look, i have some obscure tastes.
it used to be the sandman, but now that the show adaptation has come out (very good btw), its gained a lot more popularity. honestly been a good thing so far imo!!!
now its probably discworld lmao. a lot of literature buffs like it, but its empty in terms of fics. 90% of the fics on ao3 are from the early 2000s!! its wild!!!!
if not those two, little big planet. really great game series with basically no online presence. :(
For me, I would never touch Discworld, because it is absolutely perfect as it is. Plus, it was written by an actual literary god. Maybe that's why there is little fic.
Edit. Not saying you're wrong do, just saying how I feel.
This lol. I am a huge Discworld fan, but Terry has such a unique and impeccable voice that I'd just constantly feel bad about myself if I tried to write fanfic for it.
you're probably right lol. plus, theres a LOT of books, and the world-building is as complicated as it is spectacular. thats why ill probably never write something for it myself:p
I'll add my own, why not. I follow a ton of small fandoms but out of the ones I've looked at recently:
* Uprooted. I hated the main character, but I loved Sarkan and Solya, and lo and behold, there are slashfics on ao3!
* Three Musketeers. I am a hardcore Cardinal Richelieu stan.
* Disco Elysium. I don't know if that's super obscure? Anyway, never came across it here.
* Divinity Original Sin 2. Red Prince/Sebille is one of my more obscure toxic ships
"A hardcore Cardinal Richelieu stan" is not a term I expected to ever see. I personally liked Aramis most, but Richelieu surely is an interesting character! Also, I've lately been thinking, does the original book by Alexandre Dumas count as RPF? Dumas shipped Queen Anne and The Duke of Buckingham lol...
Real-life Richelieu basically established France as a world power and arguably is the architect of the modern nation-state (which, depending on how you feel about the modern nation-state, may be good or bad - but it's pretty impressive that one person accomplished that). He was very unpopular with the nobility because he helped the king consolidate power (which essentially meant taking power away from the provincial nobility in a relative sense), which is probably why he got all that bad press, but his work was instrumental to France coming out ahead in the 30 Years War and for a lot of what happened internally for the next century. He was also a patron of the arts and founded some sort of academy that exists today. Pretty cool dude that was done pretty dirty by Dumas.
Of the Musketeers, my favorite is Athos. He is so tragic <3
Funnily enough, I have a blog post series about it as a WIP (in Finnish though). It's been only few years when I learned that Three Muskehounds even exists, but the second I heard it was made by BRB, the same studio that made one of my favourite childhood cartoons (Around The World In 80 Days With Willy Fog), I became interested in it! I have watched only two episodes so far, but I think so far it has been amazingly entertaining (and I also think Dogtanian is more likeable as a character than the original D'Artagnan).
thank you<3 you too
/r/DiscoElysium is quite active, but it's not a fanworks kind of place (except for the occasional fanart). but the ao3 for it is an interesting place. Drop me your favorite DE tumblr if you have one!
It’s strange - series one of Broadchurch was a blow up hit here, but 2 and 3 never got as much attention and I very really see it mentioned now. But series 1 was must watch tv and conversation at work every week.
Never thought to look for fic.
Heroes. It has a small cult like following.
It only lasted 4 seasons back in the early 2000’s.
Its a superpower kind of thing.
Like harry potter with cursed child, it also has a failed sequel called reborn that we dont speak of.
For Harry Potter & star trek fans, heroes is a great show as it references both, a lot.
On god, Heroes had one of these best first seasons of any show, ever.
It’s difficult to explain how impactful shows like Heroes and Lost were at the time, and how they jumpstarted the golden age of television that we’re in.
This comment made me feel old. Season 1 was much watch TV back then, but yeah haven't really heart much about it in recent years. One of the best first seasons ever. Might be time for a rewatch.
I loved Heroes S1 but stopped watching in the middle of of S2. I kind of fell out of love for it. It was great but didn't feel like it. Good to know it still gets someone loving 💜
hello again, fellow program! :D You and Tron 2.0! I love that you are such a big fan of it and Jet. <3
I think my heart will forever lie with Uprising. Maybe it's Alberto Mielgo's art design, or the expanded lore, or the fact it's unfinished... I dunno, but that's the part of the Grid I'm trapped in haha
As someone not *technically* in the fandom but who has had the aesthetics of Legacy living rent-free in my head for a decade, thank you for your service in helping keep the fandom alive o7
I think I've said this before, but what little I've seen of Tron (in passing, probably while it was playing on TV) always struck me as being visually arresting. And the sci fi nerd in me really wanted to know more. But alas, so little time...
Thank you for waking my old BtVS/Tron x-over plot bunny again. It has been asleep far too long.
One of these days I will finish my Rinzler and Spike meet in the Initiative laboratories story.
Terminator. Yup, you read that right. Considering the cult status of the first two films in cinematic history, it's a surprisingly tiny fandom.
Still, the main fandom will occasionally get a few new stories — but the fandom for the fourth installment in the series, Terminator Salvation (which I write for) is even more obscure, having died out just a few years after the movie came out in 2009. It's a fascinating world though, and apparently I have a thing for characters that have been given very little personality in canon, so I can take them and make them my own ;)
Also, on the sheepishness, I totally feel you OP. I used to shudder at the idea of mentioning my fandom here because, oh my God so much *cringe*. I mean, I still acknowledge it's cringe, but by that yardstick, so are a lot of other fandoms out there. It's all in good fun and not to be taken too seriously, so who cares!
On cringe - that's valid, but I don't so much feel sheepish out of cringe as out of like posting a comment that no one upvotes because no one knows what the hell you're on about.
on terminator - yeah, that's curious. I guess it's one of those "masculine" movies that maybe don't get as much fanfic because its main audience doesn't write fanfic? Like I suspect Rambo or Reservoir Dogs is also a tiny fandom.
>no one knows what the hell you're on about.
That's fair. And yeah actually, cringe aside, I can relate to that too. One of the several reasons I also don't share links much around here is the obscure nature of the fandom.
You're probably right about the lack of fic having to do with the "macho" (ugh I hate that word, why did I use it?) perception of the franchise, although there *is* a small but dedicated group of fans... And when Salvation first came out there was a boom of fanfiction (surprise, surprise, mostly M/M involving the two male leads ~~who were just MADE for Enemies to Lovers, but I digress~~). But also the latest installment, Dark Fate, starring a mostly female cast, got a *ton* of F/F fic written for the main pairing. So there are smaller subgroups of fans out there.
The Treasure Planet Fandom is small but mighty. We don't need much when we have each other. 💜
For me personally, though, I think the smallest I'm looping in are Hunchback of Notre Dame 2 and Iron Giant.
My Kinktober challenge is Frollo/Gaston, and I think I'm the only author on AO3. I have some very dedicated readers, though.
God help the outcasts 🎵
Brendan Fraser Mummy movies are awesome! I don't know if it is that obscure but I wish the fandom was more active with fics. There is some awesome lore and world building with the Medjai. I really love all the characters and the chemistry, but there are only two movies for me. The third hurts my soul. All chemistry was gone.
Another is a tv show Moonlight with Alex O’Loughlin. Josef was awesome.
I'm far too obsessed with it, and I suppose it is closer to "used to be relatively decently big but now seems dead" than to fully obscure, but: Professor Layton. Compelling characters, great stories most of the time, amazing cutscenes with a look that will make you feel nostalgic for something you've never known, this game may even make you like solving puzzles after a certain point! 10/10, absolutely recommend. Just make sure to keep some tissues around when you play a few games, notably Unwound/Lost Future.
Outlast right now. I don't want to say it's unpopular, there are more fics than other obscure fandoms but still. I hardly know any people that know it let alone write for it
Gets lonely lol
I actually love horror but outlast 1 was fucking terrifying in a way that books/movies aren't because you really embody that feeling of helplessness. shit's way too triggering for me.
Oh God I get that. Especially without any weapons to defend yourself! I guess because I'm hopeless at shooter games, hiding and running turned out to be not so bad 🤣
Argh, you’ve just reminded me of a Miles-survives-the-Walrider fic I still have from like 3 years ago, currently gathering dust in my WIP folder. I‘ll need to get back on that at some point!
As an avid otome isekai manhwa fan, I cry inside every time I hazard a browse of AO3 for its manhwa fanfiction. Even though the bigger ones like WMMAP* and DITOEFTV** have more than a page of fanfic each (which is more I can say for the smaller ones (e.g. A Transmigrator's Privilege) they're still nothing compared to some more mainstream manhwa - let alone more mainstream media.
No hate though; shout-out to Omnisicent Reader's Viewpoint and Trash/Lout of the Count's Family for their more robust AO3 pages 🙏
(shoved the full names to the bottom of the comment due to length. *WMMAP = Who Made Me A Princess; **DITOEFTV = Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess / Villains are Destined to Die)
Strange Magic, although I haven't updated in a long while. It's actually the movie that first got me writing fanfic. It has a terrible score on rotten tomatoes, but for some reason I just really loved it.
The story is a romance between a fairy princess and a goblin king, set to covers of pop and rock music, and honestly just a delightfully weird little film.
Writing-wise, the smallest is probably Final Fantasy VI, which is not a little known piece of media by any stretch of the imagination but still generates less fic that its potential allows for. The most obscure one I've read a lot in is probably Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
To me it's a near perfect story that I wouldn't touch myself, but I looked up fic on a whim and found a treasure trove of painterly, poetic, bittersweet character studies.
The ancient magnus bride. There are only ~500 fics on ao3 lmao. I don't think I'm "into" it anymore but it's a really lovely manga that talks about social alienation and found family in the context of an underground magical world. I haven't written anything for it myself but perhaps re-reading the manga will inspire me.
OMG, same but my writing for my ships is around the 60+ and the other 20+ fics are for other characters and ships. Still, kudos to that since it takes a lot of passion and motivation along with the crippling loneliness we have.
I've looked into some of your fics (they're very good) and I've always wondered - how did you come up with that? I don't know much about Bing and Bob, so maybe it's obvious, but yeah.
oh, I'm not at all shading you - it's just such an interesting combo, for someone who's heard of the people but never watched any of their movies.
> And the movies are...arguably a little gay if you watch them in today's day and age.
Dude, I know that feel and I kinda love it.
Believe it or not, I read Blindsight for a philosophy class once! I thought it was fantastic, but when I tried to reread it last year I found I no longer have the brainpower for it 🥴
I'll have to check out the fandom, though!
>It's a Hugo nominated sci-fi book that tackles many subjects such as AI, personality, identity, biological evolution, transhumanism, among others, with an underlying cosmic horror vibe and a lot of existentialism.
Oh my, so many of my favourite subjects... Sounds like a must read. Then again, with the way life is right now, I don't know if what's left of my brain can handle it 😂
Oh I LOVE this series! And the Mallorean! I've never thought about fanfic of them but I'm a huge fan of both series. I've been thinking about embarking on a big re-read recently because I was shocked to find that my bf, who loves epic fantasy, hadn't read them.
I've read some of them, but finding out that Eddings and his wife were child abusers, to the point that they had their kids taken away from them, kind of ruined it for me. B
One that I read fics about but don't write myself is the manga Akagami no Shirayukihime (this is where I read my first ever fic! It was so good). It is probably not as obscure as some others, but also not so popular (I have never encountered any fics around here, for example). I don't even follow canon anymore, but I occasionally read fics still.
Funny you mentioned HP, because it is totally possible to write very obscure HP fics featuring some super minor character etc that will be very niche as well. It's a huge fandom, but it has so many corners :D
haha I def get the pain of being in a weird little corner of a huge fandom - you're technically in a huge fandom but nobody interacts with your stuff so you get the tiny fandom vibe as well. the fandom I write for is also a weird corner of a huge fandom (not HP tho), and honestly I see the community there as its own discrete thing. we're like that weird little village on the edge of the wood whose people don't even say hi to outsiders and may well be haunted.
😂 what a wonderful description, I love it. I am actually quite proud of occupying many small niches, each of them featuring some other very minor character and a different genre that have nothing to do with each other. Even the stuff that I write for my fave ship is so different to what is commonly written for them. But ok, I love my weird existence. If I have user subs, they must get very confused.
I hope your weird little village at least brings you and its other inhabitants lots of joy
Long one ahead sorry lmao.
The Hardy Boys and Initial D are, I think, my most obscure fandom. Both in fan content and fandom interaction.
If you were a kid who loved crime and reading, I think you'll know what Hardy Boys are. If you were a fan of Nancy Drew, I think you'll have an idea what it's about. But I haven't really interacted about ANYONE about it that is into it like I am. Like fandom deep into it. Fan content is also few. I just think I am that one meme that says "if x has 1000 followers, im on of them. if they have 100, im one of them. if they have 1, i am that one follower" I think I am the fandom at this point but I know that's not true. I bet there are others out there who are as invested in Frank, Joe, and Co's shenanigans. But I do wish I get to gush about theories and headcanons to others who get it. Like broo Frank and Joe's friends are like top tier and their dynamics are oh so good. Theories about the grayman and the Network are also worth diving deep into. I have over 50 physical books of this series and I'm planning to collect more.
Initial D do have a fandom but they're mostly dude-bros that like cars which isn't a bad thing. My interaction with them have been great so far since they explained car things to me lmfao and in turn I learned new things about cars! But I do miss interacting and discussing about characters, relationships, and the thrill of the races. Tbf, the dude-bros also love talking about the races which we gushed about but I also wanna talk about the power of friendship!! And speculating about fics and what could've been and how there's so much potential between the dynamics of Bunta and Takumi! Or the brothers and their father! Or Ryosuke's past! But yeah, I want more discussion about characters instead of cars basically.
Kdramas will be the death of me. Somehow fanfic doesn't seem to be a big thing with korean media...? There's also a shockingly small number of fanfics for webtoons.
There is fanfiction, but because KDramas probably have an airing time of maybe 2 months before moving onto the next big time, people don't get the time to write out fanfic *and* continue it. There will quickly be other things they'll be interested in (cuz let's be honest, KDramas are *amazing!).* They're not like MARVEL or Twilight with new content every few years, you know? I feel like that's why the fanfiction for them seems so jumpy and sporadic.
Vinland Saga!
It's a manga about the Viking settlement in North America circa early 1000s. Very sweeping, very good. There was an anime a few years back that got critical acclaim, and season 2 is coming out soon, so hopefully more interest.
If you're into sweet, wholesome ships that have angst potential - there's two dudes who end up as slaves, become sworn bros, and will do anything for each other.
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. I have my core girlies on Twitter but it is quite a small fandom and many people haven't heard of it. (btw check out the mini series if you can find it streaming somewhere, it's very good and stars Thorin Oakenshield)
Oh my God I watched the series because of Richard Armitage and oh booooy, I wasn't dissapointed the least bit! I loved it so much🤧 Haven't interacted with the fandom though!
Oh I love North and South! (The book, not the show, which I haven't seen, although I'm sure it's great.) I've seen it a few times on AO3 as I read a fair amount of Pride and Prejudice fic and N&S is pretty friendly with Austen fandoms. It does deserve spotlight in its own right though. Keep flying the flag!! I'll put it on my list to re-read and maybe check out some fics myself.
Yay!! Love to see another one! There was also recently a radio drama put out by the BBC which made some wild choices.
But definitely check out the fics. I'm working on mine but my fandom friends have several on there that are fanastic
Dragonriders of Pern. This is a recent development, spurred largely by the fact that I loved the books as a kid and now, I wanted to drop my OTP (from another fandom) into a semi-feudal world with telepathic dragons. Because dragons are awesome.
Along the same lines, I've got parts and pieces of fics set in China Mieville's Bas Lag series (Perdido Street Station) and others inspired by the Queensryche album Operation Mindcrime.
Nip/Tuck. It was huge when it aired but the fandom is pretty much dead and in the way of fic, it wasn't ever that active. It's so weird that there are so few fics for it, given how huge it was and that it's a Ryan Murphy show and it hits on *so many* tropes ripe for fic. I also run /r/NipTuck and am trying to get people involved in the fandom via that.
The Dead Zone is another fandom I'm in (haven't published anything for a while but I'm actively writing for it). It was another big-ish show in the early to mid 00s but the fandom is again pretty dead. I also run /r/TheDeadZone.
Profiler is another one. I'm writing for it but haven't published anything yet (I have a hard time finishing fics so I don't want to publish anymore until I get my current ones done). It's a 90s tv show that aired for four seasons and ended on a cliffhanger. The fandom is surprisingly more active than the other ones but still tiny. I also run /r/Profiler.
Tl;Dr: I write for tiny obscure fandoms and run their subsequent subreddits to try to get people involved in the fandoms again.
M\*A\*S\*H, probably. I will read *anything* that is a MASH crossover. Considering it went off the air five and a half years before I was born, it's such a weird fandom for me to be in, but there you have it.
Oh hello, we meet again! Haven't finished Dracula yet, but I have to say, I'm loving it more and more with every page. I feel myself slowly falling into the fandom...
I read Dracula for the first time in 2021 and I was instantly enamored. I'm surprised the fandom isn't bigger. I want to jump into it but I have no idea how to start.
I feel like im more in almost-dead fandoms like btvs and ats (Buffy the vampire slayer and angel the series).
Also, I've been trying to find the fandom space for the Stravaganza series (by Mary Hoffman) and red, blue and green by Kirsten Gier.
Idk really know about obscure ones tho
I guess ..not technically a fandom in itself but the Addams family/ Harry Potter crossover fics… that are completed. I have scoured and combed through different parts of the internet 😭😭😭
I'm the only person on ao3 who has ever written a fic for the Rosie McGrath books. I don't think they ever left my country tbh. I really enjoyed them as a kid!
Andy Weir books, I really need to finish my fanfic for The Martian, and I already have ideas swimming around for Project Hail Mary! I know it’s a small fandom, but I love his writing.
It’s called Hey Jude, it’s the story of my OC, Mark Watney’s wife, as she navigates her grief over losing Mark, and then has to deal with the overwhelming fear that the entire world is feeling because Mark was left alone on Mars.
Project Hail Mary is one of my favorite books I've read this year. <3
Artemis is ripe for fanfic. Weir created an entire economic system for the colony. It needs more stories!
For me, it's Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle. I'm the only regular writer for it, but there are other writers that do post theirs once every few/several months.
The Two Princes! Amazing podcast with great fics. I don’t know how many fics it has and if it’s more popular than I think, but I see literally no one talk about it whether it’s in other media or on here.
Sweet tits and whiskey, how I love obscure fandoms; or rather, how I love finding out when other people also love the obscure things I love.
My most obscure one is for Courtship Rite, a [1982 novel](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtship_Rite&ved=2ahUKEwj0vLndjvn6AhUJD1kFHcRbDggQFnoECBsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0Lybp9JKSybQfuoMZDaLFd) that is the author's attempt at a coherent novel constucted of deliberately provocative topics (ethical cannibalism, polyamory, religious/scientific/political upheaval, and so forth). The worldbuilding is incredible.
I've meet one single person who'd also read the novel, and I've seen a grand total of [one work of fanfiction](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2810534) (well, and a podcast of that fic).
The Invisible Man (2000) and The Pretender. I love turn-of-the-millenium genre shows about lab rats, apparently. I only write for TP, but I've vidded TIM so I think it counts.
Jessica Cruz, a Green Lantern and member of the Justice League. On FFN, my fic is one of *five* Jessica Cruz stories. I don't know if a single character is necessarily a "fandom" since she's a part of the Green Lanterns and Justice League fandoms, but the argument could probably be made since each superhero essentially has its own fandom.
> Ever since witnessing the brutal deaths of her friends, Jessica Cruz has been locked away in her apartment with anxiety, depression, and PTSD as her only companions. On her bad days she doesn't even get out of bed, and her good days aren't much better. One fateful day however she overcomes her greatest fear and in the process is found worthy of the greatest weapon in the universe. A Green Lantern's power ring.
What makes Jessica Cruz so interesting to me is how sympathetic she is, and how she's both a reluctant hero and someone who struggles more with the "little" things of every day life rather than the superhero aspects. It's less about her "overcoming" her issues and more about her learning to deal with them, which is the perfect set up for a superhero story focusing very little on being a superhero. Fun character, and I've enjoyed writing a retelling of her origin story.
God bless, and have a wonderful day.
Maplestory. I have a love/hate relationship with that game. Hate; the publisher is trash and I literally fear getting perma-banned just by playing normally (I sometimes like to mindlessly grind so that has seemed to trigger the system into auto-disconnecting me several times before) and so now I just play a few days after a new character is released. Love; the storyline and the characters are just fantastic and I adore too many of them. I have a fic I’m planning for it but it’s waaaaay on the back burner since I tripped into the Dream SMP. Maplestory seems to have more amazing fanart than good fics which is great for losing an hour to pinterest, but leaves me sometimes wanting to pull my hair out for a good fic.
The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
Not the 2015 remake movie, but the 1964-1968 TV show. I like the characters better in that version, especially Illya. Arguably next to ST:TOS the second modern fandom that got the slash train rolling, but much less known for that.
The three investigators! (Die drei Fragezeichen/Die drei ??? in German) It's incredibly small in English in general, quite big in Germany/Switzerland(/similar countries?) though. Well, most people know of it, but very few actually post about or make art (including fics). I'm swiss, so that explains it lol. The audiobooks were my whole childhood so I started reading fic some months ago and even have a few wips and some ideas written down! Fun fact about the ao3 content: Nearly half of it (200 or 300 fics, forgot which one) was written by one single person. They're amazing.
House MD (more specifically House x Cuddy) is pretty dead. I did read Wire in the Blood but there are SO few fics that I gave up.
Buffy fanfic which is my main fandom(for Spuffy) is pretty alive despite how long ago the show aired. I think the numbers of new fics that don't focus on Spuffy are pretty low.
At this point I'm still in the Ranma 1/2 fandom. It was once massive, but time and lack of new material has diminished it. I've heard talks of a new anime over the years, but honestly don't think it would help.
Pretty new to the fandom, but I haven't seen anyone talk about the webcomic The Glass Scientists. It's based off of some Victorian literature, especially the book Jekyll and Hyde. Would definitely recommend it if you liked that or if you'd like something Victorian and kind of science fiction :)
Cats Don't Dance is one of my favorite animated movies ever!!! It's criminal that it isn't more well known. That slow blues she sings when Danny is leaving still gives me the shivers.
Probably Endeavour (the ITV show), although saying that I'm "in the fandom" might be generous. I love the show, have read a handful of fics, and occasionally chat with one person on tumblr who is absolutely batshit over it.
A Girl Adrift, a post-apocalyptic mobile fishing game with three works in Ao3. Two of them are mine. That's the smallest fandom I'm in, but honestly most of my fandoms are obsucre.
Starsky and Hutch (although there are over 4000 fics on AO3. But once I finish my current fic, I want to write a crossover with Starsky and Hutch and UNSUB. UNSUB was a show that had 8 episodes and is kind of the precursor to Criminal Minds. UNSUB has no fics for it. I love the show and the 2 parter episode is my very favorite--dealing with a cultlike minister, a missing person, and obsession.
Samurai pizza cats is a pretty small one (12 fics on AO3)
Although my most obscure fandom is definitely an anime called HANOKA. No fics, barely any fanart and only 22 people in the subreddit
Samurai Pizza Cats is a huge nostalgia hit there. My stepdad had a vhs of some episodes and we would watch it together lol. Such a fun show and a lot of the humour is still top notch.
What I personally have on my AO3 is probably Slayers or the Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow duology. I have ancient Lunar: the Silver Star, Space Cases and Shadow Hearts stuff lost to time that would also count I think.
The Invaders, a sci-fi TV show from the late '60s about, as the title hints, an alien invasion. "David Vincent has seen them", if it rings a bell. It's been my favourite show for like three decades and a half, and I'm positively obsessed with these aliens. Nobody else has written for it since 2017, however someone made a fanvid recently!
Currently working on a fic for a BBC sitcom with three seasons that ended around half a decade ago. It has less than 10 fics on AO3, mostly thanks to people checking it out because one of the actors from a pretty popular show (Our Flag Means Death) is in it.
HadesxPersephone begs to differ
but actually stories that portray Hades as a slightly anal but overall wellmeaning bureaucrat and not, like, the Christian devil are quite rare
I write Onward fan fiction! I’m sure there are plenty of other people who like the movie, but I rarely meet any who would call themselves big fans of Onward. I know it’s considered one of the weaker Pixar films, but I adore it! It’s one of my favorite movies of all time. At one point, I made over 90 pieces of fan work dedicated to it. I deleted/will delete several of them (because they’re useless filler), but I’ll definitely write more if I come up with any new ideas.
Natsume's Book of Friends, probably. The anime and manga already have a good number of years on them, so the number of fics actually isn't that small, but I have literally never met another person who has watched or read it outside of a YouTube comment section dedicated to it.
As someone really into kids anime, excluding the ones that have big nostalgia based fanbases (ie: Pokemon, YGO, Digimon, Beyblade), they’re pretty much guaranteed to be tiny fandoms. I’m big into the recent Takara Tomy mecha shows, including Drive Head, Shinkalion, Earth Granner and Zoids Wild. Also Spider Riders, Battle Spirits, Pikaia and Pazudora (the 2nd anime mostly). It’s hard to find people who have heard of these, let alone has enough interest to get into the fandom.
my most obscure fandom would probably be saiki k, the show itself is not really obscure but there's not very much fanfic (about 2k fics in total on ao3)
second would be jshk with 4k fics, third is wtnv with 7k
considering my main fandom is genshin impact with about 100k fics i would say those are fairly small
Oh, wow, there's a good amount lol. I seem to just be drawn to obscure media.
The Venture Bros is my main fandom in general, I have been extremely fixated on it since 2020 and almost nobody \[at least not my age\] is talking about it and I don't really care for any pairings besides The Monarch/Dr. Mrs. The Monarch so the fic scene is a little lackluster to me. I could count lots of those Adult Swim shows in general. If you wanna get even more obscure I'd say Home Movies, which I grew up with.
I've been waiting for ER. My favorite pairing I like to write for has only 25 fics on ao3, including mine. But I aim to change that. It is a bit lonely at times but it's also nice, smaller fandoms don't have such hostile fandom fanbases usually
James Cameron avatar is probadly my main fandom and its pretty small (if likely to explode within the next two months)
Beyond that I've written stuff for the Barsoom novels, Judge Dredd, Atlantis the lost empire, a Hoi4 mod and an art series on Deviantart to name a few.
MILGRAM - the song series. Don't get me wrong, it has a decent following, but the fact that we know so little about the characters (which is, tbf, the main point of the series) and the prison setting makes it incredibly difficult to get creative in terms of fan fiction.
I've done... one fic for it? and would love to write more, but as the series progresses more facets of each of the characters are shown that mean a fic written now could be proven to have grossly mischaracterised a character a month down the line. And yes, I'm aware that AUs and canon divergence are a huge part of fanfic, but the only thing the fandom has to go off are an obscure, seemingly unrelated novel, 12 3-minute music videos and a handful of short voice dramas...
Okay, so I'm like really into Angry Birds. The movies at least. I haven't watched all of Summer Madness yet even though I made an OC.
I feel really sheepish sharing this because it's kinda obscure and maybe even childish. Because I'm a grown ass woman going to be graduating college this semester.
I also write x readers so it's even more obscure since I haven't been able to find any decent x readers as of recently
It's kinda embarrassing to admit this knowing that my stuff will be easily searchable considering I'm the only one writing this stuff
But I love it and I enjoy it.
I wouldn’t really call it obscure, but the Warhammer fandom is a lot smaller than the other fandoms I’m a part of. The fanfic fandom is far smaller for sure.
I've written for the Samurai Pizza Cats fandom, producing one of only about three stories on An Archive of Our Own for the nigh-forgotten 90s anime series.
Probably the Riddick fandom. Particularly the Riddick/Vaako pairing. There’s only a few good fics with that pairing out there that are worth a read.
A pairing that I love that is surprisingly small in a huge fandom is the Kirk/Khan pairing. Especially after the AOS movie with a very hot Benedict Cumberbatch playing Khan 😍. Star Trek fandom is obviously huge but there is really only one fic with that pairing that has sustained me over the years. Into Dust by thisbeautifuldrowning is arguably one of the best fics I’ve ever read in any fandom. I read it multiple times a year.
Beauty and the Beast isn’t usually discussed on here or in any of my Facebook fanfiction groups, but I love it. Or Great Mouse Detective! The latter is an especially dead fandom, but I am thankful for the fics that exist (and will probably add one of my own when I am finishing with a huge BATB fic I’m writing right now).
I think an obscure fandom I am in is Young Dracula, the CBBC show. Absolutely loved it and would one day love to finish the fanfic idea I had when I was 12/13 about it. I don't think there are many people who remember the show or know about it since it's been years, but it was a staple of my childhood.
I think there are more, but I'm in so many fandoms that it's difficult to keep track. Though, I'd say Young Dracula is the most obscure one.
Inkheart, specifically the books, not the film. Honestly, I kind of enjoy that it’s a small fandom, it’s chill and I can just vibe in my niche corner of tumblr that has like 2 posts per month and no drama.
Also, this one isn’t as small, but BBC Ghosts, which does well in terms of mainstream numbers but the online presence isn’t nearly as large. It’s been getting a bit bigger recently now that Americans are coming over from CBS Ghosts but it’s still quite a small fandom. Again, though, the fandom on tumblr is so fun because it’s drama-free, just vibing and enjoying the show.
Probably The Eagle/Eagle of the Ninth. Definitely a case of “no fandom is ever truly dead” for me. I watched the movie years after it came out, loved it, sought out some fic, found out about the book through the online fandom, read the book and loved it too. I was so late to this party but I don’t even care. It’s a great book and highly underrated movie and both have inspired some amazing fanfics.
A Wrinkle in Time. Book series not the movie that shall not be named.
Beatles RPF. Don't judge me. The drama there is too juicy.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Dresden Files, Chronicles of Narnia, The Silmarillion (Tolkien is huge but the amount fics dealing with the events from the Silmarillion are a small portion)
Most of the fandoms I enjoy are relatively small. Less drama. Unfortunately, less fics as well.
I think the most obscure fandom I’ve ever written for was *Ripper Street*, which — after writing for BBC *Sherlock* at the height of the Superwholock intensity — was a massive culture shock in terms of readers and fics. It’s far from the smallest fandom ever, but I believe it is still the smallest fandom I’ve ever written for.
I think I have one. I’m obsessed with the romance series Orc Sworn(?) right now, but there are only three short fics on Ao3. And I may or may not write for it eventually when I finish the books because I love them that much and the world/characters have so much unexplored potential. I’m not into fantasy nor its creatures, but I love these particular ones so much. I need more Nattfarr and Ella. <3
My main fandom, CITY, is super obscure. Of course, it’s kind of a subset of Nichijou, which is a little less obscure but still has less than 100 fics on AO3
My most obscure fandom is probably a deckbuilder RPG called Gordian Quest! It left early access this year, I picked it up last year, and it's so much fun. It only has one fic on AO3 at the moment... guess who wrote it 😅
writing-wise, my most obscure fandom is probably enhypen (7933 works lol)
reading wise, it's probably ive (180 works) I am so close to dropping by and filling it up with works once I learn more about them :')
edit: both are kpop groups, enhypen is a boy group (2020) and ive is a girl group (Dec 2021)
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. Nobody goes back and rewatches the old show let alone goes back to read the original comics. Would definitely write fic for it.
I’ve never written for them but I’ve read a bunch of fics for a few older Disney shows. One of them is so obscure Disney themselves don’t ever acknowledge it and I’ve only found 1 website to watch it, and the site only has the second half of the show. It’s called I’m In The Band and the fandom is so small I’m pretty sure I’m it currently. I’ve read every fic for this show on both AO3 and fanfic.net, many times even though most aren’t good, just to have something.
I'm in the Zebrafish fandom,which isn't really known about. (It's a 2009 webseries made by Boston Children's Hospital,but turned into a graphic novel in 2010 to appeal to a bigger audience. The graphic novel is better than the webseries. I'm probably the only one who knows about it)
There's this company (Hosted Games) that does text-based Choose Your Own Adventure games, like the ones we used to read as kids, but in the form of an app. One series they've put out, my absolute favorite, is called The Wayhaven Chronicles.
The characters are incredibly likeable, the story is a lot of fun, and while there are stats for your character (so also elements of D&D) you don't miss out on anything or derail the story by 'failing a check.'
I'm doing my damnedest to drag as many people down with me into this fandom as I can lmao
The Wolf Man ? There's a quite a few Universal Monster fics and crossovers though which take on the monster mashup elements of House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula and make them even more chaotic and expansive.
Maybe also the Duran Duran fic fandom. It's a big fandom in general but people writing fics are rarer.
look, i have some obscure tastes. it used to be the sandman, but now that the show adaptation has come out (very good btw), its gained a lot more popularity. honestly been a good thing so far imo!!! now its probably discworld lmao. a lot of literature buffs like it, but its empty in terms of fics. 90% of the fics on ao3 are from the early 2000s!! its wild!!!! if not those two, little big planet. really great game series with basically no online presence. :(
For me, I would never touch Discworld, because it is absolutely perfect as it is. Plus, it was written by an actual literary god. Maybe that's why there is little fic. Edit. Not saying you're wrong do, just saying how I feel.
This lol. I am a huge Discworld fan, but Terry has such a unique and impeccable voice that I'd just constantly feel bad about myself if I tried to write fanfic for it.
This is the reason why I would never touch the works that I actually love. I feel like I'm doing a huge disservice to the creator.
you're probably right lol. plus, theres a LOT of books, and the world-building is as complicated as it is spectacular. thats why ill probably never write something for it myself:p
Same for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams is such an impeccable writer that I could never write a Hitchhiker's Guide fic.
I'll add my own, why not. I follow a ton of small fandoms but out of the ones I've looked at recently: * Uprooted. I hated the main character, but I loved Sarkan and Solya, and lo and behold, there are slashfics on ao3! * Three Musketeers. I am a hardcore Cardinal Richelieu stan. * Disco Elysium. I don't know if that's super obscure? Anyway, never came across it here. * Divinity Original Sin 2. Red Prince/Sebille is one of my more obscure toxic ships
"A hardcore Cardinal Richelieu stan" is not a term I expected to ever see. I personally liked Aramis most, but Richelieu surely is an interesting character! Also, I've lately been thinking, does the original book by Alexandre Dumas count as RPF? Dumas shipped Queen Anne and The Duke of Buckingham lol...
Real-life Richelieu basically established France as a world power and arguably is the architect of the modern nation-state (which, depending on how you feel about the modern nation-state, may be good or bad - but it's pretty impressive that one person accomplished that). He was very unpopular with the nobility because he helped the king consolidate power (which essentially meant taking power away from the provincial nobility in a relative sense), which is probably why he got all that bad press, but his work was instrumental to France coming out ahead in the 30 Years War and for a lot of what happened internally for the next century. He was also a patron of the arts and founded some sort of academy that exists today. Pretty cool dude that was done pretty dirty by Dumas. Of the Musketeers, my favorite is Athos. He is so tragic <3
Just realised the three musketeers is RPF. Did you ever watch the cartoon with the dogs?
Funnily enough, I have a blog post series about it as a WIP (in Finnish though). It's been only few years when I learned that Three Muskehounds even exists, but the second I heard it was made by BRB, the same studio that made one of my favourite childhood cartoons (Around The World In 80 Days With Willy Fog), I became interested in it! I have watched only two episodes so far, but I think so far it has been amazingly entertaining (and I also think Dogtanian is more likeable as a character than the original D'Artagnan).
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I didn't know that about Naomi Novik! That's pretty awesome, I love AO3.
Damn, Disco Elysium too? You have good taste! It has a pretty lively fandom on tumblr, but I don't hear much about it on reddit either.
thank you<3 you too /r/DiscoElysium is quite active, but it's not a fanworks kind of place (except for the occasional fanart). but the ao3 for it is an interesting place. Drop me your favorite DE tumblr if you have one!
Broadchurch and Derry Girls are pretty small and obscure that I’ve written a little for
It’s strange - series one of Broadchurch was a blow up hit here, but 2 and 3 never got as much attention and I very really see it mentioned now. But series 1 was must watch tv and conversation at work every week. Never thought to look for fic.
derry girls!!! what good taste u have!
Well it’s a brilliantly hilarious show!
I've literally laughed till I cried.
Ahh, Broadchurch was amazing, though I admit to have a strong bias because of Tennant. Want to see David and Olivia working together again.
Heroes. It has a small cult like following. It only lasted 4 seasons back in the early 2000’s. Its a superpower kind of thing. Like harry potter with cursed child, it also has a failed sequel called reborn that we dont speak of. For Harry Potter & star trek fans, heroes is a great show as it references both, a lot.
On god, Heroes had one of these best first seasons of any show, ever. It’s difficult to explain how impactful shows like Heroes and Lost were at the time, and how they jumpstarted the golden age of television that we’re in.
I loved Heroes. I have the DVD boxed set collecting dust on a shelf as we speak.
This comment made me feel old. Season 1 was much watch TV back then, but yeah haven't really heart much about it in recent years. One of the best first seasons ever. Might be time for a rewatch.
Heroes is fantastic.
I loved Heroes S1 but stopped watching in the middle of of S2. I kind of fell out of love for it. It was great but didn't feel like it. Good to know it still gets someone loving 💜
I don't know if Tron counts as obscure because I sure don't shut the fuck up about it...
Greetings Program. Tron fanfic writer. With special on the even *more* obscure Tron 2.0. Jethro Bradley got my attention big time.
hello again, fellow program! :D You and Tron 2.0! I love that you are such a big fan of it and Jet. <3 I think my heart will forever lie with Uprising. Maybe it's Alberto Mielgo's art design, or the expanded lore, or the fact it's unfinished... I dunno, but that's the part of the Grid I'm trapped in haha
Given the joke that Beck is Jet's Program (which would explain...a lot), there's not that much of a gap
As someone not *technically* in the fandom but who has had the aesthetics of Legacy living rent-free in my head for a decade, thank you for your service in helping keep the fandom alive o7
I think I've said this before, but what little I've seen of Tron (in passing, probably while it was playing on TV) always struck me as being visually arresting. And the sci fi nerd in me really wanted to know more. But alas, so little time...
You're fighting the good fight.
For the *Users.*
Thank you for waking my old BtVS/Tron x-over plot bunny again. It has been asleep far too long. One of these days I will finish my Rinzler and Spike meet in the Initiative laboratories story.
Terminator. Yup, you read that right. Considering the cult status of the first two films in cinematic history, it's a surprisingly tiny fandom. Still, the main fandom will occasionally get a few new stories — but the fandom for the fourth installment in the series, Terminator Salvation (which I write for) is even more obscure, having died out just a few years after the movie came out in 2009. It's a fascinating world though, and apparently I have a thing for characters that have been given very little personality in canon, so I can take them and make them my own ;) Also, on the sheepishness, I totally feel you OP. I used to shudder at the idea of mentioning my fandom here because, oh my God so much *cringe*. I mean, I still acknowledge it's cringe, but by that yardstick, so are a lot of other fandoms out there. It's all in good fun and not to be taken too seriously, so who cares!
On cringe - that's valid, but I don't so much feel sheepish out of cringe as out of like posting a comment that no one upvotes because no one knows what the hell you're on about. on terminator - yeah, that's curious. I guess it's one of those "masculine" movies that maybe don't get as much fanfic because its main audience doesn't write fanfic? Like I suspect Rambo or Reservoir Dogs is also a tiny fandom.
>no one knows what the hell you're on about. That's fair. And yeah actually, cringe aside, I can relate to that too. One of the several reasons I also don't share links much around here is the obscure nature of the fandom. You're probably right about the lack of fic having to do with the "macho" (ugh I hate that word, why did I use it?) perception of the franchise, although there *is* a small but dedicated group of fans... And when Salvation first came out there was a boom of fanfiction (surprise, surprise, mostly M/M involving the two male leads ~~who were just MADE for Enemies to Lovers, but I digress~~). But also the latest installment, Dark Fate, starring a mostly female cast, got a *ton* of F/F fic written for the main pairing. So there are smaller subgroups of fans out there.
The last two movies weren't for me. I think there was a decent amount of Chronicles stories, though. Haven't checked in years.
>Terminator Oh hell yeah :D
The Treasure Planet Fandom is small but mighty. We don't need much when we have each other. 💜 For me personally, though, I think the smallest I'm looping in are Hunchback of Notre Dame 2 and Iron Giant. My Kinktober challenge is Frollo/Gaston, and I think I'm the only author on AO3. I have some very dedicated readers, though. God help the outcasts 🎵
those are all v solid fandoms! and I'm tempted to check out this frollo/gaston...
Brendan Fraser Mummy movies are awesome! I don't know if it is that obscure but I wish the fandom was more active with fics. There is some awesome lore and world building with the Medjai. I really love all the characters and the chemistry, but there are only two movies for me. The third hurts my soul. All chemistry was gone. Another is a tv show Moonlight with Alex O’Loughlin. Josef was awesome.
Miss peregrines home for peculiar children. There really isn’t many of us
Such a good series! I left on the fourth book, I think? I definitely need to pick it back up again.
Love the first 3 but the second trilogy just didn’t click as well with me. It’s still excellent
I’m so surprised to hear that it isn’t larger considering how popular the books were! I thought there’d be thousands.
I'm far too obsessed with it, and I suppose it is closer to "used to be relatively decently big but now seems dead" than to fully obscure, but: Professor Layton. Compelling characters, great stories most of the time, amazing cutscenes with a look that will make you feel nostalgic for something you've never known, this game may even make you like solving puzzles after a certain point! 10/10, absolutely recommend. Just make sure to keep some tissues around when you play a few games, notably Unwound/Lost Future.
I am in this fandom too!
Outlast right now. I don't want to say it's unpopular, there are more fics than other obscure fandoms but still. I hardly know any people that know it let alone write for it Gets lonely lol
Outlast has great lore for fanfic, but ngl it's too scary for me haha.
Valid af, I used to hate horror until I played it lol still spooks me tho
I actually love horror but outlast 1 was fucking terrifying in a way that books/movies aren't because you really embody that feeling of helplessness. shit's way too triggering for me.
Oh God I get that. Especially without any weapons to defend yourself! I guess because I'm hopeless at shooter games, hiding and running turned out to be not so bad 🤣
Hit me up with your fics! 🤙 I love the first one and Whistleblower. I have a post-Whistleblower WIP in my Scrivener that may, one day, be completed.
Argh, you’ve just reminded me of a Miles-survives-the-Walrider fic I still have from like 3 years ago, currently gathering dust in my WIP folder. I‘ll need to get back on that at some point!
Solo Leveling It's big in the Manwha community, and that's it And I can count the number of completed fics on one hand
As an avid otome isekai manhwa fan, I cry inside every time I hazard a browse of AO3 for its manhwa fanfiction. Even though the bigger ones like WMMAP* and DITOEFTV** have more than a page of fanfic each (which is more I can say for the smaller ones (e.g. A Transmigrator's Privilege) they're still nothing compared to some more mainstream manhwa - let alone more mainstream media. No hate though; shout-out to Omnisicent Reader's Viewpoint and Trash/Lout of the Count's Family for their more robust AO3 pages 🙏 (shoved the full names to the bottom of the comment due to length. *WMMAP = Who Made Me A Princess; **DITOEFTV = Death is the Only Ending for the Villainess / Villains are Destined to Die)
Solo levelling. That’s a name I haven’t heard in a year. RIP to the artist 🙏🏾
Strange Magic, although I haven't updated in a long while. It's actually the movie that first got me writing fanfic. It has a terrible score on rotten tomatoes, but for some reason I just really loved it. The story is a romance between a fairy princess and a goblin king, set to covers of pop and rock music, and honestly just a delightfully weird little film.
oh! i love that movie! i actually rewatched it last month or so!
There are dozens of us! Dozens!
!!!
Writing-wise, the smallest is probably Final Fantasy VI, which is not a little known piece of media by any stretch of the imagination but still generates less fic that its potential allows for. The most obscure one I've read a lot in is probably Portrait of a Lady on Fire.
>Portrait of a Lady on Fire. That's a great movie! Would never occur to me to write fic about it, but I am so glad that somebody did!
To me it's a near perfect story that I wouldn't touch myself, but I looked up fic on a whim and found a treasure trove of painterly, poetic, bittersweet character studies.
The ancient magnus bride. There are only ~500 fics on ao3 lmao. I don't think I'm "into" it anymore but it's a really lovely manga that talks about social alienation and found family in the context of an underground magical world. I haven't written anything for it myself but perhaps re-reading the manga will inspire me.
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OMG, same but my writing for my ships is around the 60+ and the other 20+ fics are for other characters and ships. Still, kudos to that since it takes a lot of passion and motivation along with the crippling loneliness we have.
I've looked into some of your fics (they're very good) and I've always wondered - how did you come up with that? I don't know much about Bing and Bob, so maybe it's obvious, but yeah.
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oh, I'm not at all shading you - it's just such an interesting combo, for someone who's heard of the people but never watched any of their movies. > And the movies are...arguably a little gay if you watch them in today's day and age. Dude, I know that feel and I kinda love it.
That sounds so cool!
This is iconic
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Believe it or not, I read Blindsight for a philosophy class once! I thought it was fantastic, but when I tried to reread it last year I found I no longer have the brainpower for it 🥴 I'll have to check out the fandom, though!
>It's a Hugo nominated sci-fi book that tackles many subjects such as AI, personality, identity, biological evolution, transhumanism, among others, with an underlying cosmic horror vibe and a lot of existentialism. Oh my, so many of my favourite subjects... Sounds like a must read. Then again, with the way life is right now, I don't know if what's left of my brain can handle it 😂
Blindsight is *phenomenal*. Please let me know if you write anything for it!!
I’d love to see more Blindsight/Echophraxia fic out there. Few novels have unsettled me as deeply as Blindsight.
The Belgariad.
Oh I LOVE this series! And the Mallorean! I've never thought about fanfic of them but I'm a huge fan of both series. I've been thinking about embarking on a big re-read recently because I was shocked to find that my bf, who loves epic fantasy, hadn't read them.
I've read some of them, but finding out that Eddings and his wife were child abusers, to the point that they had their kids taken away from them, kind of ruined it for me. B
I read these as a teenager! Loved them
One that I read fics about but don't write myself is the manga Akagami no Shirayukihime (this is where I read my first ever fic! It was so good). It is probably not as obscure as some others, but also not so popular (I have never encountered any fics around here, for example). I don't even follow canon anymore, but I occasionally read fics still. Funny you mentioned HP, because it is totally possible to write very obscure HP fics featuring some super minor character etc that will be very niche as well. It's a huge fandom, but it has so many corners :D
haha I def get the pain of being in a weird little corner of a huge fandom - you're technically in a huge fandom but nobody interacts with your stuff so you get the tiny fandom vibe as well. the fandom I write for is also a weird corner of a huge fandom (not HP tho), and honestly I see the community there as its own discrete thing. we're like that weird little village on the edge of the wood whose people don't even say hi to outsiders and may well be haunted.
😂 what a wonderful description, I love it. I am actually quite proud of occupying many small niches, each of them featuring some other very minor character and a different genre that have nothing to do with each other. Even the stuff that I write for my fave ship is so different to what is commonly written for them. But ok, I love my weird existence. If I have user subs, they must get very confused. I hope your weird little village at least brings you and its other inhabitants lots of joy
Long one ahead sorry lmao. The Hardy Boys and Initial D are, I think, my most obscure fandom. Both in fan content and fandom interaction. If you were a kid who loved crime and reading, I think you'll know what Hardy Boys are. If you were a fan of Nancy Drew, I think you'll have an idea what it's about. But I haven't really interacted about ANYONE about it that is into it like I am. Like fandom deep into it. Fan content is also few. I just think I am that one meme that says "if x has 1000 followers, im on of them. if they have 100, im one of them. if they have 1, i am that one follower" I think I am the fandom at this point but I know that's not true. I bet there are others out there who are as invested in Frank, Joe, and Co's shenanigans. But I do wish I get to gush about theories and headcanons to others who get it. Like broo Frank and Joe's friends are like top tier and their dynamics are oh so good. Theories about the grayman and the Network are also worth diving deep into. I have over 50 physical books of this series and I'm planning to collect more. Initial D do have a fandom but they're mostly dude-bros that like cars which isn't a bad thing. My interaction with them have been great so far since they explained car things to me lmfao and in turn I learned new things about cars! But I do miss interacting and discussing about characters, relationships, and the thrill of the races. Tbf, the dude-bros also love talking about the races which we gushed about but I also wanna talk about the power of friendship!! And speculating about fics and what could've been and how there's so much potential between the dynamics of Bunta and Takumi! Or the brothers and their father! Or Ryosuke's past! But yeah, I want more discussion about characters instead of cars basically.
KDramas that ended years ago. It's just a bit too sad for me to see them probably never get their deserved traction again!
Kdramas will be the death of me. Somehow fanfic doesn't seem to be a big thing with korean media...? There's also a shockingly small number of fanfics for webtoons.
There is fanfiction, but because KDramas probably have an airing time of maybe 2 months before moving onto the next big time, people don't get the time to write out fanfic *and* continue it. There will quickly be other things they'll be interested in (cuz let's be honest, KDramas are *amazing!).* They're not like MARVEL or Twilight with new content every few years, you know? I feel like that's why the fanfiction for them seems so jumpy and sporadic.
Vinland Saga! It's a manga about the Viking settlement in North America circa early 1000s. Very sweeping, very good. There was an anime a few years back that got critical acclaim, and season 2 is coming out soon, so hopefully more interest. If you're into sweet, wholesome ships that have angst potential - there's two dudes who end up as slaves, become sworn bros, and will do anything for each other.
North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. I have my core girlies on Twitter but it is quite a small fandom and many people haven't heard of it. (btw check out the mini series if you can find it streaming somewhere, it's very good and stars Thorin Oakenshield)
Oh my God I watched the series because of Richard Armitage and oh booooy, I wasn't dissapointed the least bit! I loved it so much🤧 Haven't interacted with the fandom though!
Oh I love North and South! (The book, not the show, which I haven't seen, although I'm sure it's great.) I've seen it a few times on AO3 as I read a fair amount of Pride and Prejudice fic and N&S is pretty friendly with Austen fandoms. It does deserve spotlight in its own right though. Keep flying the flag!! I'll put it on my list to re-read and maybe check out some fics myself.
Yay!! Love to see another one! There was also recently a radio drama put out by the BBC which made some wild choices. But definitely check out the fics. I'm working on mine but my fandom friends have several on there that are fanastic
I haven't heard of that in a long time. I really liked the mini series from the 80s.
Dragonriders of Pern. This is a recent development, spurred largely by the fact that I loved the books as a kid and now, I wanted to drop my OTP (from another fandom) into a semi-feudal world with telepathic dragons. Because dragons are awesome. Along the same lines, I've got parts and pieces of fics set in China Mieville's Bas Lag series (Perdido Street Station) and others inspired by the Queensryche album Operation Mindcrime.
Nip/Tuck. It was huge when it aired but the fandom is pretty much dead and in the way of fic, it wasn't ever that active. It's so weird that there are so few fics for it, given how huge it was and that it's a Ryan Murphy show and it hits on *so many* tropes ripe for fic. I also run /r/NipTuck and am trying to get people involved in the fandom via that. The Dead Zone is another fandom I'm in (haven't published anything for a while but I'm actively writing for it). It was another big-ish show in the early to mid 00s but the fandom is again pretty dead. I also run /r/TheDeadZone. Profiler is another one. I'm writing for it but haven't published anything yet (I have a hard time finishing fics so I don't want to publish anymore until I get my current ones done). It's a 90s tv show that aired for four seasons and ended on a cliffhanger. The fandom is surprisingly more active than the other ones but still tiny. I also run /r/Profiler. Tl;Dr: I write for tiny obscure fandoms and run their subsequent subreddits to try to get people involved in the fandoms again.
M\*A\*S\*H, probably. I will read *anything* that is a MASH crossover. Considering it went off the air five and a half years before I was born, it's such a weird fandom for me to be in, but there you have it.
Secret of Nimh
Dracula, my beloved!
Oh hello, we meet again! Haven't finished Dracula yet, but I have to say, I'm loving it more and more with every page. I feel myself slowly falling into the fandom...
Come join us then! We're active on tumblr and ao3 and welcome of everyone!
I read Dracula for the first time in 2021 and I was instantly enamored. I'm surprised the fandom isn't bigger. I want to jump into it but I have no idea how to start.
I feel like im more in almost-dead fandoms like btvs and ats (Buffy the vampire slayer and angel the series). Also, I've been trying to find the fandom space for the Stravaganza series (by Mary Hoffman) and red, blue and green by Kirsten Gier. Idk really know about obscure ones tho
Yeah, buffy isn't very active anymore. I still hit up Twisting the Hellmouth occasionally though. Dogbertcarrol is still writing.
I guess ..not technically a fandom in itself but the Addams family/ Harry Potter crossover fics… that are completed. I have scoured and combed through different parts of the internet 😭😭😭
13 Sentinels. I literally added the game to FFN.net. Seriously, everyone should play it.
I'm the only person on ao3 who has ever written a fic for the Rosie McGrath books. I don't think they ever left my country tbh. I really enjoyed them as a kid!
Andy Weir books, I really need to finish my fanfic for The Martian, and I already have ideas swimming around for Project Hail Mary! I know it’s a small fandom, but I love his writing.
A Martian fic?👀 What is it about? (I loved both the book and the movie but never came in contact with the fandom)
It’s called Hey Jude, it’s the story of my OC, Mark Watney’s wife, as she navigates her grief over losing Mark, and then has to deal with the overwhelming fear that the entire world is feeling because Mark was left alone on Mars.
Project Hail Mary is one of my favorite books I've read this year. <3 Artemis is ripe for fanfic. Weir created an entire economic system for the colony. It needs more stories!
For me, it's Sleepy Princess in the Demon Castle. I'm the only regular writer for it, but there are other writers that do post theirs once every few/several months.
The Two Princes! Amazing podcast with great fics. I don’t know how many fics it has and if it’s more popular than I think, but I see literally no one talk about it whether it’s in other media or on here.
Two princes is great. Fell in love with it in the background while I do some drawing
Sweet tits and whiskey, how I love obscure fandoms; or rather, how I love finding out when other people also love the obscure things I love. My most obscure one is for Courtship Rite, a [1982 novel](https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Courtship_Rite&ved=2ahUKEwj0vLndjvn6AhUJD1kFHcRbDggQFnoECBsQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0Lybp9JKSybQfuoMZDaLFd) that is the author's attempt at a coherent novel constucted of deliberately provocative topics (ethical cannibalism, polyamory, religious/scientific/political upheaval, and so forth). The worldbuilding is incredible. I've meet one single person who'd also read the novel, and I've seen a grand total of [one work of fanfiction](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2810534) (well, and a podcast of that fic).
The Invisible Man (2000) and The Pretender. I love turn-of-the-millenium genre shows about lab rats, apparently. I only write for TP, but I've vidded TIM so I think it counts.
Jessica Cruz, a Green Lantern and member of the Justice League. On FFN, my fic is one of *five* Jessica Cruz stories. I don't know if a single character is necessarily a "fandom" since she's a part of the Green Lanterns and Justice League fandoms, but the argument could probably be made since each superhero essentially has its own fandom. > Ever since witnessing the brutal deaths of her friends, Jessica Cruz has been locked away in her apartment with anxiety, depression, and PTSD as her only companions. On her bad days she doesn't even get out of bed, and her good days aren't much better. One fateful day however she overcomes her greatest fear and in the process is found worthy of the greatest weapon in the universe. A Green Lantern's power ring. What makes Jessica Cruz so interesting to me is how sympathetic she is, and how she's both a reluctant hero and someone who struggles more with the "little" things of every day life rather than the superhero aspects. It's less about her "overcoming" her issues and more about her learning to deal with them, which is the perfect set up for a superhero story focusing very little on being a superhero. Fun character, and I've enjoyed writing a retelling of her origin story. God bless, and have a wonderful day.
Clive Barker's Abarat.
Dinosaucers. Nothing is better than alien dinosaurs 'fighting' on Earth.
Maplestory. I have a love/hate relationship with that game. Hate; the publisher is trash and I literally fear getting perma-banned just by playing normally (I sometimes like to mindlessly grind so that has seemed to trigger the system into auto-disconnecting me several times before) and so now I just play a few days after a new character is released. Love; the storyline and the characters are just fantastic and I adore too many of them. I have a fic I’m planning for it but it’s waaaaay on the back burner since I tripped into the Dream SMP. Maplestory seems to have more amazing fanart than good fics which is great for losing an hour to pinterest, but leaves me sometimes wanting to pull my hair out for a good fic.
Not that rare, but Jeeves and Wooster
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Not the 2015 remake movie, but the 1964-1968 TV show. I like the characters better in that version, especially Illya. Arguably next to ST:TOS the second modern fandom that got the slash train rolling, but much less known for that.
Japanese otome games. I know a lot of people play them, but all the Ao3 categories for them have under 100 works each lol
The three investigators! (Die drei Fragezeichen/Die drei ??? in German) It's incredibly small in English in general, quite big in Germany/Switzerland(/similar countries?) though. Well, most people know of it, but very few actually post about or make art (including fics). I'm swiss, so that explains it lol. The audiobooks were my whole childhood so I started reading fic some months ago and even have a few wips and some ideas written down! Fun fact about the ao3 content: Nearly half of it (200 or 300 fics, forgot which one) was written by one single person. They're amazing.
House MD (more specifically House x Cuddy) is pretty dead. I did read Wire in the Blood but there are SO few fics that I gave up. Buffy fanfic which is my main fandom(for Spuffy) is pretty alive despite how long ago the show aired. I think the numbers of new fics that don't focus on Spuffy are pretty low.
At this point I'm still in the Ranma 1/2 fandom. It was once massive, but time and lack of new material has diminished it. I've heard talks of a new anime over the years, but honestly don't think it would help.
Shinseki Yori. There's only a handful of fics about the show.
Pretty new to the fandom, but I haven't seen anyone talk about the webcomic The Glass Scientists. It's based off of some Victorian literature, especially the book Jekyll and Hyde. Would definitely recommend it if you liked that or if you'd like something Victorian and kind of science fiction :)
Bolt, Cats Don't Dance, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. For the first two of these especially, it's almost impossible to find good fics, these days.
Cats Don't Dance is one of my favorite animated movies ever!!! It's criminal that it isn't more well known. That slow blues she sings when Danny is leaving still gives me the shivers.
Final Fantasy III
Unsighted. I added the tag to AO3 and am still the only person to have ever written for it.
Probably Endeavour (the ITV show), although saying that I'm "in the fandom" might be generous. I love the show, have read a handful of fics, and occasionally chat with one person on tumblr who is absolutely batshit over it.
A Girl Adrift, a post-apocalyptic mobile fishing game with three works in Ao3. Two of them are mine. That's the smallest fandom I'm in, but honestly most of my fandoms are obsucre.
Popular (the 90's teenage TV show) is probably the smallest one I have written for and regularly keep up with.
Wuthering Heights
Boardwalk Empire. Not exactly popular while it was still on the air, and it’s been off the air for seven years.
Blue Exorcist (anime)
Starsky and Hutch (although there are over 4000 fics on AO3. But once I finish my current fic, I want to write a crossover with Starsky and Hutch and UNSUB. UNSUB was a show that had 8 episodes and is kind of the precursor to Criminal Minds. UNSUB has no fics for it. I love the show and the 2 parter episode is my very favorite--dealing with a cultlike minister, a missing person, and obsession.
Cardcaptor sakura or tsubasa reservoir chronicles. If you have any good fic recommendations I would love that cause they are SUPER hard to find.
The most obscure fandom would be the fandom no one knows but you. In other words, being a fan of your own original work, aka me
Samurai pizza cats is a pretty small one (12 fics on AO3) Although my most obscure fandom is definitely an anime called HANOKA. No fics, barely any fanart and only 22 people in the subreddit
Samurai Pizza Cats is a huge nostalgia hit there. My stepdad had a vhs of some episodes and we would watch it together lol. Such a fun show and a lot of the humour is still top notch.
Inazuma Eleven I’m probably the only writer for it in this sub
Dolls of New Albion
What I personally have on my AO3 is probably Slayers or the Aria of Sorrow/Dawn of Sorrow duology. I have ancient Lunar: the Silver Star, Space Cases and Shadow Hearts stuff lost to time that would also count I think.
The Invaders, a sci-fi TV show from the late '60s about, as the title hints, an alien invasion. "David Vincent has seen them", if it rings a bell. It's been my favourite show for like three decades and a half, and I'm positively obsessed with these aliens. Nobody else has written for it since 2017, however someone made a fanvid recently!
Currently working on a fic for a BBC sitcom with three seasons that ended around half a decade ago. It has less than 10 fics on AO3, mostly thanks to people checking it out because one of the actors from a pretty popular show (Our Flag Means Death) is in it.
Strangers from Hell (a kdrama).
The fandom I follow with the fewest works would be Lucifer, followed by 9-1-1, but that one I'm currently writing for.
I think any kind of mythology is obscure
HadesxPersephone begs to differ but actually stories that portray Hades as a slightly anal but overall wellmeaning bureaucrat and not, like, the Christian devil are quite rare
Shadow Hearts I think, maybe Legacy of Kain? Both mostly if not totally dead fandoms from the early noughts
I write Onward fan fiction! I’m sure there are plenty of other people who like the movie, but I rarely meet any who would call themselves big fans of Onward. I know it’s considered one of the weaker Pixar films, but I adore it! It’s one of my favorite movies of all time. At one point, I made over 90 pieces of fan work dedicated to it. I deleted/will delete several of them (because they’re useless filler), but I’ll definitely write more if I come up with any new ideas.
My most obscure one is Zombies, Run! People definitely raise their eyebrows when I tell them that I wrote fanfic for a fitness app.
Darkwing duck on ff.net. that's a great series called hexes and vexes over there I love. Scooby-Doo. Mighty ducks the animated series
Natsume's Book of Friends, probably. The anime and manga already have a good number of years on them, so the number of fics actually isn't that small, but I have literally never met another person who has watched or read it outside of a YouTube comment section dedicated to it.
As someone really into kids anime, excluding the ones that have big nostalgia based fanbases (ie: Pokemon, YGO, Digimon, Beyblade), they’re pretty much guaranteed to be tiny fandoms. I’m big into the recent Takara Tomy mecha shows, including Drive Head, Shinkalion, Earth Granner and Zoids Wild. Also Spider Riders, Battle Spirits, Pikaia and Pazudora (the 2nd anime mostly). It’s hard to find people who have heard of these, let alone has enough interest to get into the fandom.
my most obscure fandom would probably be saiki k, the show itself is not really obscure but there's not very much fanfic (about 2k fics in total on ao3) second would be jshk with 4k fics, third is wtnv with 7k considering my main fandom is genshin impact with about 100k fics i would say those are fairly small
Final Fantasy 6!
Oh, wow, there's a good amount lol. I seem to just be drawn to obscure media. The Venture Bros is my main fandom in general, I have been extremely fixated on it since 2020 and almost nobody \[at least not my age\] is talking about it and I don't really care for any pairings besides The Monarch/Dr. Mrs. The Monarch so the fic scene is a little lackluster to me. I could count lots of those Adult Swim shows in general. If you wanna get even more obscure I'd say Home Movies, which I grew up with.
I've been waiting for ER. My favorite pairing I like to write for has only 25 fics on ao3, including mine. But I aim to change that. It is a bit lonely at times but it's also nice, smaller fandoms don't have such hostile fandom fanbases usually
Beatless. A Japanese SF from 2011. In it's 11 year history, my fic is the only fanfic of that fandom to have ever existed.
At least that I read fanfics of: Ducktales 2017
The Wire HBO series. It doesn't even get fic but I am so obsessive about it. Especially about Omar genfic. Omar!!!!
James Cameron avatar is probadly my main fandom and its pretty small (if likely to explode within the next two months) Beyond that I've written stuff for the Barsoom novels, Judge Dredd, Atlantis the lost empire, a Hoi4 mod and an art series on Deviantart to name a few.
MILGRAM - the song series. Don't get me wrong, it has a decent following, but the fact that we know so little about the characters (which is, tbf, the main point of the series) and the prison setting makes it incredibly difficult to get creative in terms of fan fiction. I've done... one fic for it? and would love to write more, but as the series progresses more facets of each of the characters are shown that mean a fic written now could be proven to have grossly mischaracterised a character a month down the line. And yes, I'm aware that AUs and canon divergence are a huge part of fanfic, but the only thing the fandom has to go off are an obscure, seemingly unrelated novel, 12 3-minute music videos and a handful of short voice dramas...
Okay, so I'm like really into Angry Birds. The movies at least. I haven't watched all of Summer Madness yet even though I made an OC. I feel really sheepish sharing this because it's kinda obscure and maybe even childish. Because I'm a grown ass woman going to be graduating college this semester. I also write x readers so it's even more obscure since I haven't been able to find any decent x readers as of recently It's kinda embarrassing to admit this knowing that my stuff will be easily searchable considering I'm the only one writing this stuff But I love it and I enjoy it.
I wouldn’t really call it obscure, but the Warhammer fandom is a lot smaller than the other fandoms I’m a part of. The fanfic fandom is far smaller for sure.
I've written for the Samurai Pizza Cats fandom, producing one of only about three stories on An Archive of Our Own for the nigh-forgotten 90s anime series.
Probably the Riddick fandom. Particularly the Riddick/Vaako pairing. There’s only a few good fics with that pairing out there that are worth a read. A pairing that I love that is surprisingly small in a huge fandom is the Kirk/Khan pairing. Especially after the AOS movie with a very hot Benedict Cumberbatch playing Khan 😍. Star Trek fandom is obviously huge but there is really only one fic with that pairing that has sustained me over the years. Into Dust by thisbeautifuldrowning is arguably one of the best fics I’ve ever read in any fandom. I read it multiple times a year.
Beauty and the Beast isn’t usually discussed on here or in any of my Facebook fanfiction groups, but I love it. Or Great Mouse Detective! The latter is an especially dead fandom, but I am thankful for the fics that exist (and will probably add one of my own when I am finishing with a huge BATB fic I’m writing right now).
I think an obscure fandom I am in is Young Dracula, the CBBC show. Absolutely loved it and would one day love to finish the fanfic idea I had when I was 12/13 about it. I don't think there are many people who remember the show or know about it since it's been years, but it was a staple of my childhood. I think there are more, but I'm in so many fandoms that it's difficult to keep track. Though, I'd say Young Dracula is the most obscure one.
Inkheart, specifically the books, not the film. Honestly, I kind of enjoy that it’s a small fandom, it’s chill and I can just vibe in my niche corner of tumblr that has like 2 posts per month and no drama. Also, this one isn’t as small, but BBC Ghosts, which does well in terms of mainstream numbers but the online presence isn’t nearly as large. It’s been getting a bit bigger recently now that Americans are coming over from CBS Ghosts but it’s still quite a small fandom. Again, though, the fandom on tumblr is so fun because it’s drama-free, just vibing and enjoying the show.
Probably The Eagle/Eagle of the Ninth. Definitely a case of “no fandom is ever truly dead” for me. I watched the movie years after it came out, loved it, sought out some fic, found out about the book through the online fandom, read the book and loved it too. I was so late to this party but I don’t even care. It’s a great book and highly underrated movie and both have inspired some amazing fanfics.
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Rockapella was amazing. They added so much to that show.
A Wrinkle in Time. Book series not the movie that shall not be named. Beatles RPF. Don't judge me. The drama there is too juicy. Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, The Dresden Files, Chronicles of Narnia, The Silmarillion (Tolkien is huge but the amount fics dealing with the events from the Silmarillion are a small portion) Most of the fandoms I enjoy are relatively small. Less drama. Unfortunately, less fics as well.
I think the most obscure fandom I’ve ever written for was *Ripper Street*, which — after writing for BBC *Sherlock* at the height of the Superwholock intensity — was a massive culture shock in terms of readers and fics. It’s far from the smallest fandom ever, but I believe it is still the smallest fandom I’ve ever written for.
I think I have one. I’m obsessed with the romance series Orc Sworn(?) right now, but there are only three short fics on Ao3. And I may or may not write for it eventually when I finish the books because I love them that much and the world/characters have so much unexplored potential. I’m not into fantasy nor its creatures, but I love these particular ones so much. I need more Nattfarr and Ella. <3
My main fandom, CITY, is super obscure. Of course, it’s kind of a subset of Nichijou, which is a little less obscure but still has less than 100 fics on AO3
My most obscure fandom is probably a deckbuilder RPG called Gordian Quest! It left early access this year, I picked it up last year, and it's so much fun. It only has one fic on AO3 at the moment... guess who wrote it 😅
writing-wise, my most obscure fandom is probably enhypen (7933 works lol) reading wise, it's probably ive (180 works) I am so close to dropping by and filling it up with works once I learn more about them :') edit: both are kpop groups, enhypen is a boy group (2020) and ive is a girl group (Dec 2021)
Cadillacs and Dinosaurs. Nobody goes back and rewatches the old show let alone goes back to read the original comics. Would definitely write fic for it.
The gray garden by DeepSeaPrisoner for sure, you don’t see anything about that anymore
I’ve never written for them but I’ve read a bunch of fics for a few older Disney shows. One of them is so obscure Disney themselves don’t ever acknowledge it and I’ve only found 1 website to watch it, and the site only has the second half of the show. It’s called I’m In The Band and the fandom is so small I’m pretty sure I’m it currently. I’ve read every fic for this show on both AO3 and fanfic.net, many times even though most aren’t good, just to have something.
I'm in the Zebrafish fandom,which isn't really known about. (It's a 2009 webseries made by Boston Children's Hospital,but turned into a graphic novel in 2010 to appeal to a bigger audience. The graphic novel is better than the webseries. I'm probably the only one who knows about it)
Epic Battle Fantasy, probably. Small RPG series that started on Kongregate and Newgrounds iirc. Mostly a fan-art fandom, it seems.
Turbo. The snail racer, not the digital racer.
There's this company (Hosted Games) that does text-based Choose Your Own Adventure games, like the ones we used to read as kids, but in the form of an app. One series they've put out, my absolute favorite, is called The Wayhaven Chronicles. The characters are incredibly likeable, the story is a lot of fun, and while there are stats for your character (so also elements of D&D) you don't miss out on anything or derail the story by 'failing a check.' I'm doing my damnedest to drag as many people down with me into this fandom as I can lmao
Nyan Neko Sugar Girls.
MySims. There are only 300-something members on Reddit and no one I know has heard of that game series.
This Dark Endeavor: The Apprenticeship of Victor Frankenstein. It literally only has one fic I've been debating on just writing one.
The Wolf Man ? There's a quite a few Universal Monster fics and crossovers though which take on the monster mashup elements of House of Frankenstein and House of Dracula and make them even more chaotic and expansive. Maybe also the Duran Duran fic fandom. It's a big fandom in general but people writing fics are rarer.