NAME A FANDOM AND I'LL TELL YOU:

1. The first character I fell in love with:
2. The character I never expected to love as much as I do now:
3. The character everyone else loves that I don’t:
4. The character I love that everyone else hates:
5. The character I would shag anytime:
6. The character I'd want to be like:
7. The character I'd slap:
8. A pairing that I love:
9. A pairing that I despise:
10. Favorite character:
11. What are my five favorite things about the fandom.
12. What are my five least favorite things about the fandom.
13. Who are my five favorite characters.
14. Who are my five least favorite characters.
15. What are my five favorite pairings.
16. What are my five least favorite pairings.
17. Which character are you most like.
18. What is my deep, dark fandom secret.

Note: I reserve the right to not actually do all of these. :)

We've all seen this sort of thing, especially those of us who read more manga than we watch anime. We get into a fandom, start discussing favorite scenes and pairings, and people say "OMG, what about moment X, that was so perfect!" and you go... hah?

Yes, welcome to anime filler canon, where fandoms argue about how canon anime is, and how much you can use it in your pairing wars.

Bleach is the obvious culprit here. First of all, the author of the manga and the creators of the anime clearly differ on who Ichigo should end up with (the 3rd movie just came out, and, being filler, is filled with IchiRuki moments). I've only read the manga, so was rather startled at the huge amounts of Hitsugaya x Karin fics, because as far as I knew they'd never met. Turns out I missed a filler arc!

This isn't new. 10 years ago Ranma 1/2 was feeding Ryouga/Ukyou shippers with lots of anime-only filler moments. And it will ALWAYS lead to arguments, as it will inevitably end up about shipping, as internet fandoms do. And it's not always something I'm on the wrong side of. The Order Of The Phoenix movie had a lot more Harry/Luna shipping than the book, to which I say yay. :)

Does anyone have any other obvious examples? I don't read Naruto, but I know it must have some. And I know the big Sena/Mamori shippers in ES21 tend to take all their moments from anime filler pre-Suzuna.

In other news, we have snow for the first time this year. It's not sticking, but still, snow.

Will be off on Thursday to Baltimore for the annual Otakon event.

This is likely to be my final Otakon. Going to cons has changed significantly over the years, as back in 1997 or 1998 it was easy to go to a con to watch all the anime you couldn't find in stores. Online torrent sites and fansubbers have negated this, as stuff now comes out the day it airs in Japan. Then it was to get new licensing announcements from companies, but what with the current depression (sorry, downturn), there's not as much I'd get excited about. Tokyopop, I see, is totally avoiding the con, as is Del Rey. And ADV's in the Sunday Afternoon graveyard slot. Also, there used to be the fanfic panel, but that's long since been given over to others, and I'm not sure there even is one this year.

That leaves guests and bands, who have never excited me, and hanging out with friends. And while I do enjoy hanging out with friends every year, there are far cheaper places to do so than the Baltimore Inner Harbor, The Most Expensive Place On Earth. This will also be the 2nd Otakon without Lara and Clint, who are both greatly missed.

Don't get me wrong, Otakon is still an excellent con, but I'm just not as involved in fandom as I used to be (yes, I'll still be on the yuri panel, Friday at 1pm FYI), and it's likely to be more exciting to just arrange with friends a nice inexpensive hotel room in the Midwest somewhere and just hang out all weekend. Though we'd miss mocking cosplayers. :)