Likewise, talking about disliking canon can stop discussion, because it can be hard to contradict someone -- especially someone with whom you share a fandom, so there can be that sense of comradery, being in the same community. So if you see a fan friend talking about how X canon thing sucks, rather than argue back that you love that thing, it can be easier to not rock the boat, to not say anything -- but then not feeling comfortable to talk about what you love in a fandom can drain your interest in it, and with it the fandom; and then you drift away, and the fandom shrinks.
This part really resonated with me. I'm in Game of Thrones fandom and the final season was controversial to say the least. The final arc screwed over my favorite ship which has led to a lot of folks in my corner of fandom being super negative since the finale aired. I agree with a lot of the criticism, but sometimes I get overloaded by the negativity, especially when others start bashing everything that came before the ending...including the scenes that made so many of us shippers in the first place.
I don't know, there's a sense that because the ending sucked for us, everything that came before it is retroactively ruined and there's kind of this shaming thing going on, with BNFs (or today's equivalent of that term) constantly telling the rest of us we were all fools and should've known the showrunners didn't give a fuck about our pairing at such and such a point, blah blah blah.
There's also the fact that the book series isn't finished yet and seems to be pointing in a different (better) direction for our ship so there are lots of folks just trashing the show up one side and down the other and putting all their eggs in the book basket, as if that's the only valid version of the ship. Which again, I don't disagree with exactly. I, too, am hoping the final books will be published and give us a better ending, but at the same time I'm tired of feeling like the book shippers around me are beating up on show-only shippers and kind of making them feel shitty if they still liked stuff from the show. It's all a bummer.
ETA: And it's funny that I used to get upset about nasty ship-wars, but now it's like the call's coming from inside the house. No one can harsh my buzz faster than a shipper who ships the same goddamn ship as me who rants up a storm and does it in such a way that implies I'm stupid for still feeling fondly about the ship.
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This part really resonated with me. I'm in Game of Thrones fandom and the final season was controversial to say the least. The final arc screwed over my favorite ship which has led to a lot of folks in my corner of fandom being super negative since the finale aired. I agree with a lot of the criticism, but sometimes I get overloaded by the negativity, especially when others start bashing everything that came before the ending...including the scenes that made so many of us shippers in the first place.
I don't know, there's a sense that because the ending sucked for us, everything that came before it is retroactively ruined and there's kind of this shaming thing going on, with BNFs (or today's equivalent of that term) constantly telling the rest of us we were all fools and should've known the showrunners didn't give a fuck about our pairing at such and such a point, blah blah blah.
There's also the fact that the book series isn't finished yet and seems to be pointing in a different (better) direction for our ship so there are lots of folks just trashing the show up one side and down the other and putting all their eggs in the book basket, as if that's the only valid version of the ship. Which again, I don't disagree with exactly. I, too, am hoping the final books will be published and give us a better ending, but at the same time I'm tired of feeling like the book shippers around me are beating up on show-only shippers and kind of making them feel shitty if they still liked stuff from the show. It's all a bummer.
ETA: And it's funny that I used to get upset about nasty ship-wars, but now it's like the call's coming from inside the house. No one can harsh my buzz faster than a shipper who ships the same goddamn ship as me who rants up a storm and does it in such a way that implies I'm stupid for still feeling fondly about the ship.