as someone with a film and tv degree with ba hons who has spent years studying how audiences build meaning, i’m honestly stunned by how nasty some people in this fandom can be.
if you don’t believe in conformitygate, that’s completely fine, interpretation isn’t compulsory, and no one is demanding you sign a manifesto. but the people who do believe in it aren’t doing anything wrong. they’re engaging critically, creatively, and with a level of care that mirrors actual academic labour. the amount of time, love, and methodological thought poured into those posts makes me love this side of the fandom even more. it’s thoughtful, it’s rigorous, and it’s genuinely joyful to watch unfold.
and some of you really need to just… keep scrolling. if your contribution is going to be hurtful, spiteful, or dismissive, you don’t need to offer it. “uhh just get over it, the duffers just didn’t care at the end” isn’t insightful, it’s not constructive, and it actively shuts down the kind of creative, critical engagement fandom is built on. scrolling is free. silence is free. letting people enjoy their corner of the text is free.
fandom thrives on multiplicity, on divergent readings, on people following threads that excite them. policing that doesn’t make you objective or superior; it just makes the space smaller, meaner, and far less interesting.
let people have fun. let people analyse. let people build theories with the same enthusiasm they’d bring to a seminar room. it’s not that deep, and it’s also exactly as deep as people want it to be.
