Honestly, I made a new post because I didn't read the conversation until yesterday, and at that point it was a couple days old. There's very little traffic on a two-day-old post, particularly when the comments have died down, so who would see it if I commented there?
To address the larger issue here, though, I feel like this statement of yours - Basically you and the originators of this argument are taking ONE approach, canonizing it, and then measuring all comers by that standard. - is the sentiment on both sides. EVERYONE feels like they're being dictated to and told how to think. And I think it's horribly silly.
It's ludicrous to think that any of us are looking at season 8 with any sort of dispassionate, impartial eye. Every single one of us has an intense emotional stake in BtVS - otherwise we wouldn't be in fandom. And with that kind of bias, I don't see how anyone can claim to be fully objective about season 8. We're all invested in some way, whether it's because we're excited to have new material to analyze and enjoy or because we're protective of our show and/or our favorite characters and don't want to see them tarnished. Everyone's just throwing out opinions, and it's largely emotional because that's what fandom IS, and yet people act as though anyone who disagrees with them is making pronouncements that automatically become law, and dissenters will be flogged and hanged in the town square. I just don't understand that AT ALL. I don't see why there's such a drive to INVALIDATE people's opinions - why can't people say what they think without it being a threat to someone else? I mean, that seems to be the issue here - you feel threatened (or you feel Joss is threatened) by the comparisons we're making, and I don't understand what the big deal is.
Er, sorry to rant at you. It's not just about you, it's a frustration I've had with fandom in general and season 8 in particular for quite a while now, and I'm starting to feel like 90% of fandom is just banging my head against a wall, which pretty much sucks.
Also, if you felt like I was coming after you personally by making a new post, I'm sorry. For future reference, if I did want to do that, it would look like this: "Maggie, I am calling you out." :) Otherwise, it's usually just saying something that happened to be prompted by something else. That's how a lot of posts come about - I'm betting that you didn't spontaneously decide to post about Batman in your journal coincidentally at the same time we're having this conversation. :)
no subject
To address the larger issue here, though, I feel like this statement of yours - Basically you and the originators of this argument are taking ONE approach, canonizing it, and then measuring all comers by that standard. - is the sentiment on both sides. EVERYONE feels like they're being dictated to and told how to think. And I think it's horribly silly.
It's ludicrous to think that any of us are looking at season 8 with any sort of dispassionate, impartial eye. Every single one of us has an intense emotional stake in BtVS - otherwise we wouldn't be in fandom. And with that kind of bias, I don't see how anyone can claim to be fully objective about season 8. We're all invested in some way, whether it's because we're excited to have new material to analyze and enjoy or because we're protective of our show and/or our favorite characters and don't want to see them tarnished. Everyone's just throwing out opinions, and it's largely emotional because that's what fandom IS, and yet people act as though anyone who disagrees with them is making pronouncements that automatically become law, and dissenters will be flogged and hanged in the town square. I just don't understand that AT ALL. I don't see why there's such a drive to INVALIDATE people's opinions - why can't people say what they think without it being a threat to someone else? I mean, that seems to be the issue here - you feel threatened (or you feel Joss is threatened) by the comparisons we're making, and I don't understand what the big deal is.
Er, sorry to rant at you. It's not just about you, it's a frustration I've had with fandom in general and season 8 in particular for quite a while now, and I'm starting to feel like 90% of fandom is just banging my head against a wall, which pretty much sucks.
Also, if you felt like I was coming after you personally by making a new post, I'm sorry. For future reference, if I did want to do that, it would look like this: "Maggie, I am calling you out." :) Otherwise, it's usually just saying something that happened to be prompted by something else. That's how a lot of posts come about - I'm betting that you didn't spontaneously decide to post about Batman in your journal coincidentally at the same time we're having this conversation. :)