LETTER TO MY FELLOW HALO BEARERS
Dear Halo Bearers,
On Tuesday, December 13 2022, Simon announced that Warrior Nun had been cancelled after just two seasons by Netflix. Shortly after that, the #SaveWarriorNun campaign kicked off on Twitter. And now, today, we are at 10,000,000 tweets under the #SaveWarriorNun hashtag.
We have set up billboards, we have had more than a hundred articles about this movement (TIME magazine, Forbes, CBR, New York Times, Buzzfeed and so many others) and gotten over a hundred thousand petitions on change.org. We have over a thousand stories on Archive Of Our Own (AO3) and so many drawings, memes and video edits by the #SaveWarriorNun community. We have a newsletter, an OCS YouTube page, two fan-owned and created a website and a GoFundMe for and from this fandom. We have done trends about lettuce, raccoons, tunas and so many others. We have been noticed. And in an age and time where the internet is quick to move on from topic to topic, we have always been talked about. What we have accomplished is the first of its kind. I dare you to show me any fandom that set up a billboard in front of the streaming service that cancelled them.
But to me, the most beautiful thing we have accomplished is the friendships we have made within this fandom. It is the most beautiful and the most important thing. We all started as a bunch of people who wanted Warrior Nun back. Now we are a digital village of so many friendship circles and groups all fighting for our show. Some of us have gone from being ‘just there’ to having friends we can talk to about anything without fear of it being weird or judgement. And to me, these friendships are as precious as Ava and Bea are to each other. We are stronger because we have all found a way to bond with others in all corners of this #SaveWarriorNun campaign. We are not the first fandom that tried bringing a cancelled show back. With the way Netflix is going, we will not be the last either. But the difference between us and the very many that have failed so far is that we are more than fans that want a show back. We are friends that this show has brought together, fighting for what brought us to each other. That makes all the difference in the world.
We did not get to this landmark of 10 million tweets because we are just a fandom. We have gotten to this landmark because we started as a fandom and now we have found friends even across continents. We’ve gotten here because we are all friends who want the same thing. And that, fighting as friends, is what got us to where we are now. It is what will get us to that renewal.
So, my dearest Halo Bearers, this is a win for us. So let us celebrate. Let us celebrate for that bedroom script and ‘other goodies’. Let us celebrate for the many friends we have met here. Let us celebrate for our ultimate goal that we are one big step closer to.
Dear Halo Bearers, I might not know all of you. But I love every single one of you.
Cheers to ten million.
M.E. Stanley