Who is your true love?

[Finn Solomon]

My friend and I were discussing our fandoms, and our one true loves. Hers was unequivocally Harry Potter, and the Hunger Games was "Just a rebound." At first I had no idea what mine was.

Not Harry Potter, I was a bit too old for her, although she was great in every other way. Maybe if I was a bit younger when she first came on the scene we would have ended up together.

Not Lord of the Rings, she's a bit too old for me and grand and rich and has lots of baggage.

Not Star Wars, she was great fun once but lost a lot of her former beauty.

Animorphs was a great girl, but we were more like childhood best friends.

Not Liverpool FC, not after she kept breaking her promises.

Not Doctor Who, we dated for a while and it was fun but we kind of lost touch.

Not Chronicles of Narnia, she's nice but super-religious. And frankly I'm not comfortable with that.

Not Marvel Comics, she's a nice but a bit of a slut. And she keeps reinventing herself every so often, it's hard to keep up. Same goes for her sister DC.

Not Game of Thrones, she takes forever to return her calls and she doesn't seem to know what to do with her life.

Not Mass Effect. We had so much fun together and for a while she really seemed like The One. We even made plans to get married. But when the chips were down, she left me at the altar and broke my heart.

I almost said Firefly. I loved Firefly with all my heart. I memorised every word she said. I wrote stories about her. I played songs for her. For a while everything seemed perfect, a truly perfect moment. But she left. And I have to accept the fact that Firefly is gone. Firefly is gone forever and she's not coming back. Despite the pain I live with every day, I have to move on.

So who is my true love then?

Then I realised. Who was the one girl whose words I lived by. Who was the girl who showed me the truth about the world. Who was the girl with whom every waking moment felt like the burning heat of a forest fire.

Fight Club.

Fight Club may be violent, anti-social, aggressive, a little mentally unstable, and unable to function in the real world. She may be hell on wheels, a disaster wrapped up in a sleek package of black leather, silver jewelry and cigarette smoke. She might even be lusted over by lots of other guys, all pushing each other to catch her attention.

But I know it's Fight Club. My one true love. Fight Club will always be a part of me, and it will always direct the path I take in this life and the next.

[Nerd-o-rama]

After a childhood friendship with Redwall, I fell in love at first sight with the Belgariad/Malloreon series. We had a long and fulfilling relationship throughout my teenage years, and even after we grew up and grew apart, I still remember her fondly.

[Fredaintdead]

It's Discworld for me (or just Terry Pratchett's works in general). She's intelligent, witty, fun to be around, beautiful to behold, impossible to put down and constantly surprising me by being better than I thought she was each time I meet her.

[Karoht]

I found my true love in fiction shortly after finding my true love in real life.

Warcraft.

Yeah, go ahead, make fun. Sure it's not all Thrall and Orgrim Doomhammer and Varok Saurfang all the time. Sometimes there are 'setbacks' and sometimes you get the Varian Wrynn's and the Krasus.

But sometimes? Sometimes, when everything goes just right, you get the Cairne Bloodhoof's, you get the Battle of Mount Hyjal where everyone comes together to overcome impossible odds.

She plays a Female Tauren Arms Warrior. To quote Wash from Firefly, "Ever done it with a warrior woman? Rawr."

And every once in a while? 'Frostmourne Hungers' :smallwink:

[Weezer]

It's got to be Doctor Who. She always manages to be exactly what I need, whether that be serious or comical, dramatic or cheesy, with an ever present undercurrent of whimsy and insanity that I simply cannot get enough of. She also changes her face whenever I'm starting to get bored, and appears to be getting younger and better looking as she ages, which just can't be beat.

[Dumbledore lives]

I don't know if Harry Potter is my one true love, she might just be the best friend I'll ever have, who is always there for me. But then, due to personal issues, I can no longer be with her, much as I wish I could. It's not her, it's me.

I guess that would make Buffy her, someone I curl up with whenever I'm feeling sad or upset, and despite having some troubles in her later life, there will always be the good times, the ones I have with her, and will continue to have by reliving those wonderful days.

[Artemis97]

Although I can't possibly pick a single work as a true love at this early hour, I do absolutely love how you've personified each. Great work.

[Anarion]

There have been a lot. The Dark is Rising was my first fling, but it was so long ago.

My Little Pony is too recent, I can't make a final call on her yet. Though, if nothing else, it will have been quite the fling.

I'm going to have to go with Legend of Zelda. Sure, she only comes around once every few years, but she lives up to the memories every time, and she's been there for me practically forever.

[Avilan the Grey]

I don't have one I must say. I have never been much of a "Fan", I have always been a "Liker". This goes for all media and sports. I don't have a favorite team, I have a number of teams in different sports I enjoy watching when they play (in NFL, for example, I like Giants, Packers, Ravens and (up until the scandal broke) the Saints).

The closest thing I have is... embarrassingly enough, Sims. I can lose myself for days, and that has been true since Sims 1.

[Feytalist]

I'd have said the Baldur's Gate series. I replay it every year or so. I do love the story and the character interactions are some of the best and most immersive I've seen in a game.

But honestly it's Sandman. The art, the dialogue, the premise, the story... it just unlocks the imagination.

[Coidzor]

Discworld's the closest, but I've felt dead inside for so many years I doubt I ever had one.

[AshesOfOld]

I had a deep and satisfying affair with Silver Fang. She was witty, exciting and full of heart. And she spoke japanese, so she was exotic too.

The Lord of the Rings was an amazing thing, it really felt like true love. But everything had to be over-dramatized with her, so it was kind of an exhausting relationship.

The one that got away was Final Fantasy VII. She gave me everything I wanted and more. She showed me how to love, and to care. But I lost her after moving to the city, and I never found her again.

But the one I've been with the longest, the one that keeps coming back, who is cool around my friends, and although I'm not madly in love with her, she's just great to be with and always will be; her name is Heroes of Might and Magic.
She may have betrayed me once, but she came back stronger, and my life wouldn't be the same without her.

[Omergideon]

My truest of loves is Star Trek, the complete tale. In more recent years things changed as she tried to fit in with the modern world. She even totally changed her looks and attitude for that. But I still remember when I fell in love with her.

I was young when I first saw her, with simple beauty and elegant simplicity. She spoke of strange new worlds for the first time and taught me to look beyond this one. She told me stories of fantastic heroes and devoted friends. At times she spoke of things I did not understand, or used words I suspected were made up, but I was always enthralled. Storied of Picard, Data and others. Older memories of legends long since past but never forgotten.

Since then I grew. I became older and wiser. But my love grew too. As a child I was dazzled by the bright lights. As a man I was overawed by the gentle humanity and the meaningful questions asked. In no other work could I become able to weep and cheer. Even at her worst she dazzled me beyond anything else. And beyond all else she taught me hope. Hope for a better tomorrow. Hope we could become better. Hope that perhaps things past that Final Frontier would not be so bad.

I could speak of the Inner Light she taught me of, the Tapestry weaved into my heart. I could say she was the Best of Both Worlds to me. But sadly All Good Things.........

She no longer looks as she did when I first saw her. Some of the humanity and hope is gone in favour of glitz and glamour. The heart is not so kind. But still she is there. She is my first, and one true love. And to her I give this tribute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80_HKdvNhgA



There is but one who could have tried to challenge this. The story of one who sacrificed all, even his own immortality, for the chance to be called a man. Mr Andrew Martin, your story is one of change and growth. Sacrifice and love. You are not my first love, but your story is the best I know.

I honour thee, the Bicentennnial Man.

[Thanqol]

Warhammer.

That beautiful crazy bitch who I've secretly alternated between crushing on and hating for all my life.

When I was a little kid I used to hang out in the games shop, watching the people with their awesome tiny armies. My very first RPG was a battered, ancient, no-two-pages-connecting-to-each-other Warhammer Fantasy RPG. I own a similarly ancient WH40K core rulebook from the times when Space Marines had beaks and Imperial robots were A-OK. I named myself after a Warhammer villain.

I've never owned an army. I don't know the rules. I've had encounters with it where I've left confused and angry. Some of the worst novels of all time have to be Warhammer 40K books.

And yet

Those moments with Ciaphas Cain and Inquisitor Eisenhorn. Those too-grand and utterly impractical starships that are worlds unto themselves. Light reflected off the over-gilt hat of a Rogue Trader and the sight of a man charging a tank with a sword. It's so stupid. It's so childish. It's so pointlessly grim and dark and meaningless.

Ah, I love it. My ultimate guilty pleasure. Where I can throw all character development and optimism and sanity to the winds and just embrace the scale of it all. The grandeur of it's insanity.

The Warhammer universe isn't on the verge of the abyss. It's riding it's flaming motorcycle towards the abyss while electric guitars scream in the background. It's so infinitely huge and so pointlessly restrictive. I can't take it seriously, and yet I try to. I can't put it aside, though I want to. I've never really explored it, and yet I know everything about it. We'll always be like this; love and hate wrapped into an eternal cycle.

The Emperor Protects!

[Wavelab]

What time is it?


http://static.tumblr.com/purtwmk/8tglmeizj/adventure_time_with_finn_jake1.png

[DigoDragon]

Hmmm, not sure if I have a true love. I suppose it could have been the Dragonlance series. I certainly loved reading the books so maybe that was it. Though, we don't really talk much nowadays.

I recently been catching Sonic the Hedgehog (the Saturday morning version) on Netflix and its better than I remember.

[NikitaDarkstar]

A difficult one, I thought it was Doctor who but he (yes he, since I'm a girl) changed, I still like him, but he's not the wacky, insane, clever, over-the-top, dead-serious fun he used to be.

I had a long relationship with Star Trek, but that didn't last, we still see each other once in a while, but only for long enough to remember that nostalgia isn't all that great.

The Malazan book of the Fallen? At first I thought it was love, but no, it's a close friendship, one that I know will stand the test of time, but it's not love.

And I've flirted with so many others; Discworld, MacGyver, Anansi Boys and American Gods, Babylon 5 and Stargate and so on.

But in the end I keep coming back to Top Gun and his brother Days of Thunder. We've known each other since before I was old enough to know what "love" was, and I suppose over the years the friendship did turn into just that. And both are fast, furious, fun and great if you're an adrenaline junkie. And they don't mind if you flirt around a bit, just like they do.

[polity4life]

All I can think of are my stable of slumpbusters unfortunately.

Diablo II: I just want to spend a few hours looking for some boots with her every now and again. It's cool and we both understand what's going on. In some ways she aged like beer and others like wine, but she's always there.

X-Com: Enemy Unknown: Pretty much the same as Diablo II though she's showing her wrinkles and...other signs of veneration. However she's an easy one to find; she's two-clicks away with no disc required. ;)

Skyrim: Sexier and new when compared to the others, she has the allure of simply not caring about what we do for as long as I choose. She is a very inconsistent creature though and sometimes downright weird, but I can forgive for a few hours spread over numerous days.

Unfortunately, my old staples of Star Wars and Dragonlance just don't do it for me anymore for various reasons.

[One Tin Soldier]

It has to be the Dresden Files. She is just so wild and fun-loving, I can't help but come back to her over and over again. She can make me laugh or cheer, but also cry. The world she presents seems as real as ours, but far more fantastic.

I've had close relationships with many series, and I regret almost none of them, but I just keep coming back to DF. She is the series that feels like it is mine, and I plan to journey with her for years to come.

[Sotharsyl]

So manny loves and every one different from the other somebody stop me if I get teary eyed I don't want to cry:


First was when I was so young, Star Trek I didn't really know how good you were for me such a classy lady, a scientist a diplomat with such a hope for the human race that we'll eventually become better beings, that science makes us better not worse.

And when I saw you you were going though your second phase when your hope in a better tommorow was pure unfiltered, and I loved you I also loved your true explorer phase when you were just getting started, and your other phases when you just wanted a quadrant for yourself I understood, and when you really wanted to share with me something you hadn't shared with anyone else I just felt you more human then ever and I loved you more because of your faults, didn't like your religious phase though.

Then I admit your bitter rival caught my eye, Star Wars with her promisses of redemption while there was still good in me and temptations of power unlimited more then enough to rule the Galaxy with her just if I gave in.

And I know you turned to me, because I understood not to make any demands of you to box you in to that dress or that hair style you had when we first met that however you looked you were at your core just that high tech girl who still has misticism in your heart.

I don't want you to think it was a mistake showing me your outmost Expanded Universe for me it just made our relationship last further and you should stand proud of all you can offer people if they choose to ask.

Before I even met Lotr I've heard so much of her she was allready a goddess in my mind, and I was not dissapointed when we finnaly met, a true lady of old she made me want to be her knight and lord and defend her till the end of the world.

And I don't deny she had her faults her need to fit everithing into her nice black and white biblical world view but I think that at the end it was because she never betryed herself she was still that storyteller who would enchant children with the tales of old.

A eye openning perspective if there ever was one was what I had with Shaman King before her I'm ashamed to admit I never gave girls from the East much oa a chance but there was just something in the way she showed me even the coldest bastard needs and can have friends that just won me over.

In the end I will never forget your uniqueness nor how you believed that fighting was the end all be all, that we are all humans and can work this out with even with the worst among us.

Of Harry Potter I'll just say those long night in front of the fire place where you would explain to me how you lived in your Hidden Society will be never forgetten and neither will you being unashamedly british you great snogging beast you, I don't think I'll ever forgive myself for allowing you to go all "The Chosen One" at the end.

Of my current passion I am grim where once I met a maiden my own age so interested in spells she named jutsus and who would never let somebody else tell her what to do which I promptlly fell for.

I am afraid Naruto is going the way of my lovely Harry Potter and becoming something obssed with having her will dominate other through use of brute force and violence a new Chosen One part of her slowlly and surelly replacing what I saw as her best parts with her faults keeping me till the end just with the strange combination of pity for what she lost and curiosity for what she will become.

Of Marvel what can I say I chose her over her sister DC because she didn't hold me to a impossible standard she cried on my chest and told me she'd been there herself.

She is both my rock and my wyld seemingly ever the same faults and advantages I addore but allways changing some small part of her to keep up with the times,staying the same and ever growing.

And she loves all her wards both the famous and the unknown get a chance and even when the most ignored one will go away to limbo his fan because there will always be one can cry on her shoulder and even if she can't do anithing about it she will let him cry.

This was fun I might do another one for RPG's I think they count as a fandom.

[Raimun]

LotR? Star Wars? Metal Gear Solid? Marvel? Any of those Yojimbo-esque stories? Or someone else like OotS? ... And what about those one night stands like Metroid or Watchmen that were great fun but just had no future?

I can't decide!

Tell me, why should a healthy young man like me settle on just one? I have enough love to go around. :smallwink:

[Otomodachi]

The works of Kurt Vonnegut. They're not all connected but I definitely feel like there's a mythos there. Made me better than I ever could've been on my own, and is always there to support me at my worst, and reign me in when I'm ready to float away.

[Telonius]

The Dark is Rising was my first love. I'll never forget her, and there's always a special place in my heart for her.

Lord of the Rings was the grandmother I could always count on for a fascinating time, and wise perspective of years. There's always something to learn from her.

Earthsea was my gorgeous second cousin - amazing, wonderful, beautiful, but just close enough that it would be weird. I felt awful when she developed a drug habit in her mid-20s...

I was always good friends with Star Wars, but we never dated. We still chat on Facebook occasionally. She really needs to finally cut her ties and get out of the abusive situation with her dad.

Probably my longest-term relationship was with the second-oldest Star Trek sister. Her mom was nice, but I never really saw her as the hottie that a lot of my friends did. Next Generation was just graduating high school when I got there, but she was always fun to talk to. DS9 was darkly awesome, even though she was a bit unstable at times. I finally had to cut if off when she started describing all of her feelings through interpretive dance and writing fanfics. (Her younger siblings were also getting annoying...)

After that, I had an intense fling with Dark Tower. We'd met when we were really young - I think I actually accidentally saw her naked when we were both like 10 years old - but I hadn't seen her in years. Total whirlwind romance, but after the fourth or fifth date we were just talking about the same things over and over on endless repeat. I broke it off and started anew.

I'll always look back fondly on some of those others. But one outshines them all in my eyes - no one will ever be able to compare. I'll always love her no matter what. My daughter, Chosen of Harrekh. And her 18th birthday is just around the corner...

[Squeejee]

Too many to count, but not enough to describe. But that won't stop me from trying.

My first gal was a lady called Wing Commander, and while she recently came back telling about how she's changed from the days of abject betrayal and the years of radio silence, I just can't commit to her again. What we had was special while it lasted, but that's all it is to me now.

I knew a girl once called the Elder Scrolls, but the older I get the more I realize that she's the exact same now as she was then. Yeah, she's kept up with the fashion trends of last year, but at the end of the day she's the same as when I first met her, and that's just not very satisfying.

I first left that girl for Final Fantasy in the late nineties, and while we've had an off-again on-again relationship ever since the day we met I find that every time we get together we've grown furthur and furthur apart. I know deep down that next time she calls I'm going to see her again, but I also know that I really don't want to.

My longest-term love was Star Wars, and I think a lot of you can relate. I watched her destroy herself time and time again, but then we'd sing our song and it would be all better. I left her when she told me she didn't want to hear Vode An anymore, but not before I commited nearly a decade to her.

At the end of a long line of flings with other girls I couldn't commit to, I find myself strangely attracted to My Little Pony. I worry about our future sometimes, but then I remember all the others and decide to live in the moment and enjoy it.

[Finn Solomon]

Although I can't possibly pick a single work as a true love at this early hour, I do absolutely love how you've personified each. Great work.

Thank you! :smallsmile: It just struck me how our relationships with our fandoms closely resembled our relationships with real people. My relationship to Firefly in particular closely mirrored that of a girl I knew once.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Corner Gas is great, and even after something like two years, I still think her jokes are funny.

I like Ranger's Apprentice, but she's way too idealistic. She has the same sense of the world's morality as an eight year-old who's always lived in the suburbs. She thinks you can end slavery by asking nicely repeatedly until they get tired of you and relent. She also has very black and white morality, with her interpretation of "shades of gray" being "guys you think are black, but are actually white".

Around Christmas, when I was looking in a bookstore for something to read on the train, I met someone called Ashtown Burials. She's pretty young, but she has the potential to be great... or just go on the same road that Harry Potter did. She has an older sister that I've never met.. You ever heard of the Hundred Cupboards?

Yesterday, I spent some time with a girl I had been wanting to meet for a while. Assassin's Creed (2). We hit it off pretty well, but she had to leave after only a few minutes.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians/The Heroes of Olympus is another good one. She got into a bit of a flat mood for a while when she started trying new things and completely rejecting her favorite old thing, but she got better when she took it back.

The Jaguar Stones is a young un', but I don't feel about her the same way I do about Ashtown Burials.

I've spent plenty of time with Redwall and Super Mario Galaxy, and I'm not quite finished with either of them, our relationship is on indefinite hiatus. Paper Mario and the Thousand Year Door was good, but I couldn't figure out a way to end it, so that's on indefinite hiatus as well (seriously, does anyone know WHERE THE HELL THE BAD GUY IS!?).

Star Wars is a legendary beauty with a mediocre attitude, and I spent a couple days with her. Kung Fu Panda was a good one, and at our last meeting, she dropped a hint that made me 99% sure I'd see her again, but we didn't leave on fully satisfying terms.

Legend of Zelda I've only seen some of. I've been with Windwaker and Phantom Hourglass.

OotS is funny, has grown more serious, and has always been a 3.5 player.

Keychains of Creation is like OotS, but is an Exalted player.

Bibliography is good, but she's left for an indefinite amount of time. Thaumaturge is her younger sister, and she's shaping up rather nicely. (you can find these webcomics in the Webcomic section, they're made by Elagune)

Rusty and Co is like OotS, except with slightly different jokes. Love her personality though.

One Piece is great. Absolutely awesome girl. She has amazing looks and is in great shape, with a fiery personality. I've gotten all she has to offer so far, but she's not done yet.

Shaman King is a cool girl. Not through with her yet, though.

[Fri]

Oh Neil Gaiman, that imagination of yours, and your poetic prose, simply swoop my feet away everytime. Others might have interesting plots or ideas as good as yours, but I haven't read anyone with the writing style that make my heart flutter as much as yours...

wait...

...is this about...

...uhm, that's about Neil Gaiman's writing not the person itself mind you. >_>

[thubby]

im so hooked on pony right now theres a good chance of me being found face down in a gutter somewhere muttering about rainbooms, so i dont want to just say that.

I've been with league of legends for 3 years now, but she just doesnt get serious.

im very much tempted to say age of fire. it's not so much a great, burning passion as the simple love that you sit on a couch with while listening to the rain fall.

[DiscipleofBob]

The Final Fantasy series has been there for me since childhood, she practically raised me. Sure, she changed herself completely every installment, but sometimes that was for the better. We never talked about her past until later, (the original 2 and 3), but I found I could accept her for even those flaws. Sure she had the occasional spinoff fling, and these days it seems that her self-reinventions always turn out for the worst, and the fact that she's losing herself to the MMO-crowd frightens me, but I will always stand by her, even when all we have left in common is the good old days...

That's probably why I've started seeing One Piece on the side though. Sure, she's silly, goofy, and kind of a manic pixie dream girl. A lot of people can't look past her supposedly childish exterior to see the deep substance within. It takes a little while to get to know her, sure, but she actually ages gracefully.

[Raz_Fox]

I am, to not put too fine a point on it, a playah. I flit here and there; I tell a girl that she'll always mean everything to me, I take pictures and I scrawl maps with her on the floor, I kiss her and tell her she's one in a million and I want to know everything about her, and there's not just a spark but a raging fire. But that fire burns out - well, not completely. It's just that I can't stop myself from having another girl catch my eye, one whose face needs an entire dictionary of poetry to describe, to say nothing of her body, and off I run again, promising to call and to keep our pictures, and every now and then I'll come back and steal a kiss, or just sigh wistfully at the memories we had.

My first young love was The Lord of the Rings, and I will always have a special place for her in my heart; I will always have her maps and her atlases, her heroes and her lore and her hope in my heart. I love her so very, very much, and I haven't always kept my promises to keep in touch with her every year, but I have known her deeply, and I treasure pictures of her, good pictures that show her dignity and quiet beauty.

Star Wars came later, and I thought she was the most interesting lady in the galaxy. There was just so much of her, and she drew me in immediately with her vast experience, and the way I just seemed to stumble into her long and exciting history with A New Hope. I don't even know when we fell apart, it just happened some time after she finished her story, and I'm cool with her being with my younger brother now. Heck, sometimes I'll spend some time with her and my best friend, and we'll reminisce about stormtroopers and clone wars while conquering the galaxy.

My last three girlfriends were, and I'm still trying to stay connected with all of them without having them knee me in the crotch for being unfaithful, an exotic and artistic gal named Touhou, who's just got so much going on in her life that I sometimes feel I can't reconnect with her without taking a few days just to focus on talking to her; a bouncy, loveable, occasionally shallow but surprisingly deep, and very emotionally anchoring lass named My Little Pony, who doesn't get me to talk and talk and talk about her the way I used to, but introduced me to a lot of friends and helped me through the worst days of my life; and a quirky, brilliant, spunky doll named Homestuck, who's just too foul-mouthed to bring home to meet my parents, and whose friends typically weird me out, but it's fun to chat with her by the library steps and listen to the albums her band produces.

My current girlfriend, though? A beautiful young woman named The Orphan's Tales. I mean, I heard from people that she was one of those feminists, and a pretty bizarre goth to boot. But, it turns out? Once you start getting into her, she is absolutely fascinating. All those ugly pictures people decry turn out to be beautiful in their own way, and the way she can paint! My only regret is that she's really camera-shy, but she's given me a song and so many ideas and fascinations that I can't hope but to keep in touch with her. I mean, it's one thing to talk about a market-city where people can eat rubies and gold, that's been done before - but then to show us men who slick back their hair with emerald-oil and paint their teeth with lapis-luzi? There's beauty in that.

[An Enemy Spy]

Halo. I find the most wonderful things in her dumpster, and I have a framed collection of all her used chewing gum that I arranged in the shape of her face, but she doesn't return my calls anymore.
I asked her to marry me once, but she said no. Maybe I should have waited until the second date.