"What I love about fandom is that you're getting to enjoy things with a group of people. And that often means you're all sharing headcanons about characters, theorizing about worldbuilding, analyzing themes that pop up in stories, making silly jokes together, and more. Because of that, I get to learn about so many different perspectives on whatever I'm watching, reading, etc. Everyone sees things through their own lens, influenced by their own lives. Something I might not think anything about may hit different for someone else. And when they share their perspective, I get to consider things in a different way than before." Indeed!

I hadn't thought of it before, but now that you've mentioned it, it makes so much sense. Not all my fandom buddies enjoy discussing lore with me cause I get in my writer mode pretty quickly, trying to understand the nuts and bolts whilst some just want to talk casually, but those who do! Those who so! I exchange lots of knowledge with them, indeed. Another reason to be grateful for them, ah. Oh, I love my loves.

Plus, how cool it is to find out there's a podcast out there with this theme! I wish my fandoms had one, too, or even a text based blog, but, alas!, all of them are dead. (I do plan on doing something similar on my own journal, one day, but it's gonna take... a while.)