I remember when the series finale of Avatar: The Last Airbender (A:TLA) was airing in 2008. I was one locked door away from the only cable television at my uncle's house. As my blood pressure steadily began to rise as the clock ticked closer to 8:00 P.M., my Facebook newsfeed was blowing up with anticipation for the finale. And after my grandma heroically arrived with the key and I got to watch the end of a legendary series, I couldn't help but feel a little empty. If you've ever watched a series finale of one of your favorite shows, then you're probably familiar with that feeling of a gaping hole in your heart. So when the spinoff of A:TLA, The Legend of Korra, was announced in 2010, the A:TLA fandom went into uproar. When spinoffs are revealed to be in the making, fans finally have something to fill the gap. A more recent example was the announcing of the spinoff of Boy Meets World. The spinoff, named Girl Meets World, will be based on the daughter of the two original characters, Cory and Topanga. But very, very few shows get their own sequels or spinoffs.
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| Source: payle.deviantart.com |
In addition to the bull's-eye interpretation of the show's characters all grown up, the creator added short biographies for each of the main characters following their graduation from high school, which really suited their personalities from the show. For example, Zoey, who was always the geeky, sheltered "white girl," went off to major in Psychology and then work for a non-profit organization. And if the fact that Sticky and Dijonay finally ended up together didn't pull at your heartstrings, then I don't know what will. If you're interested in reading the full descriptions, click here. So, even though the show ended its run in 2005, this fan-fiction and the 35,000+ notes/hits on Tumblr show that the media we've grown up with never truly leave us. And fan-fiction feeds fans with unlimited possibilities, because they reflect viewers' imaginations, and because they transcend the boundaries of commercial television. Not to mention, they bring nostalgia and make us feel like the characters we watched on t.v are growing up with us.
In the new age of technology and mass media, fan-fiction has become a different angle of creative writing. Fans and writers are given the authorial freedom to manipulate the after-story of their favorite shows, novels, and movies. New romances can be formed and loose story-lines can be developed. The internet is a space for all to write and read for free. These fanfics will most likely never make it onto print, not only because of copyright, but also because of amateurism--they were made for fun. It's just to connect fans around the world. Writers are allowed to explore their imagination, and readers are able to live on with their favorite shows/movies/books even if for a brief moment. Essentially, when it comes to the internet, anyone can be a writer while drawing inspiration from things they love.
What do you think of fanfiction?
I really liked this blog post! Thank you for bringing up such a great topic. It's really important to realize that with the Internet, those who feel like outcasts or unloved can find friends who share their same interests and make friends through something like writing.
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