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marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer · 11 months ago

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No hardcore fandom has ever died so quickly and so completely as Veronica Mars. This is the story of its murder.

They should study Veronica Mars in Hollywood. I'm serious. It's an incredible story of how to go from "loud, passionate fanbase with its own fandom name that campaigns and advocates constantly for it" to "absolutely zero fucking interest" damn near OVERNIGHT with just ONE epically terri-bad decision.

If you weren't there, you don't understand: From 2007 to 2014, the fandom — the "Marshmallows," as they called themselves — were everywhere in the Internet's geek spaces, my friends. They routinely beat the drum about the series' three seasons and its excellence, lamented its cancellation, pushed others to give the show a try, and always - ALWAYS - proudly and loudly called for the series to be revived.

FULL DISCLOSURE/CONFESSION: I've not even watched that much Veronica Mars, frankly... ? Yeah, I'm sorry! it does seem pretty good from like the four-or-five hours I've experienced firsthand. I just never took the time to sit down with it. Regardless, I find fandoms and their dynamics — both how they operate internally and how they display to others externally — deeply fascinating. And I honestly find them easier to study from the outside than the inside. Like, if I'm IN a fandom, I'm more likely to stay in my corner and ignore places that seem negative. But being on the outside lets me just... absorb what's out there, looking into every forum without judgment. It's like studying pop-culture sociology or something? And it helps that I'm very close to some serious(-ly burnt) Marshmallows. It makes it so much easier to find and absorb the gamut of the fandom.

Besides: There is NO fandom story I've ever seen that's anything like what happened to Veronica Mars and the Marshmallows.

(Time to insert a brief explainer for the uninitiated: Veronica Mars was a TV series that aired from 2004-2007 on the now-deceased UPN network wherein Kristen Bell played the titular character, a high school girl whose single dad was a private detective in the fictional community of Neptune, California. She grew up working "unofficially" as his assistant, which meant that she herself was effectively a teenage private detective.

The three core elements of the series were: 1) Veronica investigating each week's big mystery with plenty of quips and snark, 2) Watching Veronica's various relationships develop and shift, with most of the focus given to a) her relationship to her father and b) Her romantic pursuits (which began as the Veronica/Duncan/Logan triangle before eventually becoming focused on the slow-burn, off-on Veronica/Logan love story), and 3) The gradual development of that season's "mytharc" — the overarching BIG MYSTERY that doesn't get resolved or wrapped until the season finale. So it went over the course of two seasons that took place in high school and the third, shorter season that was at the start of Veronica's collegiate career.)

Just how big and how passionate were the Marshmallows? WELL! When series creator Rob Thomas (not the Matchbox 20 guy) and star Kristen Bell announced the Kickstarter campaign for the Veronica Mars movie in March 2013, it achieved its heretofore-unprecedented goal of TWO MILLION GODDAMN DOLLARS within less than 12 hours. At that time, it was the biggest Kickstarter goal to ever succeed — and certainly the fastest to reach that kind of height. Fans fell OVER themselves to pay out for it. Hell, my own significant other was DEEP in the tank for VM at the time and invested enough to get multiple t-shirts as backer rewards as well as a disk copy of the movie when it eventually came home.

And AFTER the movie hit in 2014? It was thankfully beloved and embraced! The once-teenage characters were adults who were actually out living on their own and working for a living, but the fandom had grown up with them, so it wasn't like they were begging for them to stay young students. They embraced Adult Veronica and her new adventure. The fandom rejoiced loudly and continued to be all over the geek side of the Internet... where they, of course, still wanted more. Sure, there were new novels in the aftermath (which were written by the creator of the series), but most of the Marshmallows were calling for more movies or a streaming revival.

And then, at long last... season four was actually announced. And there was much (premature) rejoicing yet again.

Yes, Veronica Mars returned for a fourth season on Hulu in 2019. It was just eight episodes, and it was heavily centered on one season-long mystery instead of sprinkling that amongst a bunch of smaller ones, but it would still feature the same ol' Veronica. They promised a new, more "adult" mystery/investigation plus a strong focus on Veronica and Logan's love story.

New Hulu purchased the rights to the first three seasons and hyped up its presence on the platform while marketing the return for the new run. The marketing team played up the most popular quips from the show's history plus put out TONS of stuff centered on the Logan/Veronica ship to pump up the fans.

The season was dropped all at once using the classic Netflix "binge" model in July 2019. And then... afterwards?

There was a brief explosion of LOUD RAGE from the Marshmallows at what series creator Rob Thomas had to done to burn and spite the fandom and ruin his own goodwill.

SPOILERS FOR SEASON 4: See, at the end of the movie, Veronica and Logan finally entered into a long-term relationship. In season four, they've been dating for years, and Logan proposes marriage. But of course there has to be drama/obstacles: In this case, Veronica isn't sure she's ready to marry... or capable of being in a marriage. Ah, but of course she eventually realizes how much Logan means to her. The two are married, and, in the season finale... Logan is killed by a car bomb in the penultimate scene. The final scene is a flashfoward to a year later, where Veronica leaves Neptune alone.

For most fandoms, that'd be a memorable point of pain. A big ol' speed bump that ultimately throws some people off the bus, leaving only the die-hards. But the fact that fans had been invested in this relationship for literally 15 years and that Hulu (and creator Rob Thomas) had heavily marketed the new season as being a big romantic event for the ship... it was too much. Unlike the aftermath of the Star Wars sequels, there was no lingering group of die-hard fans who were open to whatever was next — at least no significant one. I did some Googling and could only find TWO people who still wanted another season.

Funnily enough? Critics LOVED this. Hell, Vanity Fair infamously penned an editorial about how Veronica Mars had "finally grown up" with this finale. I suppose all the other murders and deaths and drug overdoses and r*pe weren't "mature" enough before now for... some... reason. (The same editorial also featured the author openly hating on Veronica ever being in a relationship because it causes "arrested development" and declaring that the movie -- which was acclaimed by both critics AND fans alike, I remind you -- was a lame dud. So. The writer must be a reeeaaaal fun person.)

But a series doesn't live based on critical acclaim, as it turns out. The fandom was murdered overnight. "Marshmallows" stopped appearing in geek spaces online entirely. No one expressed interest in seeing the next season or the next movie. The constant flow of fan AMVs on YouTube and fanfics on AO3 dried up to nothing or damn nearly so.

Since 2019 ? Nothing. Chirping crickets. An intensely dedicated fandom of 12 years was just... vaporized.

I've never seen anything like it before OR since.

That's why it's so fucking fascinating.

So what went wrong?

Creator Rob Thomas was adamant about two things: ONE, the series was intended to be a noir show, which meant there couldn't be any happiness for its protagonist. And TWO, the death of Logan was necessary to evolve and grow the series.

Thomas thought that having Veronica in a relationship would be holding her back, and that a marriage would absolutely kill the series and leave her stagnant. It never even occurred to him that marriage isn't the end of a character's life and growth. It never occurred to him that plenty of drama can be had AFTER someone is married, or that development/growth could be that the characters mature enough to be capable of maintaining a committed relationship. Thomas' view of his own universe was so myopic that he couldn't conceive of any possible way that Veronica could still be a private detective involved in life-threatening investigations AND be married at the same time. Futhermore, he felt that fans just wanted Veronica to become a pregnant housewife, which is about as far from what Marshmallows were after as you can get without straight-up killing Veronica and/or Logan. He managed to do the only thing wronger than what he wrongly thought was their insistence.

On top of the above, Rob Thomas only viewed "noir" as a vehicle for total fatalism... despite the fact that many of the most famous noir stories are cynical and full of moral ambiguity, but they still feature a positive outcome. The Big Sleep still has the protagonist get the girl. The Set-Up arguably ends with the happiest possible ending in spite of the beating the hero receives.

Perhaps most importantly? Despite Thomas own insistence that Veronica Mars was always "noir," the majority of both TV critics and fans did not think that designation ever truly applied. I suspect that's the reason why Thomas decided to go as dark and fatalistic as possible: He wanted to be noir, and he was being told that he wasn't. So he went so far into noir that he killed his own most popular property.

He was adamant that it was the only way for the series to grow. But as it turns out, it was instead the only way for the series to permanently end. Without that season four finale, a passionate group of fans would still be begging for more. With it? It's over. Nobody fucking cares now.

That's kind of amazing.

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marshmallow-the-vampire-slayer · 4 years ago

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kennethcallahan replied to your post “It’s so disappointing how gross many of BtVS’s male actors are. Like…”

I mean, Joss literally restructured an entire season of the show to accommodate Charisma’s pregnancy, and she wasn’t written off until after she gave birth. Joss is no saint, but I’m tired of hearing this particular argument. Lots of characters we love get written off shows. It doesn’t have to be about a pregnancy.

oh dude dude dude, how I wish you hadn’t made this comment because now I HAVE to reply, and I’ll be annoying as fuck and I will lose a ton of followers but I MUST. REPLY. TO. THIS.

I’m not at all surprised that a white male is the one coming to Joss’s rescue, but I won’t get into that. I’m more interested in explaining why you’re so. fundamentally. wrong. about. everything.

Let’s start with this:

Lots of characters we love get written off shows. It doesn’t have to be about a pregnancy.

This is all fine and dandy, and I agree. It doesn’t have to be about a pregnancy. And I raise your bet. It shouldn’t be about a pregnancy. It mustn’t be about a pregnancy.

Except Joss Whedon actually wrote Cordelia off precisely because Charisma dared get pregnant and mess with his vision of the show. It’s not about the fact that Cordelia was written off, it’s about how her character was completely eviscerated and destroyed because Joss suddenly had a personal vendetta against the actress playing the character solely based on the fact that whatever she wanted to do with her body and personal life happened to ruin his plans for the character.

This wasn’t a writing choice. This wasn’t part of Cordelia’s arc before Charisma got pregnant. I could totally get it if that was the case. Cordelia was put in a coma (and later killed off) because Charisma got pregnant. I repeat: this wasn’t Cordelia’s original arc. She wasn’t supposed to die. Her pregnancy was the reason she was killed off.

“Oh, but… I mean, Joss literally restructured an entire season of the show to accommodate Charisma’s pregnancy “

So what? Should we give him an award because he was writing his show a.k.a. doing his job? A job he was getting paid for? Should we praise him because he didn’t fire Charisma on the spot? Should we congratulate him because he accommodated Charisma’s pregnancy, something that every boss in every workplace is legally bound to do?

Women get pregnant. Actresses get pregnant. That literally happens all the time. Writers have to either write the pregnancy into the show or hide it. It happens all the time. Everyone does it. It’s not something unheard of! Writers deal because that’s their freaking job. That’s what they do!

Now, Joss could’ve chosen to hide Charisma’s pregnancy. There literally was no reason for him to write the pregnancy into the show. And there certainly was no reason for him to write the pregnancy into the show the way he did. That was a deliberate choice on his part because he was trying to get back at Charisma.

“Oh but… she wasn’t written off until after she gave birth. “

How does this make what he did any better? Of course he wasn’t about to fire a pregnant actress because then his intentions would’ve been blatantly obvious and she could’ve sued him and the network. Oh, I’m sure he tried, though. I’m sure someone stopped him. So for you, it’s okay if a woman is fired from her job after she gives birth… that makes it all okay, somehow?

I’ll humor you for a bit. Let’s say that this was all part of Cordelia’s arc and it all just happened to coincide with her pregnancy/giving birth to her baby. Then how do you explain her finding out about getting written off the show through the media? Yes, you read that right. She found out she was unemployed because journalists asked her about her leaving the show she still thought she was a part of. Please, defend this. I’m begging you. Try and defend it.

Joss is no saint, but I’m tired of hearing this particular argument.

Listen up, I’m mostly on the fence about Joss Whedon, on a general basis. I do feel that sometimes the amount of hate he gets is a bit over the top, albeit not completely unjustified. BUT I WILL FOREVER FIGHT ANYONE ABOUT HOW HE TREATED CHARISMA BECAUSE SHE GOT PREGNANT.

Because, you know, (and I know, I’m getting repetitive) it wasn’t just about the fact that she was written off the show. Charisma has spoken multiple times about how she was badly treated on set during season 4. From little things like the AWFUL AWFUL wardrobe they gave her during that season, to bigger things like how they made it their goal to destroy seven seasons of character development by turning her into a demon’s vessel and have us witness our beloved character doing despicable things ranging from murder to sleeping with Angel’s son, all because… yes, you guessed it, SHE GOT PREGNANT.

It’s also about the fact that after she was treated like shit, and he wanted her to come back to the show for one episode during season 5, he convinced her under false pretenses. She accepted to be in You’re Welcome ONLY if Cordelia wasn’t killed off. Well, you know the rest, don’t you?

So, I’m 100% not sorry if you’re tired of hearing about this. I don't’ give a rat’s ass if you or anyone else is tired of hearing this. I will continue to shout it every I chance I get. because the bottom line is, everything that was done to Charisma and Cordelia was

BECAUSE SHE GOT PREGNANT.