But fans don’t get to dictate or determine the vision the creator has for their own work. That’s what I’m getting at. Fans of Harry Potter, for example, don’t get to tell J.K. Rowling which direction they want the Wizarding World to go in. And they don’t get to demand a rewrite or a remake if it doesn’t go their way. Of course we put in our time consuming these shows and books and movies, but that is our choice to invest in their stories. If you don’t like where it is going, you can’t change their story, but you definitely have the right to stop watching or reading, and to avoid their future projects, as you said. My problem isn’t with people abandoning franchises because they didn’t like the outcome. It is with fans believing they have any right to demand franchises alter course- or worse, remove stories that have already been told- because they didn’t like what the creators had in mind. The fans don’t have creative ownership of the shows or movies or books they consume, and it is unreasonable for fans to demand the creators or authors change their vision because some fans want it differently. And like Sophie Turner said, it is entirely disrespectful to the people who spend months and years of their lives to create this show to demand it be erased and redone because certain fans didn’t like the outcome.
Like I said, it is the gamble we all face when following a show or a book series or a movie franchise, especially one that hasn’t ended. We spend our time watching and reading and it can feel like a betrayal when we don’t get a conclusion we felt we should have. I’ve felt this, with Queen of the Tearling, with Stargate Atlantis, with plenty of shows and movies and books. It’s a natural part of being a fan. But it doesn’t give me the right to demand it be done differently. I simply disagreed with what the creators did. I could put up a fuss on the internet about it, sign useless petitions and ruminate on my hatred of what was done, but that won’t get me anywhere. I can vow never to watch or read something by those people again, and maybe avoid bad writing in the future. I can write my own book or screenplay if I think I could have done better. But I can’t demand the people who made it to scrub it and do it again or do it differently.
