The Ray Wars

The Ray Wars, also known as the Ray/Ray Wars, were a long and bitter feud between due South fans of the character Ray Kowalski and fans of the character Ray Vecchio. This feud had lasting repercussions for due South fandom.
The Wars began with the casting of Callum Keith Rennie as Detective Stanley Raymond Kowalski, a move that replaced the original Ray, played by David Marciano, who had gone undercover for the FBI to impersonate a Mafia boss. In the season opener for the third season, Kowalski is introduced, not as Kowalski, but as Detective Ray Vecchio. Not only does Kowalski look nothing like Vecchio, but he also has a completely different attitude, style, and personality.
A number of fans who liked Vecchio just as he was became upset by the way the show presented the change. Rather than introduce Kowalski as a character in his own right, the show framed the change as something to be accepted, just in the same way that Fraser had to accept it. This caused some fans to consider the show over at the end of the second season, even to the point where some said the show jumped the shark. 
Other fans thought that adding RayK was the best thing that could have happened to the show because the slashy subtext between Fraser and RayK was very strong, and they hadn't seen the slash between Fraser and RayV. So, at their heart, the Ray Wars were a shipping war as well.
This became a rallying point. Lists—where most of the fannish discussion occurred at the time—were created where membership hinged on whether you supported Vecchio or Kowalski. Some lists staunchly defended their right to choose in either direction. For a fan who simply wanted to enjoy the show, regardless of whether it was Vecchio as Vecchio or Kowalski as Vecchio, it often felt like the battle lines were drawn.
One of the root causes for this dissent was the effort some fans had taken to see that the show survived. It was one of the first shows in the '90s to be revived after cancellation through fannish effort—at one point, several hundred rubber ducks were mailed to the show's producers—and the reward was a show that no longer featured one of the main reasons for bringing the show back, that being Vecchio as played by Marciano. Some fans felt that supporting the show in the wake of this change was disloyal to the effort and expense given to keep the show alive.
==General Trauma==
From a fan who didn't think it was that bad: 
== RayV-Fan Perspectives==
Many RayV fans felt that the show went out of its way not simply to replace RayV, but to obliterate his presence from the show by getting rid of his house and iconic car. 
From a Doylist pov, all the destruction in the episode "Burning Down The House" was necessary to set up the radical production changes of Due South's third season, but, to RayV fans, these changes felt gratuitous and hurtful. Many RayK fans were also thoughtless or overtly callous in their comparison of RayK to RayV in terms of looks and their physical attraction, and this, too, was hurtful to RayV fans. 
It also ignored the size and depth of the Fraser/Vecchio fandom; Due South was a huge and happy slash fandom right from its premiere in 1994, and F/V was a huge pairing online, in zines, and in vids.
However, as Season 3 and 4 wore on, the number of RayK fans grew, and, because of this growth, some RayV fans felt that their POV was being diminished more and more on the combined mailing lists. A RayV fan who might comment about Vecchio being a good cop would be confronted with a list of "canonical" evidence that in fact he was an immoral cop who treads (and fails) the line between right and wrong and would be off the force if it wasn't for the intervention of Ben Fraser. A Vecchio fan who talked about the friendship between Benton and RayV would be shown a list of quotes or scenes in which Vecchio had treated Fraser poorly. And so it went, with aspects of Vecchio's character being re-interpreted by the newer fans.In contrast, read this somewhat calmer exchange between two Due South fans in 2010 where a RayV fan queried a writer why she chose to portray Vecchio as a corrupt cop; reference link.
Naturally, not all fans saw this as "character bashing". One fan wrote, years later:
To some extent, what Season 3 and Season 4 fans were expressing was simply a reflection of what they were picking up, sometimes subliminally and sometimes explicitly, from the show. Many fans speculated that with the shift to a new production team, the writers felt they had to establish a new partner for Fraser while also making Fraser more realistic and approachable. This required them to shed many aspects of the first two seasons which only reinforced the POV of the new fans. Not surprisingly, some RayV fans responded by calling Seasons 3 and 4 "The Seasons That Do Not Exist."
All of this turmoil led to some fans creating "RayV safe zones" where they could talk about their perception of his character without being challenged. An example of a pro-RayV mailing list is Two Axes (referencing a line where Ray Vecchio offers to help Fraser rebuild his father's cabin after Victoria burns it down). From the mailing lists FAQ: 
Over time, the segregation led to deeper divisions. In 2002, there was a less than flattering list of reasons given by a RayV fan as to why she preferred Vecchio:
A fan in 2012 explained:
== RayK-Fan Perspectives==
As more and more fans fled the combined mailing lists, the negative attitudes towards each Ray solidified. With fewer dissenting voices, the "RayK POV" about the show and the characters become established fanon in their circles. In the minds of some RayK fans, the Ray War was over because their point of view prevailed. In contrast, many season 1 and 2 fans still experienced the conflict bitterly. It should be noted that the perception that one side was the "winner" was not universally embraced. Both sets of fans felt equally disenfranchised and both sides resisted the calls to "let bygones be bygones."See: "A Different Take on Ray vs Ray" dated May 17, 2001.
Certainly, RayK-only mailing lists like SergeAsylum did not help matters. From the FAQ: "No Vecchiosmut. Period. Dot it, file it, stick it in a box marked 'Done.' You can talk about him, just post stories about him having sex somewhere else. Get over it." The mailing list would not permit threesomes fan fiction that involved Fraser, Ray Vecchio, and Ray Kowalski.
A RayK anon on Fail fandomanon recounts their perception of the splintered mailing lists:
Even in shared spaces and on supposedly neutral mailing lists, the debate over which "Ray" was better was seen, by some, to often favor RayK at the expense of Vecchio. This is what one hostile RayK fan had to say about Vecchio on Ride Forever in 1999:
Not all RayK fans shared this point of view. In 2002, Speranza wrote the following: 
== RayV-Fan and RayK-Fan Perspectives (Swinging Both Rays)==
For those fans who liked—or even tolerated—both Rays, negotiating the Ray waters was trickier. One phrase was "I swing both Rays", a play on "I swing both ways" or being bisexual. The quote's origin is traced back to a FAQ on the DSX fan fiction list, when the administrator ruled that third season material could be included on the list.Mitch Hudson's I Swing Both Rays Website archived on the WayBack Machine, dated 1999. Elaine W. also set up a mailing list by that name: "a fan fic and discussion list for anyone who swings both Rays... and besides, where else can we discuss the important issues in life, like how to write fan fic when both your main characters have the same name?"The groups.yahoo.com/group/SwingBothRays/ was founded in May 1999 and is currently offline (accessed - or rather not accessed) Nov 4, 2013. Other fans would proclaim they were Ray/Ray fans, effectively pairing of the two characters.
In 2000, the Bindlestitch mailing list was formed proclaiming itself bi-Ray and promptly asking members to participate in a "Hey Ray You Suck!" challenge. The goal was to make fun of the war and ease tensions. It worked.
Some fans felt it was impossible to separate out the two Rays—they were both integral to the show, and, by liking both, their enjoyment of the show doubled:
A 2001 comment: 
For other "Ray neutral" fans, it was their love of Fraser that allowed them to enjoy both characters. A 2001 comment: 
A fan in 2006 wrote: 
==Gradual Easing of Tensions==
By 2001, tensions were still high, but, on non-slash mailing lists, there were cautious discussions. On the Ride Forever mailing list, one fan asked:
Another member answered:
Another fan opined that as a slasher you would have to pick only one pairing:
Which is why some fans felt: 
The changes did not take place universally. One mailing list moderator commented in 2000:
And, even with time, many fans resisted the calls to "just get over it". This from a fan in 2001:
Still, by 2003, tensions in the fandom eased sufficiently that some fans were willing to discuss the show at panels at slash conventions. Even then, care was taken to pick topics that would not prove to be immediately divisive, such as Benton Fraser. For example, at Bascon 2003, Morgan Dawn and Mary E. hosted the following panel:
== Post-War-Fan Perspectives==
 Raine Wynd remembers: 
Speranza says:
By 2012, fans had reached the meta commentary stage:
In 2012, Therienne looked back: 
==Recent History==
The Ray Wars came up as a historical topic during the 2010 Con.txt Fanlore panel, leading it to be the Question of the Week in July on the Fanlore Dreamwidth community. It can be read here.reference link.
However, echoes of the Ray Wars reverberated in fandom beyond the end of the original conflict.
===2009 Echo===
Early 2009 saw an echo of the Ray Wars in a discussion that took place on several journals.See akamine_chan's collection of links, 19 February 2009. (Accessed 15 August 2010); reference link. See also The Ray Wars live? dated Feb 18, 2010; reference link. Additional reference links are here; here; here; here; here; and here. Belmanoir opened the subject, saying that there was a strong Kowalski and Fraser/Kowalski bias in due South fandom and that she felt both marginalized and unable to talk about it due to the fandom's history:
Other people said they felt like the fandom norms created as a result of the Ray Wars were having a chilling effect—fans couldn't have public discussions about what they liked or didn't like about the characters or pairings. Akamine_chan summarized the discussion as: 
Others chimed in:
Still, many fans found the conflict a "blast from the past":
A blast from really distant past:
See also: Fandom Wank: (2009)
===ds_anon===
More recently than 2009, an individual sometimes known as the "RayV troll" or "ds anon" has been leaving negative feedback on Due South fanworks and appearing wherever fannish discussions of Due South occur, complaining about how the fandom doesn't respect Ray Vecchio.tumblr reblog by jackymedan, November 2015. archived. The post claims that the troll had been around since 2005ish, but this editor, who was in dS fandom circa 2007-2008, hadn't heard about them until the 2010s.shayheyred. The trolls, they never die, posted to livejournal 13 March 2015; archive link. They have left anon comments on AO3 fanworksFor example, see this 2012 comment on a 2008 fic: , tumblr posts, very old livejournal postsFor example, on the 2004 Fraser/Kowalski ship_manifesto post, ds_anon left comments in multiple threads in 2012, 2013, 2016, 2017, and 2018: December 18, 2012 and January 3, 2013, September 16, 2013, October 3 and December 17, 2013, August 26, 2016, March 2017 and January 2018, and Fail_Fandomanon. It appears that the troll entered the fandom long after the Ray Wars, perhaps in 2010.In a 2016-01-26 FFA thread, one anon posited that they entered the fandom around 2010. (Skeptical anon who replied is assumed to be the troll in question.)In a 2016-05-11 FFA thread, an anon purporting to be ds anon said they didn't know about the show until 2010.
In late 2020 anons at fail_fandomanon remarked that ds anon hadn't been around in a long time., 2020-12-01 , 2020-12-02
==An Alternate Universe Ending To The Show and The Wars==
In 2008, the last few pages of the original draft of the final script were auctioned off at a Due South convention. In this version, Fraser returns home alone. The final scene mirrors the series opener with Fraser achieving the impossible by chasing a criminal across a fearsome mountain pass in winter. The two Rays, back in Chicago, both still working for the police force, amicably head out to dinner with their boss. By canonically not favoring one Ray over the other, this version of the show may have helped ease some of the Ray Wars. As one fan explained:
The scans:
File:Toronto142.jpg
File:Toronto143.jpg
File:Toronto144.jpg
==Meta/Further Reading==
* (1997)
* Hating Characters by T'Mar (1999)
* for a partial discussion (nested comments are unavailable) about one fan's view of the Ray/Ray pairing. (2006)
* (2016)
==Similar Events==
* Beauty and the Beast: The Classic vs. Season 3 Fandom Split aka The Beauty and the Beast Wars
* The Blake's 7 Wars
* :Category:Fandom Wars
==References==
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Category:Fandom Wars
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