Fandom never changes…
- Thread starter FredH
- Start date
"the filmmakers took themselves too seriously"
This is true! I remember thinking as I left the theater, where were the penis jokes and synchronized dance numbers? What a disaster!
And that's before we even get to the cross-cutting between events happening simultaneously on different planets. Like BRO DO YOU EVEN SCIENCE. THAT IS JUST NOT COOL YOU GUYS, COME ON YOU GUYS. WOW JUST WOW.
This is true! I remember thinking as I left the theater, where were the penis jokes and synchronized dance numbers? What a disaster!
And that's before we even get to the cross-cutting between events happening simultaneously on different planets. Like BRO DO YOU EVEN SCIENCE. THAT IS JUST NOT COOL YOU GUYS, COME ON YOU GUYS. WOW JUST WOW.
Any franchise's worst enemies are its own fans.
I love that old newsletter. I put it right up there with the article from Best of Trek magazine stating that Star Trek fans would never accept the new Klingons in Star Trek The Motion Picture.
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Now there's a literal example of fandom never changing.
Jaysus wept... Why are SF/F fandoms such whinging drama queens? 
I sometimes wonder if it’s because for most of us, fandom first hit us when we were something like 13 and thought this stuff really mattered. (Yes, at some level science fiction does matter, but you know what I mean.). And though we grow older after that, to a certain degree we’ve imprinted.Jaysus wept... Why are SF/F fandoms such whinging drama queens?
Oh, I definitely know what you mean, and that is perfectly understandable to expect those feelings and attitudes in anyone so young. It all started at age 4 for me and TAS.
However, when one reaches a certain age, 20's, 30's, 40's or whatever, I don't think it would be unreasonable to expect some developed level of maturity later in life. A kind of tempered maturity that doesn't lend oneself to completely lose one's shit over such things, as I have seen countless times here and on other forums by fervent members of various fandoms. It's always okay to still enjoy such things into adulthood but, goodness, does everything need to be reduced to a screed of flouncing every time a franchise does something that someone doesn't like?
Life's really too short...
Absolutely. Maybe another awkward thing to admit is that for — many or a lot of us, certainly not all or most — as life goes on and things fall away or disappoint, for a certain percentage of us it sort of becomes the thing to (irrationally) hold onto. “My brilliant career may have fizzled away or never taken off, but dammit, Star Trek (or whatever) is mine!” Or something like that. No, I’m definitely not projecting at all…
Yep I think you're right on the mark with that one. Life's full of disappointments. LOTS of disappointments. It seems that, for some folks, SF/F is more than just an escape, but a way of life if all else fails. Unhealthy, IMO, but it is what it is, I guess.
I'll be honest, I was pissed and disgusted by the Disco Klingons the first time I saw them, and spent to first few episodes of the first season trying trying to figure out what some way to explain them, but as the season went on, they grew on and by the end of the season I liked them. But I was still glad when they started changing them back to the TOS movies - Enterprise Klingons in Season 2, and am happy that SNW seems to have reverted us fully back to those Klingons. Although technically there also be at least some human looking Klingons mixed in there too.
You'd think a fandom of a genre about the future wouldn't cling so desperately to the past.Jaysus wept... Why are SF/F fandoms such whinging drama queens?
There's a lot going on in this letter. One of the most eyebrow-raising aspects to me is this sentence:
That the Duncan sisters apparently wanted to judge TESB by whether it could stack up against great religious works is undoubtedly part of the problem here. What kind of actual religion would they have expected from Star Wars, anyway? Something New Age, about the life force flowing through the universe? Taking Star Wars that seriously, that's putting the fanatical in fan, alright.
Anyway, the Duncan sisters left their mark. It's quite a read in here: https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Duncan_Sisters.
It is not for us any great piece of literature, philosophy or religion.
That the Duncan sisters apparently wanted to judge TESB by whether it could stack up against great religious works is undoubtedly part of the problem here. What kind of actual religion would they have expected from Star Wars, anyway? Something New Age, about the life force flowing through the universe? Taking Star Wars that seriously, that's putting the fanatical in fan, alright.
Anyway, the Duncan sisters left their mark. It's quite a read in here: https://fanlore.org/wiki/The_Duncan_Sisters.
One that got official status in the UK so...
If you're referring to Jediism, Jediism has no official status in the UK as a religion. Code 896 in the census questionnaire exists because "Jedi Knight" has been a frequent enough answer (cf Mickey Mouse for President) to qualify for its own code, not because it has recognition as a religion. In fact, Jediism was denied charitable status in 2016.
Jedi is not a religion, Charity Commission rules
Jedi, the worship of the mythology of Star Wars is not a religion, says the Charity Commission.
www.bbc.com
I always liked the story of the guy who went to a grocery store wearing a Jedi robe with the hood over his head. The staff asked him to remove the hood while in the store, he refused on religious grounds, and then made a complaint to the manager about experiencing "religious persecution" from the staff. The manager pointed out there is nothing in the Star Wars movies that states Jedi have to keep their hoods over their heads at all times and that the only person who never removes his hood while indoors in the movies is Emperor Palpatine, who most certainly does not embody Jedi values.
^^^ Now that is how you handle that kind of situation.
I hope that manager got a raise for that - positively brilliant!
I hope that manager got a raise for that - positively brilliant!
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