i dont mean this in a hostile way at all, im just genuinely curious, but why is it a *bad* thing to (as that post puts it) have fandom brain? and only focus on shipping? i dont really understand why you should *have* to engage with a series a specific way /genuine question /light heartedyou dont have to answer this at all, feel free to delete
It’s not a bad thing, and you shouldn’t have to engage with the canonical text of a piece of fiction if you don’t want to.
It’d just be nice if there was like, a better way to separate the people who want to play ships with the characters without paying attention to the actual canon of the source material, and the people who want to ship characters and create fandom material that interacts and engages with the actual meaningful canon of the text.
It really sucks that the people who want to play paper-dolls with the images of characters have to see the stuff by people who want to seriously discuss the often ugly and unpleasant ideas that are in canon.
And it sucks the the people who want to seriously discuss and engage with the often ugly and unpleasant things in canon aren’t able to separate out the stuff by the people who just want to play with paper dollies.
It sucks because it’s hard to tell at a glance who is playing paper dolls, and who is trying to meaningfully engage with the text, and that very often leads to unfortunate infights and misunderstandings by people who are having two very different conversations.
I don’t want to step on anybody’s playtime or make people feel bad about playing imaginationland with characters from a series I like.
But I also don’t want to be punished and hated on for actually interrogating the text of that series and the things that happen in it.
I want to be really clear because I think I may have been misinterpreted.
I do not think there is ANY wrong way to interact with a fandom, whether it’s canon, fanon, or in between.
I don’t think most fans interact with purely one or the other, but usually do both at different times.
What I do think is it’s okay and normal to want to interact with other fans who are engaging with the fandom on the same level that you are at any given time.
I think it’s okay to present a fanon post and not want people to bring canon into it.
I think it’s okay to present a deep canon analysis post and not want people to bring fanon into it.
I think it’s okay to engage in ‘what if’ scenarios jumping off from the text and not want people to tell you ‘you’re wrong and here’s why’.
And I think it’s okay for the same person to do all of these at different times.
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