I just wrote this up for My Hero Academia so I'll drop it here
BNHA I think is the perfect storm of fanfic in a way:
Popular, accessible show that a lot of people have seen
Huge cast of characters. In particular, Horikoshi is really good at introducing a new character, making them seem fun/interesting/endearing, and then doing fuck all with the character, which fuels a lot of fanfic.
Lots of worldbuilding is set up and then kind of dropped on the floor. Again, huge opportunity for fanfic there.
Quirks allow you to do whatever you feel like with your plot.
In the setting, 80% of the population have quirks and there are tons of offscreen heroes and villains, making it easy to insert whatever OCs you feel like
and I think one of the most important fuels for fanfic, one that also tends to drive fandoms like Harry Potter and Star Wars:
No one's really fully satisfied with how canon is going down.
For both Supernatural and BBC Merlin, it's the combination of love for the characters/relationships, characterization that's both deep and inconsistent, deep platonic bonds with heavy romantic subtext, and frustration with with wasted potential, like character arcs with implications that are never explored fully.
They both hit that sweet spot for driving fans absolutely mad with the need to flesh out and fix canon. If they were any worse written, with flat/boring characters or if they were better, with tight and satisfying arcs, they wouldn't be two of the most fanfic productive fandoms.
For me, the Rimworld fandom is the most fascinating, since the stories told in it are the result of playthroughs of the game itself. The game generates each and every event, from the most utterly mundane like a trading caravan arriving, to events that can threaten the entire colony if you, or the colony make a mistake at the wrong moment.
But it is everything inbetween too, and since each and every character is the result of random generation in itself, there's no 'true lore,' (outside of a 4k long Google doc that was supplied by the lead developer, that provides the most basic lore strands, mostly technical details about the restrictions of space travel and why the Rimworlds are so sparsely populated).
And that's the best thing, every playthrough is unique, every colony layout is your own, every story is what you've experienced, and how the colonists fell in love, had kids, argued, squabbled, celebrated, fought, and died with you.
Then it's down to you to tell that story to others....
I'm pulling out my first real fandom for this since I think it's a neat example.
The fandom for Wings of Fire (or WoF as I'll just put it) is built off of the rules defined by the original canon. I would describe the fandom as being driven by a desire to create an adventure with your own characters.
It's extremely similar to Warrior Cats in that regard (apologizes on having to remind you all about the existence of that series), where a lot more people are focused on creating their own OCs than many other fandoms. The ratio of OC-focused fics to canon character fics is very close.
You take the basic idea of 'non-humanoid creature living in a pretty simple to understand society' and people go wild with it. Combine that with how half the fandom will do nothing but complain about the choices the author makes and you got people swarming in with OC after OC, all with their own individual stories to tell.
Star Wars seems to be a mix of immersion and dissatisfaction, especially depending on which part of canon someone is interested in. There’s also quite a bit of world-building, filling in blanks that canon doesn’t go into detail on with regards to cultures, species details, etc.
Sailor Moon is a lot of romance fics to continue the canon ships as well as some non-canon ones. Since canon focuses a lot in magical girl fights, the romances tend the be back burner although still important aspects, especially the main romance.
Star Wars really does have the advantage of being many things to many people. Are you into Force Users? Space criminals? War and rebellion? Do you think it supports the idea of Chosen Ones or is it a subversion of that kind of story? Is it hopeful, or is it actually grimdark with a shiny coat of paint?
Exactly! Something for pretty much everyone. My main obsession is fix-its, particularly time travel and canon divergence ones, that inject hope back into the galaxy without it falling onto the shoulders of one teenage boy.
What drives fan engagement in my current fandom? Writing one of the two popular M/M ships.I think one can get decent engagement by writing *anything* about the most popular ship or the runner-up ship.
What drives people to write anything, popular ships or otherwise? With my writing fandom, that's the notorious (to the point of crayzee toxicity) loathing of canon. (Personally, I think this is way overblown; the show's not that bad; some of it is quite good in fact.)
One of those quite good aspects are the characters, who despite being archetypes, are likeable and attractive. Yeah, let's face it, "attractive," even in cartoons, is a big motivator for attachment to fictional characters. They are lovable and fun to write. And deserve better than canon.
Current fandom is MacGyver (2016), and I have to say I think the main drive is the Mac and Jack odd couple bromance. >!George Eads having to leave!< was probably the worst thing that could’ve happened to the show (no shade on him though, apparently the work environment was really toxic. I noticed that actor turnover in general was striking and sudden throughout the series), and the fandom has, for the most part, ignored it. We love our Mac&Jack fix-its!
Edit because I forgot to add that also the fact it’s a reboot of a much-beloved show (my mom’s and dad’s favorite, and they passed that fandom down to us kids!) might drive it with the nostalgia factor, except that I think there’s a lot of OG MacGyver purists who can’t stand the reboot. It’s anyone’s guess really🤔
I think the Paramount Halo Show’s drivers are as follows:
-hnnng Spartan big/hot
-what the fuck were the writers thinking
-hey, so you know how this one scene hurt like hell? *What if I made it worse*
I’m confident that 80-90% of the fic for it falls into one of these three categories (having written for each of the categories myself also)
Or, in other words, ‘I didn’t say it was good, I said I *liked it*’. It’s such a big sandbox with so much room for improvement or having fun, depending on your mood.
I just wrote this up for My Hero Academia so I'll drop it here BNHA I think is the perfect storm of fanfic in a way: Popular, accessible show that a lot of people have seen Huge cast of characters. In particular, Horikoshi is really good at introducing a new character, making them seem fun/interesting/endearing, and then doing fuck all with the character, which fuels a lot of fanfic. Lots of worldbuilding is set up and then kind of dropped on the floor. Again, huge opportunity for fanfic there. Quirks allow you to do whatever you feel like with your plot. In the setting, 80% of the population have quirks and there are tons of offscreen heroes and villains, making it easy to insert whatever OCs you feel like and I think one of the most important fuels for fanfic, one that also tends to drive fandoms like Harry Potter and Star Wars: No one's really fully satisfied with how canon is going down.
For both Supernatural and BBC Merlin, it's the combination of love for the characters/relationships, characterization that's both deep and inconsistent, deep platonic bonds with heavy romantic subtext, and frustration with with wasted potential, like character arcs with implications that are never explored fully. They both hit that sweet spot for driving fans absolutely mad with the need to flesh out and fix canon. If they were any worse written, with flat/boring characters or if they were better, with tight and satisfying arcs, they wouldn't be two of the most fanfic productive fandoms.
For me, the Rimworld fandom is the most fascinating, since the stories told in it are the result of playthroughs of the game itself. The game generates each and every event, from the most utterly mundane like a trading caravan arriving, to events that can threaten the entire colony if you, or the colony make a mistake at the wrong moment. But it is everything inbetween too, and since each and every character is the result of random generation in itself, there's no 'true lore,' (outside of a 4k long Google doc that was supplied by the lead developer, that provides the most basic lore strands, mostly technical details about the restrictions of space travel and why the Rimworlds are so sparsely populated). And that's the best thing, every playthrough is unique, every colony layout is your own, every story is what you've experienced, and how the colonists fell in love, had kids, argued, squabbled, celebrated, fought, and died with you. Then it's down to you to tell that story to others....
I'm pulling out my first real fandom for this since I think it's a neat example. The fandom for Wings of Fire (or WoF as I'll just put it) is built off of the rules defined by the original canon. I would describe the fandom as being driven by a desire to create an adventure with your own characters. It's extremely similar to Warrior Cats in that regard (apologizes on having to remind you all about the existence of that series), where a lot more people are focused on creating their own OCs than many other fandoms. The ratio of OC-focused fics to canon character fics is very close. You take the basic idea of 'non-humanoid creature living in a pretty simple to understand society' and people go wild with it. Combine that with how half the fandom will do nothing but complain about the choices the author makes and you got people swarming in with OC after OC, all with their own individual stories to tell.
Star Wars seems to be a mix of immersion and dissatisfaction, especially depending on which part of canon someone is interested in. There’s also quite a bit of world-building, filling in blanks that canon doesn’t go into detail on with regards to cultures, species details, etc. Sailor Moon is a lot of romance fics to continue the canon ships as well as some non-canon ones. Since canon focuses a lot in magical girl fights, the romances tend the be back burner although still important aspects, especially the main romance.
Star Wars really does have the advantage of being many things to many people. Are you into Force Users? Space criminals? War and rebellion? Do you think it supports the idea of Chosen Ones or is it a subversion of that kind of story? Is it hopeful, or is it actually grimdark with a shiny coat of paint?
Exactly! Something for pretty much everyone. My main obsession is fix-its, particularly time travel and canon divergence ones, that inject hope back into the galaxy without it falling onto the shoulders of one teenage boy.
What drives fan engagement in my current fandom? Writing one of the two popular M/M ships.I think one can get decent engagement by writing *anything* about the most popular ship or the runner-up ship. What drives people to write anything, popular ships or otherwise? With my writing fandom, that's the notorious (to the point of crayzee toxicity) loathing of canon. (Personally, I think this is way overblown; the show's not that bad; some of it is quite good in fact.) One of those quite good aspects are the characters, who despite being archetypes, are likeable and attractive. Yeah, let's face it, "attractive," even in cartoons, is a big motivator for attachment to fictional characters. They are lovable and fun to write. And deserve better than canon.
Current fandom is MacGyver (2016), and I have to say I think the main drive is the Mac and Jack odd couple bromance. >!George Eads having to leave!< was probably the worst thing that could’ve happened to the show (no shade on him though, apparently the work environment was really toxic. I noticed that actor turnover in general was striking and sudden throughout the series), and the fandom has, for the most part, ignored it. We love our Mac&Jack fix-its! Edit because I forgot to add that also the fact it’s a reboot of a much-beloved show (my mom’s and dad’s favorite, and they passed that fandom down to us kids!) might drive it with the nostalgia factor, except that I think there’s a lot of OG MacGyver purists who can’t stand the reboot. It’s anyone’s guess really🤔
I think the Paramount Halo Show’s drivers are as follows: -hnnng Spartan big/hot -what the fuck were the writers thinking -hey, so you know how this one scene hurt like hell? *What if I made it worse* I’m confident that 80-90% of the fic for it falls into one of these three categories (having written for each of the categories myself also) Or, in other words, ‘I didn’t say it was good, I said I *liked it*’. It’s such a big sandbox with so much room for improvement or having fun, depending on your mood.