Well, I think that meta was the intention but they seemed to mostly devolve into arguments, especially in open forums where the B/J shippers would clash with the B/M shippers. But yeah, there was a lot of meta, especially around the end of S4 and S5 when the spoilers were coming out. Ahh, see come season 5, I was mostly leaving the fandom. Also I was one of those spoiler virgins, so I avoid all the spoiler discussions regardless of wank, and the only wank I saw came from other virgins complaining about inconsiderate spoiler hos who'd post spoilers without cuts or warnings. :P I knew about the shipper wars, but I never actually saw them all that often. Once a person on my flist got caught up with it in queerasfolkfans and we started a com called qaf_ships but it never really went anywhere.
I would sometimes, out of curiosity, poke my nose into the occasional B/M discussion, and I was really surprised at how many B/M shippers either strongly disliked or outright hated Brian. Some of the things they said were shockingly hostile and it really made me wonder why the hell they were shipping their beloved Mikey (*eyeroll*) with someone they couldn't stand. Wow, I always assumed the B/Mers hated Justin. The only B/Mers that I really "knew" at all were the vidders of itsnotbullshit.com because I loved Veero's vids. Actually, I remember when I made my first vid, carr0ts suggested I ask them to host it, because even though it wasn't B/M it was kind of anti-Justin, so they'd probably take it.
Especially when they had a canon ship with Ben, who was a wonderful character in his own right The only thing I could really say to defend them, is that Brian did treat Mikey kind of badly, but Mikey still wanted him. And if you started shipping from the beginning, Ben wasn't there, and gah, who the hell can like David? He was so creepy, and was basically using Mikey as a young boy-toy. God, I found David so creepy, there are no words. And some people, when they get into a ship, they don't like changing it later on. But yeah, if you adore Mikey, I can understand why you'd hate Brian as a potential love interest, since I think he'd make Mikey miserable (you know he really, really would), but that's why I didn't ship them.... Maybe the B/Mers were frustrated because in season one they did have a lot of sexual undercurrents going on, and then it just kind of disappeared as the focus moved, and the fans of that ship probably just got bitter. That's sort of happened to me in Numb3rs. In season 1 Don and Charlie have so much going on between then, now though, you're lucky if they're even in the same scene together, and if they are, they generally have their girlfriends with them. It'd killing the pairing for me, and I find it really hard to read fanfic in that fandom now. But I don't hate either of them (*attempts to sound on topic* :P).
I can see liking one character more than another. I'm obviously a Brian fan. I liked Justin, but my interest in him was primarily his relationship with and importance to Brian; I didn't have a favourite between those two until season 3, when Brian was acting like a big woobie cuddly thing, that's when I fell head over heels for Brian. It didn't help that Justin's side storylines were things like The Gay/Straight Alliance and the Pink Posse.
What I was responding to was the "I HATEHATEHATE JOHN" comment, because that's rather more vehement than disinterest. Hmm. I think while you and I have flists that seem to be Rodney lovers, there are still quite a few John lovers out there. There's this one mailing list I'm on where there seems to be a lot more John lovers. Listening to people squee about how awesome John is or making him sound like he's perfect, completely ignoring his faults (I'm sure you've felt the same, but about people talking about Rodney instead)... Well it can drive some people a little crazy, and they don't think to blame their friends, so instead focus on the character. *shrugs*
Sorry about the messed up tags, I wrote this up in Writer while in the car, and some of the characters didn't transfer. Also, now whenever I type in hate in Writer, it asks me if I mean HATEHATEHATE because I had copied your comment into it :P
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Ahh, see come season 5, I was mostly leaving the fandom. Also I was one of those spoiler virgins, so I avoid all the spoiler discussions regardless of wank, and the only wank I saw came from other virgins complaining about inconsiderate spoiler hos who'd post spoilers without cuts or warnings. :P
I knew about the shipper wars, but I never actually saw them all that often. Once a person on my flist got caught up with it in
I would sometimes, out of curiosity, poke my nose into the occasional B/M discussion, and I was really surprised at how many B/M shippers either strongly disliked or outright hated Brian. Some of the things they said were shockingly hostile and it really made me wonder why the hell they were shipping their beloved Mikey (*eyeroll*) with someone they couldn't stand.
Wow, I always assumed the B/Mers hated Justin. The only B/Mers that I really "knew" at all were the vidders of itsnotbullshit.com because I loved Veero's vids. Actually, I remember when I made my first vid,
Especially when they had a canon ship with Ben, who was a wonderful character in his own right
The only thing I could really say to defend them, is that Brian did treat Mikey kind of badly, but Mikey still wanted him. And if you started shipping from the beginning, Ben wasn't there, and gah, who the hell can like David? He was so creepy, and was basically using Mikey as a young boy-toy. God, I found David so creepy, there are no words. And some people, when they get into a ship, they don't like changing it later on. But yeah, if you adore Mikey, I can understand why you'd hate Brian as a potential love interest, since I think he'd make Mikey miserable (you know he really, really would), but that's why I didn't ship them....
Maybe the B/Mers were frustrated because in season one they did have a lot of sexual undercurrents going on, and then it just kind of disappeared as the focus moved, and the fans of that ship probably just got bitter.
That's sort of happened to me in Numb3rs. In season 1 Don and Charlie have so much going on between then, now though, you're lucky if they're even in the same scene together, and if they are, they generally have their girlfriends with them. It'd killing the pairing for me, and I find it really hard to read fanfic in that fandom now. But I don't hate either of them (*attempts to sound on topic* :P).
I can see liking one character more than another. I'm obviously a Brian fan. I liked Justin, but my interest in him was primarily his relationship with and importance to Brian;
I didn't have a favourite between those two until season 3, when Brian was acting like a big woobie cuddly thing, that's when I fell head over heels for Brian. It didn't help that Justin's side storylines were things like The Gay/Straight Alliance and the Pink Posse.
What I was responding to was the "I HATEHATEHATE JOHN" comment, because that's rather more vehement than disinterest.
Hmm. I think while you and I have flists that seem to be Rodney lovers, there are still quite a few John lovers out there. There's this one mailing list I'm on where there seems to be a lot more John lovers. Listening to people squee about how awesome John is or making him sound like he's perfect, completely ignoring his faults (I'm sure you've felt the same, but about people talking about Rodney instead)... Well it can drive some people a little crazy, and they don't think to blame their friends, so instead focus on the character. *shrugs*
Sorry about the messed up tags, I wrote this up in Writer while in the car, and some of the characters didn't transfer. Also, now whenever I type in hate in Writer, it asks me if I mean HATEHATEHATE because I had copied your comment into it :P