Maybe you already talked about an example of the alienation of fans, but can you be more specific? I think my dyslexia got me lost in the text and blurred everything together.
Sorry that Iβm asking you to repeat yourself.
Yeah, sure! I think the biggest thing was that for people who were unable to go to rituals, they had NO idea wtf was going on this tour cycle. They got crumbs, at best, and then they got caught reusing those crumbs instead of footage from the actual ritual covered in that episode. Until my own first Skeletour ritual, I was completely ambivalent towards Perpetua. I couldn't connect with him at all. I couldn't get any sort of read on him, because damn near the only way to see his personality and stage presence was to actually be there. I can't imagine how weird it must have felt not having any clue what this Papa is like because you never got to see it.
Speaking of stage presence, a lot of people have said that even after attending rituals, they felt really distant and weird about Perpetua because everything was so micro-polished and rehearsed, with minimal talking. A word I've seen used a lot is "clinical". I totally understand that it's probably a lot easier to do the same show over and over every night if you've got it extremely well rehearsed. A production that elaborate probably has to be run like a well-oiled machine so that it doesn't go off the rails and fall into chaos. But idk, I just feel like there was definitely room to fit in more talking to the crowd, which is something a lot of fans stated they missed. I do remember seeing something somewhere before the tour started that there would be much less stopping to address the audience, though. If Tobias is tired of it, ok, fair enough. But some people are inevitably going to feel some type of way about that change. It happens.
And the biggest thing I've seen and heard is that for some people, Ghost began to feel entirely inaccessible unless you were rich and American. Granted, plenty of people who aren't rich got tickets, myself included, but in the current global economy, shit is ROUGH. I personally had a friend who lived in southern Europe who started off at least a little hopeful that maybe a "world tour" meant they might at least come to a neighboring country they could visit, like Italy. Because the average wage in their country was relatively low, especially when converted, they would have to save up well in advance. As time passed and the chances of them announcing shows anywhere other than the UK and America shrank, they grew increasingly despondent. Angry. Bitter. Due to shipping costs and, again, conversion rates, not even merch was accessible. They felt completely excluded, like there was no way they could even participate in the fandom. From what little I've seen of them around the internet in the last year, they seem to have left the fandom entirely.
I'm sure these aren't the only things that have pushed some fans away. Now, I don't want anyone to think that I'm being negative. That's not the case. I get the urge to stick up for your favorite band against "hate" and get defensive when you hear criticism. I really do! I think there was a lot of good this cycle. A lot of really cool stuff happened; it brought a lot of people happiness, and it was a fantastic opportunity for the community to come together, especially at rituals! I have found more friendship and a sense of belonging through the Ghost fan community than I have ever experienced anywhere else. Y'all are my people.
But ignoring the bad experiences some fans have had due to how different this album cycle was is inconsiderate. When this many people are all saying the same thing, calling them whiny, entitled haters is just being willfully ignorant. Listen to what other people are saying. Hear them out. Unless it's Twitter lmao, don't listen to a damn word you read on there. Just delete the app, for your own sanity.
(I apologize for taking so long to answer this. I knew I wanted to give a thorough answer and should probably use my laptop to do so. I've just been going through some wack ass mental health shit for the last 2 months, and for some reason it's manifesting in me struggling to do anything other than wander around my apartment all day doomscrolling. I've developed a super weird aversion to sitting on the sofa, which doesn't even make any sense. It's probably because that's where I usually write and do my schoolwork, and I'm so fucking burnt out that my brain starts SHRIEKING at the suggestion of doing anything requiring more than half of a brain cell. I also just got abandoned by my psychiatrist, so that's not helping. I'm really trying to get my shit together and feel like a person again, though. I kinda have to, because my fall semester starts in a little over 2 weeks.)
