Torchwood Survey - Results

[sariagray]

Before I begin, a disclaimer. I am not a statistician. I am not a scientist. I’m just a fan with a vague question: ”What happens to a fandom when it dies?” or, more accurately, “Where did everybody go!?” This is in no way meant to be a hard and fast realistic view of the Torchwood fandom; the sample size was relatively small and my analysis is

Comments

[chamilet]

I am surprised that more people didn't dislike Gwen, considering how often I encounter Gwen-bashing in fandom.

The part about character death in Glee gave me a sad since they're going to have to kill off the main male character when the season starts.:(

[sariagray]

I was really shocked, too. I mean, the results may be slightly skewed, because few people in my circle outright dislike her (versus, "she's okay, but my FAVORITE character is ______!" Still, it was a pleasant surprise.

As for Glee, I don't know much if anything about the show, but they aren't limited to killing him off, surely? I'm assuming there are other things they could do instead.

[firesnap]

The Gwen stuff is equal parts interesting and infuriating. I'm going to have to examine it closer later.

The showrunner confirmed earlier today, after conferring with Cory's girlfriend who is also on the show and his family, that they're going to kill off Cory's character.

[sariagray]

You know, I had no intention of going the Gwen route, but when I was entering each and every result by hand (to figure out correlation), I started to notice that there was a split taking place. And 34% of people did say, essentially, that they didn't dislike anything, even though they may not particularly like or dislike Gwen.

Another pattern I noticed that I want to look into is that generally people who put that they disliked Gwen put that they liked Jack, Ianto, and the relationships between characters. I want to look at what percentage of people had all three. Just to make myself angry, of course.

(But let me tell you, the spreadsheet I created is terrifying. There are little Xs everywhere.)

I'd really be interested in your take on all of this, especially because you strike me as having a good analytic mind.

And ah, did not know that. Thanks!

[tymewyse]

I found this experiment very interesting. I kind of feel like the odd one out sometimes because I came late to the fandom, find Gwen charming in a naive and slightly spoiled kind of way, enjoy the dynamic between all the characters not just the main "shippable" ones, and only found livejournal and tumblr after I'd watched everything Torchwood there was to watch (the first two series multiple times) because I still wanted more. I'd devoured a lot of fanfiction before I ever got brave enough to start my own account and *eek* interact. (Sooo not sorry

[sariagray]

You're very welcome - this was a really fun project, and I keep adding more pieces to it, like the Favorite Season/New Fandom analysis OJP asked for. I think it's all really fascinating and a lot of it is unexpected.

And I hear you - there are a ton of shows that I love, like, say, Supernatural, but I'm not really active at all, and even Sherlock does not come close to my level of participation in Torchwood. I think that had more to do with it being the right time and place as well as the show itself.

And I have to say, I'm glad you're around interacting! :D

[tymewyse]

And I have to say, I'm glad you're around interacting! :D

-- And I have to say, this totally made my week. *blushes* Thank you.

[51stcenturyfox]

I'm not sure I consider myself to be in the fandom anymore, but that's more about not taking part in fic for me; I feel like I don't have anything to say with fiction that I haven't already. But I do go to cons and look forward to seeing the Torchwood actors and keep up with them. (I followed Barrowman to Arrow.)

I'm mostly involved with Avengers/MCU fandom now; though I liked the individual films, The Avengers hooked me hard because there's a team! And there are more movies coming! I really like things with a team dynamic, versus a buddy show. I kept feeling like Torchwood would add more members after S3 (like Lois Habiba) but then they didn't or in Miracle Day they would and then they'd die, so...that just eventually bummed me out.

[tymewyse]

How could I forget Arrow!? Yes - I'm totally invested in Arrow and it's down to Barrowman's involvement.

[51stcenturyfox]

Me too! I came for the Barrowman and stayed for the Amell. (And the Barrowman.) I did like it more when Diggle and Felicity joined up to make more of a team.

[tymewyse]

I agree. The team dynamic is what really keeps me going. And I have to admit I'm crossing my fingers that they keep the brot3 goodness going and don't pair Felicity up with either Diggle or Oliver. I think I'm hugely in the minority among the Arrow fandom though, and this worries me/makes me sad.

[fiwen1010]

That is interesting. Some of the divisions I expected, some of them I was surprised by. The Gwen divisions seemed more based on storyline preferences than I'd maybe feared, or something.

[sariagray]

Well, it's hard to see what the Gwen thing is based on, as I didn't ask for reasons. I did notice, as I mentioned, that people who disliked Gwen seem to be more fond of the Jack/Ianto dynamic. Which, if you think about, seems to reinforce a couple of very negative ideas. But, there's absolutely no way to tell for sure (unless I went into a more in-depth survey, and this wasn't what I had intended to look at at all - just a byproduct!)

[nancybrown]

I've always wondered about that. I got into the fandom immediately post-COE. A lot of the Tosh fans and Owen fans had already bailed. I can think of exactly one actual Rhys fan (Blue), one actual Andy fan (Lifty), and I think I'm the only Lois fan. (Fan in this case described as someone who writes about and squees about the character on purpose, versus most people who when asked say, "Oh yeah. I like that character.") The vast majority of the fandom after Exit Wounds stayed for three characters. The strong pattern in TW fandom has been that if you don't like one of the characters, you do like the other two. There's a lot of people who like all three characters, and a lot of people who don't. You can point at the results and think, "Obviously people who like Jack and Ianto are more likely to dislike Gwen," but it's just as valid to think, "People who dislike Jack are more likely to like Gwen and Ianto." (ex: Pocky

[sariagray]

Yeah, it's hard. I would have loved for this to circulate more, but I was limited to the 100 results. Which is a shame, because I think the endgame would be much more interesting if I had a larger pool of responses

[eldarwannabe]

OMG HOW DID I MISS THIS?

*read everything because this is so totally awesome you are the best forever*

[sariagray]

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?!!? I HAVE MISSED YOU IN MY LIFE.

[eldarwannabe]

DEALING WITH LIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE. It's the worst.

I MISSED YOU TOO. WE SHOULD GET TOGETHER SOME TIME AND DO STUFF.

[sariagray]

We should! I'm going back to school soon, so I will have no time (between that and work) - are you around, say, tomorrow?

ETA: I am half kidding. Which means that I am half not kidding. I get out at 4. IDK. lol