What makes certain Sup Forums related franchises and character(s) popular in the sense that they get a ton of fan art...

What makes certain Sup Forums related franchises and character(s) popular in the sense that they get a ton of fan art? There are plenty of 'popular' shows and franchises, but not all of them have the deluge of fan content that Homestuck or SU have. Is it just the product of such a large fan base or are there specific demographics that it needs to hit?

Bitches.

Everyone keeps coming up with retarded theories on how to catch lighting in a bottle, but the only thing these flavor of the year things have in common is they basically act like magnets to previously existing fanbases that are dying due to lack of content

The genealogy I can see is first it was Hetalia and invader zim fujoshis, then they latched onto homestuck, then when that went on hiatus hell they latched onto gravity falls, which went on hiatus hell too, and half of them went onto undertale while the other half latched onto steven universe, and now that undertale is basically over and steven universe got into its plot too little too late they're hopping onto villainous and voltron.

If you pay attention a lot of these obsessive fans are repeat offenders from previous fanbase of fujoshis and literally the only thing that has to be there is the vulture element. It's like following a herd migration.

Also forgot to mention that if you pay attention most of the memes and in jokes of any current fanbase are just mutations of old memes and I jokes from older fanbases.

This. Homestuck had great waifus.

>Invent OCs with common schemes/features
>Invent an entire race around said OCs with autistic details that could be filled out in a tabletop with sheets and cookie cutter information, specific sub-types and powers of said race and lot's of lore attached
>Show camaraderie dynamic between the OCs you created
>???
>Profit
It's that simple really.
Oh, and don't forget to set up the setting! Your Homeworld/Alternia/Equestria/Hogwarts should be expansive, interactive and attractive to explore for LORE and adventures as well.

Oh yeah!
Make your chars attractive primarily, and waifus especially so. Homestuck and Skullgirls did this pretty well.
But no one would be into Steven Universe if it was a crew of 5 fat male fucks like Steven.

This is how you make a particularly autistic fandom. You make it easy for people to make their OC's and imagine them doing things in canon. Rwby has this with its shitty cookie cutter donut steal teams. Homestuck has this with its trolls, and before that self-insert role-aspect combos.
Just basing your character's off of a standardized design with cookie cutter aspects will do it.

This isn't often mentioned, but it pays to be competent and talented in the aesthetics of your characters you design. If they all look like DA puke they won't get far, but they should also have an iconic/generic quality to them.

So it mostly depends on it coming at the right time?