Dear Fandom, may I have a word?

[puppetmaker]

Come over here. That’s right. * Twap * What is wrong with you? Seriously!?!?

The past month or so I can’t swing a sehlat without hitting some group of fans upset about something and swearing to “do something about it” including “never watching again”. And the perpetual “they are ruining our show” is echoing a lot right now too. I think part of it is that the new fall season is about to start and people are antsy about things that they have discussed/fantasized about all summer.

Most recently were the promo photos that ABC pulled from the third season of Once Upon a Time. Yes, they were a little rough but I was enjoying them. The group shot looked like the group shot they did last year and the year before for the show but it is being compared to LOST. Guess what kids, the guys who are running this show are the same guys who did LOST but the comparisons really stop there other than some really solid character arcs and storytelling. And frankly I was revamping Mr. Gold’s costume to reflect what I was seeing in the photo which I can’t do now because the photos got pulled because of a vocal minority.

Then there are the pitch and pitchforks that are going after “Star Trek: Into Darkness”. To the point where the actors are coming in to defend the film that they enjoyed working on. It is not the worst Star Trek film of all time. I am not saying it is the best but woe betide you if you admit that you liked it because apparently then you are wrong about everything in the world. And then there are the Star Wars fans that are in a sheer panic because JJ Abrams has been handed the keys to that kingdom as well. Original Star Trek isn’t vanishing off the planet because of the new franchise nor will original Star Wars.

There is the kerfuffle about Mr. Affleck and Batman. Which I heard back in 1988 when it was announced that Michael Keaton was tapped to play the cape crusader. That film and his performance changed the superhero movie forever. Like your dark superhero films? Thank Tim Burton and Michael Keaton. Interestingly Mr. Nicholson’s performance as the Joker was never questioned at the time. But Heath Ledger was bashed right out of the gate and for many his became the definitive Joker. Yes, these changes aren’t all gems but I would plea for people to give it a chance.

Supernatural has been a fan whining magnet. They always seem to complain that the creators don’t understand the characters. They don’t give them what they want and if they do, then the complaints about “that’s not what I meant” or “no I didn’t want this” fall from the lips of the same people who were clamoring for the thing that they got. I have to say that the writers have been very clever in the way they have responded to the fans with some rather tongue in cheek. I think Chuck is one of my favorite characters in the city with Charlie a close second.

I am not going to even get into X-men Days of Future Past.

I am not saying that I have never rolled my eye or said ‘oh come on’ from an announcement/spoiler from a show. However I have never started a petition to get someone fired from their job or get a show to do what I want. I have never boycotted or asked other to boycott a show because I don’t like what they did.

Give the creators a chance to tell their stories. If fans want to tell theirs, they have options to do so. Just don’t get upset when something that you wrote gets used in a show or movie and try to sue the creators of the show for using your idea. They aren’t reading your fanfic, you just happen to be thinking along the same lines that they are and they are the ones that laid the pipework that brought you to your conclusion.

The noise of a minority is causing a majority to go silent because they don’t want that sort of vitriol directed at them. And I find that a sad state of fandom.

I am grateful for fans that are willing to give things a chance and allow other fans to have different opinions.

Comments

[scarlettina.livejournal.com]

Well said, Kath. (Though "Into Darkness"? Well, I'm saying silent on that one. :-) )

[wolfchylde.livejournal.com]

Your position is completely understandable...
However,
I hope you'll admit that M. Night Shyamalan should never be allowed to adapt another property again. What he did with Last Airbender was an affront to humanity as a whole... :D

[lynati-1.livejournal.com]

*Seconds this*

He was great at directing; I wish he'd stuck to that. -_-

...You know, I try not to be one of the reactionary fans, and to give what I think of as unusual choices for casting or story direction a chance, but I honestly think I *would* sign a petition to NOT have him involved in another Last Airbender project. As long as that petition was not written in All-Caps or other rage-y language.

If you don't like a way a show is going, then stop watching it. Find or write the version you'd like to have seen happen if it bothers you that much. (You won't be alone in this, I assure you.) But trying to claim a show creator doesn't understand their own characters (if they are their own characters) because they chose to send them down a different path than you, a member of the audience, would have picked? That's some hubris right there. There's a difference between something not going how you wanted and something being a bad choice or poorly written. Learn to recognize the difference, people. Tailor your criticisms appropriately. You'll find the resulting conversations much more rewarding.

That being said, there is a percentage of They Who Are Upset who I agree with / feel their Upset is indeed warranted...if not all the actions that their ire has moved them to.

[frank ney (from livejournal.com)]

And what Verhoven did to Starship Troopers earned him a burial at sea. A sea of urine.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

I'll agree with you on that one. I can only think that Mr. Verhoven so hated Mr. Heinlein's book that he deliberately perveted every part of it which he could.

[auroraceleste.livejournal.com]

I'd like to see your take on "Heroes of Cosplay is ruining cosplay!"

[readinggeek451]

Hey, I liked Star Trek Into Darkness better than I did the first one. Flaws, definitely, but not horrible ones. Of course, I'm hardly a rabid Star Trek fan.

[miintikwa.livejournal.com]

*standing ovation*

I'm looking forward to the new X-Men movie warily yet hopefully.

Kerfuffle

[arne starr (from livejournal.com)]

Love it! I tend to be on the targeted side more often then not. Liked Star Trek In Darkness (and the previous one, regardless of being in it)and have no problem with JJ playing in Star Wars Land. Love Once Upon and whereever they go with it, Supernatural too, and have no problem with Ben in the Batsuit, and you know what I liked Daredevil too. Back when I started doing conventions thanks to the Star Trek Comics I worked on, I immediately started promoting films and TV as I found that was a better secondary reason to get invited to cons. I found that first time out as I had stage time to kill and started to tell the just happened casting on Burton's Batman. And yes I had to convince the audience that Burton/Keaton could handle it just fine and it won't be the fiasco of the Batman TV show, something that may have become a guilty pleasure, but was still a different Batman from 15 years before (and Schumacher proved that was not a direction to strive for...twice). I have issues with all of them, but never to work against them, that's just foolish. Knew a couple of guys who were allowed to make their own panels at Star Trek cons because they worked for the promoter and what do they do, make a forum to take Enterprise off the air because of this technicality or the ship looked to good or other nonsense. The show had issues, but it DID get taken off early, not the usual 7 years, but in their 4th year, when it was already a given it would be the last, its new show runner Manny Coto gave us the best Trek pretty much since the classic series and answered every Trekkie question you could imagine, like why the Vulcans were acting a bit different from what we knew, why the classic Klingons didn't have bumpy heads, just where DID Kahn and his people come from, and more, and all answered satisfactorily, but lots of people had already been convinced to tune out and missed some good stuff. Having a panel AT a Star Trek convention to take Star Trek off the air....that's about as wrong as you can get, and you get to have your fan card taken away. Hit it on the nose Kath, but I guarantee you, the worst perpetrators, still won't get it...

[delle.livejournal.com]

People are complaining about Into Darkness?! Have they ever *SEEN* the original Star Trek movie? (including, I kid you not, a machine having an orgasm. Seriously)

I watched Into Darkness on the plane home from Dragon*Con. Was it a CLASSIC? No, probably not (too much convenient exposition, the magically!appearing!Long Coat and Tribbles Ex Machina <- courtesy of my friend grit kitty). But the worst thing ever? Hardly.

[alryssa.livejournal.com]

There's a profound difference between 'whining' and 'having very valid criticisms of the material', and people often want to mistake the latter for the former in order to dismiss very real concerns. So it goes both ways.

[xianghua.livejournal.com]

This.

I do think there's something to be said to wait and see what's going to be done with a weird casting choice and whatnot, but at the same time, there's some VERY valid criticism that's been made of all the media properties you mentioned.

[davidkevin.livejournal.com]

I confess I started laughing when I began to hear all the foofoorah about Ben Affleck, as I am old enough -- and actually have a memory -- to remember the identical foofoorah about Michael Keaton. I think that all the the foofoorahers are probably all so much younger than either of us that they were still wearing the Bat-Signal-on-the-chest onesies their fannish parents put on them, and simply don't know what was said Back When Dinosaurs Walked the Earth (24 years ago).

I remember my good friend Chuck Lavazzi (http://www.waxwingwebs.com/stageleft) saying at the time that The Joker was the role Jack Nicholson was born to play, yet his performance doesn't take away from Heath Ledger's, nor dose Ledger's take away from Nicholson's. Today's comics characters are as rich in history as any characters written by Shakespeare, and have as much room for every good actor's interpretation.

Personally, since J. J. Abrams has decided to not direct the next Trek reboot universe film, I think David Gerrold (http://www.gerrold.com) should do it. He understands both universes and would do an excellent job...but I won't be threatening to slit my wrists if someone else gets the assignment.

And "Days of Future Past" has been done on three different cartoon show versions of the X-Men since the Claremont/Byrne original publication in 1980, so I think we can survive a live-action retelling without All Fandom Being Plunged Into War. I just hope they won't leave out the Lois Lane/Jimmy Olsen and Joanie Caucus/Rick Redfern cameos this time....