A brief history of time

[caranfindel]

In light of* yesterday's life-affirming announcement that S14 is a go, I notice a lot of people are posting their fandom origin stories. So here's mine.

(*Yesterday I saw two instances of people writing in lieu of when they clearly meant in light of. One was on the internet and one was a novel. Weird.)

I became obsessed with BBC Sherlock in the summer of 2012, after its second season, which is how I discovered Tumblr. That, of course, led to SuperWhoLock, which was the fashion at the time, and I thought "all these Sherlock fans can't be wrong; those other shows must be good too." So I watched the Supernatural pilot. And I didn't like it. I didn't even finish it.


I know.

So I switched to Doctor Who and watched as much of that as I cared for (loved Nine, liked Ten, gave up on Eleven), and then I decided to give Supernatural another try, and I guess the broken part of my brain that had kept me from appreciating it was repaired (or maybe I had broken enough to appreciate it, hmmm) because I fell head over heels. It was the winter of 2012-13 by this point; Supernatural was in its 8th season. I burned through all seven seasons available on Netflix in weeks. At some point I set my DVR to record the back half of the season, but by the time the show returned after the hellatus, I was still making my way through the previous seven seasons. During the time I saw a post on Tumblr that referred to the show ending soon, and I was annoyed that I'd found it just as it was going away, but thought I could at least catch up and watch the final episode live.

(Season eight. That was season eight. They weren't even in double digits yet.)

Then I set off in search of the first half of S8. I scoured the internet, finding what I could online. (I had to buy Southern Comfort from iTunes, and I watched it in the school parking lot as I waited for my kid to finish an after-school activity.) I read the forums on Television Without Pity, which was so much fun after-the-fact when you could see that the show's writers and/or runners were obviously trolling there. I read the reviews on that site too, until the reviewer stopped liking the show. And it was either through TWOP or the Supernatural wiki that I found LiveJournal. Specifically, the ohsam community, and more specifically, this particular fic by brosedshield. And I thought, wow. There are talented people in this fandom. I like it here.

I watched episode 8.23, Sacrifice, two weeks after it aired live. I created my own LJ account a month later, in June of 2013. I started posting crappy fanfic that summer. When season 9 began, I started reviewing episodes. (I don't know when I started completely recapping every episode. I don't know why I started completely recapping every episode. It was a bad decision.)

I can't believe I've been here almost five years. I still like it here. Thank you, Show, for giving me another year.

Comments

[madebyme-x.livejournal.com]

Well I'm super glad that you found your way here, and that I found you along the way! I love your recaps, polls and your wonderful fic too - it wouldn't be the same here without you, that's for sure. I find origin stories so fascinating, I might even post my own :)

[caranfindel.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Please do post your origin story; I'd love to read it!