Fandom has gotten a bad rap over the years, and most people see it as something bad, full of nerds, or full of angry people demanding things on the internet. I can’t speak for everyone, but this is my experience with fandoms, and how it has affected me both in college and in life.
Hi, my name is Levena, and I am a fangirl. (I am also going to Dragon-can soon, and I am so excited I could burst!)
I guess you could say I have been a fangirl most of
my life, though I didn’t start in the usual venues. There were no boy bands for me in my youth,
but there was KA Applegate and Animorphs.
I was a book and author fangirl, eagerly awaiting the next book, the
next series. I was on a first name basis
with the lovely ladies that worked at the Waldenbooks at our mall, and they always
gave me ideas for the next thing I was going to read. It was the same way with the librarians;
every week I’d drag my dad through the doors and disappear into the stacks for
an hour or two.
When I got older, I found Magic the Gathering thanks
to a cousin of mine. While I fell out
around the Mirage expansion, I still played card games. I ended up in Yu-gi-oh for a while (Thanks to
the anime and my still unchanged affection for that show. It’s a guilty pleasure, I blame Dan
Green.) I fell back into MtG during the
Innistrad set, and had to essentially re-learn the game. Who were these Planeswalkers? What the heck were all of these new cards? I never felt frustrated though, as Magic
players are some of the most awesome people you will ever meet. When I struggled, people offered me help
without making me feel inferior. When I
was building decks, people offered me tips or even cards to help me become a
better player. The Magic fandom for me
is community, welcoming and fun.
I also will admit that I am a huge fan of anime,
thanks Toonami! I quickly branched out
from that limited selection and went out searching for new, better, more and
with the baby internet of the time that was an often frustrating affair. Special orders and I became good friends as
my interest grew. Now, I will admit,
while anime has become more mainstream, people in the US still think of it as
something for kids, or as something…adult.
There doesn’t seem to be any middle ground in people’s opinions. Either you are the weirdo watching kids’
shows, or you are the weirdo watching adult- themed cartoons. While this is kind of depressing, the fact
that there is so much more out there is why I still tell people about the shows
I watch. Like vampires and some spooky
themes? Go watch Hellsing. Giant robots your thing? Gundam is there to blow stuff up for
you. And hey, these shows often have
amazing plots, full of character development and really intense emotions. I have used these themes in papers before,
often describing modern takes on the age old stories of the hero, the quest, or
even takes on Romeo and Juliet.
Anime was my springboard into the wide world of
comics and the Marvel and DC universes.
Deadpool was and remains one of my favorite characters ever. I even wrote a paper for a fiction class
about how Wade Wilson is a picaresque character. (No, seriously. It remains one of the coolest papers I have
ever written in college.) From Deadpool,
I went into Iron Man, Hawkeye, and a bunch of the Marvel Universe. When the Marvel movie universe started, I was
right there with bated breath, anxious to see what happened. While I admit to a more Marvel bias (Loki!
EEE!), I do still enjoy DC works.
Granted, I am not a big fan of the Batman, but I really love the characters
around him, especially the Robins. They
were always just so much more interesting to me than Bruce Wayne. People tend to look down on comics and those
who read them, but I find that weird and kind of sad. Who cares if there are pictures? Pictures are worth a thousand words as the
saying goes, and people can’t seem to look past the fact that comics are
pictures to appreciate a good story and wonderful characters. A story is a story in my opinion. Is Sandman any less amazing, intricate, and stunning
for the fact that it is a graphic novel?
I think not.
I am not the only one who has taken their love of
their fandom with them into what they did in school or even life. Have you heard of David Tennant? If you are, or know of a Doctor Who fan, chances
are you have. He was the Tenth Doctor,
and when he was still in school he would often get in trouble for writing
essays on Doctor Who. (They were like
his ideas for the show, fan theories and the like, how cool!) He was often yelled at for this, but it
didn’t stop him. He grew up, kept his
love as a Whovian, and eventually became the Doctor, his dream. He even married the daughter of his favorite
Doctor. Now, that is some fan
dedication.
Well. This
was a bit rambling, but I freely admit I get excited when talking about my
fandoms. It’s a thing. People who know me know I am kind of
quiet. I prefer to stay home rather than
go out, and I typically will find pets more interesting than their owners. However, when I see a person with a shirt, bag,
or something from one of my fandoms, I want to talk to them. I will strike up a conversation, and I can’t
even tell you how many friends I have made this way. When I started at Trident, I didn’t know
anyone, and had no friends in the area.
I felt overwhelmed and depressed; I didn’t know how I was going to get
through the day, much less the semester in this sea of strangers. I was sitting alone in the student lounge,
watching people reunite with friends when I saw a person with a DS. I enjoy playing a bunch of video games,
console and handheld alike, and he was sitting alone too. I got up, and when I got closer I saw the DS
had a Kingdom Hearts cover. (Yes, I LOVE
Kingdom Hearts, I own every game and I know no shame.) I started a conversation, and CJ became my
first friend in South Carolina. Thanks,
bro.
Basically, what I want to say is that fandom itself
isn’t bad. Having things you like is important, be it sports, books, games or
boy bands. Do things that make you
happy, and as long as you aren’t hurting anyone, I don’t see how it is
something ‘bad’. While there are people
who can give fandoms a bad name, get to know the person or the subject before
you pass judgment. Who knows, you might
make a new friend, or even get an appreciation of something new.
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