The Awful Reality of Fandoms
This article was written by staff writer, Michael Worthan.
SPOILER ALERT: The following piece contains spoilers for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
Being a fan means enjoying something, it can also mean loving something, and it can also mean collecting that something’s entire line of products, or getting a full sleeve tattoo of it on your left arm over the span of 5 years. What being a fan does not constitute is being racist, misogynistic, homophobic, or any phobic for that matter—as well as a list of other terrible things that the internet has shown people are over the last decade or so.
This month has seen Star Wars “fans” be Star Wars fans about the Obi-Wan Kenobi show on Disney+, as well as Marvel “fans” be purely hateful towards the new Ms. Marvel show that premiered a couple weeks ago. Some folks have their legitimate complaints, and I’ll always take those with a grain of salt because I’m easily pleased and not ridiculously nit-picky, while others have been hateful. While I would love to say this toxic spew is out of character for either fandom, but that would be a lie.
The Star Wars side of things saw racism slung at actress Moses Ingram—and I will say that some of the screen time her character has had have not been some of my favorite Star Wars moments—but she by no means is terrible. As of episode 5 of the show (last week - June 15/22) the added character depth excited me all over again. Sadly though, there have been many “fans” going for the jugular, because they’re writing online and keyboard bravery is real, and people are very, VERY brave when hiding behind their computer.
For Ms. Marvel it was review-bombed, and in reading some of those “reviews” after only the first episode, the “issues” people had is that she is a brown girl, Muslim, and she’s not exactly like the comic book. Please note: I used quotes on the word issues in the previous sentence because those are NOT issues by any stretch of the imagination. I could go into a long windy reproach of the small-minded people writing that garbage, but let’s just call them assholes, okay? Okay!
Both of these shows have been a fun watch, and if you disagree that is perfectly fine. There are hundreds of others shows to watch.
Obi-Wan is an interesting take on what happened in between, and seeing a man with major PTSD try to reconcile that the brother he thought he killed is still alive—and is a monster—is amazingly fun! Also, simply seeing the pettiness of Darth Vader toward Obi-Wan is such an amazing example of storytelling, it has made my love for Star Wars re-emerge, especially after the fifth episode, and the angle they are now working on Reva, is amazing.
I can only describe Ms. Marvel as visual cotton candy. It is bright, colorful, sweet as hell, and unlike anything else. I am a 38-year-old man, and as much as I know Ms. Marvel is not made to angle towards my demographic, I catch myself watching with awe, and a smile. The two episodes that we have been given have are amazingly fun. The energy, the artistry in the visuals, and the story of a culture that I am not generally privy to, has not only caught my attention, but it has also caught my imagination.
Beyond gushing about these two shows, and bad-mouthing jerk people , the point of this is to say everyone needs to take a step back and be better. It’s easy to complain, but if you can do better, please do, I would love more fun things to watch.
Be nice, be kind, and stop hating folks for no reason.
(image credits: Marvel Studios and Disney+)