Problems in fandoms in general.

[mintygreen]

I just thought I'd make a general post/topic about this.

This is just stuff I've noticed in fandoms in general.....(not necessarily this one, I haven't actually seen much drama that has gone on in the Randall fandom but I haven't been an active part of it for a while).

Anyway, I just wanted to say that often in fandoms I see the following issues at times:

- people fighting over the character
-people fighting over pairings(based on what pairing they agree with, what pairing they don't agree with, what sexuality they think the character has, etc).

These often seem to be the most common areas of disputes in fandoms from what I have noticed anyway.

I was the owner of a fanclub a while back....not a Randall fanclub....some other character not related to Pixar or anything.

One problem that occured often enough was people acting jealous of other people in the fandom and subliminally fighting over the character.

I think it's best to try to keep the peace by saying something like "We're all his fans and we all love him.....and he's so awesome he deserves us all!"

I mean obviously I wouldn't want to be a part of some harem in reality and share a guy.....but it's a fictional character.....and it keeps all the fans who think he's hot on an equal level. It's not like any fan owns the character anymore than another fan.

I remember being a part of a fanclub once where you could 'marry' fictional characters. For most of us it was just a cute thing and showed that you like the character. Personally I always shared the characters I was married to in that fanclub. If anyone else wanted to marry them, I was fine with it. I felt that it was fair for all of his fans. However, when I sometimes asked if I could share a character someone else had claimed first, I didn't always get a very kind response....even though whenever I did ask someone I always said that they didn't have to share if they didn't want to. Some people would actually become very bitter towards me for the rest of time after I asked them if I could share. Some people would become downright hateful of me and say subliminally mean things about me in various topics.

Then of course there are the pairing wars that happen in many fandoms. A lot of people have a favourite pairing and will attack people who don't agree with it or like another pairing better. I often wish people would be more accepting of the pairings other people like. It might not be your favourite pairing and you might not think that character is straight or gay or whatever but I always think other fans are free to like what they want.....and honestly even if the character dated a female in canon or a male character in canon....it still doesn't even mean that that character therefore would never like males or would never like females because the character could be bisexual, who knows. So I don't know if there is really much that ever fully proves the sexuality of a character....and even if it seems pretty unlikely that a character would like a certain sex, I don't really think people should tear down the people who happen to like seeing that character with that sex. People have different fantasies and that's okay. I have my preferences too(I prefer hetero - male x female) but if people want to put a character I like with something outside of that, that's okay too.

So I don't know, I'm just putting this out there as a discussion about fandoms in general and stuff I have come across in fandoms.

And I'm honestly not taking a lot of this from the Randall fandom, I haven't been active with other people who like Randall for a long time. It's just about fandom in general because I see this in almost every fandom. I'm not even saying the people who do these things are bad, I'm simply hoping that maybe typing about this kind of thing will help people get along better in fandoms.

I mean I'm not perfect either. Of course I have at times felt jealous of someone else in a fandom for whatever reason and I'm not 100% free of ever being somewhat negative at times in fandoms.....I don't think anyone is.....but I really try to realize that we all love the character and should try to get along as best as possible. I try my best to bridge gaps by making posts like this one.

If anyone else wants to add anything about fandoms feel free to do so.

[pitbulllady]

We have definitely, and still have, those same issues here in the Randall fandom, especially with regards to Randall's sexuality and sex life. That is one of the reasons that the other board was formed. There is also a split between fans who believe that Randall is Evil Incarnate and LIKE him for that reason, and don't want to ever see him do anything positive or good, and those who believe that his behavior, as bad as it was, was the result of his circumstances and that Randall, like us, has the capacity to be either good or bad, again, depending on the circumstances.

My biggest issue with any fandom is the fact that for so many fans, it's such a temporary, fleeting thing. I guess it's because most fans are teens, and their tastes and likes/dislikes change faster than the wind can change direction. One day they discover a character and they are all gung-ho crazy for that character, and within a few weeks, that character has gotten "stale" to them and they've found a new fandom and moved on. We've certainly seen it many times here. I suspect when the prequel comes out there will be a new surge of Randall fans who are seeing him for the first time, ESPECIALLY considering that he will be a teen himself rather than an adult working a nine-to-five career, then it will taper off with the exception of the older, "hard-core" fans. The biggest downfall of that trend is in the realm of fanfiction and fan art; there have been some awesome fanfiction pieces started by those temporary fans, works that really drew me in, and then more or less dropped me on my head, lol. The writer simply no longer found Randall or MI interesting and decided to stop writing the story and go into another fandom, which means a potentially great story never got finished. There was one in particular which was written by a 13-year old girl, who had gone to a tremendous amount of work to research Louisiana and New Orleans, in which the story was set. It was almost prophetic, in that one of the key problems in the story was the approach of a large hurricane, which threatened to strike New Orleans almost a year after Randall's arrival and him gradually becoming used to his new surroundings and friends, many of whom were more eccentric than any monster. It was a really good story in which that unique city itself was a major character and played a key role in Randall's own soul searching.
And then it was simply abandoned. The author lost interest in anything related to MI, found another fandom, and moved on.

pitbulllady

[mintygreen]

Apr 13, 2012 13:01:49 GMT -5 pitbulllady said:

We have definitely, and still have, those same issues here in the Randall fandom, especially with regards to Randall's sexuality and sex life. That is one of the reasons that the other board was formed. There is also a split between fans who believe that Randall is Evil Incarnate and LIKE him for that reason, and don't want to ever see him do anything positive or good, and those who believe that his behavior, as bad as it was, was the result of his circumstances and that Randall, like us, has the capacity to be either good or bad, again, depending on the circumstances.

My biggest issue with any fandom is the fact that for so many fans, it's such a temporary, fleeting thing. I guess it's because most fans are teens, and their tastes and likes/dislikes change faster than the wind can change direction. One day they discover a character and they are all gung-ho crazy for that character, and within a few weeks, that character has gotten "stale" to them and they've found a new fandom and moved on. We've certainly seen it many times here. I suspect when the prequel comes out there will be a new surge of Randall fans who are seeing him for the first time, ESPECIALLY considering that he will be a teen himself rather than an adult working a nine-to-five career, then it will taper off with the exception of the older, "hard-core" fans. The biggest downfall of that trend is in the realm of fanfiction and fan art; there have been some awesome fanfiction pieces started by those temporary fans, works that really drew me in, and then more or less dropped me on my head, lol. The writer simply no longer found Randall or MI interesting and decided to stop writing the story and go into another fandom, which means a potentially great story never got finished. There was one in particular which was written by a 13-year old girl, who had gone to a tremendous amount of work to research Louisiana and New Orleans, in which the story was set. It was almost prophetic, in that one of the key problems in the story was the approach of a large hurricane, which threatened to strike New Orleans almost a year after Randall's arrival and him gradually becoming used to his new surroundings and friends, many of whom were more eccentric than any monster. It was a really good story in which that unique city itself was a major character and played a key role in Randall's own soul searching.
And then it was simply abandoned. The author lost interest in anything related to MI, found another fandom, and moved on.

pitbulllady

I have seen a few posts like that about Randall but I haven't been a part of a community about him for a while so I don't know the depths of it all.

Anyway, honestly I'm not really sure why people argue about his sexuality though. I mean, I don't think there is any real way to prove what his sexuality is anyway, is there?

I personally tend to assume everyone is straight until proven otherwise, simply because most people are straight....it's just the most common orientation.....but it's not like it's not like we know for sure what he's into or anything. Even seeing him in canon with someone of a certain sex still wouldn't necessarily rule out him potentially being with the other sex because he could be bisexual. We just don't know for sure. We never even saw him show interest like that in anyone in the film.

I certainly do hope that he likes females because I tend to hope that guys I find attractive like the sex that I am but if other fans like something different that's okay. If some people like to see him as gay because that is their fantasy then that's fine. I just don't know why people argue about it because I don't really see how it leads anywhere or solves/proves anything and it just makes fans upset with each other instead of being united in their liking of the character.

Anyway, if some people believe Randall is evil and that's why they like him....I guess that is their opinion....even though I don't agree because I don't think he's evil. I don't think everything he did exactly was 'right' but a lot of stuff that happened over the course of a lot of time with things starting to spiral out of control. I'll also never agree with what Mike and Sulley did to him at the end. They had him immobilized and there was no reason for them to do what they did....it was totally out of revenge and I hate revenge. I've been in a similar position before myself at times in life and I've stood up for someone who was very rude to me but other people who didn't like him took the opportunity to get revenge and I defended him even though the guy I was defending had said some horrible things to me....I stood up for him and what's interesting is that after I stood up for him, he left me alone! And even though he didn't directly thank me, I heard via his friends that he was thankful to me for what I had done. This from someone who at one point told me he wanted me dead.

I just hate revenge and will never agree with it. It creates cycles of hatred and there is just nothing good about it.

Anyway, I agree that a lot of fans go through fleeting things where they are only really a fan of a character for a short span of time. I notice that in a lot of fandoms. There was a fanclub that I owned for multiple years. I can't own it anymore simply because I was banned from that forum(and it was not for anything I did wrong, they said they banned me 'for my own good' because of a few people who would always target me on the site and they were really popular people and they felt it better to just get rid of me instead of those people). Anyway, over the course of time I owned a fanclub on that forum, there were only a few people who would regularly come by the fanclub over those years. Most people would move on and not stick around long.

I don't really mind these kinds of fans....they are still fans....and I agree I think it's more of a teen thing(in general, not always). When MI first came out I was 17 and I remember being involved in the Randall fandom back then but it was so long ago and then I didn't talk to other people in the fandom for many years. I did still always like Randall though. I rarely actually stop liking a character. I still like nearly all characters I've liked over the years. I admit though that when I was 17 I know I was more immature and what not. I didn't have an understanding of a lot of things in life. I'm not saying that all 17 year olds are like I was at that age, people have different maturity levels and it isn't always based on age....I'm just speaking for myself on that one. I also wasn't really fully accepting of the fact that I found him attractive at that age. I was more shy and awkward about my sexuality and it felt weird to me to like Randall in that way because I normally only like adult human males and it just felt really dirty for me to feel that way about Randall....it was just embarrassing.....but now that I'm not that young anymore I have learned more about myself and it doesn't make me feel so awkward anymore. I finally allow myself to have certain 'fantasies' about him these days....which I often tried to block myself from having back when I was 17. lol.

Anyway, people moving on is a common thing in a lot of things.....people move on from relationships all the time....people get different hobbies....some people also just don't have the time anymore to invest in certain things.

There are also a lot of fads people follow in general. Some people will always wear whatever is currently in style and then change when it goes out of style. Some people will hide certain hobbies they are into when they invite people over because they are ashamed to show people their hobbies because those hobbies aren't considered 'cool'.

There is just a lot of stuff like that. I can't say I've ever been like that personally because I will just wear whatever I like and what looks good on me....I don't care if no one else is wearing it. I also don't hide my hobbies when I invite over friends. I always want to be true to myself and if people don't like me for who I am they can just move on I guess. It's the same reason why I stopped covering my birthmark with make-up. I used to hide it as a teenager but I stopped because I wanted people to see me for who I am. It's not that I think make-up is completely fake all the time, and a lot of make-up can be artistic....it's just that for me it felt pretty fake because I was hiding a large birthmark on one side of my face. People would never assume I had a birthmark under the make-up so I felt like I was hiding something pretty big from people. I don't get hit on by guys as often as I did when I hid the birthmark but whatever, at least when people do approach me I know that they like me for what I really look like.

Anyway, for people who do follow the fads and move on and get into different things....I don't really blame those people, it's okay for people to be like that, and there are a lot of pressures people go through to always be into whatever seems the most 'cool' at the time.

^ Sorry if some of this near the end was a little off-topic....I just think it's very common for a lot of people to follow fads in general. I don't think it's really a bad thing, but there is something good to be said about people who can stick with things that aren't exactly popular and still like them and be themselves and don't give into peer pressure/social pressure.

[pitbulllady]

For what it's worth, there is another deleted scene, in rough animation, on the DVD somewhere, that shows Randall with a girlfriend/wife(no ring...yeah, I looked, so I'm going with girlfriend unless that's one custom monsters DON'T share with us). He's giving her a tour of the factory on a golf cart, apparently to appease her, and she's bee-atching at him non-stop about how he "never takes her anyplace anymore" and "never spends time with her anymore" and how she's "bored". I'm guessing that Randall's involvement with either the Scream Extractor or just plain ole' WORK is keeping him at the factory longer than she'd prefer and she's feeling left out. She's a heifer, btw, scaly and reptilian like he is, but with long hair on her head(could be a wig)and a pair of Double D's(could be silicone, but look like the Real Deal; even silicone has to have a basis to be attached to) that again seem to clinch the mammalian status of whatever species she and Randall belong to. She doesn't strike me as the understanding type of gf, and poor Randall is just trying to keep his mouth shut and stay out of trouble. I guess Pixar decided to leave her out in the interest of time and because they felt that kids might get bored with yet-another relationship and its issues, or because it made Randall seem too sympathetic.

pitbulllady

[mintygreen]

Apr 13, 2012 22:26:06 GMT -5 pitbulllady said:

For what it's worth, there is another deleted scene, in rough animation, on the DVD somewhere, that shows Randall with a girlfriend/wife(no ring...yeah, I looked, so I'm going with girlfriend unless that's one custom monsters DON'T share with us). He's giving her a tour of the factory on a golf cart, apparently to appease her, and she's bee-atching at him non-stop about how he "never takes her anyplace anymore" and "never spends time with her anymore" and how she's "bored". I'm guessing that Randall's involvement with either the Scream Extractor or just plain ole' WORK is keeping him at the factory longer than she'd prefer and she's feeling left out. She's a heifer, btw, scaly and reptilian like he is, but with long hair on her head(could be a wig)and a pair of Double D's(could be silicone, but look like the Real Deal; even silicone has to have a basis to be attached to) that again seem to clinch the mammalian status of whatever species she and Randall belong to. She doesn't strike me as the understanding type of gf, and poor Randall is just trying to keep his mouth shut and stay out of trouble. I guess Pixar decided to leave her out in the interest of time and because they felt that kids might get bored with yet-another relationship and its issues, or because it made Randall seem too sympathetic.

pitbulllady

That's interesting, I never knew about that. So she essentially looks like him but as a female? Same build and everything else? If she has DD breasts I hope she's not as thin as him because well, I certainly know that if I had DDs it would seriously kill my back....so I'm actually pretty glad I have small boobs. LOL. I'm long and thin like Randall and it would not be good to have huge ones I don't think on my frame....so I hope that his g/f isn't as thin if she's got those.

Anyway, I guess people could argue about how canon deleted scenes actually are....but I agree that does sway more in terms of him liking females, although even seeing a character with a certain sex doesn't count out that the character could still potentially also like the other sex. I just think people should be allowed to like Randall with other males if that is what they are into.

Also that is too bad that she doesn't seem to be that understanding of him.

I feel like another reason they probably cut her out is because ever notice how when a series attempts to make a character the 'villain' they often don't put in a love interest for that character? I feel like it's because they don't like to show someone they want to be the 'villain' getting any love from anyone....and because it makes them more sympathetic as you say but I think they also want to make it look like he doesn't like anyone. Generally they try to make characters they try to portray as a 'villain' as not caring for anyone....and therefore they don't like to show the character in a relationship. If anything they will show a 'villain' character maybe having one night stands with someone but they don't like to show a 'villain' actually caring for someone like a girlfriend or wife......and I also think they like to distance any kind of 'feelings' from villain characters....natural feelings like being attracted to someone. I have just noticed it in a lot of various series/films when it comes to whatever character they want to portray as the bad guy.

[mintygreen]

Apr 13, 2012 22:26:06 GMT -5 pitbulllady said:

For what it's worth, there is another deleted scene, in rough animation, on the DVD somewhere, that shows Randall with a girlfriend/wife(no ring...yeah, I looked, so I'm going with girlfriend unless that's one custom monsters DON'T share with us). He's giving her a tour of the factory on a golf cart, apparently to appease her, and she's bee-atching at him non-stop about how he "never takes her anyplace anymore" and "never spends time with her anymore" and how she's "bored". I'm guessing that Randall's involvement with either the Scream Extractor or just plain ole' WORK is keeping him at the factory longer than she'd prefer and she's feeling left out. She's a heifer, btw, scaly and reptilian like he is, but with long hair on her head(could be a wig)and a pair of Double D's(could be silicone, but look like the Real Deal; even silicone has to have a basis to be attached to) that again seem to clinch the mammalian status of whatever species she and Randall belong to. She doesn't strike me as the understanding type of gf, and poor Randall is just trying to keep his mouth shut and stay out of trouble. I guess Pixar decided to leave her out in the interest of time and because they felt that kids might get bored with yet-another relationship and its issues, or because it made Randall seem too sympathetic.

pitbulllady

Okay I only just recently learned what a "heifer" is.

I had no idea at all what that meant when I first read your comment.

I've been told that it means a 'larger woman'? Thankfully I've never heard anyone call one of these women a 'heifer' around here. It sounds rude.

I still haven't seen this scene so I haven't actually seen her so I didn't know what size she was or anything.

If she is on the bigger side, it's more likely that she definitely WAS his girlfriend in the scene. This is because I have noticed that in a lot of cartoons/animated stuff they do tend to put people/characters with opposite builds together.

It's the same with Mike and Celia. She's really tall and he's really short. Especially since he's the guy and the shorter one, I think it makes the audience more likely to find it 'funny'. Unfortunately people do tend to find it rather funny with people/characters who look pretty opposite in some way or another, date each other. I'm pretty sure if I dated a man who's way larger than me(like weighs a lot more) that people would laugh, thinking that we are a funny looking couple together. It's unfortunate that people do that but inevitably they do and I think it's done in cartoons/animation a lot for comic relief in that way.

I still remember as a kid other kids would sing this song that went "Here comes the bride, all fat and wide. Here comes the groom, skinny as a broom." -_-

I never sang it, I think it's horribly rude......but people definitely make fun of couples who are a completely different body type(people do it when people are very different in age too or other reasons that make them stand out more than most couples).

It does make it more likely that she was his g/f though if she was infact on the larger side because they definitely seem to do this kind of thing in animated/cartoon stuff....at least with any couples that aren't meant to be the main character and are meant in some way to be either funny characters(like Mike) or to be laughed at for other reasons.