What are the biggest "fuck yous" from creators to fanbases? (OPEN SPOILERS)

Cafe Society
121

Regarding the Dark Tower, I am one of those who read the first three and then waited for years to find out if/how the ka-tet escaped from Blaine. Those were some very frustrating years. When King was hit by the van I figured that the ending was never going to be written. I finished the last four books as they came out, and while the story unfolded much differently than I expected, why shouldn’t it? It is King’s story.

Do I think the accident caused him to divert from his original direction? Yes, I do. I have experienced a life altering/intense pain event, and it does color one’s outlook during and after the event.

Did his little rant before the final ending bother me? Hell yeah it did! It pissed me right off! As well as the afterword. It felt like a personal attack. It was the first time I put down a King book with a sour feeling. After a few days had passed I realized that I didn’t need to take it personally. I think very highly of both Stephen and Tabitha King for their writing talents as well as the charitable works they do, and I savor a new King book as much as the finest chocolate. However, I would never presume to infringe on his private life. He is hugely popular, and there are some very scary fans out there. Go to his official site and read the message board there sometime. If people will say those things online, imagine the mail he gets, the strangers at his home, clustered around the gate, taking photos and loitering in hope of getting at least a glimpse of the man. He didn’t write those words to me, he wrote them to the fans who have badgered, harrassed and irritated the man until he finally snapped at them. He is just as human as you and I.

I took several months of reading non-King books, and then I read the Dark Tower straight through, and I got it. It ends exactly the way it had to end. Quite frankly, putting himself in the tale, imo, opened up to the reader some insight on King and the hold the series has had on him over the years.

As for his stories not ending well, geez, read Koontz. A happy ending every time. I anticipate an emotional roller coaster when I read King, and he rarely fails. He is not predictable, and has no compunction of killing a character if that is the direction the story takes. I like the fact that he doesn’t plot out his stories, that he allows them to develop as they spin from his imagination through his fingers on the keyboard.

I also have to say that The Dark Half is one of my favorites. Why shouldn’t he let his own world poke through the fabric of the current tale?

jmo.

122

waits. Yep, “Arc” not “Weld.”

As to the “South Park” thing, yes it was a joke, but a joke by P&S to amuse P&S at the expense of fans. I strongly doubt the sincerity of their claim about the fan reaction.

And I, like others, stopped watching the show regularly at that point.

123

It was definitely a fuck you.

The “real” episode didn’t air until three weeks later because the South Park guys maintained they were never actually going to give fans an answer. There was no part 2 to air.

When the backlash was so great they realized they pissed a lot of people off so they delayed the season three weeks, made part 2, and probably saved the show from cancellation.

124

I can’t even begin to imagine how utterly boring such a book might be. Whining and yapping and moaning and groaning and being pissy about a director? Life’s too short for such crap. I’ll continue to enjoy the movies just fine, and they can continue being sad pathetic creatures with nothing better to do.

125

I’ve been waiting for someone to bring up Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music.

126

I get a slightly different impression from it… more that he was angry at his publishers or at himself than his fans. He was going through a tough time personally, he had to produce a new hitchhiker’s book, and he was feeling burnt out and frustrated at the hitchhiker’s world. And so it ended up dark, with a very depressing ending that apparently ends the entire series, (never say ‘never’ with a writer like Adams,) and he regretted that when his own life got out of that dark place, wanting maybe to finish the series on a happier note. I can understand it.

To me, even though it’s dark, ‘mostly harmless’ is one of my favorite hitchhiker’s books, because there’s so much twisted material in it. (Call it a tie with ‘life the universe’) And hey – I loved the running Elvis gag, just for the record. Especially how Arthur is completely clueless about it.

127

Oh, I think we can safely say never. :smiley:

128

That wasn’t what I meant… well, I said ‘with a writer like Adams’, didn’t I?? Unfortunately, he’s not with us anymore… which is the whole trouble. :frowning:

129

I never said I didn’t like that choice. Personally, the only thing I liked about the whole Tom Bombadil in the books was his catchy song. I didn’t like the Scouring of the Shire much either - I skimmed through most of it. I was simply saying that a lot of other people seemed to take it as a fuck you.

130

I don’t recall seeing it mentioned, but Shatner’s famous SNL sketch was, I’m sure, from the heart even if he didn’t write the words.

131

Well, one portion or another of any fandom is going to react badly to everything a popular artist does. Can’t please all of the people all of the time, and so forth. That said, the outcry over those two omissions was pretty small, and mostly understanding of the limitations Jackson was working under. Even among the people who missed those elements, the number of people who were outraged over it was pretty small. Nothing compared to the outrage over the elves at Helm’s Deep, or the changes to Faramir. I still don’t get that last one. I never realized Faramir even had his own fanbase. Took me two or three read-throughs of the trilogy before I stopped forgetting who he was altogether. Always seemed that he exsisted mostly so someone could be Aragorn when Aragorn was off on the other side of the continent.

Anyway, none of that was really a “fuck-you,” as PJ almost certainly intend to antogonize the novel’s fanbase.

132

And, for those of us who aren’t so pop-literate, how did that go?

133

GET A LIFE!

Very famous sketch. Funny, too.

134

Wow, I can’t believe the OP mentions Stephen King because he’s also the perpetrator of what I consider to be the biggest “fuck you” ever stuck to a fanbase.

Years ago, he was publishing a novel in serial form on his website for $1.00 (I think) per download. He employed an honor system for distributing the story rather than a pay-before-you-can-download arrangement and when the number of downloaders far exceeded the number of contributors, he threatened to cancel the story if the numbers didn’t even up. They didn’t, so he stopped posting the story (according to him, he stopped writing it altogether) and stuck it to the thousands of fans who had paid for every download. What a prick. Like he’s that starving for the money anyway. He basically screwed a lot of fans because he lacked the savvy to conduct business on the internet.

I used to be a huge King fan when I was a kid, but I’m glad that I stopped reading his crap after The Dark Half.

135

And PLEASE move out of your parent’s basement!

Basically it’s a sketch where he’s at a convention and gets asked a bunch of ridiculous questions like “What was the combination on the safe you opened on such-and-such episode?”

He finally flips out yells at them for being obsessed with a TV show then walks off. Off mic he gets chewed out by the promoter of the convention and gets back on the mic and says something along the lines of ‘and that was my impression of the EVIL KIRK from Mirror, Mirror’

136

“Mostly Harmless” is a very good book. SLaTfAtF isn’t a very good book but even that one doesn’t come anywhere close to being a FU.

If you read “Salmon of Doubt” it will be clear that Adams absolutely hated writing for long periods of time. The demons were internal.

137

To a certain extent I can understand a creator of serial work wanting to do violence to that work at the end. But I don’t think it’s often wise and can pull away from the art.

Example. This probably falls into the ‘unwise’ as opposed to fuck you category.

Berke Breathed. At the end of Bloom County the last strip has the guys leaving the dandelion meadow for good and then it’s instantly paved and turned into some sort of development. Urgh.

Contrast that with Bill Watterson’s ending of Calvin and Hobbes. “It’s a magical world, Hobbes! Let’s go exploring!”

Watterson shows a continuing affection for his characters and story whereas Breathed has a more cynical and destructive relationship with them.

138

Shatner was a guest of honor at a “Trekkie” convention. Some geeky fan asks him about the combination to the safe in “episode 35”. Shatner gets pissed and yells at the fan:

http://snltranscripts.jt.org/86/86hgetalife.phtml

That pretty much fits the description as given by the OP. :wink:

139

So, people were stealing from Stephen King, he didn’t care for it and put a stop to it, and that’s wrong? :rolleyes:

I mean, the Dark Tower thing I can see - King has grown increasingly bitter in the past 10, 15 years - but to say he’s in the wrong because he’s upset that people are stealing from him is asinine.

140

:: sigh ::

Yeoman Thompson was in episode #50, not #51, called “By Any Other Name”!

AND I AM NOT A GEEK FOR KNOWING THAT!!!