When you disagree with the direction of something you follow

I had no idea where to put this, so...

What exactly does one do, outside of becoming part of a Fan Dumb or Broken Base, if something you are a fan of goes in a direction you disagree with? Such that, no matter how well they do it, you still won't be interested? Concept rather than execution? And worse, shows no sign of veering away from it?

Do you just abandon it? Or stay and keep hoping?

Gee, sounds like how I felt after reading book ten of Anita Blake. Basically, I bitched about it with other fans, gave the next book one more try, and then walked away and washed my hands of it. I haven't touched any of her stuff since, because I already know I'm not going to enjoy it.

That’s the epitome of privilege right there, not considering armed nazis a threat to your life. - Silasw

I figured this would have something to do with taking orders from the higher ups.

Anyway, some series I have dropped due to how annoying they get after a while. Eragon is the most recent example, where Eragon gets decidedly villainous without any moral repercussions by commanding Sloan to basically walk blind across a some horrible terrain to a group of people that won't like him and more so, did this by using Sloan's secret name, which is pretty much what the main villain does. Most series though, if it disagrees with me morally, I'll sit around still enjoy it as I prefer not to be that narrow minded, which is why I managed to enjoy the Shin Megami Tensei series despite its often leaning towards chaos as better than law.

The thing about making witty signature lines is that it first needs to actually be witty.

I rather not join some crazy vocal group. I just stop watching the show.

I keep watching/reading/playing/listening and bitch about it to Weiss or on IRC. Then I finish it and decide how I feel about the thing overall.

If someone wants to accuse us of eating coconut shells, then that's their business. We know what we're doing. - Achaan Chah

Of course. I don't see any sense in that. It essentially amounts to wasting your time on something you don't enjoy, instead of finding something you do enjoy.

Depends on the severity. Basically, you either mock it with some fellow nerds over a drink (my friends do this with pretty much every plot development in Bleach. Everything I know about Bleach stems entirely from these conversations) and move on, or you leave the fandom. It's not that hard, really.

"If there's a hole, it's a man's job to thrust into it!" — Ryoma Nagare, New Getter Robo

I stick with the parts I like and do away with the parts that I don't.

Banned entirely for telling FE that he was being rude and not contributing to the discussion. I shall watch down from the goon heavens.

Give it up, if things have progressed to the point where you don't think it's good or as good anymore. With rare exceptions, complaining about it achieves nothing so long as there are still plenty of other readers/viewers left (and if the change has resulted in declining audiences, there's as good a chance the series/franchise will just get cancelled as that anything positive will happen to address the problems). Nothing lasts forever.

"Well, it's a lifestyle"

Drop it if the change is something that won't change (new writer/producer/director, etc) or stick it out if it's just a silly plot development.

Is using "Julian Assange is a Hillary butt plug" an acceptable signature quote?

All depends on my enjoyment. If that's gone, it's gone.

I tend to stick with it for a while, give it the benefit of the doubt. But if it gets to the point where following it is a chore rather than enjoyable, then I will drop it. I'm kind of doing that with Doctor Who now - I'm still watching the episodes, but if the aspects that are bothering me come back I'm going to give up on it.

Be not afraid...

Obligatory.

I tend to keep following things longer than I really should, but I eventually jump ship. I tend to last longer when I'm on an Archive Binge than when I actually have to wait for new installments—there's too much opportunity to just forget about the whole thing.

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

What annebeeche said.

My first thought upon seeing the thread title was of the bare-bones late-2009 episodes of The Angry Video Game Nerd (which were understandable even then, as he was trying to get away from the awful Bugs Bunny's Crazy Castle review), though this might be a bit off-topic.

edited 6th May '11 8:19:13 PM by AnonymousUser

This is what I try to do, for the most part.

I learned my lesson after Doctor Who—I ragequit when David Tennant left, only to look back later and want to get back into it. Now I'm an entire season behind, and I've yet to watch a single episode.

Heapers’ Hangout

I generally tend to just stop following it. If other friends who're fans mention the next one I just say "nah, I gave up on that after [insert shark-jumping/base-breaking incident]".

I'm more vocal about stuff that's not sufficient to stop me watching it - i.e. just don't get me started on the "New Paradigm" (aka "Teletubby" or "Hatchback") Daleks (aka BBC's blatant attempt to increase their profit margins by making a popular bit of merchandise easier and cheaper to produce...)

Oops, too late...

A colleague in philosophy handed out cards to people asking them to alter their normal behavior in order to test themselves.

One card said "Think about something you consider to be right, something you support and believe in. Now find something wrong with it. Now try to make this OK."

It all depends on what I'm following, but usually I try to give everything a chance, even if I disagree with it. So for a time at least I'd stick with it, see if the decision makes more sense after some time, maybe see if it grows on me.

After a time though, you've just got to move on.

Dreamkeepers Prelude, check it out!

I made that mistake with Honor Harrington , buying the entire main series, hoping it would eventually get better again. I didn't, never reaching the level of the first novel again. So, since then I try to not make the same mistake again, and simply leave when things get bad.

Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. Unrelated ME1 Fanfic