a bit nerdy but ill have to say phantom of the opera
this was the first interest i actually Remember being emotionally invested in and it made me realize i was autistic No this is not a joke i actually realized iw as autistic because of a BROADWAY MUSICAL and a book
for a while i forgot about it then when my friend got into it and pulled me back into it it made me realize how important it was to me and how much it affected how i act and portray myself , i know im The Castlevania Guy and castlevania is one of my most important special interests i cant deny how much the phantom of the opera literally changed me for the better and made me so much happier
i watched the musical in 6th grade in drama class and it helped me get through the school year and have more fun with my friends because we could all bond by singing all the songs , and id look further into poto and the books and tell them about it I LOEVPHANTOM OF THEMOERPA

final fantasy xiv, i can say 100% whole heartedly it is one if not the best community i've been in and i'm sure a lot of people feel that way too. everyone is so nice and there's always a group for any and all aspects of the game such as the story, raiding, etc and it's just so nice. overall the story has a lot of importance in my life and genuinely helped me see things through a better light and it's something that i'll always remember , and helped me meet my current free company who are just the best to be around i'm just overall very grateful for the story and the community and it really helped me THIS IS SO CORNY but like i love it so much

harry potter, very specifically the marauders era fandom and even MORE specifically, the hunger games au zar wrote, crimson rivers!

getting into the marauders fandom was genuinely like. amazing because its sooooo much nicer than the regular harry potter fandom LMAOOO i think its because jkr barely touched on the students prior to the golden trio era, so no one can be like "erm ACTUALLY jkr said this..... so your hc is INVALIDDDDDD"
like. regulus is mentioned less than five times in the book 😭😭 plus the fandom SEEMS huge once youre in it but whenever you stop and think about it, its such a small fandom bc not many people who read the books or watch the movies care about harrys parents time at hogwarts or sirius before he got locked up and a lot end up forgetting about regulus too LMAOO the fandom is amazing too bc like. its 50+ people who all agree on MOSTLY the same hcs for all of these characters!! like did jkr write james potter to be a cis nt white man? yes she did! but the marauders fandom rarely EVER writes/hcs james as a white man LMFAOOO its more common for him to just. not even be described in any super specific way so its up to the reader to imagine him however! the two most popular hcs for james is that hes either desi or latino!
this fandom has just had a HUGE impact on my life because not only did it provide me with a distraction when things were really tough, i just love how its a fandom full of people that share (mostly) the same hcs as me !! also, regulus is so ME like please we're doing backflips in each others bloodstreams.

most of the people in the fandom are normal and dont ship things like harry x voldemort, hermione x snape, harry x snape, draco x snape, or any of the other massively weird ships the regular harry potter freaks ship. we have NORMAL things like wolfstar, jegulus, dorlene, jegulily, marylily, nobleflower, rosekiller, and sooooo many others! its just a really nice and diverse fandom and i think its wonderful that theres this little sub fandom that feels like a giant fuck you to jkr LMAOOO nobody in this fandom hcs ANYONE the way jkr tried to portray them

tldr; the marauders era fandom :33