End Of The Year Fandom Meme

[rogueslayer452]

Which TV shows did you start watching in 2019?
Doom Patrol, Euphoria, Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

Which TV shows did you let go of in 2019?
Unfortunately, the shows of mine that were cancelled. :(

Which TV shows did you mean to get into but didn't in 2019? Why?
I mean, I didn't intend to initially because I didn't pay attention much to the announcements, but now I really want to watch The Mandalorian. It's a half-hour show that's still going, but the only reason I'm not watching currently is because I don't have Disney+. I'm hoping that once it's finished it'll be released onto DVD and not held hostage. I mean, the first season will have eight episodes and hopefully it'll be getting another season, so I don't know if they plan on releasing a DVD and if they do it'll be long after the show is completed. But either way, I need it.

Which TV shows do you intend on checking out in 2020?
I can't really think of anything at the moment, if nothing else I'll try to see if I can check out the shows that premiered this year that I didn't get a chance to see but now want to. But in regards to newer shows coming out next year, I have no idea.

Which TV show impressed you least in 2019?
I wasn't even watching it since I stopped long ago, but even without watching it's everywhere and hard to get away from and, boy, the way Game of Thrones ended was such a massive letdown even for anyone who went into it with low expectations. Like, even if you didn't expect anything in the slightest you weren't prepared for the fuckery that went down with its final season. I didn't even care what happened with that show anymore, but it managed to really piss me off with how it was all mishandled and rushed and disrespectful to the characters and the story overall.

Which TV show do you think you might let go of in 2020 unless things significantly improve?
None that I can think of. I don't really have a whole lot of shows that fit into this category, especially since a lot of shows I had are either going to be done or have been cancelled. So.

Which TV shows do you think you’ll never let go of no matter how crappy they get?
I can't think of any, to be perfectly honest. Mostly because I know that, even though there's been shows that I have endured a lot of bullshit for, there will always be a breaking point where I'm just like, enough is enough.

Your main fandom of the year?
At this point I'm going to have to say The Mandalorian, because regardless whether you've seen the show or not everyone seems to agree that: we all love the Mandalorian and his awkward parental tenderness with Baby Yoda. Like, the fact that I can go online and see people basically gush about that? An instant mood, and definitely the best positive thing to come from the SW fandom that is usually so divisive.

Your favorite film you watched this year?
Midsommar. Just, that whole movie was amazing, and it made me really appreciate Florence Pugh as the amazing actress that she is.

Your favorite book read this year?
The Southern Reach trilogy by Jeff VanderMeer. I was curious about these books, and after reading Annihilation I was instantly hooked into the story and immediately got the rest of the trilogy. It's the right amount of bizarre and creepy and ambiguity that I absolutely enjoy.

Your favorite album or song to listen to this year?
Au/Ra is an artist I discovered this year and she's absolutely amazing. "Ghost" is a song done for the Death Stranding soundtrack, however all her songs from "Outsiders" to "Panic Room" to "Assassin", just everything. She's amazing. It's remarkable that she's still a teenager and able to create such interestingly profound yet relatable songs. I have just been addicted to her voice, her sound, her lyrics, and ugh, everything. I highly recommend her.

Your favorite TV show(s) of the year?
Kind of a tie between Cloak & Dagger and Doom Patrol. Like, these are the shows that impressed me the most this year and had a lot of fun with, for different reasons.

Your favorite online fandom community of the year?
I would have to say Critical Role. Now, I tend to have a complicated relationship with that fandom at times just from how unnecessarily reactionary they tend to be whenever something happens, the second campaign has been rifled with that to the point where I had to basically take a break from most blogs I followed because they didn't know how to act (to be fair this is true for a lot of fandoms, but I've been with CR since the first campaign and there wasn't that much drama as there seems to be with C2). With that being said, however, seeing the community come together to help fund The Legend of Vox Machina Kickstarter, raising over 11 million dollars for the animated series, exceeding everyone's expectations and befuddling the entire cast? That is the kind of good, positive, and uplifting content I liked seeing.

Your best new fandom discovery of the year?
Doom Patrol. One of the only DC shows that actually is good, unique and different from the other DC shows that are out there. It's a nice balance of embracing the comic book absurdity while also taking the characters and their personal journeys seriously. Plus, it's the kind of dysfunctional found family I enjoy. It was a pleasant surprise to discover this show, and I'm happy that it's getting a second season.

Your fandom that made an unexpected comeback this year?
Oddly enough, Supernatural. I mentioned this as my answer to this question last year wherein it's less about the show itself but more for the Dean/Castiel content, and that hasn't changed. But then the announcement came that the show was ending after fifteen seasons. Now, we all know there's been the ongoing joke about how the show would go on forever, that it's like a cockroach that will never die, that it's basically CW's biggest juggernaut outside of their DCTV lineup, etc. I stopped watching and caring about the show after the sixth season, but I cannot deny that hearing this news I felt a bit melancholy for some reason. It's strange. It's more for the characters than the story to be honest, specifically one character in particular: Castiel. Regardless of my disinterest with the show Castiel has always been my favorite, with Dean/Castiel being my OTP. So yeah, I don't know. I only know what's going on through osmosis what comes across my dash, and obviously I have no expectations (zero in fact) outside of let my baby be okay in the end. That's all.

With that, I will also say that it turned into a Misha Collins resurgence as well. I never stopped loving him, but from being away from the show/fandom for years I kind of fell out of following everything he was doing. But now I'm back.

Your biggest fandom disappointment of the year?
As already stated, everything involving the final season of Game of Thrones, including what happened after the fact. The showrunners/main writers proving themselves to be incompetent hacks who had no idea what they were doing (and outright admitted it in an interview Q&A) to many cast members still being beholden to them and HBO by dismissing and gaslighting the fans for their disappointment of how the show ended.

The leadership change at Marvel which led to all Marvel shows to being cancelled, like I knew it was coming since it had been rumored for a while but it finally became a reality and it frustrates and angers me that it had to happen this way. We knew that Disney buying Marvel was going to create a catastrophic ripple effect, but cancelling all non-MCU Marvel shows on other networks and streaming services just so Disney+ can have full reign of control over Marvel content (that will just be MCU-related, from what it looks like) is downright stupid. Both can coexist with each other, and the fact that this is more of a fighting over rights of properties thing makes it even worse because these shows deserved better, imho.

Also, the revelation about JKR supporting and agrees with transphobic views. I've been disappointed with and lost a lot of respect for her over the years, and there's been evidence that she follows this particular dangerous rhetoric, but the most recent incident really solidified what most feared, even moreso since she'll probably never apologize or reconsider and learn from it either. It's massively disappointing and disheartening.

Your fandom boyfriend(s) of the year?
Mando/Dyn Jarren (The Mandalorian). Listen, I haven't even watched the show outside of clips and such online, but damn I'm really attracted to the character.

Your fandom girlfriend(s) of the year?
Daisy Johnson (Agents of SHIELD), Alison DiLaurentis (Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists), Ava Jalali (Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists), Bobbie Draper (The Expanse), Camina Drummer (The Expanse), Beauregard Lionett (Critical Role, Campaign 2).

Your biggest squee moment of the year?
The incredible success that Critical Role has achieved in 2019 alone, from parting ways with G&S to create their own company and control their own content to the insanely successful Kickstarter that has helped funded them a full-length animated series of events from their first campaign, to making a deal with Amazon Prime to getting it distributed there with a second season of the animated series already secured. And just everything else in between, making their company grow in the way that they want it. They have come such a long way from being just a small RPG D&D streaming show on G&S and have grown into something incredibly influential and remarkable for the D&D community. I am just so proud of them, and I cannot wait to see what else they can accomplish in the future.

The most missed of your old fandoms?
My answer remains the same every year, since it's true. Having actual communities to conduct discussions in a controlled environment instead of relying on whatever "discourse" is happening among an open forum spaces. A lot of times it's just people yelling into a void, and discussions are often hijacked and misconstrued by individuals wants to derail the conversation taking place for their own agendas. I just miss metas and discussions where you can engage with other fans without worry that someone might want to interject with their bullshit.

The fandom you haven't tried yet, but want to?
I wasn't actually interested in watching His Dark Materials, mostly because I was unfamiliar with the source material and I didn't think it would be for me. However, seeing all the talk surrounding the show and people really liking it so far, I'm deeply curious about it. Also Watchmen, which I hear isn't at all like what the movie or the comics the movie was based on is but is more of a continuation of that universe in a way, or at least a different take on the source material, and I'm intrigued by that concept.

Your biggest fan anticipations for the coming year?
I've been thinking about the video games that are most likely going to generate a lot of buzz next year, such as The Last Of Us: Part 2, Cyberpunk 2727, and the remake of Resident Evil 3. For movies, Wonder Woman 1984, because I'm interested in seeing where that story goes. And yeah, despite my gripes Black Widow does seem interesting if nothing more than for the other actors involved. The teaser trailer did hype that up, not gonna lie. Miss Fisher and the Crypt of Tears, I don't know when it'll be released in the US, but it'll be premiering in early 2020 for Australians. And as for shows, it's going to be bittersweet saying goodbye to Agents of SHIELD, which will be having their seventh and final season, and it's literally the last Marvel show on television. At least they get to have their proper goodbyes instead of rushing things to conclude when they had so much more planned.

Comments

[author-by-night.livejournal.com]

I feel like at least before, you could KIND of excuse the JKR stuff with her maybe being more tone deaf or having a middle aged moment, as opposed to being a full-on TERF. Though looking back, even that was clearly wishful thinking. (Including on my part.) She's a full-on TERF, and that's incredibly upsetting.

You know I also miss fannish discourse. What's also frustrating is that even taking away the drama, it's just hard to find spaces where conversation is welcome. I tried joining two subreddits for two shows I like, and neither one of them was really discussion friendly, although some of that was random downvoting. (I really don't know why Reddit does downvoting.) Which I guess is hostility. But even beyond that, it was just hard to get into. And sometimes I'll find blogs about things and comment, only to realize the blogger... doesn't even read comments. It's sad.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I've seen a lot of people saying that she's always been this way, that it's mostly just been subtle (i.e. things she wrote in the HP series that were definitely leaning on the transphobia side, just cleverly hidden), and for some reason she's become bolder over the years with proclaiming these things. And quite frankly, I believe it. She didn't become this out of thin air, she clearly already had these beliefs and somehow got sucked into the TERF/transphobic circles online which made her, well, be this frank with them. It's odd, since last year when she liked transphobic tweets there was the "middle-aged moment" excuse from her PR people, but now it's like she gives no fucks about revealing how much she's a transphobe/transmisogynist.

(This isn't her only issue, of course. I've lost a lot of respect for her with her homophobia/queerbaiting and blatant racism, among plenty of other things. She has a lot of biases and prejudices that, when laid all out as people are currently doing, is quite bad and telling.)

And sometimes I'll find blogs about things and comment, only to realize the blogger... doesn't even read comments. It's sad.

I know. There are some people who don't even engage with people commenting on their posts and it's like, why even make a post then? What is the point? But then I realize it could be a ripple effect of what social media has turned into. People don't care about conversation, they care about the numbers. As much as people grouse about how online interactions aren't "real" conversation with people, at least it's more than people just posting something just for the sake of gaining numbers in likes/views/comments.

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

I like this one, I usually do a TV meme but this one seems to have more questions :)

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

Also - sad agreement to the JKR stuff. I love her books, but clearly she as a person just isn't willing to learn which is disappointing. She's got so much ability to learn new things and chooses to be ignorant. It's gross.

I'm looking forward to watching His Dark Materials. I LOVE those books and want to see what the show does with them. I've also heard great things about The Watchmen.

Southern Reach books were really cool.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she has all this wealth and resources to learn and educate herself, but she actively chooses not to. It's extremely disappointing. It sucks because people have called her out for this in the past, not just with her transphobia but with other issues, but she refuses to listen or even acknowledge anything. It's disappointing, but it's also exhausting to deal with. I think this is why so many are just doing a mass divorce with her at this point. She has proven time and time again she just doesn't care.

I keep seeing so many people loving the His Dark Materials show, and based on what little I've seen it looks gorgeous and they have a lot of talented actors involved.

[violateraindrop]

So much love for The Mandalorian ♥
Even though Disney+ won't come to Germany until March 31...I will gladly watch it again with parents. I really hope they won't get spoiled for Baby Yoda. Seeing him for the first time without knowing he existed was awesome :D
I think plenty of people only know the show through gifs and memes at this point which is interesting.

I've never watched Game of Thrones and never wanted to, but I feel mad about the ending. Well, I feel for everyone who genuinely liked the show and is now disappointed.

Doom Patrol is the next show on my list since it's now on Prime here. I was surprised by that, but I'm not complaining! I'm always happy when random shows turn up on there while they are airing or shortly after their US premiere.

S15 is pretty good. My favorite season since S11. It's funny, I was never a big fan of Castiel, but now I don't mind him as much anymore. Although his role is a little smaller now which is probably due to Misha's health issues which I only heard about very recently.

Netflix canceling the Marvel shows was definitely due to Disney+, but Agents of SHIELD would have ended anyway. I mean, it pretty much got two bonus seasons. Still, I would have watched more of it.

I still need to watch the last episode of His Dark Materials, but it is really good. I know that I loved the books when I read them, but I barely remember them.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

I may have issues with Disney as a corporation, but what they did with The Mandalorian was pretty smart. Baby Yoda (not really Yoda, but we don't know the species so we're all calling him that anyway) is the surefire way of getting people interested in the show because of the cuteness factor. There's going to be all the merch for that soon enough. But the main reason of my interest is mostly due to the Mandalorian himself, because damn. Is is a Pedro Pascal thing? Is it the faceless lone wolf bounty hunter who basically is just this huge softy inside and becomes an adoptive father by choice to this little green baby who he is willing to protect at all costs? All of the above, and I'm not complaining.

The ending of GOT reminds me of the ending of HIMYM, universally hated by everyone regardless whether you watched the show or not.

Doom Patrol was certainly a pleasant surprise. It wasn't on my radar until I heard people saying how they were so surprised by it themselves and how good it was. And then I watched it and was absolutely loving what I was seeing. It's very different from other DC shows, unique in its own way, and it's very character-driven and focuses entirely on found family, which I deeply enjoy. I think you'll like it. :)

Yeah, Misha just recently had hip replacement which he's currently recovering from, and while I don't know how restrictive that'll be for him physically on the show, I do know that he's in the last season quite a bit.

Considering that Netflix and Disney are direct competitors it is understandable from a business standpoint since Disney owns Marvel now, but it sucks that they cancelled the shows without giving some of them proper conclusions. But for the other Marvel shows, like Cloak & Dagger and Runaways, there is no excuse. Especially since the latter was on Hulu which is owned by Disney, so it is possible that they could have had non-MCU Marvel shows there while everything connected to the MCU on Disney+. And this was definitely due to the Marvel television leadership shakeup, and that's what I'm ultimately pissed about.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I saw the JKR stuff going around twitter and facepalmed so hard. I feel bad for the HP fans, she has not done them any favors over the years. :|

I need to do this meme too but I think it is funny that we would probably both random highly YouTube based fandoms that are based on gaming. I'd probably go with the OutsideXbox/OutsideXtra fandom. They mostly focus on video games but they have a D&D game going on the side and they wrote a song about their DM and used it to raise money for charity and the fans were there for it so...yeah.

[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

I got HBO recently for His Dark Materials, Watchmen and Catherine the Great. I recorded all the episodes in a row so I only had to sign up and pay for one month. Of the three, I've seen His Dark Materials now, and it's very good and I highly recommend it! Even the changes from the books are a necessary expansion/setting update. So nice to see a worthy adaptation as opposed to... some others.

I hope The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance comes out on disc.


I agree about "metas and discussions where you can engage with other fans without worry that someone might want to interject with their bullshit."


I tweeted JKR, "Carry a wand if you please. Call yourself a wizard if you like. Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. Live your best life in peace & security. But force women out of their jobs for stating blood purity is real? #IStandWithUmbridge That's what you might as well have said."


I'd like to check out Doom Patrol on disc. On the animation side, I recommend Infinity Train, Over the Garden Wall, Young Justice (another genuinely interesting and well done DC show) and Steven Universe.
.

[violateraindrop]

I actually looked up "what species is Yoda" after watching the first episode and that's how I found out that everyone just calls him Baby Yoda on the show. I figured that the species of a character which existed for 40 years is well-known, but nope.
Mando himself is such an interesting character. I do wonder how much of it is Pedro.

After HIMYM ended I felt the same because I know people who watched the show and one actually wrote a paper about. I was kinda pissed on their behalf lol

Same here! Doom Patrol wasn't on my radar at all until I saw people praising it online.

I was a little surprised when they sent off Castiel for some episodes, I really thought he'd be in the entire final season.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

It goes to show that George Lucas never thought that far ahead of things, if he never even specified or cared to name what species Yoda was ever. It'll be interesting if they just create one on a whim or something. But I'm curious if "Baby Yoda" will get a proper name at some point, because they just keep calling him variations of "the kid"/"the child"/"the baby" in the show.

I've read that Pedro does a lot in the show expect for some action scenes where they use stunt doubles, and they use those stunt doubles for episodes he was unfortunately not available to be in. But I think he's there for the majority of the time.

I was a little surprised when they sent off Castiel for some episodes, I really thought he'd be in the entire final season.

It would've been ideal given it is the last season and he is a main cast member, but one of the complaints I've heard throughout the years is that despite him being of the main cast he is unfortunately still treated like a supporting character depending on who is writing an episode. I think at a convention another actor made a comment about how sorry they felt during filming an episode because Misha was there throughout, but he had no lines. And Misha does joke sometimes about being able to actually have lines to say in the show. So, yeah.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

She really hasn't. :/ I know that fandom has divorced her from some time now, but it's still disappointing when you hear that she still refuses to learn.

It's so interesting how D&D has become more visible in gaming areas online. Critical Role wasn't the first to do this obviously, but they certainly grew in popularity which definitely helped pave the way for others to start their own D&D games, whether streaming or otherwise. It's pretty damn awesome to see. And with Critical Role, they created their own channel/company that is allowing them to create other content that isn't just D&D-based, like they have little shows and segments with them just playing regular video games, and it's so awesome regardless what they're doing, tbh.

[haebin.livejournal.com]

Oh, some hours ago I had a tweet in my twitter-list which said, that the Mandalorian will get a second season. :)

[elizalavelle.livejournal.com]

I get really upset by chosen ignorance which is probably why I'm really upset over this. I also don't like that she's using her considerable power to be harmful. She's entitled to have shitty opinions but she should know enough to not air ones that are going to harm innocent people.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I knew that it was happening, but we have to wait a whole year before we get it. Which I'm sure will be worth the wait, but at the same time, why so long?

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

My sister, who has read the books, has been watching His Dark Materials and is enjoying it very much, so I'm sure that I'll get to watching it soon enough.

I'm glad that you, along with others, have tweeted at JKR, but sadly it'll just fall on deaf ears. She has kind of proven that no matter how many times people have called her out on something she ignores it completely. Still, at least people are coming together to at least try to get through to her to do better with educating herself.

[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

It's better than not trying, I guess. I also tweeted a link to a science article.

It just occurred to me that my above comment about a worthy adaptation could be read as referring to the Golden Compass movie, which was actually pretty good despite switching the order of Bolvangar and Svalbard and deleting the ending scenes, so I should clarify I wasn't dissing it but rather some other adaptations of books, primarily GoT.

[noybusiness.livejournal.com]

Interesting that they didn't even come up with a name for the species behind the scenes when they had another member of it (Yaddle) appear as a member of the Jedi Council in The Phantom Menace.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

That's exactly how I feel, as well. This isn't just her having an opinion, as some like to twist this into a "you just like silencing women for having an opinion!" (because those arguments...jfc), it's about her abusing her position as a public figure on a large social media platform by spreading misinformation and defending hate speech/discrimination, making her stance known that she supports and follows these particularly dangerous and harmful ideologies that actually hurt people. She came out of the woodwork specifically for this, and that's what really upsetting.

[giallarhorn.livejournal.com]

I mean, given how quickly they turned around to (try) ship out Baby Yoda merch, I'd be surprised if they don't DVD it. Or maybe not, since I guess that subscription money might be worth more to them. I was wrong on them letting the other MCU shows live, so...yeah. Not sure what Disney's endgame is here beyond 'entertainment empire'.

On one hand, it's a sigh of relief- GoT is done, it's over, and I think on some level we all knew it wasn't going to be that good by the battle of Winterfell. So, idk. I don't have to think about it as much anymore, but on the other hand, shitty ending. Good music and good shots, though.

Fannish discourse is still around, I think, but it's a lot less centralized now that fandom is more mainstream? Lbr, it's the age of the geek and nerd, but that also means everything is just now spread, well, everywhere. I've seen some people use specific forums or reddit, but you have to 1) go hunting for them, and 2) it's kinda hit or miss.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

This is why I hate how a lot of shows are not being released onto DVD because it's available on streaming. I don't want to only rely on streaming services, since that is fundamentally unfair. I know Disney is going to be incredibly controlling of their own service, so I don't know what to expect.

Well, technically it's not "done" done, since they have that prequel series coming out on HBO, which already is looking just as bad. Quite frankly, with how tarnished GOT's reputation has gotten, I cannot for the life of me believe anyone would want to watch a prequel series knowing how everything turns out. It's just not worth it, imho.

It does suck, though, because Game of Thrones could have been great, everything else about it was from the actors to the cinematography and such, but it's the writing that sucked and the showrunners who ultimately brought it all down. And the add insult to injury, they just didn't give a fuck. It's clear from the way they talk about the show, the actors, everything that they felt that it was a waste of their time hence why they bounced as soon as they could, and how they proudly proclaim that they were incompetent and knew nothing about the story or the characters. Just, a huge waste and a mess.

Yeah, I know it's still around but like you said you have to go hunting for them in the right places, and a lot of times it's not exactly as engaging as it should be. I guess I just miss the fannish communities like LJ had, where everyone was as enthusiastic about a fandom and you could have long comment threads with multiple people and befriend each other from shared interests. That kind of connect and sense of fandom community is what I miss the most, and while it still kinda happens here and there, it's just doesn't have that same vibe.

[silverusagi]

The ending of GOT reminds me of the ending of HIMYM, universally hated by everyone

Believe it or not, some people loved the GoT ending.

[rogueslayer452.livejournal.com]

Oh, I believe it. There will definitely be people who loved something that is vastly hated by others, and vice versa. That's inevitable since nothing is absolutely hated by everyone, as there will always be someone who actually enjoyed it.