I'm not into Infinity Train, serialized shows just aren't my thing, I'm not the kind of guy who's into small-scale commitments. If a letdown were to occur, I'd feel like I rammed head first into a brick wall. But at the very least I can respect shows in that area, any other shows were those I have seen at least a stark bulk of so I can make an argument against them.
I didn't join the hype train, pun intended, back when it was just a pilot. It seemed interesting at first, but along with the generic theorization these people like to do in order to get multiple YouTube videos up their sleeves, this was at the time when Teen Titans Go hysteria was still very high, so people only saw it as a potential means to get TTG into a more marginalized state.
It wasn't the entirety of the gained fans, but a decent part of it. It'd be less about watching a show and enjoying it, and more about theory videos and stabs at a crappy comedy series, and if you say otherwise you're an asshole apparently. Well they got me there.
When Infinity Train became a series, I really didn't mind. Twelve Forever got that treatment and I actually saw the potential in it, it's too bad the creator turned out to be batshit insane. I wasn't that interested, and I rarely watched television to begin with or used streaming services for that matter, so I'd just let it be.
It went on for four seasons, and all I got out of it was that Amelia was a lot hotter in her forties, and then it got cancelled and everyone left well enough alone with four great seasons of a groundbreaking series.
Doesn't that sound awesome? Of course it does which is why it didn't happen. Instead, we're laying the stones to potentially repeat history with a toxic fandom.
To preface this, nothing is ever instant or obvious when it comes to a developing disaster. Look beyond the surface and then make up your mind. Short summary, we have influencers encouraging fans to push for more seasons. Okay that's normal to be fair, but on the influencers, they can make or break the climate of the cartoon community.
The worst of it is devoting your time to one particular show, spamming it wherever you go in order to force it into the public conscious. You become so wrapped up in making the show more relevant than it has any right to be that when it comes to the show itself, you'd blind yourself to whatever flaws it may have, as you're far too focused on getting it out there because of how much of a masterpiece you're implying it to be.
Everyone's so focused on the positive side of it, they'd be ignorant of the consequences it may have later on down the line.
With this obsessive promotion of the show and forcing hands of the network, you'd set high expectations for outsiders. When they watch it and find it's not up to the high standards people imply it to be, they'd complain and get hounded because how dare they not praise the show.
By encouraging the fandom to persist, they'd become more defensive over the show, to the point they'd lose their minds over anyone saying something negative about it. No joke, I've been blocked after one reply in regards to people overhyping the show.
How long can you go on about the same topic before you start to go insane from the repetition and the worst of you creeps out?
Lastly, the fandom becomes so bent on getting the show renewed that they'd become more gullible. What if 4Chan decided to troll people into eating shit and posting it on TikTok #EatShitForInfinityTrain? At this rate they can do anything and people would be dumb enough to fall for it, anything to get Infinity Train renewed.
It all comes down to passion, aka the match next to a stick of dynamite that is a fandom. Steven Universe fans nearly drove Zamii to suicide because they were so passionate about the show they took bad art direction as a biblical offense. Rick and Morty fans, well at least the sauce tasted good, but it was passion that led to those mobs. Star Vs. The Forces of Evil? Passion for shipping shared by the creator led to a hell of a letdown.
Point is, with the passion for the show feeling more like an orchestrated plot just to get more seasons, it feels kinda hollow, and will ruin the show for outsiders as they believe this show is a masterpiece with all the constant promotion it gets. Years from now when the hype dies down and we just have a show people liked to talk about for some reason, someone's bound to say "What am I missing here?"
You'd think at some point the creator would lay down the law, they are speaking on behalf of a project he made. But no, as a matter of fact, he's encouraging it. He made it clear that the show was meant to have eight seasons, so either he's secretly a kick-ass IRL troll who'd have various meatbags starting shit on Twitter/TikTok, a wimp who lost control of his own fandom, or is just ignorant to longterm ramifications.
This sounds harsh, but a creator should be as far away from their fans as possible, especially if their show gets big. If shit happens, they'd have fans doing stupid shit and often brandish the name of the creator in the name of the show they obsess over, even if they're dead, which happened with SpongeBob SquarePants.
Someone needs to set the record straight and keep their fans in check, and Owen Dennis clearly isn't the man for that role. It may seem innocent enough with people who're passionate about the show, but if the network holds off on renewing it, it's basically opening a door for more desperate measures. Given that this is orchestrated by figures in the animation community, it's clear they haven't taken notes from previous incidents in other cartoon fandoms, and I'm going on this because you'd think they'd know better.
It's like a sinking ship, but the damage was inflicted by the people on board. Must be dry in the animation community, I'd say suppressing different opinions didn't pay off that well.
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