tardis_stowaway (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tardis_stowaway) wrote2013-08-15 11:46 am
tardis_stowaway) wrote2013-08-15 11:46 am
Entry tags:
Fanfic reading patterns
I've been thinking lately about preferences in fanfic reading. Most of my favorite genres and tropes of fic remain the same across fandoms, but there are some types of fic I seek out strongly in one fandom but rarely in other fandoms.
Some things I enjoy in any fandom include hurt/comfort, plotty adventures, my OTP (or OT3) pining with UST at great length and then finally getting together, and crack. I like stories that solve unanswered questions from canon or make you look at canon in a new way. Witty banter, world building, and women being BAMFs make me very happy. I get excited about genderswap.
In Doctor Who fandom, I especially adore stories that take advantage of the show's ability to cross time and dimensions so that characters interact with past, future, or alternate versions of people they know. (This taste is glaringly obvious from the fics I've written.) I like fix-its and canon divergence AUs in any fandom, but I REALLY seek them out for Doctor Who. There are just so many tears that could have been averted if things just went a little differently!
In Sherlock fandom, I read AUs of the sort that start the characters out in a setting wildly different from canon. I don't want to read about the Doctor being anyone other than a Time Lord from Gallifrey traveling in the TARDIS, but I will happily read about Sherlock and John in roles other than detective and doctor/blogger in 21st-century London. As Mrs. Hudson says, we get all sorts 'round here. I've read Sherlock and John as a vampire and guardsman in a fantasy world, as high school students, with daemons in a fusion with His Dark Materials, (linked story, "The Republic of Heaven," is a WIP that hasn't been updated in a LONG time, but still my favorite of the many fics featuring this fusion), in space, with genderswapped Watson as a witch, as Hollywood actors, in a 19th-century operahouse for a Phantom of the Opera fusion, and even in 1970's West Virginia. (Y'all, I highly recommend that Appalachian!lock fic, "The Bone Fiddle." It not only does a splendid job of fitting the characters into their setting--Sherlock's a local eccentric who drives an old hearse and plays the fiddle--it's also a cracking good case fic with some marvelously creepy bits and fantastic Sherlock/John romance.) Sherlock itself is a modern AU of the Victorian canon, so perhaps this was inevitable. Sherlock and John are such distinctive personalities that they can be recognizable and interesting in any number of settings.
It's been a while since I read much Merlin fic (and I still haven't seen the last season), and I don't have strong preferences unique to this fandom. Many of my favorite stories either emphasize the magic and mythological aspects or offer richer characterizations of Morgana and other "villainous" female characters than the show did. (That isn't hard to do.)
Lately I've been reading a bunch of Avengers/Marvel Cinematic Universe fics. In this fandom, I have a weird fondness for curtainfic. If a fic involves moving, purchasing furniture, cooking breakfast, adopting pets, difficulty with everyday technology, or team movie night, I am all over that. I will occasionally read very domestic stories in other fandoms, but not nearly as much as for the Avengers. I think part of that is just the nature of the fandom (because most of the characters moving into Avengers Tower after the movie is widely accepted fanon, there are a lot of fics where setting up living space is a plot point), and partially the fact that where I am right now in life I find it very comforting to read about characters moving in with their friends and having a billionaire fund the interior decorating. Also, I read a lot of fics with Darcy Lewis (of Thor), who is more likely to save the office organizational system than to directly save the world.
What about you, friends? Are there any interesting patterns in what sorts of fanfic you enjoy in different fandoms or at different times in your life?
Some things I enjoy in any fandom include hurt/comfort, plotty adventures, my OTP (or OT3) pining with UST at great length and then finally getting together, and crack. I like stories that solve unanswered questions from canon or make you look at canon in a new way. Witty banter, world building, and women being BAMFs make me very happy. I get excited about genderswap.
In Doctor Who fandom, I especially adore stories that take advantage of the show's ability to cross time and dimensions so that characters interact with past, future, or alternate versions of people they know. (This taste is glaringly obvious from the fics I've written.) I like fix-its and canon divergence AUs in any fandom, but I REALLY seek them out for Doctor Who. There are just so many tears that could have been averted if things just went a little differently!
In Sherlock fandom, I read AUs of the sort that start the characters out in a setting wildly different from canon. I don't want to read about the Doctor being anyone other than a Time Lord from Gallifrey traveling in the TARDIS, but I will happily read about Sherlock and John in roles other than detective and doctor/blogger in 21st-century London. As Mrs. Hudson says, we get all sorts 'round here. I've read Sherlock and John as a vampire and guardsman in a fantasy world, as high school students, with daemons in a fusion with His Dark Materials, (linked story, "The Republic of Heaven," is a WIP that hasn't been updated in a LONG time, but still my favorite of the many fics featuring this fusion), in space, with genderswapped Watson as a witch, as Hollywood actors, in a 19th-century operahouse for a Phantom of the Opera fusion, and even in 1970's West Virginia. (Y'all, I highly recommend that Appalachian!lock fic, "The Bone Fiddle." It not only does a splendid job of fitting the characters into their setting--Sherlock's a local eccentric who drives an old hearse and plays the fiddle--it's also a cracking good case fic with some marvelously creepy bits and fantastic Sherlock/John romance.) Sherlock itself is a modern AU of the Victorian canon, so perhaps this was inevitable. Sherlock and John are such distinctive personalities that they can be recognizable and interesting in any number of settings.
It's been a while since I read much Merlin fic (and I still haven't seen the last season), and I don't have strong preferences unique to this fandom. Many of my favorite stories either emphasize the magic and mythological aspects or offer richer characterizations of Morgana and other "villainous" female characters than the show did. (That isn't hard to do.)
Lately I've been reading a bunch of Avengers/Marvel Cinematic Universe fics. In this fandom, I have a weird fondness for curtainfic. If a fic involves moving, purchasing furniture, cooking breakfast, adopting pets, difficulty with everyday technology, or team movie night, I am all over that. I will occasionally read very domestic stories in other fandoms, but not nearly as much as for the Avengers. I think part of that is just the nature of the fandom (because most of the characters moving into Avengers Tower after the movie is widely accepted fanon, there are a lot of fics where setting up living space is a plot point), and partially the fact that where I am right now in life I find it very comforting to read about characters moving in with their friends and having a billionaire fund the interior decorating. Also, I read a lot of fics with Darcy Lewis (of Thor), who is more likely to save the office organizational system than to directly save the world.
What about you, friends? Are there any interesting patterns in what sorts of fanfic you enjoy in different fandoms or at different times in your life?
no subject
CURTAINFIC YES. I like domestic fics in general but I especially like seeing superheroes trying (and often failing) to have normal lives, too. :P
no subject
I think curtainfic may be especially appealing for superheroes because of the fact that they have this duality in their lives where sometimes they are doing this crazy epic world-saving stuff, but the rest of the time they live in a house (or apartment, or mansion) like a normal person. They aren't off in space or back in time or on Middle Earth. They're like us, only super, and often not quite fitting into the world around them. Movies and comics show us these little glimpses of their attempts at normal lives, but fandom is often curious about more.
no subject