[Discussion] Fandom entitlement

[leasspell_dael]

Have you ever felt like a bad fan? I do, sometimes.

Often, I'll look at various fandom posts, and feel irritated by the sense of entitlement that's expressed. You know the type of posts, ones where the the writer expresses dissatisfaction with an installment of their fandom because it doesn't conform to what they want from it. This could be a love-interest that interferes with a non-canon 'ship, or new information revealed that goes against their head-canon. (This is not to be confused with legitimate complaints concerning shoddy writing/development/plot holes, etc, or a calm decision to ignore canon that josses a fanfic idea.)

I've been doing up notes on my personal head-canon for Kingdom Hearts in preparation for work on one of the projects I wound up ignoring during NaNo.

There is a conspicuous lack of Xion.

I could excuse myself by saying 'well, they erased her from canon anyways', but I know deep down in my heart that's not why.

I really didn't like her when I played 358/2 Days. Not the concept, I thought the concept was cool, but I didn't like the way they implemented it. And, hey, fair enough, they're not going to please everybody. There were a bunch of other things I disliked about Days, too. Roxas' characterization and their timeline for Chain of Memories are two of the big ones.

I can justify all of these things with a slew of "logical" explanations.

But it all comes down to: they didn't jive with my head-canon.

Pot, meet kettle. I must now lower my head in shame at the understanding of my own sense of entitlement.

And the worst part is, I'm completely unrepentant. I have absolutely no plans change my head-canon to fit in these things I don't like. Luckily it's all background stuff that won't even be seen in any of my current projects, or could be taken as artistic license. But I know it's there, and it's vaguely shameful.

Anyone else have experience with this kind of thing?

In an unrelated note, I've edited the Pairing Meme entry to reveal the answers, in case anyone's interested.

Comments

[auronlu]

Interesting point.

I think there is a spectrum, gradient, or slippery slope that extend from, "Blast, my favorite OTP just got Jossed-- well, I'm going to ignore canon and keep playing with it, because I enjoy it" to "the game designers don't know what they're doing; how DARE they screw up this perfectly canon thing [which is actually fanon]!"

I dislike the latter only when it causes a lot of fanon vs. fanon flame wars and sniping. It seems to crop up most often in ship wars which don't have a very firm footing in canon.

In lieu of getting too annoyed, sometimes I try to remind myself of the psychological reason for the possessive aspect of fanon and fandom.

Young people often arrive in fanon before they're very sure of themselves or their self-constructed identities. Fandom and fanfic allow them to work on self-identity by borrowing someone else's tools, tropes and symbols, rather than having to start from scratch. Prior to the internet, we did this by writing fanfiction in spiral bound notebooks under the covers by flashlight. Now, young writers come up and start sharing early. The fanon they build up is two parts canon and one part them. No wonder they feel entitled, defensive, possessive of a chunk of their own embryonic self-identity which is still in the process of being formed. They almost certainly don't realize that fanfiction/fandom is serving that function for them.

As writers mature, they become more aware of which parts are "their" stuff and which are innate to the material.


"It bends canon, but I like this ship, so I'm doing it— read or not as you like!" takes a slightly more mature fan.

[leasspell_dael]

Young people often arrive in fanon before they're very sure of themselves or their self-constructed identities. Fandom and fanfic allow them to work on self-identity by borrowing someone else's tools, tropes and symbols, rather than having to start from scratch. Prior to the internet, we did this by writing fanfiction in spiral bound notebooks under the covers by flashlight. Now, young writers come up and start sharing early. The fanon they build up is two parts canon and one part them. No wonder they feel entitled, defensive, possessive of a chunk of their own embryonic self-identity which is still in the process of being formed. They almost certainly don't realize that fanfiction/fandom is serving that function for them.

I definitely hadn't thought of this, and will be keeping it in mind for the future. It puts a different perspective and, as you said earlier, makes it easier to understand the 'why' behind the behaviour.

And I have absolutely no beef with "It bends canon, but I like this ship, so I'm doing it— read or not as you like!" Heck, that's what fanfiction's for in my opinion: exploring what we will not see in canon, in all shapes and sizes.

Thanks for giving me some more material to chew on!