"Fanlump"

A term coined on the off-site IJBM to refer to works like Touhou, Homestuck, and My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic that catch on with cult followers and spawn seemingly disproportionate amounts of fan-work (though MLPFIM's fandom seems a bit too large to be called "cult").

What do you think it is about these works that attracts this?

I am a fan of Touhou despite having never played the games and of MLP:Fi M. One thing I like about them is the vibrancy. Colorful cast both in terms of actual character and just attention grabbing appearance.

I'd dare say that it's simply the fact that they provide with great characters and an expansive setting.

Cuz of the Awesome.

I think, in the case of MLP at least, it's a combination of huge fanbase + very little official material that results in what seems like a disproportionately large amount of fan-work.

Because people will latch on to odd things for whichever reason pleases them.

There's also Team Fortress 2, which experiences a similar level of popularity.

Speaking of which, that brings me to this point: Fanlumps like My Little Pony, Touhou, TF2 and the like can also have fanwork that crosses two or more of them together, so I guess that adds another level of complexity to it.

I guess they're kind of like building bricks, or Legos. You have a whole lot (read: many characters, and exansive setting, general guidelines of whats what ) of them and still don't have anything (read: most basic of storylines, a set timeline) until you make something youself. Many people like to build up the work, with fiction and art and games, like you would a bunch of Legos.

So what would you guys say about Warhammer 40k?

I'd say it's a setting by itself, doesn't it? I mean, I wouldn't say that Warhammer is like Homestuck, MLP or Touhou in that Warhammer doesn't have a main franchise beyond the tabletop game.

However, I don't know what's the criteria that makes works a "Fanlump" one beyond excessive fan involvement.

I think also these fandoms are self-perpetuating. Something being so popular and talked about brings in more fans, which gets it talked about more, and so on. Being a member of the fandom adds something in itself (like being a "brony" would probably still be quite fun even if MLP:FIM were a lot less well crafted).

It still has to be good enough to gain the first group of vocal fans, though.

edited 25th Jun '11 7:36:02 PM by robintherose

Warhammer 40k may very well count in that regard. The fandom does face challenges from overly protective nature of the games workshop people though.

I always thought it was just obsession. Huh.

edited 25th Jun '11 8:03:56 PM by thatguythere47

That's what pushes these works over the fandom critical mass, so to speak, actually.

The large ensemble and relatively light canon that allows for fan work to thrive helps too.

I wonder if star wars counts, considering the massive amount of EU work on it.

It counts - but given its pre-Internet origins (one of the factors involved is the use of the Internet to collect the fandom, so to speak) it could be an Ur-Example.

I wasn't sure what exactly the criteria were either. I was looking for some in making the thread.

I'm surprised I missed a lot of stuff that should have been obvious to me before (expansive setting), though I did figure one of the criteria was Loads And Loads Of Characters (which is true of the three works I named to varying degrees)

edited 25th Jun '11 9:31:35 PM by AnonymousUser

Hmm, you sure? I mean, all the EU is canon, isn't it? Or at least, official.

I haven't seen such a thing around, say, MLP or Homestuck.

MLPFIM has a small core cast, but is loaded with unique-looking background/incidental characters, several of which have been latched onto and given names and personalities.

Homestuck has a core cast of sixteen characters, but many more are also important to the plot. (Though the fans tend to latch onto the core cast, so perhaps saying it has Loads And Loads Of Characters is an overstatement)

edited 25th Jun '11 11:30:10 PM by AnonymousUser

I'm going to go with what people have said about a combination of interesting characters + a rich universe, while still not having a large amount of official canon. It creates a sort of sandbox that's the right combination of having lots of exciting elements yet still free enough to play in.

edited 26th Jun '11 12:58:29 AM by Jeysie

One thing I've noted is the Sonic and Mario universes. Both have lots of fans, often from demographics you really wouldn't be expecting, and both also have little in the way of backstory. Resulting in everyone having their own developing picture of the world and its characters. I think a lot of these fandoms tend to spring from games and shows like that. Get an iconic enough show with a vague enough background and people will apparently jump on it like a packet of crisps on a crowded sub.

edited 26th Jun '11 1:15:03 AM by GameChainsaw

I'd call this phenomenon thus Sandbox Universe.

Especially Sonic, and it's not always a good thing. One thing I notice about the other previously discusses fandoms is that their fan work is typically as good as canon.

I think it's partly just because it's kind of nice to get inordinately worked up about something sometimes, particularly even if it's really trivial.

Well, I think the definition of "Fanlump" might be a little narrow, if only for the sake of including only stuff that enjoys the memetic levels of popularity that some of these works have.

edited 26th Jun '11 4:43:00 PM by RocketDude

Does Star Trek counts, especially for the fans who prefer the original?