the Dalaverse

Dear LJ, I am on a super intense acid flashback trip for Pirates of the Caribbean right now.

Part of this is probably prompted by finally actually visiting the Caribbean. Part of it is not having a lot of active fannish feelings at the moment. Part of it is definitely plain old nostalgia, for PotC fandom and LJ-based fandom both, as they are pretty much equally dead.

But my god, what a ride. It hit me at exactly the right time: I was in college, when the muscle that is the human brain is at its most consistently and rigorously exercised. Going back through my old fic blows my mind; the words just fucking poured out. Sometimes I'd have 10 or 12 or 15 separate fic posts in a single month. We wrote endless stories and beautiful earnest bullshit meta that I still enjoy all these years later. I wrote EVERYTHING, even the one juggernaut pairing I argued against, and the characters who basically functioned as a punchline in the actual script. I mean, Jack and Will and Elizabeth and Norrington - I loved those characters, they became a part of my soul. Norrington's death in AWE - the only thing I can compare it to is when I saw Where the Red Fern Grows as a small child and it was the first time I ever cried over something not directly related to myself. That's how much it hurt.

And the friends I made - that helped me so much when I had trouble making friends IRL. My roommate and I formed an unshakable bond because maybe she was a conservative Christian fundamentalist but we both adored those pirates. It wasn't my first fannish experience, but it was the most singular for sure. Even at its largest it was self-contained, and even with some divided opinions on the sequels, we sure did have a glorious time playing in the sandbox prior to that (and after, even if it wasn't quite the same).

And the movie itself! Remember how Johnny Depp created such a fantastic iconic character despite Disney's doubts, and how great the action was (BOB FUCKING ANDERSON DID THE CHOREOGRAPHY), and how funny and clever and sharp the dialogue was, and how beautiful the seascapes and ships were, and how we all thought Jack Davenport was going to be the Next Big Thing. There was a week in the summer of 2004 when I was writing a fic for a challenge that was an AU reworking of CoBP, and I watched that goddamned movie twenty-two (22) times. In one week. That's not an approximation; I actually counted.

I guess my point is...I don't really have a point. I wish we could bring it back, all of it. I want to finish the handful of WIPs that were really important to me (that would be Brothers In Arms, Keeping Faith, and Other Side of the World), and I wish they would actually get read and enjoyed 8-10 years later. I want to be that creative girl who loved a story so fiercely.

If you are still there, PotC fans, feel free to share your memories and your fic recs.