Fandom = fanaticism.
I don't think that there's a truer equation in all of life.
However, the downside to such a simplistic review of reality -- especially as it pertains to our choices in entertainment -- has led us to some very dark places, my friends. This is not to say "I told you so" (though I'm not above doing such), but I think it's clear I've long warned about this tendency since back in the days of the launch of Joss Whedon's Firefly and what it did to the web in general.
For those of you who weren't there to watch it happen in real time, the TV show Firefly was a bit of an internet sensation -- one of the very first genre shows to build a huge following of fans on the Information Superhighway. (No, it most certainly wasn't the first, but that's a debate for another day.) What happened not long after the show aired and was cancelled due to poor ratings was that these 'Browncoats' -- their self-appointed name for Firefly's fan contingent -- took to the web and, essentially, tried to overtake every single message board affiliated with Science Fiction and Fantasy, inundating these places with an incredible amount of traffic. Think of this as the original 'click baiting': these folks would go into every single thread and make it about their show, much to the chagrin of folks showing up to talk about the original theme or property of the post. Because websites were compensated based on traffic, the various webmasters and site adminstrators were fine with this activity -- they saw a pretty big bump in traffic since these fans were everywhere -- so those of us just wanting to talk about SciFi, Fantasy, and/or Horror in general couldn't get a word in edgewise.
The short story is that the Browncoats -- for better or for worse -- destroyed a great many little information holes that many of us used to frequent; I've no idea if many of the boards survive to this date. Given that Firefly has kinda/sorta died down quite a bit, I doubt these places get much traffic these days ... but it is what it is.
My point here is not to take issue with fans of any property. What this behavior fostered as an unintended consequence is that it became easier and easier for fans to pile on in cyberspace. As an example, if I showed up in a post about, say, Captain Kirk, and this post had suddenly been taken over by Browncoats talking about their Malcolm Reynolds, and I tried to talk about Kirk (who was the subject of the original post), then I'd been trashed left and right by said Browncoats because all they intended to do was make that I.P. the center of the big damn shiny universe. Conversations turned ugly very quickly, and site moderators -- wanting to keep their traffic of Browncoats high and profitable -- allowed it to get even uglier day after day.
I bring this up because folks today are kinda/sorta experiencing a similar phenomenon with Disney+'s current Star Wars streaming show Ahsoka. While I've been no fan of the program in particular (you can check out my reviews on the MainPage), I don't hate it in any regard ... but what's starting to rise up is the diehard supporters of it, Dave Filoni, actress Rosario Dawson, and anything else associated with it are flaming anyone trying to critique the show to holy Heaven and Hell below. Those simply trying to point out some storytelling deficiences or even plot holes are being christened as haters, and their good names are being dragged through the mud as a consequence of merely speaking about a TV show.
This is the fanaticism I mentioned above. And I encourage folks to try to keep it all in check.
That's it. That's all. That's my public service announcement for the day, peeps.
Each of us are fans in our own way and our own right. Each of us deserves to have a point of view. That doesn't mean that everyone must and/or should agree with it. It's just -- again -- a TV show, and it's just -- again -- a point of view. Doesn't make it right or wrong ... but bullying -- in whatever shape it takes -- should be stamped out at all costs.
Now ... back to our regularly scheduled program ...
I don't think that there's a truer equation in all of life.
However, the downside to such a simplistic review of reality -- especially as it pertains to our choices in entertainment -- has led us to some very dark places, my friends. This is not to say "I told you so" (though I'm not above doing such), but I think it's clear I've long warned about this tendency since back in the days of the launch of Joss Whedon's Firefly and what it did to the web in general.
For those of you who weren't there to watch it happen in real time, the TV show Firefly was a bit of an internet sensation -- one of the very first genre shows to build a huge following of fans on the Information Superhighway. (No, it most certainly wasn't the first, but that's a debate for another day.) What happened not long after the show aired and was cancelled due to poor ratings was that these 'Browncoats' -- their self-appointed name for Firefly's fan contingent -- took to the web and, essentially, tried to overtake every single message board affiliated with Science Fiction and Fantasy, inundating these places with an incredible amount of traffic. Think of this as the original 'click baiting': these folks would go into every single thread and make it about their show, much to the chagrin of folks showing up to talk about the original theme or property of the post. Because websites were compensated based on traffic, the various webmasters and site adminstrators were fine with this activity -- they saw a pretty big bump in traffic since these fans were everywhere -- so those of us just wanting to talk about SciFi, Fantasy, and/or Horror in general couldn't get a word in edgewise.
The short story is that the Browncoats -- for better or for worse -- destroyed a great many little information holes that many of us used to frequent; I've no idea if many of the boards survive to this date. Given that Firefly has kinda/sorta died down quite a bit, I doubt these places get much traffic these days ... but it is what it is.
My point here is not to take issue with fans of any property. What this behavior fostered as an unintended consequence is that it became easier and easier for fans to pile on in cyberspace. As an example, if I showed up in a post about, say, Captain Kirk, and this post had suddenly been taken over by Browncoats talking about their Malcolm Reynolds, and I tried to talk about Kirk (who was the subject of the original post), then I'd been trashed left and right by said Browncoats because all they intended to do was make that I.P. the center of the big damn shiny universe. Conversations turned ugly very quickly, and site moderators -- wanting to keep their traffic of Browncoats high and profitable -- allowed it to get even uglier day after day.
I bring this up because folks today are kinda/sorta experiencing a similar phenomenon with Disney+'s current Star Wars streaming show Ahsoka. While I've been no fan of the program in particular (you can check out my reviews on the MainPage), I don't hate it in any regard ... but what's starting to rise up is the diehard supporters of it, Dave Filoni, actress Rosario Dawson, and anything else associated with it are flaming anyone trying to critique the show to holy Heaven and Hell below. Those simply trying to point out some storytelling deficiences or even plot holes are being christened as haters, and their good names are being dragged through the mud as a consequence of merely speaking about a TV show.
This is the fanaticism I mentioned above. And I encourage folks to try to keep it all in check.
That's it. That's all. That's my public service announcement for the day, peeps.
Each of us are fans in our own way and our own right. Each of us deserves to have a point of view. That doesn't mean that everyone must and/or should agree with it. It's just -- again -- a TV show, and it's just -- again -- a point of view. Doesn't make it right or wrong ... but bullying -- in whatever shape it takes -- should be stamped out at all costs.
Now ... back to our regularly scheduled program ...
As always, thanks for reading ... thanks for sharing ... thanks for being a fan ... and live long and prosper!
-- EZ
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