Fandoms. Why mine is better than yours. For me.
I tried AROHA today, in a sports class offered by my employer. It didn't sound as brutal as it was. Apparently the guy who developed it learned from the Maori, and it was a lot of those Haka steps, or well, that is just what it was. The whole time. It just increased in speed and the arm movements changed a few times, but it was deep steps without any pause. And she didn't warn us or have us stretch. So after 20 minutes, my untrained leg muscles started cramping, nevermind that my whole legs were one shivering mess anyways. So I gave up and left. To my great shame, since the co-workers stayed. But... I need my legs fully functioning and not hurting this weekend, thank you very much.
I should have questioned it when I found out there's only one website about it, it's only in German, and it's ridiculously amateurish coding.
Anyways. The Vampire Diaries con last weekend. I went to Rogue Events' con in Bad Wildungen, so the one without Ian and Paul, hence the smaller one with less crazy fans than last year. Nevertheless there was still a significant difference to the Supernatural fans I am used to.
Your average SPN fangirl vs. your average TVD fangirl.
It starts with Age. While there has been an increasing number of young newbies at the Supernatural cons this year as well, the majority is still older. I don't know if it's that the show is on for a longer time or if it's the darker nature of the show - and its stars, but well, I felt really old at this con. Poor Sebastian Roché kept running into girls who claimed "I'm only 17!" when he got physical with them. (You know how he sometimes likes to go into the audience and sit down on girls' laps? That.) He also toned it down a tiny bit. He still talked about the importance of foreplay and kept mentioning how he was killed by that huge dildo thrust in his chest, but he only briefly mentioned Lord of the Cockrings, but didn't run his whole 'Oooh, Mr. Frodo' show.
I love him for starting his first panel by saying that TVD is short for an STD. I think people have forgotten about this by now. Google certainly has, because I just wanted to look up whet exactely it was again.
So, younger fangirls. Also, way more dolled up fangirls. Long, flowy hair, messy locks, vintage pins in it. Babydolls or other flowery short, shooort dresses. Highheels. Carrying around those ridiculously unpractical handbags. (They're huge so it's one big mess inside, you have to hang it from your underarm, it keeps poking people next to you. What male asshat invited those anyways?) Skinny. Like, everybody was ridiculously skinny and ridiculously pretty, doll-face make-up well-done, and just... argh! I felt so old and fat and out of place. Usually SPN cons make me feel normal and admittedly a lot of the times 'hey, at least I am not as fat as that girl in the super tight shirt with Jensen's face on it'. Because let's face it, while it's mean and all, we're all judgy bitches sometimes. - But hey, at this con at least I got to LOL about some girls who really could not walk in their pretty heels. While simultaneously feeling bad for them, because their legs must have been killing them by the end of the day. - And they got to look at me and think 'hah, at least I'm not old and fat and pathetic enough to still watch teenie shows.'
However a lot of the new people I met at this con have been super nice. In fact, I haven't met a single person I didn't like at all. Nobody was wanking or mean-spirited or telling me what a bitch Gen is (or respectively one of the other girls). So kudos TVD fandom for being pretty awesome about liking all of the stars and their respective others. It just felt so shiny happy.
The panel questions. Asking about the show was a rarity. Almost nobody ever talked about a specific scene and what did that mean / how did your character feel / why did they do that? Instead they asked the girls whose wardrobe they preferred, what perfume they liked best, what was their favorite color, and so on. I missed just about all of Michael's and Matt's panel, so no idea what the boys were asked. Nate was mostly just asked for hugs. Like, blatently so until he told them they had to actually ask a question first. Which then usually was along the lines of 'what's your favorite color' or 'would you like to appear in The Originals'? Seb wasn't really asked much either, but that's because he's an entertainer and he doesn't need questions. The first question he got was 'will you be my sugar daddy?' *ahem* Supernatural fans have too much self-respect to ask a question like that. We're questioning feminism on the show and shouldn't the female characters be stronger / survive longer? The TVD fans ask about pretty dresses and perfume. I find that kinda funny. And sad at the same time.
Nobody asked a single slash questions. They asked a lot of Caroline/Klaus shipper questions and Bonnie/Damon. Or Bonnie/Kol. What about Damon/Stefan, you guys? Alaric/Damon? That's so much more fun! The only slightly tabu ship was brought up by Nate himself, who answered every 'favorite' question with "Daniel Gillies" or "why does Rebecca have to be my sister? We have so much chemistry!" Again followed by "Daniel Gillies. Daniel Gillies. Daniel Gillies." You've gotta love a guy who ships the gay and incest for you, while the majority of fans seem to be focused on Kol/Bonnie.
Similarities. There also seem to be a lot of funny bloopers and shenanigans going on at the set. And the actors all hang out together when shooting is done. Nate was sitting in the back, watching Seb's panel. When Seb spotted him, he got up to the microphone, pretended to be a fan, and asked a question in a mock-Russian accent. It was so very Misha, it's uncanny. He either saw that happening at Dragon con or he watched panel videos, or they are just that alike. Which might just be it. I've been discussing it with gwaevalarin the whole weekend. Nate and Misha have so much in common! Give Nate two years and he has the appropriate level of snark to be Misha.
Speaking of Dragon Con. I think that was the con the SPN stars often speak of, when they saw the TVD photo ops and started mocking their poses. At the same time, the TVD stars made up a drinking game for Seb's panel. One shot whenever he makes a sexual reference. Hah! So while the SPN stars mocked them, they were mocking right back. (Of course this was a blank, seeing how Seb is part of their fandom just the same.)
Oh, another big difference. Photo ops. The SPN stars are all happy to hug and squeeze and pose with you. (Mark Sheppard aside, but even he hugs.) The TVD stars are mostly too cool for that. That's a little sad. I already got a super bad impression with Zach Roerig last year, who had both hands in his pockets and wouldn't touch you at all, but this time, Michael Trevino looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in the room, Candice was nice burt reserved, Matt Davis had his hand firmly in his pocket even when asked for (and agreeing to???) a hug (they cut the lower part out of the pic, so my photo op looks a lot nicer than it actually was). Kat Graham was the only one who readily posed and hugged and tried something new with each picture. Nate was also okay with poses and hugs, although he has the same 'Paul Wesley TM' look in all of his ops. - But it didn't feel awkward and he was really nice and gracious. He even gave us all a hug at the end of his coffee lounge, shocked to hear we paid €25 for it, so he'd give us "something worth the money". (Does he know what the other organizer charged for the m&g with Paul Wesley? I think not. - It was €350, in case you didn't know.)
So Nate = mix between Misha and Matt Cohen. He really was a super awesome guest. I did not care for him at all before, I can't even recall a single Kol scene, to be honest, but he stole my heart. Kat Graham did the same. I don't like Bonnie, but she was awesome. Candice was sweet. I think she's a hidden geek, because she admitted to being a TV junkie and she grew up to Dawson's Creek (lots of happy gasps from the audience, myself included). Otherwise she didn't really open up and stayed in her shell a bit. But it was okay. I think she was just rather shy and not "above us". A feeling I got from Michael and Matt and Zach last year.
I think it's the age difference again. A lot of those actors got casted pretty early in their carrer, so they never really had to struggle. They don't really have anything to be grateful for. I might be really wrong here, but that's what it felt like to me. Exception being Nate Buzolic, who had a really hard 5 years before he got the part, nevermind a poor childhood (=> see also: Misha Collins). So he was grateful and gracious and happy to be there. I'm not saying 'we pay them so they have to be our property for the weekend', but just a few smiles to fans go a long way. Then I don't feel like you're just there because you wanted the paid Euro vacation to get drunk with your buddies.
I never once felt like that with any of the SPN actors. Some I didn't like as much as others, but basically, the only two guests so far who I ended up disliking (Jim Michael, Rick Worthy) are drunk, grabby, sleazy old guys who behaved like we were the property. Nobody ever made me feel like I was a sleazy fangirl who just wants to cop a feel. - None of the Supernatural stars, that is.
Okay, now this all got more negative than I intended it to go. The thing is just, I was really disappointed with the photo ops last year already and now I got to add two more actors to that list. Nate was really great (not like Misha doesn't have his Misha face TM as well. It's just funny that Nate has the 'Paul Wesley' down to a T.) and Ian is always pehomenal. But Ian has been around for a while. I am pretty sure that he is damn grateful for what he's got with the show. And if the other guys don't want to be at the actual convention and can't stand the photo ops and ugh, to write all those many autographs, then they should just stay the hell at home and not go to the cons at all.
Oh, another big difference: no cosplay at the TVD con. Then again, who should they dress-up as? There's no real significant clothing here. The TVD kids have actaul closets and extensive wardrobe. They don't live out of a duffel bag or worse, are stuck in the one trenchcoat. ;) And a lot of them did look like Caroline or Nina Dobrev in her time off. Maybe dolling-up is their cosplay. Also lots of Somerhalder hats around. So yeah, I take it back. Cosplay just looks different here.
To sum it all up: The Vampire Diaries fandom is not my fandom. I don't belong in it and I don't even want to be in it. The shiny happy part is kinda cool, but my hippie phase is over. I want to discuss mythology and why Dean is so broken and can Cas ever find a balance between his human side and heaven? I don't want to say 'OMG, and then Stefan got locked in a coffin and dumped and when Elena force-fed Katherine the cure!!! OMG!!' (= conversation I actually overheard.) I'm too old for this. I just think "dude, we saw that on Angel already. And another doppelganger? Really? LOLZ, this season is shit."
Next year, I'm only going to Insurgence Germany if there a) is one b) gwaevalarin is going c) Nate is coming d) Daniel Gillies is also coming. (He was super nice at Ring Con last year! So it's not the whole cast, it's just the kids who bug me.)
I should have questioned it when I found out there's only one website about it, it's only in German, and it's ridiculously amateurish coding.
Anyways. The Vampire Diaries con last weekend. I went to Rogue Events' con in Bad Wildungen, so the one without Ian and Paul, hence the smaller one with less crazy fans than last year. Nevertheless there was still a significant difference to the Supernatural fans I am used to.
Your average SPN fangirl vs. your average TVD fangirl.
It starts with Age. While there has been an increasing number of young newbies at the Supernatural cons this year as well, the majority is still older. I don't know if it's that the show is on for a longer time or if it's the darker nature of the show - and its stars, but well, I felt really old at this con. Poor Sebastian Roché kept running into girls who claimed "I'm only 17!" when he got physical with them. (You know how he sometimes likes to go into the audience and sit down on girls' laps? That.) He also toned it down a tiny bit. He still talked about the importance of foreplay and kept mentioning how he was killed by that huge dildo thrust in his chest, but he only briefly mentioned Lord of the Cockrings, but didn't run his whole 'Oooh, Mr. Frodo' show.
I love him for starting his first panel by saying that TVD is short for an STD. I think people have forgotten about this by now. Google certainly has, because I just wanted to look up whet exactely it was again.
So, younger fangirls. Also, way more dolled up fangirls. Long, flowy hair, messy locks, vintage pins in it. Babydolls or other flowery short, shooort dresses. Highheels. Carrying around those ridiculously unpractical handbags. (They're huge so it's one big mess inside, you have to hang it from your underarm, it keeps poking people next to you. What male asshat invited those anyways?) Skinny. Like, everybody was ridiculously skinny and ridiculously pretty, doll-face make-up well-done, and just... argh! I felt so old and fat and out of place. Usually SPN cons make me feel normal and admittedly a lot of the times 'hey, at least I am not as fat as that girl in the super tight shirt with Jensen's face on it'. Because let's face it, while it's mean and all, we're all judgy bitches sometimes. - But hey, at this con at least I got to LOL about some girls who really could not walk in their pretty heels. While simultaneously feeling bad for them, because their legs must have been killing them by the end of the day. - And they got to look at me and think 'hah, at least I'm not old and fat and pathetic enough to still watch teenie shows.'
However a lot of the new people I met at this con have been super nice. In fact, I haven't met a single person I didn't like at all. Nobody was wanking or mean-spirited or telling me what a bitch Gen is (or respectively one of the other girls). So kudos TVD fandom for being pretty awesome about liking all of the stars and their respective others. It just felt so shiny happy.
The panel questions. Asking about the show was a rarity. Almost nobody ever talked about a specific scene and what did that mean / how did your character feel / why did they do that? Instead they asked the girls whose wardrobe they preferred, what perfume they liked best, what was their favorite color, and so on. I missed just about all of Michael's and Matt's panel, so no idea what the boys were asked. Nate was mostly just asked for hugs. Like, blatently so until he told them they had to actually ask a question first. Which then usually was along the lines of 'what's your favorite color' or 'would you like to appear in The Originals'? Seb wasn't really asked much either, but that's because he's an entertainer and he doesn't need questions. The first question he got was 'will you be my sugar daddy?' *ahem* Supernatural fans have too much self-respect to ask a question like that. We're questioning feminism on the show and shouldn't the female characters be stronger / survive longer? The TVD fans ask about pretty dresses and perfume. I find that kinda funny. And sad at the same time.
Nobody asked a single slash questions. They asked a lot of Caroline/Klaus shipper questions and Bonnie/Damon. Or Bonnie/Kol. What about Damon/Stefan, you guys? Alaric/Damon? That's so much more fun! The only slightly tabu ship was brought up by Nate himself, who answered every 'favorite' question with "Daniel Gillies" or "why does Rebecca have to be my sister? We have so much chemistry!" Again followed by "Daniel Gillies. Daniel Gillies. Daniel Gillies." You've gotta love a guy who ships the gay and incest for you, while the majority of fans seem to be focused on Kol/Bonnie.
Similarities. There also seem to be a lot of funny bloopers and shenanigans going on at the set. And the actors all hang out together when shooting is done. Nate was sitting in the back, watching Seb's panel. When Seb spotted him, he got up to the microphone, pretended to be a fan, and asked a question in a mock-Russian accent. It was so very Misha, it's uncanny. He either saw that happening at Dragon con or he watched panel videos, or they are just that alike. Which might just be it. I've been discussing it with gwaevalarin the whole weekend. Nate and Misha have so much in common! Give Nate two years and he has the appropriate level of snark to be Misha.
Speaking of Dragon Con. I think that was the con the SPN stars often speak of, when they saw the TVD photo ops and started mocking their poses. At the same time, the TVD stars made up a drinking game for Seb's panel. One shot whenever he makes a sexual reference. Hah! So while the SPN stars mocked them, they were mocking right back. (Of course this was a blank, seeing how Seb is part of their fandom just the same.)
Oh, another big difference. Photo ops. The SPN stars are all happy to hug and squeeze and pose with you. (Mark Sheppard aside, but even he hugs.) The TVD stars are mostly too cool for that. That's a little sad. I already got a super bad impression with Zach Roerig last year, who had both hands in his pockets and wouldn't touch you at all, but this time, Michael Trevino looked like he wanted to be anywhere but in the room, Candice was nice burt reserved, Matt Davis had his hand firmly in his pocket even when asked for (and agreeing to???) a hug (they cut the lower part out of the pic, so my photo op looks a lot nicer than it actually was). Kat Graham was the only one who readily posed and hugged and tried something new with each picture. Nate was also okay with poses and hugs, although he has the same 'Paul Wesley TM' look in all of his ops. - But it didn't feel awkward and he was really nice and gracious. He even gave us all a hug at the end of his coffee lounge, shocked to hear we paid €25 for it, so he'd give us "something worth the money". (Does he know what the other organizer charged for the m&g with Paul Wesley? I think not. - It was €350, in case you didn't know.)
So Nate = mix between Misha and Matt Cohen. He really was a super awesome guest. I did not care for him at all before, I can't even recall a single Kol scene, to be honest, but he stole my heart. Kat Graham did the same. I don't like Bonnie, but she was awesome. Candice was sweet. I think she's a hidden geek, because she admitted to being a TV junkie and she grew up to Dawson's Creek (lots of happy gasps from the audience, myself included). Otherwise she didn't really open up and stayed in her shell a bit. But it was okay. I think she was just rather shy and not "above us". A feeling I got from Michael and Matt and Zach last year.
I think it's the age difference again. A lot of those actors got casted pretty early in their carrer, so they never really had to struggle. They don't really have anything to be grateful for. I might be really wrong here, but that's what it felt like to me. Exception being Nate Buzolic, who had a really hard 5 years before he got the part, nevermind a poor childhood (=> see also: Misha Collins). So he was grateful and gracious and happy to be there. I'm not saying 'we pay them so they have to be our property for the weekend', but just a few smiles to fans go a long way. Then I don't feel like you're just there because you wanted the paid Euro vacation to get drunk with your buddies.
I never once felt like that with any of the SPN actors. Some I didn't like as much as others, but basically, the only two guests so far who I ended up disliking (Jim Michael, Rick Worthy) are drunk, grabby, sleazy old guys who behaved like we were the property. Nobody ever made me feel like I was a sleazy fangirl who just wants to cop a feel. - None of the Supernatural stars, that is.
Okay, now this all got more negative than I intended it to go. The thing is just, I was really disappointed with the photo ops last year already and now I got to add two more actors to that list. Nate was really great (not like Misha doesn't have his Misha face TM as well. It's just funny that Nate has the 'Paul Wesley' down to a T.) and Ian is always pehomenal. But Ian has been around for a while. I am pretty sure that he is damn grateful for what he's got with the show. And if the other guys don't want to be at the actual convention and can't stand the photo ops and ugh, to write all those many autographs, then they should just stay the hell at home and not go to the cons at all.
Oh, another big difference: no cosplay at the TVD con. Then again, who should they dress-up as? There's no real significant clothing here. The TVD kids have actaul closets and extensive wardrobe. They don't live out of a duffel bag or worse, are stuck in the one trenchcoat. ;) And a lot of them did look like Caroline or Nina Dobrev in her time off. Maybe dolling-up is their cosplay. Also lots of Somerhalder hats around. So yeah, I take it back. Cosplay just looks different here.
To sum it all up: The Vampire Diaries fandom is not my fandom. I don't belong in it and I don't even want to be in it. The shiny happy part is kinda cool, but my hippie phase is over. I want to discuss mythology and why Dean is so broken and can Cas ever find a balance between his human side and heaven? I don't want to say 'OMG, and then Stefan got locked in a coffin and dumped and when Elena force-fed Katherine the cure!!! OMG!!' (= conversation I actually overheard.) I'm too old for this. I just think "dude, we saw that on Angel already. And another doppelganger? Really? LOLZ, this season is shit."
Next year, I'm only going to Insurgence Germany if there a) is one b) gwaevalarin is going c) Nate is coming d) Daniel Gillies is also coming. (He was super nice at Ring Con last year! So it's not the whole cast, it's just the kids who bug me.)