Carry on my....well, you know.

[rogueslayer452]

This question I saw on author_by_night, which I gave my answer there but I wanted to elaborate more here:

What's a fandom that honestly made you quit the fandom and/or the piece of media itself?

Out of all of the fandoms I've been involved in, the only one that has truly made me quit both the media and its fandom was Supernatural. Anyone who was around back then on LJ knew how deep I was with the show during the very early seasons (S1-S6), I was quite invested with not only watching the show but also engaging with the online fandom. I participated in fan discussions, wrote episode reviews immediately after watching an aired episode, wrote metas, did fanmixes, it was also the fandom that I ended up going to my first convention for and met some online friends in real life. Those were some of the upsides to my fandom experience, however the downsides sadly far outweighed all of those positives. There was a lot going on with my frustrations with the direction the show was going during the sixth season along with the aggressively toxic nature of the fandom itself, which unfortunately that negativity regretfully bled into my own attitude and behavior at times upon interacting with the fandom, something that I am honestly ashamed of. It was all becoming too much for me to handle, mentally and emotionally. Stepping away from both the show and the fandom itself turned out to be the best decision for my own sanity. It truly became a hard lesson for me to learn about quitting something that was making me unhappy, that even if I wanted to stay with it for a particular character/actor or even for the online friends I had made along the way, it's just not worth it.

Interestingly, now that the show is over I have just recently been returning back to reblogging things about it on my Tumblr once again. I guess time and distance, and also having a closed canon, was all that was needed, as well as a very different fandom atmosphere then when I had last left it. Less toxic and more introspective, the never-ending memes, etc.

Comments

[author_by_night]

which unfortunately that negativity regretfully bled into my own attitude and behavior at times upon interacting with the fandom, something that I am honestly ashamed of.

I hear you. I think we were also younger, which didn't help.

. It truly became a hard lesson for me to learn about quitting something that was making me unhappy, that even if I wanted to stay with it for a particular character/actor or even for the online friends I had made along the way, it's just not worth it.

I wish I'd learned that lesson a few years earlier, but I definitely brought those lessons to new fandoms and life experiences overall.

Less toxic and more introspective, the never-ending memes, etc.

Yay! That's how it should be.

[itsnotmymind]

The fact that six whole seasons can accurately be referred to as "the very early seasons" cracks me up. I did love SPN but it went on way, way too long.

Completely with you on the toxicity of the fandom. I got involved late season nine and stopped watching (due to problems with the show itself) after season ten. It was toxic and I wish I'd handled so many things differently. For me it's tied up with my problems with Tumblr - Tumblr and me were not a good match.

[rhoda_rants]

Supernatural is such a hot mess, in every conceivable way. I think its biggest problem is just that it got too big. Too big to cancel, too big to accommodate newbies nicely, too big to keep coming up with interesting ideas. It really should've ended after Season 5. I understand why it didn't (too much money to be made), and I do like a lot of episodes even up through Season 10, but it got so sloppy and nonsensical.

The neverending memes are fun though! There truly is a SPN meme for everything. It's why I keep a handful of gifs around just in case, lol.

[rogueslayer452]

Seriously, there needs to be a study conducted on Supernatural just based on the various things I know and heard about it throughout the years. Because yeah, it gave the CW money and provided the actors with stable jobs to support their families, but similar to things like Grey's Anatomy (which also premiered the same year as SPN) it definitely went on far too long and got too convoluted and messy trying to keep some kind of story and narrative going.

The neverending memes are fun though! There truly is a SPN meme for everything. It's why I keep a handful of gifs around just in case, lol.

Too true. I know that the long ongoing joke is that SPN had a gif for everything, but it's honestly the truth, lol.

Also, in addition to that, I like how a lot of people are acknowledging how deeply flawed and poorly executed the show is in a baffling yet fascinating way, like they want to look at it through a microscope and study it like a strange specimen because of how truly messy and ridiculous it is. Which is where a lot of the introspective elements comes from, because I like seeing the way fans go, "this was horrible but you can see the brilliance underneath it, if only they had actually explored that in canon" which, y'know, story of our lives as fans of something.

[rhoda_rants]

You could absolutely do a study on it! It's practically a masterclass in queerbaiting. I think that term gets thrown around way more than it deserves to be, but in this case, it fits. It's so deliberate and calculated, and I actually learned a new media analysis term thanks to a fandom discussion about it: Polysemy. Seriously, check that out if you have time--it's fascinating!

[rogueslayer452]

Especially nowadays when shows are lucky enough to even get two seasons, oftentimes they're not even full length just six or eight episodes worth. What a strange time in television we're in. But yeah, I do agree that the show went on far longer than it should have.

I thankfully never really encountered much of whatever fandom drama that was happening on Tumblr at the time. I was only vaguely keeping track with what was happening with the show via those who I followed who still watched, but otherwise most of my issues stemmed from the LJ side of the fandom. That was very, well, not a great time for me back then. I have to say though, it is interesting the see the kind of different attitudes and behaviors from fandom on different platforms at various times during the show's run.

[rogueslayer452]

I was in my early twenties at the time, and it wasn't my first rodeo involving toxic fandoms, so in truth I really should've known better. But I think this was the first fandom where I was really that active in said fandom rather than being merely on the fringes of like BTVS and even HP, both which featured a lot of fandom drama and negativity. So idk, I think anyone can get too deep and wrapped up in something and fall down that toxic mindset if that's all you're surrounded by. Which is why me stepping away was for the better.

Yay! That's how it should be.

It really should. Fandom (in general) does need to go back to just being unabashedly fannish about something, to just have fun and share the joy with other fans.

[elizalavelle]

Glad the fandom has bounced back.

[rogueslayer452]

From what I've seen, it really has. I'm sure there's still drama happening since fandom wank never ends, but I have definitely seen quite a turnaround in the fandom space which is kind of refreshing to see.

Plus, I gotta admit, the whole November 5th thing really kind of united fandom together, not just the SPN fandom but the general fandom overall, in a way that I hadn't seen before. Yeah, it's become a meme since, but it's something that I don't think I could've fathomed back when I was in the fandom many years ago.

[violateraindrop]

Luckily my actual involvement never went beyond making icons and reading fanfic. What I saw from the fringes was bad enough. I watched it until the end, but very casually I'd say. I occasionally see stuff/memes on tumblr that make me go "That happened on the show?" The things I remember are all from S1-5.
I own all seasons on DVD though...

[elizalavelle]

I had to look it up but on November 5th Destiel happened?

There will always be fandom drama. It's just good when it doesn't make the whole fandom feel unwelcoming to new fans.

[rogueslayer452]

Yep. It did. But it also didn't. In typical SPN/CW fashion it was both canon and queerbaited at the same time, therefore complicated.

Yeah, all fandoms have drama and negativity, and it's better to find spaces that are more welcoming than not and know how to navigate through the drama that occurs, filtering and blocking have gotten better on certain platforms to avoid those things which is good.

[elizalavelle]

Oh Supernatural, always complicating things.

Good point about how filtering and blocking has improved. It's easier to avoid people who want to be espcially rude or gatekeeping in fandom. There are also so many spaces for fandom so if one is toxic it's possible to go somewhere else and see new people.