Why Veronica Mars Fans Feel Betrayed
Ok, so I’ve seen more people coming out of the woodwork today saying that they don’t understand why some fans are abandoning the show now (I guess they feel more free now to voice their opinion now that some of the more vocal angry fans have taken a break from social media). The people who want to see future seasons of Veronica Mars have said that they don’t think they were watching the same show as the other fans, that they don’t understand the anger, that they agree with Rob Thomas’s decision to kill Logan, etc. And good God does it piss me off because I feel like they’re not trying to understand why these fans are so angry and that this is not a typical situation of a showrunner making a decision that fans don’t like or support.
I wrote a longer post about why you might want to take the time to understand where these fans were coming from rather than dismissing them (and you can read that if you want), but I wanted to sum up why fans feel so betrayed. I liked Logan and I liked LoVe, but I was not a diehard fan of either. However I’m beyond pissed off because I feel that Rob Thomas (and less so, but still definitely guilty, Kristin Bell) spat in the fans faces, were narcissistic, and totally self absorbed.
Why do I feel this way? Because Veronica Mars was not like most TV shows. It was very different in that it didn’t run for 4 seasons consecutively like most shows. It was cancelled and because of fans (who literally funded the movie and got it recognized by the wider public because of their passion, commitment, and love of the show) got a second chance. Where the movie ended off would have been good enough for most fans, but Rob Thomas decided to make a 4th season.
When he funded the movie through Kickstarter, he broke the standard mold of shows belonging to creators and fans equally (as one can not live without the other and occasionally creators/writers do see the big picture and what’s best for the audience before they themselves can) and gave away most of his ownership of the show to the fans. Without their support and encouragement for the movie, do you honestly believe that Hulu would have seriously considered giving him the greenlight to make a fourth season? I highly, highly doubt it. They did it because they knew that fans had shown they’d put their money where their mouths were and subscribe to Hulu, as well as promote the new season so they’d get free publicity.
Whether you liked Logan or LoVe or not it would be foolish to assume the show would have gotten this far without those diehard shippers or people who adored Logan’s character. And Rob Thomas KNEW this! If you read any of his interviews he said it wasn’t necessary to kill Logan, but he wasn’t interested in writing the show with Veronica going home to him every night. But he so easily could have written future seasons so that Logan was off on further military missions and not part of the season, or if he really wanted Veronica torn up have him MIA and presumed dead as a prisoner of war (but found at some point). Or he could have even killed off Logan in a way that made his death nobel, meaningful, and something that would have reverberated throughout any future seasons, rather than a tacked on death in the last 10 minutes that didn’t even show the characters processing his death.
But the death was for shock value and Rob even said it was designed to cause as much pain as possible. I honestly can’t say that I understand (it’s totally beyond me) why on God’s Green Earth he thought it would be a good idea to knowingly cause unnecessary pain to a fandom that had shown him nothing but support and love that almost no other show runner in history has gotten to experience. The only thing that I can come up with is that he wasn’t interested in writing their relationship anymore and was narcissistic enough to think he could get away with killing Logan and having the fanbase forgive him.
Whether you’re a fan of LoVe and/or Logan or not, if you’ve been with the show since the beginning (or for a while) and paid any attention to social media, you should have a clear idea that at least 50% of the fans are diehard fans of those aspects of the show. So I legitimately want to know what is so confusing to you now as to why fans feel betrayed and don’t want to see future seasons? They put their money, time, and passion into a show in a way that no other show in history has been supported only to have the creator make a decision that he knew would hurt and alienate them because he wanted to write a different show than what at least half (and I would argue more) of the fans wanted. People supported the show monetarily and enthusiastically because it brought them joy over the last 15 years, not because they wanted to feel anger, grief, and betrayal. We trusted that Rob would honor the legacy of the show by supporting what the fans loved about it (and what we mistakenly thought he loved about it), not what would be easier or more desirable for him to write personally.
Like I said I’m not a diehard fan of LoVe or Logan, despite really liking them, but I cannot and will not watch more of a show whose creator showed such disregard and disrespect to fans that made it possible for him to even make a season 4 to begin with. It’s a precedent that I want to make sure is never followed by another showrunner thinking that they have the luxury whatever they want to see in spite of what the fans want to see.