#fandom study

[fandom-anthropology]

Heya! If you have a fankid you’re ok with appearing in my future video about Fankids and their appeal, feel free to dm me here or at @nostalgic-soda , my main! Send image refs and a general description!

[bookwyrminspiration]

TLT's Religion + Trauma Survey Results!

About a month ago, I shared a survey regarding the impact of TLT's religion on fans and specifically fans with self-identified religious trauma. This was part of a larger group project for a class, but a handful of people were interested in knowing the results, so here they are!

Before we start: this was a very informal project and necessarily limited. Response options were limited, it didn't inquire into demographic information, data was analyzed manually, and Christianity was the focus/frequently presumed given its global prevalence and relation to the story. Several avenues of analysis weren't pursued given time and project constraints, so please keep all this in mind

The survey was open for about a week and received 965 responses

First, respondents were asked on a scale of 1-4 "Does The Locked Tomb's use or depiction of religion impact your reading experience?" From the entire pool, 83.6% rated it as at least slightly impactful (further broken down in the graph), and 97.4% indicated this was a positive impact.

In open response, respondents listed some reasons why, ranging from: "“it's just a part of the story” to “I enjoy the examination of the ways religion can shape someone's world view, or be used to manipulate and control” and "Religion is my autistic special interest and I love fictional religions!"

Respondents were then asked "Do you have, in your opinion, religious trauma?" The qualifications of religious trauma were intentionally non-specified and left to respondents discretion.

358 respondents, 37.1%, marked yes

This specific group of 358 were asked if this religious trauma impacted their reading of TLT. 66.1% indicated that it did.

Open response answers elaborated on this, saying: “I think reading it is cathartic for me,” “Space trauma lets me look at my real trauma without me or real people being hurt in it,” and “making religion a part of the narrative and drawing out the themes in a way that can be analyzed and picked apart made my experience with religion something I could look at in a similar way.”

The first question from the survey was then returned to, and the ratings of the 1-4 scale were looked at solely in the group of 358 respondents with self-identified religious trauma.

Of these, 90.3% marked a 2 or higher (compared to 83.6); 15% marked a 2 (compared to 22.1%), 31% marked a 3 (compared to 33%), and 44.3% marked a 4 (compared to 28.6%). Pardon the quick graph, as I made it in about 3 minutes specifically for this

Respondents with religious trauma, on average, rated the series' depiction of religion as more impactful to their reading experience than respondents without.

All respondents were then asked, "Has TLT helped you challenge or reinforce your ideas of and experiences with religion?"

Respondents elaborated that: "it reinforced my ideas of religion because I see religion as a means of controlling people, often abusive, and rooted in the supernatural" or "It challenged me to consider how religion can be both a positive force and a hurtful institution. I knew this to a degree already, having experienced both, but reading about it helped reinforce that nuance."

Respondents were then asked on a scale of 1-5, "Does the original text or the fandom contribute more to challenging or reinforcing ideas of and experiences with religion?" 1 is individual text only, and 5 is fandom only.

The majority of respondents indicated an equal impact from the original text and the fandom, however very few people were impacted only by the fandom (1.4%) compared to the number only impacted by the text (13.8%). This wasn't investigated further.

Finally, respondents were asked what religion they'd been referring to or thinking of when they'd been answering the above questions. The vast majority indicated Christianity or Catholicism, though we did not count exactly how many of each; it was clear it was the majority, and that sufficed for our purposes. A larger, more thorough study would be needed to look at Non-Christian/Catholic respondents' experiences in comparison.

The conclusion of all of this was that, as predicted, fans of TLT with self-identified religious trauma were more impacted by the series' use and depiction of religion. This was via catharsis, sympathy, identifying with the characters, and more.

The study demonstrates a function of speculative fiction that allows readers to engage with and process difficult topics (such as religious trauma) though a protected, distanced lens where no one real is hurt. This can be taken beyond TLT and to the genre as a whole, which is often dismissed as less literary or worthy of study than its classical counterparts, an opinion the surveyors argue against.

If you've made it to the end here, thank you again for all the responses and help! I hope you've enjoyed the results, and if there are any further questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer them. Upfront, yes there were 2 other components to the project (looking at queer demographics for the fandom and analyzing common themes in fanart and fic); those were my groupmates' sections, so I haven't shared them, but if you're curious I can always ask them if they'd be open to sharing :)

[sevensoulmates]

Yeah!! you're right, also that part of the toxic fandom does not realize that if they continue like this they will achieve the opposite of what they want (that is, Buddie becomes canon) and that Oliver and Ryan feel annoyed with the ship (something that I am sure they are starting to feel or already feel)

So I took some time to ponder over this because I’ve been seeing this general assumption/fear going around not just in the 911 fandom but within other fandoms as well, past and present. And I just became curious as to why we as an audience feel like if we make a wrong step--like being too pushy about something we do/don’t want--that creators will do the opposite to spite us.

In this day and age, it is very easy to access content creators, even ones who exist as part of a larger corporation. I did some research about how fans have generally been able (or unable) to impact how a show or movie has moved forward with any particular story and it seems that those who have (shows like Arrow that changed up storylines/pairings to suit comic book fans or fans of other ships) have been met with backlash and ultimately no satisfaction for anyone. I’ve also read of some shows (example like BBC Sherlock) adding in meta-level “fans” to their show, or writing in “undertones” to please fans, and that backfiring because the show didn’t actually want go forward with it, so when they backtracked (or didn’t make certain plotlines/ships canon) people were upset because of the false hope they were given.

We’ve also seen the rise in fan support saving certain show from cancellation. We watched it happen with One Day at a Time and with Brooklyn Nine-Nine. What was important to realize on that end, was that the shows weren’t “saved” by their original networks, but were instead bought up by other networks who believed the show could fit their brand and wanted to continue it and still felt like they would find those fans shifting to watch wherever the show went. These shows were saved not because of fan support (although that was a big factor) but mostly because the networks that bought them saw potential in continuing the show.

On the flip side, we’ve seen fan petitions to do things such as re-make the entire last season of Game of Thrones, or remake Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Neither of these fan petitions ever even came remotely close to influencing creators. But then we have the negative backlash of things like Sonic the Hedgehog where fans literally bullied the animation team into redesigning (and therefore re-making entirely) their film. But in that case the creators didn’t necessarily change up the story but rather a character design. Still, it showcases that fans DO have some sort of power to influence things that happen higher up. But how much really? In my opinion, way way less than we think we have.

From what I’ve read (and you can google ‘fan impact on tv shows’ if you want to read some older and newer articles), when it comes to the writing of shows, most creators and their writers are not writing to give the audience every little thing they want--but rather, they write to create the story that the writing team wants and the story that they best feel suits the characters. And this might not always line up with what the fans believe best suits the characters. Of course, TV shows WANT fans to enjoy what they make. They want to have fans in the first place. But because of how active people are online, and how easy it is to have your voice and opinion reach someone high up, fan voices are beginning to be drowned out--purposefully. 

When you have large-scale protests, such as the huge backlash The 100 and several other shows received for perpetuating the “bury your gays” trope, these criticisms are not petty complaints about ships or contradictory lore, these criticisms are about socio-cultural level problems that NEED to be addressed due to the harmful and deadly ramifications they can have on real world people. These protests are needed so that going forward, other media are AWARE of what ramifications may come from such decisions and can make better choices when telling their stories. Shows that have failed to comply often face heavy backlash--or are quick to get the boot (looking at you The Magicians). For problems like this, creators absolutely should be listening to their fans. For things like shipping, or other minor disagreements that are based heavily on individual fan preference, creators can very easily let that roll off their backs.   

My point is that with the ever-closing gap between fans and creators, fans voices have grown louder, yes, but creators ability to tune it all out has grown stronger. TV shows want passionate fans. And those who have been in the field for a while know that comes with having obnoxious, disrespectful, and rude fans as well. At the end of the day, unless a show is writing in storylines or character stereotypes that are disrespectful or harmful to groups of real people, they should not have to bend to every will of every faction of fans. And most won’t. Because you can’t please everybody, so the writers and creators are going to choose to do what works best to them. At the end of the day creators/writers are going to do whatever they want and take the storyline wherever they think is the most interesting (and logical) for their characters. (An aside to say I’m talking about shows that actually know what they’re doing in the writers room--not shows like Riverdale (no offense)).

Shows (like Supernatural for example) are always going to choose to do what they want to do above anything the fans say they want. If they want to make a certain ship happen, they’ll do it. If they don’t, they won’t regardless of how vocal fans (or antis) are. What show writers do and don’t want may shift over the course of time. It happens. (Like for example, in my personal opinion, I don’t believe the writers were at all trying or necessarily wanting to write Buddie as a legitimate thing/possibility in s2, but with s3 I feel that has changed). When writing to please fans, you can risk certain decisions coming off as pandering (like in Star Wars:TROS). And when certain decisions feel inauthentic to the show or underdeveloped/OOC for a character (even things that people claim they really wanted) it can feel disappointing even to the most loyal of fans.

For 911 specifically, we’ve seen that the show can and does focus on character’s love lives. It’s not unreasonable to expect that from them like it might with say shows like The 100 where the plot-heavy sci-fi action has always been the priority for the show’s writers, above whatever romantic side-plots they have with their characters. And we’ve seen that 911 is generally positive when it comes to how they represent queer characters (as for other minority rep, 911LS has some issues on the muslim rep, but I am not qualified to speak on that as someone who is not muslim). The show is not perfect in it’s writing, they’ve made mistakes or done things that not all fans have liked, but from my perspective (and I think a lot of other people’s perspectives too) the show does its best to remain true to its characters and tell a genuinely interesting and engaging story. The show (both the writers, producers and actors) seems to care for their characters and the stories they give them a whole lot.

So, tldr, no. I don’t think the writers would simply choose to not make buddie a thing if they genuinely thought it would work for their characters and the story they want to tell. Even if the shippers are obnoxious and annoying. Even if the actors may occasionally get frustrated with shippers online. If it was right for the show, and right for the characters, I do feel like 911 would go for it. Hell, they might feel like buddie is right for the show/characters but not right right now, and that’s where character development, plot development and relationship development comes in. Ladies, gents and non-binary pals, that’s where patience comes in. 

In the meantime, show your enthusiasm! But be respectful, always.

[leche-caliente]

Unpopular opinion

Axel from Kingdom Hearts’ character design is horrible to look at and an atrocity to mankind.

[headoverhiddles]

Hey guys! If you are part of a fandom (or many many fandoms), it would mean the world to me if you could answer just a few questions for my sociology summ! And if not, please help spread the word by reblogging- (I left it to the last minute as the responsible human being I am, help me get some results if ya can!)

Thanks so much!

[fandom-anthropology]

What are some good sun X moon ships that come to mind for you all?

[fandom-anthropology]

First video in a new series! I’ll be using this series to discuss individual ships in detail! Starting with Candybats from the spooky month fandom!

[fandom-anthropology]

Ok!!! Copyright issues solved!!! Here’s the video!!! https://youtu.be/9qiRWJ30dyg?si=qWM4umfbz7hcd3U9