On the End of Canon: What keeps a fandom alive?

[icarus]

A question came up on my f-list about the end of canon in Stargate Atlantis.

I'm not sure whether the imminent end of the series has any significant effect on readership

In the Harry Potter fandom it certainly didn't. I can't imagine the end of the series would have a significant impact right away. Quite the opposite. There's a spike in interest as people mourn, fret over what's not neatly tied up, are annoyed at the author's/PTB's ships, or just miss it and want more, darn it. In time I think it will taper off as people find other active canons and drift to new fandoms, but no boom is going to be lowered late December, no, not at all.

How active the fandom remains depends on the fandom:

- Do the main archives, challenges, communities, still have people to run them? (Most Important Factor.)
- Is the fandom old enough to have a solid body of work, and fandom tropes, to sustain it?
- Are there lots of Swiss cheese-like holes remaining to play in?
- How dependent on canon is the fandom (are the majority of fics episode tags, or have the fic writers embraced AUs and crossovers)?
- How committed are the fans to keeping their fandom alive? Have fans declared that nothing will stop their ship? Or have they been ho-hum about the end of their series?
- Are there other factors to keep the fandom alive? Spin-offs, movies, conventions.

Comments

[aigooism.livejournal.com]

I think no fandom will really die out. There will always be a fan, whether a handful or a crowd that will continue to churn out some type of fanwork.

When HP ended, I was thinking I'd participate less in it since the series finish, and my prediction came true. I still read HP fics and whatnot, but not as much as before. In fact, I find myself re-reading all the old fics from the earlier days more than the newer ones that comes out.

It's true that the epilogue left me feeling . . . BLEH about many stuff especially Harry hooking up with Ginny, and that's why I do turn to fanfics to get away from canon. However, that doesn't mean I really am into it as much as I was three years ago, let's say. Of course there are other factors that comes into place such as finding other interests/fandom, work, real life, and etcetera.

So while the series' end may slow down certain fandom activity, I don't think it will fully die out since newcomers will continue to discover the older works and be inspired by them to churn out their own works.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I drifted from Harry Potter long before the last book came out, so I can't say the end of canon had anything at all to do with it.

Were you feeling bleh before Deathly Hollows?

[aigooism.livejournal.com]

A bit I think. XD