End of Year Meme

[iaria]

This was actually really hard to do. Especially since anything past the last couple months has completely disappeared from my mind. Frankly it’s sad. I couldn’t even remember some of the fandoms new this year. I mean I actually only started watching The Vampire Diaries in January, and I only watched Avatar this year. What I figured would be the easiest part of the meme – character/pairing list – became the hardest, strangely enough.

This year has really seen a change in what I’m interested in and at the top of that list now is female characters, femslash, threesomes and gen. I honestly don’t have a current slash pairing and it feels very weird! I mean for years and years my main pairings were usually slash and now I find it so hard to get involved in anything that doesn’t have a female character in it. I do kind of want a slash pairing again – I think the closest right at this moment would be Gus/Shawn from Psych so of course they don’t have much of a fandom around them (whhhhyyyyyy?! I don’t understand it!) – but I wonder if it’s that I really mostly just want a slash fandom for some of my female characters and pairings? I got so spoiled being in slash fandom especially since my main ones were Harry Potter and Smallville – so much excellent fic and meta and art and just fannishness about them – that to go from that to what so many of my fandoms are now... *is sad* I mean why doesn’t TVD have a bigger fandom?! *shakes head* I find it so confusing. Is it getting tarred with the Twilight brush and so people aren’t even giving it a chance?

Ten Favourite Characters of the Year: TV and Books

Olivia Dunham
Mogami Kyoko
Elena Gilbert
Eleventh Doctor
River Song
Caroline Forbes
Damon Salvatore
Stefan Salvatore
Tsukino Usagi
Osawa Eriko

(Okay, yes, four of the characters on this list are from TVD but I found this a very difficult list to create and I really love those four so whatever.)

Ten Favourite Ships of the Year:

Stefan/Elena/Damon
Elizabeth/Peter/Neal
Doctor/River
Pepper/Tony
Castle/Beckett
Rizzoli/Isles
Usagi/Mamoru
Ziva/Tony
Mika/Raizo
Juliet/Sawyer
*Doctor/Rose

Others:

Locke/Ben (season 6 was not the best for them unfortunately)
Kate/Claire (a shocker but season 6 was excellent for them at least, so unexpected but happy making)
Elena/Bonnie
Rei/Minako & any senshi/Usagi & Ami/Nephrite & various other pairings (because PGSM gave so many new character interactions and a new spin on relationships and I loved it).

Ten Favourite Non-Romantic Pairs of the Year:

Stefan & Caroline
Elena & Damon
Castle & Alexis
Doctor & Amy & Rory
Bo & Kenzi
Senshi
Gaang
Pam & Eric
Doctor & Donna
Kate & Claire

Three Favourite TV Shows of the Year:

The Vampire Diaries
Fringe
Doctor Who

Runner ups: Castle, Sailor Moon, White Collar, Avatar the Last Airbender, Lost

Your Favourite Book Read This Year:

This is really hard. I don’t know how to pick. So I’ve chosen a novel I greatly enjoyed and that I have already re-read several times as well as a manga I loved.

Nation by Terry Pratchett

Manga: Skip Beat ♥

Your Favourite Album Or Song To Listen To This Year:

Florence and the Machine, overall I think.

But honestly I can’t even remember what songs I first heard this year. Did I only just learn about Jenni Vartiainen this year? Because I love her. And she led to Chisu and Nanne (well okay that one was the Princess Tutu vid). There’s Muse, some of Kamelot’s songs and I’ve come to really like Lady Gaga’s music this year. I was pretty obsessed with ‘Break Your Heart’ by Taio Cruz, the song but especially the video, for awhile there. And I’m ending the year completely in love with Miss A’s “Good Girl, Bad Girl”. I love the song, and the video so much (their second single not so much) but I’m not sure I could label it ‘of the year’.

Your Favourite Film Watched This Year?

Ninja Assassin.

Shock, I know. This movie was such a surprise and I wasn’t really expecting anything special. I mean its Rain playing a ninja assassin fighting his former ninja family and so based on that limited information I figured it would be fighting, gore, and more fighting. So the fact that I loved it, that it had two really amazing characters who had an amazing relationship and that the female character was just as important as the male one was a huge surprise. Huge! But, man, do I love Mika and Raizo. They are awesome as individuals and they are awesome together. Mika was the biggest surprise for me because I didn’t even realise that there was going to be a female lead, let alone that she would get just as much screen time, story, characterization and sheer awesome as our main male character.

The fact that Mika, even more than Raizo, drove the plot and action of this movie is amazing. I love that she’s basically a librarian and has no combat skills but she still gets to take out ninja’s in believable ways, and she still risks her life and kicks ass in the process, and she gets to be smart and talented. I love her. I loved Raizo, too. Raizo who is awesomely competent, and pretty hot, and so very sweet and wonderful. He also has this very sly sense of humour that I loved. Raizo gets to have a ton of awesome (if a bit gorey) fight scenes, and a sad angsty back story. I love how kind he is. He tends to be quiet but it’s not the brooding type of quiet, you know? It’s just how he is. He’s not a jerk or an angsty self-absorbed loner type. He’s a quiet, ubber competent and innately kind person who just wants to be free. I want to hug him. The Mika/Raizo relationship that forms and grows in the movie is so wonderful.

You know what I wish? I wish someone would make this into a TV series about Mika and Raizo taking down the other ninja clans. Because it would be awesome and they could get together, and then also maybe there would be a fandom for it. It needs a fandom!

First Fandom of the Year:

Looking back the first show I wrote about was actually General Hospital. Huh. But the first thing I was really fannish about this year was: The Vampire Diaries. It doesn’t feel like it but I have only been watching this show for a year. At the beginning of January I marathoned the first ten episodes of the show after reading a lot of squee about the series. I ended up finishing the episodes a week before 1x11 was going to premiere and found myself going ‘whaaa, I have to wait?!’

Your Best New Fandom Discovery of the Year:

The Vampire Diaries (I love this show so much!) but also Asian dramas (which I knew about before so this is more of a re-discovery).

Your Biggest Fandom Disappointment of the Year:

I don’t think there’s really been any one big thing (or at least I can’t think of one off the top of my head) but here are a couple of smaller fannish disappointments:

After losing so many shows the last couple years (sniff, T:SCC) I really do need more fandoms but this season has been seriously disappointing in that regard. I really only have Lost Girl (which is over for the season) and Nikita. The fandoms that are huge this fall have been Inception, Hawaii 5-0 and Sherlock and I am just not interested in any of them.

I gave up on Merlin this year. I watched the first few episodes of season two and then just didn’t watch any more. I have seen some clips and read some reviews and a lot of it has just made me mad or irritated me a lot so I don’t really feel like watching more.

Also add Glee – lots of potential, characters/pairings I liked but most of it wasted. Plus both series have characters I dislike (Will and Gaius, also Uther) who get way too much screen time and who we’re supposed to like.

I used to really love NCIS and Bones and while I am still enjoying both shows I love them a less than I did and that makes me sad.

True Blood – I marathoned it this summer and then watched the third season. The series started off pretty good and then got worse and worse. There is stuff I like but it really got lost. I don’t even know if I’ll watch when the fourth season comes out.

Favourite Main Character of the Year:

Olivia Dunham and Elena Gilbert. Just... ♥ I love both of them so much. I can’t choose.

Favourite Villain of the Year:

Katherine Pierce (/Petrova). Undisputed. I love Katherine and she is just an awesome villain. I hope she never dies. (Or is completely redeamed.)

Fandom That You Never Expected To Get Into:

Well, I never expected to love The Vampire Diaries as much as I do, or for it to be my number one show when it first premiered last year.

Fandom That Made An Unexpected Comeback:

Sailor Moon. I finally watched the rest of PGSM and loved it. Oh, how I wish there was a second season. TPTB’s version of the ‘Outer’ senshi and their interactions with the inners would have been amazing. If there was just a bigger fandom for this I would have been all over.

Fandom that you haven't Tried Yet, but want to?

Legend of the Seeker, though I don’t know that this completely counts since I watched the pilot and then dropped the show. But I have heard so much gushing and love for Cara and Cara/Kahlan that even though it has already been cancelled I want to at least try to watch it again. I’m just not sure if I should start by watching season one or start with the season one finale when Cara shows up.

The Most Missed of Your Old Fandoms:

Smallville. I miss Clark/Lex. Both watching them on the show and reading fic about them. I should maybe finish the show since the last season is airing now. There won't be any Lex but there will be Lois.