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Sherlock Fandom - The Good, the Bad And the WTF?


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This thread is for any and all (well, as long as it's SFW, otherwise head over to Irene's :smile:) expressions of Sherlock fandom that you found remarkable - whether they made you smile, gasp in admiration, or shake your head in befuddlement! :lol: Fan Art got its own subforum, of course, but that still leaves a lot of creative (in all senses of the word) expressions for this thread. ;)

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Regarding the ad:  We've seen that sort of thing before, even death threats, but fortunately it doesn't seem to represent fandom as a whole (probably not even Johnlockers as a whole or TJLCers as a whole), just the noisy fringe.  Boycotting the merchandise is fair enough (vote with your dollars -- or pounds, or euros or whatever), but hate-mail and beyond is a far less honorable reaction.

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Don't see any problem with the Rotten Tomatoes part, though - if you found an episode terrible, what's the problem with going to an aggregator site and casting your (down)vote?  :huh: That's what those places are for, after all.

 

My strongest personal WTF? moment with the Sherlock fandom was this little tumblr gem between S3 and S4:

 

OPBT0tv.jpg

 

Fans not being able to distinguish between actor and role, that's not a good sign. :mellow:

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All too common, I'm afraid.  That seems to be the source of a lot of the hate mail:  "I don't like what your character did on television, so I hate you!"  Brilliant.

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What now also happens to Loo.

 

That's happening? Like, seriously? :wtf:

K608FVp.gif

 

Sidenote: The Dursleys' actors must be very brave people to have taken those roles, then. :mellow:

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This thread is for any and all (well, as long as it's SFW, otherwise head over to Irene's :smile:)

Eh.... I have never been curious about Irene's and still haven't, but now with NSFW remarks I imagine you guys have those big explicit posters hanging around. And OH..! Is this where the forbidden 403 or 404 words go to? :p

 

I agree with you guys, that no actors or creators should be attacked that way. No! In any context and any community.

But entertainment is a nasty industry, and internet is a nasty place. Anonymity is good, but it's also destructive.

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Just found this -- stupidity is not confined to fandom, but can occur in the media as well:
 

NOT HOLMIES

Sherlock’s Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman cast doubt over further series due to ‘frosty friendship’

Pair who play famous detective and sidekick John Watson said to be 'hardly close' and allegedly spend their time apart in between shoots


Imagine that -- they're not really best friends, they just play 'em on TV! How could the show possibly go on?

 

Wonder how many of that paper's reporters hang out with colleagues after work and on weekends?

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Ugh, so many bad examples. I want to find a really good one, but I realise I already have. It's called Sherlockforum! :wub: This is the place to get excited, vent your frustrations, share your love of the show - and all in a spirit of fellowship.

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Okay, I can't remember the specifics and no time to look them up, but here's a "good" one ... every year, a group of Benedict's fans celebrate his birthday by donating money to one of the charities he supports.

 

 

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Imagine that -- they're not really best friends, they just play 'em on TV! How could the show possibly go on?

 

Wonder how many of that paper's reporters hang out with colleagues after work and on weekends?

 

Apparently some newspeople ship Freebatch. :/

But I have to admit, their chemistry on screen is so great, that directly after seeing Sherlock, I also assumed they must be best friends ever. But then I checked the facts :P

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Arcadia, do you mean Batch of Kindness?

It's an open action started after Ben said something like: he is blessed enough in his life, so all the energy and money ppl invest in making gifts for his birthday may be used to help someone who needs them more than he.

 

It's basically doing little good deeds, but donating is okay too. If you want, you can write about it to the woman that runs the action, then she make a compilation of the entries and sends it to BC agency.

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I'm not sure if that's what I'm thinking of or not, JP. I just remember reading something a couple of times about fans doing some social good in honor of Ben's birthday. I thought it was cool. There may be a few such groups.

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In the meantime, because there is never enough of them, a new Fourth Episode Conspiracy ist growing stronger. Another way to produce disappointed, angry people.

 

I must admit, I waited far into the "commercials" at the end of the PBS broadcast just to make sure that there was no "Sherlock will return in December 2017" card shown, but then I let it go.   ;)

 

For a lot of the WTF? moments, it seems that whichever (over-invested? extremely invested) portion of the fandom does some version of the following analytical mistake:

 

1.  Moftiss either joke about something or are purposely vague or even flat-out give their actual, real-life reasoning for a decision about the show.  Whichever, it isn't the answer the subgroup of the fandom was wanting.

2.  The subgroup starts to go into analysis mode, producing complicated (and often really inspired) proofs that what they want is going to become canon.  The proofs bolster people's hopes.

3.  When the next episode contradicts the proofs or does not support them strongly enough, the subgroup feels betrayed, and they point back to the proof as being the definitive reasoning rather than going back to what the creators themselves have or haven't said.

4.  And all this takes place on the internet, where all emotion gets cranked up to 11 no matter what you are talking about.

 

It's not that it's not understandable; it is just that one would hope that a show of the quality of Sherlock could be a source of enjoyment for most if not all of its fans, and that crushing disappointments would be few and highly transient and temporary.

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I thought that was just a joke. :huh: What is their evidence?

Mostly other people saying so, presenting a multitude of hints, and signs, and logical explanations. The same old story. I have also seen a screenshot of something that looked like an online schedule of an undefined Polish TV broadcaster (should be possible to track it down, but I don't see the point of it, ppl don't need facts anyway) showing 3 episodes of Sherlock, and a fourth one a week later, with a title "The New Friend". There are many explanation for it, the most probable being a mistake in the schedule.

 

I wouldn't complain though. :D

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I don't know much about the Sherlock fandom at large... I mostly just hang around this place. There are a few blogs I follow but that's about it.

 

I always feel torn about disappointed people. On the one hand, I have this tendency to become way too emotionally invested in a personal interpretation of mine and then when the work of fiction in question disproves it, I feel very upset. Which is why I usually do not pay much attention to unfinished works and when in doubt, I will seek out spoilers to soften any potential blows. On the other hand, I see this very much as my problem, not that of the people who create the fiction, so I kind of fail to understand how people can believe they are "owed" anything.

 

I kind of get that argument if you've paid for something in advance. Like, if you participated in crowdfunding a product and then it turns out vastly different than you expected and you wish you could take your money back.

 

But apart from that? I dunno. How are creators supposed to satisfy every member of the audience, anyway? We all have different wishes and priorities, lots of which are mutually exclusive.

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:rofl: Yeah, that about sums it up nicely, and hits pretty close to home.

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... How are creators supposed to satisfy every member of the audience, anyway? We all have different wishes and priorities, lots of which are mutually exclusive.

We can't!!!!!! Creators create to satisfy themselves, not their fans. Well, some might, but they are usually considered hacks by other creators. To give an example -- and I'm sorry if anyone likes him -- but amongst artists, the work of Thomas Kincaid is almost universally loathed -- because it's produced to fulfill collector's expectations, rather than challenge them. Horrors!! (And noooo, we're not the least bit jealous that he makes all kinds of money at it... :D )

 

When I first encountered TJLC I was almost convinced, but the more I got into it, the more irritated I got ... because the conspiracists were taking something that didn't belong to them, and acting as if they owned it. As a creator, that really made me see red. Slap 'em all with a lawsuit! :P The theories themselves are oddly compelling at times, I can see why people like them ... but the vehemence with which some people insisted they, and only they, knew the whole truth really put me off.  Ah, well, so it goes. I feel bad for people who got hurt by it, though.

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That way lies the "starving artist" trope, though. Don't get me wrong, I admire any creator who is willing and happy to stand up for their intellectual purity and the untainted clarity of their artistic vision. But most content creators like getting paid, and, in the less solitary artistic professions (you can paint a picture all by yourself, but that gets more difficult already with computer games, and is pretty much impossible for movies), that goes double for all the other people involved in said creation. And while I'll fiercely defend any artist's right to their own creative vision, I'm also a big fan of Voting With Your Wallet (suck it, Ubisoft :P). So this will always be a delicate balance at best.

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Fandom demand exists since even before the internet time, but I suppose it's less damaging and more constructive. (They sort of brought Sherlock back from dead..:p)

 

Writing in to express wish and frustation is a fair game, but never in abusive way. Trolling, death threat, spamming and name calling are what I don't care about.

I am still a non Johnlocker, I don't get it and I don't like how some of them attack the actors and creators. It's not acceptable. For anyone. About anything. Including those who attack Amanda or Loo. Or Martin. Or anyone. Never acceptable. I stand by their right to create what they want or commiting to their roles.

 

However, I have a bit more understanding about how it could be hurtful in some way. There are plethora of ways to look at it, but if from certain angle it hurts in every way, I feel bad for them. It's just too bad that it does. And I believe sometimes, the line could be blurred between critisizing the theory and stereotyping, intentional or not, other party reading too much into it or not.

 

Sigh..

That is why the only Sherlock fandom I know is here.

I know Sherlock outside of here from accidental strumble and from what you guys post here, most of the time I don't bother to click on links as well.

I don't even know how Tumblr works. I don't need or want other place for Sherlock than here. It's too scary outside. I have least patience for negativity and drama.

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