The reason I initially wanted to do this study was so that those in the fandom that feel alienated and pushed aside could use their voices. I realize that not everyone who comes across my survey will fill it out. And I realize that my survey will not even reach the entire fandom. And that’s ok. I’m still hoping to hear as many voices as possible from all different sides of th camp. I want us to be able to use the data I collect like a mirror against the fandom. Sort of like a way to help the fandom see itself from the outside in. I plan to make the responses (not the personal data of respondents!) and analysis free and public for others to use.
If I may be frank, I am one of those fans who has been very disappointed by the show and had been feeling gaslit and mocked since Ragnarok. And I feel like I’m in the minority there.
Now, as with any survey, my goal is to capture different opinions and analyze how they compare and contrast in context as well as numbers. I am unable to change anyone’s mind or judge in how they enjoy the Loki content out there, and nor do I intend to with the survey.
I welcome feedback, concerns and questions. And I invite all Loki fans to participate so that we can hear your opinions.
I am doing my best to conduct this study as respectfully as possible. I do have my own hopes and opinions for Loki and the fandom (and I would enjoy discussing and sharing those, just not within or around the survey). But I am trying to keep my opinions out of the way this data will be presented or analyzed so as to avoid being biased. I don’t want any points of view to feel mocked or dismissed by my survey.
I also want to state that while I tried my best to be considerate and mindful in the creation of this survey, I am not perfect. If my survey troubles or offends, I apologize in advance and would like to hear your point of view as well.
I hope this helps.
This survey is so badly formatted and hyper focused on anti talking points that I’m struggling to even get through it. The answer I wanted to give to most questions was: “N/A, this topic is irrelevant to my opinion of Loki.”
First of all, putting out a survey on a website known to cluster like minded people together, where only people who follow you and people who follow them will see it, is not a good way to get unbiased data.
By nature of your blog representing your opinions prior to giving the survey, your followers are more likely to agree with your opinion, which means your data will be skewed towards your opinion.
If you really do want unbiased data, then you need to put it on the Marvel subreddit and the LokiTV subreddit as well. These are the places that the general fandom hangs out.
Secondly:
“The reason I initially wanted to do this study was so that those in the fandom that feel alienated and pushed aside could use their voices.”
So your goal, by your own admission, is to determine with “data” whether or not you are a minority opinion. Data which you know will be skewed in your favor because only you and followers of your followers will answer it.
Was Loki OOC?
No, it’s canon Loki. He is the character. He literally can’t be out of character because he is the character. We are allowed to say we don’t like that character, or that we find that character inconsistent with past portrayals, but we cannot say that the canon representation is “OCC” because that literally is not possible. They created the character, they are allowed to do whatever they want with it.
Was Loki a narcissist in the show? (With a fuckin Wikipedia link?? xD are you serious?)
First of all, he’s a fictional character. He cannot be psychologically diagnosed. Period. And certainly not by a bunch of lay people with no criteria given for the diagnosis.
If you genuinely wanted respondents to make an assessment of Loki’s personality, then the question should include the DSM-V diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. For NPD to be diagnosed 5 of the 9 behavioral traits have to be present for a prolonged period of time.
So if you really wanted data on fan’s interpretation of this character trait, then it would be better to ask the respondents to mark which specific diagnostic behaviors they believe were exhibited in which films.
This would be a question that adds nuance to a respondent’s answer, rather than encouraging them to make a subjective opinion and generalize.
Relationships
Now this section really feels uncomfortable to me. This really feels like you are fishing for data to stir the pot. Why only ask about Lokus and Sylki? Why not ask about friendships? Fan ships like Loki/Pres Loki?
If you want to know the state of the fandom, why aren’t you asking about the fandom? Canon is irrelevant to fandom. It’s a starting point we all throw out immediately.
So why is my opinion on canon the only thing you’re asking about?
Oh, right, because the point of the survey isn’t to assess the state of the fandom, it’s to assess the fandom’s opinion of your anti talking points.
Which brings me around to my real complaint….
What could you possibly hope to accomplish by compiling numerical data about subjective opinions? In what world is a number value related to fan’s highly nuanced opinion of Sylvie more useful than a full text post that actually explains why they like or dislike her?
Well, you told us already:
“My goal is to capture different opinions and analyze how they compare and contrast in context as well as numbers.”
I see, you need the numbers so that you can validate your opinions with “data.”
For example:
“Oh, it looks like 75% of people who enjoyed the Loki show were new fans who haven’t seen the older MCU movies. I guess they just don’t see the problems we older fans do because they’re ignorant to the character’s rich history.”
Like, no. Please don’t. I do not want my opinions taken out of context and used to subtly put down other fans.
Make whatever claims you want, but this post is coming from a side of fandom that has a long history of acting superior and being intolerant of other fan’s interpretations. Look at the reblogs, it’s a who’s who of this fandom’s most toxic, self-pitying “nobody understands Loki like I do” voices. I have zero faith that this data will be used responsibly.
Don’t let them drag you into this dumb discourse BS disguised as a survey like they did me.
To OP: You guys aren’t victims. Nobody’s bullying you for having different opinions. You’re feeling alienated because you are. You’re being ignored by the fandom at large because you’re still bitching about Loki being OOC in 2021 and inserting politics into people’s leisure activities.
These are the people that called you, the fandom, “OOC” if you liked Loki TV. These are the people who said Loki was OOC because (and I can’t even say this with a straight face) he flinched in the Loki series. Seriously, look it up. That was one of these people’s hot takes. Loki never jumped in the old movies, now he does. OOC!!!! This is a travesty! They’ve RUINED OUR FAV.
Yeah, no thanks. You can keep your misleading questions and weird critiques. I’m happy over here writing raunchy, immoral, abusive, manipulative, self-cestuous, IMMORAL time trio debauchery.
And let me tell you, it’s a lot more fun than being constantly angry because I’m still engaged in a fandom that I haven’t liked since 2017.
Thanks for your input. I’m not going to respond to your opinions on me, others or the fandom. Do I disagree with what you’re saying and the aggressive tone you’re using? yes. Are you the one attacking me on MY post about MY survey? Also yes. So who’s the toxic one? Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. This isn’t the place to do this. A petty argument you’re failing to intimidate me with isn’t worth it.
I’m sorry you didn’t like the survey. If you don’t like it, then by all means share that opinion on the survey. And if not, just walk away. There’s a handful of other surveys with other biases and points of view you can choose from. And there’s so many wonderful writers and people with interesting theories that they share on all sides of the fandom. I wrote up the questions as best as i could, based on my questions and opinions and as stated before, some were requested by the fandom.
I’ve seen other surveys and even when I didn’t like what they were saying, i responded honestly and respectfully. I don’t see why doing that and walking away is so hard for you. This is a fan made survey. You don’t get rewards or brownie points for liking or hating it. So you’ll have to go find validation for your insecurity elsewhere.
And for your information, Tumblr is NOT the only place this was shared. I shared and invited Loki fans on various sides of the fence to respond ON MULTIPLE SITES AND FAN GROUPS.
Not like you actually cared about how verifiable the data will be or not. But I am doing what I can to hear as many different voices as possible. This is a fan survey, for fun. I’m not a researcher from Harvard and I’m not the marvel marketing team. I don’t get anything out of this besides interactions with the fandom.
Feel free to write your own post to share your opinions. Heck, write your own survey! The more the merrier. Just please remove your toxic attitude from other people’s blogs and conversations. Whether you agree with my opinions or not, I was and still am inviting all viewpoints to respond and share their thoughts. I didn’t ask for your venom.
“I welcome feedback, concerns and questions. And I invite all Loki fans to participate so that we can hear your opinions.”
@dendrite-blues oh, you’re back. Not sure if you’re aware. But there’s a difference between providing feedback and being a hateful troll. I hope you learn that someday. I’ll block you after this. Bye now.
I personally find one or two of the questions and answers in this survey, you know, questionable. Still, op has done nothing to deserve this level of ire from you.
All fandom spaces have a degree of clusters, let’s not pretend otherwise. Plus, I’ve heard this has been posted elsewhere also.
Besides all of that, she can have more than one goal with this entirely informal survey, can she not?
As to your points:
Was Loki OOC?
“They created the character, they are allowed to do whatever they want with it.”
Who is they? Waldron? Feige? Waldron certainly didn’t create the character of Loki and Feige didn’t either.
We could go back to the comics creators for all this matters and we’d still have a bunch of different writers writing for Loki to the point where arguing semantics over phrasing is pointless.
You know what people mean when they say out of character. They mean exactly what you said they mean: inconsistent with past portrayals.
Was Loki a narcissist in the show?
Wikipedia is a valid source of information when you’re first looking something up and with sources always linked for easy access.
For me though, the definition is unnecessary in the survey as it is just a reductive summary, and I agree that it doesn’t offer much in the way of nuance.
I also agree that the category could have been expanded, but for the purposes of just answering whether someone personally thinks one way or the other, it’s not so egregious, in my opinion.
“First of all, he’s a fictional character. He cannot be psychologically diagnosed. Period. And certainly not by a bunch of lay people with no criteria given for the diagnosis.”
Yeah, fans are not diagnosing him with anything*. The show used the word narcissist and people took an issue with how it was presented because Waldron and co are actually the ones with no clue as to what this diagnosis is.
Also, while the creator of a survey may be impartial, the respondent’s answers are actually allowed to be their subjective opinions.
*In case you mean in general, for all of Loki’s possible ailments, the fans are not conducting a diagnosis so much as an analysis of what they personally see is being presented to them. And if they say they think he has something they also have, it’s just a way of relating to him.
We may have our own interpretations but overall It’s an entirely harmless activity.
Relationships
Clearly, she just added the two most relevant ships people have apparently been in fandom fighting about. Seems logical to me.
I agree this category could have been expanded but there really is no need to phrase it the way you did.
And then, “Canon is irrelevant to fandom.”
Canon informs fanon and fandom engagement and is, therefore, actually very relevant.
Finally, let’s address your “real complaint”.
“Make whatever claims you want, but this post is coming from a side of fandom that has a long history of acting superior and being intolerant of other fan’s interpretations. Look at the reblogs, it’s a who’s who of this fandom’s most toxic, self-pitying “nobody understands Loki like I do” voices. I have zero faith that this data will be used responsibly.”
You don’t think you’re displaying the same behavior with your phrasing and tone in this response? You really don’t see how your attitude reflects your own criticism?
I’ve been active in this fandom for a short while, admittedly, but what you are saying is not what I’ve been seeing or experiencing. “Nobody understand Loki like I do” is a straw-man statement.
You echo here what I’ve seen elsewhere: You claim this side of the fandom is mentally unwell and yet are committed to burying them further down. Why? How is that in any way okay?
People on “this side” are a varied bunch. They are also people, in the end. Just like you, or me - you don’t stand above them.
“You’re feeling alienated because you are. You’re being ignored by the fandom at large because you’re still bitching about Loki being OOC in 2021 and inserting politics into people’s leisure activities.”
Fine. So you prefer to consume your content much like one would consume a steaming bowl of popcorn?
No shame here. We all do sometimes, including me. However, I’m sure you’ve had moments where you’ve consumed media and had something to say about it. You are not the only one with the right to do that.
In the end, it’s kind of telling that this, by your own admission, is your real complaint.
You’ve come out of the woodwork to do exactly what fans on the so called “negative side of the issue” say people like you keep doing and you don’t seem to realize it.
“And let me tell you, it’s a lot more fun than being constantly angry because I’m still engaged in a fandom that I haven’t liked since 2017.”
Was writing all of this fun for you? You do seem plenty angry to me.
