In 2012, history was made when Scandal introduced the first African-American female lead in a major network television show in forty-years. Centering on the forbidden love story between a married sitting President, Fitzgerald Grant, and his former Communications Director, Olivia Pope, Scandal plays with preconceived notions about affairs, power structures, and interracial relationships.
The specific episode in question aired on November 19th, 2015 and was the ninth episode in the fifth season of Scandal. Season five was perceived as the resolution of the forbidden love story by ending the previous season with the characters promises to be together out in the open. A divorce, an official announcement, and residence change put the characters …show more content…
Within the past decade, fanfiction has enabled community members to put their own ideas down on ‘paper’ for the world to read, comment on, and contribute to. Fanfiction is defined as stories written by members of a fandom that base themselves on a plot, canon, or different works that take the current story on a new path (Thomas, 2011). The most important part of fanfiction, however, is the interaction with the storylines and the dominant ideology. “While activities of fans may take many forms, writing stories deriving from one or more source texts has long been the most popular way of concretizing and disseminating their passion for a particular fictional universe” (Thomas, 2011). This freedom that community members within a fandom have to connect, create, and discuss are what makes fandom such a strong force in the digital world. The online world has opened up doors for fans no matter what age they are, what country they live in, or how talented they are as a writer (Schaffner, 2009). This is where the consumer fan versus creation fan comes into play because, just because you may not like to write, you can still read and interact with those that …show more content…
Fantasy themes contribute to the formation of a shared identity and group consciousness” (2016). This cohesion stems from that dramatizing message that fans use to create their own interpretations of the creator’s intention and portrayal of the characters and situations through the storyline. It is important to understand that the dramatizing message is the platform the fans use and fantasy chaining are the works they create for that platform. In this case, Fanfiction.net is the dramatizing message and the stories (or fanfics) is considered the fantasy chain because it is a direct reaction to the preferred reading. Creators of fanfiction “are able to do it because the internaet is personal and mallable in a way that programs, publishers, and even pen and paper are not. And we like it more, because it hasn’t been polished, dismissed, or dictated by any standards but what the reader enjoys” (Schaffner, 2009). The diversity of works, collaborations, and discussions that come about because fanfiction is not regulated is a credit to the fandom itself. Fans take the dramatizing message and the unexpected and turn it into something they think the community, as a whole would like to read without the motivation of payment or sponsorship. A fanfiction writer said, “No person can create a fully organic and