The BtVS and the AtS fandom spoiled me. Some of the spoiling was in good ways and some was in bad ways. Still, those ways linger.
One of the more unfortunate after effects of the BtVS/AtS fandom is that somehow I find myself comparing all kerfuffles to the Spike wars. Haven't been accused of being a serial killer lovah yet? Then there's room for the kerfuffle to get worse.
The whole Spike Wars experience has made watching the fractures currently developing on a couple of OLTL boards interesting ( in a car wreck sort of way). The polarization is beginning and no doubt will only get worse because both sides of this war are quickly throwing perspective out the window.
Quick summary of storyline causing the polarization:
* Jessica and Natalie are sisters and rich as hell.
* Jessica was happily married with a toddler, and a bun in the oven. Oh, and a history of mental illness.
* Natalie has a history of failed relationships where she's treated like gum under some man's shoe.
* Jessica, in a period when she was certifiably nuts, did something (I don't know what. I wasn't watching at that time) that accidentally got some guy sent to prison for something he didn't do.
* Once out of prison, he wanted revenge on the crazy woman who sent him there.
* As fate, and a recent death, would have it, he (Jared) arrived on the scene right around the time as Jessica's and Natalie's rich as hell grandpa died, leaving mention in his will of a son he'd never told anyone about. Jared jumped at this, claiming that he was the long lost son (and thus a share of the family business... the better to seek revenge with, my dear). Of course, this is 'love in the afternoon', so he soon found himself falling for Natalie and redeeming his vengeful, fraudulent ways. Given that he was pretending to be her uncle, there were...um... obstacles (to say the least). Eventually his heart overruled his desire for revenge and he confessed the truth to Natalie (as well as his adoring love for her). Circumstances were complicated so, for a multitude of reasons, Natalie didn't tell the rest of the family that Jared was a fraud... at least (she told herself) until she could figure out a way to straighten out the mess. Oh, and yeah, she fell in love with the guy who was so grandiosely in love with her.
Thus ended the set up.
The kerfuffle causing event happened when Jared's lies were exposed by a third party, leading Jessica's husband to call Natalie a lying slut. Jared defended Natalie's honor by... pushing Jessica's husband through a skylight and three stories to his death. The scene was quite clearly staged as an accident. Jessica's husband was no physical threat to Natalie. Jared was unaware that there was a skylight in the boardroom lobby that Jessica's husband could conceivably fall through. So, objective truth: it was an accident. Headwriter's obvious intention: It was an accident intended to cause a rift between sisters and thus lots of story. Fandom 'truth' is as follows:
In one corner we have "Poor Nat" - in this part of the fandom, she's turned into some female Dickensian waif who may as well live in the the family basement and scrub the family mansion's floors because (to them) her family doesn't properly appreciate Natalie's greatness or love her like she deserves. That absolutely explains why she never exposed her lover's fraud to her family. Hell, she was justified. Anything she does in the defense of her "true love" (of two weeks) is totally acceptable. It doesn't matter that Jared's lies cost her family their company. And the fact that he pushed her brother-in-law through a skylight to his death should in no way make him unacceptable to her family, who are a bunch of big meanies for not accepting her deep, abiding love for Jared. Natalie blackmailing her family to keep Jared out of jail (for his actual crime of fraud) is also 100% justified! Also, her sister is a BITCH for being furious with Natalie. How dare she?! No pity for Jess. None.
In the other corner we have "Poor Jess" -- In this part of the fandom, Natalie is a lying whore!!11!1! A lying whore who personally murdered Jessica's husband. Natalie should be disowned and tossed out on the streets. Natalie should be branded with a scarlet letter 'A' (she's single, but they're unmarried so that still qualifies as adultery) and a scarlet letter 'M' (for murderer). She should be in jail for murder and anything Jessica does to Natalie is perfectly justified because Natalie is a lying murdering whore!!111!!! No forgiveness for Natalie. None.
The middle ground between these two warring fan factions is quickly becoming a very tiny, positively miniscule, nearly-deserted island. And the thing is, unlike with Mutant Enemy, I don't question what the headwriter was aiming for. We are supposed to see that both Natalie and Jessica have their reasons, and we're supposed to love -- and pity -- both of them, seeing each sister as essentially decent but fallible, fatally blinkered by their own limited points of view that each contain elements of right and wrong. But for fandom? There is no neutral ground!
*Sigh*
Which brings me to the part of the AtS and BtVS fandom that has spoiled me in a good way. I miss the level of discourse. Yes, there were tons of stupid, petty battles. Finding a stupid, petty battle was as easy as logging onto the net. BUT there was also a great deal of highly intelligent conversation to be had, forums where people openly discussed character POV and that a character's view was subjective. Fanficcers have spoiled me, because fanficcers embrace the fact that friction and conflict make story. Angst isn't always a bad thing. And having characters at cross-purposes can be a sign of good writing (when it's deliberate). I miss being able to openly appreciate a writer coming up with a suitable conflict for characters and appreciating that conflict in its own right, because a really good character conflict can at times be difficult to achieve.
Despite all the Spike Wars flashbacks the current OLTL polarization is causing me (thankfully no one has been called a serial killer lover yet), it's making me think wistfully of the BtVS/AtS days when we were naive and optimistic enough to embrace conflict as a good thing.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
