#I just have so many feelings about this franchise.

[olderthannetfic]

Ok. Dumb question incoming, but I'd much have a 'conversation' than try to read fanlore or watch video essays or something because I want to hear individual people's contributions.

Why Star Trek?

Don't get me wrong - I like the franchise! I'm not super duper familiar with it, but I do enjoy the bits and pieces that I do know. But I am wondering why that in particular is hailed as the grandmother of all fandoms? Obviously people were fannish before Trek, but I don't think anyone can deny the impact that OG Trekkies had on fic, zines, and eventually on the internet.

I know that it's always been popular and well-liked, but it's not as if there was NO SUCH THING as popular culture/fan culture before that (I mean, come on, the term "parasocial" predates the first Star Trek episode by 10 years!) . Was it just a perfect mix of timing + popularity + etc? Is there something in particular about ST that "hit different" than other series at the time? Or is the fandom really really just that mighty and it's almost "luck" in a way? I guess I'm wondering what particular dominoes cascaded in a line in order for Star Trek to have the impact on fandom that it does today.

or am I wrong? were there just-as-big fandoms before and I simply overhype Trekkie power in my head / happen to see more talk of that than I do of other fandoms? It could definitely be a social circle bias thing.

Ugh. Asking OTNF why Star Trek is so important to fandom history feels very much like asking a Russian History major why War & Peace is so important to literature - hence why I warned you that it'd be a dumb question! But I am just so damn curious what sort of crack was in early ST fandom that made it SO widespread and SO strong.

Like, I guess the TLDR is: what was particularly 'different' about Star Trek, either as a fandom or as a franchise or both, that made it Theeeeee OG fandom, rather than something, like, i dunno, LOTR or the earliest versions of Marvel/DC comics or General Hospital or something else like that?

--

I await the hordes of angry Man from U.N.C.L.E. fans eager to prove that they were first.

And, no, it wasn't that popular. Hence the aggressive Save Our Show campaign and explosion of fan culture when it ended after three seasons.

Part of the answer to your question is that there were like three things on TV at the time. What big fandoms? 'Parasocial' was about non-subculture people feeling warmly towards news anchors or hosts of variety shows or something, wasn't it?

LOTR got rediscovered in the 60s or 70s from what I hear, but science fiction and fantasy books were for fringe weirdoes. SFF was not mainstream for the most part. There are a bunch of History of Book SF Fandom things on Youtube, and you should consult them on the complex role of LOTR in that space. LOTR wasn't a mainstream thing until there were live action movies a billion years later.

The key about Star Trek is that it was a hit with the pre-existing book SF crowd. They were an organized subculture. Some of their favorite writers wrote episodes. Other shit on TV was for people who did not form subcultures in that way. Other shit for SF fans had an audience 1/10,00th the size.

MFU was insanely popular. Illya Kuryakin was the heartthrob of a certain era of girl and inspired many a Russian major. (Seriously, there are soooo many Russia-boos of a certain age who probably still have a poster of him somewhere.) The actor set a record for fanmail. The show may have more influence on fandom history than we think now, but it also didn't rerun the way Trek did, at least in some eras, and it didn't have sequel series in a franchise. I'm always finding 2015 movie fans shocked that there's a still extant and semi-active fandom—or even shocked that the movie is based on something.

Starsky & Hutch was also hugely important and is the moment slash fandom and "Media Fandom" really split from book SF fandom. As Trek fans moved on to buddy cops, they were into a completely mainstream show but in a non-mainstream way. Trek was an awkward bedfellow at SF cons, but S&H just didn't fit at all.

Of course, while Trek is the grandma of AO3 type fandom, don't forget that a shitton of modern fans who are doing "research" just look at the same few sources. Enterprising Women is great and all, but even other fans of the same stuff are like "Oh, that was just X's friends. Where's [thing] and [thing] and [thing]?" Ditto Textual Poachers and the other scant early sources that people think have academic weight.

While Trek would still be central, the picture of what was going on in the late 60s-early 80s would look a bit different if you just found a bunch of 70-something nerds and asked them than if you regurgitate other people's research, you know?

If you want an idea of what else was going on in SF fandom back in the day, check out Galactic Journey, where they roleplay that it's 55 years ago and review SF things "as they come out".

If you want to understand MFU, here's a vid of Illya:

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What say you, readers?

What have acafandom and fandom history and meta left out?

[drivinmeinsane]

Would you wanna expand on Anna and K being siblings in all ways that matter? I agree, I'd just like to hesr your thoughts on the matter too :]

Oh man, you've opened a can of worms. 👀 Here's some of my rambling threads of thoughts complete with my mauled digital copy of the script and screencaps galore.

Spoilers for Blade Runner 2049 under the cut.

From the moment Ana is introduced, even before we meet her face to face, she is a mirror of K. They are copies of one another. Two people can't have the exact same genetic code, but the closest one can get is twins. They shared their defining memory and splintered off later in life as siblings do.

There was always meant to be two of them. The files say that one died from an illness and the other lived. We find out that Ana was stuck on-world from an illness that she developed. Only, she didn't die. She was left behind and abandoned to work for Wallace and other corporations needing her memory making services. Ana is the real girl and K is her ghost.

A life of freedom as long as it's behind glass. K has the same as long as he obeys the rigid system that keeps him tethered. Neither are truly living. It's escapism. They both dream of realities where they are loved. By illegally putting her memory into K, Ana created a family member. He's her copy—a sibling, a twin—someone who shared her life experience and could relate. Two children, protecting the only item they have left from a father who they had never met. As one, they had stowed it away in a furnace and enduring being beaten. They lived this. Together. Ana's last name of Stelline. Little stars. It beings to mind the Gemini zodiac sign. The twins. Castor and Pollux and their horses. K was the invisible companion of Ana, an unborn ghost. Maybe she imagined him when things got too dismal. Maybe she thought about having a brother or a sister. When the time came, she offered up the memory to the Wallace corporation so the burden of that childhood could be shared, understood. A sibling made reality. A ghost was made solid, living flesh. Who would have thought that replicant would come looking? Who would have thought Officer K would break every shred of genetic modification and careful conditioning to find her, his sister, while searching for answers because he cared, because he was part of Ana's scattered family and didn't know it.

Again, they mirror each other. In the same moment that Ana is looking at the snow falling on her hand, K is doing the same. Even in the end, they are connected. Left hand and right hand—two parts of a whole.

No one had ever come for K. He makes sure someone comes for Ana. He knows what it's like to want family so badly that your very bones ache, that you would kill another one of your kind for the first time for it. He found their father and brought him home. He was a good brother, a good son.

There is a void over Ana's right shoulder where K should be. Her ghost—her copy—has died even if she does not know it yet. His death in a roundabout way fulfills the prophecy of the DNA database findings. Two siblings, a boy and a girl. One dies. He haunted her before his inception and he haunts her still after his body is found on the stairs of the upgrade center. If only she had spoken up. If only K had told Deckard the truth. If only there had been another way to love someone without remaining a stranger.

At the risk of sounding like a broken record because I've honestly lost count of how many times I've said this, I genuinely believe Deckard would have shrugged and accepted the fact that he and Rachael had had two kids.

I think the three of them could have been happy together, but Blade Runner 2049 is a modern Greek tragedy seeped in the lore from thousands of years ago. There are no joyous endings here.

[hyperfixationtimego]

I love you fucked up tv shows I love you gorey movies I love you traumatized characters who perpetuate the cyclical nature of abuse while still managing to remain sympathetic I love you intentionally morally ambiguous media that exists specifically to pose questions about psychology, ethics, and human nature I love you unflinching examinations of what it means to dance the line between acceptable and unacceptable behaviors I love you I love you I love you

[silusvesuius]

i legit love when a character's gender is so integral to their personality (and perception obviously.) like so concrete that if genderbent their whole shtick would just be absolute dookie. anyways i'm just writing this text so i can talk in the tags (My beautiful safe haven)

this 14 minute song is soooooooooooo FYRE

[thepatronsaintoffilth]

I love FNAF because even once you take out all the lore, the supernatural or sci fi elements, the dead kids, robots, etc. there's still so much horror left in because of bad business practices, corporate greed, cut corners wrt safety measures, and the ways kid's entertainment can be warped and weaponized by callous profit-chasing

[lesbianwithchainsaws]

Does anyone wanna talk about horror movies? I wanna talk about horror movies!

[msfbgraves]

Let it stand alone

Saw "Wonka" with the nieces way too late, because I thought it was a cash grab franchise milking faux nostalgic manipulation move, and I guess it was, and I still had a good time.

Now, if I were Roald Dahl, I'd likely object to this sweetheart of a Wonka. Wonka's a mad borderline dangerous maverick in Charlie. But this isn't the book, it's an adaption. If you don't know Wonka isn't a sweetheart, him being one doesn't ring false in the film. And books get adapted all the time - various adaptions aren't necessarily a commentary on one another.

So why tie this so deliberately to the Gene Wilder version? It isn't the same Wonka, and that's OK! It isn't Dahl's Wonka, and that's OK! It's another take on Wonka that works fine for what it is. Do they really think audiences would not have gone to watch a lovely romp about a sweet chocolatier anyway? That Oompa Loompas aren't fun without green hair? Look, this setup could have worked as "The Corruption of Willy Wonka" too, but that isn't what it wanted to be. Tying it too closely to another film for the parents' sake is the only thing that suddenly creates plotholes and ooc moments when there weren't any before.

[the-hellbound-heart]

Saw X Spoilers - John Kramer's Fallibility

I've been thinking about this ever since my first viewing, but one of my favorite things about Saw X is how human John Kramer is. In previous Saw films, he is presented in an almost godlike way, testing people and judging their souls to see who deserves to be punished for their sins. He's always one step ahead, even when it seems impossible. We rarely ever get to see him be vulnerable. In Saw X, he is very, very human. We see him grapple with the weight of his mortality. Nothing demonstrates this better than the Bloodboarding Trap. For the first time, we see him put into one of his own traps, subjected to the same harsh judgement he treats other people with. Not only that, but he's forced to watch an innocent child suffer because of him. For the first time in the series, both literally and metaphorically, John has to confront the blood on his hands. It's so immensely satisfying.

[kyouka-supremacy]

Mmmhh...

[mercurymacaroons]

woagh 2 posts in one day

[cakemoney]

finding out that kaito and shinichi have been revealed to be cousins is like finding out there was a huge earthquake in the country you used to live in

[bombshellsandbluebells]

speaking as someone who really enjoyed Barbie, I just don't think Barbie is deep enough to warrant all the dramatic takes and arguments on it

[galaxygermdraws]

K so like I Don’t tend to make posts about the daily goings in my life but today is special and I am not going to shut up about anything ever so. Mario Movie. Today. Clearly. And yours truly is going to see it not once but twice this week. And he is going to ascend

For context, I have been fixating heavily (to the point where, if it turns out I am autistic [i am not allowed to be diagnosed], it could easily be a special interest) on Super Mario since i was 7. I am 20. This has been well over half my life. And Ive seen both the OVA(The Great Mission to Reacue Princess Peach), as well as the 1993 live action film. Ive seen all the cartoons, and I have read the Nintendo Power comics. I have seen my guys adapted so many times but this one truly excites me? Like I was d r e a d i n g the first trailer. Then. I watched it and lowkey ascended. Rewatched it so much. I am…too excited for this film. Sure I. Have my one qualm with it but At this point I don’t care. It’s gonna be fun. And im gonna be trying not to scream in a theater.

i realize I am probably not? Seen as a Mario blog but deep down that’s what I am. This is my favorite franchise in any piece of media. Over my favorite cartoons, over my favorite youtube series, Mario is my #1. So in the upcoming days I’m gon be screaming. Not gon apologize for the person I become due to this movie.

and yes. I will tag spoilers

[the-physicality]

one like and i restart my main

[lightningbig]

goddd botw makes me a little bit insane. link going through the story and meeting all of these people who use to know him. he doesn't remember. but they talk about him, "you used to train me!" "we were kids together" "I always looked up to you". they have lived a whole life while he's been asleep. he has not changed.

[todayisafridaynight]

Bro last night was so much......... I'm still reeling...... What even.... They gave us so much. I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready. I didn't KNOW.

Hear me out... Poundmates Jo........ Not a party member but maybe helpful. Him looking soft has me so fucked up. Why is Akane alive. Why is she alive bro. Why does Jo know she alive. Why would he- FUCK dude I'm trying to work but all I can think about is 8

i hope we get poundmates jo and we have to do it pokemon style where we have to beat his ass and then catch him <- delusional