#i know i posted it earlier w another ship but it fits em so well

[qqueenofhades]

Hi, I'm the Anon that asked if its ok to be sad about flynn spoilers and mad about the Flynn-erasure/Goran-erasure that is happening with the movie stuff. I am writing positive posts now- you know reasons why Flynn/Goran is fan-f*ckin-tastic. Just a couple posts- so ppl know. Kill em with kindess, right? Sorry if I annoyed you- this is my first fandom and I didn't know that the stars get into shipping (that was hard to see)- and it really disappointed me. I learned a lot.

Hi there,

I’m actually not sure what ask you’re talking about? If you mean the one about the other part of the script, I answered that one earlier, but I didn’t get one explicitly about being sad re: Flynn erasure. So I can promise you didn’t annoy me, it’s just that tumblr ate it. So yes, please don’t worry on that front.

As for the fact that the writers seem unfortunately trying to cram in a forced L/W resolution/endgame, rather than leaving it open for a potential season 3 pickup… well, as ever, they can do what they want with that, but yes, it is disappointing, especially given as the Flynn/Garcy fandom is sizeable and would be hoping for a better result in a movie purportedly for all fans and to give the series a fitting sendoff. Again, we don’t have full context and don’t know what happens, but it’s obviously a human reaction to be upset or not be thrilled about what we have heard this far. I’m still waiting to form my full opinion, and there are some things that gave me feels for sure, but yeah, it’s not the way I would have chosen to end it. I don’t know if I would have come around to this development if it had been given time to unfold naturally over a proper season 3 (forever bitter at NBC for purposefully sabotaging this and in one sense, ensuring that the movie was always going to be a rushed and unsatisfactory ending), but as it stands, yeah, I’m not really a fan.

Fandom can be difficult when you get invested in a story and can’t control it, and when the behavior of other fans impacts on your ability to enjoy it. Unfortunately the Timeless fandom, after starting out lovely and respectful and chill, has pretty much self-destructed, and that does not help. Hence why I am very judicious about how I engage with it and what I want to consume, and I have been in fandom for a long time, so you have to work out how to do that for yourself. What I would like to say is that being a fan of something is not a binding contract to always like everything it does. I myself probably won’t watch the movie, or at least ask trusted folks in advance if it’s worth it, or just watch selected scenes or reblog gifsets. I did not sign an oath in blood to always be bound to the official output of anything (whether Timeless or whatever else) and that’s the fun of transformative works and independent fandom. You don’t like it, well, you always have the ability to change it, ignore it, not engage with it, etc. There is no obligation to consume media that is not going to make you happy. The world is shitty enough and most of us use this for escapism anyway. So yeah.

You certainly have every right to feel how you feel, and there can tend to be fan policing (again, in any fandom) that dictates that you should be universally positive or universally negative about something, which again.. isn’t true. My personal position is almost always to be neutral-positive-ish and to wait for full context and be willing to allow myself to be pleasantly surprised, and that goes for most things, since I too have had to go through the process of detaching myself from being totally emotionally dependent on a TV show or fictional characters. This was harder for me as a fandom newbie, so again, I do feel your pain. But again, either way, there is no obligation for you to feel one way or another, to watch the movie if it won’t make you happy (again, I myself am being very very noncommital on it and am not going to race to anything about it) or so on. Flynn is likewise my favorite character and if they totally shaft him, I’m going to be big mad. But I’ll also completely ignore it, write some vent posts/critiques, and basically pay 0% attention to it in future fic or headcanons. Because if you ruin him, you can’t have him.

So what I’m trying to say is… yeah, the movie promotion/filming is seemingly leaving a bad taste in the mouths of our part of the fandom, and if we don’t want to watch, we don’t have to, or only selectively. I had higher hopes for the movie when it seemed like it would just be about saving Rufus and leaving the door open for a possible season 3, but since they know they might not get picked up, they’re trying to cram in overall answers/resolutions. Again, this is entirely their right to do so, and I am sure some fans will enjoy it; I am happy for them if so. However, it would be a shame if a series I have otherwise enjoyed and gotten so much creative inspiration from went out on such a flat note, and there was a clear intent to crowd out Flynn’s character, his relationship with Lucy, and everything else that he has centrally been to the series, for the sake of a small but loud group of fans. It would not fit with everything thus far and again, we have no obligation to like it or support it.

Anyway… yes. I’m mostly trying not to think about it, and if it’s getting too much, I do advise stepping back or detoxing or so on. You’re not obliged to like everything, and you’re not obliged to react or remain engaged with it. Online drama is exhausting and frustrating, in my opinion, and I stay well away from it. At the end of the day, it still is fiction, and if it’s impacting badly on your mental health, at a time when we all need whatever scraps of it we can get, then by all means, do and react however you need.

#timeless critical #anonymous #ask