One has only to look in the general direction of the
Supernatural fandom to see the glowing embers of the infamous “ship wars”,
something to do with Destiel, Castiel… hmmm. Sadly, I haven’t watched
Supernatural, so I don’t fully get it, but what I DO get is the utter vitriol
which fans of the show heaved at each other online and occasionally in person. If Twitter tracked blocking, I’m sure it
reached its peak (prior to this campaign season) during the last couple of seasons
or so of Supernatural.
I would have found this amazing, but for the experience of
the Sleepy Hollow fandom AND show. Prior to the advent of social media, if you
had a strong opinion about what was happening with the plot of a show, or its
imminent cancellation, you’d fire off a VERY STRONGLY WORDED letter telling the
network just what you thought. Perhaps more than one of you might do this. Well, now that we have Facebook and Twitter
(primarily) hordes of fans can virtually gather at the gates of the
network.
Season 1 of Sleepy Hollow was
very special – a truly quirky show with amazing rapport between the two stars.
Well, you know where rapport gets you.
As the season progressed and, well, Ichabbie didn’t… slowly flames began
to erupt, gathering intensity by the end of the season. The joy of a second season quickly soured for
many fans, who HATED Ichabod’s wife (even though from their perspective,
somewhere between zero and two years had elapsed in their marriage). They
wanted “Icky” to instantly drop Kat and became vehement in demanding her death
and expunging from the show. The introduction of a love interest for Abbie and
the rekindling of the marriage of IchKat infuriated fans – who were extremely
vocal to the showpeeps on social media (and everywhere else). This appears to
have literally altered the trajectory of the planned story arc, perhaps to the
detriment of the show (worse, what fans wanted never actually came about…). But, it’s an object lesson that shows do pay
attention to what fans say.
So, flash forward to Season 2 of 12 Monkeys. For those of us
avid folks who sucked every drop of this show dry and who bellowed at the
screen at the end of the last episode of Season 1, because there was no kiss
between the two main protagonists…there was a danger of becoming that pitchfork
mob. But, surprisingly, THAT wasn’t what has caused a schism in the
audience.
What really has caused a schism is character arcs. And, how
passionately fans become attached to their favorite characters. And, how those
passionate fans respond to criticism of those characters.
It will surprise no one who pays attention to my 12 Monkeys
tweets that I am a dedicated fan of Cole. In fact, I wrote a Tumblr response
regarding whose life was more wretched, Cassie’s or Cole’s. It turns out, amazingly, that people are
quite defensive and protective of their favorite character!! (I know, what a
shock).
So, I found that I was (and continue to be) very aggravated
when people complained that Cole “destroyed Cassie’s life.” But, what has really torn up the fandom
(leading to actual Twitter blockage…) is the reaction to Cassie’s story arc.
Many fans were unhappy with how bitter and hard Cassie has been portrayed to
be, so they took to Twitter and Tumblr to complain. This, in turn, ENRAGED die
hard Cassie fans. Things got ugly:
“Cassie’s a bitch (and she’s being mean to Cole)!” “How dare
you call her a bitch? Don’t you know what she’s gone through?” “You don’t get
to comment on Cassie!” “None of you understand story arcs, you’re all shallow!”
Just the tip of the vehement social media iceberg.
So, here are my thoughts. I like Cole a lot, so Cassie’s
coldness towards him was very hard to witness. I totally get that she’s gone
through a LOT. It’s likely that her behavior is somewhat justified. BUT, by the
same token, I feel that it is entirely OK for me to not particularly like this
aspect of her character. AND, I think it is OK for me to actually say, “Hey, I
don’t like how Cassie is behaving” or maybe even “I think Cassie’s being kind
of a bitch” (the same way that I more or less have to accept that Cassie fans
feel angry at Cole). I complained
bitterly about Aaron’s behavior last year, even though I understood exactly his
justification for the behavior.
But, here’s the deal. If I did not give a shit about the
characters in the show, then I would feel like I do towards Fear the Walking
Dead. Pretty much didn’t care about any
of them and I was annoyed by every single choice they made in Season 1. Guess what? I’m not watching Season 2. But, I’m glued to every single episode of
12 Monkeys BECAUSE the characters are complex and make imperfect choices. They can
be petulant and sublime in the same episode, because they have depth.
So. Trust the writers. Let the characters
grow, feel free to criticize them and their choices because you care. Don’t
complain that people don’t feel exactly the same towards your favorite
character. Shows would be pretty damn lame if all the characters were the same,
drawn to match some phantom demographic. So, just “let it go” if someone else
doesn’t like something and horror of horrors, disses your favorite character!
We are generally a great fandom and it’s depressing to see infighting. If you disagree, try to at least be polite.
A word about “reverse fan ships.” I mentioned this on
Twitter. What I mean is that people seem to have become more about “I’m team
Cole” or “I’m team Cassie” and less about “we want Cole and Cassie to get
together and kiss.” In fact, it’s gotten
so strong that the various “teams” are beginning to dislike the other team
character AND fans! If fans are so
polarized, they may get to where they don’t want to ever see them as a couple.
An odd turn of events indeed considering how much most fans actually shipped
Casserole in Season 1!! (Secretly, I kinda ship DeaCass). Maybe we've forgotten that there's a bigger mystery and objective!
As Hubby says, get off the merry-go-round, the horses are
fighting. ;-}
