Fandom, the next generation...
Dec. 16th, 2018 10:44 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
boogiewoogiebuglegalSo my daughter is 12. She knows I'm a fanfic writer and has gone with me to conventions and the like since she was old enough to walk. This is not a new thing to her.
What is a new thing, though, is the experience she had Friday night. She was (very anxiously, it was cute) awaiting the start of season 8 of Voltron. (I remember the shitty cartoon version from the 80s; the fact that they rebooted it was... perplexing to me but hey, whatever.) She loved it.
Note the past-tense.
She watched the first episode and was....disappointed. Hurt, in the way of fans who trust that writers and showrunners won't totally screw up the characters and relationships she'd come to love. (Note: I don't really know all that happened, but I got the gist. No spoilers here, for those who haven't seen it.)
So I sat her down and told her I'd seen this before. (To quote BSG, "All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.") And I told her about being 13 in 1987 and watching my favorite series of the era kill off its lead female character because the actress who played her was pregnant and wanted to avoid another miscarriage. And how the decision of the showrunners then---how they handled the exit of the actress's character---doomed the third season of that series to an inevitable cancellation and set off a war in its fandom that split fandom into two and was so toxic that, to this day, there are folks who still won't talk to each other because of it. (We're talking 30 + years later, mind.)
And I told her how we coped then. I was 13 and mad, so I wrote a story fixing what went wrong. (And that was the start of my writing fanfic---off and on, in a few fandoms, ever since.) And I wasn't the only one. Far from it. A lot of us made the decision that our beloved show had actually ended in season two. And we made that work. Because canon, at the end of the day, is really only what you make of it.
So she said, "I could write a story?"
I told her why not. Fix what went wrong. Spackle a plot hole. Make what went wrong, go right.
She's hate-watching the remaining episodes of Season 8 (another fandom tradition LOL) But who knows, another fanfic writer might just have been born. ..
What is a new thing, though, is the experience she had Friday night. She was (very anxiously, it was cute) awaiting the start of season 8 of Voltron. (I remember the shitty cartoon version from the 80s; the fact that they rebooted it was... perplexing to me but hey, whatever.) She loved it.
Note the past-tense.
She watched the first episode and was....disappointed. Hurt, in the way of fans who trust that writers and showrunners won't totally screw up the characters and relationships she'd come to love. (Note: I don't really know all that happened, but I got the gist. No spoilers here, for those who haven't seen it.)
So I sat her down and told her I'd seen this before. (To quote BSG, "All this has happened before, and all this will happen again.") And I told her about being 13 in 1987 and watching my favorite series of the era kill off its lead female character because the actress who played her was pregnant and wanted to avoid another miscarriage. And how the decision of the showrunners then---how they handled the exit of the actress's character---doomed the third season of that series to an inevitable cancellation and set off a war in its fandom that split fandom into two and was so toxic that, to this day, there are folks who still won't talk to each other because of it. (We're talking 30 + years later, mind.)
And I told her how we coped then. I was 13 and mad, so I wrote a story fixing what went wrong. (And that was the start of my writing fanfic---off and on, in a few fandoms, ever since.) And I wasn't the only one. Far from it. A lot of us made the decision that our beloved show had actually ended in season two. And we made that work. Because canon, at the end of the day, is really only what you make of it.
So she said, "I could write a story?"
I told her why not. Fix what went wrong. Spackle a plot hole. Make what went wrong, go right.
She's hate-watching the remaining episodes of Season 8 (another fandom tradition LOL) But who knows, another fanfic writer might just have been born. ..
no subject
Date: 2018-12-16 07:55 pm (UTC)I'm much of a fandom young myself, fully engaging with the fannish community perhaps five years ago when I was just a little older than your daughter. Putting myself in her shoes, I can't imagine how it would have been to have a fandom mom to help me navigate through this mess. I love that you're open about it with her and you encourage her passion. That's honestly what I aspire to be if I'll ever have kids.
PS: Yeah, season eight was a massive let down. Everyone agrees with that.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-16 09:58 pm (UTC)I’m online so.. ya know, interaction is fine ;) Glad to meet you and I’m happy you commented!
no subject
Date: 2018-12-17 02:09 pm (UTC)I'm coming at this from the POV of a writer (duh) but if you want, you can tell your daughter that I've been in loads of fandoms for shows/books/movies that were good and then took an abrupt heel-face turn to the crappy. Frequently, those fandoms have the best fan-created content. You can adopt those characters and make them your own, and in my experience you will treat them better, and with more respect, than any showrunner could.
And as a writer, you learn a helluva lot by taking apart a storyline that isn't working. I've learned more from dissecting crappy stories than I have from reading well-written stuff -- to the point that I don't even get mad when things I like turn south. What's working in the story? What doesn't work? Where does the story fall apart and why?
It's just another opportunity for me; more fuel for the fire. And I find that a lot more rewarding than just binging something someone else wrote. After all -- if people who write that badly can get jobs writing, why not the rest of us mooks? And even if you don't want to become a pro (which is fair, it's not for everyone) it makes you a better human; it teaches you empathy and problem solving and you might find yourself meeting cool new people and making better friends.
So I know it's disappointing at first, but as a wise old jerk once said: *Obi Wan Kenobi Voice* You've taken your first step into a wider world.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-17 02:23 pm (UTC)I sat her down, once she'd calmed down, (She's 12. A certain amount of Calm was necessary because hoo, boy, emotionz. :D) and asked her exactly what was wrong with the first episode of season 8. What bothered her? And teased out that the internal logic, the canon of seasons 1-7 got blown to hell and back. And she was offended that the writers spent all that work creating a canon and destroyed it all in one episode.
So, I asked her---what would you do to fix that? Because it hit me: this is a safe space for her to learn how to handle when life disappoints you. Figuring out how to bend and not break, when to rant and rage and when to get on with fixing things if you can.... and so on. I suspect she'll be writing some angry fanfic in the upcoming days, and bonding with one of her school friends about THAT THING SUCKED, but...as you say, it's now a wider world.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-17 03:16 pm (UTC)(also, I have an 11-year-old daughter, so I totally hear you on the EMOTIONZ)
no subject
Date: 2018-12-17 06:11 pm (UTC)We’ve been talking and I think I named four or five series that went sideways like that. This was her first experience but it really won’t be her last. Ugh.