Amelia. 23. Can only manage about 1.5 fandoms at a time.
Currently watching: Hannibal, Game of Thrones, Teen Wolf s3
Currently reading: A Storm of Swords
Thank you, Jimmy Fallon.
Last night, while watching Benedict on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Jimmy started talking about #letsdrawsherlock, and I was immediately wary. I’m sure any fan watching was expecting a repeat of the Graham Norton fiasco, where Norton pulled out explicit Johnlock fanart to show Martin on the show, clearly making fun of the art, the artists, and the ship.
Instead, Jimmy was nothing but respectful and impressed with the fanartists’ talent. As you can see in these caps, that’s even the title of Benedict’s segment on Fallon’s website - “Benedict Cumberbatch Has Talented Fans.” Let’s count the things Jimmy Fallon did right that are in direct opposition to what Norton did wrong:
- He chose art that would be easily recognized as “good” by non-fans. This isn’t to say that the art Norton showed was bad, but there is a lot of fanart that is less technically skilled because, well, it’s done by non-professionals who are still honing their craft. Other fans appreciate it because we understand the intent and emotion that went into it and often watch artists develop over time, but a non-fan mainstream audience might not see anything special. Jimmy chose pieces that are technically awesome - he put fanart’s best face forward, so to speak. Nobody can use the technical skill as something to laugh at here.
- He kept shipping out of it. I ship johnlock as hard as anyone, but a non-fan mainstream audience doesn’t understand ships, much less slash. Regardless of the fact that there are some technically awesome and beautiful johnlock works in Let’s Draw Sherlock, much of Jimmy’s audience would laugh at them instead of appreciate their beauty. Again, Jimmy is specifically avoiding works that would be easily laughed at.
- He showers them with praise. They’re awesome, the fans are great and talented. Not once does he encourage either the studio or home audience to laugh at either the art or the artist. He is impressed, he wants his audience to be impressed. The studio audience responds in kind - they seem to come into it expecting to see things to laugh at, but are startled and a bit quiet when Jimmy pulls out the Van Gogh. They do laugh with Rosie, since that one clearly has a bit of humor in it. And they cheer for King Tut.
This is how you present fan art on your show respectfully. There was still a little humor with Rosie, it didn’t get overly serious. The studio (and likely home) audience were clearly entertained. Benedict wasn’t embarrassed. Hopefully the artists are pleased with how their art was presented (I haven’t seen anything from any of them).
I’ve often been lukewarm on Jimmy Fallon, but this earned him a new fan.
(source)
Hey everyone - So if you’re following me, you know that I’m not really a ‘fandom’ guy; more of a ‘casual viewer’, hence why I don’t post fandom-related things very often.
However! I was having a conversation with Octoswan yesterday, who is an active member of the Tumblr-SPN community, about a lot of the drama going on with y’all lately and I checked out some of the posts related to said drama. I noticed that, in many cases, there were a lot of accusations and questions being thrown around about “the writers.”
“Do the writers just not know how to write women??”
“Why do the writers think that there always needs to be a romance??”
“Why do the writers…?”
And so on. What I started to notice was that there was a trend of blaming the writers for the problems that fans are having with the show or the direction it’s going, or for ‘baiting’ the fans in various ways, so as a screenwriter working in the industry (if not on SPN) I wanted to clear up a few misconceptions and notions about how a TV show episode gets written.
PSA: if somebody likes a problematic/unhealthy ship but doesn’t try to defend the problematic elements of that ship and simply enjoys it in a fictional/narrative context with all of it’s fucked up ness and you attack them and bring their personal morality into question for shipping it, you are the asshole in that situation.
PSA: if the relationship you have labelled “problematic/unhealthy” is fully consensual on the part of both characters, you are an even bigger asshole in that situation.
Oh my goodness, thank you. I was thinking about this yesterday, how some people choose not to engage with or define or defend the problematic elements of a show, and how other people attack them for doing so. And I think that the people doing the attacking are the assholes because we all have the right to choose how we wish to enjoy something. And as long as we are not hurting anyone with that choice, why the FUCK should anyone else care? Like, awesome—you see the problematic elements in a show and would like to engage with that aspect? That’s amazing! Tag it appropriately and let me go my own goddamn way.
100% done with everyone going “x fandom is the worst.” I don’t care if you’re talking about Sherlockians or Bronies or Whovians or Homestuckers or whoever, shut the fuck up. A fandom is neither good nor bad. Individual people within fandoms can be amazing or horrible or anywhere in between, but if you insult the fandom as a whole for the actions of a few? You are being awful and you should feel bad about it.
Hey tumblr! I have a giant favor to ask! I have a research project I’m doing for a class on fandom in today’s society, and as part of it I need as many people from as many different backgrounds to fill out this survey for me. Don’t limit who you tell this to! I want different languages, different fandoms, different social media platforms, even people who don’t know what a fandom is! Reblog this and spread it around and be a sweetheart.
Fandom exists because TV (and books and movies and everything) is better when you have someone to enjoy it with.
no see, this is why I’m fucking terrible at picking favourite shows. after watching a few episodes or clips or remembering how much it affected me, EVERY show i love becomes my favourite show. right now if you asked me what my favourite show of all time was, it would be firefly, no question. a couple of weeks ago it was buffy. next week it’ll probably be sherlock and when doctor who comes back on, it’ll be doctor who. i can’t pick just one. they’re all my favourites, all of them.
(Taken from this post, because someone recommended I put this point on Tumblr and hope some of the fandom find it and add their thoughts.)
Out of interest, what exactly is it that makes the (countless) Sherlock Holmes ‘pastiches’ acceptable, but not fandom?
One of the most terrible things in the world is to be suddenly hit with feels for your favorite fandom characters.
Like, just working, no big deal, and suddenly INTENSE FEELS.
THE MOST INTENSE FEELS YOU HAVE EVER HAD.
EVER.
YEP.
I was on the bus.
Reading wank in fandoms I don’t belong to is always a good time.
