how much do you think Hussie is influenced by the fandom?

A lot actually.  The first 4 acts were fan suggestions via the mspaforums, Calliope and Caliborn are parodies of different types of fans, Trickster Mode wasn’t Hussie’s idea, and all the canon trickster designs minus John’s came from Wecansexy’s fanart, Lil Hal’s human form seen in the recent update was a popular design from the fandom, Caliborn’s OC was based off an old piece of fanart, several of the Beforan trolls are based off of fan archtypes, and so forth.  

Hussie knows exactly what kinda stuff is going down in the fandom.