“FUCK YOU, SHERLOCK! I THOUGHT YOU WERE FUCKING DEAD. I HAVE FINALLY MOVED ON AND YOU JUST SHOW UP LIKE IT’S NO BIG DEAL. YOU THINK I WANT TO RUN AROUND WITH THE THRILL OF THE CHASE IN MY VEINS, WELL GUESS WHAT ASSHOLE, that’s exactly what i want, let me just grab my coat.”
As I said yesterday about Sherlock, I’ve definitely observed that a lot of people think that the last book or the last season in a series is often… problematic. If you’ve been in enough fandoms, you’ll see this is a very common phenomenon. It’s also very common for people who’re particularly attached to a pairing or a character to feel ‘cheated’ and rant irrationally at the creators (unfortunately). As I said, this is just what fans and fandoms are *like*. I literally– literally!– cannot remember the last time a final season or book truly pleased most diehard fans, or there was a lack of wank at that point at least. Being a diehard fan means being unreasonable to some degree, and when you translate this to the way most people act on the Internet, it’s a matter of trolling waiting to happen. My point is that there’s certainly plenty of pure wank, and this is what people who’re frustrated with the discourse often focus on. As for me, I’m more concerned with the fact that most of the more thoughtful metas aren’t really… that much better, in terms of the depth or closeness of analysis being performed.
In general, I’ve been thinking that fans are often most frustrated when they feel that things didn’t change enough, so the writers actually kept going with their MO in ways they’d hoped *would* change, while adding new stuff they feel unprepared for. That type of rug pull or ‘gut punch moment’ Moffat said he likes so much is actually something many fans tend to hate, especially when they’re simultaneously confronted by the fact that many of the undesirable aspects of the style remained. This was a huge problem one could see with the overwhelmingly negative critical and fan response to the ‘transgressive’ approach Gatiss took with ‘The Final Problem’, as I’ve written about recently. Of course, this is also precisely what happened with Moffat and Gatiss’s clear, consistent interest in queer subtext (largely remaining just that). It *feels* like a bait and switch, leading to claims of the lack of character progress combined precariously with criticism of the apparent inconsistencies.
In the Raven Cycle fandom, I’ve noticed the more mature sounding, analytical drive-by critiques of ‘The Raven King’ saying that the characters didn’t grow enough, at least aside from Ronan and Adam. That is, the others’ arcs didn’t *resolve* enough. This is definitely a common refrain for the last book or season of a show, when people come into the story with a lot of preset expectations and projections onto the text. In the case of the last book in The Raven Cycle, it’s common to see people say that Noah in particular just disappeared, somehow. And this critique is always presented as being somehow more hard-hitting than pure squee about the books, a sign the person is thinking deeply and critically about the text. In fact, it’s generally a sign that they didn’t pay enough attention to the story.
Do many narratives actually go off the rails at the last minute? Sure, yeah. But it seems to me that if your critique is primarily that things about the characters didn’t change *enough*, or they changed in the *wrong way*, then that warrants a second look. It’s a sign there were certain expectations being applied, certain standards as to what sort of thing qualified as a ‘resolution’ as well as what *needed* an explicitly textual resolution to start with. And unlike these fans’ implicit assumptions, there’s no rules about what a writer would *have* to address explicitly in terms of characterization and what they can leave to be inferred or simply understood by connecting the dots of related events.
All the negativity in the Sherlock fandom has really gotten to me, and I think a lot of people can agree on this. For me it feels really difficult to find appropriative Sherlock related blogs that still love the show, so now I’m looking for kind Sherlock blogs to follow. If you’re one of them, please like or reblog this post so more people than I can surround theirself with a better Sherlock fandom atmosphere. Thank you!
(I’m not saying you can’t criticise the show but I just don’t want the hatred that’s circled around since s4 came out, thank you for understanding)
Alright, buckle the fuck up nerds, cuz I just saw a post about commenting on fic, and I AM FUCKING LIVID. The OP is making some great points about not being a shithead and condescendingly “correcting” a writer’s typos…and then some asshole jumps in and says that if fic writers don’t want corrections, they should “fucking proofread, otherwise, you’re giving your readers unfinished material,” and to that I say
Where do I even begin??? Maybe with the fact that this fucking fuck is so goddamn stupid that they didn’t realize the key word of their bullshit statement is GIVING. Fan writers GIVE fic to readers, with no compensation other than comments, kudos, and reblogs. That’s the fundamental nature of fandom (sidebar: this relates to my extreme anti stance on charging $ for fic, but that’s another post). We write fic because we enjoy it and we want to share it with others. But make no mistake – writing fic is FUCKING HARD and TIME CONSUMING, and posting fic creates a shitload of anxiety, because you never know what some dickbrained asshole might comment. Readers get to enjoy the fruits of this labor FOR FREE. IT IS A GIFT AND YOU SHOULD BE FUCKING GRATEFUL FOR IT, I DON’T CARE IF EVERY GODDAMNED WORD IS MISSPELLED, YOU SELFISH LITTLE FUCK.
And if you find that those typos, or any typo, makes it difficult for you to continue reading or enjoy the story, what should you do? STOP READING. Be on your merry fucking way to another fic that meets your typo-free standards. If you can’t find one, write something yourself. Maybe then you’ll realize how much work it is, maybe then you’ll realize that no matter how many times you read and re-read it, there will always be typos you won’t catch, maybe then you’ll understand what it feels like to work for weeks, months, years on a fic and then have some holier-than-thou, entitled fuckstick condescendingly explain to you the difference between your and you’re.
Shit like this is why writers leave fandoms. Shit like this is why writers stop sharing their fics. Shit like this is why writers stop writing.
And this goes for all “critiques” and “reviews” that are not explicitly requested by the writer. This fucking attitude of entitlement and criticism has to fucking stop or fandom is going to wither and die, and it will pieces of shit like you who will be responsible.
In conclusion,
all of this over fanfiction…? so dramatic lmao
Headline: Fan Stops Writing After She Receives Unacceptable Criticism; Fandoms Collapse: “Where are our fiction writers” Cry Fanart Artists. When Will People Realise That Their Opinions On Pieces of Fiction Affect Lives?
Yeah, believe it or not, the things people say and how they say them, especially in response to a piece of creative work that you’ve labored over, have actual effects. And yeah, fanfiction fucking matters to a lot of people for a lot of reasons.
With no due respect, fuck off.
so you’re not allowed to criticise public creative work because it might hurt someone’s feelings and that’s just terrible right
and to think that people DARED criticise 50 shades of grey for its dehumanisation of women without once thinking about the writer’s feelings, SHAME, SHAME.
also i get called an asshole for not validating fanfiction lmao, what a time to be alive
Yes, invalidating someone’s perfectly legitimate form of expression simply because you don’t like it or don’t understand why it matters to them, does in fact make you an asshole, as does your callous disregard for the feelings of others.
And if I actually have to explain to you the difference between rudely criticizing a fan writer’s work and critiquing a piece of corporate media, then you need far, far more education and critical thinking skills than I have the time or fucks to provide.
It is not a job. It is not school. It is not a contract. Participation in fandom is voluntary and it is not binding (commissions and paid work aside).
Yes, within fandom you should be bound by some sense of ethics or general decency: don’t steal art and fic, don’t willfully deceive people, don’t be a jerk or a garbage human, and so on and so forth. But everything else? The writing fic and the doing and the participation? It is voluntary.
So if you are writing a fic and you’re seven chapters in and you have eight chapters to go and you’re just tired and you don’t want to do it any more? You can stop. If you’ve been running a blog and writing about every single episode of every new anime show that’s come out and you can’t for three weeks? Don’t. If you told your 5 billion followers you were gonna post a piece of fanart and you’re just sick of it and you don’t want to do it any more? Give it up.
Sure, people will be disappointed and upset and some will complain. But life is disappointing and upsetting sometimes, and it goes on, and no one can sue you for not finishing a fic that they were enjoying the hell out of for free. No one can accuse you of not living up to the terms of your contract when you don’t post that fanart you mentioned three weeks ago. Because fandom is voluntary. It’s something that you participate in because it’s fun or fulfilling or important to you, and when it stops being those things, you should stop, too.
You are not bound by the asks in your inbox. You are not bound by comments on a fic or a piece of art. You are not bound, in fandom, by other people’s disappointments or their expectations.
Fandom is voluntary. Don’t let people pressure you into thinking that it is anything else.
I really need to let this message sink in.
The entire Sherlock fandom is sustained on the ridiculous belief that it’s perfectly normal to edit and reblog the same exact screencaps in hundreds of different ways
Ok so I am currently on a bus. It’s only me and a random dude on it and he seriously put on music and plays it out loud. Annoying af and not really something you do. What I just did in response – I’m in some mood rn – was to put on an explicit johnlock podfic just as loud. He instantly turned to look at me of course and you should see my smirk right now my friends XD
Yes! Also which podfic was it!
Honey read by consulting smartass 😉 so, explicit but in a soft beautiful way. Just what dude needs 😝
@consultingsmartarse is the honey coated sexy voice that defense the silence of the bus!
So happy to be of service…also, way to use the power of gay love and fandom to defeat your foe!
Sherlock Fandom Archive 