talking meme: favorite fandoms
madripoor_rose prompted with "favorite fandoms" and then clarified that she meant favorite sources rather than my favorites as far as fandom experience goes.
So the latter would actually be easier because I could just point to the largest, most active fandoms I've been in which I tend to find the most fun.
Anyway, favorite fandom sources. This is tricky, it starts with the question of what turns a source into "being a fandom" for me? I think for something to really feel as a fandom for me it has to occupy my thoughts in some prolonged way. However, unlike many other fans I don't usually rewatch or reread media, even if I enjoyed them a lot. Movies I usually watch once in the theater and then maybe once on DVD with the extras or such, same for tv -- even The Sentinel which was my main fandom for many years and for which I eventually acquired copied VHS tapes to watch it undubbed in the time before high speed internet sharing, I pretty much only watched most of the episodes once in the original. With few exceptions (mainly LOTR which I reread multiple times mostly as teenager) I don't reread books at all, e.g. I love HP, have read a ton of fanfic, but have only read the books once each, etc.
So the source on its own almost never occupies enough time for me to turn it into a real fandom feeling (unless there is a *lot* of source). That feeling usually only happens as synergy with other fans present who talk about the source, analyze it, do art, write fanfic etc. so that those conversations and works recall the source and cause me to think about it again and again. In cases where I love the source but that is absent, because I'm not in sufficient contact with fellow fans, I still may think about it in a fannish way, post some meta and fanart, but it is not sustainable. Like for example I like Animal Man, have written some meta, drawn some fanart, but I can't honestly say it is a real fandom for me. It could be, if Animal Man ever got really popular.
Similarly I would love for Rivers of London to become a real fandom for me, because I love the books and their world, the characters are great, and I enjoyed the fanfic I have read and wish there was more, but it is just not a daily occupant in my head.
As far as all time favorite sources for which that requirement is (or has been) true, Duckburgh comics, especially those by Carl Barks but some other creator's too, are high up there. They were my first fandom when I was a little kid, and I still love them decades later. I am still in a fanclub for them, I love both Watsonian meta about the Ducks and their world, and Doylist behind the scenes articles and comic indexes (I have piles of zines and several books); they are the single biggest influence on my art, and I adore the characters, even though I don't currently collect and read a lot.
Tolkien would be another longterm beloved fandom, mainly Lord of the Rings, though I did like getting the background from the Silmarillion and from the fragments of his writing too. I love the world building, and I come back to that again and again. I mean, I never really give up on fandoms, so if I see a new fanwork I remain interested, but LOTR is one of the cases where the source is rich enough that I need less fandom input, though I like Tolkien fanworks too.
As for current favorites right now, that would be the MCU/Avengers, because I like all the characters as heroes well enough and it provides enough fanworks I enjoy for a steady stream of things to engage with, though I actually haven't even watched all the movies (like I haven't watched Iron Man 2). I expect the X-Men to occupy more of my time again once the next movie comes out this year.
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