Five Things My First Fandom Taught Me

From penknife (who chose Star Trek) and kangeiko, who picked Babylon 5. It was a bit difficult to choose, because on the one hand, Star Trek was my first fandom (watched TOS, watched the movies, watched TNG and DS9, watched Voyager, was in passionate love with TNG and DS9 and attended conventions), but on the other, it wasn't the first fandom I wrote fanfiction for, joined forums or mailing lists, or participated in via the internet. That, somewhat later, was Highlander. (In the meantime, I had also fallen passionately for B5, but I didn't dare to write for B5 until only two years ago; I also read a lot of ST tie ins and some fanzines back then, but didn't write until two years ago, either). So, HL it is for full-fledged fannnishness.

1) Tv shows based on movies can actually be good, and more interesting than their source, especially if they make it beyond their mixed first season

I had watched the movie Highlander, mostly because Sean Connery was in it, and had been mildly fond of it. Watched the premiere of the series mostly because I had nothing better to do, wasn't bored but not impressed enough to stick around, either (the only other first season episode I saw the first time around was the Joan Jett one, which wasn't that great), but then tuned in again during the second season, saw Studies in Light and went, hmmmm. Maybe I'll keep watching.

2) Morally ambiguous characters capture the majority of fannish hearts, which on the one hand is nifty because it gets a lot of fanfic written for you to read, but on the other makes you realize the majority of same proceeds to whitewash said morally ambiguous character into a Misunderstood Woobie (tm)

Like many a fan, I felll for Methos when he showed up in season 3. Didn't get online until season 5, though. Once I had internet access and found all those archives, I naturally looked for Methos fanfic and pretty much read everything there was in those early days. And after a while... let's just say I noticed a certain pattern. This was the year of the Comes a Horseman two parter, which meant the majority of fanfic followed the following pattern: 1) Methos has teary breakdown. 2) Joe, Amanda or Mary Sue lecture MacLeod on how utterly mean and judgmental he has been on poor Methos. 3) Duncan repents and confesses he was completely in the wrong. In between revelations that Methos hadn't really raped Cassandra but had been the nicest master ever to the ungrateful woman, and an appearance by Cass in psychotic serial killer mode so she can get beheaded by either Duncan or Methos and not disturb their future bliss through their existence anymore were optional. Which leads me to:

3) Any female character who shows hostility, anger or contempt towards an object of fannish lust has a good chance of earning hatred from the majority of the fans; if she has a genuine reason to wish the object of fannish lust dead, this is pretty much a done deal.

In those early days, the Cassandra hatred was indeed spectacular, and when she showed up in a fanfic, you could pretty much count on the fact she'd be characterized as totally insane, torturing and killing innocents left and right and of course torturing Methos so whoever killed her in the story could feel really really good about killing her. Never mind that the only people this woman in the episodes that produced this wrath was trying to get killed were the four guys who had annihilated her tribe and subjected her to torture and rape as a by product of a millennium of, as Methos put it, "angry adolescence". Never mind she actually did let Methos go when MacLeod asked her to. This phenomenon more and more disturbed me. However, it also led to lesson 4.

4) If something in fanfiction annoys you, don't waste time bitching about it; do it better.

Up to that point, I had written one Joe Dawson story dealing his reaction to discovering Methos' true identity, and one Alexa (= sweet girl Methos was in love with, died early) story. Both were short. My above named disquiet led me to write one lengthy plotty story about Cassandra and Methos called "Incubus", set between seasons 5 and 6, which led to a trilogy. And then a short story about Cassandra and Methos back in the Horsemen days called "Death and the Maiden" which was the darkest thing I had written up to that point, bar none, and even all those years later, I think it's one of my best stories. (Save for something I co-wrote with a friend, it also was my last in HL fandom, not because I grew out of love with the HLverse but because I had said pretty much all I had to say in fanfiction.) It made honorh write me her third feedback mail, and we've been friends ever since, which brings me to lesson 5.

5) "We are the champions, my friends..." (imagine this sung by Freddie Mercury, to go with the HL theme, please).

Though I had attended ST conventions, HL internet fandom was where I made my first enduring friends based on shared interests, debates, writing, joking, the entire enchilada. The first time I experienced fannish generosity and enthusiasm for sharing - Blake's 7 and Buffy The Vampire Slayer were both shows I discovered because fellow HL fans had pointed me towards them. (I in turn could convert bimo to B7 and honorh to Buffy later.) All these years later, this seems to me still be one of the best things about any fandom: the impulse to share the delight and stimulation you take from something with others.