I hopped on briefly to catch up a bit while I had some time, found this post, and it dragged me out of lurk mode, at least for awhile tonight. *still has Christmas cards to do, couple prezzies left to wrap, among other things...*
I have to say, this has been an interesting thread, with lots of different opinions. Figured I'd toss my own in.
Not on any other TMNT-related boards myself, though I'm on a couple other boards for some of the other fandoms I'm in, and I've seen similar behavior. Get a huge group of fans, you're bound to get, as Don succinctly put it, "fanwankers"(nice one, lol, mind if I swipe it?
). All it takes is for a few spoiled brats who think they're entitled to have "their" version become canon or arrogant jerks who like to complain about
everything just to be negative to ruin it for everyone. I don't stay very long on boards where it's just one big whine-fest where everything is not just picked apart, but hacked and diced to shreds beyond recognition.
Haven't seen that here. We have our disagreements, our discussions, like somethings, and dislike others, but we at least don't go around saying "everything sucks".
I personally am not all that fond of FF. Earl and I tried sitting through an ep awhile ago and I made it about halfway before I couldn't take anymore. Maybe if I watched all of the eps in order, or later eps or something, it gets better, but I'm not crazy about it. Then again, I wasn't fond of the Garbageman and Nano eps, either, found them a bit dull and lacking, well, I'm not sure what, but it felt just blah to me. Those aren't the only eps I wasn't overly fond of, but I still kept watching.
I suppose not being fond of FF, whether or not the season's all that great or not, is also part to do with me, too. My fandom took a hit in early 2005, had nothing to do whatsoever with
any of you. Only marginally had to do with the TMNT, really, but it still did some damage. For the last year and a half, nearly two years, I actually did lose interest in the TMNT for awhile. I wasn't interested in the collecting, the show, the comics, fanfiction, nothing. Wasn't anybody's fault, just had some healing to do concerning someone not even on this boards or anywhere else in the fandom(that I know of) that hurt me
bad and for awhile, I couldn't tolerate the fandom because it kept reminding me of what happened.
TMNT wasn't the only fandom that took a hit. Couple other fandoms I was in suffered as well, in the same way, to where I couldn't handle being in them for awhile. So I suppose needing to take a break for awhile also probably led me to not being fond of FF as I was partly out of the loop and, well, I suppose I've changed a bit since that incident. Thankfully, though, in the last couple of months, I've rediscovered the damaged fandoms, so wedding aside, you'll probably see more of me now.
Until June, however, lol, count me on lurk mode because I'm up to my ears in wedding plans. But I'm not down forever.
Point is, people change. People grow, give up on old fandoms and discover new. What someone might've once liked, they now find utterly silly or even "stupid". It's all a matter of opinion. What one person likes, others don't. Those of us who've seen the lost season that was supposed to air before, well, I guess I can't speak for everyone, but I've heard that those were really good and I can agree. Saw 'em on YouTube, and they're among my favorite eps. *is actually going to make a point of getting her hands on the DVD when it's out, if it's not out already and she's behind as usual
*
No two people agree on everything. We can agree on a lot of things, but not everything. And we can pick things apart and analyze and discuss, particularly really bad eps, but as long as we're not bashing the fandom, creators, writers, etc, and each other, it's all good. Discussing what we like and what we don't helps the creators and others know what to go with, and what probably was a bad idea. 'Raka's right. If we liked everything that came our way, eh, it'd be boring and not much of a fandom. Discussions make for good fandoms. Fandoms that die out, just don't have the debates and discussions among even a few loyal fans that the lasting ones do.
If I were doing a creation like the TMNT, I'd want to know what people liked. Yes, it's my toy to play with(as the Star Wars fans are apt to say about Lucas' frequent changes to the Trilogy), ultimately my decision what to do with it, but if nobody likes it, not much point to it and the fandom dies. Creators need us to discuss and disagree and hash it up a bit, figure out what we like in general, what works, and what doesn't. Characters and stories evolve(as do muses *shoos hers away with a cast iron skillet* ;P) so what the TMNT were when they were created, definitely won't be the same as they are now. People change too, including creators and fans.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that things evolve, people change, and without the fans, the creators don't have much to go on for their creations. But without creators, we don't have a fandom, so it's a two-way street. We can discuss and toss ideas and such around, that's a good thing. Bashing isn't. I might not care much for FF, but I haven't seen much of it, so I have no real reason or right to start posting monologues(like this one, geeze, you can tell I've been away, I have a lot to say...and I rhymed lol) about how badly it sucks.
Even if I saw it and didn't like it, meh, I can say why I didn't like it or what I didn't like about it without bashing. Won't change anything, obviously the season's been made. But if I don't like it(like I don't like Garbageman and Nano), I just won't watch it. No point in foaming at the mouth every time it's on, just because it's not something I like about the Turtles, y'know?
*steps off the tower of soapboxes before she falls off*
