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Vox: When fandom bemes a crusade, things get ugly
- Thread starter Squire
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WrenchNinja
Member
it is kind of sad that the only thing people wanted to talk about with the series finale was some handholding.
Risible
Member
Wow, perfect illustration of the OP. Someone posted that he suffered from death threats and your response was basically "well, it DID suck..."
Just out of curiosity, do you know what Oreimo's about? And how it ended?
Because...yeah, you should go look it up.
Wheeljack539
Member
Shipping was well underway during the character reveal trailers so after.
I'm sure they'd be fine just being consumers but they get added pleasure from all the other stuff. Everybody wants more and will take more if given.
There are degrees here, which is what the article is all about.
I think that's the thing that bugs me about a lot of fan work. Hardcore fandom is supposed to know who these people are but so often they'll ignore that to shoehorn them into whatever story they want to see.
...there are times where I am happy to be so oblivious. I was just going "yaaaaaaaay, more Monty Oum stuff!"
There's a difference between rooting for two characters to get together and feeling personally betrayed by the creator when they don't. I'm guessing everyone does the first to some degree, even if they aren't consciously identifying with "mai waifu." But I'm trying to figure out how self-absorbed/maladjusted you need to be to demand that someone else's creation cater to your fantasy life.
Alligatorjandro
Banned
How does one ship?
WrenchNinja
Member
ElBoxyBrown
Banned
Shippers want Zoro and Perona to be a thing. I can't look at that community under a positive light.
Slott would just block you. lol
Wheeljack539
Member
It was actually pretty funny when the series actually started up and some in the fandom actually raged that Weiss's personality wasn't what they thought/assumed it would be after her trailer.
UncleSporky
Member
Y'know I think all successful series with this kind of shipping for them...they're probably more successful when they don't let the characters get together. I mean all the biggest ones are like that.
If they get together mid-series it's like, yay the fantasy became reality, they're so perfect for each other...but then the series has to keep going and the idea of them together becomes mundane and they continue to face challenges and zany hijinks.
I'm specifically thinking about the Office (US) when Jim and Pam finally got together and destroyed all the tension and the show slowly petered out over a long period of time afterward.
I wanted her to kill kuvira
Fandom has changed with social media.
Shipping has been been around for ages. When I was young and in fandom, the thought of even hinting to creators that fandom existed was tantamount to a crime. I remember a huge kerfuffle that happened because someone at a con handed a creator a print out of their favorite fan fic. Fandom was PISSED.
Now, for some fucking reason, fans have decided that shipping isn't just for fun, it's for results: getting the couple to actually become canon. It's insane. I'm a shipper, I enjoy writing and reading fanfic of couples I think have great chemistry that aren't canon couples (though the story matters more to me than the ship), but this new, bizarre entitled behavior from some shippers is very upsetting to me.
I mean, there are people that constantly harass actors over this crap, as if they have any control over it. In the Supernatural fandom, there's a contingent of fans who actually believe the two male leads are secretly in love, that their wives are beards, and that the studio is preventing them from being open about their relationship. These J2 fans, as they call themselves, have gone so far as to send death threats to Misha Collins, another star on the show, because a lot of people ship his character with one of the male leads' character.
Yep, they sent death threats to an actor because other people thought Destiel was cool. What the entire fuck is wrong with people like that?
But, this type of behavior is still, thankfully, a small but vocal minority of fandom. Hopefully reality will set in and these people will stop giving fandom and fan creators a bad name.
/resident fanthroplogist
Shipping has been been around for ages. When I was young and in fandom, the thought of even hinting to creators that fandom existed was tantamount to a crime. I remember a huge kerfuffle that happened because someone at a con handed a creator a print out of their favorite fan fic. Fandom was PISSED.
Now, for some fucking reason, fans have decided that shipping isn't just for fun, it's for results: getting the couple to actually become canon. It's insane. I'm a shipper, I enjoy writing and reading fanfic of couples I think have great chemistry that aren't canon couples (though the story matters more to me than the ship), but this new, bizarre entitled behavior from some shippers is very upsetting to me.
I mean, there are people that constantly harass actors over this crap, as if they have any control over it. In the Supernatural fandom, there's a contingent of fans who actually believe the two male leads are secretly in love, that their wives are beards, and that the studio is preventing them from being open about their relationship. These J2 fans, as they call themselves, have gone so far as to send death threats to Misha Collins, another star on the show, because a lot of people ship his character with one of the male leads' character.
Yep, they sent death threats to an actor because other people thought Destiel was cool. What the entire fuck is wrong with people like that?
But, this type of behavior is still, thankfully, a small but vocal minority of fandom. Hopefully reality will set in and these people will stop giving fandom and fan creators a bad name.
/resident fanthroplogist
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
Did this really happen?
lightskintwin
Banned
LOL My bad. I'm reading more about it and realized I shouldn't generalize the concept of shipping and the fans that participate as weird.
They even invited some of these fans to the shooting of the finale. buuuuutt....
One of the two in the pairing had been killed off and was showing up in what was effectively a dream sequence
And of course, they didn't bother to mention this because it'd be a spoiler, leading to hordes of angry fans.
slightconfuse
Banned
Not everyone needs to be together. I agree fans can get crazy with idea they made up and try to wil in to existence
Hyperactivity
Banned
after
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
Damn.
TangerineCloud
Banned
Did it though? The writing in Korra wasn't particularly good to begin with, and the earlier seasons were much more overt in their pandering to shippers. I love the show, but there really wasn't much that could be "ruined" lol.
Wheeljack539
Member
I remember when Stargate SG1 poked fun at it in 200 with the 'dream' wedding between O'Neill and Carter and just before Carter appearing Daniel (who was standing alongside Jack) muttering if that if this didn't get started soon people would think that they were the ones tying the knot.
EdibleExplosives
Member
Also,
the fans they lead on were lgbt ones which is even worse due to the lack of gay couples on screen.
Especially when you factor in that the gay character got killed in an incredibly cliche way that has happened in multiple tv shows to gay characters.
Especially when you factor in that the gay character got killed in an incredibly cliche way that has happened in multiple tv shows to gay characters.
Trying to be somewhat vague due to spoilers, but I'd imagine anyone online that's a fan of the show already knows due to the huge backlash.
Edit: Actually, spoiler tagged just in case.
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
That sounds like they didn't stick the landing.
After the ending of S2, they shoehorned in a romance plot which made zero sense in context of the plot, instead of allowing it to be a "ships passing in the night" situation where the tragedy is that they were never able to try in the first place due to duty/politics/etc.
It seems to me that there is a huge disconnect in fandom, mostly divided on the line of male fans and female fans.
Male fans tend to be curative: They make databases, lists, collect things, memorize triva and stats..etc
Female fans tend to be creative: They write fanfiction, make music videos, fantart, etc.
A lot men just don't get shipping, and I believe it's because of that divide. Romance is more important to a story for a lot of women, and with women being more creative fans, of course shipping is going to happen. I for instance would much rather write fanfiction than create a wiki for a fandom. Gathering details and stats seems more pointless to me, while shipping seems pointless to a lot of men.
Ship for fun, don't seriously get invested in a pairing that has 0 chance of taking off. Use some common sense (if it's anime, chances are your gay ship won't sail)
That's how I stay sane.
lmao
2 seconds of hand holding didn't "ruin" anything.
That's how I stay sane.
lmao
2 seconds of hand holding didn't "ruin" anything.
Wheeljack539
Member
I don't quite agree with this nowadays. Ten years ago I would have said yes but nowadays I would say both sides are damn near deep within it. At least in the fanfiction side.
AtomskEater
Member
I enjoy shipping, and although I'm usually a fan of less popular/common pairings it's all cool. I remember when it all felt so simple, and it was just a bunch of nerds sharing fanfiction or art and trading theories on dumb high school AU settings and headcanon and such.
Actually haven't really gotten into the fandom side of things in a few years. Homestuck was the last, and boy was that fucking crazy. Most people are great, but there are always those who take shit too far.
Actually haven't really gotten into the fandom side of things in a few years. Homestuck was the last, and boy was that fucking crazy. Most people are great, but there are always those who take shit too far.
D
Deleted member 80556
Unconfirmed Member
Hahaha, nope, it's probably one of the few reasons the finale was good.
I like shipping, but as you guys said, it's not like I'm going to do a hashtag campaign out of it. If it happens, it's fine. If not, I'm glad that the artist stands up to what he thinks the characters would do.
ShadowSwordmaster
Banned
The fact that there was a change in the plot sounds like they were focusing on a certain demographic then.
timetokill
Banned
I had a lot of discussions with my ex about this stuff. She was big into fandom and shipping, and I wasn't.
I don't know if separating by "creativity" makes sense. Male fans tend to do a lot of creative things but also tend to care deeply about what is "true" and canonical. A lot of these fans will do things like make reconstructions of Minas Tirith in Minecraft or in Legos. These are still creative endeavors! Similarly a lot of guys seem disinterested in doing "alternate" takes on characters. There are way more femLinks or femCaps than Wonder Man or manHarley or whatever. But they'll still do things like argue who would win in a fight between characters from different universes, which I guess is kind of like violence shipping, lol.
It's the CW. Over-catering to that demographic a few seasons in seems to be a trend there.
I might run in different circles when it comes to fanfiction, so I might not see as much male participation. Do video game fandoms and anime fandoms have more male fanfiction writers? I only get really into live action fandom, and in my 20 years in fandom, I've only met two male fanfiction writers.
Slash fandom I know is 99% middle aged straight women, though that might be changing as the average age for fanfiction writers is getting lower.
Oh yeah, I'm not saying male fandom doesn't have creativity, sorry >.< It's just easier to use those terms. A scale model of Minas Tirith is creative, but it's still very curative as well. I find it facinating really, how different men and women engage in fandom.
j_k_redtail
Member
This description is so perfect I want to steal it.
Wheeljack539
Member
In anime and sci fi circles males have generally dominated the writing game. The slash side of the fandom was at one time heavily female influenced with some small lesbian/yuri shipping rounding it out but the latter really grew over the last 10 years or so and the bulk of it is male writers unsurprisingly. Slash of either isn't my personal cup of tea but its been easy to see it grow in that timeframe (in that there has been frustration when certain pairings dominate a section - such as the aforementioned RWBY within the last few years).
There is 2 things that I don't understand when this topic appears :
1- The fact that this is something NEW
2- This is some Tumblr thing
Nerd fandom as we KNOW begun with Spocknalia, a 1972 fanzine SHIPPING KIRK AND SPOCK !
The Original series of star trek only got further seasons because of letters from fans !
Characters are changed and killed because of public reaction ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
You probably heard even stand up comedians saying that Peach is not kidnapped but actually goes to date Bowser these days !
The idea of the Pirates of the Caribean franchise is basically fan wishing for Jack Sparrow to become the main focus !
People COMPLAIN when the dude and the girl don't kiss at the end !
The term "jump the shark" was created BECAUSE the audience hated the moment the CREATORS choose to make a character do something stupid. This means that the audience had EXPECTATIONS of what that characters was.
It is not considered bad when fanservice comes from japan =P
Supernatural episode to the fans is considered one of the best ones in the series
And it is funny to start with Sherlock because of that season 3 first episode had ... well .. an
showing that the creators KNOW what happens in the fandom =P
1- The fact that this is something NEW
2- This is some Tumblr thing
Nerd fandom as we KNOW begun with Spocknalia, a 1972 fanzine SHIPPING KIRK AND SPOCK !
The Original series of star trek only got further seasons because of letters from fans !
Characters are changed and killed because of public reaction ALL THE FUCKING TIME.
You probably heard even stand up comedians saying that Peach is not kidnapped but actually goes to date Bowser these days !
The idea of the Pirates of the Caribean franchise is basically fan wishing for Jack Sparrow to become the main focus !
People COMPLAIN when the dude and the girl don't kiss at the end !
The term "jump the shark" was created BECAUSE the audience hated the moment the CREATORS choose to make a character do something stupid. This means that the audience had EXPECTATIONS of what that characters was.
It is not considered bad when fanservice comes from japan =P
Supernatural episode to the fans is considered one of the best ones in the series
And it is funny to start with Sherlock because of that season 3 first episode had ... well .. an
actual scene with Sherlock kissing Moriarty
It's very interesting how anime brings out the writers in male fandom, but like The Walking Dead, also with a huge male fanbase, doesn't have a ton of male written fanfic. I wonder what makes these deviations happen.
I also find it interesting that male written slash is on the rise in anime fandom. Is it just femslash or is it m/m as well?
The difference from the "link Must be a girl in the next Zelda" and the "Zelda formula is stale and needs to change" is that one person likes one and other person likes the other. Is that the devs heard one and not the other. Is that some sites you like said one and not the other
edit : like how this article is weirdly focusing on LGBT pairings ....
thetrin
Hail, peons, for I have come as ambassador from the great and bountiful Blueberry Butt Explosion
I'm a writer myself (by trade), and I enjoy writing using someone else's world. The relationship part is the least interesting part, and often takes away from plot, which is far more interesting. I have no interest in making databases either.
Shipping just completely ignores the best parts of a story in favor of "who wants to bang who", quite literally the most banal question one could want to answer.
Now, fan plot theories are great stuff. Trying to guess where the story is going is far more interesting.
Wheeljack539
Member
Majorly femmeslash, or shoujo ai/yuri as the fandom calls it. The majority of it though naturally is because "it's hot" though a lot is for the same reasons for shipping to begin with. It wasn't until 2006-2007 that I really noticed it rising as like I mentioned it had existed prior but not in any great numbers.
There's also that some series lean heavily towards one gender, such as sports anime or idol anime (idol is more or less singing individuals or a group, heavily leaning female with series such as The iDOLDM@STER or Love Live) which is another reason for slashshipping. Original Character stories, particularly for romance, are generally frowned upon due to a number of cases being seen as a self insertion (though good ones do exist) and thus wish fulfillment. And if a writer wants to do romance story but not involve someone they made up they can and simply turn to one of the other characters (unless its a crossover as they likely will have more to work with).
Slash fanfiction is probably the most popular shipping community in these fandoms. You can read the Zine's that first introduced "shipping" in the 70's above me which started out with homoerotic ships.
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