POV: Young Royals is an early 2000s Web 1.0 juggernaut megafandom
During my hiatus earlier this week, @heliza24 and I had a conversation about what Young Royals fandom would be like if it were not a modestly-sized tumblr fandom in the 2020s, but rather an early 00s juggernaut megafandom like the kind you saw on livejournal and individual web pages scattered throughout the internet.
Note: the tone here is 100% silly and inspired by a) my personal history in long ago fandoms and b) repeated viewings of fandom history videos by @strange-aeons. The internet had a bit more of a “wild west” feeling back in those days and you will see that reflected in our ideas.
A lightly edited transcript of my conversation with heliza about fanfic archive names and potential early internet dramas follows…
~
blue: So here’s a topic of discussion YR fandom hasn't done yet. What would each pairing's archive be called if we were watching this show in 2003? I feel like Wilmon would have a few archives, each with a different flavor. Like there'd be a catch-all archive that's pretty friendly and welcoming, an archive just made up of fics where they're adults, and then something for kink and/or dark fic (or those would be separate)
heliza: Our weird multi shipping poly archive is called sprucewood obvs!
blue: Oh there'd probably also be a Wilmon archive that's Edmar RPF-friendly
heliza: One of them would be called The Frog Prince and the Popstar. Maybe that's the RPF favorable one, idk.
blue: Originally was going to say the catch-all, but I think you're right. The catch-all friendly archive would be The Fish Tank.
heliza: Yes love that ahaha. Is the kinky one like Fuck the Monarchy or something like that?
blue: Something like that. Although. Okay there might be two adult archives, but only as a result of an intense fandom schism I feel like there'd be an offshoot of Fuck the Monarchy for people who want King Wilhelm and Prince Consort Simon. Something like King & Consort.
heliza: Ahahah yes perfect. I think there would be a separate Sargust archive! What would you call it?
blue: Yes! With a little cordoned off adult section with its own name. Hmmm I haven't thought of a name yet but I feel like the web design of it would be very Goth.
heliza: Absolutely.
blue: Black backgrounds. Blood red rose incorporated in the web design. Horses, naturally.
heliza: ... The Stables?
blue: Secret Stables
heliza: Yes good
blue: The adult section of the website would be called something extreme like ~Bit & Bridle~
heliza: Perfect
blue: The Stedrika archive is called Lavender Crush because of Stella's hair in S2. It's small but the webmistress is very dedicated and very transparent with her updates.
heliza: yes haha and she's always trying to convert people to femslash. I feel like she would eventually let Sara/Felice and Maddie/Rosh in as well.
blue: I think she co-runs a second site called Manor House which is all YR femmeslash.
heliza: oh right of course
blue: The other webmistress of that site is her wife ten years later.
heliza: Yessss. Strangeaeons makes a video about them. Because there's enough drama but then they end up together
blue: Yes! I think the other mod ran a Rosh and Ayub fan page. Oh there'd be a general fandom archive called Hillerska Skolan Library or something, but it would be a lot of cross-posting.
blue: I feel like we need a Forest Ridge archive too.
heliza: Is that where the Walty and Nilcent goes?
blue: Yes. And like. Alexander being shipped with various people. I feel like it's 2003 so there's lots of combos. And some Wilhelm/Simon/Henry? It would exist, don't ask me how I know, it's just vibes.
heliza: There's a renegade writer who keeps writing Wilhelm/Nils and one who posts August/Simon and it sends the site into an epic fight because there are some mods who insist that this is for ALL THE BOYS EXCEPT SIMON AND WILHELM. And some of them don't mind.
blue: Omg there'd be a small August/Simon archive too
heliza: The lavender crush people are like "wow those boyslashers are intense"
blue: But it's all cross-posting with Forest Ridge… Oh god. Oh god I just thought of the name of the Simon/August archive help.
heliza: Go on
blue: Ok ok… it's a rowing pun… forgive me… it'd be called… Take Out Your Cox
heliza: АНАНАНАНА INCREDIBLE
blue: There's actually a violent schism among sargusters about whether it's ok to also ship Simon/August or not. This schism lines up almost exactly with one's sargust kink preferences and ability to have a sense of humor.
heliza: "It's incest if you ship both!!!"
blue: If a sargust has written dom August, then they are against Simon/August. If a sargust writes Sara domming or writes them switchy, and they have a sense of humor, they definitely write Simon/August… also is the Forest Ridge archive just called Forest Ridge? Wait. The Forest Ridge Archive is called On The Table.
heliza: Oh yes perfect.
blue: OK ALSO—IT IS 2002 OF COURSE THERE IS AN INCEST ARCHIVE SIGH. "Royal Family Affairs" or something.
heliza: Wilhelm/Erik would be big I think
blue: Wilhelm/Erik, Erik/August, any number of other things. Ok but is it primarily dudeslash. Do they shut out the Kristina/Carl Johan shippers? Is that on fandom_wank?
heliza: I feel like the mods would have to let it on because technically it fits the description. But there would be a side chat bitching about it. Wilhelm/August!!! There would be that too.
blue: The mods who are against Kristina/Carl Johan would bitch in an AlM chatroom. Eventually screencaps are leaked, and the Kristina/Carl Johan people start their own archive called Unfortunate Romance.
blue: Ok one more thing. We need a name for the Felice specific archive. Where the Felice/Wilhelm/Simon polyshippers hang out in abundance. I grant this one to you, heliza.
heliza: Is that not Sprucewood? Or a different name?
blue: I leave it to you!
heliza: We haven't used sprucewood yet so I think we should!
blue: Sounds good to me!
heliza: Or if it's just Felice centered it could be Modern Nobility. I think Sprucewood is a reactionary thing actually, where the mods specifically say that all ships are allowed after drama has gone down at enough of the other sites.
blue: Yes. Sprucewood is also the most poly and kink friendly of the sites.
~
That’s all for now! Stay tuned for polls later today about which archives you would have frequented! (And if anyone is better than me at photoshopping/edits/etc and wants to make mockups of what the layouts of these imaginary Y2K websites would look like, down to the “this website contains SLASH, which means hot man on man action, don’t like don’t read, click the third comma in the second paragraph tp enter!” lengthy disclaimer page, then go forth. I think it would be funny.)
18 notes
·
View notes
thinking about jealous simon (my beloved!), and cracky/humorous tropes that would be super entertaining to write with wilmon:
-one of those "get a date with a celebrity!" type auctions with prince wilhelm of sweden for an lgbtq charity, and simon being extremely grumpy that wille seems to actually not be hating the date (he doesn't know wille is actually regaling the person with stories about simon, coz they are a wilmon shipper)
-hillerska third years want to raise money for the grandest final year party ever thrown, and they demand that their resident crown prince do a kissing booth (ft. simon death glaring every person when they approach and wille gratefully hiding behind him)
-spin the bottle, but wilmon don't know the class secretly placed a magnet in the bottle and under wille's cushion, which is why the bottle is pointing to wille every.single.time. (and simon finally has enough after the 8th random to kiss his boyfriend and yeets the bottle out of a window)
~will add more as they occur to me~
26 notes
·
View notes