#this started as me being pissy abt Cass hate and turned into a PSA lmao

[birb-tangleblog]

Seeing the occasional post in the tag talking abt how cliquey the fandom is and wondering why it's that way always kinda baffles me.

I think a lot of the perceived separation in the fandom and everyone figuratively eating at their own lunch tables is actually pretty natural; the show's been over for a good while now, so there's no new content to bring people together. Fans are mostly only interested in their favs, and a lack of crossover isn't too surprising or bad on its own. 7 K will probably never be my cup of tea, and I wouldn't expect someone big into Cass and Raps as siblings to consume content of them as romantic partners.

But I do think the 'tone' and climate that contributes to cliqueyness is often set by the more popular/active blogs in a fandom. ND fans wondring why Cass fans (and especially Cassn//zel shippers) feel ostracized seems rather obvious to me when the more vocal ND blogs/fans I see in the tag can't even engage with the idea of Cass existing, deride her as a creator's pet/waifu/"OC" [derogatory], and constantly treat her and Eugene's roles in the plot as a zero sum game, with her "stealing" moments from the movie or upstaging him as something Cass-the-character is personally responsible for.

I know there are definitely some bad takes out there from the hardcore Cassn//zel crowd too, and the 'Eugene cut her hair too short/he's too old for her' is kind of a meme to me at this point. I think there's also a lot of similar stuff to be said abt Var fans' attitudes towards Raps/Cass and the diff discourse topics with him- fans projecting and taking the narrative personally, etc.- but that's a diff post.

Anyway, not sure where I'm going w/ this. Having a lot of little niches isn't bad? 'The fandom' as a whole should be more self-aware? Performative neutrality is kind of unconvincing/tacky and you can't please everyone anyway? Some polarization is to be expected, esp as a fandom shrinks over time and the different servers and groups of fans become more insular and boil down/concentrate.

It's always good to be mindful of the atmosphere you create and how welcoming your spaces are to fans w/ different interests, but that's also not a requirement and sometimes different fans just won't gel or enjoy each other, even if they're all v cool people.