Fandom and Viewer Issues: "Fan" Is Short for "Fanatic"

[Curio]

Apparently, fans can vote for the TV show that will appear on Entertainment Weekly's fall cover. OUAT is nominated as one of the shows you can vote for. This fandom is crazy enough that there's a good chance we could win.

[Souris]

Given that Natalie Abrams will have a large part to do with it, should Once win, the cover will inevitably be either the EQ or a Regina/Emma SQ cover. Which is why I won't be voting for it.

[sharky]

Natalie has no control over the photographer or their cover concept. And if there is a cover story, it likely will be written by someone other than her.  It'll be fine. 

[Serena]

Also, it's only the subscribers' cover. The "normal" one will be decided by the editor. And I doubt they'll have a photoshoot for it, so they'll probably recycle one of the old ones.

[Curio]

OUAT is probably going to win its second round in the EW Cover Battle, but I'm guessing it will get slaughtered by the Supernatural fandom in Round 3.

[daxx]

Likely, the SPN fandom is large and engaged. I do love the way the actors take advantage of it to promote charities and movements.

[Camera One]

I've voted for Madame Secretary, LOL... let's HOPE that it wins over Supernatural.

[Camera One]

I was looking through the questions people were submitting to Yvette for the panel (Twitter tag #AskThisYvette).  All the questions are either bitter Robin Hood questions, or CS questions.  Not much diversity in fan interest.

[KingOfHearts]

Quote

Not much diversity in fan interest.

There's not really much to be interested in, to be honest.

[Camera One]

That's true as well.  But it's always the same old questions from the same crowds.  Combined with A&E's usual self-congratulatory comments and worthless/misleading teases, what's the point of even having the panel.  

[orza]

Lots of people enjoy the panel and find it entertaining. Those who find it pointless can ignore it and let others have their fun.

[sharky]

I still like them for the most part, but there's been so little about season 6 so far. If there isn't some meaty news about the fall during the panel, it could turn into a "Dance Monkey Dance" situation, which gets awkward and old fast.

That being said, I'm sure Yvette will only pull one or two fan questions.

[YaddaYadda]

9 hours ago, Camera One said:

I was looking through the questions people were submitting to Yvette for the panel (Twitter tag #AskThisYvette).  All the questions are either bitter Robin Hood questions, or CS questions.  Not much diversity in fan interest.

Nothing on Regina/EQ? If there isn't that much about it, I don't know what that says about the interest in the story.

[Serena]

I think Yvette will make up some questions if the ones she gets are too repetitive. She's always been good about sharing the attention between all the panelists. I trust her.

[RedKeep]

46 minutes ago, YaddaYadda said:

Nothing on Regina/EQ? If there isn't that much about it, I don't know what that says about the interest in the story.

I always thought Horowitz/Kitsis insisting that the audience loves the EQ was odd. They might very well still prefer her over current Storybrooke Regina, and Disney/ABC might find her easier to promote, but if I imagine I were an Evil Regal... I'd have just about zero interest in them reverting the character and the EQ in general, outside of the occasional flashback or two. Same with Rumple/Gold basically turning into a mustache twirlling villain after season 3. And I'm sure a decent % of the angry/bitter Robin Hood questions are coming from Regina fans, regardless of whether or not they hardcore shipped OQ. Killing him off and the way they did was bad enough to begin with, unless you've still convinced yourself that it would increase the chances of SQ happening, but if their reason for that was first and foremost to push this "return of the EQ" nonsense... well, only adds insult to injury in the eyes of many fans, I bet.

Not that any of it will really be addressed at SDCC. Horowitz and Kitsis have a great talent for flat out ignoring the problematic aspects of their writing and the media is mostly past the point of asking any critical questions too. I seem to remember last year lots of fans hoped they'd address the Marilena/rape-by-deception mess and instead all that came out of SDCC was Bex Mader making questionable jokes about that very story while the writers managed to avoid having to talk about it... Other then the actors looking pretty and being adorkable, I don't expect anything and certainly nothing of substance in terms of the actual show from SDCC.

[YaddaYadda]

13 minutes ago, RedKeep said:

but if their reason for that was first and foremost to push this "return of the EQ" nonsense... well, only adds insult to injury in the eyes of many fans, I bet.

On the surface it might look they killed him off to facilitate the whole EQ business, but the dialogue they wrote for that had nothing to do with it at all. If I'm a Robin fan, an OQ shipper, I'd be rightfully pissed at that. They wanted the Evil Queen with full on costume in Storybrooke, that's basically the reason. And I think they're pretty bored with Regina.

I went through the questions, and there is very little variety in there. Also, CSers obsession with whether the couple has had sex or not is just...

[Curio]

1 hour ago, RedKeep said:

And I'm sure a decent % of the angry/bitter Robin Hood questions are coming from Regina fans, regardless of whether or not they hardcore shipped OQ.

If I were a Robin Hood fan (I wanted to like him, but I can't like a character who's basically the equivalent of a cardboard standup doll with Regina pom-poms glued to its hands), I'd be pissed about the missed opportunity for Robin to finally meet the Evil Queen version of his girlfriend. It astonishes me that the writers somehow avoided having Robin run into "full" Evil Queen Regina during his entire run on the series. He was conveniently gone when the Shattered Sight spell happened, he never met her during her Reign of Terror in Mysthaven, and fell in love with Snow's personality in the Alternate Universe episode. Wait...why did Robin like Regina again?

[Mari]

7 hours ago, RedKeep said:

I always thought Horowitz/Kitsis insisting that the audience loves the EQ was odd. They might very well still prefer her over current Storybrooke Regina, and Disney/ABC might find her easier to promote, but if I imagine I were an Evil Regal... I'd have just about zero interest in them reverting the character and the EQ in general, outside of the occasional flashback or two.

I've wondered if it's not a combination of their social media presence, and bias reinforcement.  They seem to like the Evil Queen version of Regina more, based on her regular flashback appearances, comments they've made in interviews and the DVD commentaries, and the fairly infamous "There's just so many people that it's like, it's sometimes hard to do that story and sacrifice Regina's story. That's just showbiz." —Edward Kitsis.

Combining that with their social media presence, which has a pretty active Evil Regal and Swan Queen fandom, their own biases are being confirmed by what they see on-line.

5 hours ago, Curio said:

. Wait...why did Robin like Regina again?

Something about bold and audacious, while looking at her assets?

[orza]

I dunno, looking around at other forums and fan sites, there's a lot of excitement about the upcoming Evil Queen story line and people are looking forward to it. There is not the abject hate for Regina and her alter ego elsewhere that one finds on this forum. Fan interests and favorites seem to be more balanced.

[Serena]

Yeah, I've never had the impression that ERs wanted the Evil Queen back. Since the hardcore stans live in a world where Regina is an innocent victim that did nothing wrong, why would they enjoy having her go back to evil?

[Curio]

I think it's primarily for superficial reasons. (i.e. her costumes, makeup, scenery chewing, etc.)

[sharky]

4 hours ago, orza said:

I dunno, looking around at other forums and fan sites, there's a lot of excitement about the upcoming Evil Queen story line and people are looking forward to it. There is not the abject hate for Regina and her alter ego elsewhere that one finds on this forum. Fan interests and favorites seem to be more balanced.

Yea, we are a bit less Regina friendly here than tumblr, for example. But I think the posters here have a more critical and mature eye towards the whole show, which may be why we are a little less...um.... Maybe fangirly? Not sure if that's what I mean. But I do think there's more critique and less fluff here (and that's not a bad thing. I love both!)

The problem I think I'm having is I like spoilers and there's been nothing. How can I feel one way or the other when we have no idea what is going on? At this point last year we had an idea about Camelot and Dark Emma. It was new and intriguing. We've seen the Evil Queen already and have no idea what Jeckyl and Hyde are even doing there? I would be more excited if A&E gave us something to be excited about. Just a little explanation or a little nugget. 

[orza]

50 minutes ago, sharky said:

Yea, we are a bit less Regina friendly here than tumblr, for example. But I think the posters here have a more critical and mature eye towards the whole show, which may be why we are a little less...um.... Maybe fangirly? Not sure if that's what I mean. But I do think there's more critique and less fluff here (and that's not a bad thing. I love both!)

I gotta disagree with that. The posters here are no different from anywhere else on the internet - overinvested in their favorites and excessive, over-the-top bashing of everything else.

[DigitalCount]

40 minutes ago, orza said:

I gotta disagree with that. The posters here are no different from anywhere else on the internet - overinvested in their favorites and excessive, over-the-top bashing of everything else.

That seems like an odd accusation to levy here, given that there have been no death threats toward actors, which automatically places it head and shoulders above pretty much anywhere else. Also, I'm sensing that you're a Regina fan, maybe? While I'm not, I can say that the treatment I've received elsewhere for disliking Regina among Regina fans (say on tumblr) is not even worth mentioning in comparison with this place. I don't think I've ever seen someone who hates Regina on this forum attack another poster for liking her.

[orza]

41 minutes ago, DigitalCount said:

That seems like an odd accusation to levy here, given that there have been no death threats toward actors, which automatically places it head and shoulders above pretty much anywhere else. Also, I'm sensing that you're a Regina fan, maybe? While I'm not, I can say that the treatment I've received elsewhere for disliking Regina among Regina fans (say on tumblr) is not even worth mentioning in comparison with this place. I don't think I've ever seen someone who hates Regina on this forum attack another poster for liking her.

Meh, the crazy people making death threats are isolated cases. It doesn't take much to be better than that. I can think of about 5 or 6 forums off the top of my head where people can discuss the show and their favorites and it isn't an echo chamber.

No, not a Regina fan, or a fan of any particular character. I do enjoy Rumple when he is not interacting with Belle, but that's mostly because I enjoy Robert Carlyle's work. I watch the show with my family and we enjoy for what it is as family entertainment without getting overinvested in it. The kids love it but when it stops being entertaining we'll stop watching. It's just tv, after all.

[Serena]

3 hours ago, XrystalPond said:

We saw in the pilot script that was tweeted that Emma was originally going to be named Anna. Why the change?

It was something ABC made them do. Maybe because Frozen with Disney Princess Anna was already in production?

[retrograde]

Well I like the EQ. I liked Regina plenty when she was snarky and callous and dangerous in earlier seasons — it's sad-sack road-to-redemption Regina who sucks.

And I don't find it hard to believe Regina is a very popular character amongst more casual viewer. That's definitely been my experience when I chat to them about the show. Not in the way the crazed fans are about her, but she gets lots of funny lines and can occasionally be a proxy for the audience when eyerolling the Charmings' "hero" talk. 

[KingOfHearts]

8 hours ago, retrograde said:

And I don't find it hard to believe Regina is a very popular character amongst more casual viewer. That's definitely been my experience when I chat to them about the show. Not in the way the crazed fans are about her, but she gets lots of funny lines and can occasionally be a proxy for the audience when eyerolling the Charmings' "hero" talk. 

She is very iconic to the show. Unlike some other characters, she has very little precedence from her Disney counterpart. I don't think marketing is wholly responsible for her popularity, either.

Edited July 13, 2016 by KingOfHearts

[Rumsy4]

It's all in the writing. Regina gets a lot of meaningful screentime when compared to most other charatcers, including the supposed main character Emma. The only exception was 5A. By meaningful I mean the writers really like to give us Regina's PoV in most situations, and usually they are sympathetic to her even in favor of her victims or former victims. Plus the over the top wardrobe and scenery chewing helps. I feel like you have to swim against the current to see the other side, and most casual viewers don't. 

[Curio]

24 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

It's all in the writing. Regina gets a lot of meaningful screentime when compared to most other charatcers, including the supposed main character Emma.

The general audience naturally gravitates towards the character that is given the main Point of View, even if they're a villain. Walter White was given the main PoV in Breaking Bad because the writers wanted us to try and sympathize with a murderous drug lord. But because Walter's wife wasn't given much of a PoV by the writers, the audience couldn't sympathize with her as much, even though she didn't do nearly the same amount of evil acts Walter did. It's the same thing with OUAT—the general audience is going to naturally gravitate towards the characters that tend to get most of the PoV (Emma, Regina, and Rumple). Until you take a step back and analyze the show through a writing lens like we do here (which, yes, this forum does seem to attract more of the writer/screenwriter thinkers), that's when you realize the inconsistencies and manipulation tactics.

8 hours ago, XrystalPond said:

If I were to interview Adam and Eddy, I would ask about past things that worked differently than planned. As a writer those things are interesting to me. What lines have they written that actors/directors interpreted differently? What has been a big surprise both good and bad? What is their favorite thing that ended up cut? 

That last one would be interesting for me to know from the actors too. My friends who act talk about working so hard on a scene that gets cut or edited way down. There have to be scenes like that on Ouat. 

Replying in the writers thread.

Edited July 13, 2016 by Curio

[Shanna Marie]

9 minutes ago, Rumsy4 said:

I feel like you have to swim against the current to see the other side, and most casual viewers don't. 

I did find that at the end of season three and Marian's return, where some of my friends were posting "oh, poor Regina, why can't things work out for her?" stuff on Facebook. When I pointed out that it would have been awfully icky for Regina to be dating the husband of a woman she executed and that it was kind of a karma thing that she wouldn't be allowed to benefit from her own villainy, there were a lot of "oh, wow, I hadn't even thought of that. Yeah, you're right" responses. So they did a really good job in framing things so that people weren't even considering that Robin was only available to date Regina in the first place because Regina had executed his wife (in the initial timeline before the time travel).

However, most of my real-life female friends who started watching the show stopped because they were tired of all the Regina and couldn't handle the scenery chewing, while they hated that the awesome Snow White from season one was wimpified in season two to prop up Regina. My male friends don't really care what Regina does. They just think the Evil Queen is hot and like all the black leather and lace.

[Minneapple]

15 hours ago, Serena said:

It was something ABC made them do. Maybe because Frozen with Disney Princess Anna was already in production?

It's possible. I read somewhere that the original working title of Frozen was Anna and the Snow Queen.

[orza]

5 hours ago, Shanna Marie said:

I did find that at the end of season three and Marian's return, where some of my friends were posting "oh, poor Regina, why can't things work out for her?" stuff on Facebook. When I pointed out that it would have been awfully icky for Regina to be dating the husband of a woman she executed and that it was kind of a karma thing that she wouldn't be allowed to benefit from her own villainy, there were a lot of "oh, wow, I hadn't even thought of that. Yeah, you're right" responses. So they did a really good job in framing things so that people weren't even considering that Robin was only available to date Regina in the first place because Regina had executed his wife (in the initial timeline before the time travel).

No, Robin was only available to data Regina because Emma, through her clumsiness, inserted herself into the timeline and altered it. This was not a multiverse, so the "original" timeline never happened. We now the timeline was altered, but the characters in the show only know the altered reality. They had to take Emma's word for it that the timeline was changed.

[Curio]

38 minutes ago, orza said:

No, Robin was only available to data Regina because Emma, through her clumsiness, inserted herself into the timeline and altered it. This was not a multiverse, so the "original" timeline never happened. We now the timeline was altered, but the characters in the show only know the altered reality. They had to take Emma's word for it that the timeline was changed.

Responding in the continuity thread.

[Curio]

OUAT made Round 3 of EW's TV Cover Battle.

[mtsmvfn]

Was it just a coincidence that Lana just happened to do a Facebook live thing with her sword training just a day after  there was a on set video of JMO doing a badass sword fight scene ?? I really don't think so. But I'm cynical like that.

[Geeni]

Or maybe she just wanted to show her fans her progress on her sword training, she probably would have done it anyway.

There is an awful lot of projecting going on, especially if it makes Lana look bad. I highly doubt her goal in life is to "one-up" or copy Jen.

Edited July 16, 2016 by Geeni

[Writing Wrongs]

Where is the JMO video?

[orza]

3 hours ago, Geeni said:

Or maybe she just wanted to show her fans her progress on her sword training, she probably would have done it anyway.

There is an awful lot of projecting going on, especially if it makes Lana look bad. I highly doubt her goal in life is to "one-up" or copy Jen.

Agreed. Lana is just doing her job, practicing a skill she needs for an upcoming scene. There is nothing at all wrong with her sharing that with her fans. Constantly projecting junior high school motives and behavior onto people who are just doing their jobs says more about the fans than the actors.

Edited July 16, 2016 by orza

[YaddaYadda]

2 hours ago, Writing Wrongs said:

Where is the JMO video?

I just posted it in the Only Spoilers thread. 

[Kktjones]

I just saw that Josh Dallas deleted his Twitter account. I don't know exactly what led to that, but I know there was a troll that was harassing him and led to his being unverified. Even sadder to me is that the bitter haters have driven many of the cast members away from social media and away from interacting with each other over Twitter. It's so fun to see people retweeting old conversations between the cast, but I fear we won't be getting much of that anymore :(.

[Curio]

Honestly, good for him. If people were being that nasty, or if it was a hassle to remember to update all the time, it's fine to just drop it. Ginny doesn't have one either anymore, so maybe they decided they should both be Twitter-less with two kids to look after now. 

[YaddaYadda]

This fandom wasn't dropped in its head. It was thrown down a flight of stairs, then picked up, then thrown down a flight of stairs. People need to find their goddamn chill. In the end, these people are paid to act, do their interviews, they don't need to be taking abuse from anyone because they breathe wrong.

Edited July 18, 2016 by YaddaYadda

[CCTC]

The Dallas troll might have been truly crazy.  He or she would create multiple twitter accounts and send the same series of posts from the various accounts multiple times a day.  They were all about what a horrible husband and father he was because he was always flirting with his co-stars and fans and how he would have sex for money.  The troll would send pics of him and Lana goofing around, but also would send pics of him and Jen and Victoria which were part of the show (and Jen's clearly not romantic...), and later sent photoshopped pics of Ginny and Collin and asked him how he liked that.  All the while continually repeating Ginny deserved better and he seemed to have no problems with his kids seeing him with other women.  

The troll would dig up twitter posts from years ago, and seemed to get more unhinged because he or she started attacking fans who tweeted to him -- saying they wanted to have sex with him.  The troll even mentioned coming to filming when it started in later in the summer, which was a new level of creepy.  This went on for months, and finally stopped.  I wonder if he waited until the troll postings stopped, so as to not give the troll the satisfaction of driving him away, before he killed the account.

Edited July 18, 2016 by CCTC

[Curio]

Thanks for the scoop, @CCTC. I don't like being on Twitter for longer than I have to, so I don't know much of the drama on that side of the fandom. It's sad that Twitter is the social media platform celebrities like to use the most because it seriously attracts the worst kinds of fans.

[YaddaYadda]

So it was a twofer then. Fixated on both Josh and Ginny. Nice!

[Souris]

As much hate & vitriol that gets thrown around to the other actors on Twitter, that troll going after Josh was next-level disturbing.

Edited July 18, 2016 by Souris

[Serena]

Yes, that's someone the police should be concerned with.

[maryle]

Really scary stalker behavio!!

I always like Josh. He seems a good person to be around.

Hope everything is safe for him, Ginny and the children. 

Edited July 19, 2016 by maryle

[orza]

So you guys believe a person who joined today and has only one post made to spread something nasty about an actor with no proof? Ok, then, cuz I don't. If this has been going on for months why has no one else who follows Josh seen anything?