I think, too, that your perspective is a little different, too, because you were in the McShep side yourself for most of your fanning. You weren't a slasher, but you enjoyed the friendship - same as the majority of SGA gen fans, as well as a lot of slash McSheppers who also liked the gen relationship in the canon. If you'd been into, say, John/Elizabeth from the beginning, you probably always would've seen the fandom as more conflicted and contentious.
*nods* Yeah, you're right, and now that I look back on my early days in the fandom, before I got settled in and got used to the status quo, I remember being a lot more aware of that -- I think the fandom did tend to be a bit more contentious or at least to have more obvious factions before both canon and fanon made McShep their overwhelming pairing of choice (on the gen and the slash/ship sides, both). It used to be a more diverse fandom than it became; it shed a lot of people who weren't interested in John/Rodney over the first year or so that I was in it. And I do remember being aware that I just happened to hit not only its popularity surge, but its popular characters as well.
I actually feel better and more well-balanced after bitching my head off, both here and in my own journal. XD What makes this show weird for me is that I want it back so bad. I've definitely fallen out of love with shows before -- quite a lot of them -- but it wasn't usually so, hmm, sudden and virulent and influenced by outside forces; most of the situations I can think of were either a slow falling out of love as the show changed out from under me (e.g. Supernatural), or some sort of canon event that made it impossible for me to go on enjoying the show (Forever Knight, Serenity). The fact that I can still enjoy (and even write) some of the fic, despite feeling almost vicious towards the show at times, makes me think that it's possible for me to get it back, if I want to. And most of the time, I want to, except it feels like getting back onto a roller coaster, and I wonder if it might be better for my peace of mind not to ...
Regarding the loss of the fandom, though, I don't actually get the impression that most people are leaving, at least not yet -- and that's another thing that makes me want to stay in, because the people I've become friends with, over the last couple of years, haven't scattered for greener pastures yet. A lot of people seem to be in a kind of "wait and see" holding pattern, or else so depressed over cancellation and/or the state of the fandom (or both) that they don't feel like writing anything, but are still around in the background. And I feel like, if I can just work through my own fannish issues, I can help hold the fandom together in these critical months when everyone is figuring out what they're going to do. If it's worth holding it together ...
I'm really surprised by how invested I've become. I've never wanted to stay in a fandom this long, let alone managed to do so! But it's given me a lot of happiness, and I think I still have stories to tell; I don't want to leave it, or for it to leave me.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
winterfish
no subject
Date: 2009-02-25 06:42 am (UTC)*nods* Yeah, you're right, and now that I look back on my early days in the fandom, before I got settled in and got used to the status quo, I remember being a lot more aware of that -- I think the fandom did tend to be a bit more contentious or at least to have more obvious factions before both canon and fanon made McShep their overwhelming pairing of choice (on the gen and the slash/ship sides, both). It used to be a more diverse fandom than it became; it shed a lot of people who weren't interested in John/Rodney over the first year or so that I was in it. And I do remember being aware that I just happened to hit not only its popularity surge, but its popular characters as well.
I actually feel better and more well-balanced after bitching my head off, both here and in my own journal. XD What makes this show weird for me is that I want it back so bad. I've definitely fallen out of love with shows before -- quite a lot of them -- but it wasn't usually so, hmm, sudden and virulent and influenced by outside forces; most of the situations I can think of were either a slow falling out of love as the show changed out from under me (e.g. Supernatural), or some sort of canon event that made it impossible for me to go on enjoying the show (Forever Knight, Serenity). The fact that I can still enjoy (and even write) some of the fic, despite feeling almost vicious towards the show at times, makes me think that it's possible for me to get it back, if I want to. And most of the time, I want to, except it feels like getting back onto a roller coaster, and I wonder if it might be better for my peace of mind not to ...
Regarding the loss of the fandom, though, I don't actually get the impression that most people are leaving, at least not yet -- and that's another thing that makes me want to stay in, because the people I've become friends with, over the last couple of years, haven't scattered for greener pastures yet. A lot of people seem to be in a kind of "wait and see" holding pattern, or else so depressed over cancellation and/or the state of the fandom (or both) that they don't feel like writing anything, but are still around in the background. And I feel like, if I can just work through my own fannish issues, I can help hold the fandom together in these critical months when everyone is figuring out what they're going to do. If it's worth holding it together ...
I'm really surprised by how invested I've become. I've never wanted to stay in a fandom this long, let alone managed to do so! But it's given me a lot of happiness, and I think I still have stories to tell; I don't want to leave it, or for it to leave me.