05-30-2015, 04:13 PM
Not quite the correct thread for this, but here goes:
I would like to participate in some fic exchanges, but I am soooo leery of offering or requesting BBT as a fandom, because my likes/dislikes/squicks regarding this fandom are a mile long, and because I suspect that any other people who might offer & request BBT for these exchanges are people whose views and preferences I do not share. Of course, part of a fic exchange is listing your likes and dislikes, but I just have a gut feeling that no good will come of this.
IDK, it's just very frustrating. The obvious answer is to offer and request other fandoms and leave BBT out of it entirely, which I can certainly do, and that's probably what I *will* do. But it's frustrating.
This fandom is just so weirdly...undead, I guess you could say. It makes me feel very alone, fandom-wise. There are no avenues for participating in the fandom or celebrating the parts of it that I liked, except for writing/creating things myself and sort of fanning in a vacuum, if that makes any sense.
On a different but possibly related note, it makes me so angry that people seem to have forgotten/dismissed the idea of Howard/Raj. (I mean in the broadest sense, not necessarily as a romantic/sexual pairing.) Yes, the show has forgotten/dismissed it, too, but ***that doesn't retroactively render the earlier seasons null and void.*** Nowadays, the characters on this show are people I don't recognize anymore, and I do not hold the Vintage Characters responsible for the actions of the "new" characters. If you think Howard is a jerk who threw away his friendship with Raj, or if you think Howard/Raj ceased to be relevant the moment Bernadette was introduced, you're engaging in revisionism/retconning. (the same could be said of other friendships & pairings, probably.)
I've never seen a fandom so quick to abandon their non-canon pairings the instant that a canonical love interest was introduced. That's not how non-canon shipping works, and it's especially not how slash works. They just obey whatever the official narrative tells them to do. "Oh, this is the new thing, I will transfer my attention to this, now." It's dumb and shallow. If you think H/R or S/P immediately ceased to be a thing just because the characters were given canonical love-interests, then you I'd say you *really* don't understand what shipping or fanfic are about.
"Howard is a jerk who ruined his friendship with Raj." Um, no, the writers wanted different character-groupings, so they shuffled the duos around. As usual, people are assigning Watsonian explanations to Doylist decisions.
IDK, I'm not making much sense right now, I'm just kinda angry and frustrated. As I said, the "new" characters are people I don't recognize, they behave in ways that are utterly OOC, and therefore I don't incorporate any of that into my personal concept of the show.
New!Howard *is* a jerk towards Raj. That's true. But I'm not a fan of New!Howard. That's never who I'm referring to when I say "Howard" or talk about the H/R ship. People are dreaming if they think there was some natural plot-progression in which H and R grew apart so that H/B and R/Whoever could happen, or whatever the theory is. There is no master plan or long-term plotting or actual character development on this show; there's random occurrences at the whims of TPTB. FWIW, I always mean Vintage!Sheldon when I say "Sheldon", too.
I will move this to a different thread, if asked, because I guess I'm just venting/ranting now. I guess my point is that
nothing can stop me from having the feelings and opinions that I have, about my preferred ships or characters. Nothing. "Such-and-such happened in Season 8!" is only relevant if you actually watched it, which I didn't. Recent episodes or recent seasons are only relevant if you choose to accept them as valid, which I don't. That's not my schema. The earlier seasons are my schema. If you read a book and then you choose not to read the sequel, did the events of the sequel actually happen? I would say no, not for you.
When I talk about the show or the characters, or the friendships therein, I'm talking about the Vintage version. Always. And nothing will make me believe that those things are somehow invalidated by what comes later. IMO people who think that way are fickle. "OMG, this happened, and then that happened, and then this happened!" will not stop me from shipping what I ship or believing what I believe.
I just get sad sometimes that there is nothing left of my ship, and people almost seem to want to retroactively disown it, as if they're embarrassed to have ever liked something that the canon eventually dropped or downplayed or ruined, as if they want to be on the "winning side." That's what I mean by fickle.
I am very alone in this fandom. /drama queen.
I would like to participate in some fic exchanges, but I am soooo leery of offering or requesting BBT as a fandom, because my likes/dislikes/squicks regarding this fandom are a mile long, and because I suspect that any other people who might offer & request BBT for these exchanges are people whose views and preferences I do not share. Of course, part of a fic exchange is listing your likes and dislikes, but I just have a gut feeling that no good will come of this.
IDK, it's just very frustrating. The obvious answer is to offer and request other fandoms and leave BBT out of it entirely, which I can certainly do, and that's probably what I *will* do. But it's frustrating.
This fandom is just so weirdly...undead, I guess you could say. It makes me feel very alone, fandom-wise. There are no avenues for participating in the fandom or celebrating the parts of it that I liked, except for writing/creating things myself and sort of fanning in a vacuum, if that makes any sense.
On a different but possibly related note, it makes me so angry that people seem to have forgotten/dismissed the idea of Howard/Raj. (I mean in the broadest sense, not necessarily as a romantic/sexual pairing.) Yes, the show has forgotten/dismissed it, too, but ***that doesn't retroactively render the earlier seasons null and void.*** Nowadays, the characters on this show are people I don't recognize anymore, and I do not hold the Vintage Characters responsible for the actions of the "new" characters. If you think Howard is a jerk who threw away his friendship with Raj, or if you think Howard/Raj ceased to be relevant the moment Bernadette was introduced, you're engaging in revisionism/retconning. (the same could be said of other friendships & pairings, probably.)
I've never seen a fandom so quick to abandon their non-canon pairings the instant that a canonical love interest was introduced. That's not how non-canon shipping works, and it's especially not how slash works. They just obey whatever the official narrative tells them to do. "Oh, this is the new thing, I will transfer my attention to this, now." It's dumb and shallow. If you think H/R or S/P immediately ceased to be a thing just because the characters were given canonical love-interests, then you I'd say you *really* don't understand what shipping or fanfic are about.
"Howard is a jerk who ruined his friendship with Raj." Um, no, the writers wanted different character-groupings, so they shuffled the duos around. As usual, people are assigning Watsonian explanations to Doylist decisions.
IDK, I'm not making much sense right now, I'm just kinda angry and frustrated. As I said, the "new" characters are people I don't recognize, they behave in ways that are utterly OOC, and therefore I don't incorporate any of that into my personal concept of the show.
New!Howard *is* a jerk towards Raj. That's true. But I'm not a fan of New!Howard. That's never who I'm referring to when I say "Howard" or talk about the H/R ship. People are dreaming if they think there was some natural plot-progression in which H and R grew apart so that H/B and R/Whoever could happen, or whatever the theory is. There is no master plan or long-term plotting or actual character development on this show; there's random occurrences at the whims of TPTB. FWIW, I always mean Vintage!Sheldon when I say "Sheldon", too.
I will move this to a different thread, if asked, because I guess I'm just venting/ranting now. I guess my point is that
nothing can stop me from having the feelings and opinions that I have, about my preferred ships or characters. Nothing. "Such-and-such happened in Season 8!" is only relevant if you actually watched it, which I didn't. Recent episodes or recent seasons are only relevant if you choose to accept them as valid, which I don't. That's not my schema. The earlier seasons are my schema. If you read a book and then you choose not to read the sequel, did the events of the sequel actually happen? I would say no, not for you.
When I talk about the show or the characters, or the friendships therein, I'm talking about the Vintage version. Always. And nothing will make me believe that those things are somehow invalidated by what comes later. IMO people who think that way are fickle. "OMG, this happened, and then that happened, and then this happened!" will not stop me from shipping what I ship or believing what I believe.
I just get sad sometimes that there is nothing left of my ship, and people almost seem to want to retroactively disown it, as if they're embarrassed to have ever liked something that the canon eventually dropped or downplayed or ruined, as if they want to be on the "winning side." That's what I mean by fickle.
I am very alone in this fandom. /drama queen.