Fanwork-Only Fans

Fanwork-Only Fans are apparently a thing. And I am one of them.

This is topic to discuss about fandoms that you like / is familiar with mostly through its fan work. Discuss how you found the fandom (and perhaps the specific fanwork that made you jump in the fandom bandwagon), why you're not actually involved in or a big fan of the original work, and things in the fandom that's Better Than Canon.

The fandoms that counts for me are: Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Touhou and Star Wars.

The first three I found through GMVs of some of my favoruite songs (for Touhou, it was through numerous Vocaloid covers of Bad Apple!!), and I liked the artwork and fanarts they tend to spawn. I don't really play console games, so I never really got into the actual media, though I sometimes watch the cutscene videos on YT, and read the manga spin-offs if they are available.

With SW, I got familiar with the brand through Pop Culture Osmosis, although I never consumed any of the official media before the Sequel Trilogies were released. TFA and Rogue One were okay, but they didn't exactly drew me into the lore, and what came afterwards just killed my interest. I only started being interested in exploring the fanworks after hearing multiple hours-long video essays lambasting the sequel series to see that the concept of the universe itself have many neat ideas that could probably be told in a much better way.

Edited by Adept on Jun 25th 2020 at 11:35:43 PM

I'm a partial case of this in regards to RWBY by this point.

I've watched up to season 5 out of 7 and just stopped watching, while I continue to read fanfics.

Granted, most fanfics I read never progress beyond season 5 anyway.

For me, it's Kingdom Hearts and some of the Final Fantasy games.

The only FF game I played was 15, which is a great game in my book.

I used to be this for Earth Bound, though I ended up playing it once it was out on the Wii U. I rather enjoyed it.

I am currently this for Kantai Collection, mainly from fanart and fan comics on Pixiv and... other sites. It's had the odd effect of getting me to learn about naval history.

Edited by MisterTambourineMan on Jun 21st 2020 at 6:57:21 AM

Curious why that is. I don't watch RWBY, but does the series Jumped the Shark post season 5 or something?

Speaking of, I think Durarara also qualifies as this for me. I watched the first season of the Anime, but for some reason, the fanfics and fanarts I like tend involve events that happens post Season 2 onwards. The wiki pages and This Very Wiki is good enough for me to know the important events that's actually going on.

With this fandom, I actually like the concept of the setting and the characters, but to be honest, the way the story is structured makes it hard to follow (particularly the constant repetition of scenes, which is fine in theory but annoying in practice). I also don't like reading light novel translations, since they tend not to be the best.

Edited by Adept on Jun 23rd 2020 at 10:29:32 PM

Currently I suppose I qualify as this for My Hero Academia and Good Omens. Not for the fandoms in general, but because one of my online friends writes for them and I read her stuff quite a bit (sometimes as a beta reader, sometimes after she publishes). It's quite fun to imagine what the source material is like based on her stories.

Volume 5 is generally agreed to be a case of Seasonal Rot. The two volumes since then aren't entirely uncontroversial, but they're generally agreed to be an improvement.

My spouse. Harry Potter. Full stop. They'll want nothing to do with the books or movies. It's all fanworks and the stuff they learn from that!

I can't think of any fandom I've read multiple fics in without having seen the source. Although I know I've read a few crossovers where I only know the details of the other crossover via osmosis.

Although I did read a bunch of Kim Possible fanfic 6-7 years ago having only seen 10-15 scattered episodes. That did push me into watching the whole show after a few fics though.

EDIT: Actually I read a bunch of Danny Phantom stuff recently while crawling though the Identity Reveal tag on AO 3. And I've only seen at most 2-3 episodes. The rest I know from looking at the wiki pages.

I do plan to get around to watching it eventually though.

Edited by 32ndfreeze on Jun 24th 2020 at 12:26:07 AM

I've never actually watched or read Naruto, but I follow several Naruto fanfics.

I also haven't watched the Pokémon anime since I was twelve, and I still like reading fanfic set in that universe. Actually, I've noticed that gameverse fic has a tendency to... not actually exist?

And... well, I've stopped liking Harry Potter canon, after JKR's nonsense, but I still read the fanfics.

Edited by wingedcatgirl on Jun 24th 2020 at 12:29:59 PM

Re Pokémon: Probably because the gameverse tends to be somewhat low on storyline? I've only played the R v. B though, and even that was on a borrowed device, so I don't know if this have changed in the later generations.

I sometimes read Pokemon gameverse fics, so I guess I'm sort of a FOF for the games. I read Pokémon Adventures though, and I got to know most of the characters and roles from there.

Edited by Adept on Jun 29th 2022 at 9:28:19 PM

Gameverse fics exist. There are plenty of them. Not sure where they're more or less common, though. I know Fanfiction.net lumps the anime and gameverse fics into the same section and AO3 doesn't.

The stories are still pretty simple, but they put more effort into them than they used to. How well they're executed varies from game to game, though.

Edited by SapphireBlue on Jun 25th 2020 at 12:20:47 PM

Oh, I thought this thread was about fanfics for a certain membership-based content platform. N-not that I was looking for that kind of stuff.

RE: Pokemon, there's also a lot of overlap between the video game characters and the anime characters, so unless the fic specifically features Ash or a game protag who doesn't become Ash's traveling companion, the difference between anime world and game world is fairly negligible. E.g., you can have a "Dawn goes to Unova and meets Iris" fanfic, and as long as the focus is only on those two characters and neither of them mention Ash, nobody would be able to tell whether it's an anime fic or a game fic.

Ducktales. And Captain Underpants.

Well, if I stretch the definition and be flexible...

I am a fan of Team Fortress 2. I didn't play the game but over the years I watched so many wacky, bizarre Gmod and SFM videos. I just love what the community came up with, even if I never played the game!

My all-time favorite is late Kitty 0706's

In my case, it's My Hero Academia, Persona, and initially Life Is Strange.

I didn't have a PS4 'til 2018, so I didn't get to play LiS during its initial release, but I kept seeing fan art and analysis videos of Max and Chloe everywhere online. So I was really curious about who they were and what they were really like and finally got my chance to find out when PSN put the enire series on sale for only $3.99. By the end of episode 1, I was in love with the characters, the setting, and its premise. One of my best purchases ever.

I've only seen clips of MHA on YouTube, which is how I know anything about it. That, and a few reviews I've seen here. From the sound of things, it's a mixed bag. Some say it's one of the best shounen ever, others say it's overrated. The one thing both camps agree on is that it's long. I'm not a fan of long runners, 'cuz they tend to drag things out 'til I start to lose interest, and MHA is still ongoing.

But I really like some of the characters based on what little I've seen of them. My favorites are Jirou, Kaminari, Mina Ashida, Uraraka, and All Might. The art, animation, and the soundtrack are all top notch. I'd be all over it if it weren't such a slog to get through.

And about the only thing I know about Persona is Chie Satonaka's character 'cuz she's the main one I keep seeing online. I take it she must be really popular 'cuz she has loads of fan art everywhere. Aside from that, there's not much else I can say about it.

Edited by MiinU on Jun 12th 2022 at 7:57:58 AM

My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and RWBY are my two big ones.

For the former, I saw the premiere and went "...Huh, this will be cute for kids" and never thought about it again for months. Then it blew up and got fan songs up the wazoo. I still play 20 Percent Cooler, Swing Tavi Swing, and other songs a lot. Also a huge fan of Sunset Shimmer (I love The Atoner archetype), so I'm constantly keeping tabs on fics starring the character. Starting watching the show on-and-off during season two and watched a few Equestria Girls specials, but pretty much went back to absorbing it via osmosis by the end of season five.

For the latter, I really like the characters and the fight scenes (especially when Monty Oum was still alive), but the actual writing of the show never really clicked with me. So to the world of fanfiction I went and here I stay. A lot of what I read is a solid mix of Transplanted Character Fic (basically... everything Coeur Al'Aran writes) and For Want Of A Nail ("Ruby with alternate upbringings" fics are great).

When I was in middle school, Naruto was also huge for me. People kept telling me the show "gets good" by the Naruto vs. Sasuke fight. That's over 100 episodes in. Most of my favourite shows at the time had lower episode counts than that. Most of my favourite shows now have lower episode counts than that. And Sakura didn't really do much in the manga from what I read at the time, so to fanfiction it was for NaruSaku stuff.

Edited by RacattackForce on Jun 12th 2022 at 2:27:20 PM

I used to loathe Naruto but I agree with you... even if I have the addendum that it improves by the time Jiraiya comes. But if you still dont like it then you should indeed avoid it.

I am a major devourer of Naruto Fanfiction. I love what fans have come up with.

I have Team Fortress 2 on my computer so I can use the models in Garry's Mod, but I don't actually play the game. FPS aren't really my thing and the whole bot crisis is not helping the situation. I just really like the mercs and putting them in situations.

I suppose I'm this for MLP. I would have adored the show if I'd seen it as a child, but it doesn't do it for me now. The fanwork though... There's so much good stuff, based off characters and situations simple enough to understand without watching the show. There's also a lot of rather horrifying stuff, which I've also stumbled into a few times.

Also, the Dream SMP. I've spent too much time on the page trying to figure out what the heck is going on in there and mostly given up. A03 has a lot of good fics for the fandom, though.

I've never played a Sonic game, but I've enjoyed the odd fanart (er, not the odd fanart) and I love the Gag Dubs people do of the cutscenes.

Randomly got into reading My Hero Academia fics last week. Have no idea why or how it happened, but I'm now following maybe five different "Quirkless Izuku" stories.

I haven't played Don't Starve, but for years I've been engrossed in the various fan theories surrounding the setting, lore, and characters, Lets Plays of the game and its DLC, along with the various Fan Art and Fan Vids made about it.

Total Drama should go into this category.

• YMMV.Yu Gi Oh Forbidden Memories has one regarding fan mods (covered by Come for the Game, Stay for the Mods). Practically every other FOF entry I've seen is about the series/franchise in its entirety, not just individual episodes/installments (I assume because being fans of the rest is Fanon Discontinuity instead). Does or should that limit in scope apply to FOF? Or is it just not this game that qualifies as it has a more fitting item covering it?
• YMMV.RWBY "The series has a vocal amount of fans (and even haters) who adore the setting and characters, but not the show itself. As such, many of them are drawn towards fan works, with some of the most well-known ones even promoting themselves as being improved retellings of the show's narrative." My impression was was FOF requires they never even check out the work, but how can they know enough about it to dislike the canon handling unless they follow/watch enough about it Fanon Discontinuity is a better fit?

Sandbox.Enjoy The Setting Ignore The Story was made, then given to me once the creator lost interest. That might be a better fit for the RWBY example. I'm wondering if that's too redundant with FOF (maybe make it a redirect), or worth keeping separate. Thoughts?

Edited by Ferot_Dreadnaught on Apr 28th 2024 at 8:40:13 AM