User blog:Dryuuu/The hatefulness has to stop

I am going to bring this up once and once only. Has anyone noticed, a recent trend on this Wiki... and that is, people are going overboard with their opinions, expressing excessive amounts of hate for characters, particularly Morgana.

I have had several people confront me about this over the days and I have been in threads where this happens firsthand, and I must say I am very disappointed with the way users have acted. Luckily, so far it has been a minority but it has been happening more than I would like it to.

So I'll tell you what I mean and how it is disrupting. Firstly, the context- Series 5 is very close, the excitement is boiling, we have gotten a large amount of content in the last few days- videos, interviews, promos and more. Nothing could annoy me more than seeing a comment on a blog post with someone calling the characters sick and really needing to be killed off. Just before the series has begun. Now I won't go pointing names because that's wrong. Sorry if you take this as an attack to you but I need to express concerns of myself and others. But what you are doing I believe is wrong, because it is disruptive and actually offends people.

Let's bring one controversial topic to light- Lancelot du Lac. Now this is a more mainstream controversy in the Merlinverse, and I can understand perfectly why people would feel annoyed, how Lancelot was killed and left in memory to all the characters as deceiving Arthur. The bracelet wasn't found and people were annoyed they didn't go ahead with the full Guinevere/Lancelot/Arthur triangle like in the legends. I think you should listen to this interview (the part about Lancelot du Lac) where the producers engage in a logical discussion with an interviewer who is asking really good questions about it, if you are passionate on the subject. And once you listen to it, that should be that. It ends here and it's time to move on.

Now, about freedom of speech and so on. It might be in your character to complain and that is absolutely fine. But think about in a real life conversation. In a team scenario, in a real community. The ultimate goal is to work forward and make things a better place for everyone. It is ultimately better to relate positively than relate negatively with everyone. A hate crew for instance is just bound for failure, but one where everyone praises something is going to last longer. In the context of this Wiki, we all should be praising the show Merlin.. why? This Wiki is a complimen to the show Merlin, the fact there is a Wiki shows the show is popular. We're meant to all be Merloonies, right? That's why we bother coming here and writing big ass blog posts. Merlin means a lot to us and keeps many of us sane and occupied. Well, for this to continue, we have to respect others' opinions, and not just say we do, but show we do. And I'll show you how. This type of situation for instance has happened lately:

Anonymous commenter:

Really loved Lancelot du Lac! Emotional episode, I was in tears! It was just so brilliant. The acting and so on.

User:

The episode was a disaster. They insulted Lancelot. He was the best character. You shouldn't feel this way about it. I don't.

^Now, yes I exaggerated that a little, but I bet it's what the second commenter was tempted to write, and the comment he wrote would have come off to the equivalent of that.

Now how is the anonymous commenter going to reply? Well, it could be ''you are an idiot! I loved the episode! ''and that would probably get them a ban if the person was an admin. Seems a bit like a trap, just a bit, to me.

Or, they could be more respectful, and this is what I'd expect here, and say, I don't see your point and I really enjoyed the episode, it was memorable and I like to watch it over and over.

Now the user might reply with this. ''I don't see why you would want to, they should scrap it and have an episode with an old villain return instead! Or have a real love triangle!''

(If you listen to the interview I linked to above, you would see that, if they did the love triangle without an enchantment involved, it would not be possible to have Gwen in the show anymore. Arthur can't be single. We need Albion with a great king and a queen as support. I think the producers did try to keep a dark, mature tone by not having the bracelet found, and recovering the situation with pure trust. It was a bold move, but having no enchantment in the first place would have been too bold)

So, that is an example, but you get my point, and you know who you are if you are one of these people. I am asking you to please give someone's opinion free space. Opinions are very much emotional and I don't believe can be "developed" or "improved". It's an experience and should be used in the best way to make someone's life better. You know, I'll be honest, Series 4 was really my favourite of them all after watching it but after seeing some of the opinions here I became a little more negative and doubtful. It's a tie between 3 and 4 at the moment.

Now you could say that is called "opening your eyes" or seeing things for what they are, and that's fine, but remember this is a TV show. The ultimate goal of life is to be happy and often happiness comes with a small price which doesn't even matter, and that is ignorance or accepting "flaws". Flaws are essential to enjoying life. The fantasy of Merlin does come with a small cost, but over analysing and going WAY too deep into the negative aspects of a show and how it was not absolute perfection are just mind boggling. We need to start moving forward. This Wiki is all about expanding information on the show, not bringing it down.

So all in all, I love your opinions, it's great to see such a diverse community, but it isn't great to see people mongering negative opinions on episodes and characters. I never wanted this Wiki to be one of the sources of many hateful Agravaine memes, to be honest, but I must admit they are funny and his character did annoy me personally. But please, can't we just all look on the bright side?

So in summary...

So thanks for reading! I understand this may annoy some people but I need you to take this in, as I think it'll help us all move on. I really did believe this type of blog post was necessary. It is an outlet for how some of us feel.. pressured and weighed down by some of the negativity on here. I believe we all have the right to express something without being outmatched. I have gotten the slight vibe of elitism happening in the community for not supporting any of the trends. Was that what this Wiki originally set out to contain, this type of thing happening? We need to start attracting people, not intimidating people from joining in the community, and I know first-hand some of this negativity has had an effect!
 * Do not bombard people with lectures on your views if you know clearly they won't be keen on agreeing with you. You should not pressure peoples' opinions, it can ruin their days, you know. Someone might think Lamia was the most awesome monster they've seen. Leave them with those happy thoughts. Don't come along and say it was as fake as plastic and keep pushing them to accept that. It's just not nice.
 * Always state you respect peoples' opinions and don't think or act as if you're more aware for seeing the bad side of an aspect of the show more than the good side.
 * If you have an essay on how terrible you think the show is, maybe you could at the very least keep it to your profile, or only share it if people want to see it. E.g. in a conversation. So, Merlinlover911 (fictional username), what did you think the good and bad points of this episode were? (I'd hope Merlinlover would try to be optimistic and if their negative FAR outweighed the positive, at least direct them elsewhere) Giving people what they don't want to see can be perceived as an attack. (Unless of course you know it will help them, but this is all fiction, it's up to the person purely how they perceive the show and we're all individual audiences)