{"id":45894,"date":"2018-05-25T13:11:35","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T17:11:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=45894"},"modified":"2020-08-07T13:11:44","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T17:11:44","slug":"im-over-having-my-star-wars-fandom-invalidated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/?p=45894","title":{"rendered":"I\u2019m over having my Star Wars fandom invalidated"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"I\u2019m a fan of Star Wars<\/em>.\u00a0 This shouldn\u2019t really be that much of a surprise, as I am very nerdy and have many nerdy interests.\u00a0 However, throughout the years, I have been told that I am \u201cnot as much of a fan\u201d of Star Wars as other people because of a myriad of reasons, with more recently because I don\u2019t have a strong definitive opinion about The Last Jedi.*<\/em>\u00a0 Or the fact that I\u2019m not remotely associated with the 501st<\/sup> or have a Rebellion or Empire sticker tattooed on me or brandished on my car.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

*I didn\u2019t think it was the best SW film, but I have not declared a jihad against it either<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

With the standalone Solo<\/em> film around the corner, I\u2019ve noticed people on social media being super curmudgeon about its release, and how they\u2019re going to make zero effort to watch it and have basically denounced Star Wars as a franchise.\u00a0 Or any other rhetoric along those lines.\u00a0 I mean that\u2019s fine and all that they\u2019re not looking forward to it, but I think it\u2019s a little excessive to be lifting a leg and farting all over those people who don\u2019t take SW as serious as a religion.\u00a0 Perhaps consider learning how to temper expectations, because even the best people in their fields don\u2019t bat 1.000, and it\u2019s only with the possibility of failure where the cream of the crop can truly rise.<\/span><\/p>\n

But because I tend to not be so extreme in any direction about my excitement or apprehension about Star Wars, or anything really, I often get accused of being something of a filthy casual fan, who knows little about the franchise, and whose opinion about the franchise doesn\u2019t matter as much as someone who, has SW tattoos, emblems on their car, or dresses up as Stormtroopers at Dragon*con.<\/span><\/p>\n

The thing is, just because my fandom in Star Wars isn\u2019t as vocal, as outwardly or so open to the rest of the world doesn\u2019t mean that I\u2019m no less of a fan.\u00a0 I could name planets that aren\u2019t mentioned in the canon films like Kashyyyk.\u00a0 I played my fair share of X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter<\/em> and Knights of the Old Republic<\/em>.\u00a0 There has been a lot of Star Wars in my life over the years, it\u2019s just that I\u2019m not so obnoxiously outward with it as the whole rest of the narcissistic world is.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

My biggest source of fandom came in the form of the wide variety of Star Wars novels, that were a huge part of my life in the late 90s into the 2000s.\u00a0 My mom was always riding my ass about how I needed to read more books, and I found that the Star Wars books were a perfect compromise of expanding my horizons while at the same time sating my mom\u2019s badgering to read.\u00a0 It was in these books where I was introduced to characters like Mara Jade, the Solo twins Jacen and Jaina, admiral Thrawn, Prince Isholdor and Prince Xizor.<\/span><\/p>\n

I knew author names like Timothy Zahn and Kevin J. Anderson long before I even went to my first Dragon*con in 2002, because they wrote so many of these Star Wars novels that I enjoyed so thoroughly.<\/span><\/p>\n

But then somewhere along the line, there was a definitive line drawn in the sand of the Star Wars fan universe, and pretty much everything I ever enjoyed was basically called glorified fan fiction, and was not considered canon to the official Star Wars storyline.\u00a0 Jacen and Jaina were relegated to imaginary characters after lord knows how many books revolved around their existence.\u00a0 Even Mara Jade, pretty much every fanboy\u2019s dream Mary Sue was invalidated by the powers in charge.<\/span><\/p>\n

Most everything I had ever based my Star Wars fandom around was considered invalid, leaving me thinking what the fuck?\u00a0 And when something on the magnitude of that happens, I\u2019m not going to fight it or try and do whatever it takes to get my SW cred back on track, I\u2019m just going to accept it and move fucking on.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless of the catastrophic redaction of all the things I ever liked, didn\u2019t mean I was going to harbor any ill will or be remotely against any of the movies that have been coming out now.\u00a0 I thought The Force Awakens<\/em> was a magnificent film.\u00a0 Rogue One, <\/em>despite the fact that I loved it, is where I really began to see the extreme divisiveness of the franchise, and The Last Jedi basically drew another line in the sand of Star Wars fans, which is where we stand now, where it seems like there are more people who dislike the franchise but are still willing to hate-watch Solo, because they don\u2019t want to be left out, than there are people who are really, looking forward to seeing it.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frankly, my expectations for Solo are as low as the ground, but that\u2019s kind of how I was for Rogue One and The Last Jedi.\u00a0 Having high expectations only leaves people vulnerable to extreme disappointment, and given the revolving door of directors and personnel it takes to make a movie, consistency is a long-lost concept in the film industry, and it\u2019s no more reflected than in a continuous series of films.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the thing is, I\u2019m seeing it, because I\u2019m a Star Wars fan, and regardless of what everyone around me thinks, that\u2019s not really going to change because of some installments they thought were unsatisfactory.\u00a0 Which, if we\u2019re really being petty and keeping score, kind of makes me a bigger fan than anyone else who denounced the series now.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m a fan of Star Wars.\u00a0 This shouldn\u2019t really be that much of a surprise, as I am very nerdy and have many nerdy interests.\u00a0 However, throughout the years, I have been told that I am \u201cnot as much of a fan\u201d of Star Wars as other people because of a myriad of reasons, with … Continue reading I\u2019m over having my Star Wars fandom invalidated<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[76,156,146,124],"class_list":["post-45894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-brog","tag-geeks","tag-social-media","tag-triggered","tag-trolls"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45894"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45894\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45896,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45894\/revisions\/45896"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/totfc.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}