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.

[kyuuketsukirui.livejournal.com]

I think the fact that SGA is a very, very, very AU-loving fandom will keep it going even more than it would have if it were very canon-centric.

[wellifnotwisely.livejournal.com]

No-one's written the Merlin (BBC)/SGA crossover yet. Or the epic Harry Potter/Due South/Smallville/SGA (heck, why don't we throw BBC Merlin in there as well) crossover fic where all the beautiful dark-haired boy-men have the ATA gene and are conscripted to the Stargate program.

[lherelenfeline.livejournal.com]

I would just like to pint out that there HAS been a Due South/SGA/The Sentinel fic. The addition of HP and Smallville is only a matter of time.
Juts imagine a conversation between Fraser and Snape on the subject of Harry feeding Diefenbaker doughnuts while RayK cheerfully looks the other way.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I would just like to pint out that there HAS been a Due South/SGA/The Sentinel fic

Of course there has. It's SGA. I love this fandom. *shakes head in disbelief*

[auburnnothenna.livejournal.com]

- Do the main archives, challenges, communities, still have people to run them?

Okay, since you're feeling pontific, how do you think the establishment of the Archive of Our Own will effect this? Quite a few people in SGA are also tied into the OTW and some SGA stories are already up there. Say Wraithbait and Area 52 were wiped out at the end of December.

[lherelenfeline.livejournal.com]

This one is more along the lines of straight up DS/SGA.

http://miriel.livejournal.com/359255.html

Enjoy.

[vulgarweed.livejournal.com]

I just wanna stop in and say hi, as someone whose primary fandom consists of one book (no sequels) that was published in 1990. Fandom still going strong. :D I believe!

[whatifisaidno.livejournal.com]

I think HP fandom's main problem was the epilogue, and how it, for lack of a better term, fucked most everyone over. I know it put me out, that and the deaths :/ And there's something about EWE fic that's just a little hard to believe.

Considering your questions, I think SG will be just fine :)

[mad_maudlin]

I don't know about the rest of y'all, but I'm just waiting for some free time (hah, what's that?) to begin my epic series of pseudo-intellectual SGA mashups with which I will pretend to explore archetyping of characters and fanfic as a form of literary criticism, while actually squeeing endlessly about how John = Jack Harkness and Ronon = Roland Deschain and possibly Rodney = Night Owl. BECAUSE THEY ARE ALL TRUE.

(But Keller != Kaylee. I'm writing that one with all Season 1 cast. Maybe she can = Tiger Cub if I get that far.)

(And yes I did just reference five other fandoms in five sentences.)

[pxr5.livejournal.com]

Heh. I've got plenty of fandoms in which the primary material has *long* (over 25 years) been off the air.

While the writing for them has slowed up a bit, there are still dedicated folks out there writing in them.

[bruinsfan.livejournal.com]

- How dependent on canon is the fandom (are the majority of fics episode tags, or have the fic writers embraced AUs and crossovers)?

Oh man, the sentient raccoons are going to be writing John/Rodney cattle baron AUs long after we're extinct, aren't they?

[thady.livejournal.com]

One of my favorite fandoms, due South, has been off air for about 10 years, and it still gets new fans and writers.

Considering everything I don't think Stargate: Atlantis will just die out.

[dkwilliams.livejournal.com]

I came to both Highlander and Due South fandom long after they'd gone off the air. And while there is less of the NEW! SHINY!, there is still a persistent fandom.

[pi]

Gundam Wing is still trucking, as are most of the fandoms that I have been in that have stopped airing. There are always a few new people discovering a series whether or not it's on the air. This is why DVDs are good. As long as there are people who want to play in the universe then it will be. And Stargate, like other SciFi epics has such a big world to play in. I'll be interested to see how the new series will affect SGA fandom, as there's some amount of jumping between SG1 and SGA that I've noticed, who's to say that a new series wont bring new fans to find SGA? That's how I found SG1, I would never been aware of it without SGA. So as long as there are people who really love their show/universe then there'll probably be fandom around it.

[birggitt.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm old enough to have seen a lot of shows end, and they still have a strong fandom, Star Trek TOS being the first example to come to my mind. But there are others: Professionals, Starsky & Hutch, due South, Sentinel, X-Files, Highlander and so on.
Of course, there are a lowering in the amount of fics and art, because people tend to fall in love with other shows, but there are still there, if you care to look.
SGA has a strong fandom base, and is very fond of AUs and crossovers, so I believe its gonna be ok.
Conventions had a lot to do with fandoms surviving the show, of course. Movies... well, they not always as good as they should, and fandom just despise and do their best to avoid them (Highlander: The Source, anyone?)
I probably most fans are just like me: they move on to new shows, but never let the old ones really behind. You love them, you keep them around =D

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Archives preserve fics and keep the old stories alive, but it's challenges and community efforts (like the sga_noticeboard) that promote a cohesive fandom. Above all, recs are the most important part of fandom. Without them, it's too hard to find to good stories.

An Archive Of Our Own won't promote one fandom in particular. In fact, if anything it'll encourage more people to be "multi-fandom" and support microfandoms.

If An Archive Of Our Own is successful, and I can't see why not, then I think fanfic might become more author-centric and less fandom-centric. AAOOO will be so huge that once you find a good author, you'll read whatever fandom appeals to you that they've written.

[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?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

It's a point in its favor. Canon? What canon?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

*grins* I guess that's been answered.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Point made. Yes, indeed.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

EWE fic? What are those?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

The meta to end all meta. *tips hat* And I only read one of those fandoms, and recognize two. Possibly three. :)

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Everyone brings up Due South. And the Professionals. Not to mention Star Trek: TOS. It all depends on the fans' commitment, really.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Yes. Probably.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Due South is the classic example. From what I hear, the quality of the fanfic is exceptional, too.

[likethemodel.livejournal.com]

Epilogue? What Epilogue?

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I learned an important lesson from her epilogue: never, even if you've written your ending in advance, just leave an older piece of writing in place. She'd grown as a writer so much in the interim. Never mind the ships.

The epilogue was trite, wooden, lacking in context and vivid description. I hit the end of it and wished that I'd skipped it.

[whatifisaidno.livejournal.com]

I wish she would have thrown out her outline all together. How often do you write something and have it finish in the same way you expected it would since the beginning? I know I never do.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

If she had thrown out her outline, I doubt she would have ever finished.

Plus, once a story gets that big, it's not like a short story. You can't keep the whole thing in your head.

200 pages and half a dozen characters is doable.

Once you have an entire school, several families, and two generations, plus the Muggle and Wizarding world--? No way she could throw away the outline. Never in a million years. She'd never keep it straight.

I just always thought it odd that she threw away the Hogwarts school year structure for the final book. It was very disorienting.

[nemesina77.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I still haven't read DH, it's actually still in it's Amazon.com special cardboard wrapping in my spare bedroom. When I heard about all the deaths I was too upset to read it, nevermind the epilogue. Basically, I'm living in AU land, which is what I mostly read in most fandoms anyway!

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

I'm caught between horror, amusement, and being mildly impressed. I could never have not read it.

[nemesina77.livejournal.com]

Well, to be honest, when it came I had already read several people's reactions, because I didn't get it until the day after, because it, for some reason, got sent to my parent's house instead of my apartment. So I'd read basically everything that had happened and I realized that I was really upset and that I couldn't read it at that point so it was probably smarter to wait a while. Snape was my favorite character and I hated that she did that to Fred and George. Plus, the whole epilogue sounded like something from FF.net.

I'll probably eventually read it though, I usually re-read all of the books before I go and see the newest installments in the movie series.

[aigooism.livejournal.com]

A bit I think. XD

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Due South is the first fandom I think of when I think "end of canon." If the fics are good and people are still reading and writing, it'll go on.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Hey, conventions kept Star Trek: TOS alive. I hadn't thought about the problems with the movies. But the Stargate SG-1 movies did give the SG-1 fandom a shot in the arm.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

Oh, plus SGA is in syndication. They have 100 episodes. So there will be that as well.

[mad_maudlin]

Plus, I kind of suspect that Ron was drunk in it.

[mad_maudlin]

Hey, it'll amuse the hell out of me, and isn't that the point of all fanfic?

(Curiosity: which fandoms did you recognize?)

[pxr5.livejournal.com]

Yep, absolutely!

[blue-underwing.livejournal.com]

I actually have a general policy of NOT reading fic in fandoms with an active canon (or at least not a canon I'm actively following). Now this isn't hard and fast, I obviously broke it for SGA, but I did avoid HP fic until after the last book was out.

I think this is mostly due to how much I hate being "Jossed". I'm perfectly happy reading AUs, but if I've developed a favorite interpretation of canon (as inevitably happens when I read fic) I hate being proven wrong.

[dear-sweet-lana.livejournal.com]

There's also "Imperfections" by Dasha

http://www.wraithbait.com/viewstory.php?sid=8178

and

http://tslibrary.skeeter63.org/authors/auth-dasha.htm

It's a giant multi-fandom crossover -- The Sentinel, Due South, Stargate: Atlantis, CSI, Bones, Monk, and a few others, I think, but not Harry Potter. It's really good.

[icarusancalion.livejournal.com]

The problem with crossovers is that you have to know all the fandoms to appreciate them.

I did read one Supernatural/Numb3rs crossover (Num3ers is a show I don't watch) that worked very well. The only trouble is, the writer never described how the Num3ers characters looked. It was an odd blank in such a well-drawn story.

[dear-sweet-lana.livejournal.com]

I'm always reading crossovers that I don't know the other fandom(s). I guess I just "make up" the appearances of the unfamiliar characters, as I would if it were non-fannish.