Notcapade: Why SGA?
I figure the pre-con alcohol consumption has just begun, so here's an early offering:
Unless you've been living under a rock, fannishly speaking, for the last year or so, you've probably seen at least one (somewhat plaintive) comment on how SGA has eaten fandom. And while I'm not entirely convinced it's all that much more ubiquitous than, say, TPM was (more on that in a sec), there's no question that it's kind of exploded.
I've theorized here and there, mostly privately, on why, so I thought as my Notcapade contribution, I'd offer up a couple of my theories and ask people for theirs. In the spirit of Notcapade, I'm going to play moderator and point out that I and many on my friends list are fans, so take that into advisement when posting ;). Really, I'm interested here in why the fandom is so popular. Topic, topic.
So, my theories. One is external, and the other is internal.
Externally, I think it was a question of timing. Several fandoms were either going off the air or finally slowing down for lack of new material. Buffy and Angel are gone, TPM had a brief resurgence with RoTS, but not as much as that tag might have led to, and how long has N'Sync been on "hiatus," now? And then there are fandoms where the source material was getting either problematic from a slash perspective (say, Smallville) or just plain fraught (DC, I'm looking at you. I love you, but I'm looking at you.). And then there's SG-1, losing half of several slash pairings. Suddenly there's this shiny new thing, and, well, SHINY!
And then there's the LJ effect. There was a time when I heard about other fandoms mostly through private chat or the one or two multi-fandom lists. Now, I can't not hear about the other fandoms people are into. And that's not a complaint: I owe several of my favorite new tv shows to that. But things spread more than they used to.
So, externally, timing.
Internally, there's something I mentioned waaaaay back with TPM that versatility seems to be a key in popular fandoms. And SGA? Really versatile.
For one, it's an ensemble fandom, which seems to be the preference these days. Although there's clearly one favored pairing, there's room for lots and lots of others, as well as good character-oriented gen. No matter your favored character archetype, you're likely to find someone you like.
That said, it seems to follow the tv-trend of "buddy show within an ensemble." The relationship between Sheppard and McKay has many of the buddy-show elements, with the bickering and the being twelve and the devotion. There are even sort of side-buddy relationships as well.
Perhaps most importantly, just about anything you want to write/read fits. You want light-hearted comedy? It works! You want seriously angsty dark trauma? It works! There's a reason why this fandom is the crackiest this side of DC. When you start with space vampires that look like the unholy lovechild of Marilyn Manson and a catfish, there's not a lot of room for exclusion there.
So, those are my theories. Yours?
ETA: For those of you coming from metafandom, please consider joining us in our Notcapading by digging into the comments a few layers ;).
Unless you've been living under a rock, fannishly speaking, for the last year or so, you've probably seen at least one (somewhat plaintive) comment on how SGA has eaten fandom. And while I'm not entirely convinced it's all that much more ubiquitous than, say, TPM was (more on that in a sec), there's no question that it's kind of exploded.
I've theorized here and there, mostly privately, on why, so I thought as my Notcapade contribution, I'd offer up a couple of my theories and ask people for theirs. In the spirit of Notcapade, I'm going to play moderator and point out that I and many on my friends list are fans, so take that into advisement when posting ;). Really, I'm interested here in why the fandom is so popular. Topic, topic.
So, my theories. One is external, and the other is internal.
Externally, I think it was a question of timing. Several fandoms were either going off the air or finally slowing down for lack of new material. Buffy and Angel are gone, TPM had a brief resurgence with RoTS, but not as much as that tag might have led to, and how long has N'Sync been on "hiatus," now? And then there are fandoms where the source material was getting either problematic from a slash perspective (say, Smallville) or just plain fraught (DC, I'm looking at you. I love you, but I'm looking at you.). And then there's SG-1, losing half of several slash pairings. Suddenly there's this shiny new thing, and, well, SHINY!
And then there's the LJ effect. There was a time when I heard about other fandoms mostly through private chat or the one or two multi-fandom lists. Now, I can't not hear about the other fandoms people are into. And that's not a complaint: I owe several of my favorite new tv shows to that. But things spread more than they used to.
So, externally, timing.
Internally, there's something I mentioned waaaaay back with TPM that versatility seems to be a key in popular fandoms. And SGA? Really versatile.
For one, it's an ensemble fandom, which seems to be the preference these days. Although there's clearly one favored pairing, there's room for lots and lots of others, as well as good character-oriented gen. No matter your favored character archetype, you're likely to find someone you like.
That said, it seems to follow the tv-trend of "buddy show within an ensemble." The relationship between Sheppard and McKay has many of the buddy-show elements, with the bickering and the being twelve and the devotion. There are even sort of side-buddy relationships as well.
Perhaps most importantly, just about anything you want to write/read fits. You want light-hearted comedy? It works! You want seriously angsty dark trauma? It works! There's a reason why this fandom is the crackiest this side of DC. When you start with space vampires that look like the unholy lovechild of Marilyn Manson and a catfish, there's not a lot of room for exclusion there.
So, those are my theories. Yours?
ETA: For those of you coming from metafandom, please consider joining us in our Notcapading by digging into the comments a few layers ;).