(no subject)

[avrelia]

Sometimes I wonder whether I love shows that I started to watch when they were over (or mostly over) more (Buffy and Avatar the last airbender), is that I avoided all of broken expectations and most of the fandom drama?

I mean, I only watched season 7 of BtVS as it aired, and I loved it. Spike already got his sole, so the question whether he needed one was not I cared about. There was a lot of people who started watching in season one and involved in fandom, and had their expectations subverted several times over, and they often ended hating all the later seasons and Buffy herself. Would I hate them if I started from the beginning?

I don't know. I watched several shows from the beginning and loved them, and then either grew bored (OUaT after season 4), or unhappy with the direction the show took (Fringe, after season 4, Sleepy Hollow mid season 2), and I saw that the creators wanted to tell a story I have no interest in following and I dropped the shows and the fandom, but I was never seriously involved.

Avatar TLA is crazy in this regard. There still so much unhappiness and conspiracy theories about creator being evil and ruining all the good ideas other writers had, and all the complains how everything is badly written and nothing makes sense... I and I cannot understand - what's keeping you here if it makes you so unhappy? But no, Zuko/Katara still is the most popular ship and people still are writing diatribes how it should have been canon... It's magic.

And what's also magical, that I started in the fandom, just being happy about all story and the characters and found all canon relationships very cool and fresh and brave.

And after reading a lot of complains, I grew bitter and annoyed. I still like the canon relationships, but with much more passion, :)))

But seriously, how do people enjoy something that makes them so unhappy?

Comments

[shadowscast]

Like you, I started watching Buffy only when it was nearly over (I think BtVS may have already finished by the time I started season 1; I burned through all of Buffy and then all of Angel in the space of less than a year, and only missed finishing Angel in time to see Not Fade Away live by about a week). I also saw all of Avatar once it was already out on DVD (in that case I think I saw it several years after it finished its run).

So yeah, I only went poking around in the fandoms once the canon was closed and I could appreciate the whole arcs of the stories. I may have had speculations and hopes as I watched, but they were always quickly overtaken by the next twist of the story.

I did think that Zuko and Katara had a few profound moments of connection in canon, and in the all-universes-are-possible reality of fanfiction, it's easy for me to see them as a strong potential pairing. It's weird to think of people deciding that that is the hill they want to die on, though, and based on your comments I think that I don't want to go looking for A:tla shipping discussions online! (But then, my fanfic heart has always been mostly stolen by slash, and I actually love Jet and Zuko as a fanfic pairing!)

[avrelia]

I think that I don't want to go looking for A:tla shipping discussions online!

The Hound of the Baskervilles immediately comes to mind:

"As you value your life, or your reason, keep away from the moor." :)))

But, yeah, it's a crazy place. And while I am more partial to the dynamics of Zuko/Sokka and Mai/Suki (out of non-canon pairs), I do understand why Zuko/Katara is a very popular ship: several intense interactions, attractive favorite characters, enemies to friends thing.. But the entitlement and conspiracy theories - those are beyond my understanding. Not to mention they often go hand in hand with demonizing Aang.

For myself I am still too fascinated with expanding on canon and all the stories that could be told while trying to stay inside of it.

My sister, btw, started to watch Game of Thrones in July this year, and already finished with the same general confusion as the rest of the world who watched it. But she was ready to be disappointed :))))

On the other hand, I like looking forward to some series, and hope and dread...

[shadowkat]

Interesting.

Buffy...I always loved. I just happen to be critical of things I love, in that I enjoy analyzing them to death. But for the most part, I enjoyed the series as a whole and thought it improved as it went. I vastly prefer S4-7 over S1-3, and I started watching from the beginning in 1997. (I think it was 97, hard to remember). I would jump in and out at times -- the first season disappointed me at various points. But the Second Season surprised me and I was hooked. During S6, for various reasons, I came online and joined the fandom. Prior to that I mainly lurked on various individually owned websites and one spoiler site that is no longer in existence.

Farscape -- I started watching long after it had been cancelled, and in reruns prior to the four hour movie. So I skipped over the fandom, the angst, the long wait for a conclusion. Basically got the good, and none of the pain. As a result, I enjoyed it more and wasn't disappointed at all.

OuAT -- I got bored of, roughly around the same time you did and realized the writers were just throwing stuff at a wall and going with whatever they felt stuck. "Oh these actors have great chemistry -- let's go here, instead of where the story arc is actually taking us." OR "oh the fans like them, let's do that." They also had really odd casting in certain places.

Sleepy Hollow? I gave up on for the same reasons everyone else did. Same with Fringe.

I generally speaking will not stay with something that is annoying or boring me. If it makes me angry, I'm gone. I stopped watching "The Resident" after one season, because every time I watched it, I wanted to throw things at the television screen. If it bores me? It's gone. I gave up on LEGION Season 3, because it kept putting me to sleep. And I gave up on Poldark because -- I wanted to throw things at the television set. I decided my blood pressure couldn't take it, so I stopped watching.

I also stopped reading the Buffy comics for a bit, because they irritated me. I came back later and read everything but the ones that certain people wrote, including Whedon, and was quite happy with the results.

But seriously, how do people enjoy something that makes them so unhappy?

I think some people get off on complaining or ranting. It can be fun. But it's also from my perspective at least tiring...and honestly life is too short and there's far too much stuff out there to read, watch, and listen to -- to waste it on things I don't like or don't enjoy.

I also think peer pressure gets people to watch things they don't enjoy. They are trying to like it. My take? Don't do that. Don't give in to peer pressure. Not everyone is going to love the same things. We all see things differently after all.

Fandoms are weird...I'm in a soap opera fandom on FB, and people complain a lot on it about the writing and storylines. But that's par for the course on long-running serial dramas... also people like to complain about things like this -- it's weirdly cathartic. I do. I mean I know the story will change eventually to one I like or the writing will improve...and my dissatisfaction is temporary or I'd stop watching. But until that happens, there's something weirdly satisfying about venting over it with other like-minded souls.

[avrelia]

yes, it's much easier for me to drop something that makes me unhappy and angry than keep watching, but I understand why people might want to keep watching and complaining.

like-minded souls do make everything better. :)

Btw, if I wanted to try BtVS comics, which should I try and which to avoid?

I passionately hated the first issues of Season 8, drooped it and never came back. And the consensus is, as I understand that it's pretty horrible. I liked the first 3 issues of reboot this year, but lost interest pretty fast.

[shadowkat]

In regards to the Buffy comics? I liked S10 and S11 best. S9 is better in the second half. Actually, I recommend the second half of S9. Avoid anything written by Joss Whedon and Mutant Enemy. Chris Gates, Nicholas Brendan, and Rebecca Issacs however are worth looking at. S12 is all Whedon and crappy. Seriously skip anything that Whedon wrote or oversaw directly in regards to the Buffy comics.

I felt that S10-S11 handled the Spike/Buffy relationship rather well. It actually shows the two of them coming to terms with what happened in S6-7, and beginning a serious romantic relationship -- where at one point they are actually living together. Xander also has a rather good arc S9-11, as does to a degree, Dawn and Willow. Giles, mixed.

Skip BOOM Comics Reboot -- it's not very good and I think Boom gave up on it after a bit. The art was the best thing about it, until around the fourth issue where they unfortunately switched out artists. I found it jarring after a while, and once Spike and Drusilla left, boring.

I think because of my job and the people I work with, I need to be around like-minded souls in my personal life or I get irritable. The problem with the workplace is we don't get to pick who we work with.