The OCS Newsletter 365 Special Edition
12 months. 52 weeks. 8.760 hours. 525.000 minutes. 31.536.000 seconds.
A year ago a select group of people, that were brought together by their shared love for a silly little nun show on a streaming platform (that shall not be named), were collectively taken by surprise when Simon Barry, the show’s creator, took to twitter to inform that Warrior Nun would not be renewed.
Tears followed, lots and lots of tears. Messages were sent from all around the world, strangers found strength in numbers and a cry echoed, loud and clear for whoever was willing to listen (and whoever had internet access): Save Warrior Nun.
The road since then has been no short of surprising and unexpected, but it has also been filled with a growing sense of community and belonging, lots of laughter and a shocking amount of weird food and raccoons. Today, the OCS Newsletter celebrates the road to 365 days.
The Battle Cry
As the voices of Halo Bearers echoed through the endless nights of our fight, our battle cry became our mantra. Repeated every second of every hour of every day, our mantra made people question whether we were robots or a cult.
Many will remember December 13th of 2022 as the day we had Warrior Nun cruelly taken away from us. But, while this is true and a year has gone by without our Warrior Nun being saved, some of us may choose to remember the date in another way.
The battle cry turned mantra turned into bot accusations, became the foundation of many beautiful friendships, relationships and situationships that still echoes on the four corners of the world. And it will never stop.
It doesn’t matter if a day goes by, a month or a year, this fandom will thrive because while we don’t get Our Warrior Nun back, we get the community that we’ve created from the show. So today, we celebrate the year that went by and all that we’ve accomplished.
Your Warrior Nun
As we all know by now, on June 28th, 197 days after the cancellation news, the fandom was once again collectively taken by surprise when Simon Barry took to twitter to inform that Warrior Nun had been saved and would return to us. However, as time progressed, Halo Bearers went from tears, to excitement, to confusion, to anger, to disappointment... to a vast range of emotions as we realized that the brand Warrior Nun has been saved, but maybe not our Warrior Nun.
So, with the goal of understanding, from the Fandom’s perspective, what makes the show special and to show whoever is saving the brand what’s the story that we would follow, the OCS Newsletter decided to ask one question to the fandom: Define in one or two words what is your Warrior Nun.
With nearly 300 answers on various platforms, 86 words were used to describe the show, the top 10 being: Representation, Family, Powerful women, Love, Avatrice, Acceptance, Diversity, Original Cast and Original Crew.
NOT OURS
Contrarily, when posed with the question of what isn’t Our Warrior Nun the fandom was, once again, clear, it isn’t:
Sexist;
Exploitative/Sexualized;
Male-Centric;
Without the Original Cast;
Without the Original Crew;
Without Avatrice;
A reboot
IT MATTERS BECAUSE
Lastly, we asked the fandom to explain why saving OUR Warrior Nun was important and the answers, while with different writing and in different languages all said the very same thing. Our show made us feel seen, represented and respected:
“Because it’s 2023 and we are still fighting for every bit of representation and recognition in media and that should not be the case. Saving this show means that we are as important as anyone else and that we deserve to be seen too” - @BabyHaloWolf
Of Saints and Angels
An interview with Simon Davis Barry
IN NOMINE PATRIS, ET FILLI, ET SPIRITUS SANCTI: As a result of the determined and tireless work of OCS Newsletter editor Adrienne, on December 11th, our favorite uncle Simon was sitting down for an hour long double interview with the OCS Newsletter, where he promised (and delivered) answers to the fandom’s most pressing questions.
From Beatrice’s last name, to Lilith’s story arc, to his plans for Season Three, to fan theories… to what happened on June 28th.
This is just a small sneak peek of the amazing and insightful interview that will be released in a few hours on the OCS Newsletter blog, twitter account and YouTube channel. Make sure to check it out because this is one you don’t want to miss!
OCS NEWSLETTER:
First of all, thank you for your time and for agreeing to speak with us. We are all very excited for this opportunity. So my first question for you is, when was the first moment in which you went “wow, this is something special” about Warrior Nun?
SIMON BARRY:
I think you have to believe it’s special from the minute you start thinking and working on it because otherwise you can’t commit years of your life to it. So in a weird way I always thought it was going to be special. It was when I discovered that everyone else agreed with me that it became interesting. So I think that when it first came out, when the first season came out and we started to get very good reviews and very lovely comments on social media, I think that was validating. That was what we had imagined the show could be and how it could connect with the audience, and that was actually happening.
OCS:
On a personal take, particularly for me, I thought it was going to be amazing when my best friend sent me season one’s trailer and it had a Rosalia song. So for me it was amazing from the get go.
SIMON:
Oh, that’s nice.
OCS:
For my second question, did it surprise you at any point to see how loud and passionate the fans became, either during the first second, the break, the second one or post cancelation. Did it ever surprise you to see that reaction and engagement?
SIMON:
Yeah! I was surprised, of course. From every effort that went into promoting the show to the fight to save it, being impressed was a constant. I was constantly in awe of the amount of work and the amount of passion that was going into the fight for the show. So yeah, it was all the time, I can’t pinpoint one specific moment because it was just a constant.
OCS:
On December 13th last year you made the announcement that the show was cancelled. At the time it felt like an unusual move to have the showrunner announce it as soon as it was decided.
SIMON:
Well, it’s not unusual. I think most showrunners immediately want the news out, they don’t want to say it, but they don’t want to let news like that linger. It’s final.
OCS:
Did you know then that you’d traumatize an entire fandom with sunsets?
SIMON:
[laughs] No, I mean, I needed to the get the word out. I was only given a few hours notice before Netflix was going to put out a press release. So I was hoping the news would be better coming from me versus some cold, you know, press release at the end of the day. I mean, I didn’t even get a chance to call all the cast.
OCS:
In future seasons, would there have been a chance to bring back characters that we know and love and that have, technically, died?
SIMON:
I mean, because we never see Mary dead in the way you normally see in a tv show, where you’re sort of like “here it is”, then I guess the possibility always exists for someone to write that back in. In my mind though it would sort of taken from the emotional weight of season two. It would make the entire season two be a lie. If it’s a story truth or like someone trying to fool someone, that’s fine. But if it’s an emotional truth, it just feels like if i’m an audience member and i’m grieving with those characters, it feels real. So as a writer it would feel like i was pulling a fast one. But that’s the great thing about sci-fi, you can create realities.
OCS NEWSLETTER:
Do you have any messages for the fandom?
SIMON BARRY:
Thank you for the love. I mean, it’s not just the love directed towards the show, and to me. But the love for each other. I think that the legacy of the show, for me, will be knowing that the community it helped create is bigger than the show, it means more in the real world. It has an actual impact. As storytellers, as filmmakers, all we want is to impact people’s lives in a positive way. That’s all I care about. That’s the only reason I got into writing and filmmaking, because I grew up watching things that moved me and that made me feel something, that made me open my heart. And so all I wanna do is to return the favor.
So knowing that there’s a group of people out there that has, you know, not just enjoyed the show, but used it as a platform to connect with other people it’s really, really, rewarding and fulfilling. I gotta say, the best reward for making shows like this, or any show, is knowing that long after the show is gone, there’s going to be these relationships that will persist forever. And that people found something in common to bond over, to talk about, to think about, to cry about. Whatever it was, it formed a human connection. I can’t think of anything better actually, considering what we do, toiling year after year, that’s the ultimate outcome really. So thank you guys for embracing the show and for letting it inspire you to come together. I think it’s wonderful.