Mods don’t follow board rules themselves, obviously. December misatributes a quote from someone who isn’t even on the boards? Ban him! Giraffe actually adds text when posting a quote from another poster? Clearly, it’s all in good fun. :rolleyes: What a load of crap.
What, do you think I’m just making things up?
Here are some quotes from a discussion on the CHUD forums showing
Joss Wheedon calls his fans “Browncoats” and ecourages their delusions:
People think Serenity failed to be a blockbuster hit because of incompetence/conspiracy:
Serenity fans think they are part of a grassroots movement/are delusional about Serenity’s place in the world:
Serenity fans push their preferences on their unwitting and uniterested friends:
No, I think you’re overgeneralizing. One swallow does not make a spring, or whatever they say.
Nor does silly, lighthearted, sarcastic commentary make a cult figure.
And Obsidian, I’m pretty sure I know what moment you’re talking about, and I think that’s one of the lamest criticisms of a narrative moment I’ve heard in a long time. That moment was crucial on several levels to the story’s telling, and while there may have been a way to make it even better, I’ve not heard anyone make a suggestion that would be an improvement. Most of the alternate suggestions I’ve heard would seriously weaken the story’s structure and undermine some important character stuff that followed.
Daniel
As I said, I’d be happy to discuss the issue in another thread. I’m certainly open to the possibility that my understanding of the rules is incorrect. In any case, let’s not hijack this thread any further, kay?
No, I think you really do have one seriously maladjusted friend. You also seem to be unaware of the problems with drawing conclusions from small samples. And, based on the rest of the post I’m responding to, you seem to have problems with either understanding context, or with the use of metaphor. Probably both; its hard to tell at this point.
I liked Serenity. A lot. But last night, I saw a film that had higher %s on Rotten Tomatoes and yet managed to eke out only 1 week in 1 dungeon of a theater in the entire SF Bay Area. I was told it’d be gone by Friday. I was only 1 of 2 people in the theater. And it’s a fantastic film.
Those are the kinds of movies that get buried by distributors, get piss-poor publicity, or a vote of zero confidence among the industry “suits”. Those are the kinds of movies that need inflated first-week b.o. results to keep their heads afloat. That is the kind of film that I’d be inclined to pay to see again as a financial show of support.
I would love to see more smart, well-written genre films like Serenity, but those fans (whether they be few or many) who complain about conspiracies and industry unfairness need to get some perspective. This movie is a gift–nobody had a right to expect that someone would want to make a movie from a TV series that (for whatever reason) failed in the ratings and was undeniably a challenge to market (even despite the subsequent “cult” success that it gained in the pop culture margins). And yet here it is for them to enjoy. I hope they make more, but if they don’t, this film still represents a second chance most artistic endeavors aren’t lucky enough to get.
This–so subtly different from what even sven said–is something I can agree with wholeheartedly.
Well, the unfairness part is true, in some sense. It’s just not something worth complaining about. Business really isn’t set up to be fair, and nobody has suggested any model other than a free market by which $40 million movies can be made. So you take the good with the bad. “Fair” would mean that those $40 million would go toward feeding the hungry and sheltering the homeless.
I’m sad that Firefly got cancelled, and I’ll gladly believe that some executives’ ineptitude or petty politicking helped with the cancellation. But I have no delusions that boycotting Fox will make the slightest difference, or that supporting this movie is somehow an act of which Margaret Mead would be proud.
Daniel
Sweet! I’ve already got the gun-hoarding thing down.
Of course, I was doing that long before I saw firefly.
The shrill, panicked, spastic responses to this thread, which posited the simple “who is Joss Whedon?” question and rocketed to over 40 replies in under an hour are enough to convince me that his fanbase is generally batshit insane. Look at the way they swarm around the OP, freaking out - “How can you NOT know who THE JOSS is? OMFG…ROLFMAOBBQNRBQKKK…He’s ONLY the GREATEST LIVING HUMAN OF ALL TIME…what’s wrong with you? What sort of asshole are you?”
etc. etc. etc.
When fans decide that compliments, good reviews, and great ratings aren’t good enough, there’s a serious level of ridiculousness going on.
You must be new to this whole “reading” thing, right? Well, keep at it. You’ll figure out how it works soon enough.
You people are crazy. He’s my favourite writer and director. Unsurprisingly, if I enjoy something, be it book or TV show or movie, I will recommend it to my friends.
I get no spirituality from his TV shows. Nor does anyone I know, and I speak as someone who can quote whole swaths of Buffy from memory.
Do you have nothing else in your lives to worry about?
Not the kind of asshole to misquote posts in another thread, obviously.
The only one being vaguely jerkish, shrill or panicked over there is a non-Whedon fan complaining about all the threads started by other non-Whedon fans.
Yes, there’s a little bit of surprise that one of the most prolific television writers/creators of the last decade is still an unknown in some circles, but I’m not surprised by that surprise. Wouldn’t you be surprised if someone hadn’t known Aaron Spelling in the 90’s?
Frankly, VCO3, your own posts on this and other topics (especially where you freaked out about Goths who don’t take themselves seriously) make me think you’re a real Nerf Dildo, so I’m not too upset about your judgments of me.
Daniel
It wasn’t quite dumb enough to start a Pit thread about. Actually, scratch that. It was plenty dumb enough; it just wasn’t interesting enough to start a Pit thread about. However, as long as he’s here…
Daniel
Huh?? Did we read the same thread?? Here are some exact quotes:
And that’s just in the first 30 posts. Hardly a batshit crazy swarm.
Presumably being said non-Whedon fan, I’d like to point out that I was not complaining.
I made a simple statement about mild annoyance and a particular fanboy blew the entire thing out of proportion, hijacked the thread, and took smug satisfaction in misinterpreting or outright ignoring specific points I’d made.
I am not a shrill or panicky person, though I’m admittedly a bit jerkish at times. I do not believe this to be one of those times.
The only jerkish behavior was the fans invading a neutral conversation about Whedon’s identity with a “you’re stupid for not knowing/liking him” attitude, and attacking anyone who disagrees with their fandom.
Well, to be fair, he’s talking about the Whedon fans who responded to that thread. And those replies really were over the top:
It’s a madhouse in there, I tell you! A madhouse!
Yeah, that’s what happened all right :).
Daniel
Is that a line from Buffy or something? Sorry, I’m not a fan.
Apparently, you and VCO3 read the same thread. Could either of you link to it? Because I haven’t seen anything like that in any of the Joss Whedon-themed threads I’ve found so far.