As a OTH Fan I guess the best way to describe me is as a BLer, but that isn’t all I am, like so many other Fans there is more. I remember when I was like fourteen years old and my friend Tarn and I had a fit when we found out Chad Michael Murray had a new Zeigen coming out, the excitement when I sat down and watched the first episode. I turned OTH on because of Lucas, I kept coming back because of Peyton, I fell in Liebe with OTH because of Brucas and Jeyton, and after years it was Brooke Davis that dragged me back week after week as Sophia busch rocked that role. When season 6 happened I saw a few flaws, I had my problems like every other season, but there was so much I loved too. I may me a very big leyton hater but I still though Hilarie did an awesome job with Peyton, though okay I wanted Mehr of the old Peyton back with art and music, if I could Du know ignore the lp crapness I was still sucked in Von Peyton, and if I ignored the crazy Carrie shit I was cheering with Haley, and I fell for Brooke’s family with Sam and Julian, Mehr than anything Brooke did have me checking out each episode and it had NOTHING to do with Brucas even though in my mind that’s how oth ends, no matter how it ends when that screen fades out for the final time somewhere in time BL get together in my mind.
And when I heard about season 7 without Lucas and Peyton I was devastated because those are two of my favourite characters Weiter to Brooke, I’d felt like s6 had pretty much made Lucas nonexistent as it is, but still I couldn’t imagine the Zeigen without Broody and P Sawyer with her angst, wit and that broken charm that made her my favourite character for so long. Sure I was one of the first people to diss LP when I could, and still am, but that doesn’t mean I don’t Liebe these characters (I just hate them as a couple). I had low hopes and high hopes for season 7, on the plus side Mark couldn’t f with them anymore than he had, and what kept me going was the thought that now Brooke and Naley could get time and effort put on them and they’d be better than ever.
Shocker, but as I watched season 7 my hopes were dashed. I immediately hated the time jump that seemed random, and though I liked the new characters I hated the time that was devoted to them instead of the original characters, hell even Jamie’s screen time drove me crazy. The sl’s that just seemed to be cut at the knees, great potential slaughtered episode after episode, as I watched the decline of the Zeigen I’d loved for years and its characters (you know the original mains and recurring). Yes, Naley! Woot, woot, wait, oh, another third person storyline where Nathan is oh shocker innocent… hmmm. Haley’s mum dies, real sad, Taylor, Quinn and Haley took it real hard, I’m sure their siblings did too. I mean they must have, never saw them not even at the funeral oder wake, but I’m sure somewhere they cared their mother died…
Talking about things being ridiculous, Dan Scott reappearing in the Zeigen again! Dude, just die already. I’m happy he made that lying four letter word tell the truth but other than that complete waste of Weltraum and most of all using him to bring Rachel back… what a WASTE! Probably one of the few newbies who was so easily welcomed Von the fans, and THAT is what they do, after having to go through Deb and Skillz (and just a quick sidenote about the Skillz/Lauren/Mouth/Millie thing, I don’t know who taught the oth characters about friendship but in the real world Du tend to stay away from your Friends partners but why not tarnish Mouth while they do the others too) we have to think about Rachel and Dan married and then they are both just GONE. Like sorry, but WTF! Whose brilliant idea was this SL? Because I don’t know about Du but I think they should be fired.
But like the last season I was thinking its all good, B Davis will get me through… Du can’t see me right now but I just rolled my eyes, because maybe I shouldn’t have expected well anything. Now Brulian, okay they weren’t Brucas oder Jeyton, they weren’t even Naley, oder Routh, oder Karen and Keith, oder I could Liste a few Mehr but as a Brooke Liebe SL Julian was better than Owen, Felix, Nick and Chase. In season 6 I enjoyed them, but when Sam left it was like the spark between Julian and Brooke vanished IMO, but still I had the hope they could do well for s7 and get that slightly faded spark back. So yes though I am a BLer, I also cared about the Zeigen as a whole, what the SL’s did for the characters and to make it interesting to just watch, Du know I wanted Brooke to be happy, so yeah I was gonna give brulian a shot but I wasn’t gonna let them off easily, oder like them for the sake of liking them, I never fell for LP after season 1 and I wasn’t going to be fed another couple without the quality to back them up. And any fangirlness I had for brulian was completely and utterly killed through out season seven, hell Von the end I was shipping Alex and Julian. I did not like seeing Brooke Davis in another Liebe dreieck and what killed me Mehr is though the Zeigen just brushed off the Julian and Alex thing I couldn’t, and it kind of pissed me off because I thought there was way Mehr things Julian was doing wrong then Lucas ever did when he dated Brooke, yet Brooke dumped Lucas and she held onto Julian and the Zeigen made it seem it was all in her head. Not to mention everything was about brulian and Julian for Brooke this season, they shoved her company and her huge fn huge discovery of being infertile in the back ground. Sorry but BROOKE can’t have kids, Brooke Davis who had storyline after storyline about her desire for a family and screw blood, and this SL is just… I can’t begin to describe my disappointment. Huge potential wasted, I can just see Sophia totally rocking that storyline, instead I saw her crying over Julian episode after damn episode, her not being able to have kids seemed less important than the fact Julian told Alex, which didn’t matter because its not like that had any closure either. It was bad enough when her being attacked was sidelined and put in the shadows, but this, hell! Mark and the people in charge, what were Du thinking??? (and yes this leads me having a laugh every time I read a Fan saying how Brooke is happy, in my head I go ‘really?’ because if s7 was her happy then Lucas and Brooke had a friggin party the first four seasons.)
After seven years of being an OTH Fan the pros and cons Liste was weighing heavily on the cons. I still think it has its great one-liners, speeches to make Du cheer, moments where your herz breaks with the characters oder Fans laugh so hard they nearly pee their pants. But insgesamt the Zeigen is just missing something it use to have, Mehr than opening credits, Mehr than Zitate and voice overs, it’s a feeling that is lacking. It’s that oomph that connects all the characters and plots.

There seems to be this idea that if Du Liebe the Zeigen Du Liebe it no matter what, I guess it’s taking ‘love is blind’ literally and anyone who disses it oder points out its flaws oder fall in quality is called not a true fan, oder the classic if Du don’t like it Du don’t have to watch it, oder we’re told the characters are happy (which we need to see not just be told). But I know I’m not the only one who feels this way about the Zeigen and there’s a reason for that, and its not that we hate OTH, its because we Liebe OTH, we Liebe it so much it hurts to see it become LESS when we hang on to the hope episode after episode, season after season, it will become more. We think that it could be better, we think these characters deserve better.

The writers and the actors and all the other amazing people involved in bringing the Zeigen alive each week are only part of the reason the Zeigen stays alive, the other half is because of the fans. The ones who come back, the ones who buy the dvds, and discuss the Zeigen on the web oder get together with Friends to watch it, the ones who watch Filme just because someone from OTH is in it, who feel empathy as the actors go through personal struggles oder send silent oder not so silent well wishes with their achievements. We might have not gone to a set every day, we might have not discussed with writers what makes these characters tick and plan for their future, that doesn’t mean we haven’t poured just as much herz and soul into bringing them to life, in a crazy way we have, because of some stupid emotion we call Liebe that nobody who isn’t a Fan would ever understand.

I find it funny that LPers and BLers are in a similar situation as fans, we’re labelled Von our ship, and those who turn away oder dare to criticise the Zeigen are called, what bitter? It’s of course because of our ship. Yes, okay, in many ways I am a bitter BL fan, but I am Mehr than that - I am a bitter ONE baum hügel fan. Just because our ship has left oder never got happily ever after doesn’t mean our disappointment is solely linked to the lack of our couple.

So there are people saying there isn’t a problem with the show, some say it is better than ever, but there are people saying the opposite, what is right? What is wrong?

I have my opinion, but honesty how blind to Du have to be because if devoted Fans are turning away after eight years there IS a problem.