[My sort-of love-letter to the Tales of Arcadia fandom.] A Jim Lake Jr., his Toby Domzalski, and his Claire Nuñez are in for a week-long ride when the three get invited to a multidimensional crossover meet-up between hundreds of different versions of themselves and their friends, family, and - surprisingly - their enemies.
Guess who’s finally posted a TOA fanfic after months of silence? >=P
Featuring obscure shipping shenanigans and absolute teenage idiocy, here’s Arcadia Oaks Across The Multiverse!
Tales of an Arcadian: A Reflection on Internet Fandom Culture
There’s something hilarious, thinking back on it now, how much my experiences reflect that of the first internet fandom pioneers - happily interacting with each other and the creators of the thing we follow, and in a year’s time about three different controversies occur, the love for the media soured and twisted with resentment or even strengthened in the face of the contention.
And so yes, perhaps my experiences with my first major fandom, Trollhunters (by famous director and storywriter Guillermo del Toro on Netflix), centralized in the worst-best social media blogging platform Tumblr and current hot and trending voice and text chat app Discord, were not the best. But if I were asked if I would take it all back and change things about it… okay, maybe a few things, but overall I’d happily keep most of my experiences intact. They’ve garnered me quite the friend group, after all, one I’d never let go for anything in the world. And so it is with these collected experiences that I discover some reflections: On a few things to do and not to do as a member of a fandom, especially if you are or are planning to become popular for whatever reason.
The first thing I realized was that it was honestly kind of difficult to have my voice heard on the platforms I was on. Most people just like and click away at whatever seems interesting, and then subscribe to or click to get notifications from certain notable bloggers/people, so if you don’t have cool and eye-catching content (such as art, theories, picture edits, aesthetics, etc.) to show right off the bat, people will just scroll past you. I found it easier, though, to regularly engage and exercise in interactions with others, gaining attention from them. This can be in the form of reblogs (Tumblr), replies (Twitter), or comments (fanfiction hosting sites and art sites like AO3 and DeviantArt). If you consistently show some pretty constructive comments on fanfiction, for example, those authors are more likely to respond and focus their attention on you. Just remember to be polite; I’ve seen weird roleplayers going so deep into their roleplaying that they do it outside of roleplaying zones and bizarrely - sometimes obnoxiously - interacting with non-roleplayers to the point of discomfort.
Minimize participation in any ongoing drama, and try not to be the center of drama, either. Fandom culture is quite deep and complicated nowadays, and the moral ethics of dark and dubious content is currently the hotspot of heated debate. Whether or not your opinions align with one side or another, it’s a well-known fact that you’re better off scrolling past things that don’t nudge you in a good way. Though, do be assertive when people start shoving these things at the faces of the collective, and remember to turn on your blacklists. That’s something my friend, Drew, is very fond of doing, and something I do, too. Not because I like doing it, but because I just really don't want to see that one Alpha/Beta/Omega fanfic with the longest word count rank on the fanfic length filter pop up every time I search whatever’s new in the Trollhunters label on AO3. (Don’t ask.) In the end, just tag your things appropriately with the correct labels and tell others to as well, and you should be good to go.
Find your people. These are people that align with your interests and what you want from the fandom - they can be anything, ranging from artists to fanfiction writers to aesthetic gif set editors (it’s a specialized set of content creators, bless them for gracing us with their time and photoshop skills). I found a lot of these people on a Discord server for Trollhunters, a few of them being Drew and even Spectrum (see my profile on Spectrum here). A lot of fandom experience is especially tailored through the people that one experiences fandom with. A tight-knit fandom group can encourage growth in many aspects of your person, whether that be in art, worldbuilding, or even in law. Trust me, being friends with a lawyer through Trollhunters has been… illuminating.
Don’t be afraid to wholeheartedly be you. A powerful aspect of the magnetic qualities of internet personality is in the term itself - personality. Certain people are drawn to certain others with certain traits, which helps explain why PewDiePie. (That’s it. That’s the sentence.) My enthusiasm for story and character analysis and theories drew a lot of attention, which was apparently the foundation of interest for some of the people that followed me on Tumblr. (I’m sad to say to these people that I deeply apologize for my current lack of content - without a Tales of Arcadia: Wizards trailer, I’m not motivated to do any more in-depth analyses.) It also probably helped that I’m one of the very few most vocal about a certain underappreciated character in Trollhunters, and have a lot of... let’s say “interesting” fanworks and ideas centered around him. But that’s besides the point.
To sum it up, remember to healthily engage in fandom culture to the extent that you’re comfortable with, and only with the parts and the people of the fandom that you wish to interact with, and most importantly, never be afraid to be yourself.
After all, as Blinky Galadrigal of Trollhunters once said: Destiny is a gift - some go their entire lives, living existence as a quiet desperation.
And in my words, when you are given destiny, you make of it what you can and what you will, and in that, you will find happiness and contentment.
what if the last season of spongebob is this semi serious reboot of the entire show where a corporation starts polluting the ocean so the gang, including plankton (who's undergoing a redemption arc) go and face off against them, all the while developing their relationships and characters. there's tons of adventures and revelations (like mr krabs' secret formula was actually from the corporation the entire time and he was trying to clear the debt he had for it w/o paying anything) and at the end of it, spongebob has to turn human forever so he can fight the corporation head-on. after a "final battle" of sorts he and sandy say their goodbyes to the rest of bikini bottom. then the ending scene is them on the island from the opening scene of the show and they have this final talk with a deep one-liner as the final line right before they kiss. the shot fades and the credits roll
Seamus leans on Krel, head resting on the other boy's shoulder.
"This is it." From beside him, Krel hears Seamus take in a breath. "It's finally over."
Krel looks up at the endless night sky of the Black World, and jolts as the platform comes to a stop. "And this is where we get off. Happy ending... here we come."
Princess Aja Tarron of the kingdom of Akiridion-5th was not impressed at all by any of her suitors; yes, all of them showed incredible skill and talent, yes, one had rippling muscles under his tunic, yes, but they all seem to look and treat her as if she was... a prize to be won - it disgusted her to no end.
But then came the last of them, a common boy by the name of James Lake, whom surprised her with the offer of a freshly baked pie, no malice or smug aura radiating off him, but just pure honesty.
This one... he seems bound to be actually worth her time.
Tobias raises a brow at the way the witch girl casually casts the shadow magic spell, his hands moving to the shrunken warhammer at his hip. Maria isn't stupid enough to not notice the movement, Toby observes, as she tenses and shifts her feet - who is she, if shadow magic comes so easily to her and has experience in combat?
James comes to the realization much faster than he does. "You... you are the new apprentice of Morgana le Fay, aren't you?"
Pirate AU with either Jlaire or (platonic) Draal and Jim?
"I'm surprised at how experienced you are," comments Draal, the captain of the ship; he hadn't expected the stowaway to be so skilled at medicine, noting his expertise as the boy worked at the stump of his arm.
The boy gives a shrug of his shoulders, saying, "I learned from my mom. Ever heard of the name Barbara Lake?"
Draal stiffens - "You- you're the son of Redbeard?!"
