Dealing with depression and anxiety

[Muppet Master]

Honestly, I had no clue there was an online fandom devoted to Thomas and Friends. And I really can't imagine why it would get so nightmarish, but I'll take your word on it.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Ohohohohohohoho is there a LOOOOOOOOT to unpack with this fandom…..

SIF (Sodor Island Forums) are known for being narcissistic holier than thou ***hats who think they’re above everyone else just because “they’ve been in the fandom the longest.” They look down on those who joined the Thomas community in the past or current decade, and they’ve also been known to be massive hoarders when it comes to finding rare material. A good example alone is that for years they’ve had still image cells (and god knows if they possibly even have the existing footage itself!) of the infamous cancelled season 2 episode “The Missing Coach” (originally meant to be Donald and Douglas’s introduction episode before it got cancelled midway due to the series creator Britt Allcroft feeling it would be too confusing for children to understand due to the twins swapping their tenders….. which honestly just made her look like a hypocrite since many later episode adaptions of episodes from the “Railway Series” or their “original” stories had many plot holes that were never filled once the fame clearly started to go to her head….. and that’s when she met her downfall with how horrible “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” did critically and financially, and alas a rushed monologue of the twins’s introduction for the episode “Break Van” was done instead)….. and it wasn’t until the start of this decade in August 2020 a well-known member known as “Nick Starwind,” who was trusted with them, finally decided to leak those stills on the internet for the public, feeling absolutely fed up with their hoarding, and that’s when they ganged up on him privately because of their egoistical mindset with this. Similarly they’ve also tried to get another user named “ThomasTankMerch” to take down leaked season 5 behind the scenes footage and bloopers that came out in June 2022 gaslighting him saying that they’re “concerned” about legal action happening, when in reality they just (again) want to hoard this stuff for themselves (I’m guessing they also have copies of this footage). They have a BIG gate-keeping mentality with hard to find stuff.

Then you have instances like fans getting into continuous debates over which seasons should be considered “classic” and which shouldn’t, leading to many fan wars and putting seasons on unfair pedestals just because the first five seasons came out before “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” which…… alas would unfortunately change the series for the worst as time went on.

You also have members in the toy community who constantly have this annoying gate-keeping mentality on which toy brand is the most “superior.” Frankly I think most of the brands make the engines look terrible. The only one I genuinely like is ERTL, and it’s a shame the toys were discontinued by 2004.

Then there are also members of this fandom who only form opinions if a “popular” or “well-known” member stated his/her opinion. Yes, this fandom is absolutely full of sheep who can’t form their own opinions.

I’d also like to point out one fan even went out of their way to call a well-known member of the community Nick AKA the Unlucky Tug’s dad’s personal house number asking to speak to his son. Needless to say, he was rightfully not happy with this. Yes, members of this fandom have gone as far as stalking those they admire.

Then with that horrible “All Engines Go!” spin-off it’s only led to more drama on members who enjoy the original series shaming those who like the spin-off.

I could go on and on but it’s reasons like this why I’m VERY casual in this fandom.

 

[LittleJerry92]

Speaking from personal experience as well, I’ve dealt with a fan from the U.K who’s……. Always been known to be pretty narcissistic who shamed me for saying that I honestly prefer the U.S. George Carlin narrations over the original U.K. ones with Michael Angelis (I was only 14 at the time and wasn’t the biggest fan of his voice, I’ve since appreciated him more with age), and this guy was like “Yeah, well, don’t forget, Thomas is a British show so we got these narrations first, nyeah nyeah nyeah” or something along that line. Years later he hasn’t changed since.

 

[datman24]

I’d also like to point out one fan even went out of their way to call a well-known member of the community Nick AKA the Unlucky Tug’s dad’s personal house number asking to speak to his son. Needless to say, he was rightfully not happy with this. Yes, members of this fandom have gone as far as stalking those they admire.

This happens a lot in kids show fandoms. Someone I know had a stalker who somehow found their family member's private phone numbers and contacted them wanting access to old PBS Kids show recordings. I won't say who the individual is, obviously, but apparently, he has done this to other people, as well. These people are messed up.

 

[Hip2BSquare]

My anxiety and depression hit an all-time high after I was diagnosed with epilepsy (was diagnosed later in life which I learned is more common than not), that was back in 2016 and I a lot of the things that really helped me fight my depression were re-watching certain Muppet Show segments as well as re-watched Follow That Bird and Elmo in Grouchland. Follow That Bird and Elmo in Grouchland are definitely some of my comfort movies along with The Iron Giant and Chasing Amy (yes, I know Chasing Amy is the odd one out there but it's a long beautiful story as to why).

But the gist is, I watched that movie on an awful awful day after a neurologist visit and my now-fiancé (we were just dating at the time), suggested it. He prefaced it by saying, "Yeah, the story is kinda sad but, I love this movie and I think you will too".

Anyway, while my depression and anxiety are still very much there, they're getting easier to manage nowadays

 

[Any Del]

Ohohohohohohoho is there a LOOOOOOOOT to unpack with this fandom…..

SIF (Sodor Island Forums) are known for being narcissistic holier than thou ***hats who think they’re above everyone else just because “they’ve been in the fandom the longest.” They look down on those who joined the Thomas community in the past or current decade, and they’ve also been known to be massive hoarders when it comes to finding rare material. A good example alone is that for years they’ve had still image cells (and god knows if they possibly even have the existing footage itself!) of the infamous cancelled season 2 episode “The Missing Coach” (originally meant to be Donald and Douglas’s introduction episode before it got cancelled midway due to the series creator Britt Allcroft feeling it would be too confusing for children to understand due to the twins swapping their tenders….. which honestly just made her look like a hypocrite since many later episode adaptions of episodes from the “Railway Series” or their “original” stories had many plot holes that were never filled once the fame clearly started to go to her head….. and that’s when she met her downfall with how horrible “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” did critically and financially, and alas a rushed monologue of the twins’s introduction for the episode “Break Van” was done instead)….. and it wasn’t until the start of this decade in August 2020 a well-known member known as “Nick Starwind,” who was trusted with them, finally decided to leak those stills on the internet for the public, feeling absolutely fed up with their hoarding, and that’s when they ganged up on him privately because of their egoistical mindset with this. Similarly they’ve also tried to get another user named “ThomasTankMerch” to take down leaked season 5 behind the scenes footage and bloopers that came out in June 2022 gaslighting him saying that they’re “concerned” about legal action happening, when in reality they just (again) want to hoard this stuff for themselves (I’m guessing they also have copies of this footage). They have a BIG gate-keeping mentality with hard to find stuff.

Then you have instances like fans getting into continuous debates over which seasons should be considered “classic” and which shouldn’t, leading to many fan wars and putting seasons on unfair pedestals just because the first five seasons came out before “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” which…… alas would unfortunately change the series for the worst as time went on.

You also have members in the toy community who constantly have this annoying gate-keeping mentality on which toy brand is the most “superior.” Frankly I think most of the brands make the engines look terrible. The only one I genuinely like is ERTL, and it’s a shame the toys were discontinued by 2004.

Then there are also members of this fandom who only form opinions if a “popular” or “well-known” member stated his/her opinion. Yes, this fandom is absolutely full of sheep who can’t form their own opinions.

I’d also like to point out one fan even went out of their way to call a well-known member of the community Nick AKA the Unlucky Tug’s dad’s personal house number asking to speak to his son. Needless to say, he was rightfully not happy with this. Yes, members of this fandom have gone as far as stalking those they admire.

Then with that horrible “All Engines Go!” spin-off it’s only led to more drama on members who enjoy the original series shaming those who like the spin-off.

I could go on and on but it’s reasons like this why I’m VERY casual in this fandom.

Even after lurking through their forums and reading some threads that were......headscratchers, makes me extremely grateful to never have joined the forums.

 

[Muppets02]

Ohohohohohohoho is there a LOOOOOOOOT to unpack with this fandom…..

SIF (Sodor Island Forums) are known for being narcissistic holier than thou ***hats who think they’re above everyone else just because “they’ve been in the fandom the longest.” They look down on those who joined the Thomas community in the past or current decade, and they’ve also been known to be massive hoarders when it comes to finding rare material. A good example alone is that for years they’ve had still image cells (and god knows if they possibly even have the existing footage itself!) of the infamous cancelled season 2 episode “The Missing Coach” (originally meant to be Donald and Douglas’s introduction episode before it got cancelled midway due to the series creator Britt Allcroft feeling it would be too confusing for children to understand due to the twins swapping their tenders….. which honestly just made her look like a hypocrite since many later episode adaptions of episodes from the “Railway Series” or their “original” stories had many plot holes that were never filled once the fame clearly started to go to her head….. and that’s when she met her downfall with how horrible “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” did critically and financially, and alas a rushed monologue of the twins’s introduction for the episode “Break Van” was done instead)….. and it wasn’t until the start of this decade in August 2020 a well-known member known as “Nick Starwind,” who was trusted with them, finally decided to leak those stills on the internet for the public, feeling absolutely fed up with their hoarding, and that’s when they ganged up on him privately because of their egoistical mindset with this. Similarly they’ve also tried to get another user named “ThomasTankMerch” to take down leaked season 5 behind the scenes footage and bloopers that came out in June 2022 gaslighting him saying that they’re “concerned” about legal action happening, when in reality they just (again) want to hoard this stuff for themselves (I’m guessing they also have copies of this footage). They have a BIG gate-keeping mentality with hard to find stuff.

Then you have instances like fans getting into continuous debates over which seasons should be considered “classic” and which shouldn’t, leading to many fan wars and putting seasons on unfair pedestals just because the first five seasons came out before “Thomas and the Magic Railroad” which…… alas would unfortunately change the series for the worst as time went on.

You also have members in the toy community who constantly have this annoying gate-keeping mentality on which toy brand is the most “superior.” Frankly I think most of the brands make the engines look terrible. The only one I genuinely like is ERTL, and it’s a shame the toys were discontinued by 2004.

Then there are also members of this fandom who only form opinions if a “popular” or “well-known” member stated his/her opinion. Yes, this fandom is absolutely full of sheep who can’t form their own opinions.

I’d also like to point out one fan even went out of their way to call a well-known member of the community Nick AKA the Unlucky Tug’s dad’s personal house number asking to speak to his son. Needless to say, he was rightfully not happy with this. Yes, members of this fandom have gone as far as stalking those they admire.

Then with that horrible “All Engines Go!” spin-off it’s only led to more drama on members who enjoy the original series shaming those who like the spin-off.

I could go on and on but it’s reasons like this why I’m VERY casual in this fandom.

When it comes to Thomas & Friends, I did watch episodes of the HIT Entertainment era (both live action and CGI ones) on PBS over the years, and some of the early episodes on DVD compilations, and airings on PBS Kids Sprout.
And yes, I have always been annoyed with the attitude of the fandom of Thomas & Friends, especially as they argue too much over these things. In particular, I do think they are too harsh on the HIT Entertainment era of the show, as while I can agree there are flaws with those seasons, and that they do not always hold up, they are better in some ways than given credit for. I can agree that the show and franchise was completely messed up completely when Mattel took over, but I have better things to do with my life than constantly complain about that.