Okay, I would never ever have thought of either of those angles. First of all, if my fandom wishes were magical, I'd have already used my power for a whole bunch of things! This reminds me of the discussions we've had about serial publishing and decisions being based on financial choices. Also the employees know that is the way things go - series get picked up and series get cancelled. That's part of the nature of their chosen profession... A bit OT but I was reading something with um... Julia Roberts the other day. And she was discussing how sad it was that young actresses didn't get more support, I think, upon entering the industry. Someone else pointed out that yes, it would be nice if all young people did, in all industries, but that's just the way things are.
I'm with you: if the stories matter so much, why is is preferable that the ones who want the story to continue get (in this world that isn't based on ratings or advertisers or actors or any of the rest of it) preference over those who wish to have the story end on what they consider a more perfect note?
The weirdest thing is that it seems to ignore the realities that actually govern how the show works in favor of cheerleading and/or ignoring the show if you start to dislike it or something. I suppose, based on this, that it's selfish to criticize the show too, right? Because what about the ones who like the things that are happening, even though you don't, or in fact think it's inferior and takes away from the story as a whole? Canon IS powerful, and now I'm thinking about the difference between the ending to a written story and to a series. I suppose the written ending is more powerful, because the end of a book makes you decide if you liked the book as a whole, whereas you COULD tune out of a series eventually and it continues although you don't know what happens. But even then, it does impact how I think about the series. To me, the ending matters, and colors my perceptions of the entire story as a whole. Less so than a book, but it still does. And why now am I thinking of Arrested Development (they wrapped things up and I appreciated that so much) versus say... American Gothic, which I loved, but they didn't/couldn't, and say X-files which I drifted away from so far in my eventual dislike that I barely even saw the movie.
I'm very much for ending a story at the right time, versus not ending it and having the story as a whole suffer. I have very little power over this, though, and that's what's really interesting to me about this school of thought. Don't wish things! Or something.
Actually, in the conversation I read the person specifically said it was okay to complain about the show. It was just wishing that it would end that crossed the line. Which is part of what made it interesting to me. Because it was almost like...I don't know. Like wanting the show to end was getting to real about things in a way? Bringing real people into it in a new way? Or wishing bad things on other fans if they wanted it to continue?
Like I said to ptyx, too, it seems like with creators it's often considered a mark of doing your job to want to end things at the right moment and not drag it out, so is it usurpsing that role if you say that as a fan? I'm sure some fans would consider it so, since there are often are fans who have ideas on how you're supposed to personally support certain things no matter what.
XF is such a great example. I think even people who liked season 8 (see below) would agree it should have ended earlier instead of drifting out on a lame note. The same thing happened to me with it. I drifted away. Yet I remember in that last season having all these discussions with people vehemently supporting how great it was against all the people talking about how it just didn't work even if there were things they didn't hate. I can still remember all those arguments. People were forever starting threads on atxfa for people who liked season 8 so they wouldn't be bothered by the "8-haters" as they called us. Then they'd invariable start talking about how much we sucked intead of how great the show was, which would bring people in to defend themselves, which would lead to accusations of 8-haters refusing to let them love the show in peace.
Also, yeah, totally the way the profession works. Sometimes it gets really silly--I remember when the Last Airbender movie came out there were people scolding the ATLA fandom for not supporting it because of all those people who worked on it. And people were like, um, it's not like the second cameraman gets paid less if the movie flops. He's onto the next project by now. In this case they're talking about people on a longrunning show but again it's like...these kinds of jobs aren't supposed to be for life. It's unusual to be on that longrunning a show. You still know it could be cancelled.
I'm with you: if the stories matter so much, why is is preferable that the ones who want the story to continue get (in this world that isn't based on ratings or advertisers or actors or any of the rest of it) preference over those who wish to have the story end on what they consider a more perfect note?
The weirdest thing is that it seems to ignore the realities that actually govern how the show works in favor of cheerleading and/or ignoring the show if you start to dislike it or something. I suppose, based on this, that it's selfish to criticize the show too, right? Because what about the ones who like the things that are happening, even though you don't, or in fact think it's inferior and takes away from the story as a whole? Canon IS powerful, and now I'm thinking about the difference between the ending to a written story and to a series. I suppose the written ending is more powerful, because the end of a book makes you decide if you liked the book as a whole, whereas you COULD tune out of a series eventually and it continues although you don't know what happens. But even then, it does impact how I think about the series. To me, the ending matters, and colors my perceptions of the entire story as a whole. Less so than a book, but it still does. And why now am I thinking of Arrested Development (they wrapped things up and I appreciated that so much) versus say... American Gothic, which I loved, but they didn't/couldn't, and say X-files which I drifted away from so far in my eventual dislike that I barely even saw the movie.
I'm very much for ending a story at the right time, versus not ending it and having the story as a whole suffer. I have very little power over this, though, and that's what's really interesting to me about this school of thought. Don't wish things! Or something.
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Like I said to ptyx, too, it seems like with creators it's often considered a mark of doing your job to want to end things at the right moment and not drag it out, so is it usurpsing that role if you say that as a fan? I'm sure some fans would consider it so, since there are often are fans who have ideas on how you're supposed to personally support certain things no matter what.
XF is such a great example. I think even people who liked season 8 (see below) would agree it should have ended earlier instead of drifting out on a lame note. The same thing happened to me with it. I drifted away. Yet I remember in that last season having all these discussions with people vehemently supporting how great it was against all the people talking about how it just didn't work even if there were things they didn't hate. I can still remember all those arguments. People were forever starting threads on atxfa for people who liked season 8 so they wouldn't be bothered by the "8-haters" as they called us. Then they'd invariable start talking about how much we sucked intead of how great the show was, which would bring people in to defend themselves, which would lead to accusations of 8-haters refusing to let them love the show in peace.
Also, yeah, totally the way the profession works. Sometimes it gets really silly--I remember when the Last Airbender movie came out there were people scolding the ATLA fandom for not supporting it because of all those people who worked on it. And people were like, um, it's not like the second cameraman gets paid less if the movie flops. He's onto the next project by now. In this case they're talking about people on a longrunning show but again it's like...these kinds of jobs aren't supposed to be for life. It's unusual to be on that longrunning a show. You still know it could be cancelled.
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