Tv Tropes and other fandoms
I explained in my last post that I've been AWOL partly because life got in the way. I was going to add that the other thing that got in the way was the awesome wilderness that is tvtropes.org, but I decided that post was getting too long and decided to rave about it separately.
If you haven't been to tvtropes, go now. Just be prepared to lose 2 or 3 hours of your life when you get there. It's basically a wikipedia for all fandoms focussing on the storytelling devices used in each fandom. I can't explain it very well, but the Doctor Who page is huge, with separate pages for characters, fanfic recs, episode analysis, wild-mass guessing ... it's awesome and also time consuming. For example, one of the tropes the Master embodies is the Magnificent Bastard. You want to find out what other characters in fandom and real life can be defined as Magnificent Bastard so you click on the Magnificent Bastard link which leads you to a list of other Magnificent Bastards, such as Lord Vetinari from Discworld.
I did a very bad job of explaining tvtropes there, but try it. You'll love it. Then you'll come back and curse me.
The other thing that happened while exploring tvtropes was that it introduced to (or renewed my love for) other fandoms. The reason I haven't read a Doctor Who fic in 6 months is because I've pretty much been hopping from fandom to fandom as I've explored them on tvtropes. First it was Merlin (hello Merlin/Arthur slash and Merlin/Morgana foe yay!), then Haruhi Suzumiya (my heart says Kyon/Yuki, but my head says Kyon/Haruhi!). There was a month where I was randomly watching anime, then I found Axis Powers Hetalia (basically world history with all the countries becoming human-formed, so it's actually like a rather gay soap opera of the world - it's awesome and educational and also a guilty pleasure - all I'll say is I came for the World History slant and may have stayed for the gayness of it all).
Then I read a really good Hetalia/Good Omens crossover fic, which reawakened my undying love for the awesomeness that is Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. It's actually my default fandom, because I love Aziraphale and Crowley to death and any fic about or involving them is more often than not very well written, hilarious, thought-provoking and/or clever. From there, I got into BBC-Sherlock (I've had a crush on classic!Sherlock Holmes for a while now, that his modern-day version is played Benedict Cumberbatch has only made this crush more intense). So now I'm balancing my time between BBC!Sherlock (and classic!Sherlock by default), Good Omens, Hetalia and a recently renewed interest in Merlin.
Basically, as tvtropes would say, I've wiki-walked my way through fandoms.