Some fandoms need a support group. Offline. In reality.

Every major (and even a lot of minor) show and book and movie series has a fandom which usually consists of casual fans wanting to chat about their favourite episodes and characters, and usually, there’s a contingent that are obsessed with the show, the characters, the lore and the creators. They engage with the social media pages across the board to crosspost. They see so much that’s not even subtext so they can prove the creators always intended to make couples out of characters (usually same sex) and baited them into believing this will happen on screen before the show ends. Queerbaiting is a thing, I won’t deny it, but seeing it where it isn’t, or hoping for proper endings to compensate for disappointing ones, I’m sure it’s been happening since well before Firefly (whose fans allegedly got Serenity off the ground and now need groundswell support for the new cartoon). Apparently Sherlock had a similar reaction, same with Supernatural.

But the ones who fell in love with Stranger Things, the ConformityGate of it all, is asinine and actually concerning. These people need literal therapy outside of their Reddit forums or wherever they congregate to cope with the fact their favourite show ended so badly there has to be a compensatory episode being blocked by the service or the network or the show-runners sitting there and all they have to do is live online and keep talking about it every day and they will be rewarded for this rabid worship that matches the level of religious zealousness and cults of personality only seen in politics. It’s disconcerting. Conspiracy theorists can even argue amongst themselves over who’s right, they’ll rightfully discredit one theory but die on all the hills to defend theirs. It also seems to denote a lack of imagination. And, I’m sorry, fanfiction might seem “imaginative” but how can you say that if you borrow existing material? If they wanted fanfic writers to write for these shows, they’d be hiring them. The tragedy is they are making money off these people over rewarding original content provided you remove the existing IP material. We never should’ve done this. But they’re the same people who live online talking about their favourite thing every day.

I could’ve been sucked into a real life Anne Rice Vampire Chronicle cult online. I didn’t cross paths with these people, I didn’t actually look up a lot of stuff on the books online because I was looking for info on TV shows I’d never see again, specifically Eerie Indiana, or a cartoon show I didn’t know the name of. I didn’t attach myself to any fandoms until I found the Degrassi subreddit and just stuck to checking in on it and occasionally posting or commenting while avoiding contentious arguments. I would never be a mod of any chatbased forum. What these shows suffer from is overstaying warm welcomes that were made over a decade or more. But the fans still want more. Degrassi was actually robbed of a reboot, the teasing over there being another one from Drake was to make him look better now the public hates him.

Fans shouldn’t get what they want. If your show is being accused of coming off as fanfiction, that’s a scathing indictment not a compliment. Your fans don’t know what they want. Producers, writers and creators shouldn’t engage with fans online. Even Dan Harmon having “real” version people of his own characters and having Harmontown exisiting in tandem with Rick and Morty and Community, I cannot watch either of those shows and not “hear” Dan. To the point if you weren’t into those podcasts or online or engaged with Harmontown, I feel like you’re the ones missing out on some real deep cuts. But I can live without a Community movie, or a Firefly reboot. I don’t think we needed a Buffy reboot but I do want to know what happened, so I’ll watch the videos I see from content creators who are exposed to these rabid fandoms to the point of stupid death threats and meaningless comments about how wrong they are. 

Buffy fans are another breed too, I have lived with them, I have even masked my way through some of the interactions to appease their particular brand of fanaticism. I was a big Twin Peaks fan so we also watched that but I should’ve known all the production shit and trivia which I didn’t so I wasn’t a real fan. I never said I was a rabid fan of anything, I don’t want anything rebooted or remade. (I’d accept Never Ending Story provided it was done well). I was online in the early 2000s about the Last Unicorn movie Christopher Lee signed on to and was adamant about being involved in. It died in pre-production, there’s meant to be Fergie’s (of Black-Eyed Peas fame, not the dishonoured duchess) play of the version who is all behind it but again, these things just don’t come to fruition. Lord of the Rings was very much responsible for there even being a suggestion it should be a live action film. I disagree. Unless you can make a convincing CG unicorn that can blend into live action, I won’t condone it.

Fans need disappointment, they don’t need persistent rewards for dedication and the feral amount of passion they have for an IP. You also shouldn’t entertain literal delusions they possess. I know some are faking it for views, or they’re “just having fun”, but some aren’t. Some need genuine help, but I can see it being a reaction to actual reality genuinely being so shitty they’ll attach themselves to these things for some kind of lifesaver or security blanket. I did act like this as a teen but I grew out of it and now I can’t stomach talking to these people. Whenever someone laments the missing Degrassi reboot or they try to come up with decent pilots to resurrect the show with children of their OG series, I refrain from saying “Give it up, girl”.. I don’t want another Emma, we don’t need more Degrassi, I wasn’t hyped anyway. I’d rather they have emotional security and some grounding in reality than give them what they want. I’d rather they have financial security because a lot of these young adults aren’t in a stable economy so if making up crap about a show gets them money via TikTok, they’re not going to retract or retreat. I have to wonder if shit were more stable if these people wouldn’t be so attached to their conspiracy.