A big problem with fandom, is that you often don’t realise that animated series are pre-written. The writers pitch a plot with some base work done, the company approves it, the full season script gets created, this gets passed on to the story team were it goes through several processes of storyboarding, character and layout concepts, design finalisation, storyboard finalisation, and like SO MUCH MORE i’m skipping over. But, by the time you’re watching Season 1. Season 2 is already in the pipeline for production.
Think of it like a book. You have a book. That book has 10 chapters.
(Aka: You have a show, that’s been contracted for 10 seasons.)
In Chapter One you meet the main characters, and you meet the Call To Action of the plot.
Initially you have mixed thoughts: You’re not sure how to feel about Character A, but you love Character B, and you don’t know where this plot is going to lead just yet, and you need to read more, because you need to know more!!
So you turn to Chapter Two.
Only… with a TV series. There is no Chapter Two. It’s still in the production process and will be released in 4, 6, 12 months time depending on that companies release schedule.
So suddenly you’re left with this large gap in between chapters. You wonder more about these characters, the plot, the interactions, and you get Ideas.
You start to create your headcanons, your ideas of what could happen, what you’d like to see happen, where you’d like the story to go. You create fanart, and fanfics, and share your theories, and some of those theories get really popular. And everyone gets excited because What If!?
Then, at last!!! Chapter Two is released.
And… it’s nothing like what was in your head. You’re a little sad, a little annoyed, but that’s okay because new content! New theories! New characters, and plot developments, and so much more!! You can’t wait for Chapter Three to find out what’s next!! You’re super excited!!!
Only… Chapter Three won’t be out for another 6 months.
And the cycle begins again.
Eventually, you have so many expectations that you’ve created, so many ideas you’ve built up, and put hopes on, and invested yourself into, and you’ve created this whole version of this world in your head.
That by the time you reach Chapter Five, or Chapter Eight, or Chapter 10, you’re already disillusioned, pretty annoyed, and pretty fed up that the writing isn’t going the way you so strongly believed that it was going to.
And it develops this culture that, “Oh, the writing is bad”, or “Oh, that’s out of character”, or “Oh, that’s not how that would have happened.” When… you can’t say that, because you’ve never known that.
You forget that these story lines, these plots, and these arcs. Were all pre-written. Some Chapters may have hit a rough patch and needed re-writing because the company suddenly changed their mind, and the writers had to scramble to fix it. Or the budget got cut, and suddenly they had to cut out plot lines and episodes just to make sure they could even complete the story at all. Or the show isn’t getting enough viewers, so the network is aiming to cancel the show and the writers are scrambling to tie up loose ends before the plug gets pulled. (And yes, sometimes you do just get bad writers and/or directors.)
But whatever the case is, at the end of the day, the bulk of the story was long written out before the animation even began. And definitely before you had your fanon.
Whilst you’re watching Chapter One, the writing for Chapter Two was already finalised, and the production process has already started. It takes a year to make one episode, those episodes are staggered out across a pipeline. The script needs to be finalised before storyboarding can begin. These things are always done in advanced. And your comments as viewers do not influence the writing during the production process, nor do they cause changes to the script because by the time you’re already discussing something, the production for the next season is well under way.
So if you’re judging a story solely on its Chapter One, or hell, even Episode One. Or judging a story based on the expectations you created in your own head prior to a new Chapter. Then the problem lies with you. And not with the story.
Because you either: Never went into the story with the idea of giving it a chance, or, You went into the story with preset ideas of what to expect.
Fanon, and headcanons, and fan theories will never be canon. If they are, it means you made a lucky guess. That’s where it ends.
The more you start watching a new show, with an expectation of what it SHOULD be based on different shows you’ve watched, and not to watch it for what it IS. You’ve already disappointed yourself, and from there you’re only going to have a bad time because it’s not what you wanted.
Now, do not misunderstand me at all. This is not a conversation about representation. (That’s an entirely different conversation for a different post.)
This is a conversation about story production, and the fact that so many people in fandom complain that they haven’t been given all the answers, that complain about characters who make complex choices, that complain about pacing despite having only seen a few episodes, that complain there’s not enough plot when they’re only in Chapter One of a ten chapter story, that complain about animation styles and character designs when something is made by a completely different creative team to the other shows they watch so of course it would be different.
You have to wait for information. You have to have variety in style. You cannot have every ounce of plot, and every ounce of character development, all happen within Chapter One. You cannot have the whole thing spoon fed to you. If you get every answer, every interaction, and no complex characters and tough narrative choices? You will have a very short, very boring story.
And when you build up your own imaginary expectations of what might happen next, and start viewing that expectation as a Definite Truth. You won’t enjoy the show any more. Not because of the writers, but because you put too much belief in your headcanon, instead of letting the actual canon unfold. You crushed your own dreams because you believed they were real… rather than using them as something to have fun with, and play with, and explore.
Learn to separate fanon from canon and you will have a much better experience.
And most importantly. If a new, or old, show is not something that you’re enjoying, then stop watching it. It’s really that simple. Not every writer or director or artist is going to produce something with the narrative or the style that you enjoy.
Find something else to watch with a style, or a type of directing that you like better, and go enjoy that. And have fun with that. You don’t need to keep watching things that make you unhappy. Change the channel, pick up a new ‘book’.
