We Failed Them

ravenmorganleigh:

constancecream:

sussexbound:

miadifferent:

isitandwonder:

kirkallalong:

welovethebeekeeper:

redpeacoat3:

consultingeastwind:

Steven, Mark, and Sue might even be bewildered at the extreme reaction they got for TFP

1. All time low ratings
2. Complaints filed at the BBC
3. Scathing backlash from reputable news sources
4. That other hellsite Twitter that they could not run away from like Tumblr
5. People actually applauding their elaborate farce of an episode as legit

When they were hoping that we would stay clever at the crucial moment

Or did we all abandon them like John did at the lab in TRF?

Maybe this only feels cruel because we expected it to be less clever, i. e., the resolution to every fucky thing, finally

We expected it to be less clever, aka explicit, a spoon-feeding of explanations

We gave more weight to this episode as “more official and legit” when it should have had the same weight as the other episodes

But if we look at this from the mindset that they are still mind-fucking us TAB style, the emotions would not run as high on our side, and will not be as bewildering on their end

They have been doing in S4 what they’ve been doing since TAB

It’s fandom’s reaction that’s different now, suddenly too angry and violent

Suddenly it became dangerous to hope, when we’ve been doing that for years just as they’ve been making this show clever for years

It’s suddenly a hostage situation where it’s “Stop this shit or I’ll kill myself” to the creators and “You’re responsible for people’s mental health so stop giving them hope” to fellow fans

Why did we allow TFP to give license to fellow fans to take our hope and logic hostage

Why did we allow TFP to give license to fellow fans to

suddenly lose their agency over their own lives

Why did we allow TFP to give license to fellow fans to decide that what we’ve been doing for years with the material is suddenly the irresponsible, dangerous, Stockholm Syndrome way to read the text

What we’ve been doing for years, putting together clues, is suddenly a moral failing now

How did we suddenly U-turn in our approach to this material

How is suddenly changing how we examine the text the “voice of reason” now

It was fandom expectation that suddenly made this episode – hell, this season – feel like a betrayal

We are the ones that suddenly refused to engage in the text-reader contract

We are in the perspective of the aggrieved party believing them to have failed us, when they have been consistently delivering what we wanted, a conspiracy that turns out to have been right all along

They teamed up with Amazon, Twitter, Russia’s Channel One, The Telegraph, and BBC News to make us even more engaged than ever

We are the ones who changed, who suddenly left in the middle of the story and blamed the story teller and called it a shit tale when it hasn’t even ended yet

We wanted to be spoon-fed for once and threw a tantrum that we were still treated as grown ups with agency and thought and willingness to feast

We are the ones who failed them, fellow fans, and the material itself

No. We did not fail them. Questioning your interpretation of a television show after being gaslit, big reveal or not, is perfectly healthy.

We are all handling this as we need to. Don’t judge. I have more faith in us than I do in the writers.

Please don’t say this. People were self harming in anguish. I spoke to a few on twitter, there were a few considering suicide. We can’t defend the effect TFP had on LGBTQ youth. If this was a stunt it was badly thought out and went spectacularly wrong. There has to be an accounting for this eventually. We did not fail them.

This is the EXACT rhetoric used against abuse victims. We are a community of queer women and trans people. WE did not fail them, they failed US, not just in TFP but countless other times.
These men do not deserve glory and praise for hurting us, for gaslighting us, for emotionally and mentally abusing us (that’s part of what gaslighting is).
We never deserved this. We don’t owe them a single thing.

Sorry @consultingeastwind. just consider for one moment that it wasn’t a marketing stunt but that they just fucked us. That they took the piss. I won’t defend people who make fun of my hopes or use them for some twisted marketing purposes.

Believe what you want but please stop telling others that criticising Mofftiss is failing them; that they are not real fans when they question what happened with TFP and the whole of S4. This is actually dangerous. We are not a cult, and if we are as smart as we always thought we were we simply can’t have blind trust in people who have proofen so far not to care about us regarding the fallout after TFP.

We haven’t failed them and we owe them nothing. On the contrary, we are entitled to voice our criticism. Because we are an intelligent, thinking fandom, not lemmings.

All of the above. This is not a cult. Critical thinking is not a sign of being a bad fan. And so far the creators did neither interact with us in regards of our criticism nor encourage us to take a closer look at the episode. We can’t fail them because they apparently don’t care about us.

Reblogging for the replies.  

Stop defending privileged cis men who don’t give a shit about you except for how much money you can put in their pockets.  Don’t put their over-inflated egos ahead of marginalised people’s desire for representation, and their very real and justified hurt and sense of betrayal.  Don’t blame the victims and defend the perpetrators.  Just don’t do it.  

Mark and Steve don’t need your support.  They’re laughing all the way to the bank.  Your community needs you right now.  Support them.

Stockholm Syndrome speaking…

Reblogging for the replies.