Dear non-whovian fans

I have no problem with fandoms. Then again, fandom and being obsessed are two different things to me. The Twilight fandom doesn't annoy me. The Twilight fans that ambushed R.Pat and scratched their necks open so he would suck their blood should be mentally checked out. What I do have a problem with are certain...fans who know one medium of a series and suddenly think it's the best thing ever, advertising it everywhere and claiming to know so much about it. A friend of mine considers himself the biggest Batman fan ever and is in love with Bane after seeing the Nolanverse films. He's never read a comic, seen the old shows, and I can lecture him on the subject (though he's actually open to my lectures and enjoys them), but he knows absolute crap as either a Batman or Bane fan.

 

I am a huge Gundam fan, I mean like, really big, but I can't bring myself to do anything Gundam related online, from watching videos to visiting forums, I can't do any of it. The reason is is that the fandom is so awful. There is such division among them, all the do (and I mean this quite literally) is argue over which character or gundam or whatever is the strongest or best. I didn't want to separate myself from it because I thought that since I was a fan it was where I belonged, but when I started to hate the thing that I loved I knew it was time to move on. I'm still on a hiatus with all things Gundam. Until I can wash the bad fandom taste out of my mouth I don't think I will be returning. This is more or less why I don't like fandoms, from my experience they do more harm than good. I can be a fan of something without necessarily subscribing to its fandom.

As I said above they can have a way of ruining it, I would much rather be a huge fan of something and keep it to myself or maybe a select group of people, rather than the entire fandom. To me it seems like it discourages critical thinking of the thing your a fan of. In the Gundam fandom everything is gold, in the Bleach fandom it's all horrible, which is weird. I'm not going to love something that my favorite thing puts out if it's not good, to me that's worse than liking it, and hating everything that it puts out doesn't make any sense. I know this doesn't apply to all fandoms, but I still feel like it may to an extent.

Maybe I shouldn't say that the reason I don't want to watch Dr. Who is solely because other people are doing it, but because it's the "trendy" thing to do right now it seems like. I feel like if I became a fan it would be very short-lived because I would find that I only did it because it seems to rapidly be gaining popularity. It seems like something that I probably wouldn't enjoy anyway, so I'm not going to buy into the popularity. I could be wrong though.

... I have... one.

 

Oh trust me, I have plenty of frustrations with and criticisms of Doctor Who (Amy I love you but come on). I also do not like to associate myself with fandoms, and I was a bit put off of Doctor Who when I saw the massive craze behind it, as you were. But a good friend urged me to give it a try, it took me some time to get into it, but now I love it. Just don't write something off without giving it the college try I guess it what I'm attempting to communicate. It's a really great show. lol

 

Just going to touch upon this, as I am clearly very biased.

I, personally, see any fan as part of their respective "fandom," though they may not personally associate with it. Don't get me wrong, some fans can be ridiculous, but others create amazing fanart, write good stories, and help to spread the love with theories for future and past installments/episodes/entries in that series. While I might seem overbearing, I really just enjoy showing my love.
and there it goes, the last $0.02 I give

 

I disagree. I think there's a difference between liking something, being a fan of something, and being part of a fandom. You can like something and not spend much energy following it (watching superhero movies, for example, but not spending time looking up news about them, or relating them to the source material). You can actively follow something (interviews, casting, news about movies). Or you can be an active part of a community of fans (conventions, websites, etc.) which I think is the fandom.

 

I was gonna say this . . . but for me it'd be ponies.

I'm da poniez Queen King!

 

I've only been a Doctor Who fan for about a year myself, although everyone who knew me and watched the show continuously tried to get me hooked for a long time before that. Quite a few people told me "You would love it so much, you've gotta give it a try!" And honestly, I always intended to. I believed them, I figured, if they said I would like it, I probably would. But, To watch it would require searching Netflix for it, and really, that's far too much work. Star Trek: Next Gen is already in recently watched... I'll just watch the Nth Degree again.
Finally, though, I got around to watching Episode 1: Rose. Two months later, I'd caught up. Because with me, and as loathe as I am to admit it, I cross the line between fan and obsessed. It's just how I am. Whenever I find something I like, I obsess until I get bored with it, then I move on to my next obsession, and whatever I was obsessed with last slips into my comfortable fandom. Then sometimes I'll suddenly remember how much I love it and become obsessed again, and re-watch all the episodes, or at least, all my favorites.

But obsession can have its perks. The innate ability to remember entire scenes word for word without having to look it up, for one, is very useful when writing a fanfic tag to said scene.

Anyway, I do agree that there are definitely parts of Doctor Who that need a bit of criticism. (Really, Moffat, did you even watch Don't Blink, or did you just see a clip of the Angels and think "I can write something entirely new and different, using this basic alien premise"?) But on the whole, it is a good show, and honestly, the fandom is so big and so diverse that you could probably find a comfortable little branch to belong to, based on all the variables the show itself has. Me, I'm part of the Matt Smith with Amy and Rory, after Pandorica, storyarc: Utah season fandom, although admittedly, David Tennant with Donna is a very close second, and I still love me some good old-fashioned Eccleston with Rose action every now and again.

I'm also part of the very small "reformed Master" fandom. Because really, I loved that guy from the moment he opened the watch. When he started laughing, I did too.

tl;dr? Pretty much, this is just me saying "Hello, my name is Marushi, and I'm addicted to Doctor Who."

 

Welcome to the club Marushi xD

Although I am an absolutely huge fan and want to know as much as I can about the series and Doctor Who lore (I've started watching classic Who and ahhh... Peter Davison <3) but there are some things I would never do- I say people with DW tattoos- not I am a huge Whovian but I have no idea if I'll still adore the show in 80 years time when I'LL STILL HAVE A TATTOO! The only thing I would ahve would be some Gallifreyan text because that looks cool. I keep up to date with the news because it gets me excited but I am not the worst fan out there- I don't like it when people force it down your throat, anything really as it puts people off if anything and some people just don't like it. I've been attempting to subtly convert my sister, I think she likes it but has a major problem with costumes as she just doesn't see how the aliens are aliens as she can only see them as people in suits.

Also, 'Cut for Bieber!' Now that was ridiculous and I don't say that much O.o