Fictional Fans

It kind of makes me think about what a rare pair actually is. For example, within MCU, Loki/Tony is definitely a rare pair. But given all the content that continues to come out for it, it doesn't seem a lot more rare than some leading pairs in other fandoms. (A small fandom with a rare pair must be a special form of agony). In Merlin fandom, for example, virtually all pairings besides Merlin/Arthur are rare. One of the most mentioned is Gwen/Lancelot yet while they're IN many many stories, there are very few about them.

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MCU is what I'd think of a megafandom,though fandom is pretty diffuse.

A rare pair in a small fandom ships in a rowboat. If the writer isn't the same as the reader, it's good times.

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I think that's a fair assessment -- while most people are fans of the films I'd imagine there are many more spreading in and out from Marvel comics fandom and even specific celeb fandoms given that every other star it seems has some kind of role in it.

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batrachian

This is just such a delightful mental image, thank you. :-)

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doranwen

A rare pair even in a megafandom can be pretty tiny! For instance, I ship Scott/Ororo in X-Men Original Movieverse - and I can probably count the number of stories (well, one is a series of short fics, so I count that as one because it tells all one story anyway) I've seen for that pairing on my fingers. (Of course, I haven't been scouring for it lately, but still - Scott/Ororo was rare enough to be eligible for Fandom Growth last year! I know, because I wrote it as my assignment, lol. That means less than 10 fics total for the pairing on AO3.) It's really small. Scott/Rogue is a lot more common, and even that isn't a huge one.

Other rare pairs I ship (from more medium-sized but on the small-size fandoms):
Myles/Tara from Sue Thomas F.B.Eye (which isn't a super tiny fandom but it's definitely not big - still Yuletide-eligible since most of the fic for the fandom is hidden away on locked message boards) - and I've seen less than five fics total for it, not counting the YT gift and treat I got (both of which were more friendshippy than romantic)
Dov/Gail from Rookie Blue (which isn't so tiny as to be Yuletide-eligible still, but it's nearly dead - except at least one of the tiny handful of authors still posting fics happens to be the one writing the really good Dov/Gail fics, so yay!)

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Yeah, I think there are probably levels of it -- there are some that may have a small amount of activity but are really in a second or third tier vs the rare pairs that have maybe a dozen works a year.

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I will admit that both Scott/Ororo and Scott/Rogue would be things I'd think of as a rare pair, if they came up.

Coracle and camp canoe?

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doranwen

Lol @ the last line. Appropriate choices! (Scott/Ororo really does feel like a kayak - rare two-seater options but mostly lone single…)

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I don't know, as a writer in the Loki/Tony ship I wouldn't say it's rare. In fact is was pretty prominent until Winter Soldier came out and Stucky took over the fandom, which then turned into the infamous Stucky/Stony/OT3 trifecta after Civil War.

More than rare I would say it's just old. It's had it's heydey during Avengers 1 and people moved on when there were more options. But people still read and write quite a bit of it. My updates only stay on the front page for two days or so, which is pretty active by most fandom's standards. It's like RDJ standing next to Evans and Hiddleston. Of course he looks small, he's standing next to f*cking giants. But 5'9" isn't that short.

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That's interesting to know -- I came to the MCU in 2012 and got started by reading a variety of recs which is how I ended up in Tony/Loki's area (I had been looking for longform gen fic which remains thin on the ground). So if they were a prominent ship then it explains a lot.

And you're right, I'm subscribed to the AO3 feed and there's stuff coming through every day which is not a rare pair sort of thing.

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Oof, satisfying longform gen is very hard to find. I'll be sure to rec you if I run across any.

Love that icon btw! Great colors. @__@

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That would be great! And I felt very lucky to stumble across some Frostiron icons :)

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So FrostIron has that same aspect as "All the team lives in the tower" whether or not a particular person is Canon Non-compliant? Aka, 'vintage'.

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That's one thing I really like about Frostiron. Because it started so early it has evolved alongside the whole MCU. With each movie the kind of fics changed, and so it's now a very diverse ship.

In the beginning there was a lot of "everyone in the tower", or more often "Loki escapes/is extradited or banished from Asgard as punishment for the invasion and winds up in the Tower.

Then Thor: The Dark World came out and ended with Loki impersonating Odin. So then there was a period of fics where Loki gets bored of sitting on the throne and starts doing shenanigans ^TM that cause him and Tony to cross paths.

Then Age of Ultron was released and we all belatedly realized that Loki had an infinity stone in A1, so then there was a rash of speculative stories about the stones.

After that came Civil War, which created tension between Team Steve vs Team Tony fans. So there was a small crop of people who wrote CW era Frostiron just to avoid the ship wars. haha These fics tend to have Loki offering Tony support and bonding over both of them being betrayed by their supposed allies.

And obviously since Thor: Ragnarok we've all been obsessed with Infinity War AUs, time travel fix-its, and post-snap future fics.

Once you've read a few, you can guess what year a fic was written just by the subject matter!

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Oooh, someone can do a battleship curve of themes.

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Even without his heels RDJ is about a head taller than Jack Kirby was.

What's hilarious is a gantry shot from some comic con. Renner and Evans are looking sorta normal and Hemsworth is like another scale entirely. They're all wearing grey tees that haven't been smedium babydolled by wardrobe.

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