I've seen people complaining about fandom not being fun anymore and it gives me anxiety, do you feel like that?
Not at all. I’m a big believer in controlling my own experience, so if there is something I don’t like I change it. Everything is within my power. I block, unfollow, blacklist, stay away from twitter and the tags and curate my dash so it’s what I want it to be. And while I may speak my mind on my own blog, I don’t go looking for trouble. I tag my posts and I don’t hijack posts or seek to engage with people I’m never going to agree with and whose agenda is the exact opposite of mine. What’s the point?
That applies to shipmates as well as anti-CSers. For instance there are blogs that produce a lot of quality content, but for my taste lean too far either in Killian or Emma’s direction in their stanning. Their preference, but I’m personally not here for pitting my OTP against each other, so I avoid blogs that tend to do that. I know there are people out there who don’t want to hear about fandom wank, which I blog about occasionally, and I wouldn’t blame them for unfollowing me. No hard feelings.
I also find the humor in fandom strife and bad behavior. It helps. A lot. And I’m fully aware that none of the nonsense matters. Because it doesn’t. That also helps.
Look, Captain Swan has become the heart of an ensemble show. The convergence of perfect casting, actor chemistry and epic storytelling rarely converge like this, Emma and Killian are fictional lightening in a bottle, and of course the writers are going to milk it for all it’s worth which meant eventually focusing heavily on it. And it’s very predictable that not just anti-shippers, but that hard-core fans of all the other characters might feel neglected and revolt. That’s what’s happening.
However, WE ARE THE LUCKY ONES who recognized what a rare and wonderful thing was happening on screen.
We deserve to enjoy it. So let me encourage you to do whatever you have to, to do just that. If unfollowing a person whose posts give you anxiety makes it better, do that. If leaving fandom makes it better for you, okay.
But for me, fandom is part of what makes this ship so epic. We are seriously the most SPOILED shippers around…
CANON, FOCUS, FANGURLING - Our ship is actually happening on screen. They are in epic, next-level, no-turning-back love with each other. We’re in the middle of getting amazing storyline and focus, someone made a great gif set about the number of kisses, hugs, meetings etc between these two, and it’s mind blowing. Could you ever dream of shipping something that has so much? And this fandom celebrates and fangurls about every damn moment that happens between them like it’s the first. It is awesome to behold.
ON SCREEN META - Our OTP has sailed a ship together, fired a cannon together and had their names engraved together on the most famous piece of hardware of all time. They are LITERALLY the HOLY GRAIL of ships. You can’t make this up and it just tickles me. There are swans-a-swimmin’, fleur de lis on belts, forget-me-knots on wrists and rings, dolls in nurseries, hooks on swords, aspens in photos, etc etc but I also probably wouldn’t have noticed any of the subtleties without shipmates pointing it all out. Thank fandom!
PROMOTION - ABC is promoting the heck out of our favs this season. I mean, is this even life? Are we all dreaming? Dark Swan was the poster for 5A and Hook is the poster for 5B. Pinch me. Seriously. Someone come over and pinch me. And don’t you just love the freakout, every time OnceABC posts something about CS? Or when the press release comes out and there’s a line about CS? Or our favs are in the promo stills? Or Adam tweets a dialogue bit, or we see a CS scene in a promo? Or when someone brings us a still from the ABC advisory panel? I don’t know about you, but I’d know about exactly .01% of this if I wasn’t in fandom. Industrious, eagle-eyed shipmates always making sure we know when there is something new…thank you.
ENGAGEMENT - Perk of being a fantasy/SciFi show, not only do the actors attend compulsory appearances like SDCC and NYCC and meet the fans, there are at least a dozen other conventions where some of them make appearances. Also they interact on social media. I know it’s waned over the last year or two, and most of that has to do with the same reasons fandom is no longer fun for some, but despite that JMo and Colin are still posting. How big a smile did you get when you saw that the producer on Colin’s new movie tweeted a photo with him last night? Mine was pretty dang big. (But not nearly as big as when JMo tweeted the photo of her with Colin and Bernard. Good times. And the fandom flail over it… epic.)
SPOILERS - We have a litany of intrepid souls who bring us spoilers from set. We often know who’s filming, what and where. I’ve never been a fan of a show before where it’s been like this. I love the theories and speculation that come from the bits and pieces of info that make our way to us. I love the anticipation for the episodes when we know there’s a big moment, or when we’re fooled into thinking there is nothing for us, but there is! I love when we’re wrong. And I love when we’re right. And I really love those days when out of nowhere news of JMo and Colin on set together leaks out. And if there’s a horse and a patch of flowers and a kiss all the better. Is there a better feeling in fandom? Not for me. Amazing.
MEDIA COVERAGE - An entire cottage industry of entertainment websites exist to bring us interviews and news. TVLine just celebrated it’s 5th anniversary and it turns out OUAT is it’s most covered show during that time? We are fans of the most covered show. That means we get a lot of ink, friends. And our OTP, gets a lot of ink. As a whole we get a lot of actor quotes, tidbits of information and trolling by the creators. Many things for us to ruminate, speculate and obsess over. For my last OTP, Josh/Donna fandom had to live off of ONE Bradley Whitford quote for like 7 years. I’m not kidding. In CS fandom we have enough Colin and JMo quotes about the pairing that most of us have probably forgotten most of them exist.
FANWORKS - I could go on about this all day. Every time I log on there are dozens of new gif sets, a new, beautiful piece of art either from a well known fandom artist or some talented artist I’ve never heard of before, more well-written, feel-inducing fanfics to read than time to read them and metas that beautifully analyze these characters and our ship. The active CS fandom alone is comprised of 1000s of people from all over the world, sharing their talent and creativity for all of us to enjoy. Simply breathtaking. This right here is the fruit of being in a large, active fandom. Don’t take it for granted, it isn’t a given.
THIS SHIP HAS IT ALL! And this fandom makes the journey that much better.
So, yeah, I’m enjoying CS fandom, A LOT.
You know for the new year I was thinking of doing a Top 10 Days of 2015 to be a CSer but then I ran out of time before January. However, maybe I’ll make that post anyway, because this fandom had a lot of very good days. Actually feel free to send me some suggestions for good days you remember in 2015 (ie SDCC or the day we discovered that Killian’s name was on Excalibur so on and so forth.)
You are in control. Take responsibility for your experience and enjoy the best parts of fandom while ignoring the rest.
