If you love something to the spot of unhealthy obsession , it feels like there ’s only one blank space you may really go . The internet .
Once upon a meter , I really , really , really loved Les Misérables . The script , movie , or melodious , you ask ? Yes . I own several copy of the Koran and have read it spread over - to - back multiple times , include Victor Hugo ’s extended 9,000 - give-and-take apart about argot — a type of archaic French slang used by thieves — and its role in literature , as well as his 5,000 - intelligence rant about why convents suck . I watched Tom Hooper ’s 2012 photographic film adjustment of the musical three multiplication in dramaturgy , even though Russell Crowe ’s Javert made my ears bleed and I never understood why Hooper needed every close - up shot to be just off - center . After my 15th show , I check counting how many times I ’d date the musical live , in two languages mind you . ( This is not include the number of times I ’ve watched the tenth and twenty-fifth - anniversary concerts . I unfeignedly do n’t need to call up about that number . ) Can I still sing both parts ofThe Confrontation ? Also yes . I was the soul my friend askedhow to pronounce Enjolras , the iconic character in the crimson vest who asks ifyou can hear the people singanddies dramaticallywaving the radical flag . ( It ’s ohn - jol - ras , by the way . )
Very reasonably , most people in my life would n’t stand my obsessive love for a taradiddle about a melancholy buff buster who spend 19 eld as captive 24601 for stealing a loaf of bread . Online though ? Tumblr , Fanfiction.net , and AO3 are where I bump my fellow weirdos .
Illustration: Angelica Alzona (Photo: Shutterstock)
https://gizmodo.com/when-fandom-is-the-problem-1835695031
It was exhilarating . Memes of Les Mis ? Be still my nerdy tenderness . On my long - since abandoned Tumblr , I may have had a viral meme about the various extremity of the Les Amis de l’ABC — the pretty boyband bookman who die on the barricade after Paris fails to rise during the June 1832 Rebellion . ( Les Mis , I say tug my spectacles up my nose , does not take shoes during the French Revolution , which occurred from 1789 to 1799 . ) Normal people do n’t care about this esoteric shucks but in my little Les Mis mathematical group , we could gush over our favorite characters , best-loved film adaptations , patronage bootleg telecasting of various revitalisation , discuss the Best Valjeans ( Colm Wilkinson and Alfie Boe , personally ) , the Best Javerts ( Philip Quast or flop you heathens ) , and every other use in between . There was splendid rooter art , and of path , there was the fanfiction .
The fanfiction is where it all went wrong . It triggered what I call the Great Shipping War of 2013 . While I had loved all forms of Les Mis since seeing the 10th - day of remembrance concert on PBS at the tender age of nine , there was a new inflow of fans following Tom Hooper ’s 2012 celluloid variation . I could drop the rest of this blog narrate the war , but it ’s honestly embarrassing and some item are fuzzy after eight days . The substance was there were two factions of devotee . The first believe that Enjolras and Grantaire weredoomed lovers , and anyone who disagreed was a raging homophobe . It was the most pop Les Mis ship by far , even though the main tale was n’t even about them . The other was a much littler group who ship Enjolras with Eponine , despite the fact they have next to zero fundamental interaction in the book , movies , and melodious . ( Such a conjugation is often referred to as a“crack ” ship , as there ’s no real canonical evidence to justify it . ) There was a caboodle of discourse about homophobia , and how if you liked the latter ship in any capacitance , you were a queerphobic bigot . Death threat were sent . Online still hunt ensued . individual assembly radical were made and penetrate . Big Name Fans post clap backs to insults , which then triggered another alluvion of death threat until your feed was just a never - ending scroll of people attempt to destroy each other over a musical that was at that time 28 years old .
I was a bit player in this war , but a fatal accident nonetheless . Once in a while , when my good sense left me , I pass over into the discussion using reason and found that logic had no top executive on Tumblr .
The only result was to sharply reprise the mantra of “ This is fictional and nobody yield two shits in real life , ” over and over again ; to cue myself that it was idiotic for this many dorks to be so hateful over minor type who come out for less than a third of the original source material .
Adding my two cent into the whirling maelstrom of Les Mis discourse on Tumblr never terminate well for me . hr were wasted over arguing about which fictitious characters were allow to bone , and which I were n’t . After a while , I kept my persuasion in draft that were promptly delete once nail . I begin muting toxic tag end , scroll past postal service I know would be disconcerting , and whittling down who I followed to broadly speaking pleasant story . But for me , the most effective trick was to imagine myself recount petty fandom drama to my beggarly champion in person . If she ever knew how I spend my metre online , she ’d mercilessly roast me for getting endow in something so stunned .
Several months after , my provender cleared and the shipping state of war ended . They always do because every fandom has a ledge lifespan . Series end . New motion picture and Koran come out . People move on to the next fandom and the next nifty shipping war . All it be me was my nerdy beloved of Les Mis . While I still love everything Les Mis , it ’s not something I return to often . retrieve that metre feels like sticking my hand into an open flaming . I cringe looking back on it but there was one silver lining from the experience .
It shielded me from the perniciousness of the Star Wars fandom .
It is wholly unoriginal to be a Star Wars rooter . There ’s nothing inherently unique about it . Half the humankind sleep together Star Wars . Nevertheless , I am a gigantic jerk who ’s loved Star Wars for over 25 years now .
After The Force Awakens , I could smell a state of war brewing . The credits had n’t even finish rolling before the Discourse began echoing through the far corner of Tumblr . Stormpilot , the ship where buff latched onto the idea that Finn and Poe Dameronwere gay lover , emerge . So , too , did the Reylos – fan of emo space Methedrine Kylo Ren hooking up with desert scavenger Rey . And with the Reylos , originate the Anti - Reylos who fence that the ship was indicative of racism and perpetuate abusive relationship tropes . I had flashback to the Great Shipping War of 2013 . I broke out in a stale sweat . This , I thought , could get ugly . Star Wars was n’t Les Mis , a mostly contained fandom relegated to theater swot and Victor Hugo dweebs . Star Wars was a mainstream ethnical phenomenon that was about to get its first real taste of mod , internet fandom .
This was a powderkeg and the last thing I want was to be in the blast r . This would n’t be a “ safe ” fandom to go full nerd . This , I thought , was something to observe from afar , to keep involution spark and casual .
While things were relatively tame after the first motion picture , by the sentence The Last Jedi came out , the toxic fandom wars had already commence . For most people , you either loved The Last Jedi for break in raw ground in the franchise or hated it for failing to scrub a nostalgic itch . But in a very specific corner of Star Wars fandom , it boiled down to whether you like or dislike Reylo . It would ’ve been one thing if the shipping wars were contained to the earthly concern inside our figurer . But for the first time ever , it spilled over into my real life and the literal human beings .
I ’m not going to name names , but after an conversance noticed my Reylo - themed speech sound sheath — a talent from a friend — they go forward to launch into a public broadside of how I was “ canceled . ” Several supporter , and some accomplished strangers , hap to witness the verbal haranguing . I wanted to crawl under a rock and choke . after , that person institutionalize me multiple lengthy blog about how cause a Reylo phone subject sign to the world that I implicitly indorse rape , domestic abuse , and toxic relationships . It feel like being severalise if I embark more ethically double-dyed mating , that would somehow translate to me having better moral .
To be clear-cut , this soul was n’t a bad person . Their actions were meant earnestly in an attempt to lease me in fandom discourse about valid topics . The irony was I was being lambaste about enabling rape and abuse , while also being a violation and abuse subsister , at a time when I did n’t experience comfortable discussing it . This somebody did n’t bonk that . How could they ? I was n’t mad at that person — I really do conceive they were coming at me with the intent to “ develop . ” It ’s just that the whole Les Mis fandom whipping made it clear to me that the fictional characters you like are n’t a moral litmus tryout . People are more than their fandoms . fandom are n’t material .
It would be too simple to say that person was a jerk who should ’ve minded their own business . I recognize from my own experience that the most hardcore fans often turn to fandom because it fills a void in that somebody ’s lifespan . It ’s escapism at its thoroughgoing . In moderate loony toons , it can be fun , foster residential district , and be a creative way out . There is a point , though , where it ’s no longer keep a thing you relish with other fans . It morph into an unhinged pursuance to prove that your interpretation of a fictitious work is the right one . To fandom zealots , it ’s not about expressing an impression . It ’s tearing someone else down for theirs , because it threatens yours . In my instance , I was someone who was to be affect and then enlightened to the “ correct ” way of interpreting a sci - fi movie where the great unwashed flourish laser swords .
Not liking The Last Jedi snowball intobullying Kelly Marie Tranoff social media . Because in twine fandom logical system , deliver the goods at that somehow proves you were right that her type was n’t good and single - handedly destroy the intact picture show . Spoiler : It does n’t . Mark Hamill relating how heinitially struggled with Luke ’s characterizationin The Last Jedi somehow proves his character was frightful in that film , which then buckle into an open license to hurtle insults in Rian Johnson ’s Twitter reference . Again , it does n’t . John Boyega ’s dependable criticism of the Star Wars franchisesomehow becomes a dogpilewhere he ’s excoriate on social medium as a male chauvinist who ’s jealous of his white-hot Colorado - stars . Nope . At the root of it , it ’s fans act gravely on social media because they want to be “ correct . ” Fandom does n’t have to be like this . And yet , here we are , famous person and ordinary people likewise , exhausted by these petty fandom wars , rapidly grow to detest something that once brought joy .
As a old hand of the Les Mis shipping wars , it was well-situated to nope out of the internet Star Wars converse . Once that IRL incident chance , I disengaged from Star Wars on social media . I liked fan art friends sent me , record fanfic once in a blue moon , read interesting critiques and reviews by my confrere at iO9 , but interact with other fans on social medium ? Strictly verboten . If I saw people chatting Star Wars for more than 10 minutes , I did my best to forget those channels , tongueless ribbon , and block those hashtags . Is it less playfulness ? Not at all . in reality , it ’s enable me to enjoy show like The Mandolorian and bask ( or dislike ) them for what they are . I get to enjoy Star Wars ( and other fandoms ) on my terms , if and when I ’m feeling up to it . It ’s no longer an obsession , and you know what ? That ’s a good affair .
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