#Your headcanon may vary #Ship and let ship
So, I’m not going to throw in my “Why fight eachother?” “When you can all love me together!” gifset w/ our fandom’s lead character, because that’s sugarcoating when gently #-swats with newspaper (thanks cup-of-lixx!), is so much more appropriate. A gentle swat!
Was this about the potential wedding of fictional vampires? I think that is the topic on which this conflict started. There were opinions on that and people felt that contrary opinions maligned their own. I think it’s worth analyzing why, so that when this happens again (IT WILL) we can all react a little more peaceably. Hit the “Keep reading…” for that.
Basically: serious aggressive discussions happen in every field, every fandom, every topic that exists. That’s part of Real Life. The word “fandom” doesn’t guarantee that everyone who likes what you like will have the same opinion about it, or that they will even like YOU.
I think we can all agree that we all care about these characters, and we all want to see them treated properly in canon.
Specifically about the wedding:
Anne Rice offered some plot points and ideas about a possible wedding between her characters occurring in the next VC installment. Opinions here seemed to divide into:
1. OMG this is awesome! Show me the fluffy ❤ Let’s talk about the venue, let’s get *~David Tutera~* in here, ‘stat! I’m so so happy that my ship will be officially validated in canon, I mean, finally, no one can call them “just friends” if they’re actually MARRIED <3<3<3 I JUST LOVE THESE CHARACTERS AND WANT WHAT’S BEST FOR THEM.
2. UGH this is so lame! This is a mortal convention and is it really applicable to immortal non-human beings? Plus which, marriage isn’t for everyone (especially creatures who have difficulty with monogamy *cough cough*
LESTAT who falls in love at lease once in every book*cough*) so why must it be forced into OUR series? Is it fanservice? Should authors do fanservice, even at the expense of writing out-of-character? I JUST LOVE THESE CHARACTERS AND WANT WHAT’S BEST FOR THEM.
From what I gathered, it appeared that these two very contrasting opinions led to:
- Group 1 people feeling that Group 2 people were shitting on their enthusiasm, and
- Group 2 people feeling that Group 1 people were being shallow and treating this series like cheap romance, in which no one can really be happy unless they’re married off at the end.
Whether or not either group is “right,” we all have our own way of engaging with it. Whether finding it an escape from reality and a source of joy and squee, or finding it a packed mystery worth examining with a critical eye, and everything in between.
Not everyone is leaving. No one needs to leave. The fandom isn’t full of these serious aggressive discussions, they happen occasionally. The internet/tumblr is big enough for everyone.
I-want-my-IWTV 