i like things. these are things i like.

softlena:

if i wasn’t gay before

hedaclara:

lordhellebore:

justanotheridijiton:

[thread]

[2015 essay]

THIS. Exactly this. I’ve been thinking this ever since I joined tumblr and was made aware of the depth of rage people fly in when they don’t get what they want in a movie/tv franchise. It’s obsessing over nonexistant slights against you personally, when nothing could be further from the truth. But you can’t see it because you’ve made this thing, this story, such an integral part of yourself, of your identity, that you feel disrespected, insulted, hurt, and threatened personally when it doesn’t develop the way you want it to. If you make a story, a product of the entertainment industry, to be such an important part of yourself, then the moment it’s not perfectly how you want it, or even is not at all like you’d wanted/imagined it, you will feel mistreated by the writers and actors. They mistreated the story, they mistreated a part of you. And you lash out against that, as we all lash out against mistreatment of ourselves.

I’m btw. not at all saying we shouldn’t identify with characters and stories. Of course we do, literary theory has been acknowledging that for forever. I do it all the time and yes, I get annoyed too when the stories I identify with go differently from what I’d like, and I definitely have my moments of “Okay, the writers don’t understand this character AT ALL and what they did there is WRONG.” 

Thing is: Their writing might be inconsistent, it might be against what the psychology for a character like the one I’m feeling they got wrong should be in RL … but it’s not RL, it’s fiction - possibly even fantasy/sci-fic - and just because I project my feelings and reasoning onto the character, doesn’t mean I own them or am owed a storyline that will satisfy me.

It’s good to identify with stories and characters, it can be helpful, it can teach us things, or we can simply enjoy it. The purpose of literature wasn’t defined for a long time as prodesse et delectare* (to instruct and to delight) for no reason. But there is a “too much”, there is a line that you cross and then you’re in unhealthy territory where in the end, it’s you who is harming yourself. Not the people who tell the stories, but you, who claim them as so integral a part of yourself that you can’t bear it when they’re told in a way that is different from what you want.

—
* Aut prodesse volunt, aut delectare Poetae / Aut simul et jucunda et idonea dicere vitae. =  Poets aim either to benefit, or to amuse / or to utter words at once both pleasing and helpful to life. (Horace) 

This is what I’ve been talking about for years. Fandom has ruined media in several ways.

1. Entitlement
2. Blurring of lines between the fans and the creators
3. THE FUCKING ENTITLEMENT

Yes, you are devoting your time and/or money to a show or a film but you are doing so voluntarily. It’s amazing that you enjoy the things that creators spend hours or years of their lives making. It’s fantastic and encouraging for us as filmmakers/writers/producers/directors that you become passionate about them but at no point should that supersede logic.

Creators don’t owe you anything.

Not a damn thing. Whether it be a ship becoming canon, a character following a certain arc, or plot going a certain way. You are the audience. Period. Final stop. You don’t have a right to input in the creative process but for some reason fans these days seem to believe their personal opinions, wants, and feelings are the be all, end all of any piece of media ever produced. You are wrong.