End Of The Year Fandom Meme

[rogueslayer452]

Which TV shows did you start watching in 2020?
The Untamed, Buzzfeed Unsolved, The Great British Bake-Off, Crash Landing On You, Dance of the Phoenix, The Baby-sitters Club. Ironically not much, considering the way 2020 has been you'd think I would've dove headfirst into discovering newer/older shows, but there's only so much I can consume before becoming overwhelmed.

Which TV shows did you let go of in 2020?
Just the ones that ended. Agents of SHIELD had their seventh and last season this year, and it's a show I'll greatly miss. It was one of those shows that, although it had some bumps in the road at first, kept up its momentum once it got going.

Which TV shows did you mean to get into but didn't in 2020? Why?
I can't think of any at the moment, at least when it comes to newer shows. I definitely have a long list of shows that I've been meaning to check out for some time now that I will get to eventually.

Which TV shows do you intend on checking out in 2021?
Let's be honest, taking into account everything that's been happening since the pandemic we have no idea what is coming within the next year. So many shows have either stalled in their production from the lockdown and trying to figure out how to go forward with health and safety restrictions or have been cancelled because of COVID reasons. Hearing about the shows that have been renewed but then their renewals walked back and they were cancelled because of this has been an ongoing thing, and it sucks. So even if there are shows being announced to come within the next year or so, the possibility of them not actually happening is also on the table, as well.

Which TV show impressed you least in 2020?
None, at least the ones that I've watched.

Which TV show do you think you might let go of in 2021 unless things significantly improve?
I can't think of any at the moment.

Which TV shows do you think you’ll never let go of no matter how crappy they get?
Again, I can't think of anything.

Your main fandom of the year?
The Untamed. I knew I was going to watch the show, what I didn't expect was to be completely consumed by everything surrounding it, from the fandom to the original source material and everything else in between. I don't think I've been this obsessed over something on this level in a long time, simply because there is quite a lot of content, both canonically and fandom related. And through this, I've also become interested in other things that the actors from The Untamed have done and been in, as well.

Your favorite film you watched this year?
I don't think I watched anything noteworthy in film this year, which is kind of sad....

Your favorite book read this year?
Dune by Frank Herbert. I'm still making my way through the rest of the books (only have Heretics of Dune and Chapterhouse: Dune left), but I have to say I've been enjoying the wild ride it has been. Admittedly, I did want to read the first book in preparation of the new adaptation (that has now been pushed back to 2021), however I've been familiar with Dune as a story for much longer and wanted to read the entire thing for myself, and sure enough, I loved it, and I wanted to get even deeper into the meat of the whole story with the rest of the books.

Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?
Dua Lipa's Future Nostalgia is probably the best album of the year, all the songs are bops to the point where I didn't skip any of them, and that's not usually the case even for some of the artists I really love. I've also been really obsessed with K/DA's music ("The Baddest" and "More") and the debut of aespa ("Black Mamba") which has been in constant rotation lately. And, because of my current obsession, listening to The Untamed soundtrack has also been a huge highlight since discovering it, if not for the specific scores ("WuJi (Instrumental)") then for the individual character songs ("WuJi", "Beyond Control", and "Liberation at Deserted City", to name a few that have also been in constant rotation for me).

Your favorite TV show(s) of the year?
The Untamed, even though it came out in 2019 I discovered it this year. And Agents of SHIELD, because it was the last season and they certainly made the most of it, no doubt, making it a great bookend to a great show.

Your favorite online fandom community of the year?
I'm going to have to say The Untamed, not only because I'm so in love with the series, but the fandom community is filled with a lot of talented individuals creating a variety of fanworks all which have been amazing, also there's been some fantastic fan discussions and analyzing of the story itself that I've been deep into recently, mostly because I love fan theories and digging deeper into characters and their individual arcs. I know that the fandom does have some drama (as all fandoms do), however I've managed to mostly steer clear from any of that and just found people who just genuinely share their enjoyment of the series. I've also discovered a lot more with the actual novel itself and the other adaptations from it, and learning a lot more about things that I didn't know that well before re: Chinese drama and culture. Overall, I have been enjoying this fandom a whole lot, and discovering new things all the time.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
The Untamed. As I already mentioned above, the obsession is real. It grabbed a hold on me and hasn't let go, and I'm happy for it.

Your fandom that made an unexpected comeback this year?
Now, it hasn't been my fandom for many years, but everything that went down with Supernatural as it aired its final episodes truly was something to behold. I was merely watching from the sidelines, but boy, seeing how the Internet kind of came together, especially in regards to the fandom community coming together, to talk about it truly was the wildest thing and it reminded me so much of how fandom used to be when it came to collectively talking about something big that happened within the fandomsphere in general, something that I've missed dearly. From Castiel confessing his love for Dean, the confirmation that it was, indeed, meant romantically, to the shitstorm the series finale created and then the whole Spanish dub situation, regardless whether it was fans psychoanalyzing everything or people mocking and shitposting about it, the fact that this was the most that Supernatural was talked about as a whole in years has been the most unexpectedly hilarious thing ever.

Aside from that though, Battlestar Galactica made a brief comeback this year when people were watching it during lockdown. It made me rather happy seeing newcomers discovering the show, even if it was just for a hot minute. And interestingly enough, Animorphs ended up getting a resurgence as well, thanks to the announcement of there being a movie adaptation of the books along with the graphic novel release of the books, which got me incredibly excited.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
I think learning about the fact that one of the main cast members of The Expanse is a horrible, despicable person who has hurt so many people. That revelation completely shocked me. The upside to this is that not only did everyone involved with the show take the allegations seriously, but the outcome is that this actor has been fired from the show, giving victims at least some kind of justice in this case. Still, it's disappointing and I hate seeing such a fantastic show that I love very much be tainted in such a way. On that note, hearing that the sixth season of The Expanse will be the last was a little bit disappointing, as well. I've made my peace with this news though, seeing as how, narratively, it makes sense judging from those who have read the books and how it's actually a good place to end things. At the same time, I would've liked to have seen the show continue on to adapting the entirety of the book series.

And, of course, everything that happened with JKR this year. Like, there are no words to describe the level of massive disappointment there was throughout the HP fandom, leading to a lot of discussions and debates, but overall JKR is literally the biggest disappointment by revealing what a despicable human being she actually is with her bigoted views.

In general, I think the way certain fandoms have been acting really kind of brings the disappointment. This isn't new or unusual, because fandoms acting up or being unpleasant to be in is just part of the experience of being among fandom, but there have been unfortunate things with the fandoms I'm involved in or on the fringes of that have me just shaking my head and thinking, seriously?

Your fandom boyfriend(s) of the year?
Lan Xichen (The Untamed), Jiang Cheng (The Untamed), Xue Yang (The Untamed), Daniel Sousa (Agents of SHIELD), Din Djarin (The Mandalorian)

Your fandom girlfriend(s) of the year?
Daisy Johnson (Agents of SHIELD), Ellie Williams (The Last Of Us: Part II), Abby Anderson (The Last Of Us: Part II)

Your biggest squee moment of the year?
I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but discovering The Untamed is probably the biggest highlight for me this year.

The most missed of your old fandoms?
I feel like the answer is the same every year, but the sense of community. Although we did get some of that back with the entire kerfuffle wild ride that was Supernatural that even people who never watched or cared about the show was talking about it, and I just kind of wish there was more of that kind (not so much the shitposting but the collective excitement and talk across the fandom community).

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?
Because I guess I've been sucked into getting back into Asian dramas (I used to watch jdramas/kdramas years ago, but I kind of drifted away from them for no reason in particular), I've been curious about some that I've seen people talk about. Guardian is something I've seen pop up, especially from The Untamed fans. 2gether is another show that I've seen around, a Thai series that is a gay romance that apparently centers around the "fake dating" trope. And then there's Heaven Official's Bless (aka Tiān Guān Cì Fú, or TGCF) which is a donghua series based around the novel by MXTX, the same author that wrote The Untamed novel. I'm been curious about that.

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?
At this point, I'm mostly just hoping that anything new appears, whether it's television or movies, though hopefully with the latter they'll reconsider the theater options for streaming services because COVID is still happening (and getting worse in some areas here in the USA because people are being stupid), and so many things have been pushed back or put on pause because of it. I don't have high expectations or anticipations when it comes to the entertainment industry at this moment in time because so many projects have been screwed over, that we can just hope that things go smoothly for those that are still hopefully going to happen, and if it happens next year or will get pushed back yet again because of restrictions and whatnot.


This year certainly has been....a lot for most of us, and looking back at the things that happened it honestly feels like forever ago. Fandom has been a constant form of escapism for me, whether it's discovering or rediscovering something, to keep myself sane, especially during times like this.

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[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

It was less painful than it could have been for me because (plus distance from my childhood) in a way, being disappointed by my thesis advisor, who is a relatively well-known author in the genre (though I still met people who didn't know her at World Fantasy Convention) whom I respected, prepared me for being disappointed by other well-known authors I respected.

Still, it's pretty horrible to think about. When I was a kid I had a Harry Potter themed bathroom, and I still have a Hogwarts Express sticker on my bookcase.