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[fan_eunice]

Enough whining. Lets talk about first fandoms. I first discovered fandom when I went online during the height of a Homicide obsession and there was fic and meta discussion and gleeful fannish creativity and I was too shy to participate, but just knowing that people existed who engaged in their media that way made me happy.

It was Buffy where I jumped in feet first, though. It is also the fandom I have the most nostalgia for because of that. It is where I learned to vid, and where I made my first fandom friends (many of whom went on to become some of my closest IRL friends). I still experience a sort of giddy joy when watching or talking about BtVS/AtS that isn't present in exactly the same way, even with shows that are as much of my heart, and even though I have not been active in the fandom for a long time. It is as much associated with the joy of discovery and of starting out as it is with the actual show itself. If Homicide was my first crush on fandom, BtVS/AtS was my first real relationship and can you ever replicate first love?

Makes me smile. And reminds me how I ended up here in the first place. And why I don't leave.

Tell me about your first fandom f'list/droll. How did you fall in love?

Comments

[mresundance]

So when I was 18 and didn't think I was anything but maybe bisexual, I went to college and discovered a) high speed internet and b) Lord of the Rings fandom.

My first OTP was Aragorn/Boromir and I still love them to complete and utter distraction. I read so much LOTR fic at that time . . . it was my first introduction to some concepts about sexuality and sex and homosexuality, in fact, so it was kind of a mind blowing experience for me and shaped my identity in ways that continue to be part of my life. (LOL. I guess I can blame all my issues on Aragorn/Boromir, yo and the Horn of Gondor!) Fandom and fanfiction also became a safe place for me to first explore my sexuality and later my gender.

After Aragorn/Boromir I had a brief, intense period of Alexander love and I still love that movie even if it sucks ass and not in a good way.

And then - oh, my bandom heavy period focused on the Libertines and Pete/Carl. Pete/Carl (google The Libertines and Pete/Carl, seriously). They were so fucked up and so romantic and so amazing and the fandom was a delight. <3 I was intensely in love with this fandom and this pairing for maybe two or three years.

Then Supernatural and Sam/Dean. I've never been much into the fandom part of Supernatural though. I watch vids and read some fic.

Some other scattered fandoms, blah blah blah Firefly, Doctor Who, True Blood and now Sherlock. With Sherlock and Sherlock/John I seem to have recaptured a sense of - being completely and totally in love with a pairing and a fandom. I am so SMITTEN it's ridiculous.

I've noticed, weirdly, when I have a strong fandom obsession humming in the background, my general creativity goes way up. I suppose it's just because I have something immediate which is nourishing me on some creative and intellectual level. Also, something which is very active and has loads of art and fanfic to enjoy. I suppose fandom really feeds into my muse, but that's alright. So long as it helps me focus and keeps me happy!

So I am really very pleased that I've found a new fandom love to be smitten with, because it also means I've entered into a very productive time, creatively.

[fan_eunice]

<3 I've noticed that rise of creativity in myself too, and it is one of the reasons I stick with fandom even when I'm going through a WOE period of disenchantment. Vidding is the first time I've found a creative outlet that I could actually do and feel connected to even when I'm going through periods of WOE and disenchantment with fandom in general. And it does push me to be more engaged with non-fannish aspects of my life when I feel fannishly satisfied (if that makes any sense at all).

[bop_radar]

my general creativity goes way up.
Yesssss. True that!

[heresluck]

I don't have to tell you about my first fandom; you were there! :D

I mean, I discovered fandom through X-Files -- I even read some fic (gasp!), and saw my first (horrible, terrible, off-putting) vid -- but mostly I was there for the meta. I KNOW YOU'RE SHOCKED. Like you with Homicide, I didn't really participate, just lurked.

And then renenet showed me the first five eps of Buffy when it went into syndication on FX, and MAILED ME TAPES FOR MONTHS so I could catch up (...lord, it's a different world now, isn't it?), and I started reading episode recaps on LJ and then I saw some vids I liked and wandered over to Nummy Treat in search of more, and THE REST IS HISTORY. I met most of my fannish friends through Buffy; I made ten vids; I learned HTML and CSS and PERL in order to help build and maintain a freaking vid database; and I loved the show itself with exactly that first love you describe. BtVS changed the way I thought about TV; it helped me define what I wanted from TV -- and what I wanted from fandom.

I have loved other shows almost that much, but I've never felt such a sense of COMMUNITY around a show, such a sense of shared endeavor (at least with the people who felt, as I do, that wanting to be a better vidder is not the same as kicking puppies). And I've never poured so much creative energy into a single show; heck, I'm still not done -- lo these many years later, I still have BtVS vids I want to make.

[fan_eunice]

Dang right I was there! And you were nice enough not to laugh at my gushy fangirling email when I discovered your vids. :D

at least with the people who felt, as I do, that wanting to be a better vidder is not the same as kicking puppies

I miss Vidder Bootcamp. It's weird, but I think I was less insecure actively engaging in an openly critical forum than I am now. Less focused on 'how will this vid be received' and more on process, I think.

I still have BtVS vids I want to make.

ME TOO. I think this may be the year I dig out my BtVS and AtS DVDs and start digging through them again. I never really got a chance to vid that universe solo, and I'd like to.

[cereta]

Sentinel, baby. Well, sort of. I did this kind of bass-ackwards.

I was reading fanfic before then, in Trek. And I noticed this thing where most of the people discussing ST on usenet were guys, whereas most of the people writing fanfic were women. And I thought, hey, there could be a paper in this! Except someone else had already written the book. Story of my life. But by then, I had found slash and Sentinel and fallen head over heels into fandom.

[fan_eunice]

One of these days I have to sit down and watch more than the few episodes I've seen of Sentinel. I feel as though this is a gap in my fannish education :)

[green]

the world opened up for me when I found WeBoB. *happy sigh*

...I don't even have a Buffy icon. WTF.

[fan_eunice]

God, I loved that board SO MUCH. :)

...I don't even have a Buffy icon. WTF.

Me either, WTFx2.

[phoenix64]

I first discovered online fandom (and as someone who grew up in a small town in Alaska before the internet there was no other route to discover fandom) through due South, and I have to confess I kind of love telling this story: my first selection from my search engine results happened to be a Fraser/Vecchio fan site. I looked at it and thought, "Awwww, how cute! You really can find anything on the internet!" Obviously I was in for an education!

I pretty much stayed on the outside for due South and sort of started inserting myself into the conversations with Firefly/Serenity. But it wasn't until New Who that I really started being a member of fandom. And I'm so glad I did!

[fan_eunice]

*nod* about the online thing. I grew up with theoretical access to fandom through offline means, but managed to never stumble into the places or people that would have been a gateway. I associated conventions with the gaming cons my brothers went to through the local game/comics shop...so I thought of them as being Not For Me.

I'm glad you started participating too! :D

[some_stars]

Star Trek! TNG, to be specific--the movie "First Contact." (It is also what turned me gay.) I watched it and started watching reruns of the show and then I discovered FANFIC and my life, it was changed...forever.

And then I started watching The X-Files and discovered slash(which really has little to no presence in TNG fanfic, which is probably a good thing), and THEN it was all downhill. Fandom was pretty much the backdrop to my entire adolescence.

[fan_eunice]

:D :D :D I watched (and enjoyed) TNG as it aired, and watched ToS as a kid and adored it as a kid, but the Trekverse never grabbed me in that way enough to where I would have found fandom through it.

I still find it funny that my intro to what media fandom was turned out to be a realistic cop drama, wtf? :D

X-Files! Weirdly, I discovered that through my Homicide obsession, since there was a crossover fic and I read and I was all 'I would like to know more about these Mulder and Scully people'...and FX was running rerun marathons at the time. Buffy was the show that caught my attention enough to want to participate though.

[some_stars]

Well, like I said, "First Contact" had Troi with straight hair, which immediately turned me into a lesbian, so that was a great gateway. *g*

The FX marathons were what got me into it! We were moving, and spending a week in a hotel in between houses becoming available, and I was watching a lot of TV which was unusual for me, and my mom had her laptop with us in the hotel and an internet connection so then I found Gossamer, and then, well, fandom happened. And then like six months later I got into HLotS too! I guess it was really trending at that time :)

[bop_radar]

I resisted fandom for, hmm, at least 10 years. ;) supacat, my RL BFF was always in fandom and I was secretly all 'Lo, I am too cool for that shit!' (but really it was just that the fic she recced me didn't hit my kink buttons and I hadn't discovered vids yet :p) So it was weird for me because I participated peripherally (I cowrote slash fic with her in our teens).

Smallville was my first real fandom. I think it shocked supacat more than me when I actually participated. I became super earnest about the visual metaphor and wrote epicly long essays about it, particularly the Clex. *lolz at self* My nickname was essay!girl in that fandom at first. I think having Smallville as my first fandom shaped fannish me forever... for both good and bad. ;)

[fan_eunice]

:D :D :D You are pretty dang cool. It's funny how that switch flips. And yeah, it was vids that got me in for reals. I thought fandom was nifty from an outside perspective but vids were the first thing to make me go I MUST DO THAT, I HAVE TO DO THAT.

Dude, Smallville was never a big fandom of mine (I watched the first two seasons and didn't really come back until ZOD! KNEEL BEFORE ZOD), but it is just itching for long essays about visual metaphor. Whatever its faults, it has always been a playground of striking color and gorgeous visuals.

[cee_m]

Mine was buffy, too. I started watching Buffy from the second episode, I think. Not only did buffy get me into fandom as a whole and as a friendship finding sport, it brought my dad and I closer together and we still talk about things from Buffy to this day. :) I kind of adore that show for so many reasons.

[fan_eunice]

Awwww, parental fannish bonding! My son was only 11 at the time but we both look back fondly at our Buffy time. Of course, our Buffy time consisted of a 'shipper war in which he was ALL ABOUT Buffy/Angel and I was ALL ABOUT Buffy/Spike and we'd have arguments over who had stupider hair over dinner*, while my mother stared at us and wondered what on earth she'd done to deserve this. :D

*playful ship wars with my 11 year old kid were one of the reasons I could never take fannish ship wars seriously.