verushka70 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
verushka70) wrote2015-09-06 02:36 pm
verushka70) wrote2015-09-06 02:36 pm
Entry tags:
"stromos" (straight homos per THR), validated discoveries (r/t TW), Hemlock Grove
Prefacing this with: yes, I do live under a rock wrt the Internet. It's due to chronic tendinitis and also not having time (and not allowed to use smartphone during work hours in front of patients -- which is basically almost all my work time) (and no dedicated PC at work) (also work network firewall on what can/can't be accessed) (also patient/visitor Wifi utterly sucks ass). So I have missed a ton of shit in the past decade... and I will continue to miss a ton more.This is not necessarily a bad thing. It just is what it is.
I've noticed this gay-looking visual trend among mainstream male stars in TV/movies growing over the years & wondered where it came from & how conscious it is (ie, w/actors' knowledge/permission?). Turns out, totally conscious/intentional these days. But I didn't see this THR article (or the ONTD that linked it) until today.
Feeling fairly smug about noticing this stuff in near total hype-isolation -- being validated by mainstream entertainment press.
Introducing the Stromo! Why Straight Male Stars are Going Gay(ish)
Channing Tatum, Nick Jonas, Chris Hemsworth and others have moved beyond metrosexual. Think of these stars as "straight" plus "homo" — modern, lady-loving male actors who amp up their appeal to gay audiences for pride and profit.
As a long time consumer of straight and gay porn, I wonder if "stromo" actors realize the visual aesthetics they're pursuing began in gay porn a long time ago -- and if that would change their minds. Probably not. All money, even gay money, is green. Progress... right?\o?
Don't really like the term "stromo" -- it doesn't convey the pandering. Pandering should be conveyed -- pejoratively, the secret leftist/anarchist in me says.
In other news -- I'm almost all caught up with TW. Haven't seen the last 2 eps (including mid-season finale of S5) yet; I'll get to 'em (they're not on Hulu yet). While binge-watching, I kept seeing "Russell Mulcahy" in TW opening credits. I knew the name was familiar but couldn't place it, so I Googled him.
He's a former producer/director of US Queer As Folk. Which explains so much about the twink porn-y visual aesthetics of TW. I again feel pretty validated about figuring something out on my own while being nearly totally isolated from all the TW hype of the last 4 years because Internet-rock-dwelling-under. I'd already watched 2 & 1/2 seasons of TW in near total Internet isolation before I found out Jeff Davis was gay (while Googling for slashy pics). So it took me until S5 to figure out Russell Mulcahy directed QAF.
Sadly, Teen Wolf S4-S5 kind of just suck. It's pretty much what happened on The Vampire Diaries, so I'm not surprised... these supernatural-high-school-kid shows with teen demographics all follow the same formulas. Sigh.
In other happy news, the 3rd (and last) season of Hemlock Grove will premiere on Netflix October 23. Now there is a supernatural-high-schoolers show with werewolves and vampires that I can enjoy for more than just the eye candy (though that's there, lol).
Part of why it's so great? While it has teen supernatural characters, it's not aimed at a teen demographic. It has Famke Jannsen and Lily Taylor, not to mention Kandyse McClure and Aaron Douglas of BSG. Also way too much underage illegal activity (drinking, smoking, drugs), plus generally way too much sex, nudity, and swearing to be aimed at a purely teen demographic. Netflix is like an upstart, streaming HBO these days... yay.
I've noticed this gay-looking visual trend among mainstream male stars in TV/movies growing over the years & wondered where it came from & how conscious it is (ie, w/actors' knowledge/permission?). Turns out, totally conscious/intentional these days. But I didn't see this THR article (or the ONTD that linked it) until today.
Feeling fairly smug about noticing this stuff in near total hype-isolation -- being validated by mainstream entertainment press.
Introducing the Stromo! Why Straight Male Stars are Going Gay(ish)
Channing Tatum, Nick Jonas, Chris Hemsworth and others have moved beyond metrosexual. Think of these stars as "straight" plus "homo" — modern, lady-loving male actors who amp up their appeal to gay audiences for pride and profit.
As a long time consumer of straight and gay porn, I wonder if "stromo" actors realize the visual aesthetics they're pursuing began in gay porn a long time ago -- and if that would change their minds. Probably not. All money, even gay money, is green. Progress... right?\o?
Don't really like the term "stromo" -- it doesn't convey the pandering. Pandering should be conveyed -- pejoratively, the secret leftist/anarchist in me says.
In other news -- I'm almost all caught up with TW. Haven't seen the last 2 eps (including mid-season finale of S5) yet; I'll get to 'em (they're not on Hulu yet). While binge-watching, I kept seeing "Russell Mulcahy" in TW opening credits. I knew the name was familiar but couldn't place it, so I Googled him.
He's a former producer/director of US Queer As Folk. Which explains so much about the twink porn-y visual aesthetics of TW. I again feel pretty validated about figuring something out on my own while being nearly totally isolated from all the TW hype of the last 4 years because Internet-rock-dwelling-under. I'd already watched 2 & 1/2 seasons of TW in near total Internet isolation before I found out Jeff Davis was gay (while Googling for slashy pics). So it took me until S5 to figure out Russell Mulcahy directed QAF.
Sadly, Teen Wolf S4-S5 kind of just suck. It's pretty much what happened on The Vampire Diaries, so I'm not surprised... these supernatural-high-school-kid shows with teen demographics all follow the same formulas. Sigh.
In other happy news, the 3rd (and last) season of Hemlock Grove will premiere on Netflix October 23. Now there is a supernatural-high-schoolers show with werewolves and vampires that I can enjoy for more than just the eye candy (though that's there, lol).
Part of why it's so great? While it has teen supernatural characters, it's not aimed at a teen demographic. It has Famke Jannsen and Lily Taylor, not to mention Kandyse McClure and Aaron Douglas of BSG. Also way too much underage illegal activity (drinking, smoking, drugs), plus generally way too much sex, nudity, and swearing to be aimed at a purely teen demographic. Netflix is like an upstart, streaming HBO these days... yay.
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Oh, I'm sorry to hear that S4 of your show went into 'meh' territory. I wonder why TV shows kinda lag in the 4th season.
Also way too much underage illegal activity (drinking, smoking, drugs)
Hahaha, that reminded me of my double-take in the earlier seasons of TVD where they had about 90% of the (then underage) characters drinking whiskey at, like, three in the afternoon. IIRC, the reasoning behind it was that alcoholic beverages would lessen the cravings for blood. It was a little weird at first, but it got out of hand when the majority of the cast became a supernatural creature. #Ohshowyouweresogoodoncebefore
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Yeah, and TW S5 was further ruination (plus no Derek/Tyler Hoechlin, one of my 2 fave characters). But since there is a ton of "S3B/S4/S5" fanfic available, there's no need to ever leave my headcanon, which is fairly canonical to S1-S3A. Except for the explicit slashing. Yay!
Yes, booze was supposed to lessen the blood cravings for the vamps on TVD. God, talk about a show that derailed itself. But, again, there's always fanfic.
I DLed S6 and S5 of TVD but... I haven't started watching them yet. S4 and the sire bond thing pissed me off, and S5 pissed me off so bad in the first few eps I just got off that train. Here and there fen were like "But Alaric's back!" and "Yay, Damon's bad again!" and I was sort of, mmm, maybe I'll check it out. But now I have all of S3 of Elementary DLed and I'd much rather rewatch that. But TVD is another show where my headcanon is basically a more-fleshed out/more backstoried, HBO-ified version of S1-S3 canon. Like you said (words to the effect of) in your other comment, for some reason shows seem to go downhill in S4. Fingers crossed that doesn't happen with Elementary, though why it would be an exception is... yeah, why would it? Sigh.
Okay, so this is how bad my TW thing got (for a very short time). I actually watched a few old eps of 7th Heaven to see what Tyler Hoechlin looked like when he was 17. Hoooohmygod, so. Fuckin'. PRETTY. *is creepy cougar* But what a bad, bad, BAD show. I mean, even for the TH pretty it was so not worth it; I was like, damnit, I'll never get those seconds, minutes and brain cells back. Who the fuck was *seriously* watching that show for the drama and not for the ridiculous campy Aaron Spelling trainwreckitude? (only all of rural and heartland America, I guess. *shrug*) It's unwatchable. Unstomachable. I mean, literally, sound muted, FFWD through the non-Tyler-Hoechlin scenes *bad*. (Plus apparently the actor who played the pastor dad admitted later to molesting underage actresses. Which is not relevant but still ew, ew, ICK! *shudder*
But omg, I see why (despite his otherwise hairless appearance) TPTB made Tyloer Hoechlin grow a 3 day beard that his character sports constantly on TW (that and forearm hair)... because without it, even now he would look terribly young and not much older than his costars... who are supposed to be high school students.
Frighteningly...? I am working on a sequel to my first TW story. *facepalm* Slash is a cruel mistress and I am its slave. (that's my story and I'm sticking to it... and my headcanon!)
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Probably part of the reason why that word hasn't caught/didn't catch on is that it'd be pretty easy to misspell it to "strobe" or even tweak it up to "stromboli" or even "trombone". IJS. LOL!
"But Alaric's back!"
I did get spoiled on Alaric's return via a random post somewhere online. Considering he was 1/2 of my OTP (Alaric/Damon), I can't deny I'm curious to see how the return (resurrection?) played out. I think I will eventually get around watching the rest of TVD seasons on Netflix...
7th Heaven. Oh, that takes me back! IIRC, I watched the show on and off because it used to air right before some other show I watched (but it wasn't Buffy, Angel or Charmed so I don't even know why I kept tuning in). In some ways, it was the "teenager version" of that other super cheesy TV show...I want to say "Touched by an Angel"? Only without the paranormal angle. But, yeah, the problems were ridiculous and everything was the TV show equivalent of uber-bland wallpaper.
(Also, yes, the actor who played the pastor was revealed to be a pedophile not so long ago. *shudders with you*)
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I tried watching TVD 7x1 last night. I lasted about 15 minutes. The introduction of a bunch of new characters every season just bugs the *shit* out of me. There is so much rich potential backstory to explore with the original characters, why can't we have that instead of a bunch of new characters every damn season?
Of all the possible pairings on TVD, Damon/Alaric is my OTP, but it's not my favorite relationship. However, that is *only* because it's a veryvery close second to Damon/Katherine/Stefan or Damon/Elena/Stefan -- like a photo finish between them, really. I think the love-triangle angst potential of OT3s sucks me in, especially with someone as head-gamey as Katherine. Man, she fascinated me circa S2-S3. The ways in which she tortured Damon in the present *and* the flashbacks were breathtaking. Plus he's so very pretty when he's broken (and even prettier when he's *bad*, lol). I started a zillion (okay, 5 or 6) WIPs of fucked up Katherine/Damon-->Damon/Katherine/Stefan, most of which I never finished. But then Damon/Alaric came along and I was like, oooh, yes, *perfect*: two angsty men both jilted by their vampire women -- perfect match! what's not to love?! Plus Matt Davis and Ian Somerhalder def had chemistry together. So I ended up writing Damon/Alaric for a Porn Battle, one of only 2 TVD fics I ever posted anywhere.
Yeah, I never got the point of shows like 7th Heaven or Touched By An Angel. Those everything-will-be-OK-in-the-end-family-first-with-the-help-of-God bullshit dramas just never interested me. If every episode of a show is like an after school special, forget it. In a way the revolting pedophile ex-star (who naturally played a *pastor*...) is just what you'd expect from such a show, as horrible as that sounds. It's like the hypocrisy wanted *out*, the way anti-gay Republican senators manage to get caught in gay relationships with senate pages.
Of course, dS often mined that "everything will turn out all right if you just do the right thing" vein. But it did it without invoking a particular deity. And though certain aspects of Fraser were clearly caricature, he also had some darkness in his past. Plus dS' sense of humor was sly and sometimes kind of seditious, too. So it could never be as blandly/annoyingly moralistic as those other shows.
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I do think that Alaric/Damon had mad chemistry from day 1. Ficwise, some of it works for me and some of it reads OTT (since it's pretty easy to make Damon OTT).Right now, I'm subscribed to this fic, patiently waiting it to get finished (since I hate reading WIPs).
To be honest, I'm surprised that there hadn't been a real scandal regarding 7th Heaven. From what I remember, the biggest one was when Jessica Biel appeared in a Maxim-style, kinda soft pornish photshoot for a magazine that doesn't exist anymore. This must have been around S3 or S4. Biel wanted out of the show (she had just gotten past 20 years old, I think, and was raring to do more exciting roles). I think she was written off and went on to do a few so-so movies. But, yeah, up until this whole thing with the actor who played the pastor, there really hadn't been anything ~tarnishing~ the show's image. #ohwell
due South relied a lot on the magical realism aspect. Like, A LOT. Which nearly overwhelmed the darker aspects of the show. I remember wishing that the latter seasons had kept a bit of the realism from the earlier seasons. I mean, I'm all for cracky aspects, but S3 and 4 really upped the ante there.
Of course, this is where the fandom helped create a more complete picture: by providing backstory and/or more "real world" aspects to the show's canon. Regardless of the fact that I've grown to dislike due South, I can't deny that it was a unique show. *hands*
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And thanks for the fic link... I already started reading it, and it looks good. Though I hate WIPs, too.
You've grown to dislike due South? Really? I agree that the crackier aspects overtook the darker possibilities, but how did you grow to dislike dS? *is quite surprised*
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I absolutely refuse to read WIPs. Well, unless the author has explicitly stated that the story is unfinished. I've been burned way too many times for me to put any faith into WIPs (even if the author is super prolific/disciplined about posting every day/week/month).
My due South break-up story is 2-fold.
On one hand, it was a very intense case of fannish burnout. I was in the fandom for 8 years--with the last 3 1/2 being very active (writing, running challenges, betaing, running rewatches). There was a point around 2009 where many people left the fandom and a whole crop of new people came in. So it kinda ended up feeling like I was in a sorta repetitious cycle.
On the other hand, I grew bored with the canon. It felt constrictive. And all that made me look at the flaws of the show to the point that I wasn't getting any enjoyment at all. Like, whatever was it that made me feel connected to the show died and never came back.
So then, I fell out of love with due South and the fandom. But a lot of people around me kept squeeing (and rightfully so since I'm not Fandom Police. Nor I want to be). Eventually, it became too much (my annoyance at hearing people talk about the show/fandom or coming across a dS post). My frustration became active dislike so I unfollowed a lot of people and comms.
For the life of me, I don't know what is it about an RPF musician fandom that speaks to me or why I'm all starry-eyed over Steve Rogers and co. But I am and that's that.
Mind you, there are things I'll be forever grateful for, that I can look back at my time in the fandom and not regret at all: I learned how to write fic, I learned fannish etiquette, I got to meet some wonderful people...so it's not as if it was all bad. It just ran its course (for me).
At this point, I highly doubt I'd go back to that fandom again (I'd first have to find the characters attractive or feel that affinity/spark I once felt). *throws hands in the air*
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I think if I hadn't gotten into dSC6D fandoms, or developed RSIs & massive RL stuff,I'd have left dS long ago. Ironically, being offline so much delayed my departure because I wasn't able to really start up new fandoms since I was reduced to hardly ever going online for a few years and tendinitis doesn't distinguish between reading or writing. I had unfinished series :-( and then stuff like HCL, BSG & DC sucked me in when dS kind of bored me. When I got back online again, more or less permanently damaged, I had to pace myself and many ppl had moved on and so had dS fandom. I can't watch Flashpoint (I've tried) despite liking HD and E. Colantoni, it's just not compelling. But the xover fics somehow bring me back to dS again after while. I'll leave it alone for a while, and then some fic or comment convo will bring it back to me. The canon was kind of weird and inconsistent and I was never one to worship PG (it was much more CKR for me, and all his C6D stuff) so I didn't think everything either he or Haggis did was gospel and I kind of felt the magical realism was almost abused/used too much. The whimsy started to seem, I don't know, manipulative or convenient after a while? From a writing standpoint. But then a lot of cracky fic mines those veins well. So to each his own.
If I'd known RPF and bandom were a thing, I'd probably have been into them in the 80s/90s. Because, honestly, that 70s pic of Bowie fellating his guitaris's guitar nearly stopped my heart the first time I saw it in an 80s Rolling Stone magazine retrospective of great rock photography.
But for whatever reason, it never occurred to me, even despite my love of Duran Duran, who probably would've been my first bandom. I don't know why I felt twinges of "bandom" seeing two tenors or a tenor and bass in certain operas, but not in my favorite bands. Except I stopped watching vids and didn't see live bands for a period of years (of utter broke-ness), and the bands I do love are not really slashable together (for me). Or they're solo artists. I got to a point where the worship of the physical aspects of musicians was kind of eclipsing my love of the music, so I just stopped watching videos and even on YouTube, I'd play the video but scroll down so I didn't see the musicians, just heard music. It's weird I know, but I love the visuals my mind creates along with the music and I just prefer the music itself.
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Funnily enough, I got into C6D some three or so years after I was in due South. I liked the idea of all these different universes that had versions of Fraser, RayK, etc. My problem was that there weren't enough fics about C6D shows written by people who were also in the due South fandom. Because, let me tell you: the way people (who aren't in due South fandom) write Joe (HCL),Daryll Van Horne (Eastwick), etc is REALLY different from people who are in due South. For me, it became very frustrating that I'd be super excited about Leoben, for example, and not find a lot of stories that weren't Kara/Leoben (for example).
I also think that the people who got into due South right as I was falling out of love with it/leaving the fandom weren't inspired to write non-due South fics. My impression could be totally wrong, but that is how I saw it.
Re: Musician RPF
It's become a lot more prevalent since the 1990s (did you know that there was Metallica RPF slash? Because I didn't) and then the 2000s (with Popslash). I'm pretty sure there's Duran Duran RPF floating around, but I have no idea what the majority of the stories would be like (mostly canon? Simon Le Bon/authorial self-insert? Somehow, I doubt they'd do a lot of AUs. Or, maybe they do because of videos like "Hungry Like the Wolf" or "Ordinary World". *hands*)
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When I fell off the face of the planet due to RL issues and RSIs, dS was getting a new influx of fen and the existing ficcing fanbase had moved through dSC6D and on to other fandoms or stopped ficcing by the time I came back. I noticed what you're talking about, the difference in how other C6D fen wrote characters. I don't have anything against Kara/Leoben (that pairing had such fantastically fucked up canon for an angst-hound like me), but I could see so many more crossover possibilities than people seemed to be exploring. And my wrists were in no position to exploit them. Ah, well.
Did not know there was Metallica RPF. o_o
I'll probably check out some bandom at some point, I was just using Duran Duran as an example. For the foreseeable future though, I ration my fannish stuff for physical reasons. I'm still invested enough in old/existing fandoms (plus gain new ones occasionally*) to not be motivated to explore bandom presently. Based on your recs, though, looks like I'll be adding MCU to my viewing queue as well as fic reading.
*Though not actively looking, new fandoms happens accidentally or incidentally, like with True Detective last year, Teen Wolf this summer via Amazon Prime, and recently iZombie because of Rob Thomas' (of Veronica Mars) involvement and S1 dropped on Netflix when S2 began broadcasting (I didn't watch it when it was broadcast on CW last year -- I think I caught one ep at that time and I meant to get back to it, but I fell too far behind and I'm on a DL moratorium due to 2 copyright violation warnings from my ISP in the last year or so).
By the same token, just 'cause I start watching a new show doesn't mean I'll start reading (or writing) fic. Like, I haven't felt the urge to read iZombie fic. Because of my RSIs and frequent tendinitis flare-ups, if there's no major slash, major angst, major darkness/noir, or a triangle/threesome (usually m/f/m), I restrict myself to viewing only.
I was planning to catch up on Gotham and AHS. (Haven't read any AHS, either.) But recently I read on an LJ of some OOC behavior on a Gotham ep. It made me wonder if I should bother investing. Not like I don't have a ton of queued stuff.
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I have about 3 posts that I need to clean up (html-related stuff) with yearly recs in several fandoms. My goal is to post the first one (for 2012 fanworks) sometime this weekend so you might want to keep an eye out for that. :)
[The recs don't get MCU-heavy until 2014, btw.]
FWIW, I don't read fic for every show I watch. Some are too stylized (like ROME, The Wire, and even True Detective) for most writers to take on. And there are others that I'm totally satisfied with what I see on the screen (How To Get Away with Murder, for example).
Gotham I dropped halfway through S1. I sorta felt meh about the whole Batman (and assorted villains)'s origin stories. I waved good-bye to AHS around episode 5 or 6 last season. Ryan Murphy is notorious for building up a lot of stories and not knowing how to get them to the endpoint. I'm still feeling quite disappointed with the way the plot meandered and fizzled out during Coven.
Based on what I've heard about Hotel, I think it's better for me to bypass it.
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Yay, recs! *claps hands*
Last 4th of July or Memorial Day Weekend, HBO had a The Wire marathon. I'd heard such good things, I tuned in. I was pleased. That's also how I saw Rome, via a marathon. I was bummed there are only 2 seasons. It was really good. And slashy.
Despite the slash, though, I haven't pursued Rome fic. I think I've read maybe 2-3 slash stories (there are a ton more).
So yeah. Some shows are satisfying enough in themselves that I don't feel the need to read fic for them. HTGAWM falls into that realm for me too. I'm 2/3 caught up (I have to watch S1E15 and then all this season's eps, then I'll be caught up). I finally know who they killed, lol!
I started watching Gotham S1 yesterday. I'm a bit perturbed by a recent dismayed LJ post from a fen friend which complained of some OOC violence by one character. From what I can see, Gotham was super violent from jump. None of the main characters are remotely cuddly except for Jim Gordon's and his gf when they're together.
I'm not sure if I'll stick with it. I like the conflicted cop angle for Jim Gordon and the seedy corruption and criminal elements. And it is Gotham City on a downward spiral. So I get why it becomes progressively more violent, because that's what happened in the comics and in every version of Batman I've ever seen (the Waynes' murders is just a notable murder in a rising trend of violence and murder as Gotham degenerates).
I liked S1-S3 of AHS. Haven't watched Coven yet. I don't even know if S5 is available on Netflix or Hulu, haven't checked. It's creepy and fun and Jessica Lange pretty much kills it.
As I age I get more interested in seeing aging women in meaty roles. Although so many of them are so ridiculously well preserved, it kind of depressingly raises the bar for women 20 years younger. But it's nice to see older actresses who haven't succumbed to the pressure to surgically or cosmetically alter their faces to the point where they either no longer look like themselves or have hardly any expressiveness left in their faces.
I just caught a Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries by accident the other day. I'm kind of on the fence. I like some period stuff (and if I had to pick a period, the 20s is a great one) and I generally dig most PBS/BBC mysteries. But I'm more of an Inspector Lynley or Case Histories type person I guess. Or Wallander. I may catch some more of Miss Fisher if I'm around but I'm not sure I'll actively pursue it when I have a ton of other stuff waiting in my queues (and I apparently need to see the Captain America movies).
HBO On Demand currently has all the X-Men movies, so I've watched them all now (except maybe whatever was in theaters in the last year, if anything). I wasn't going to watch The Wolverine but I caught part of it over the summer and though I'm not a martial arts person some of it must have rubbed off from Kill Bill so I watched it, and it was okay.
The whole young Prof. Xavier/James McIvoy and young Magneto/Michael Fassbender thing, that I'm all over mainly for the slashiness of those two together and the battle of wills. \o/ But I've actually read little XM Xavier/Magneto slash. Some of the slash I've stumbled on is -- like much of the fic on AO3 -- just OOC sap/fluff. Before I got on AO3, I guess I thought there was more good fic on AO3 than could be found in other places (e.g. ff.net).
Then I got on AO3 to pinch hit a few years ago, and I was kind of disappointed to discover AO3 is probably a much huger repository of bad!fic than any other archive, lol. Sigh! What can you do, teen dominated fandoms are, well, teen dominated. And of course I know my old fic isn't as good as my later fic -- there was just more of it because I was more prolific. Some of it makes me cringe now and if I had limitless time and energy I'd rewrite some of it, fix it up. So even if I can't read a lot of the fic, I try not to rag on it.
But then sometimes I get so frustrated because I feel like I at least tried to maintain canonical characterizations because that's what got me into them in the first place, their canonical characters! I never turned them into chicks with dicks -- I strive not to turn them into anything other than who they canonically are, even when placed in non-canonical or AU situations!
So I find myself shaking my head and not only really disappointed, sometimes really kind of pissed at the way some writers -- young or old -- change the characters to suit what they want to do with them, instead of suiting what they want to do with them to the canonical characters. It's a fine line I know... but I get so frustrated with what ends up being the fanfic equivalent of "I turned them into male Barbies and laid one on top of the other in the back of the Malibu Barbie van." *shudder* Sorry, rant over.
I'm in no way a devotee of these superhero-comics-turned-movie-franchise series. I find them pretty much equally entertaining, but I have no real preference in terms of MCU vs. XM. They're equally valid for my (typically slash) purposes.
I find the Avengers universe rather crowded with superheroes which has advantages and disadvantages. (And I'm not all caught up on them, as you know, e.g. the Captain America movies.) The advantage is so many superheroes working together does greatly expand the pairing/threesome possibilities for fic -- so, Yay. But the dramatic emotional entanglement/closeness/battle of wills/rivalry of a major slash pairing like in XM sort of gets lost in the shuffle of so many Avengers superheroes.
Maybe that'll change after I catch up to all the Captain America. Because Chris Evans -- yeesh, those porny pre-Captain America pics really intrigued me, lol.
Aaaauuuuugh! that WIP fic you linked is KILLING ME!
Even better (no, JK, worse!) than that, the author built up and built up and built up and then BROKE the Alaric and Damon relationship in the hottest, sexiest, fucked-up-iest, angstiest BDSM way possible that a terrible, horrible angst-hound like me was helpless to resist! And what a great AU take on them and the whole TVD world in the first place -- it was totally working for me... Making Kelly Donovan the mistress of the dungeon is 100% perfect (since the actress Melinda Clarke who played Kelly also played Lady Heather on the original CSI, and Lady Heather was one of the few truly memorable and interesting non-ensemble recurring characters over the years, although of course the show never really did her justice or really fully explored her) (but then, that's why there is a ton of Lady Heather CSI fanfic)... and Caroline as Alaric's driver... and, of course, a RL version of what would have really likely happened to human!Stefan if he'd tried to rescue someone from a submerged and sinking car. And, perhaps underneath it all, one of the nicest things about it is that Elena doesn't figure into it at all. Which is weird for me, but, whatevs... there's no place for her in this story and it's kind of awesome.
I am so on pins and needles wanting to know what happens next. They have to get back together! I'm holding out hope (though it seems unlikely) that Stefan will make it... Goddamnit! I *hate* WIPs for this VERY reason! This is ALL your fault. *pouts* I am so bummed that I am left hanging at a crucial juncture in this story! Augh!
Re: Aaaauuuuugh! that WIP fic you linked is KILLING ME!
Hopefully the author will resume posting and it'll be all there for you to enjoy the last remaining chapters. Here's hoping.
(I've yet to read it myself because I can't deal with WIPs. Right now, I'm subscribed to about 40 stories. Fifteen or so are in the last 5 or less chapters before the ending. I don't mind subscribing because I've already got tons of things to read. Every 4 or 5 months, I do check out all of the subscriptions to make sure they're being updated. There have been instances of fics that haven't been updated in a year so I drop them).
Re: Aaaauuuuugh! that WIP fic you linked is KILLING ME!
Hmm. I rarely subscribe to anything, anywhere. I get so much email stuff I can't keep up, let alone being following other stuff. But that seems like a good way to manage following WIPs w/o reading them until they're finished. I'm more a Search/what do I want to read today? fic reader.
Re: Aaaauuuuugh! that WIP fic you linked is KILLING ME!
FWIW, I wasn't into using the subscriptions feature until I got into MCU. This is the first fandom I've been in where authors post stuff in chaptered form. Eventually, the list of fics I wanted to check whether or not had been updated grew too large to manage so I started subscribing to them. As per my last count, I am subscribed to 78 stories and/or authors.
Nowadays, I wait until I get that notification saying that XYZ author has posted chapter 12/12. After I shimmy for a brief moment, I go over to AO3, unsubscribe from that fic, and add it to my bookmarks (sometimes writing a brief note of why I want to read if the tags and summary aren't descriptive enough). If it's one I've been waiting forever and day to read, then I'll download it to my tablet.
Right now, my bookmarks are in the very low 500s (510? 512?) which is just about the most fics I can manage having on a TBR without feeling terrible.
Since I read about a fic or 2 per night, I'm constantly deleting and adding stories to my bookmarks.
I'm more a Search/what do I want to read today? fic reader.
I'm like that with my bookmarks. Sometimes, I'm in the mood to read shorter 5k to 10k fics. Othertimes, I want to curl up with a story that's 20 - 50k. And then, once a week I'll crack open a 100k story to enjoy for a few nights.
Re: Aaaauuuuugh! that WIP fic you linked is KILLING ME!
I recently learned how to search AO3 by excluding certain tags and sorting by number of comments or kudos. So f I want (let's say) TVD slashfic with Alaric/Damon paring, and I do not want kidfic or mpreg, I just choose the appropriate fandom and pairing. Then when those 60,000 fics come up (only slightly joking), I go to the filtering thing (on the right side of traditional AO3 screen), then in the "other tags" field, I put -mpreg -kidfic.
You can even do wildcard exclusion. Like if you want to avoid all AUs, you can put -alternat* in the "other tags" field, and the filtering excludes all words beginning with "alternat".
Prioritizing higher numbers of kudos and comments isn't foolproof. It can be a crapshoot. (After all, a large number of comments could be artificially high from one or two long-runinng comment convos between author and reader(s) -- or it could be because the story actually got that many kudos or comments).
(Apologies if you already knew this stuff... I've only been on AO3 a few years, since I pinch-hit for a dSSS a few years ago... I was kind of ecstatic when I learned of the exclusion possibilities. Really helps whittle down the fics in very large or old fandoms where lots of fic has accumulated.)
Re: Aaaauuuuugh! that WIP fic you linked is KILLING ME!
Part of the reason why I've got so many is because I've gotten into reading fandoms way later (like MCU, Inception, Adam Lambert RPF). So there's a lot of stuff to wade through (etc).
The other part is a mix of laziness and convenience, really. Since I'm already bookmarking on AO3, all I have to do if I want to read something is to dl directly to my tablet.
I remember coming across inclusion and exclusion tags in the searches, but I can't say I've used them a lot. Mostly because 90% of the time I find fics by following rec links. So it is v., v. rare that I'll go to AO3 and type up what I'm looking and not looking for.
Still, it's a very handy option so thumbs' up for you. :)
Re: Aaaauuuuugh! that WIP fic you linked is KILLING ME!
IIRC the 2nd iteration of the dS archive (not Hexwood) had that ability, and I remember when that feature was new I abused the hell out of it. At least, the dSA had that feature while it was still being maintained. A few times a year I'll go to the dSA looking for something and (re)discover that the regular search function is broken (let alone the exclusion ability). It has been for a long time -- I want to say years. At least, in every browser I've used in the last several years...
But Yay, DLable fanfic! \o/
Re: Aaaauuuuugh! that WIP fic you linked is KILLING ME!
It got to the point where I uninstalled Calibre since the only reason I used it was to convert docs to epubs for fics posted on LJ and the like. I know there are several reasons why people like Calibre (including organizing TBR piles and the like). But I've only used it to convert files so it got deleted from my laptop. :)