u/Saintlyfreeman

Hello everyone, I used to be a big EAH fan back in the day, and I was there from around when the Tumblr fandom was most active(2013-2016). EAH is one of my all time favorite shows and it was actually my first fandom experience as well. I don’t know how the fandom is nowadays, but I remember the Tumblr fandom slowly dying off in the mid to late 2010s after EAH’s cancellation, and the fandom as a whole seems to be more lowkey these days. I actually remember during that time how the O’Hair sisters were pretty hated or heavily disliked by a majority of the Tumblr fandom.

For context, from what I remember, in the early days of EAH’s run(Chapter 1), the O’Hair sisters were frequently teased in other forms of EAH media, specifically the books and diaries(along with Duchess and Sparrow, who ended up becoming major fan favorites). Since we didn’t have any official designs of them yet, I remember a lot of people were pretty hyped and excited to see these two be introduced into the show, especially since the Rapunzel story is one of the major princess fairytales. A lot of fan artists were making their own designs, headcanons, and fan theories on what these characters would be like, and the show didn’t really suffer from character bloat at that point either.

By the time Chapter 2 came around, new characters were slowly being introduced like Duchess, Sparrow, and Humphrey, along with most of the earlier established characters getting at least one or two focus webisodes. When Holly and Poppy’s designs were finally revealed(either through the cartoon or dolls, I don’t remember), I think the reaction to them was fine? Nothing really controversial or significant(other than some complaints about Holly’s hair on her signature doll being too short), I think I remember just a lot of fans being happy that they weren’t blue-eyed blondes(especially since we already had three of those in the show with Apple, Blondie, and Daring).

However, I remember the real controversy and discourse came from how they were being written and promoted in the show. If you remember during those days, EAH’s webisode release schedule was biweekly, so we would only really get around 2 webisodes a month. So when the O’Hairs were introduced, we had two focus webisodes, and EAH’s social media pages were focused on these two new characters for about 1 month. I believe that’s where the fandom discourse around these two started up, with many fans questioning why the show was suddenly introducing and focusing on two completely new characters, as well as fandom complaints about other earlier established characters not being as developed or focused on yet. There were also complaints about two new characters getting dolls before other established characters did(they were released before Lizzie, Kitty, Duchess, Melody, etc.).

I can vividly remember this shift, from anticipation and excitement for these two new characters to appear, to suddenly vitriol and hate for when they finally appeared in the cartoon. I think the general fandom opinion on them was that a lot of people felt disappointed and underwhelmed by what they turned out to be, as well as complaints that they were boring or underdeveloped. A lot of this fan sentiment grew and developed as the show went on, especially since we never had any further development or focus for them beyond those two webisodes.

As for the characters themselves, I remember just most fans were thinking that they were both boring, but that opinion was mostly thrown at Poppy, with a lot of people thinking she was bland, as well as her doll designs(for example, I remember when her Dragon Games doll was first revealed, people absolutely hated the design). Especially since in the books and in her character profile, Poppy is described as being independent, experimental, alternative, and unconventional, but her dolls always came with the same kind of hairstyle.

As for Holly, I remember fandom discourse and controversy surrounding her character. She’s characterized as a fairytale fangirl, but there were times when the fandom thought she came off as unintentionally insensitive to other characters through her comments about their stories(specifically in Cerise’s diary where Holly pisses her off, and her comment towards Briar in Spring Unsprung when they got on the ferris wheel together). I think there were some other incidents of this as well in other EAH media, but those two are the ones I remember off of the top of my head.

By the time when their own focus book(Truth or Hair), was announced, I think the fandom was over them by that point, but I did see some people being excited that this book could potentially develop them even further(I believe the book addressed the whole storyline about them being switched at birth).

As for my own personal opinion on them, I think Holly and Poppy are fine. I like their designs and I like seeing how differently one could create two different character designs based on the Rapunzel fairytale. I think their diaries were good enough glimpses into their characters, so I never really got why the fandom disliked them so much during that time. I also personally like how Holly can sometimes be clueless and insensitive with her words as a character flaw, which indicates that she’s a little socially inept, which makes sense given she’s characterized as having been castleschooled(homeschooled), so that just adds to her character for me. But that’s my own personal experience, I also remember back in the day, most Tumblr posts and YouTube comments were constantly bashing Apple, even though I personally liked her, but that’s just me.

I don’t know what the general fandom opinion on Holly and Poppy is nowadays, but from I’ve seen on here, it does seem to be more positive than from back then. I did some lurking on here, and I’m surprised to find that Rosabella(one of my favorites!) is a hated character now, which wasn’t really the case back then from what I remember. :0

TL;DR: At the height of EAH’s Tumblr fandom days, people generally found the O’Hairs to be boring, bland, forgettable, underwhelming, and underdeveloped characters. I actually did some digging through Tumblr and I found two posts that pretty much summed up the general opinion of these two during that time: the discourse around Holly’s character, and the reactions to their book announcement.

If there are any other fans on here who remember the EAH Tumblr days, feel free to comment your experience, I’d love to know! :)

Hello, everyone. I am a former member of SCJ, and I have been on my own personal healing journey from my time there ever since I left. While it can be tough at times to get through the trauma, I am currently in a place where I am starting to stabilize, feeling more motivated to rebuild my life, and have been getting better overall. I plan to share my own testimony about my time there in the future, but I’d like to share something else with you all for today.

When I first started my own healing journey, I took a break from religion and was temporarily agnostic, but I have tried a few times here and there to get back into Christianity. While I wouldn’t say I’m completely ready to go back into it yet, my desire for it has been steadily growing and I definitely feel like I can come back into it sometime in the near future. Due to my traumatic time and experiences with SCJ, I am kind of over organized religion in general and am more into the spirituality side of things as of now, where I mostly pray, meditate, and focus on my own personal relationship with God. It’s small steps, but at least it’s helping me and getting me somewhere. It also greatly helps with my overall mental health(including physical, emotional and spiritual), as well as helping me to self-regulate myself through the trauma.

Now this might be a bit of a touchy subject, as it is very controversial and divisive among many Christians. But I have been looking into tarot readings lately, and I actually asked some readers to look into the future of SCJ. I feel like the responses I got back is something I should share with you all. It is important to note that tarot is not a prophecy, it reads current energy, but the general rule of thumb with it is to take what resonates with you, and leave what doesn’t. I personally take tarot readings with a grain of salt, and use it more for guidance and insight, rather than looking at it as a definitive prophecy or prediction. Regardless of what you think of tarot, I personally just wanted to share these readings with you all in the hopes that it can comfort some people on here, and make you feel better on what the future of SCJ might potentially be.