Roswell Fan Tidbits

As the years pass since Roswell went off the air, I find that more and more fans never saw the show when it was on TV, and they were not a part of the insanity that was the Roswell online community at that time. And I am not saying anything is wrong with that, but I thought it was sad that so many quirky and interesting tidbits about the Roswell fandom were being lost.

So here is a little place where I am going to post the fun, silly, strange stuff that Roswell fans did and created.









Shipper Wars

Even though we were all fans of the show, many of us were divided into different shipper and character fan groups. Some loved Max with Liz, some loved Michael with Maria, some loved the idea of Max with Tess, some loved Liz, some loved Isabel, etc, etc. And you might think we could all get along even with our shipper and character differences, but you would be wrong. :)

Back when Roswell was on, there were huge wars between different shipper groups, with lots of name calling, arguments, long open letters about why another group was wrong, and even threats. The mods of the Roswell 1 board had a hard time keeping up with the nasty posts.

These became known as the shipper wars.

***I am going to be referring to fan groups below, but understand that not every member of the fan group felt this way. I am only referring to the members of the groups who actively participated in the 'wars'.***


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Dreamers vs Candies

You might think the Dreamers (Max/Liz shippers) and Candies (Michael/Maria shippers) could get along because they were fans of different couples, but no.

There were fights about which couple was better, who loved who more, who was more destined to be together.

The Candies thought Max and Liz were too serious and boring, and Michael and Maria were fiery, passionate, more fun as a couple, and more realistic for kids that age.

Dreamers thought Michael and Maria didn't really love each other, that it was just a passing thing, hormones. The constant bickering wasn't love, it was their immaturity, and whatever they had would quickly burn out. Some even thought they weren't good for each other.

Of course neither opinion sat well with the other group, and lots of heated discussions occurred between the Candies and Dreamers.


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Dreamers vs Rebels & Hussies

Dreamers (Max/Liz shippers) hated Tess even before she came on the show. We'd had rumors that she was meant to a new love interest for Max, and of course we didn't like that.

And when we she was actually on the show it was even worse. She was a homewrecker, dressing in provocative outfits, outrageously flirting with Max, trying to seduce him even though she knew he was in a happy relationship.

Dreamers hated her, and called her all kinds of names, gerbil, slut, hussy, ho, snake, tramp, trash, and my favorite, EMHB (Evil Mindwarping Hose Beast or Evil Mindwarping Hell Beast)

Of course the Rebels (Max/Tess shippers) hated Liz. They thought she never really loved Max and was just a selfish bitch for holding on to Max, and keeping him away from his true love, Tess. (Yes, Rebels are delusional) They called her Lizbot and LIVCOS (Liz Is a Vast Chasm Of Suck) among other things.


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Dreamers vs Isabel Fans

In the third season, Isabel started to get a bigger story line and more screen time and Liz was getting less time. A lot of Dreamers assumed that this was because Jason and Katie were dating in real life, and he somehow made a deal to get her a bigger part.

I am really doubting this is true. All the actors were locked into contracts, and they really had nothing to negotiate with to get her a bigger part. And it is unlikely that the studio would let pretty much unknown actors dictate the direction of a show.

In any event, Dreamers and Shiri fans started to bash Katherine and Isabel, and in turn, Isabel fans started to bash Shiri and Liz. It got pretty ugly. Dreamers called Katherine names like KHo, Isaboob and Isabore, and of course Katherine fans retaliated.


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Dreamers vs Sean Fans

Dreamers started going after Sean when it looked like he and Liz might get together.


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Donors vs Isabel Fans

Donors (fans of Alex) had a love/hate relationship with Isabel. They mostly loved her when she was with Alex, but hated her when she wasn't. Some Donors just thought she wasn't good enough for him.


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Pixies vs Lollies & Candies

Pixies (Maria fans) had a love/hate relationship with Michael. They mostly loved him but they never thought he was good enough for Maria and often complained about how he treated her and how he could be a better boyfriend for her.

Pixies often clashed with Lollies (Michael fans) and Candies (Michael/Maria fans) over their opinions of Michael.


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Candies and Pixies vs Courtney Fans

Not a big surprise that Michael/Maria shippers and Maria fans were not thrilled about how close Michael and Courtney were getting. All kinds of colorful and unpleasant names were tossed around for Courtney, most popular were skank and homewrecker.


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Lollies & Candies vs Pixies

In season three it was the Candies and the Lollies who had reason to Maria-bash after she dumped Michael and started slutting around with Billy. They started referring to Maria as SHFKAM (Skanky ho formerly known as Maria)


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Dreamers & Journal Keepers vs Max Apologists

In season 2 when Max got together with Tess and started treating Liz so badly, the a lot of Max/Liz shippers and Liz fans thought he was a complete jerk and didn't deserve Liz anymore. They called him things like MIAA (Max is an Irredeemable Alien Ass), and my own term Maxhole.

Some Max fans or Max apologists as they became known as defended his actions, or blamed Tess or Liz for his behavior.


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CC vs UC and Slash Fans

Some Unconventional Couple and Slash fans started giving crap to Conventional Couple fans. The UC/slash fans thought the CC ships were boring and UC/slash ships added some new blood or spiced up the show. Some UC/slash fans even called the CC couples immature and unsophisticated, and said you had to be more grown up to appreciate UC/slash. I am not sure why this was a reason to start picking on the CC fans, perhaps the UC/slash fans thought they could 'convert' some of the CC people?

The CC fans didn't appreciate this, as you can imagine. The CC fans also objected to the stereotypical way some characters were portrayed in UC fanfic. For example, in more than a few Awakened Dreamer fics Max has become a huge jerk, mistreating Liz or cheating on her and that is why she turns to Zan.

Also UC/slash fans were upset that on fanfiction sites that had fanfiction awards, there was usually only one or two awards that a UC/slash fanfiction could even win, and usually there were dozens of awards that CC fics could win.

Some people were very vocal, demanding more awards for UC fics, but UC fics were never equally represented in fansite awards mainly because they weren't as popular as CC fics, and there were a lot fewer UC fics.

At Roswell Heaven, we created an equal number of CC and UC/slash awards, but that didn't really work either. Even though we have awards available, we get very few if any nominations for them. So if you don't like the system, you do have to continue to work for it. Just complaining doesn't cut it. Submit nominations every time there are awards, to make sure the stories that deserve it are nominated. It doesn't just happen by magic. :)


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Canon vs AU w/o Aliens Fans

A lot of fan sites hosted fanfiction and had fanfiction awards that they gave out to the authors. For some reason a lot of the most popular Roswell fics are set in an alternate universe where there are no aliens, and the vast majority of awards would go to those fics. A lot of people thought this was wrong, and that the awards should be given to fics that followed the Roswell canon as it was presented in the show.

I remember people throwing all kinds of fits because AU fics won all the awards, and people stopped posting or submitting to some sites because of it. Some people left the fandom entirely over it.



On a side note, fans often complained that awards on a lot sites didn't really reward the best fanfics but instead they were just a big popularity contest. It did often seem that excellent fanfictions were being overlooked for awards, and that the same writers were being nominated and winning again and again. Some authors, it seemed, could sneeze on the screen and it would win. The 'popular' people on the site would nominate their friend's fics, who were other 'popular' people, and even if 'unpopular' fanfics were nominated, they really didn't stand a chance of winning.

I remember a few cases when I thought certain fics were so excellent that they would be a shoe-in to win, only to see the same 'popular' authors win for what I thought were mediocre stories.

I am just guessing, but I often thought it likely that fans probably don't read all the fics that are nominated in a cagtegory, and probably just vote for the one they read, or the author they have heard of.

So how do you change how people nominate or vote to make it more fair? I don't know if there is a solution. Some sites required people to write out their nominations instead of just putting 'Ditto' to the post above. They hoped it would make people put a bit of thought into their noms. Some sites would have their admins or mods nominate the stories, so a greater cross-section were represented. Did these work? I have no idea.








Max the Chipmunk?

Did you know that there was a Roswell fanfic series that was a Crossover with Alvin and the Chipmunks?

Yup! Roswell, Meet the Chipettes! an Alvin and the Chipmunks/Roswell crossover, where our Roswellians ARE the singing rodents.








Roswell Elementary

A popular early series of fanfic by Kara and Emily followed our Roswellians in elementary school. There were over 100 short stories in the series. They mainly featured little Maria and Michael who teasingly called each other Cheesehead and Dorkbutt, but had stories covering all of the six main characters (Max, Liz, Micheal, Maria, Alex and Isabel) and introduced a new character, Mr. Raddish, their teacher.

They were sweet stories about the kids before we met them, showing some early interaction between the CC couples, and the start of friendships.

Unfortunately the site where they were hosted, Roswell Underground, is gone. Roswell Heaven has made several attempts to convince the authors to allow us to repost the series, but they have been adamant that they do not want the series available. They say that Roswell is no longer a part of their lives. (So I guess that means they don't want their series to be a part of anyone else's lives.)

Fortunately for us, the Wayback Machine saved all of the content of their site before it went down, and you can read the Roswell Elementary series in its entirety. You can find it on my Links page.








Roswell Elements

Roswell Elements was clique where you took an element of Roswell and placed a banner for it on your website. The 5 elements were romance, sci-fi, drama, action, and comedy, and respresented the different parts of Roswell.

Here is the only one I saved.








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