite.

[cloud_riven]

I'm pretty sure we can go deeper.

Just you wait!

[insanenoodlyguy]

One day, it'll happen to youuuuuu

[celestiel]

I kind of get where you're coming from? My favourite male character is, nine times out of ten, the fandom darling. But then my favourite female characters are usually some of the most hated characters in the fandom. It gets really not fun.

And while I wouldn't want to give up the fun stuff that comes with the former, fuck I know how annoying it gets for the underdogs.

[pts]

You're far from alone in this fact. Hardly anybody can get motivated to produce significant amounts of fanwork unless there's an audience for it. There's a snowball effect, too, so fandoms that have a lot activity are more fun to participate in, thereby further boosting activity, etc.

When you've been in fandom long enough you start to see how certain people (e.g., BNFs) have large enough followings that if they start being active in a new fandom, their presence alone is enough to kickstart activity in that fandom. This can be good and bad; if you wanted to write SGA fanfic, god help you if you didn't ship McShep, etc., because the BNFs had already arrived and staked that one out as The Ship, and it dominated the fandom conversation.

And I think a lot of people are less self-aware than one would hope about their desire to be doing whatever the Thing is that year.

Anyway, congratulations, I guess?

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah, you sound like an asshole. Have a nice day.

[(Anonymous)]

It's a fairly understandable sentiment, but the subtext is "I don't think it's unfair at all, because it doesn't happen to my fave characters", which does make you come across as kind of a dick.

[(Anonymous)]

IDK, you don't really sound like an ass to me and I agree, it's not unfair that people have different preferences and fandom tends to flock around certain characters or character tropes. That doesn't mean you can't sympathize with people who never get to have their favorites be in the limelight. It's easy to sympathize with people because it does suck for them. And there's nothing wrong with people being nice in those circumstances.

But there's nothing fair or unfair about it. It isn't like fandom character popularity is doled out equally among all characters and there's some vast conspiracy to prevent the unliked ones from being beloved. Some of my favorites are fandom favorites and others are loathed by fandom. It happens. And when I've got a favorite who gets bashed or ignored, yeah, that sucks.

But when I've got a favorite who is loved by all of fandom and that results in always having fic about them, fanart of them, and there always being someone I can have meta discussions with? That's AWESOME. And having the fandom favorite as my favorite usually means that my favorite gets the role I like best in H/C and in porn. It's brilliant! Who wouldn't want that? Who wouldn't be totally stoked to have that happen?

You're not being an asshole, you're being human.

[(Anonymous)]

-shrugs- I've been on both sides of it, really. In my current fandom, my favorite characters are the fandom darlings - but in most of my previous fandoms? One or two might have been fandom darlings, but most were just flat out ignored. Not hated, just ignored...which wasn't a completely bad thing, since it usually resulted in finding an awesome crack pairing rp-wise for them. So it just didn't bug me that much.

Now, the habit a lot of people have for bashing 'fandom darlings' *because* their favorite is ignored on the other hand...those people annoy me. I mean, I can see why they'd be upset, but bashing is a bit much.

[(Anonymous)]

It's okay, anon. I tend to fall in love with characters that the rest of the fandom will not speak of, because it wants them dead that badly. There's almost no meta, and even less fic that doesn't turn them into a caricature of their canon self, because almost no one can stand them. But ... I'm glad to have a community. Hanging around fandom is how I find the half-dozen other people who share my preferences, and how I find out that this pairing I think is wonderful actually inspires the most awesome fanart in Germany, and how I warm up to other characters that the story left me completely indifferent to. I'm sure it's a very different party, if you're in love with the heartthrob, but I only resent that when people act like they're owed a certain outcome. You know? When fandom was acting like How Dare the creators of Death Note kill off their darling detective, for instance. And that just comes off as mind-blowingly entitled, to me, because I've had to deal with so many characters I care about being killed off. If they get a "good" death, one that doesn't strip them of all dignity, I appreciate that. But ... I can't remember the last time I had the fandom grieving with me. I guess the TL;DR version is that I don't mind your celebrating as long or as hard as you'd like, over the characters that appeal to you, but if you want to do fen like me a favor, hating on our favorites less in the big, public spaces would be rad. Or sincerely opening up conversation on why we like them, because I can assure you, everyone who likes a really unpopular character has to deal with a lot of insincere "why do you go for that?" in a tone that suggest there's something wrong with us. There is a ton of talk, and it gets old when the only references I can find for "so-and-so" are a few, lonely lines of how much they suck. (Or what their relation is to the popular character, in umpteen million rp applications for the latter!) I mean, as a rule of thumb, keep in mind that just about every character under the sun has fans, and we don't get a separate party.

[truxillogical]

NEWS AT ELEVEN!!!

[gamma_orionis]

Your sentiment is understandable.

Your phrasing? Very bitchy.

Yes, please do go on and gloat about how awesome it is to have more than five people who share your interests in characters and pairings.

Because yeah. We know it's awesome. That's why we're unhappy that we don't have it.

[kathkin]

...You know you can enjoy the fact that your favourite characters are popular and think it's unfair that other awesome characters are unpopular, right?

[(Anonymous)]

If you genuinely feel bad for fans whose favourites are not the fandom darling you can actually help to make fandom better for them by the simple expedient of occasionally shutting the fuck up in general fandom spaces and encouraging others to do the same.

It seriously makes a difference. If there's a general thread or new Tumblr tag or something and you already know that your favourite is the fandom darling, then ask yourself "Does this thread need another +1 about how my fav is better than yours and is the ultimate queen, pushing comments about other characters down to the next page where most won't see it? Or can I take it for read that everyone in the fandom, whether they like it or not, has probably heard the opinion I'm about to espouse fifty million times before. Might giving somebody else room to be heard instead of spamming everything to hell give people space to discuss another character for once? Maybe I'll even learn to view a little-thought-of character in a new light."

That would be a more decent expression of empathy for other fans than guiltsmugging on F!S.

[(Anonymous)]

I've been on both sides. In my current fandom, my favourite is the darling. It's the first time it happened. I adore it. Seriously, there is so much meta and fic and interpretations - so many fics where he deals with his issues, or doesn't deal, where he's happy or sad or angry or so on. It's amazing. I do have to admit the fact that there's so much fic about the one character did fuel my love for him. Kind of a self-perpetuating cycle.

When your favourite gets no fics, though, it's an incredibly empty feeling. You read the handful of fics about them, and then you just deflate. Then you have to either learn to read and enjoy the plethora of fics about characters you don't care about (and hope your fave isn't bashed frequently), or you jump fandoms. And it sucks.

(Or you can go the third route and start producing works about your favourite, in which case I admire you forever <3)

[darkmanifest]

I've recently discovered the downside to having your favorite characters/pairings be the fandom darling is that it can lead to burn out if the fandom's big and active enough. You rapidly go from loving these characters to death to exhausting all interest in them. Don't much care for that - I like being able to cling to characters for years and years, always able to discover some new angle or idea I've never seen before. It sucks when your favorite people get no love whatever, but I'd rather have the average favorites than the top-tier ones.

[brightblueink]

It's fine to love what you love and enjoy that others love it, also. Just don't act offended if people get bummed out that nobody likes their favorites, too. I've seen (and participated, sadly) in the stupidest fandom arguments because of that.

[lothinielflowermaiden]

I have no idea about anything other than that you have good luck when it comes to chosing favorite characters, and I still almost want to hate you over this secret. I can't wait until you actually do end up on the other end, and then you can see what it's like to never be able to find the story that you would give just about anything to read.

I'm sick of getting up in the morning hoping that a new story about my favorite character will have been posted during the night and wading through four pages of stories about the same two characters and then finding that one story was posted about my favorite and that it's not the kind of story I'm in the mood for. I'm sick of seeing a new round of prompts on the kink meme, seeing a request and thinking how much I would love to read it and then seeing it get ignored while everyone rights about the same two characters. I write my own stories, but I don't feel that they're any good, and they do nothing to satisfy my craving for something to read.

And this seems to happen all the time. This is the first time I've really been upset about it, because my life sucks, reading about my favorite characters is my coping mechanism, and I have nothing to read. Hence why I'm awake in the middle of the night with a really bad headache, and unable to sleep because every time I try to relax I start crying over all the things in my life that make me not want to get out of bed in the morning because it just means facing another day of a life where not one single thing goes the way I wish it would. But I force myself to get up so I can do my internet rounds and find the usual nothing (or in a best case scenario, something that I might be able to get some enjoyment out of reading once, but nothing that I can go back and read when I need a distraction from everything.)

Sometimes when it gets too bad, I go and look at stories from my old fandoms, and even there I can never find quite what I want, because the characters I'm most interested in are either from fandoms where there's no fanfiction at all or they're ones that rarely get written about while another character gets all of the attention.

So yeah, I hate you for always being lucky in your choice of favorite characters and then having to rub it in like this.

[(Anonymous)]

I am shocked to find out that there's a person on the internet who is happy that their favorite characters are getting shitloads of attention and doesn't feel for the people who have to search high and low to find any fanwork at all for theirs!

I am also shocked to find out that there is a person on the internet who only ever likes the fandom darlings best!

Shocked, I tell you! Shocked!

[(Anonymous)]

You and every Kotetsu fan in the Tiger & Bunny fandom, OP. The well-you-should-have-chosen-to-like-a-more-popular-character-stop-whining-and-like-better-characters-or-write-your-own-fic attitude isn't that rare.

[(Anonymous)]

This kinda worked opposite direction for me... when I first started getting involved in fandoms I always liked the hated characters and pairings. It was difficult to find quality anything and most discussions were filled with bashing. I used to just accept it as part of being the underdog.

But now... my favorite character most people love and are interested in and it's SO MUCH more enjoyable. I literally feel spoiled every time I drop into my current fandom discussions because there is so much to talk about and critique about the character without mindless bashing. Not to mention tons of quality fanart and fics.

I do feel sorry for people who like lesser-liked characters, because I've been there. That's why I don't bash other peoples favorite characters and try to join in their discussions.