Still boggling after all these years.

[connielane]

Joss Whedon - Created Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which lasted for seven seasons. Seventh season was not well received by the fans, but it didn't exactly kill affection for the show as a whole. Four years later: Whedon starts writing Buffy stories again. No one (that I can find) says anything to the effect that Whedon should just let it go and not mess with the fans' precious Buffyverse more than he already has.

Spielberg and Lucas - Made Raiders of the Lost Ark, an extremely popular film that spawned two very popular (though widely acknowledged as inferior) sequels. Nineteen years later: Speilberg and Lucas make another Indy film. Fans don't complain about this, except that they want it to be a worthy addition to the franchise. No one says "Ugh, not ANOTHER Indy story!"

Fans had their complaints about the Star Wars prequels, as everyone knows, but I never heard anyone complaining that there were going to BE prequels.

Did Tolkien fans complain when The Silmarillion came out because they didn't want new stories from Middle Earth?

Then WHY do so-called Harry Potter fans complain when there's apparently new canon to be enjoyed very shortly? I mean ... I think we all know why that is. But it's just amusing to me that the whiners don't seem to realize how ridiculous they sound complaining that there's going to be another story to enjoy.

Of course, I could be totally wrong about complaints in those other fandoms, not being as involved in them as I have been in HP, but it strikes me as a bizarre fannish anomaly nonetheless.

Comments

[rowena742.livejournal.com]

No one says "Ugh, not ANOTHER Indy story!"

I dunno. I've heard a fair amount of "Couldn't they have left well enough alone?" (I'm pretty sure that wouldn't have been the reaction if it weren't for the Star Wars prequels, but who knows?)

This happens a lot in Star Trek, too, but there's a lot more canon there, of wildly varying quality, so people have gotten phaser-shy.

[miss-eponine.livejournal.com]

I think it's because the fannish entitlement in the HP fandom is far far far beyond anything. To my knowledge, the only people bitching whenever Jo updates her website or releases new information are those who got their own personal pet theories shot to hell by HBP and DH.

I've never been involved in any other fandom, so I can't speak to how they are, but I do think that the HP fandom was the first of its kind. It was so completely massive that you could always find someone who shared your view of the series, whether it was H/Hr, Snape-centric, or whatever, you could surround yourself with like minded people. These groups of like minded people would reinforce their ideas in themselves over and over and over until they were all convinced that they were right. So, when the new canon proved them wrong, they all were deeply insulted over their own wrongness. I wonder if the fandom had been smaller, if there wouldn't have been so many little groups convinced of their own ideas. I also wonder if some of these people had simply read the books and never got into the online fandom if they would still behave this way. Somehow, I doubt it.

I think that the various whiners have decided to ignore/explain away/whatever the canon they hate (which seems to be most of it), but for some odd reason whenever Jo decides to put out new info, they can't ignore that. I don't know why. If there was something that I knew was probably going to piss me off, I'd just not expose myself to it. But that's just me.

[miss-celestine.livejournal.com]

But it's just amusing to me that the whiners don't seem to realize how ridiculous they sound complaining that there's going to be another story to enjoy.

Enjoy? How could any self-respecting HP fan enjoy another story since we all know it isn't going to include Snape teh Hero, or Slytherfen aristocratic orgies, or slashy puppy porn, or Harry and Hermione declaring their true love to each other, or Ron getting squashed by a troll, or Ginny dying of syphillis?

[ancarett]

Well, I've heard complaints about being "Jossed" yet again and I've certainly heard bitching about Indy. The major upset with recent additions to the Tolkien universe has been the suspicion that very little of it was really JRRT's work beyond bare notes and outlines.

I think that all fandoms have a sense of "don't mess with THIS part of what I love" -- HP may seem more notable than most because it is an enormous and yet varied fandom where people are interested in protecting their vision of the characters. That's entitlement, I'd agree.

However, if that's entitlement, I'm probably an example of an entitled fan. I was horrified, yesterday, to read rumours that they're casting a new love interest for Superman in the next Superman movie. You can't supplant Lois, in my books!

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

Reiterating the poster above about the entitlement in the HP fandom. It dismays me not a little and is gradually driving me away. I was hugely upset by some of the spiteful remarks I saw round and about last night. Mainly poking fun at Rowling who said the court case had stopped her writing. I'm probably a bit pathetic, but I feel we should admire the imagination that started it all, and not be hateful.

I want to read: the Tales of Beedle the Bard (I was thrilled she wrote those), her Dictionary (or whatever she decides to call it), and the postcard. To me, Rowling's writing on her creation always seems 100X more authentic and vibrant than any fanfiction.

[peachespig.livejournal.com]

Already tried to write this, got eaten, take two.

While I do think other fandoms have their complainers, I agree that nothing can quite match Harry Potter. It all comes down to the richness and the vibrancy of the world and the characters that JKR created.

Unlike for example LotR, the HP world is enough like ours that we can imagine ourselves being in it, and the school and the Houses and the sorting all seem to inspire people even more to emotionally identify with her universe. And then the characters are so varied and memorable, and some people pick just one or two that really resonates for them and get emotionally wrapped up in them. And you end up with people not just liking the books, but very personally emotionally involved in some individual character or relationship.

When you think about it, isn't it amazing that Snapefen and Harmonians and Loonies and so on are even inspired by the same books? The things about Snape that one person becomes attached to are so far apart from the Harmonian view of Hermione, say, that it's almost unrecognizable that people are talking about the same series.

And at the end of the day, people realize that the fragments of the books they have latched onto emotionally are not the same things that are important to the author. She doesn't value what they value and so she isn't likely to respect what their wishes would be. So they know that anything further she produces is unlikely to bring them any pleasure. And so they complain.

So that's my thesis: people get mad at JKR not because she's a lousy writer, but because she's a good writer. She was good enough to suck them in and make them care about a character even though they probably don't like her, her personality or worldview or final storyline. And she sucked some people in with Snape and others with Remus and others with Hermione and others with Luna and others with Draco. When you think about it, it's pretty amazing.

[bkdelong.livejournal.com]

Because apparently there are several fans in the fandom who believe said fandom is for THEM. God forbid Jo wrote a story that she wanted to and enjoyed (almost) every minute of it...the world is coming to an end if she cheerfully wants to get more of the universe out of her head and onto paper for all to enjoy and ohyeahbytheway, these two companion schoolbooks are for charity.

Oh look! A prequel essay by Jo! *bzzzzzzzzzzzz* The story was done! Why couldn't she just leave it alone? who cares about anothercharitythatwillmakealotofmoneyoffthisauction. *I* want it to end! Done. Epilogue finit!

How quickly people forget about The Scottish Book. and the fact that she wants to include everything she couldn't fit in the series regarding everyone's backstories, histories and new places and things.

[sannalim.livejournal.com]

New canon? Soon? What, what? Do tell!

Or maybe I should just go to JKR.com myself and see if there's something there about it....

[the-vixxmeister.livejournal.com]

It's coz they're tards, end of story!

here via random surfing

[trude.livejournal.com]

Well, apparently it's because that in this 800-word story, she might/will mention that teenage Sirius has a girlfriend/is attracted to girls. And then NO ONE will ever be able/allowed to write Sirius-slash again. Just like when wrote that Harry, Remus and Draco all got married to women and had kids, and that Snape was in love with a woman for 28 years and all slash about them just disappeared...oops.

[moeyknight.livejournal.com]

But she's ruining their 87 billion page crapfic masterpiece! The HORROR!

[angua9.livejournal.com]

JO I LUV UR BOOKS PLZ NEVER WRITE NE-THING AGAIN KTHXBAI!

[danabird11.livejournal.com]

Then WHY do so-called Harry Potter fans complain when there's apparently new canon to be enjoyed very shortly?

Because people always like to do what they're good at. And complaining/whining seems to be what they excel at.

I think its the timing.

[(Anonymous)]

It hasn't been a year since publication of her final novel in the series and two additional Potter related things have been revealed. While I think its great, I also recognize how others could feel she's sort of pouring it on now. She said in the past that she wouldn't be writing more Potter, that she'd be putting aside that world. After DH she stated there is the potential for future stories involving his children, most notably the one who resembles Harry so closely. Again, I think its great but I do see where she's backtracking on previous comments. I feel this is her right. She has her life to live and if she changes her mind over the course of time that is her decision to make. Personally, I'd rather read about Harry and Ginny's daughter as we've already gotten to know Harry so well and its been implied that Albus Severus is very like him. But if she decides to examine the middle Potter child she should feel every freedom to do so.

I'm a fan of her books but I would never argue ownership of her characters the way some do. It astonishes me that people are so arrogant as to think they should or can dictate the artistic vision of another. If you don't want to know anything beyond the 7 novels its really quite simple, don't read further interviews. No one is to blame but the individual who chooses to spoil himself. Certainly Jo Rowling isn't. The only one she is creatively responsible to is herself.

[mlwl.livejournal.com]

I often wonder the same thing.... I mean, if you're that upset by new canon, you could ignore it. Duh.
I always wonder if people find it avaricious for Jo to keep CHARITY, so the only moderately sensible argument in other cases really isn't a factor in these.
*shrug* I think people just like complaining.