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Fandom During the Pandemic

Nothing has been left unchanged in the past year

By Haley KellerPublished 3 years ago 8 min read
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The Covid-19 pandemic has affected many aspects of our lives over the past year, from work to relationships to hobbies.

Fandom has been no different. Though much of fandom has always taken place online, in person fandom events have always had their own special place in fandom culture. Even virtual spaces have been affected as the lives of people who use them has changed.

Here are some of the ways fandom has adapted during the pandemic.

Movie Releases Over Streaming Services

One of the ways that fandom has been affected by the pandemic is visible to people even outside of fandom: Many movies and TV shows have been cancelled or delayed in the past year.

Movies, such as Mulan, had their theatrical releases cancelled and were released through streaming services instead. This changed how fans experienced the films.

For many large franchise films, theatrical releases are a big event. Fans dress up in costumes and treat the release as a community event. That’s harder to do when you have to watch a movie for the first time at home. Fans could still get excited about the films and discuss them online, but the only people they could discuss the movie with in person, in most cases, were other members of their household.

At the same time, a digital release can be more unifying for fans in some cases. While theatrical releases are great for gathering with other fans in your area, streaming allows fans to watch a film at home and immediately discuss it with fans from around the world. With streaming, it’s even possible for fans to talk with fandom friends who live far away during the movie through Discord severs or other services. That’s an experience you can’t have in a theater without annoying the rest of the crowd. Plus, some people prefer watching movies in the quiet of their own home without distractions in the audience. So, while the pandemic changed movie releases, it’s tough to say that it was inherently worse from a fan perspective.

Of course, other movies that were already released in theaters before the pandemic, such as Frozen 2, had their digital releases pushed forward because of the pandemic, giving people more things to watch while they were stuck at home. This was exciting for fans who wanted to watch their favorite films at a time when they needed a good distraction. The extra time at home also meant that many fans had more time to discuss these films with others than they would have before, leading to more active fandom spaces.

It’s not only release dates that were affected when it comes to film and TV though. Filming and production of both television and movies took a hit when casts and crews couldn’t gather. Some TV shows had to end their seasons early and unexpectedly thanks to the pandemic, including The Blacklist, which both shortened its season and animated part of its season finale. Such situations are great for starting fan discussions and fanworks about what episodes they could have gotten had everything gone to plan.

Right now, it’s hard to say how long the effects of these changes will be felt and when television and film production will be back to normal. It also remains to be seen if studios will continue to release any films over streaming instead of in theaters and what future theatrical releases might look like on the fandom side of things.

Concerts and Album Releases

Just like movie premieres and other events, many concerts were cancelled or postponed due the pandemic. Fans who had looked forward to seeing their favorite artists live were disappointed, and many faced frustration when getting refunds or waiting for news about rescheduling. The ultimate fates of many tours are up in the air after continued delays, and it may take a long time for the industry to recover.

However, just like in film, the pandemic led to creative uses of technology in the concert industry. Some artists, such as the Kpop group Blackpink, performed virtual concerts. These were held online, with fans around the world paying to watch the concert.

It was a bit of a gamble. Nothing on a computer or TV screen will compete with the live concert experience, and in a world where concert videos are often posted online by fans (and increasingly left up by artists’ teams), it wasn’t a given that many fans would pay for these tickets. But the events were a distraction for many when they remained stuck inside, and it was a chance for fans to see their favorite artists perform somehow even when they couldn’t in person.

Of course, some music fans also received new albums to listen to during the pandemic. Folklore and Evermore, two surprise albums from Taylor Swift, were among the most notorious to come out while we were all stuck at home. These releases also provided fans with a welcome distraction and a chance to excitedly discuss something new together when so much else was cancelled.

Virtual Conventions

People outside of fandom often think of conventions when they think of fandom. In reality, conventions are special events, not the primary way most fans experience fandom, but they are important to fandom culture.

There are conventions of all kinds. San Diego Comic Con (SDCC) is one of the biggest. It attracts big names every year. But there are also many smaller conventions hosted all over the world. SDCC covers a lot of ground, from comic books to blockbuster movies to video games, but many of these smaller conventions are more limited in their scope, allowing fans to celebrate specific things that they love. Attending conventions closer to home, also allows fans to form friendships with people who they can spend time with throughout the year.

During the pandemic, gatherings like these couldn’t be held. Just like with concerts, this has led to some confusion as fans struggled to get refunds or reschedule plans.

Some conventions moved their conventions online. SDCC did this and also made much of their content free through Youtube. This was exciting for many fans who had never had the money or time to attend the big name convention before.

Because SDCC is such a massive event, they had the resources to undertake this. Some smaller conventions have tried holding conventions online despite the challenges. Even those experienced with holding in person conventions don’t necessarily know the ins and outs of holding digital events. It was new ground for many.

There’s no doubt that connecting with other fans digitally was important to many people who felt isolated during the pandemic, and online conventions were one way people found to ease their isolation. However, there’s also no denying that the main draw of conventions is being able to gather in person to celebrate something that you usually only get to celebrate online. In that sense, online conventions don’t hold the same spark as in person ones do, and though the effects of the pandemic will affect how conventions are organized for a long time to come, many are hopeful that they’ll return soon.

Video Game Popularity Surges

Animal Crossing: New Horizons was released by Nintendo at the same time that many places were going into lockdowns, and the game was a massive success. Talk of it filled social media as people used the time they were stuck indoors to play the game.

If you’ve played Animal Crossing before, then you know there is a social component to the game. You can visit your friends’ islands and see what they’ve been getting up to in the game. Not to mention that you can talk to the animals on your island, even if they’re not real people. As people started to feel a little lonely stuck at home, it’s no wonder that they took to a game like Animal Crossing.

Animal Crossing wasn’t the only game people were playing though. Among Us had been around for a while without gaining much traction, but during the pandemic, it became the only thing that anyone could talk about.

Among Us can be played on a computer or phone, and whereas Animal Crossing can be played alone, Among Us requires you to play with others. There are options to play with strangers, but many people play it with people they already know, while also using Discord as a way to chat beyond the game itself.

In the game, a group of people are working on a spaceship and have to complete tasks. The catch is that some people are Imposters. They’re actually sabotaging the work of the other players and killing them. The goal is to catch the Imposters or, if you’re an Imposter, to not get caught.

Like Animal Crossing, Among Us allowed people to interact with their friends in a new way, and even many people who don’t regularly play video games found themselves using them to connect with people they could no longer see in person.

Fanfiction

While people who aren’t incredibly active in fandom were also affected by movie releases being delayed or concerts being canceled, many of those same people never noticed the ways fanfiction was affected during the pandemic. To those outside of it, fanfiction often doesn’t capture widespread attention.

But just like everything else in the world during the last year, it was affected by the pandemic. People being stuck inside meant they had a lot of free time, and people were looking for distractions. One of the many things that fanfiction is great for is escapism. If watching movies or reading books helps people forget about real world problems for a bit, fanfiction maximizes that by allowing fans to delve even more deeply into worlds that they enjoy.

Archive of Our Own (AO3), one of the largest fanfiction websites on the internet, saw an increase in traffic during the pandemic. This increase was due to people both reading and writing more fanfiction once they were stuck at home.

Perhaps the pandemic was a chance for some people to get into fanfiction for the first time, and many of them may stay even once things return to normal.

The pandemic has changed the past year of people’s lives. Many were stuck at home and isolated from those they care about, but during that time, fandom was a place many turned to. Fandom has long been a way for people to connect with people with similar interests, and that ability to connect through a computer or phone screen instead of face to face was never more important to most people than it was in the last year, despite the disappointments.

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