[general] what’s something you only liked because it was/is popular in the fandom?

Gonna have to be some of the ships for me.

Around the time of reading the books I was really young, so I had no knowledge that canon/fanon was even thing or that ships existed. I just went off by the books.

But when I got older, got my own phone and invested deeper into the fandom, I realised a lot of the things I never thought of were quite popular or “important” in the fandom, mainly the ships. The fandom wasn’t and still kind of isn’t open to other fans having certain disagreements to what they think is better. Now obviously, I don’t hate people who ship non-canon ships, do what u like it ain’t that deep. But damn, I’m surprised I’ve lasted this long 😭

Some ships have never and will never be my cup of tea. Such as how I never saw some sort of spark that flickered “possible relationship” between Jason and Leo (once again, never knew what shipping was and was too young to be thinking about that stuff anyway) But since it was/is popular, I felt as if I had to (once again I was young and like a sheep. I followed what others did as a way to fit in or relate)

But one of my friends who was previously in the fandom a couple years back said that it if I ever started posting Pjo content, such as art and stuff (since I do digital art) it’d be best if I kept certain things in the folder. Like girl, how bad could it be? Who scarred you?💀✋

It’s kind of like how a lot of fans probably feel like they HAVE to ship percabeth since it’s a popular, canon, healthy, romantic relationship. When really, they CAN ship both Percy and Annabeth with other characters as they please.