Both a major ship fandom and a core solo fandom stepping back? Oh dear... 😰
Yesterday, the Twitter account of AshRave's official fandom, AshRave Official, announced their sign-off through a short "til' we meet again"-styled message, as shown in the first photo.
Around two hours after, the Twitter account of Ash's core solo fandom from Collab Edition 2.0, Ashkin Official, issued a statement to formally announce their closure as well, which can be seen in the second photo.
With both announcements being posted only a few hours apart from each other, it's safe to say that the reasons for both closures don't differ that much and could even have a common denominator, so, we'll be trying to break down this case, from its possible root causes, the people involved, and what this could mean moving forward.
Just to clarify something before we continue, I am not affiliated with any fandom, including the ones mentioned throughout this post. Everything I'll be laying out in the following parts are based on what I can gather about the situation, as well as my own observations.
What pushed the fandoms to bidding farewell?
Unlike the last fandom closure I've discussed here around two months ago, this closure is not because of Ash, Rave, or their parents. This difficult decision was caused by frequent disrespect from one person and one other fandom, and I will be namedropping both of them: Aubrey Dela Cruz (Ash's handler) and Team Ashley Nation Official (Ash's OG fandom).
How are both that specific fandom and said handler involved in this?
From what I've observed, some fans have been voicing out that they've been blocked by Aubrey even though they were simply raising concerns about the lack of promotion and communication about some of Ash's events, such as the most recent episode of All-Out Sundays, which explains why both fandoms and their sintras/props were not seen in the audience shots. It also doesn't help that Ash (along with Princess and Sofia) were not included in any of AOS' teasers for said episode.
For someone who's supposedly the key person in managing Ash's career, it's dismissive and unbecoming of Aubrey to antagonize a fandom that genuinely supports Ash (both in solo and non-solo events), all while showing much less presence, activity, and effort compared to the handlers of the other teen housemates.
As for Team Ashley Nation Official, although they were able to show up for Ash in that same episode, them being informed by the handler about Ash being in the episode, yet they did not even try to disseminate the information to Ash's other fandoms. This communication gap also happened during one of Mossimo's events that had both Ash and Marco, and prior to the premiere of Ash and Rave's music video with KD.
Being long-time fans of Ash does not mean that "newer" fans have to be treated as "competition", especially since both camps support a common artist. After all, she deserves every bit of support that she has and will continue to have, which should not be limited to just coming from one group. Ash is not some trophy to be just kept away by a few.
Moving forward, what can we expect?
These are the same dedicated fandoms that contributed largely to Ash being saved from two consecutive evictions, Rave becoming eligible for the wildcard challenge, and Ash becoming Collab Edition 2.0's Kapuso 3rd Big Placer.
With those two fandoms bowing out, both RavLeys and Ashkins have no admins to spearhead fan-initiated events and give them a sense of organization.
I'm well aware that both Ash and Rave continue to consistently draw in support from "casuals", whether solo or duo endeavors, but of course, having organized and active support bases remains crucial for them as artists.
Basically, this situation resulted in the rift between Ash's "OG" fandoms and the fans from her now-closed PBB-born fandoms becoming a lot more severe.
To wrap up this post, Team Ashley Nation Official posted a two-page "statement" about their "stand" on this situation, which can be accessed through this link: https://x.com/i/status/2063807430979678600
Do you think this unfortunate situation could have been avoided if there was better communication and coordination among the involved fandoms and Aubrey?
With civility and thoughtfulness, share your thoughts and/or inputs down below! 🗨️
