I'm worried there's a sort of cultural amnesia coming over OFMD fandom and people are forgetting how this canyon stuff developed, which is understandable. I think a lot of fandom newbies come in and think Izzy Canyon started out as a normal side faction that just really liked a supporting character kind of a lot until the end of season two when their fave died, after which they kind of went nuts and became bitter toward the show and started lashing out.
That would totally make sense. I understand why people assume that's what happened because honestly it would make way more sense than what actually happened. But it is not true. The canyon was exactly as deranged and toxic as they are now long before season 2 dropped. The only difference is that they used to aim the toxicity only at other fans who were insufficiently deferential to their interpretation of Izzy, and now they also aim it at the creators of the show and the show itself.
Here's just one example and it's something everyone can agree objectively happened. In January 2023, long before season 2, an OFMD charity fanzine was published. There was a purchase price, with the proceeds going 100% to Rainbow Youth, a nonprofit org providing support for queer youth in Aotearoa. The zine contained some meta essays. One essay was about Izzy - specifically, about why he's a really compelling character who the author liked a lot.
The essay notably tried really hard to avoid taking any particular stance on ANYTHING remotely controversial about how to interpret Izzy as a character; for instance, it didn't take any stance on whether or not he's queer OR on whether or not he's homophobic OR on whether or not he was destined for redemption. It did, however, describe him as an antagonist in season 1, and as a character many fans "love to hate."
This essay was considered so deeply offensive by the proto-canyon that they not only complained en masse about it, they WANTED REFUNDS. I don't mean they said "shit man this sucks I want a refund" in a jokey way, I mean significant numbers of people LITERALLY IN FULL SERIOUSNESS DEMANDED THEIR MONEY BACK. From a CHARITY ZINE. Money that was going TO CHARITY. The makers of the zine actually had to put out an official response to this because it was a serious thing.
The zine was called The Art of Fxckery. You can look this up.
That's what the canyon was already fully like by January 2023. That's why those of us who've been here the whole time always knew it would end this way: even if David Jenkins made an active decision to pander to the canyon, there was no possible way the show could kowtow to the canyon's demands thoroughly enough to be spared. Even describing season one Izzy as an antagonist was enough.