I got so fried by the post S5 wank that I had to take a fandom vacation I was actually already gone by the time the season finale aired. I had all the episodes like a month before they aired (but I still managed to fall behind on watching them). I think I got burned out on all the pre S5 wank, and then when I actually saw what happened, I just... that was pretty much it for me. I left the country soon after and went for months without my own computer, only able to borrow raxhels computer. She had fic saved there, but not any QaF stuff, so I ended up falling into the HP fandom instead. By the time I was back in Canada, it was all SGA all the way :)
I did read a few writers that were recced at first(like xie_xie_xie), but I think you hit it when you said the tone had changed. Yeah xie_xie_xie and her group are really keeping the fandom alive over on IJ, but, it's just a totally different fandom these days. One of the things that surprises me, in that I totally can't understand it, is that the current fandom is somehow less anti-Mikey and *more* anti-Mikey at the same time. If you read fic he's not villainized as much as he was in our days (they tend to write him in fics more as he appeared on the show, rather than, you know, trying to kill Justin and hide the body while seducing Brain) but if you go to the major B/J comms, they pretty much all have rules saying you're not allowed to talk about Mikey or the Brian/Mikey dynamic (not the pairing, which I can understand, but you're not even allowed to talk about their dynamic!). Getting back OT here, I know that for me, the first season was my favourite, then the second and third, and by the fourth, I was beginning to lose interest in the canon, and it was just the fandom keeping me there. I *loved* reading all the fics from the first and second season finales where the author didn't actually know what was going to happen and made up their own ideas. They were awesome! Even if they did turn out to be wrong or completely OOC later on. The season 3 and 4 endings didn't interest me as much, and well, the season 5 ending just left me angry. But, by default, the current fandom can never really write the fics that I loved most, because they already have the answers, and they are going into AU areas if they try (but are still going to be influenced if they want to be or not, but what they know happens later). And so much of the fics I see out there are post season 5 fics, and I just don't really care to go there. I liked my happy pairing in Pittsburgh.
Re: QaF Fandom
I was actually already gone by the time the season finale aired. I had all the episodes like a month before they aired (but I still managed to fall behind on watching them). I think I got burned out on all the pre S5 wank, and then when I actually saw what happened, I just... that was pretty much it for me. I left the country soon after and went for months without my own computer, only able to borrow
I did read a few writers that were recced at first(like xie_xie_xie), but I think you hit it when you said the tone had changed.
Yeah
Getting back OT here, I know that for me, the first season was my favourite, then the second and third, and by the fourth, I was beginning to lose interest in the canon, and it was just the fandom keeping me there. I *loved* reading all the fics from the first and second season finales where the author didn't actually know what was going to happen and made up their own ideas. They were awesome! Even if they did turn out to be wrong or completely OOC later on. The season 3 and 4 endings didn't interest me as much, and well, the season 5 ending just left me angry. But, by default, the current fandom can never really write the fics that I loved most, because they already have the answers, and they are going into AU areas if they try (but are still going to be influenced if they want to be or not, but what they know happens later). And so much of the fics I see out there are post season 5 fics, and I just don't really care to go there. I liked my happy pairing in Pittsburgh.