I think that's part of it, although I read books 1&2 around the time 3 came out, then read three in paperback, and waited for four. But I didn't actually get into the *fandom* until a couple months after 4, and it's those last two books that definitely feel different to me. Maybe because they're the ones that have contradicted all that fic I read in my first few months in fandom...
It's hard to say with other fandoms - there are very few that I came to while they were still ongoing, actually: except the seven (!!) shows I'm watching now, natch. And Pirates - I think there's definitely a disconnect between people who came in after PotC 1 and PotC 2, but maybe that's partly because they were such very different movies.
I know in XF that nearly everyone who was watching back in the day hated the new characters in the last two seasons, while there's a small but constant contigent of people who came in during those seasons and like the new characters better, and people who came in after the end tend to be much more divided in opinion.
SW is interesting - I think a lot of the hate people had for the first prequal was that it was so completely contradicted the universe that had been imagined - by pretty much everyone - after the first movie, and specifically condradicted the EU books that were really well-loved. I come back to episode one now, and as long as I can forget that it's supposed to be Stars Wars, I can admit that it doesn't suck.
I definitely see this in Star Trek fandom, BTW - on my flist I have DS9 people and Voyager people and Enterprise people, and they all think their particular series is excellent and don't understand why it's so hated by people who, y'know, have actually seen actual Star Trek episodes. :D
...which maybe does link back to my problems with HP. Hmmm. Except the later books aren't really different or bad enough that I can justify ignoring them, unlike the later SW and ST.
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It's hard to say with other fandoms - there are very few that I came to while they were still ongoing, actually: except the seven (!!) shows I'm watching now, natch. And Pirates - I think there's definitely a disconnect between people who came in after PotC 1 and PotC 2, but maybe that's partly because they were such very different movies.
I know in XF that nearly everyone who was watching back in the day hated the new characters in the last two seasons, while there's a small but constant contigent of people who came in during those seasons and like the new characters better, and people who came in after the end tend to be much more divided in opinion.
SW is interesting - I think a lot of the hate people had for the first prequal was that it was so completely contradicted the universe that had been imagined - by pretty much everyone - after the first movie, and specifically condradicted the EU books that were really well-loved. I come back to episode one now, and as long as I can forget that it's supposed to be Stars Wars, I can admit that it doesn't suck.
I definitely see this in Star Trek fandom, BTW - on my flist I have DS9 people and Voyager people and Enterprise people, and they all think their particular series is excellent and don't understand why it's so hated by people who, y'know, have actually seen actual Star Trek episodes. :D
...which maybe does link back to my problems with HP. Hmmm. Except the later books aren't really different or bad enough that I can justify ignoring them, unlike the later SW and ST.