Hetalia History Buff ramblings
I really do spend far too much time stalking the APH Kink Meme.
I was just idly looking through my favourites folder today, and just for fun, checked how many fics I had saved up. Then promptly fell over as I realized I had accumulated nearly 200 different stories within only about 6 months in the fandom. In addition, I've saved nearly 1000 Hetalia fanarts on my computer as well. AND, I actually attempted to draw my own fanart for the series. (Note: attempted. There's a picture none shall ever see, ack!)
All right. So, I bet this doesn't seem like a big deal to anyone, and it probably isn't to anyone aside from me. But honestly, I never get into fandoms this thoroughly. I suppose I could call myself a fandom-jumper; I get into things by chance, like through seeing a pretty piece of fanart on DA, and then dive headfirst into the fandom, amassing fanworks for a while, but then get bored relatively quickly and delete everything. I mean, the longest I've ever remained in a fandom was 1 year, and that was Death Note. Admittedly, I came into the fandom after the series had ended, and so once I finally managed to read the last volume, I got bored. It's hard to keep up the same level of interest once everything has been resolved and tied up. That's just about the problem with nearly every fandom; there's an end. Then, there's only so long you can continue reading the same sorts of character studies and the same reexplanations of events and the same weak continuations... the fandom gets stagnant.
But that can't possibly ever happen to Hetalia, just by the very nature of it. There's unlimited material, simply because it's based in history. There's always another historical figure to consider, and unimaginable little events that'd never come to light otherwise. (I do find it terribly amusing that I've learned more historical events through Hetalia than in my classes.) And politics, oh politics. Hetalia will forever create an aspect to political affairs, both local and international, that will never get old for me. AUs can get old. Smut can get old. But history and the very world changing around us could never.
This is a fandom to keep forever.