Fannish Friday!

[lirazel]

A variation on last week's question: tell me about a character (or ship) that fandom made you either love or hate. Maybe you loved or hated them in canon but fandom made you do a 180. Maybe you liked them fine or disliked them in an un-intense way, but fandom pushed you in a different direction. Maybe you had no particular feelings about them at all until fandom made you change your mind!

A ship I didn't really pay much attention to in canon is Wen Qing/Jiang Cheng from CQL. I was so focused on the other relationships on the show that this very quiet one didn't catch my eye. But then I read a lot of short meta posts on Tumblr about them and I fell in love with them. In my subsequent re-watch, I noticed how beautifully they were portrayed in the show. Maybe I would have noticed that the second time around regardless, but I don't think so. I think this is a gift that fandom gave me!

Also giving a shout-out to Dawn Summers. I liked her in the show, I loved her relationship with Buffy, but fandom is what made me become a die-hard Dawn fan. I was just so annoyed at the hate she got for being a teenage girl that I ended up loving her more out of spite. And then the more I paid attention to her out of spite, the more I just loved her for who she is till the spite became irrelevant.

As for hating, I'm not really a person who ends up hating things because of fandom? If the fandom is particularly annoying or dumb about a given character or ship, I am annoyed at the fandom, not the character or ship. But I know a lot of people have fandom-made-me-hate-it stories, so feel free to rant about those now!

Comments

[jo_lasalle]

I meant to comment on last week's question but then lost track of it - but belatedly, both of your examples really spoke to me!

I don't think I've ever gone full-on from love to hate regarding a character or ship based on the fandom. But fandom has definitely nudged me along the love-and-hate axis with a few. I think because it's never swung that widely based on fandom, I can't really think of older examples, but for my current fannishness:

Not-really-for-me to fondness: Nie Mingjue. Hand on heart, I think fandom by and large writes him as at least a bit fluffier than he actually is, but his slightly fanon-y-fied version has really grown on me, and has also made me warm up more to his canon self. Reading a famous-in-2019 Twitter social media AU whre he's long-suffering Chef Nie left a lasting impression. *g*

Fine-to-NOPE: novel!LWJ. I've always been CQL-all-the-way but I could enjoy novel!LWJ and novel!Wangxian, especially for some of the porn flavors that don't really work as well for drama!Wangxian. But a mix of fanonization, constant Frankencanon bleedover and fandom wank has made me really sour on him. I don't enjoy that, it makes my reading life harder, but I can't turn it off/around anymore. :/

Like-to-meh: Lan Xichen/Meng Yao. I was quite taken with it as a secondary ship on my first watch, and I was primed to get more deeply into it. But then I never found the perfect-for-me story, and fandom swayed me more towards Nie Mingjue, and there was JGY wank, and I kind of drifted away from the interest. (Jin Guangyao was defeated by Chef Nie!)

I'm so pleased you found Wen Qing/Jiang Cheng! They are such a delightful ship! I always loved their vibe in the drama, but they definitely got more layers over time, IMO.

[lirazel]

But fandom has definitely nudged me along the love-and-hate axis with a few.

This definitely makes sense to me.

Hand on heart, I think fandom by and large writes him as at least a bit fluffier than he actually is, but his slightly fanon-y-fied version has really grown on me

Agreed! I still don't want to read fic focused on him, but I enjoy when he shows up!

novel!LWJ.... But a mix of fanonization, constant Frankencanon bleedover and fandom wank has made me really sour on him. I don't enjoy that, it makes my reading life harder, but I can't turn it off/around anymore. :/

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS.