Superheroes At the Supermarket
It might seem odd to anyone not familiar with fanfiction, but there’s always been a huge portion of fanfiction focussed on the boring, day-to-day, life stuff.
There are numerous fics filled with the most mundane of everyday things, even with the most fantastical of characters.
There are whole Alternate Universes filled with characters stripped of their magical powers or high-octane existences, and made to live normal, boring, lives.
— As well as characters who still have all their magicky-ness, but have to do the same adulting things that we all have to cope with.
It’s hugely popular.
Superheroes at the supermarket, witches surfing the web, vampires trying to do the laundry…
Because the small stuff? It’s actually the big stuff.
We like to see our favourite characters lives struggling with the small stuff, or enjoying the small stuff, or supporting each other through the small stuff.
We need to see characters with the super-est of powers, struggling with the day to day sh** we all struggle with.
And (possibly unpopular opinion,) we need to see more of that in superhero shows and movies, too.
To struggle with the same stuff we all struggle with.
There’s a reason fics like this are so popular — because ‘ordinary’ life? Is pretty damned hard.
I think that one of the (many, many, many) reasons fanfiction is so awesome is that it let’s you indulge in stuff that satisfies at a very basic, human, level.
So seeing these god-like characters accepting that everyday stuff is tough, sometimes? Or that the simple pleasures are the best?
That’s magic.