Star Wars, LOTR, Star Trek, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad, Marvel, DC. Any interest you particularly care for you find yourself on the other side of or having another opinion than what you run into? Whether it’s the Scorching of the Shire, Ron and Hermoine getting together, the death of Luke Skywalker, Indiana Jones in a refrigerator, or how something comes to an end. A difference in the fandom that never fades or vanishes. Which one effects you and why does it matter?
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My polarizing Star Wars opinion is that The Last Jedi actually was a good movie. Do I think it was well written? Mmmm no comment. But it had a compelling story never preciously tackled in any of the other movies, and it was on the cusp of taking the franchise in a brand new direction that would’ve been so interesting and invigorating for the future stories to be told in that universe. WE WERE ON THE CUSP OF GREATNESS. If Rian Johnson had been allowed to direct the third sequel, it would’ve been cinematic brilliance the likes of which Star Wars has only achieved twice before (ESB and Rouge One, but that’s an opinion for another time.) I think the number one reason they gave him the boot was because of the fans’ bad reaction to how Luke Skywalker was portrayed (which, again, my unpopular opinion is that it was actually done well and made for a good element of conflict and struggle in the story.) But the whole third film of the sequels just made The Last Jedi look worse because it tried to undo basically everything that had happened in it.
Oh well. My other unpopular opinion is that complaining about Star Wars is an essential element of being a Star Wars fan lol
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I think Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter are boring. I just don’t care about stories with magic. They aren’t logical. I can’t keep my suspension of disbelief when magic enters into things.
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I liked all the Star Wars movies with Rey. But while I love the original trilogy I never got that invested in the extended universe the way I did with Star Trek. Most of the complaints about the new Star Wars movies that I see seem to be centered around the way Luke behaves, stuff like “A Jedi wouldn’t do that”. To me the way Luke reacted to what happened was a perfectly normal human thing, I guess if I had read every book about the Jedi I would feel different.
I’ve been a Star Trek fan since I was 9 or 10, in the mid 70s it was on every UHF station every night at different times so I would watch several episodes a night. Also read a lot of the novels and books about making the show. The franchise drifted a bit away from what it was originally up through Enterprise but it always “felt” like Star Trek. When they announced the JJ reboot I was so skeptical I went out of my way to find spoilers, and everything I saw or read was a big “nope” from me so I still have not watched any of the new stuff. They might be perfectly fine movies or shows but I can’t bring myself to watch them. Not a single clip I’ve seen feels like Star Trek to me.
Dune is a odd one, of the 3 film versions none of them really match the book but at the same time I don’t see any of them doing injustice to the book either. I’ve seen fans of the book nit-pick aspects of all the film versions but I don’t see them latching onto one version and dissing the others. You can call out the Lynch movie for being too weird but Dune is plenty weird so it’s not hard to imagine Dune interpreted that way.
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Did you ever read David Gerrold’s book on the making of The Trouble With Tribbles? It’s one of the best books about how television works that I’ve ever read.
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I have both his books, just looked at them and from the printing dates I would have been 11 when I read them, so I should probably read them again but I’ve got too many books in my queue, I’ve had the 3 huge Marc Cushman books for years and haven’t gotten to them yet other than browsing through the chapters on my favorite episodes.
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Rowling and Tolkien have heavily in-depth worlds though. Singing, recreational activities, overriding mythology, and even banality woven into their confines. Whereas magic exists in either, I’d contend the layers, civilization, and subtexts in Potter or Rings hoist the dimensions past magic exclusively into a larger conversation on society, people, and how they fit together with larger issues in the ether. Magic may be a disqualifer though I posit logic exists in them regardless beneath the Avada Kedavras and “You Shall Not Pass!” Predilection and preference correlates what seems plausibke and what doesn’t.
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I’m not sure that existed before the Star Wars Special Editions in the 90s. It gives credence to my theory a degree of fandom develops once children who grow up with something become adults. The fundamental identification and connection to anything that crucial to anyone’s young life is a reflection of who they are. Reshape that or alter it in any fashion and there will be consequences. George Lucas learned that the hard way. Not once but twice. Then again on Indiana Jones. Since then, remakes, reimagings, and sequels prove it again and again. You mess with someone’s memories and screw up the family recipe and there will be hell to pay.
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