LWA Ep. 4 is the most precious gift.

twohourvacance:

Truly. Here we have a young author emotionally drained by all the nasty reviews and comments she’s been receiving for her writing…

…and her spirit is so beaten down by the flames that she just wants to quit.

Then in comes Lotte and what she says next is absolutely incredible. She doesn’t tell Annabel to “just write for herself”. She doesn’t tell Annabel to “just ignore the haters”.

This is SO important, guys.

Because by pointing out that the haters make up only a small portion of the fandom and that there are just as many people who do enjoy what Annabel publishes, Lotte is able to reassure Annabel and give her a purpose without discriminately excluding anyone from the fandom.

No fandom on this Earth is a safe haven. There will be trolls and critics one way or another. And nothing and nobody, not even the creator, can do anything to change that because people just have their own opinions.

But that doesn’t mean they’re not part of the fandom. In fact, judging by how long this series has been going and how no one has noticed that there’s been twelve succeeding authors behind “night fall” since the beginning, a number of these trolls probably flame the newer volumes because they’re likely fans of the older books…written by previous authors. Or something similar to that.

Point is, you can’t satisfy everybody and that’s fine. You don’t have to feel obligated to. What’s not okay is to forget the fans who do look forward to how you’ll continue the story, who do appreciate what you write, who do love your work. You may not be able to erase the negative feedback but that shouldn’t cast a shadow on the positive feedback that surely exist. Because if you give that much effort into something you like, chances are someone is bound to like what you’ve done.

(Moral of the story: GIVE YOUR AUTHORS/ARTISTS/CREATORS THEIR DUE KUDOS! SUPPORT THEM SO THEY CAN KEEP DOING WHAT THEY DO BEST!)

Then Lotte ultimately reels Annabel in by sharing what they both love about “night fall”.

And it’s because Lotte loves these books so much and loves the books that the current Annabel wrote so much and therefore, knows how much Annabel loves this series so much that she can put her confidence in Annabel’s ability to make it even more interesting to read. Because Annabel has already done that for her and a lot of fans and it’d be an utter shame for her to stop now!

Only a person who’s been following a series for that long (since childhood in this case!), who passionately loves a series as much as Lotte does can convince another fan-turned-author to continue contributing more greatness to this established piece of work and thereby, keep giving the fans something to enjoy and love.

And I think that’s so wonderful. It’s so encouraging to all the aspiring creative thinkers out there so really, thanks, Trigger. You truly are awesome for sending out this message through this amazing anime.