I don't know if it's a relative age thing. But my first fandom I was in was The Sentinel. I was in it at the same time I was in Star Trek: Voyager, but the Star Trek fans intimidated me a bit more. I was still in high school, then. I don't remember going around and demanding anything of the shows or the show runners. And that show was pretty connected with the fanbase for its time. (Heck, the blooper reel even gave us the guys kissing each other iirc, just for fanservice.)
We let the show run itself. We would have silly polls up -- should Blair shave his sideburns? But none of us would have ever dreamed of thinking that would influence the actual show.
And yeah, this was before Twitter and Facebook, but we still had cons. (Actually, we had a con dedicated to JUST The Sentinel, and the writers and producers and actors came and everything.) But the idea that just because we CAN communicate more directly with these people faster doesn't mean we should demand things. That's just ridiculous.
Ask questions, sure. But remember that they're humans and these are their creations, and we get to enjoy, largely for free, what they are creating for us to enjoy.
I think some of it may be an age thing. My first fandoms were soap related so I had a lot of older people there who kinda explained how things work. Yes the show watched what we said online. Yes sometimes tehe was fanservice in teh scripts. Yes we have fan club weekends and stuff like that. But no we do not run the show. We can complain about it (and do we ever) but expecting it to be different just because we want it to be is ridiculous. a lot of the stuff I see is a lot of Baby's first fandom type thinking.
and I do think the extent Glee is connect to the fans is a double edge sword. They acknowledge the fourth wall frequently and the cast regularly admits to trolling Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and the like. So i think there are some fans who feel if the show acknowledges they exist, then they must do what the fans want. I love that Brad has a twitter but I don't for one second think he checks all his @ mentions becuase I think he would be insane at this point.
The way i see many fans confuse headcanon with actual textual cannon in Glee is unique in my fandom experience. And often the angriest reactions and harshest judgement is when headcannon gets jossed. WHAT? MISERY ISN'T USED IN THE WAY WE WANTED IT TO? MISERY HAS NO CONTEXT AND IS WRONG! WHAT? BLAINE ISN'T SINGING THIS SONG TO KURT? BLAINE IS JUST A HUMAN JUKEBOX! No we just assumed incorrectly what they were doing wiht those songs. That is on us. Not the writers. (honestly the length of time it took people to understand Blaine was being used as Kurt's voice when Kurt didn't feel he had one boggled my mind.) I've seen people argue with the writers with scenes that were never written. But it fits their headcannon so they are right.
We let the show run itself. We would have silly polls up -- should Blair shave his sideburns? But none of us would have ever dreamed of thinking that would influence the actual show.
And yeah, this was before Twitter and Facebook, but we still had cons. (Actually, we had a con dedicated to JUST The Sentinel, and the writers and producers and actors came and everything.) But the idea that just because we CAN communicate more directly with these people faster doesn't mean we should demand things. That's just ridiculous.
Ask questions, sure. But remember that they're humans and these are their creations, and we get to enjoy, largely for free, what they are creating for us to enjoy.
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and I do think the extent Glee is connect to the fans is a double edge sword. They acknowledge the fourth wall frequently and the cast regularly admits to trolling Tumblr, Facebook, Twitter and the like. So i think there are some fans who feel if the show acknowledges they exist, then they must do what the fans want. I love that Brad has a twitter but I don't for one second think he checks all his @ mentions becuase I think he would be insane at this point.
The way i see many fans confuse headcanon with actual textual cannon in Glee is unique in my fandom experience. And often the angriest reactions and harshest judgement is when headcannon gets jossed. WHAT? MISERY ISN'T USED IN THE WAY WE WANTED IT TO? MISERY HAS NO CONTEXT AND IS WRONG! WHAT? BLAINE ISN'T SINGING THIS SONG TO KURT? BLAINE IS JUST A HUMAN JUKEBOX! No we just assumed incorrectly what they were doing wiht those songs. That is on us. Not the writers. (honestly the length of time it took people to understand Blaine was being used as Kurt's voice when Kurt didn't feel he had one boggled my mind.) I've seen people argue with the writers with scenes that were never written. But it fits their headcannon so they are right.
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