I want to do more this year than just recommend fanfiction worth reading in different fandoms and after giving it much thought I decided it might be interesting to take a dive into different fandoms and see the kind of yaoi fanfiction I can find within and see what are the common tropes and themes explored within that fandom. At first I was actually going to start with a fandom I have been quietly a part of for many years with the Invader Zim fandom because there are a lot of interesting overarching themes shared and explored within that fandom, but as you can see this is not a post about Invader Zim, but I will get that fandom don’t you worry.
Like many a heavy fanfic reader in the new year I hit a stagnation within many of the fandoms I follow fanfiction for. If you read fanfiction you will know the feeling of your favourite current read coming to an end or being on hiatus during the holiday period. I had nothing new within my usual fandoms to read. So I was just pushed the watch something random option on Netflix and the show that came on was something I had not watched for a few years that I have always loved, that show of course being Tintin a cartoon series that I am referring to in this case is the short run 90’s adaptation of the series that which only ran for one year originally all the way back in 1992-1993 but had countless re runs on television throughout my childhood and the cartoon series itself is based on a series of European comics that were first published back in 1929. Knowing this it can be easily guessed then that many of the young reporters adventures take place in the early 20th centaury which explains a lot of the themes that are explored within the fanfiction for this series, but I am getting ahead of myself there so let’s just put a pin in the series time period for now.
As I sat there watching the show I found myself wondering if there is any good fanfiction out there for this show as well as what would be the most popular ship? Would be Tintin and one or both the twin detectives? Or perhaps it was the more obvious choice of Haddock and Tintin? I even had the thought, I bet someone, somewhere has even written something involving his dog, I mean it has happened in so many other fandoms, I have seen things in some fandoms I really wish I had never seen. So my dive into Tintin fanfiction began and luckily I did not come across anything involving Snowy.
I have seen things in fanfic communities my readers that I wish I had never read over the years, and the old saying read the tags before reading the fic is a valid warning in any fandom.
Two things became obvious as I dived into this fandom. One the most popular ship was that of Tintin and Captain Haddock and two one of the big themes explored within many of the fanfics was internalized homophobia, self hate for homosexual thought and an exploration of homophobia during the time period in which Tintin is set. Taking place in the first half of the 20th century this is a time in history when homosexuality was not approved of and a lot of the fanfics I found explored themes of what that can do mentally to a person. To have to suppress who they really are to fit into society, something that many people within the LGBTQ+ community still have to deal with today.
Fanfiction like In the Closet by Delphi are short and sweet tales of sexual awakening for the young Tintin and follow a happier tone in the story by the end as well as exploring the theme of Tintin being what is referred to in the gay community as a cub who loves bears.
I know You Love Me by Mass_Effecting_Your_Pants explores what many would consider an over used cliché in fiction, the amnesia story but anyone familiar with Tintin will know that he is a young reporter with a tendency to get hit in the head and knocked unconscious quite often.
One last fanfiction I want to mention before ending this post is for a different ship of the series, that being of Tintin and his friend Chang. Both men share a strong friendship that grows throughout the series, from their first meeting in The Blue Lotus to one of the most emotional stories in the series Tintin in Tibet. The fic is titled A Bullet by Yeahyouwish and it explores the themes of social expectations and views of homosexuality during the time period in which the Tintin stories take place, as well as sexual exploration for both characters and is by far one of the best fanfictions I have found within this fandom.
I know this post has been very different from my usual posts about fanfiction, but as I have written in the past I am of the strong belief that the fanfiction writing and reading community is just as much a part of the yaoi and boys fandom as well as the publication of doujinshi works, fanart and of course manga, light novels, anime and video games. Plus I don’t know about many of you my readers by my own yaoi journey began decades ago within the web pages of fanfiction sites, till next time my fellow yaoi fans I am your Mistress of Yaoi.
Yaoi Playground 
hey tintin is sexy
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