Like, a big fan. Huge. Huge to the point that my non-Oncer friends basically just want me to shut up about it and my Oncer friends are now extensions of my soul. That kind of huge. This show is crack. And to be honest, past Season 1, it's not exactly the greatest television experience on prime time. But I love it that much. A lot of Oncers do. We suffer through crappy story lines, lazy characterization, bad CGI and and plot holes the size of Texas.
Why?
Because in the very first episode, when we all watched that clock start working again, we felt something magical. And any adult will tell you that magic is precious. It's something that falls away with the disappointment, the monotony and the heartbreak of life. So, when you find it, you tend to hold on to that shit.
I am not a pro-football fan. Like, at all.
The closest I ever come to football is throwing back cold ones and scarfing some wings when my friends watch the college stuff... Where, when you do bad things in real life, you don't get off so easy.
So, I don't know much about the NFL in general... With the exception of what I see on the news concerning the players and, now convicts involved.
Drug abuse, domestic violence, rape, dog-fighting, and outright murder.
Now, before any of you start jumping down my throat about this being the exception, not the rule, let me just say that NOT EVERY PROFESSIONAL FOOTBALL PLAYER IS A BAD PERSON.
Plenty of players in the NFL make it a point to do good things for the world like donating to charity, mentoring kids and leading very socially accepted moral lives. You go Tim Tebow!
But, these are men who are paid to knock the shit out of each other on the field and then praised for it. You can't expect that this kind of environment will always take in, and churn out, the greatest societal individuals.
They are modern day Gladiators and we are the Romans in the coliseum.
Having said that. This post isn't about pitting one fan base against another. It's about realizing what we can learn to be better fans all around from each other.
The Once Upon a Time fandom is one of the most wonderful and terrible that I've ever seen. I'm not kidding. This show about fucking fairy tales creates within its viewers heroes and monsters of all sorts.
Most of it revolves around this thing we call 'ships'. No, not like the Jolly Roger. I'm talking about relationships; and the ones we all back as our OTP (One True Pairing).
To bring this back to the analogy, our ships are like our favorite football team.
I'm a SwanQueen and TinkerQueen fan, in case anybody was wondering.
But there are lots more. Rum(p)Belle, OutlawQueen and CaptainSwan, just to name a few.
So, what happens in Once Upon a Time is people get so obsessed with their OTP that they basically devolve as people and turn into hate mongers and internet trolls if they don't get what they want on-screen.
They even attack the actors sometimes: people who have no say, and probably no care, in what specifically happens to their romantic story lines past maybe thinking that it's cute or not wanting to kiss the guy with garlic breath.
Now, like football players, Once Upon a Time fans do not all turn into obsessive, self-important, annoying virtual bullies. A lot of us just like to picture our OTP kissing and get excited when they're on-screen together.
But the trolls exist and they form in massive quantities with the soul purpose of taking out every disappointment they've ever had in life on the writers, actors and other fans. And it's really sad, hurtful and ultimately the exact opposite of everything this show is supposed to be about.
See, football fans can look at one of the players on their team doing truly heinous stuff and kinda just be pissed that their actions might jeopardize the overall performance of the team. The level of disgust I see within the football community over the crimes of its players is pretty minimal.
But Jennifer Morrison can tweet a picture of a butterfly and that will somehow enrage SwanQueen, CaptainSwan and SwanFire fans so much that they have a social media meltdown.
So, if I might give my opinion of where these two should meet, (and I will because this is my blog) I'd like to say it's at that ambiguous part of life that we all tend to steer clear of: the middle.
Football fans need to be less dismissive and more critical of players on their own teams.
Once Upon a Time fans need to learn to take a chill pill and let it all the fuck go. Or at least stop acting like thirteen year old spoiled children that should have had their iPhones plucked from their hands after the first 100 stalker tweets they made.
I love people who love stuff. I love my Oncer family and I love the guy with face paint and cheese on his head screaming with joy because his team won the World Series. (don't freak out, I know that's a basketball reference)
But, when something you love makes you hate, it's turning into a bad thing.
And when something you love makes you look the other way when it comes to violence, it's also turning into a bad thing.
The point: Let's all try to not turn into monsters.
By action or though acquiescence.
And, oh yeah...
I just like to point out that both Once and football are both on Sunday. Just another thing they have in common. I'm a swanqueen. I see them in Regina's house raising Henry and having picnics under an Apple tree.
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