respoftw | Entries tagged with june something

Fandom can be a bit of a double edged sword. There are shows and books and musicians that I love and that I wish more people could discover and fall in love with too but the bigger a following and the more people that get into a fandom, the more toxic it can become.

That’s obviously a very broad generalisation and not going to be the case for everything but it’s enough of a deterrent for me that I’m pretty happy in my fandoms as they are.

Day 4: What are the origins of your penname/username?

Fanfiction bypassed me entirely until 2012 when, a few months short of my 30th birthday, I accidentally clicked a link to a fic about detectives Ryan and Esposito from the TV show Castle while looking for them-centric episodes of the show. I fell down a rabbit hole that I’ve since set up home in and when it came to creating my FFN account (because it took me another few months to find AO3) I picked RespoFTW and it’s kind of stuck.

Day 5: Compare and/or contrast your very first fandom obsession and your very latest fandom obsession.

My first fandom experiences were all off-line. We didn’t have a computer in the house until I was at university so my prime high school fandom years were spent geeking out about things either on my own or with friends.

I struggle to remember what my first ‘fandom’ was. I think probably the first one that grabbed me was BtVS. I would buy the magazines, I had posters, I bought every single tie-in book that was out there and was use generally obsessed. My friends watched it too and when my Mum got rid of our cable TV to save money I used to go around to my friends house on a Friday night to watch it on Sky One (when Angel started they used to air them back to back, it was awesome!)

Even when we had a computer it never occurred to me to look for BtVS content and, to this day, I have never read a single piece of fanfic for the show. I’ve never went back and watched the show with my shipping goggles on but can honestly say that I never shipped any non-canon couples back when I watched it.

So, yeah, that’s changed. My current fandom obsession is Stargate Atlantis which I got into long after the show stopped airing. I was aware of fandom and shipping and knew McShep was a huge ship going into it. I have loved David Hewlett since I saw Cube at the age of 15 so that and the fact that a couple of my tumbler mutuals where McSheppers definitely set me up for the ship. Would I have shipped it if I had watched along as it aired? I honestly don’t know. That 2012 discovery of Fanfiction was really eye opening for me. I would have classed myself as a pure whumper before that but now my shipping goggles are welded on!

Everything is online now, although I do have all the tie-in books and have tracked down cation figures etc on eBay, second hand shops etc... I now just wait patiently for the licenced funko pops to join the custom ones I have!

I think probably the first time I received fanart is what sticks in my mind.

I used to write in MCU fandom and, despite most of what I wrote in that period being absolute garbage, they are still my most ‘popular’ fics. I think a lot of that had to do with getting in the door of the Hawkeye/Quicksilver ship the very same day that Age of Ultron released tin cinemas. It was the first time I’ve ever been involved in a new ship that had just come along and I rode that wave hard for (checks AO3) 91 fics over the space of a year.

And someone drew fanart of one of my fics. And I remember how unbelievably happy it made me and how thrilled I was. I had been on the sidelines of fandom for a while and never thought I’d actually be in that position.

I’ve had a few more pieces of art for my fics since then and it never stops being the best thing ever.

Sadly, I’ve lost the link to that first piece of art I ever received due to various hosting sites going down but I will always treasure that memory!

What's changed about your fandom life in the last 365 days?

I’ve unintentionally taken a big step back from active fandom life. SGA is still my fandom of choice and I still read fanfic constantly but I’ve let online friendships lapse, I don’t write as much and I’m finding it harder as each month passes to get back into it. A lot of it is down to having a much more demanding job these days which is great financially and professionally but has affected my down time. I miss it!

You've got your OTP, you have to throw a third into the mix (from the same fandom), creating an OT3. Who is the OTP, and in your opinion, why would they make a perfect third for them? Bonus question: What about adding a third to your OTP from a different fandom? Who and why?

John/Rodney is my OTP (surprising no one). I have this thing where I ship Rodney with anyone and everyone but I seem to have a mental block with seeing anyone else with John which makes this a difficult question to answer. The people I can see being good for John wouldn’t be good for Rodney and vice versa.

If I had to pick someone it would probably be fanon Miko. I love fanon Miko. I love that fandom has taken a small character and turned her into someone awesome. She’s badass enough for John, can snark with Rodney and I can see her appealing to both of them.

Bonus: Ngl, I’m considering writing a fic where Booker from the Old Guard joins the guys in Atlantis and I can see him fitting in very well with both John and Rodney...

What fandom that got a series finale was the LEAST appropriate/least satisfying. Bonus: How would you have fixed it?

Ignoring the ones that got cancelled without being able to resolve things - there can be only one. And as much as I dislike the SGA ending it doesn’t hold a candle to the gut punch that was the Quantum Leap series finale.

“Dr Sam Beckett never returned home.”

It still hits me like a brick.

What fandom that got a series finale was that most appropriate/most satisfying. Bonus: What about it would you have changed, if anything?

Do I have to warm for spoilers on a show that’s been done for longer than I care to look up in case it makes me look old?

Spoilers for Buffy if I do!

I feel like Buffy the Vampire Slayer got the closest. I love so many things about it, I love the whole turning the whole ‘there can be only one’ crap on its head and I love that they did the call back to Buffy, Willow and Xander walking off chatting about nothing and Giles saying they were all doomed. I love so so much of it but then Anya died in such a blink and you’ll miss it way and it gutted me.

We’ll also ignore the whole Buffy pretty much telling Spike she loves him as he’s dying when we all know she didn’t....

Actually, Angel got a pretty good finale too. Gut wrenching, but good.

Sadly, too many of my fandoms ended too soon with plot threads hanging or stupid Jennifer Keller hanging out on a balcony.

My bad, real life is sucking up so much time right now but I'm determined to get back on track...

3 -
What character do you think you would end up being best friends with? Bonus: What other characters would you and your new bestie give a hard time to?

Honestly, I think all of the SGA characters are a bit too cool for me. I could see me and Miko being friends, which I know is a super bizarre statement given the one ep that canon Miko is in but fanon Miko is almost universally awesome and you just know that she's totally into fanfic and we could gossip about how great Dr McKay's ass looked today. Her or Woolsey because I do share Woolsey's love of checks and balances and proper procedures.

No Bonus for this one because I neither Miko or I are that callous ;)

4 -
You get to crossover two completely different fandoms. What two shows, and why? Bonus: Give us a preview!

I've never been much into crossovers but one of my greatest fandom wishes is for more 'Grant Jansky and Rodney McKay are related' fics so gimme all the Traders/SGA crossovers that you can find. I want it so bad that I've even written one myself - It's All Grant's Fault

5 -
You get to insert your favourite OTP into a new fandom. Who is the OTP, and what fandom? Bonus: Give us a preview!

Favourite OTP is McShep - I think it always will be at this point. Is it cheating to insert them into the SG-1 fandom? My thing about SG-1 vs SGA is that while I do think SG-1 is the better show, SGA has the better characters and that's why I love it more. I would dearly, dearly love to read more fic where McShep work out of the SGC, on a regular gate team. I've actually been thinking about writing a sequel to Pride where I get to play about in that setting.

Work, rinse, repeat. The end of year end is in sight though so I won’t bore myself with more moaning.

My broadband was down for a couple of days this week so, being fairly distraction free, I managed to write the fic for my the pinch hit I picked up for Fandom5k. It’ll be revealed in a couple of weeks which means that May 2019 is the first month since April 2015 that I haven’t posted a fic on AO3.

That’s craaaaazy!

In other news, the lack of access to Netflix and Amazon meant that I went raiding my DVD shelves and we’re doing a Due South rewatch. God, I’d forgotten how much I loved this show!

squidgiepdx has come up with a June Something posting challenge thing and I’m gonna try and play along so here’s a quick catch up.

Day 1: We all have that ONE fandom, or OTP. But what would you consider your backup fandom? Bonus: Who is your backup OTP? Same fandom or different?

Backup fandoms? What are those, lol. I pretty much live in SGA these days but I do sometimes go and visit other fandoms, even if I don’t stay long. My most consistent backup fandom is probably Star Trek: AOS. McKirk mainly but I have found myself warming to Spirk, as long as the fic isn’t too explicit (I have a bit of a hard time reading about Spock having sex, I genuinely don’t know why!)

Backup OTP remains in the SGA fandom. McShep is the ultimate OTP but I ship Rodney with everyone and anyone so there’s always lots of other pairings for me to read.

Day 2: If you were able to insert yourself into one fandom as your reality, what would it be? Bonus: How different would you be in that reality?

I used to self insert myself into so many fandoms (in my head at least, it’s not something I have ever or would ever write down) but I can’t actually remember the last time I did that. Weirdly, I usually go the opposite and insert fandom characters into my real life when I let my mind wander that way. That being said, the last time I did fantasise about inserting myself into fandom it was for the David Hewlett show, Traders.

Maybe it’s because the financial setting jibes with my real life job? But yeah, I did and have fantasised about working at Gardner Ross and making sure that Grant Jansky was protected like he deserves!