So. That happened. Now what?
Jun. 15th, 2019 12:18 pmI have so many thoughts you guys. Most of the feels are on tumblr (which, feel free to click through and enjoy the pretty gifsets and squee with me?)
Let's just zoom in on this bit for a moment, shall we?
There's more than this. The whole gifset is here. But this is the bit where he explicitly confirms that he and Phil are more than just "best friends," as the phandom generally believed, but had never had explicitly confirmed.
And the phandom is now reeling. And I have general fandom thoughts and questions, and also Things to Say about what the phandom is going through right now.
So, first: has this ever happened before? I want to know: has there ever been a large RPF fandom that has had their ship become "canon" in this way? Like, large as in "Phan has been one of the top 5 ships on tumblr since fandometrics has started counting" and "over 15K stories under the ship tag in the ao3" big with bonus "they've been working together and the subtext has been there for 10 years, but they've only just confirmed it NOW."
Really, can anyone think of an example of this sort of thing ever happening before?
Obviously, this video is incredibly important for the self-actualizing journey that it is. And Dan is going to save lives with his story. Sky is headlong right back into Dan-worship because of this video, and I'm right there with them.
But I'm also putting on the Fan Studies Scholar hat at the moment, because this is a unique time in a unique fandom; one that crosses some generational boundaries with its traditional-slash-except-not qualities. (Stay tuned for the paper![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tishaturk and I will be presenting at FSA-NA in October about this topic specifically with regard to phanvids).
There is what I can only call an epistemological GLEE with which the tumblr phandom is running through all of the subtextual moments that they've pointed to for YEARS as evidence of a romantic relationship and now reliving them through this new lens. And it's not that they're SURPRISED; it's that they're VINDICATED. And also just HAPPY.
Something like this compilation that only goes up to 2016...when seen with eyes that KNOW this is real. It's different, somehow. I'm still working on the words to describe it.
Anyway, again, even if you don't go here. Talk to me about what this means for Fandom-with-a-capital-F?
Let's just zoom in on this bit for a moment, shall we?
There's more than this. The whole gifset is here. But this is the bit where he explicitly confirms that he and Phil are more than just "best friends," as the phandom generally believed, but had never had explicitly confirmed.
And the phandom is now reeling. And I have general fandom thoughts and questions, and also Things to Say about what the phandom is going through right now.
So, first: has this ever happened before? I want to know: has there ever been a large RPF fandom that has had their ship become "canon" in this way? Like, large as in "Phan has been one of the top 5 ships on tumblr since fandometrics has started counting" and "over 15K stories under the ship tag in the ao3" big with bonus "they've been working together and the subtext has been there for 10 years, but they've only just confirmed it NOW."
Really, can anyone think of an example of this sort of thing ever happening before?
Obviously, this video is incredibly important for the self-actualizing journey that it is. And Dan is going to save lives with his story. Sky is headlong right back into Dan-worship because of this video, and I'm right there with them.
But I'm also putting on the Fan Studies Scholar hat at the moment, because this is a unique time in a unique fandom; one that crosses some generational boundaries with its traditional-slash-except-not qualities. (Stay tuned for the paper
tishaturk and I will be presenting at FSA-NA in October about this topic specifically with regard to phanvids).There is what I can only call an epistemological GLEE with which the tumblr phandom is running through all of the subtextual moments that they've pointed to for YEARS as evidence of a romantic relationship and now reliving them through this new lens. And it's not that they're SURPRISED; it's that they're VINDICATED. And also just HAPPY.
Something like this compilation that only goes up to 2016...when seen with eyes that KNOW this is real. It's different, somehow. I'm still working on the words to describe it.
Anyway, again, even if you don't go here. Talk to me about what this means for Fandom-with-a-capital-F?
