Things You Liked Before They Were Cool

Posted 2 years, 5 months ago by SymeSynth

Exactly what the title said. What popular and mainstream things were you (and still are) a fan of before they hit the mainstream and exploded into popularity?

I'm admittedly curious about what things you guys are the OGs of.

End0scrypt

Wings of fire fan since 2015, before it skyrocketed in popularity In 2018-19

Back then, the only discourse that was happening was if scarlet was gonna be the main villain, how people shipped winterwatcher or moonbli, and how much people disliked winter turning. Oh, how timed have changed

I don’t consider myself an OG, but an older fan as I started reading the books before ALL of my friends and most artists that draw wof shit

I don’t keep up too much with the books now but that was my first fandom


aurallistine

Anime literally right before it became mainstream; I started liking it in 2018. Although I watched Ouran in 2015 lolol

Echolepzy

Undertale, for sure... I liked it when the game was still relatively new, and I can easily recall asking everyone in my class and some kids in other classes "Hey, do you like Undertale?" to which they would respond "No, I haven't seen that show" and then I would proceed to dramatically explain how it's a game and not a show and then spoil the entire story for them in a very long and annoying narrative.

Once I drew a picture featuring a very well-known part of the game (I won't go into details, I think I spoiled the game for enough people when I was a dumb little kid .w.) and showed it to the kid next to me in class. That kid, being very well-known for snitching on his classmates for basically everything, got up to tell our teacher who, unfortunately, was regarded by both parents and other teachers as one of the worst teachers in that school building (she lost her job after I left her class and several people were celebrating). That night I came home to a month's grounding and got Undertale banned from the household over a picture that wasn't even that bad.

My old best friend from my good ol' days playing Animal Jam (now known as Animal Jam Classic, rip) was the one who introduced me to Undertale. She also introduced me to Five Nights at Freddy's, Tattletails, and some other fandoms as well, and she got me into roleplaying, digital art, and creating OCs. She taught me what a persona was and helped me learn to accept LGBTQIAP+ (for some reason I grew up in a school full of bigots T^T). She pretty much played one of the biggest roles possible in my life when I was younger and helped me to become who I am now, and when I was banned from even bringing up the name of an Undertale character, it was really upsetting to have lost one of the things I shared most with my old best friend.

Undertale was a very big part of my life when I was younger, and even though I deeply regret some things I did back then, it still means a lot to me, even if I find it hard to engage with the community these days.

This is sort of why I hope Just Shapes & Beats, Project Arrhythmia, and Purrfect Apawcalypse will never become popular. I like how the communities are tight-knit and welcoming, and it scares me to think about how there's a chance that someday those communities might fill up with little kids that make tons of bathroom jokes who are only there because it's popular and fangirls who do things that everyone regrets, including themselves eventually (I know this from experience, unfortunately... Eugh.)

Sorry for writing an essay on something I could've said in two or three sentences, I'm not the best at keeping things short. ^^;


aska-ray

Majora's Mask it's been my favorite game ever since I was 11/12 back in 2001/2002 or whatever and I distinctly remember people absolutely hating it so seeing everyone go "oh its a hidden gem!!!!" is so funny to me

WindWaken

I've been a pokemon fan since I was a child so! I definitely was there before the explosion when pokemon go came out and kinda brought it back into the main stream. I remember being in school and hardly any of the other kids knowing or caring about it haha. Now it's everywhere again and it's great! I'm so happy it's popular again.

And I guess Minecraft? I was into it back in 2012. I thought it was popular back then too though? At least, I remember it being a big deal then so I'm not sure if people just mean before it got MORE popular or?

Also owls in general. Loved them as a kid because of my favorite books (Guardians of Ga'Hoole) but there really wasnt much owl things (plushies, ect) out there to buy. They seem to be in style now though and I'm not complaining C:

Mayyybeee vinesauce? I don't know when the explosion really happened but I started watching vinny's stream vods/the cuts on the main channel on youtube back in like 2011/2012 and I feel like he wasn't so well known back then. Same with Jabroni Mike. I think I started watching him in 2017 and I've been hooked since. I was there when he went by m6000w still uwu

ohhh oh oh and animal crossing!! I've been playing animal crossing and been a huge fan since I was a kid and had a gamecube too. I remember one year for christmas my mom had to import a bunch of merch for me because it was all I wanted and you couldn't get anything in the US for it really. So absolutely there before the recent spike in popularity (which I feel happened with new leaf?)

nettyverse

Anime ig, i literally grew up watching animes since i was born cause my parents didn't know what kids liked watching, got bullied and isolated for it in middle school, and suddenly tiktok makes all the people who bullied me for it watch anime. 

LemonTeaRain

Fnaf definitely - been there since the beginning, I still remember the debates over Bonnie's gender, calling purple guy Vincent, foxy was just tryna save you and accidentally gave you a heart attack etc.

Animal crossing had my heart from a really young age, I was absolutely glued to it on my mom's 2DS and when I got my own 3DS I practically lived off perfecting my new leaf village :") nothing beats the old games. 

Lastly, Minecraft. I still remember the tragedy that was Minecraft pocket edition lite and how utterly enthralled I was with it. Plus Stampy cat, iballisticsquid, DanTDM, sky etc etc etc. Still love it. 


And I would say undertale, but I think I actually joined just when it was starting to peak since I found out about it through let's plays rather than playing it myself. 

MonaMegistus

Danganronpa and My melody and some other stuff which sadly all got ruined for me by tiktok

wonkypaws

this wasn’t me, but my younger brother watched dream right before he exploded

ORCus51

Cartomancy enjoyer since 2013 when it's still a niche and frowned upon thing in my place, but now everyone and their mama have at least one tarot deck in their cupboard and doing choose your pile reading is the hippest thing in town   

MaplesHaiku

I'd say Miraculous Ladybug, started watching it before Season 1 finished airing. Back then, the only major discourse was which side of the love square was better, and everyone thought Volpina would be a good guy. How far it's come...

paii

probably squishmallows, I got a big gift voucher and brought a huge squishmallow: now they're very hard to find - i got Gary The Giraffe btw (version without the float )

icedwolves

I got into a bunch of things before it spiked. Fnaf, undertale, steven universe, and probably more because I got into a few things as they were coming out