#i can like the show/ships/characters without liking and/or supporting the actors and i HIGHLY encourage more people to adopt this

[space-and-galaxies]

why are there suddenly people defending n*ah schapp in the byler tag? did i miss something?

[ouathinktank-metacommentary]

Alright, due to general interest...

Almost two months later–we’ve been doing great, thank you for all your (overwhelming) inquiry. The life without the bottomless pit of crap that’s OUaT, as well as its cesspool of a fandom–can do wonders for your complexion. Ulcers, too. Watching actual good TV and doing actual real-life activism that does make difference, you know? So while we’re grateful for your concern, this is now a response to ALL of you who messaged us (or other people you thought were our ‘friends’ and ‘in the know’) wondering–why we chose to do this. The (long) answer would be–we were simply NOT interested in any more in…

1. New OUaT storylines, because we were there for the old ones–on which they shat on, at every turn. So, this reset/restart? Sheer desperation. Starting from the ”very special new gay character” (this time allegedly not the one to be quickly and happily swept under the rug after their cringeworthy five minutes of pointless tokenism? Wow. Groundbreaking!). All based solely on actors’ fanbase rather than characters and/or good storytelling, so the best one can expect plot-wise is just fanservice--more curses, more info dump, fast-paced shallowness and of course–retcons. Of retcons.

2. New characters/actors, because if five out of their six seasons gave us nothing more than inconsistent drivel where they broke about eleventy thousand rules of decent (see: something audience with an ounce of intelligence can watch) writing, the best one can expect character-wise is… well, what you got so far–inconsistent crap, serving just for one thing–to Mary/Marty Sue. Both on behalf of Kitsowitz as well as dimwits buying it.

3. Any new ‘modern fairytale’ they can try and sell as such, because no–we are NOT the audience for these hacks. Their target are the dim, superficial, limited and conservative (see: bigoted, racist, homophobic and misogynist) or just dumb Tweens and Twimoms.

4. New shit based on old tried and tested shit, when even bad promotion is good promotion. Shameful public behaviour from people like Aguilerra, YNB and Shatner fueling more fandom toxicity, and Kitsovitz of course kissing their collective arse despite them bullying/doxxing their fans (people who actually buy their product) because–free promotion.

5. Meta rehash – because for about four years now there hasn’t been anything out there that hasn’t been chewed up and digested, ad nauseam.

(and yes, again: not everything analytical/speculative is a meta, read up)

6. Systemic issues/intersectionality/ discussions–because as shown consistently (which yay, they DO know what ‘consistency’ is–after all?) during the past five years they simply DGaF. And besides, after all these years, please don’t tell me you still expect any decency from them in terms of acknowledgement, treatment or, godforbid–representation?

7. Either critical or hopeful, negative or positive theorizing and analyses, because–see #1, #2, #5, and #6.

8. The “other camp’s" aggressive bigotry and homophobia. Us wanting the story about two mothers sharing a son is about normalcy, about equality. Not our self-insertion because of ‘gay privilege’. Privilege would be gay people not having to pay taxes. You know, kinda like their churches don’t?

9. General idiocy of our part of the fandom, such as... “yeah, I used to ship Swan Queen, but Emma sucks anyway (and also it’s all JMo’s fault because she’s closeted and a homophobe while Lana is a faultless demi-goddess!) but I’m here just for Lana and hey, I did spit at their token lesbians because representation FTW but still, GIVE REGINA A FEMALE LI THIS SEASON!!I!” *rolls eyes* It’s okay when you’re a young queer person just starting to learn and gain their footing, but when you’re a 30+ yo? Not sure what’s more cringeworthy and sad, hypocrisy or actor idolatry.

10. General fandom bile in the same corner again, because we don’t know about you–but we here are done with the aggressive, ego-maniacal, self-centred and attention-seeking. Which unfortunately won, if you’ll just look at hat kind of individuals (quasi intellectuals who gain credibility and 'bnf' status by waving around either their academic credentials or industry insight connections, drowning the sheep in condescension--and them buying it nonetheless) you accepted as your fandom leaders, gatekeepers and authorities on all things Regina Mills and Swan Queen. Telling you what to think, what to say and how to behave? *rolls eyes* Fandom is supposed to be a FUN experience, not substitute for therapy.

11. Fandom gossip – general badmouthing, hearsay and other petty crap of such nature. Tumblr community, even one surrounding character larger than life such as Regina Mills, or the one supporting the beautiful idea of a modern fairy-tale about two mothers sharing a son (which should, by the by--be normal, not ‘progressive’ anyways?) should NOT be a microcosm of everyday human pettiness.

12. Anonymous hate in our inbox. Blaming us either for being too critical about everything, or not being critical enough (based on your own fandom ‘allegiances’) and being “a sellout, abandoning the critical/meta fraction when it was in a desperate need of level-headedness and reason”. You realise that it's not US you're angry with, right?

13. Last but not least, if you’re out ‘chaplain Anon’ with delusions of being a protector of naive, manipulated masses–whilst in all actuality being a highly-disassociative, obsessive stalker and a sociopath (in total, you’ve sent about how many, two hundred messages–about ten only last week?) I sincerely hope you’ll seek help. Professional. And then find a new hobby. Perhaps start training for a triathlon? It's great for general fitness as well as heavy neuroses, I hear.

(If you recognise self in any of the listed in #12 and #13, then you can fuck right off. In a wide circle.)

I sincerely hope that all these offer answers to ALL of the questions you’ve been sending us in the meantime. We’re grateful for all your concern, so the purpose of this update was to tell you that yes--while we ARE on an official hiatus, we did say that we’d be around. And we are, which a lot of you PM-ing us, know. We’re still here for you, and we still enjoy talking about all the great, positive things that this show and this fandom gave us. But... *drumrolll* ...

Anonymous posting will be switched OFF, as of this point.

We see no point in it anymore. Honestly, we never did because all civilized discussions and discourse we tried to encourage here--were supposed to be something you could and should have been proud to stand behind, without the greyface and shades. So if you’re going to send us a message and NOT stand behind it, then–it shouldn’t be considered worth reading, at all?

And yes. In the meantime, our decision remains the same. We‘ll be around, in other ways than doing what we used to. This is not a dramatic exit, just... a break, if you will. So if we happen to blink and miss something good happening, either in the ‘new’ show, or the fandom–please feel free to ping us.

Until then…

Your friendly neighbourhood ThinkTankers.

All four of us.