[Fandom] Yep, still in Merlinland

I'm sorry for flinging this post onto little children. Anyone below 15, please avert your eyes.

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I do believe that if I go on like this, it is quite possible that I'll flunk my study. Or maybe I'm halfway there.

But all my reading has strengthened my resolve to write. And the ideas in my head have nothing to do with subjects remotely academic. Unless I'm studying anatomy. Which I'm not.

It's rare to actually find myself learning when I'm reading fanfictions, but apparently there's a vast difference... as deep as an abyss (which I have never stared down into, so forgive me if the analogy is unsuitable)... when you're in a jrock or jpop fandom and when you're in a European one. Or in this case, Brit.

Words just flow without the restraint of not knowing much of the culture, the people, the language. Authors are not writing in English about non-English people having impossibly complicated English conversations in a completely non-English setting while drinking something that's made in a country entirely populated by mostly non-English speaking people.... and I relish the freedom.

Also, since I studied in the UK (though I didn't have enough money to travel to Ireland, to my everlasting regret) for a bit and watched hours and hours of British telly in defiance of my busy undergraduate schedule, I do get a bit of the jokes... although not most. But enough to make me howl with laughter and splutter saliva all over my laptop monitor.

However, I have to say that after more than a week of intense reading, I have yet to find a single bondage fic... much less S&M, or any plot that doesn't involve fluffy romance and happy ever after. I was so used to at least finding a story with one of the characters dying. And that's RPS, mind you... not even AU. Hmmm, what does that say about jrock/jpop fandom... IDEK.

The strange thing is, all the stories in the Merlin fandom I found... and I do mean ALL!... were so well-written that I'm not even missing those intense, dark, OTT-menacingly-whispered-professions-of-love-while-being-tortured-with-black-candles, nearly suicidal relationships I was so used to bump into while maneuvering the messy j-ent fanfiction corridors.

Obviously I've been missing on a lot of things. I have Colin/Merlin and Bradley/Arthur to thank for this massive discovery. I've yet to move to Season Two because I'm still determined to explore Season One for a second time. And this time I'm to take my sweet time about it... while reading fanfics, watching interviews, looking up making of clips... taking in everything.

O yeah, this mission must be accomplished while churning out technical papers for supervisors and bosses on time. Tricky, that.