Hey everyone, just hitting you with an introspective journal.

I’ve been chatting a bit with a few people (some more than others) on different fandom topics, and I realized that there’s a difference to the way that I approach these things to the way that they do. I’m not sure if I’m the one that’s the weird one out here – quite possibly am – but I thought I’d present this and see if there was anyone else that feels the same way.

Let’s start vaguely and work our way backwards. When I am engaged with a piece of media (whether literature, anime, movie, tv, whatever) and I talk about it with someone else, I tend to focus on the thing itself. I don’t get into power-scaling, I don’t get into the making-of, and I don’t really think about the outside factors. Part of that is never learning actors or the way that different people create their work (outside of noticing the way that different authors might have a style, or how an actor might do the same kind of character over and over again), but part of it is that I like to appreciate each piece of work for what it offers, regardless of what went into making it.

However, I’ve found that there’s a lot of people that don’t do this. They’ll enjoy a piece of media and see something, and we’re off on a tangent of “Oh, that’s a reference to x” or “Oh, that must mean that y”, or they’ll have learned about the media beforehand and start talking about how it was made or the inspirations or the other outside bits that are contributing factors to the piece that we’re watching.

As an example that came up during one of these talks, let’s look at Shrek. Apparently, Farquad was meant to look like Michael Eisner as part of the whole mockery of Disney stuff. I never knew this – I barely knew the name ‘Eisner’ as a kid, barely know it now – but apparently to some people, that’s a huge thing and one of the funnier things about it.

And yet, to me, that’s just a moment of “Okay…and?”

Admittedly, this is me as a kid when I first saw the movie. Duloc and all the people in it were bumbling bad guys in a fairy-tale parody. That was all I needed to know. Being informed of more stuff didn’t make it funnier; it just made it more like I was supposed to know this to find it good. But it didn’t make it good; it made it feel like I wasn’t allowed to like it or talk about it unless I knew the extra stuff.

As another example, lets look at the way that power-scaling and general fandom theorizing works regarding superheroes and stuff. One that came up was the idea of how fans were theorizing and building up stuff around Superman, including the force field that later became canon (as a reason for no bugs being on him from flying around and all that) and a few other things, like how some super-strength characters have never killed someone. Whether it’s Banner being in control of the Hulk just enough to pull him back, or something else along those lines, there’s always something.

But to me, it’s always felt like that’s trying to explain something that doesn’t need to be explained. Superman flies around and doesn’t get covered in bugs because nobody wants to draw him that way; the extra powers were added later because the guy running it at the time wanted to leave a mark. As for the super-strength and being ‘in control’ all the time, let’s not kid ourselves. Control is the last thing that most emotionally-charged people – let alone supers – are going to have. To me, I’d honestly find it easier to believe that there’s a low-level invulnerability in this setting for humans rather than the idea that the super-strength hero is able to hold back 100% of the time and avoid a body-count. I don’t need them to have a body-count, but the reasons writers and fans come up with to justify it starts driving me insane.

But I accept it as part of the medium, and don’t need that part explained, and when people start trying TO explain it, adding this, detailing that, it feels like more of the need to have more information. The need to study. The need to make it more complicated than it just is how it is.

Through various reasons (loneliness, not a lotta friends, various sorts of trauma with the educational system, etc.), I’ve always had much greater appreciation for media when it gives me three specific things.

One: that all information needed is contained (and hopefully mostly stated) within the medium, rather than needing outside sources or needing to know the (often dated, by the time I get to them) references being made, or other outside bits.

Two: I am allowed to have a voice about the media in question. I can point to things in the media, say how I feel about it, and it’s allowed. If it’s something where I’m told ‘You would just love it if you understood these things,’ that prevents me from being able to link with it, or have an opinion, because it goes from media to study.

Third: the chance to enjoy or hate it without having to know x-amount of meta-data. The instant that history about a thing, or the actors within it, or who the writer is, or what this or that event is referencing becomes the key part to enjoying something, I end up checking out, because I am not here to test my knowledge of outside pieces.

I get it. I know that there’s a lot of people that love getting into the nitty-gritty and finding references and connecting threads. I understand that’s a huge attraction to quite a few people, and I fully accept that I may be fully in the minority here for wanting to get into something without looking for all the connections, without power-scaling, without learning the meta about creation/actors/etc.

For me, if I sit down with a piece of media, the only outside connections I want to think about are whether it is an extension of an existing piece (part of a trilogy/series, etc.) and my own memories and feelings about it. I want to watch someone else put on a show, engage with it, and be allowed to talk about it without having to either prove myself or study everything to be ‘allowed’ to enjoy it the way that some people require.

Anyway, long rant, but thanks for anyone that read this far. Lemme know which way of appreciating and engaging with things you are.

LATE EDIT

Please note that I am not opposed to references and easter eggs in pieces of media or people getting to enjoy that. I'm just someone that has not and likely will never get these references, so I end up getting confused and frustrated when some people end up talking about those bits and very little else, because I'm appreciating and trying to talk about the thing, and those people feel like they're talking about something different.