Alex's This and That

Challenge #14

In your own space, do the Fandom Wrap Challenge. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

What were your top 5 fandoms for 2022 based on the amount of time you interacted with them?
1. Marvel Cinematic Universe
2. Babylon 5
3. Sherlock Holmes
4. Tolkien
5. Star Wars

What were your top 5 fandom spaces (Discord, Twitter, etc.) you experienced fandom in terms of time spent?
1. Dreamwidth
2. Ao3
3. Discord
4. Tumblr
5. Twitter

What are the top 5 things you did to contribute to fandom in terms of time? Did you write? Comment? Send positive energy into the universe? Create art?
1. Writing fanfic
2. Interacting with other fans at Discrd
3. Ran some fansites and communities
4. Actually rewatched a lot of sourcematerial
5. Tint bit of fanart

What were your top 5 most appreciated fandom contributions? (i.e. in terms of likes, kudos, reblogs, comments, etc.)
1. Better Than Any Video
2. One Night With You (is not going to be enough)
3. Heart and Soul
4. Just the Two of Us
5. Forget Me, Forget Me Not
NOTE: ALL are MCU and all but the last one are Steve/Tony.

Challenge #12

In your own space, set yourself some goals for the coming year. They can be fannish or not, public or private. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


The last three years have been lonely, scary, boring and sometimes DISASTROUS for me and I'm sure for many other people as well. I fell like I'm coming out of a fog and it's time to set some goals.

Personal -
1. I would like to be more interesting. I want to cook new food, go new polaces, do fun things.
2. Try to be a little healthier if I can.
3. Do more artsy, crafty things.
4. GO ON A VACATION!

Fannish goals -
1. write MORE! Meet my GWYO goal this year.
2. Get back into some of the Babylon 5 things I've sort of dropped lately.
3. Make some new fandom friends.
4. Try something new - a new trope, fandom, something.

That's mostly it.

Challenge #10

In your own space, create a fanwork. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


Just a little Cap!

Challenge #4

In your own space, add something to your fandom’s canon. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

Well, this is a stumper in some ways. Isn't all fanfic just that?

Okay some weiord little canon things

1. Tom Bombadil was the Eru (the creator) and he visited ME to nudge things along and watch over his world. What other purpose did he have?

2. Oropher attacked early on purpose to make a distraction that allowed Gil-galad and Isildur defeat Sauron. Even them, it almost didn't happen.

3. I would say that Legolas and Gimli lived happily ever after, but that kinda is canon.

Challenge #2

In your own space, write a promo, manifesto or primer for your fave character, ship or fandom. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.


I'll be honest. My eyes glaze over whenever I try to read a manifesto or meta about fandom. It seems like bellybutton gazing to me, for the most part. If you can't see the beauty or value in a fandom, then I can't make you see it. A fandom either clicks or it doesn't.

I yack my head off about my faves IRL with my best fiend, but to write it... hmmmm.

I have a lot of fandoms and I actually have written in 50+, I think, but my two favorites are:

Tolkien:
When I was 13 or 14 maybe, I came across a paperback copy of The Hobbit, probably on a rack in a grocery store. When I began it, it was like walking into a new world for me. I was a voracious reader, but had not read anything approaching this before. Sometime later, the LOTR trilogy came out in this particular edition. Reading them was like opening a door to a MUCH bigger world than that in the previous book. I was changed, it seemed to me. I remember getting The Silmarillion when I was 17, 18? It was like a key to an even more mystical world that either of the other two.

Roll forward many years and I saw a preview of The Fellowship of the Ring in the movie theater. I remember Arwen. I wanted to see the movie - needed to, in fact, and that was it for me. I jumped in with both feet and I never looked back.

Reading Tolkien (and seeing the movies) is like opening a door to a world that no longer exists and never did, really. But it should have!


Marvel:
I never read comic books growing up. They weren't really popular here in the 70s. I do remember reading Archie Comics (yes, really!), but that was about it. I did grow up with superheroes, though. I watched George Reeves as Superman every afternoon and he was wonderful.


Also we had Batman with Adam West and Burt Ward and a wonderful Saturday morning Spiderman cartoon. But superheroes were strictly kids' entertainment in those days.

One day in the summer of 2011, Larry and I were in Walmart and the front section was filled with Marvel action figures and toys. I told Larry that they were making some kind of movie about some guy in WWII who was a superhero. Well, we went to see this superhero movie and I fell in love, not with the actor, but with Cap. He was, to me, the perfect man - the man of my dreams, actually. Smart, blond, big, loyal, and sooo sweet.

One thing led to another and soon, I was writing Captain America and then the rest of the Avengers. Oddly, I have only recently begun to see him shipped with Bucky. I saw him with Tony Stark, but was never an insane shipper. I still everyone should get a fic with Cap.

Those are my origin stories and perhaps they're the best way I can convince someone to look into these fandoms.

Ta-da. Done.

Pimping this here. I love it and try ti do all the challenges! It is low pressure and fun.