quitting a canon or fandom, for taliahale

[healingmirth]

Is there anything that will make you immediately abandon a fandom/canon? What's the line for you? If you don't have a force quit reaction to anything, what makes you drift out of a fandom to greener pastures?

I've been thinking about this! Because I've gradually abandoned at least twenty fandoms, for no reason more complex than something else did a slightly better job of lighting up my brain, and for several days, that collection of fannish drift was drowning out my memory of having intentionally left anything.



*For all of these, I had, at a minimum, a fic-reading period that lasted at least three months.

**reconstructed from the fic I wrote, and the fic I recced here on my journal and bookmarked elsewhere.

Veronica Mars, Dark Angel, Stargate SG:1, The Office, Stargate: Atlantis, Torchwood, Harry Potter (overwhelmingly Snarry), Merlin (barely; watched two episodes, read a bunch of fic) NCIS, Leverage, Supernatural, SPN RPF, Avengers Comics (mostly Captain America/Iron Man and largely pre-MCU, but post-RDJ Iron Man), Bandom (all of it, good lord), Star Trek AOS, Star Trek AOS RPF, Criminal Minds, The Losers, Generation Kill, White Collar, Suits, X-Men: First Class

And that doesn't count fandoms that I came to waaaaay late, read All The Things, and moved on from - due South, The Sentinel, Sports Night, Oz.

And for further reference, I consider myself still "in" Live Free or Die Hard, American Idiot, Hockey RPF, Lewis, Teen Wolf at the moment, but I'm not reading anything in Teen Wolf but authors I'm subscribed to, and not reading most of what little is getting written in LFoDH. And I think American Idiot is pretty much just me by this point. I'd probably still count myself in Inception fandom, too.




Torchwood. Good lord, Torchwood. I was Not Happy after Exit Wounds, but after Children of Earth, I was absolutely in the irate part of fandom. I like Jack and all, but I didn't want to watch the Jack Show, and wasn't much more interested in the Jack and Gwen Show.

I don't even mind character death, much! I just thought it was written so very stupidly, and while I'm pretty sure Gwen was intended to be the audience proxy, she definitely wasn't mine, so.

I stuck around the fandom for a bit for fixits and all, but when the next series premiere approached, I was done. I had absolutely zero interest in new canon, and my need for closure had been met. So, so done.

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The only other canon I've intentionally quit is White Collar, and I'd probably even go back to it if I wasn't already perpetually behind on shows that I actually enjoy.

I was never all that deep into White Collar fandom, but I was happy to show up for Neal/Peter or Neal/Peter/El (or Neal/Clint?). I am not actually sure when I quit, but I think it was the beginning of Season 4? Whenever it was, there was an episode that wildly swung a mallet at the button to reset Peter and Neal's relationship to day zero, or possibly day less-than-zero. I am SO OVER them not being able to trust each other. I would have stayed forever to watch them negotiate the tension between their moral and legal codes, and even had a fair amount of patience for Big Mistakes, but the show just pushed too far, and didn't appear to be offering me anything else that I look for in media in compensation.

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I may be at that point with Suits, as well. I'll have to see with the new season, but I've ceased to be interested in the tension they're continually manufacturing out of Mike's secret. For me, they're about to hit the point where I have to suspend too much disbelief, even though I still love all the characters.

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I don't think (could be wrong! brain made of swiss cheese!) that I've ever had a fannish experience that's soured me enough that I decided to walk away - I've had no personal involvement in ship wars, or fandom wank of any sort

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The ship has well sailed on my doing this in any formal meme framework, but feel free to lob a question at me, and I'll do my best to have thoughts!

Comments

[taliahale]

Woo! Looking at your list, I think our experiences have been pretty similar. It takes a lot to make me just say 'nope' and walk away, but fannish drift is par for the course.

I may be at that point with Suits, as well. I'm definitely at this point with Suits. I want to keep watching because Donna and Louis just plain make me smile, plus Gina Torres. I would watch that woman buy groceries, okay? I just don't know how long I can deal with Mike and his whiny manpain. Still enjoying the fic, but urgh. New season, do not be disappointing.

I'm not reading anything in Teen Wolf but authors I'm subscribed to. Same, aside from personal recs. Thing is, most of the authors I subscribe to in TW fandom are prolific, which means I'm still getting my regular werewolfly fix.

[healingmirth]

I suppose it's too much to hope that they just send Mike to jail in the new season? Just for a little while! Secret over, he can come back in some non-lawyer capacity, and have some sort of redemptive arc. And mentor some kids or something.

There are over 30k works in Teen Wolf now! It's 1am on the east coast, and there are already two pages of works updated with today's date. When a fandom gets so large that I can't even keep up with more than skimming new works, I think that's the point where I start feeling guiltier than it is fun, so that may be a new frontier in fandom out-migration for me. We'll see how I feel after 3b.

[taliahale]

Yes! I'm all for Mike being busted and then redemption arc. So down with the redemption arcs. I think that's the point where I start feeling guiltier than it is fun--I can definitely sympathize. The only fandom where I never got that feeling was Harry Potter, but that's probably because there was tons of fic pretty much from the start.

[healingmirth]

I don't think I ever had the slightest interest in writing in SPN or HP, so it was really easy for me to just graze, but I'm a sort of nervous/obsessive completist in fandoms that I have fic ideas for. (see also: my inability to let go of most plot bunnies or any WIP).

And there's also a helping of "if I'm going to try to engage, I want to encourage the other people who are trying" which is. Well, I'm not great at that to begin with so it's laughably impossible in large fandoms with juggernaut ships.