This is an attempt at organizing a celebration around the superblond pairing (Kon El/Bernard Dowd).
The superblond fandom may only be seventeen-ish strong, but we deserve to be fed, too!
what are we even talking about, here?
@cactus-k0ala and @coconutjelly wanted to address the criminal deficit of superblond content with a low-stakes bingo challenge to encourage new superblond content out here in these desolate wastes.
There are four mini bingo cards, each with a 3x3 of prompts. Pick up any that speak to you, and complete as many prompts you want. It only takes 3 works for a bingo, or 9 if you're a completionist and want to fill every prompt on a card! We wanted there to be space for someone who only has time for a handful of fanworks, as well as breadth for those who might want to really cut loose on a summer fandom run!
"challenge" is a loose concept
Participation is intentionally flexible, because the only real goal is to give ourselves more superblond to scream about online be super chill and normal about.
No sign-up process or moderation - just make things and share it! The challenge runners do not have time or interest in cherry-picking who gets to scream into the void. The void for this pairing is big enough for everyone to scream.
Create whatever inspires you from a prompt - fanfic, notfics, drabbles, scribbles, full renders concept art, podfic, playlists, comic panels, moodboards, video montages - all are welcome!
Any rating, any AU, any medium (just make sure it can be shared via tumblr/AO3!), any themes, any side characters. Yes, that includes timberkon, just aim for a superblond focus!
Share it on tumblr and use the tag #superblond bingo. Submit it to this blog. Add it to the AO3 collection. Tell your cashier at the grocery store. Telepathically stream it to the collective superblond consciousness. Whatever method you use, just make sure people know you made something for this lovely pair of blorbos.
As a fic writer, my sense is that it's much easier for fan artists to get appreciation, but I wonder how artists and other writers feel about it. For people who do both, do you feel like you get better, more rewarding feedback for your art or your writing? (That may, of course, depend on which is your stronger skill.)
I will admit, there are times when I would love to separate my additions from an original post. Usually when I take something very not-fandom and make it fandom. I'm always a little embarrassed that someone might see my "lol this is so bernard" or "#things that feel think pink coded" and judge me for it.
But also? I am delighted every time someone "yes and"s my bs. I am delighted every time someone tag rambles in my notes. I am delighted every time i get to see my own enthusiasm reflected back at me. I am delighted every time I have a reblog convo with people where we dog-pile on a concept that gets more and more out of hand.
This is the fandom experience I want.
If I were to share something here, and a random poster reblogged going, "yo this is exactly like in MHA when itadori and himmel went after the dragonball!"? I would be equally delighted to see other people dog-pile with their moots.
My friend, idk your fandom or what you're talking about, but 1) I am filled with joy that you, too, have characters who resonate in your mind with the kind of excitement me and my moots have over our blorbos, and 2) maybe now I need to go find your blorbos to understand the reference, and 3) maybe those are my new blorbos to keep in a jar on my shelf.
When I share @plagueislost 's art or @opalsong 's podfic and scream about it, that is part of the conversation that started with their work. When my hands slip and I write notfics and oneshots in a reblog, that isn't for me or my blog - it's for the creator to see what they've inspired. It's maybe a little bit for my followers, too, but only in that I want everyone to see the thing that inspired me and throw their love on it.
If I want to start a new conversation about someone's post, if I don't want to say "lol this is so bernard" to a stranger, there is already a native function for that - by writing a new post.
We can work around this - we can add notes in reblogs and say, "remember to comment/like/reblog on the original post," and those of us who care will make time and space to do so. But casual interaction will plummet, because adding even a single step to the process deters many.
I don't want my enthusiasm for something to detract from the person who made it. I don't want people to lose ownership of whether their posts can generate comments and reblogs. I don't want to create new pockets for harassment to be protected.
One of the things I love the most about Zenshu is how it portrays how a fan's undying love for a piece of media is just as important and powerful and valid as the original creator's intent (arguably more so).
**Spoilers**
I mean, the entire ending conflict is the original creator literally telling Natsuko that "it's no use" and A Tale of Perishing will always have a tragic ending, no matter how hard Natsuko tries to prevent it from happening.
And Natsuko still succeeds in rewriting the ending of her favorite movie, the movie that inspired her to become an animator, and give all of her favorite characters the happy ending they deserved.
The literal creator of the Universe was not only telling her that it couldn't be done, but that she was wrong in trying to rewrite the ending and make things better.
AND SHE STILL DID IT!
Then again, I'm a fanfic author, so maybe I'm just biased.
There's also a lot that can be examined about Nihilism vs Optimism, refusing to give up hope and continuing to fight even when everything and everyone is telling you to give up, the older generation (notice how older characters like Elder Baobab and Kametaro Tsuruyama have accepted the inevitable and don't believe there is any way of stopping the end of the world, so they don't even try?) having already given up and leaving the younger generation to do all of the fight.
This anime is just... far deeper than I think a lot of people initially give it credit for.
Hi! Thank you for all the love you’ve shown the FANMADE sample issue — it means the world.
Going forward, we want to make sure you have a say in who and what we spotlight in future issues. That’s why we’ve opened a few new ways for you to get involved!
– Creator Spotlight – nominate a fan creator who makes your corner of fandom better (or nominate yourself, we love self-recs!).
– Small Fandom Spotlight – tell us about an underappreciated fandom that deserves some love.
– Fic Recs for FANMAIL – share your favourite fanfics! Any fandom, any pairing, any genre, any rating – we just ask that mature fics are tagged correctly, and that the author is contactable so we can check with them before including their work.
You’ll find all the forms here -> click
It doesn’t take long to fill one out, and it really helps us feature more of the people and projects that make fandom what it is.
I want to discuss why I think fandom culture has become so egregiously....y'know. That.
I've been thinking about this for a while- how fandom spaces have become so conservative and pro-censorship. And unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that...yeah. It is actually TikToks fault. But not like that.
When I think about my early fandom experiences, I remember it being a gradual descent. I started primarily on Pinterest, then a bit of Wattpad. Dabbled in fanfic.net, then ran when I encountered my first Lemon (we'll get back to that).
I was maybe...14? When I got Tumblr? Something like that, idk. And started on a03 a little later, around 15. And this felt like a *moment*. Like the first night being invited to sit at the adult table at family dinners. I was stepping into a space for teen and adults. And it was up to ME to behave well and be mature about it.
And because my formative years in fandom were on Tumblr and Ao3, I had to adjust. These platforms didn't have algorithms, and the communities on them are built on free-expression and anti-censorship.
Point is: when I was a kid, the internet was still for teens and adults. Which meant I, was a tween/young teen, was being confronted with content that made me uncomfortable. Smut and porn, yes. But also angst and whumps and major character deaths and in depth media analysis that made me question media that I had never thought to think critically of before. And I *had* to accept that, because it was what fandom *was*. There was no going into someone's comments and complaining. There was either 'oh, wow! What's this? It's really dark but I kind of like it' or 'whoopsies! Wrong door! Buh-bye!' When I didn't like the fanart on Pinterest, I scrolled past. When I didn't like a ship, I filtered out the ship. Because I was joining a community that existed *before* me and was made for *everyone*.
But now, the internet is moving to being *for kids*, because they're highly susceptible to predatory marketing techniques. So now, kids *aren't* seeing uncomfortable content. It's being censored and filtered and hidden by algorithms to keep them scrolling and keep advertisers paying. So kids are no growing up on an internet that tells them they *shouldn't* be uncomfortable here. They *belong* here, it's for *them*.
And they're entering fandoms here too. Instagram and Tiktok *have* fan communities, with cosplayers and fanarts and fan writers. But they're still dealing with the censorship of the apps, so the fandom content these kids are seeing is cleaner. Friendlier. Welcoming. No scary questions or upsetting imagery, no ideas about your favorite character suffering or loving someone who hurts them.
And then, they do what we did. They decide they want more. They move to Tumblr. Ao3. Other intensely fandom spaces that are *resisting* this new era of internet as best they can.
And they're in complete culture shock. They're used to every space being *for* them, *about* them. And now they're in places that are very decidedly *not*, that make them ask hard questions and consider new ideas. And they assume that since the entire *rest* of the internet isn't like this, something must be wrong with the *platform*.
This doesn't justify hate comments or publicly shaming and criticizing authors. It DEFINITELY doesn't mean I think creators should stop posting whatever damn content they please.
But I think recognizing the source of these issues is important so we can take action.
This isn't just because of social media either. Children's media has definitely lost some of its teeth in recent years. Darkness is never that dark. Heroes are never really in danger, villains are never really evil. Kids aren't exposed to negative emotions as they're developing so they react poorly when they enter public spaces.
I'm...not sure if I have a point here? Idk, I keep seeing people say 'fandoms were ruined by the pandemic' which is...not an answer? So I just wanted to really try to make sense of it
I owe all my affection for fandom to fan creators. I tell you, I wouldn’t care at all about my favourite characters if not for the way other people have breathed them into life beyond the shackles of their canon.
So to everyone who has written fanfiction, made fan art, deep-dived into a piece of media, or simply expressed their love for it - from the bottom of my heart, thank you. For giving us all something to enjoy beyond its shelf life.
