#theofficeofdocmalone

[dalegeeksout]

Fan Autoethnography

I'm a fan of a lot of things, but one of the fandoms most integral to my identity and which I've spent possibly the most time engaging with is WandaVision. WandaVision is a nine-episode limited series that released weekly episodes on DisneyPlus beginning on January 15, 2021. The plot of the show surrounds super-powered Avengers Wanda and Vision living idealized suburban lives together, but they quickly begin to realize that not everything is as it seems. This show and this fandom have influenced me so much. I wear clothes and accessorize in ways that convey my pride in being a WandaVision fan, and I'm always hoping to find other fans that way so we can geek out together. Half of my wardrobe are Marvel graphic tees, but I have four shirts alone dedicated to WandaVision. I've also collected accessories and Funko Pops!

Some of my Wanda and Vision merch!

As a fan of WandaVision, I went back and watched the show multiple times to analyze subtext, find easter eggs, etc. I am a very analytical person, I was already a Marvel fan, and Wanda and Vision had been two of my favorite MCU characters for a long time, so this show seemed made specifically for me. WandaVision was uniquely suited to rewatching because the plot was a mystery. The audience doesn’t know how Wanda ended up in what is revealed as the hex, and we also don’t know how Vision is alive either—in his last appearance, he died (technically twice). So, each episode hints at the answer to the mystery and the other forces at work that Wanda comes into conflict with. That’s one of my favorite elements of all Marvel content—they’re built for Marvel fans looking for easter eggs referencing the comics or foreshadowing future projects.

I was heavily involved in the online fandom community for WandaVision, but mostly as an observer. I didn’t write any fanfiction or make analysis videos of my own. That’s how I interact across all my fandoms, no matter how engaged I am with the content, simply because I’m nervous to ever say anything online since it’s permanent. I was afraid to get hate or regret what I’d put out there. I watched many YouTube analysis videos and TikTok fan commentary videos. If I ever had anything to say, I would make little notes to myself. Something about revealing myself online in any capacity is scary, even if I had the mask of anonymity. So, this textpost with my own name on it is a big step out of my comfort zone, but I'm excited to finally share my thoughts with others.

On social media, I followed the actors. I also looked into the directors and writers behind the show, since I’d like to work as a screenwriter one day and admired the way they wrote the show. In addition, I followed content creators who primarily analyzed the show. Two Youtube creators that I was already following—New Rockstars and Beyond the Trailer—I returned to religiously every week to watch their analyses and reviews of the show as it dropped weekly episodes. I planned certain days around watching the show; I created a ritual of watching new episodes at night after dinner, then watching fan commentary immediately afterward. I can’t say I’ve been that dedicated with other shows simply because I wasn’t as passionate about the characters—I'd already been emotionally attached to Wanda and Vision for years.

Jensen states that fandom is often characterized as an “obsessive loner” or the “hysterical crowd,” creating, “a thin line between ‘normal’ and ‘excessive’ fandom,” (qtd. in Malone). WandaVision may have that distinction between normal and excessive, but I would argue that for most viewers it was excessive. And that excess became the new normal. This new excess as normality became the standard for much media, like WandaVision, released during the pandemic—a time when most people didn’t have much to do, were stuck inside, and were experiencing much emotional turmoil. Thus, they turned to newly available streaming services for entertainment and escape. The conditions around WandaVision’s release made it perfectly suited for excessive fandom: it was the first Marvel DisneyPlus show, so it received extra promotion, which built excitement among the already strong Marvel fanbase; episodes dropped weekly, giving fans time to discuss and build more anticipation week-to-week; and TikTok was becoming popular in the U.S., so people anywhere and everywhere with access to the app could talk about it.

According to Nielsen ratings, in its first week, with just two episodes, WandaVision was number 6 in the top 10 most watched original shows (Spangler). I would argue that pandemic-era shows like WandaVision pushed the line between “normal” and “excessive” fandom more toward the excessive side, raising average fan engagement levels. Excessive fan engagement became more normalized and remains that way thanks to how active and accessible fan spaces on TikTok, Tumblr, Reddit, and Twitter are.

As for myself, I’d say I've always been an intense fan of whatever I get into because I’m a naturally obsessive person. It’s hard for me to be a “normal” fan of media I consume unless I can't emotionally connect with the characters. However, I would say that WandaVision pushed my threshold more, and I became invested in it more than I had in possibly any other fandom before. 

I became so invested in WandaVision because of my circumstances at the time. The show, like many other fandoms, compensated me psychologically. The times in my life when I have felt the loneliest are when I’ve become the most obsessed with my fandoms. When I got into WandaVision, it was during the COVID-19 pandemic when everything was shut down, and I was stuck in the house all the time. On top of that, my dad was going through chemotherapy at the same time. I was already a fan of many things, but the fandoms I got involved with during this period were at a heightened level I’d never experienced before, and I don’t think I’ve experienced since.

My WandaVision (and other fandoms) themed homescreen

WandaVision gave me something to look forward to every week when everything else in life seemed like shit. I needed an escape, and I love to analyze shows, so WandaVision became my life. I thought about it all the time, I bought a ton of merch, and after the show ended, that summer I made all my devices WandaVision-themed and even taught myself how to code to program my phone so that when I plugged and unplugged it from the charger, Vision’s voice greeted me (I have since forgotten how to code, unfortunately). I developed a kind of parasocial relationship with Wanda and Vision—I was devoted to their love story in the show, which was bolstered by my years shipping them since their first MCU appearances in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Their relationship in the show gave me intimacy that I was lacking at the time. I lived vicariously through the two characters since they had such a positive relationship.

Wanda was experiencing so many mixed emotions around the same time I was, and in the penultimate episode when she realizes her happy family life is entirely a fantasy—that her children don’t exist and the love of her life has been dead all along—she breaks down, and so did I when I watched it the first time. Wanda releases all of her emotions in this blast of energy, and breaking down with her was a cathartic experience for me because I had much tension in my own life. Plus, I missed Vision—he's been my comfort character for years. It felt like I was losing a friend who’s been with me since 2015. As a result, WandaVision was psychologically compensating for me in a liberating, positive way. The show gave me an emotional outlet when I lacked one. It came at such a tumultuous time in my life, and I became so deeply entrenched in the show and in the discourse surrounding it at the time that it became a part of my identity. I can't imagine how I would've gotten through the loneliness and lethargy during the pandemic without the intimacy from my attachment to the characters and the online community of WandaVision fans that I became a part of.

I miss them :')

Works Cited:

Malone, Lauren. "Fan Autoethnography." Canvas, https://utampa.instructure.com/courses/15499/assignments/43917?module_item_id=287377.

Spangler, Todd. "‘WandaVision’ Breaks Into Nielsen Top 10 Streaming Rankings." Variety, https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/wandavision-nielsen-ratings-top-10-streaming-1234907166/.

Feedback summary: My peer reviewers noted that my autoethnography was very thorough, thoughtful, and in-depth. They also stated I had a good use of sources.

[iwantasourpickle]

Fan Autoethnography

*i took this photo at a Harry Styles concert I went to in 2021*

My experience with my fandoms has ranged depending on the time of my life. When I was 13-14 the best word to describe my involvement will have to be obsession. If I liked something, I wanted it to be known and I surrounded myself with it. This still happens to me today, but I find it is only with musical artists. If I am going to a concert, I want to be as close as possible to the stage and I will be getting a shirt or something to have that reminder that I was there. I don't know where this obsession for having to be as close to the stage as possible came from, but I have never been able to break it. I always find myself in the mindset of "if i am not close enough, what is the point". I think this stems from wanting the best of everything and if I'm going to do something I need to have the best of the best. I find after a concert I always listen to that artist’s music a lot more and finding a new appreciation for them. This attachment has shaped my identity in a way that I can’t like something in a calm way. If I love something, everyone around me is going to know that I love that thing. This happens with books, tv shows, and especially music. I have and do wear fan merch especially tour merch that I have gotten from all the concerts that I have gone to. I don’t rewatch a lot of tv shows multiple times with the intention of finding ambiguities and subtext, but I have rewatched shows after hearing about that there are different topics being talked about to see if I can pick that up. I used to be involved in fan communities in middle school when I ran a fan page on Instagram for a social media influencer and I would actively create posts for that page. I also used to love being crafty and made a bunch of different types of things. I drew all over my notebooks and made posters when I loved the Fault in Our Stars. I follow a lot of artists on Instagram as music is a huge part of my life as well as a couple of authors whose books I love.

I think fandom has a negative stigma to it. The word itself has that stigma surrounding it and not what is means. Everyone is part of a fandom if they are a fan of any show, musical artist, etc. When a lot of people first think of the word fandom, their minds go straight to the extreme of LARP or extreme nerdiness over dungeons and dragons. While that is included into fandom, there is so much more. Being a fan of one direction is being part of a fandom, liking the show breaking bad is part of being a fandom, liking a popular book series is being part of a fandom. I do think fandom has constructed a binary of us vs. them. I think it is divided by how much you are “obsessed” with your fandom. If you are part of a fandom and are truly obsessed along with other people, I believe that would be an “us” situation. Where everyone part of “us” knows all of the lore behind that fandom etc. The “them” would be newer fans or fans who aren’t involving themselves in the background information/lore.

This leads into the idea of a thin line between “normal” and “excessive” fandom. I feel like there is a distinction in a couple of the fandoms that I am part of. When looking at all the Harry Styles fans, there are fans who love his music and support him by streaming and going to his concerts, which I would classify as being “normal”. On the other hand, there are the people who do all of the things a “normal” fan would do, but to be an “excessive” fan they would have to follow him around the world to see him perform, find which hotels he’s staying at, and other things that hinder his safety. The line for being an excessive fan is when you are getting in the way of other people to enjoy his music live or when the safety of the artist is in danger. I think it is a little excessive to want to follow someone all over the world to hear them perform let alone try to find out where they are staying in the off chance that you run into them. While I think my obsession stays behind the line of challenging an artists' safety, I still think there are certain things that people would consider me to be an "excessive" fan. For example, going back to me wanting to always be as close to the stage as possible. Some people would consider that to be excessive behavior while others would consider that normal.

            While I don’t think I am part of any fandoms currently that use a specific language, there were fandoms that I was part of that would have specific words that they would use or even jokes that they would constantly say that made no sense unless you were part of that certain fandom. The One Direction fandom would hold onto anything remotely funny that the boys would say and would run that into the ground. There were a couple of jokes that they have said on a podcast, radio show, or during an interview that fans would then talk about all the time. Fandom language to me is the type of things that are talked about within the fandom itself that those who aren’t part of it wouldn’t understand at all.

[fandomstudieslance]

Fan Autoethnography

I wear fan merch. I consider fan merch as an important part of my fan identity especially when the merch is part of limited edition collections. I fell that having these limited edition collections allows me to tie my fandom to a specific period of time in both the fandom's history as well as my own.

I will often go back and rewatch episodes or entire shows to analyze the subtext or extrapolate meanings that I hadn't considered on a first watch. One of the shows that I recently have done this for is Bones. I watched this show when I was much younger and by going back and watching it now, I can appreciate the nuance and deeper context surrounding the characters and their storyline. In particular, I have picked up the autistic coding of the character of Dr. Brennan.

I am very involved in fan communities for many different fandoms. Some communities I am more involved than others. One community I am greatly involved in is the Random Enocunters community. This is also a community that I create fan works for. I am in charge of the fan wiki community as well as my own personal fan theories and fan interpretation of unexplained events.

I follow important media figures on social media mainly to keep in the loop with the projects they are going to be in. For Hollywood celebrities, I am less likely to care about their personal post, but for content creators I follow, I am more likely to engage with their personal posts.

I engage with many different types of fan content, from fan fiction to fan video essays. One of my favorite fan content types is the fan music video. These can come in the form of the fan edit or animatics. Fan edits are fun because they often include memerable clips from the media that serve as fun gaps in the song. Animatics have the added benefit of animating fandom events in a new and often more intense way.

I think that fandom does have an us vs them construction. In many of my fandoms, I am in the 'us' category. This often involves knowing the inside jokes and reference or understanding why a piece of merch is important to wear. These things can be understood at a surface level by mainstream society but the connection that they have to the fans is only understood by the people that hold it dear.

I don't think that there is a thin line between normal and excessive fan because there does exist the causal fan. I would say that I am a casual fan of dungeons and dragons. I have a positive relationship with the ttrpg and know some things about it but my knowledge and appreciation is not at the level of other fans but not as barebones as the mainstream audience. I think the line of "obsessive" fan falls where the person begins to integrate the fandom into their core personality.

My DND Character Larissa

Anonymity is both beneficial for fandom spaces and detrimental. It is well documented in social psychology that anonymity leads to people being more likely to say or do things that they would not other wise say or do. It allows people to be meaner because the fear of consequences is basically nonexistent. However, I do think that anonymity opens up fandom spaces to many different people who can use that separation from online and inperson identity to form connections and converse with people while being safe. I have a close friend I met online who values their privacy because they are younger and the anonymity of fandom space allows them to engage with other people while still valuing their privacy.

I think that I experience a blend of identity and psychological compensation with fandom. Anything that matters deeply to you is going to become part of your identity. Being a theorist is one of my core identity traits. This doesn't stop fandom from forming those psychological compensations. I would say that, especially when I watched regular streamers, I would form parasocial relationships with them. I knew that they did not feel the same way but the connection and the positive feelings from it were still there and played into my enjoyment of the content.

Language progression. When immersed in a fandom, there are definitely terms and inside jokes that bleed out into the real world, especially when you are around other people who understand the joke. One of the big language bleeds has been me and my siblings use of "theory" to refer to any instance where we are trying to predict the outcome or explanation of something. This comes directly from our shared fandom of Game Theory. Another that we both share is to dramatically say "What was the motivation?!?!?" when discussing confusing events, which comes from a creators reaction to a fan video.

[zacharysmithcom255]

Fan Autoethnography

Reflection: 

For my fandom this year I studied Star Wars. As a fan I have partaken in many different fan experiences such as wearing merchandise, watching films and shows, following important figures on social media, and engaging with fan created content. I personally have never written any fan fiction, but I have listened to multiple YouTube videos that have discussed theory's and “what if’s”. As far as engaging with the community, I’ve never posted anything, but I am subscribed to and follow some popular Star Wars content creators. 

Analysis: 

When it comes to fandom languages, Star Wars is known for this. Being that Star Wars is a made-up world there are countless planets and lifeforms in the universe that can sort of correlate to the type of fan you are. For example, I consider myself a big fan of Star Wars, but I couldn’t name too many planets or lifeforms. Some people are massive fans and can go forever naming them. Additionally, Jensen argues that we've characterized fandom as the "obsessive loner" or the "frenzied fan/hysterical crowd". She argues that this sets up, "a thin line between 'normal' and 'excessive' fandom.". I believe that this is a stereotype in the Star Wars fandom, but I don’t think it's such a thin line between the normal fan and the excessive fan. For me personally, I think the line is when it starts to impact your daily life and gets in the way of you being a productive human. For example, if you often skip work or school to watch Star Wars. I believe that is where the line crosses. 

One popular aspect of many online fandom communities is anonymity. Often fans use fake names in order to hide their identities and so they can feel free to voice their opinions. While this does affect communities online as it’s hard to know exactly who you're talking to, I don’t really see much harm in it if it’s not being used for any sort of illegal activities. With that said, it can certainly affect the connections you make in an online fandom as it’s hard to really understand a person and their intentions if it’s all anonymous. Ultimately, this is something that I’ve seen in Star Wars fan communities, but I don’t see the harm in it.  

All in all, I find that my experience with my Star Wars fandom is similar to that of my other fandoms such as sports. The biggest difference is the ability to talk about it daily. Also, I am much more likely to comment on something going on in sports on social media than I am with Star Wars. That said, both have shaped my identity in the sense that they both make up what I am as a person and what I enjoy. 

[alexandrafandomstudies]

My experience with my fandom differs from other Media experiences in that my fandom is a reality TV show. I have watched all the Kardashian episodes/seasons, and so I have seen most of their life on TV and how they have all changed throughout the years. This shapes my identity because watching a reality show that spans 14 years makes me almost feel like I know them in real life. I enjoy watching a TV series multiple times because every time I watch a series for the second or third time, I notice things I didn't see/realize the first time I watched; I have watched every single Keeping Up with the Kardashian episode as well as their new tv series on Hulu the Kardashians. I also am involved in online fan communities (Reddit), where they discuss all things Kardashians/Jenner and reviews of their companies and brands. I also do follow the Kardashians/Jenners on Instagram. Regarding fan merch, I do not buy their specific merch. However, I have purchased items from their brands (818 Tequilla, Good American, Kylie Cosmetics, and Skims). 

I have included some of the accounts I follow as well as my favorite scene from KUWTK. 

Fandom sometimes has a culturally constructed binary of "us" vs. "them." For my fandom, the Kardashians, there are differing opinions or interpretations within the community; sure, fans may be fans of one of them but not the other, and fans like each of them differently. One may not be a fan of the Kardashians and the TV show but likes one of the Kardashians in particular. This can stem from various factors, such as disagreements over canon material, character arcs, or personal preferences regarding relationships or fan theories. Within these binaries, people can align themselves with groups based on their beliefs or preferences, contributing to a sense of belonging and identity within the fandom. 

I think the distinction between the "obsessive loner" or the "frenzied fan/hysterical crowd" and how there is "a thin line between 'normal' and 'excessive' fandom" can apply to my fandom. There are die-hard Kardashian fans; people stalk the Kardashians and attempt to get into their private property to see them and track their whereabouts. I am not an obsessive fan. I enjoy the Kardashians and find them entertaining, but I realize they are celebrities, and there is a lot I don't know about them and don't care to know. I enjoy the entertainment of the show, and that's about all. I don't need to compete with other people about who knows more or who knows the Kardashians the best and is the biggest fan.  

[alynotarnicola]

Fan Autoethnography

I consider myself a fan of many different things. TV shows, movies, youtubers, influencers, etc. For as long as I could remember I have been consuming media through various platforms, but in my teen years Youtube was the main thing I would watch. It was an outlet for me to let out some of my emotions. One of the first youtubers I ever watched were Kian and JC. They always put me in a better mood and made me laugh without a doubt. At the end of almost every one of their videos they would promote merch. They would always have new styles and different products, but I never bought any of it. I thoroughly enjoy watching their content but I didn’t think it was necessary to buy their merch to “prove” I was a fan. 

Since I started watching them, I followed them on all social media platforms to keep up with their lives. In addition to that, I follow fan accounts made for them. They would post funny clips, picture, and videos that only the fanbase could relate to. I reblogged a video only Kian and Jc fans would know is extra funny. It seems like every year for about 4 years in a row they would make a video of them doing couples yoga poses. But each time they made the video they would put baby oil on themselves to make it extra hard to do the poses. It’s silly but it’s something K&J fans would know about. 

In a lot of cases I see the language of this fandom blending with my everyday life. Kian and Jc like to say certain words in a funny way. For example they will say kitty and “kiggy” awesome and “awshem”. After watching their videos repeatedly for a long time these words get engraved into my mind. All of a sudden I will be talking and they slip out. “Kiggy” has made its way into my regular vocabulary and now my roommates who don’t even watch Kian and Jc say kiggy now too. I used these words outside of fandom spaces without even realizing it. I uploaded a picture of one of Kian’s snapchay stories and there is a cat in it. The fan reposted it and the hashtags say “kiggy”. 

Personally, I don’t think anonymity effects the Kian and Jc fandom. I think this fanbase likes to be heard. I feel like the fans are really accepting and enjoy interacting with each other. I don’t post anything on my social media related to the fandom, but I do follow fan accounts. In all my years of being a fan I have seen very few negative comments about Kian and Jc and the fandom overall. 

I think there is a fine line between “normal” and “excessive” fandom. People can become fully invested in a fandom and not be excessive about it. They can talk about it in their personal life and related to the fandom. But I think it gets excessive when the fandom is the only thing that person talks about. They can’t separate real life from the fandom and it becomes overwhelming. Not only for the person but also the people around them. 

[tracegulum]

Fandom the Game

For my digital fandom game, the aviators that the player would have the ability to select from would be as follows…

Publicist

Sports Manager

Producer

Vocal Coach

Choreographer

Personal Trainer

Nutritionist 

Once the player chooses which area of fandom they are most interested in and want to play in, they will then have the ability to customize their individual aviator's appearance. Things like race, body type, hair/eye color, weight, clothes/style, accessories, etc. The set up would follow pretty closely to what it is like when setting up your avatar on a wii. In allowing the player to individually pick what specific fandom world they want to participate in and also set up a character that will look just like them, it creates an inclusive game for all to enjoy. 

The narrative of the game is that the player will be responsible for managing, teaching, mentoring, training..etc. an up and coming professional based on the specific field chosen at the beginning of game setup. With this being said the game itself isn’t really set up on a win/lose format. The game is set up in a way that is based on the success/ failure of the choices made by the player when presented with difficult real-life sceneries pertaining to their up and coming star. These scenarios would include a range of things, even including situations pertaining to toxic/anti fandom characteristics. 

An example would be if I choose to be a publicist and a press release came out that the person I’m trying to make famous was seen cheating on their partner at a nightclub.. How I respond to this and the actions that I take as a publicist all affect the players position in the game. 

[lisicaj037]

Fandom Cookbook

The concept of the cookbook is quite simplistic in the most aesthetically pleasing way. With the cover being green the cookbook stands out from other merchandise the group has put out.

The recipes in the cookbook come from different dishes that the group has either made or eaten in their video content. By seeing the members eat and/or cook the food, fans are influenced to want to make the food themselves and learn more about the Korean culture and language. The cookbook also has pictures of how the food looks and screenshots of what video the dish was in.

[ggmarieeee]

file:///Users/gi/Downloads/Taylor%20Swift%20Cookbook%20(1).pptx

[laurennnnnnnnnnnnn]

Fan Works Projects

Mash-up Fan Edit: Collabed with Damary :) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1QRudjrHopORSjEoQ0qoWxOaGcDq3Aa-L/view?usp=gmail

[dalegeeksout]

Zamii070 Controversy

In 2015, fan artist Zamii070 was posting art on Tumblr for fandoms like My Little Pony and Steven Universe. They posted some art that made the plus-size character Rose Quartz skinny and art that portrayed Fluttershy as a Native American, among other things. What followed was months of intense and persistent harassment across Tumblr from fans attacking them for their artistic interpretations, escalating into a total character assassination until the artist attempted suicide.

This situation's stakeholders included the artist, Zamii070, the fans harassing them, and the show's creators such as Rebecca Sugar, who got involved at one point to denounce the harassers. This controversy also involved many ethical concerns, including policing art, harassing individuals, organized and relentless social media threats and mockery, character assassination to the point of attempted suicide, and the misuse of labels like racist, ableist, pedophile, etc.

Reading this situation through a Rights Lens, the harassing fans infringed on an individual's right to make art and interpret a show's art style to their personal art style. The harassing fans claimed the artist didn't have the right to use their art as personal expression rather than exact duplication of the show's art style.

Reading through a Justice Lens, this whole situation was a gross miscarriage of justice. The fans believed they were carrying out their own justice online by calling the artist out for their problematic portrayals and giving Zamii070 fair treatment by forcing them to face the consequences of their actions. However, these fans took their so-called justice much too far, and instead completely destroyed the individual.

Read through a Utilitarian Lens, the fans were not thinking about the risk to the individual's mental health or physical safety by threatening them so much. They did not think about the consequences of their own actions in their attempt to prove they had the moral high ground—instead, they just dogpiled on this artist, joining in a mob mentality to hurt them.

The platform used in this situation was Tumblr. Its affordances that were taken advantage of were tagging, creation, and shareability, and lack of moderation. Because there were no moderators to stop the harassment, it kept going. The fans did not do much to moderate their own behavior. The fans relentlessly tagged the artist in harassment posts and threads. When it comes to the affordance of creation, the creator was able to put art out in the first place, but then harassers also had the ability to create memes, posts, and blogs degrading the artist. Shareability was also taken advantage of: fans could reblog, tag, and create blogs with the sole purpose of targeting the artist.

[iwantasourpickle]

Fan Works

Interactive Fan Fic: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Ezgt1d_RsOHCNaOvCyTjpPNooo1f8zFS44tz7DBWyio/edit?usp=sharing

Cookbook 1: https://www.canva.com/design/DAFzCI4SDfA/i7H8uD9--5lI7G3BkNgc6Q/edit?utm_content=DAFzCI4SDfA&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Cookbook 2: https://www.canva.com/design/DAF0gp33Soc/4NUJRdvx_GJ_mAvOHmUlQg/edit?utm_content=DAF0gp33Soc&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Mashup Fan Edit (worked with Lauren C. on this):

[alyssaaaaasblog]

Fan Works Assignment: Star Wars/MCU

Web Series Video:

Fandom Cookbook:

Game Reskin 1:

Game Reskin 2:

[rosew21]

World Building Thing :)

Religion

Bird Gods - 9

Worshiped at alters set up in the home Each deity gets an alter The one that you pledge your life to has the biggest alter Expected to live your life for the value you're born into Pray three times a day: Sunrise, midday, sunset Multiples of three are Holy Your placement in the afterlife (Reincarnating into a bird (paradise), reincarnating into a human to try again (purgatory), or non-existence (hell) is based on how well you honored your deity.

Sandhill Crane - Creation god (includes building and resource collecting)

Stork - Death god (anything around funerals)

Finch - Music and Art (beauty creation)

Raven - Wealth/Prosperity (economics)

Cassowary - War God (protection)

Barn Owl - Justice god (law)

Kākāpō - healing (medicine)

Crow - Wisdom (learning)

Kiwi - Family God (procreation)

Government

Theocracy: Each deity has one noble house. Each of the nine houses have a member in the government who makes decisions for their worship group based on their value. Members of each worship group pay tithe to their family representatives.

Culture/Social Structure

Rite of passage: When you turn 13, you fly from one end of the forest to the other in a wingsuit. If you fail, you are shunned from society and cannot live among the trees.

Regular people are more or less equal (or err is human). No one god is more important than the other. Some jobs are more socially respected, but no person is legally less than anyone else. Noble houses are seen as perfect and legally untouchable because of their closeness to the gods.

The house you're born into determines your job/role in society. For example: war god families are in the military. Except for the noble houses who work in politics. You are allowed to have children, but the family god group will raise them communally. Except, again, for the noble houses)

All birds are sacred

Noble House members expected to have at least three children

Your success is determined by how much you represent your chosen god in your life

Customs: Ariel dances/races, bird song ceremonies

Day is built around prayer time

Water is brought up in large basins

Fodd is hunted on the ground mostly by the death people

The economy is trade based

Marriage: Intergroup marriage is okay. When two different groups marry, they hold a race and whoever wins is seen to have the god with a stronger pull, and the loser must recommit to the new god

Death: bodies are decorated with feathers carved from wood, and lowered into the forest where the stork will carry them away to the afterlife.

Geography

Ariel society. People live in a forest setting and everything is built within trees or around them.

Magic

No magic besides what the people believe the gods are/can do

[heyyyitsmaddy]

Fan Works Project Plan @officeofdocmalone

[miksblog28]

Mikela's Autoethnography

Taylor Swift is an artist whose music has not only connected with me but also significantly impacted my identity in the always changing world of pop culture. This autoethnography explores my experiences as a Taylor Swift fan and uses photographs and video snippets to support my narrative. It tries to illuminate how my relationship with Taylor Swift's music and fandom is distinct from other media encounters and how it has shaped my sense of who I am. My journey into the world of Taylor Swift fandom started when I first heard her hit single, "Love Story." The song's lyrics resonated with my teenage heart, and I instantly became captivated by her storytelling through music. This chapter delves into the inception of my fandom, recalling the emotions stirred within me upon hearing Taylor's music for the first time. I discovered that I could relate to Taylor Swift's songs on a personal level as I dug deeper into her discography. Along with reflecting my personal experiences, her music also assisted me in navigating the challenges of growing up. I came to realize that supporting Taylor Swift was more than just listening to her music; it was also a reflection of who I was and what I stood for.

The Taylor Swift fanbase is renowned for its vibrant sense of belonging. I started participating actively in online fan networks by participating in conversations, exchanging fan theories, and going to Swiftie meet-ups. I made deep connections with other Taylor fans who shared my love of her music through these exchanges. The friendships I made in the fandom grew to be quite important in my life. I was moved and motivated by Taylor Swift's songs, which also stimulated my imagination. I actively made fan art, lyric interpretations, and even tried to make my own songs that were inspired by Taylor Swift. I was able to convey my enthusiasm for Taylor's artwork and improve my artistic abilities thanks to this outlet for my creativity. Taylor Swift supporters, sometimes known as "Swifties," have their own dialect and inside jokes. We now regularly use phrases like "shake it off," "all too well," and "red era" in our interactions. This chapter examines how my fandom's vocabulary has merged into my everyday speech, enabling me to communicate with other Swifties and setting me apart in some social circles.

My relationship with Taylor Swift has given me a sense of independence and intimacy. Although others could contend that fandom is a means of reward, for me it has served as a platform for empowerment and self-expression. I participate in fan debates, make fan art, and wear fan gear with pride not because I need money, but because it makes me feel happy and like I belong. Along with enhancing my admiration for Taylor Swift's music, my experience as a fan has also contributed to the development of my sense of self. It has given me a sense of belonging, a creative outlet, and a certain language that allows me to communicate with other fans.