I was supposed to party like it was 1999…Well, it was…
What led to an interest in Gundam Wing fanfiction?
The short, boring answer is: An accidental viewing.
I had returned home from boarding school for Xmas break (I believe). One night, I’d decided that I wanted to paint one of the statues in the living room…using oil paint. My mother, being the misguided person she is, let me. So there I was, sitting in our living room with newspapers over the waxed floors and a Blessed Virgin Mary between my legs... (Yes, I know that sounds wrong, but that’s how it was.) I was “watching” Cartoon Network’s Midnight Run...but what I really was doing was trying to figure out what the hell I had done to that statue (I should have left it alone). Anyhow, episode 2 of Gundam Wing was on, the one where Duo tries to plug Heero with bullets in order to stop him from launching some missiles at his Gundam.
I was half paying attention. I looked up and there was Duo being a smartass (in the dock scene with Relena). My reaction? I saw that long braid and those big eyes, ignored the flat chest, and thought: "That woman sounds like a man." My next thought? "Wow, they must not have enough funding if they have a guy doing the voice for a female character." Yes, I know. I was slow. Forgive me, my experience with bishounen at that point was nil. It took me a couple of minutes to accept that Duo was in fact Duo and not Duette. But there were other things that had caught my attention. I saw blood and was intrigued. Midnight Run was pushing the limits of American television by showing an animated character shot with a resulting injury. So, I thought: “Keep at this one and see where it goes.”
After episode three, where Heero’s strapped to a table looking buff and determined, I was hooked. But my return to school was imminent and Cartoon Network had/has a nasty habit of rerunning shows into the ground. Hungry for more, I hit the Net to find out some more information about Gundam Wing. Back then (~1999), there wasn’t much in terms of series information, but there was a wealth of fanfiction. To say the least, it warped my little mind.
Hot, bothered, and intrigued that Duo and Heero wanted to boink each other crazy, I set out to watch as much Gundam Wing as possible which, given the restrictions at school, wasn’t easy. Anyway, while watching the series, I didn’t see the lustfest I was hoping for and just settled for possible sketchiness between the characters. I continued to read fanfiction because it gave me more of what I loved about the series: the boys...
It got to the point where, while reading, I began thinking: "Hey, wouldn’t it be interesting, cool, ridiculous, wrong, etc if such-and-such happened?" But such-and-such didn’t always happen and I began thinking: “Hey, try doing something.” That something was giving writing a go. I knew what I liked. So, it was only a matter of putting it in story form. That was the entire point of writing. I was setting out to write the kind of fanfiction I would like to read. It’s a great hobby that occasionally verges on an obssession.