So, Community's finale? - Throne Room of the ECQ

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So, Community's finale?

May. 22nd, 2010 at 9:06 AM

I feel I should comment.

I don't think I've ever been part of a fandom before with such a polarizing finale. I have fans of all stripes on my f-list and Twitter list, but it mostly divided like this:

1) Britta lovers: FAILFAILFAIL
2) Jeff/Annie shippers: OMGSQUEEEEEE!
3) Multi-shippers/non-shippers: What? But didn't Troy rock? Troy/Giant Cookie OTP!

So yeah, I'm in camp #3, and I'm still unsure what to think. (Other than that I may be developing a major celeb crush on Donald Glover lately.)

I WANT to be the one of the people who says: "Dan Harmon is messing with us, and he did all of that just to have a cliched season finale with multiple romantic cliffhangers." He did say he was pleased with the reaction (which was very angry as much as squeeful from the vocal fans)... But YET, I can't be completely confident that it's all on purpose. I love Britta, and I totally get all the wave of upset from camp #1.

MY PLEA TO ALL OF YOU: NO SHIPPER WARS, PLEASE. WE ARE BETTER THAN THAT.

I'm just glad

community_tv is starting SUMMER SCHOOL next week. I have hope that the activities will take everyone's mind off of the way things ended and help us look forward to the season to come.

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Comments

( 28 comments — Leave a comment )

May. 22nd, 2010 01:31 pm (UTC)

I'm actually in camp #1 and #2, and even if it comes out next season that Britta was just saying it to one-up Slater (which I think), it doesn't take away the stain of what was done to Britta in THIS episode.

I LOVED the Jeff/Annie stuff (duh!), but I didn't like the Britta/Slater stuff, and I didn't like where they got to that point with Jeff/Annie. They could have a gazillion of Jeff stories that led them to that moment in the end (Annie's story didn't have to change at all) without sacrificing Britta. *sigh*

I think that Comm101's activities will help, and we're gonna start working on some stuff at

milady_milord as well. Hopefully it will help. I think (at least on our comms mostly) things have been pretty good considering.

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:19 pm (UTC)

The way Britta reacted with the "I love you" really seemed to come out of nowhere, so definitely, I think going toward Jeff/Annie a different way would have been much better. Again, I just hope he did it for a reason...

Things have been okay, except that one post, and really people needed to vent. And we certainly haven't lost members over the finale, quite the opposite. Yay for summer!

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monkeyonthelam

May. 22nd, 2010 02:34 pm (UTC)

Camp #3 for t he win!! I agree, shipper wars are the worst and they are part of the reason why I (sometimes unfairly) don't like shippers. Of course I know there are nice and reasonable shippers out there like you and many others, but sometimes it is hard to remember that.

What I don't understand is that some people are confused about why Jeff gave that confession to Annie. A very similar thing happened in Basic Genealogy after Jeff did it in the closet with Katherine McPhee. While I don't necessarily ship Jeff/Annie, I hardly think it is out of left field. At least it is easier to pretend that I am Annie than to pretend that I am Britta and isn't that just a little more than pathetic. (Minus the pill addiction of course.)

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:22 pm (UTC)

I'm not confused about Jeff's confession either. The two of them making out has been building for a while, but I'm bothered that the Britta/Slater stuff had to come first. Wouldn't it have been more "dramatic" for Jeff/Britta to have continued to keep their hookup on the down low?

But then I come back to the idea that Harmon WANTED it to be cliched and love triangle/trapezoidal on purpose, and I go back to frowny pondering...

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ndnickerson

May. 22nd, 2010 03:51 pm (UTC)

i do agree that britta's behavior was a little weird, but i do get that she got very competitive once slater got back into the picture. the "i love you" was pretty crazy though. (as was senor chang punching the teacher with the roll of quarters. heh.)

i did kind of get all gleeful over the kiss at the end, though, i'll be honest. there was a lot to be happy over. there were a few things that were just insane. troy and the giant cookie was hilarious.

and i think the summer fics are going to be great. =D

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:24 pm (UTC)

The "I love you" is what bothered me the most. I hope we get her POV on that very soon into ep 201. :D

And Chang and Duncan were antagonistic back in Duncan's last appearance (105) but that's AGES ago.

I still laughed a ton, especially anything involving Troy. :)

I can't wait for the summer fics! Yay!

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squoctobird

May. 22nd, 2010 04:29 pm (UTC)

I've been on a lot of pain killers lately so I think I was drifting in and out of consciousness during the finale. I really want to watch it before I form a firm opinion. But I thought Britta was a bit out of character this episode and so was Abed. The whole feel of the episode felt off to me, really. One thing I really loved though was how all the minor characters made an appearance... The "seize the day" teacher, Leonard, that one nerdy kid, even Vaughn. I think I fall in to all the categories you listed.

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:29 pm (UTC)

Britta seemed definitely OOC to me, but Abed? I think he was fine. And yes, the whole offness of the episode I agree with. Still - was the cliched situation intentional? There was no heartwarming wrapup like usual, and that makes me lean toward that...

I am camp #3, then #1, but #2 doesn't affect me one way or the other. The two are certainly cute together, though. :)

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May. 22nd, 2010 05:09 pm (UTC)

I get why the Britta fans are upset, but I also think a lot of them are kind of... I don't want to be mean and say missing things, but I think some of them are. :P Like you said, the Jeff/Annie confession stuff isn't exactly out of nowhere, nor is the Britta/Slater competitiveness. So I guess I'm like, camps 1, 2 and 3 all at once. I think they could have done Britta better, but I don't think it's as huge a fail as a lot of people do, and I loved the rest of it.

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:32 pm (UTC)

Jeff/Annie has been building - that doesn't bother me at all. But I don't agree with Britta's "I love you." I just hope we get some sort of explanation in 201 that helps me understand, whether it's "This is why" or "Psych! We love to mess with tropes!"

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:34 pm (UTC)

Well, I guess my take on it continues to be that she really isn't in love with him, but was just reacting wildly in the moment.

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:43 pm (UTC)

If that's the "this is why" I can still accept it. :)

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:44 pm (UTC)

LOL I'm currently writing a big reaction post that's basically "WHY EVERYONE SHOULD JUST SETTLE DOWN." I think it will go over well.

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handyhunter

May. 22nd, 2010 06:10 pm (UTC)

I've seen a lot less shipper war stuff, and more 1) transgender jokes fail and 2) gender fail re Britta and Slater fighting over a guy. It's almost like they're satirizing something, but I can't figure out what, and even if they were, they missed the boat on the execution. I've never been embarrassment/humiliation squicked out of the show until the finale. This show's done a lot better with being subversive about these types of issues before, so IDK why they dropped the ball here.

This is the kind of episode - centering so much around Jeff, and unaware of its issues (or aware, and yet continuing to perpetuate them) - that I feared Community would be like. I was really pleased when it turned out differently... until the finale. *sigh*

I'm more inclined to ship Britta/Slater or Britta/Anne than Jeff with anyone. So IDK what camp I'm in. Also Troy/Giant Cookie & Troy/Abed, of course.

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:39 pm (UTC)

It's almost like they're satirizing something, but I can't figure out what, and even if they were, they missed the boat on the execution.

This. The more I think about it, the more I wonder whether this episode is meant to be a two-parter, and we only got one and a half acts. I could forgive a lot based on how 201 goes.

And yes, there's been a lot of 1) and 2) upset, but many Jeff/Annie people are feeling attacked by it, and many Britta people (whether they give a flip about Jeff/Britta or not) are mad that J/A people find anything to like/aren't more mad. But not all! Several people who've commented to this entry are firm J/A people who also are disappointed with the Britta storyline. I can just see this issue bubbling into more if people start donning the tinhats. :)

You are camp #3. A person who multi-ships. #3's were often partially #1 or 2 as well. They're mostly what is tempering the rage blackouts in camp #1. ;)

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handyhunter

May. 23rd, 2010 12:00 am (UTC)

That makes sense. I had thought ep 1.24 was the finale, given that everyone made the choice to take Anthropology 101 (well, actually, I thought the paintball episode was the finale b/c I think I watched them backwards, and wrecking the school seemed like a finale-ish thing to do b/c I watched Buffy too many times), so I really wasn't expecting another episode, much less one that was so below par for what I expect of the show.

Ah. I've stayed out of the fandom for the most part. My tinhat is reserved for the E Street Band. ;)

Multiships solves lots of problems!

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May. 23rd, 2010 12:28 am (UTC)

This summer, we're focusing on every character and pairing (even minor/less popular) each week - would you be interested in writing anything? :D

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handyhunter

May. 23rd, 2010 12:44 am (UTC)

I think I'm going to have to pass (b/c I don't know my work schedule) but I'll be following it!

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May. 23rd, 2010 12:35 pm (UTC)

Great! :)

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(Deleted comment)

May. 22nd, 2010 11:42 pm (UTC)

They have been mature so far! I hope this continues. I could see it devolving if we let it. My hope is that the fandom stays in it for the fun and the show keeps mixing it up. :)

Thanks! I've been fortunate to attract some really great fans, too. ♥

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chickadilly

May. 22nd, 2010 07:59 pm (UTC)

I'm not in any camp - I didn't care for the final though, most of it felt forced to me. (And I'll be honest Jeff and Annie together hits some triggers for me because of the age difference but that's just my own issues. Don't expect others to feel the same.)

Last week's episode felt much more like a final to me, really.

Sad thing about fandom - doesn't matter what show it is eventually a shipper war breaks out. :(

But yay for Troy/Giant cookie! :)

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:48 pm (UTC)

Well, maybe you are a #3, a non-shipper?

All the forced feeling of the ep is why I keep drifting into "was this on purpose?" territory. I'll be making a :( if 201 doesn't end up twisting everything that happened in 125.

I know we'll probably see some shipper warring, but if we can keep it to Chuck, Spider-Man or Superman movieverse levels (aka hardly anything) instead of Smallville levels (aka nuclear war), then I'll be fine.

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May. 22nd, 2010 10:31 pm (UTC)

You know, this episode made me ship B/J even MORE!! Isn't that weird? It actually put me in a camp! I thought the A/J thing was a little over the top, which makes me think that Jeff is going to wake up from some narcissistic dream. Which would then tell us a lot about Jeff's psyche if he could come up with the Tranny Dance, the Dalmations, and three women wanting to jump his bones in the same night. Awesome. :D

But yeah, it was still a good episode. No hate from me.

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May. 22nd, 2010 11:51 pm (UTC)

LOL, well hey! I was fine with the Jeff/Annie, just not the way it got there. If it is a dream...? I suppose that would explain a few things! :D

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dementedriku

May. 23rd, 2010 12:04 am (UTC)

Is it weird to say that I'm in all 3 camps? And that I still enjoyed the finale as a whole?

I'm hopeful that Dan will do quite a lot interviews where we can gauge how he wrote it. It's very clear he WANTED to stir up the shippers and he succeeded to a degree.

But my sister and I were talking about how he finally got the fans on Britta's side and then went a little OOC. Not completely, because I think this Slater business is another instance of her fragile ego needing validation. It's really the lack of resolution that's making everyone on edge!

I'm excited for Comm101's Summer classes!

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May. 23rd, 2010 12:26 am (UTC)

I'm hopeful that Dan will do quite a lot interviews where we can gauge how he wrote it. It's very clear he WANTED to stir up the shippers and he succeeded to a degree.

DEFINITELY. If we get a chance to interview Dan at any point, I'd love a look into his process. For this episode as well as everything!

Yes, the lack of resolution is a killer. I was saying above that in some ways the ep felt like acts one and half of two. No act three, no heartwarming resolution. I hope 201 gives us that!

I am too! Yay for the start of that in a few days. :D

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polkadotsnplaid

May. 23rd, 2010 08:50 am (UTC)

I'm mostly in Camp #3, but I can definitely see where the other two camps are coming from. I'm also among the people who are wondering if Britta said it but didn't actually mean it.

Overall, I enjoyed the episode a lot, and I was probably way more into the Duncan-Chang rivalry than anything.

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May. 23rd, 2010 12:32 pm (UTC)

I hope she only said it because she was in the moment - I don't think she means it. Yet. They both have lots of growing to do, for reals.

Chang vs. Duncan was hilarious. I hope they can get John back more to continue that in S2. :)

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( 28 comments — Leave a comment )