I feel like the William Shatner of the Tales fandom.
I've been thinking a lot about my nerdy stuff & some things in regards to it. When I was thinking of this stuff, I also have two things in mind about a series and its fandom thing. I'm looking towards Star Wars & Star Trek.
I'm starting off with Star Wars. I remember hearing about the actor that played Obi Wan Kenobi in A New Hope (Alec Guinness [Also, what I referenced came from his Wikipedia page]). After the original movie became a smash hit, he ended up later on resenting the role and the fan following from the original Star Wars trilogy that he even threw away Star Wars fan mail. I even heard at one point, he told a fan that proclaimed he watched the movie a hundred times that he'll give him an autograph if the fan swears never to watch the movie again for it'll have ill effect on him. There has been different version of that story but it gives the same feeling here.
Onto Star Trek, despite not being a fan of of the franchise, there's things I know about it and a few things I can give respect for it (some social commentary stuff & the series' hopeful outlook to the future). Some things I know are more on the infamous side. Like I've known an earlier term for Star Trek fans was Trekkies. However, that became a derogatory term for someone too obsessed with Star Trek that Trekkers have been adapted to distance themselves from the Trekkie term. I know it was because of an infamous skit on Saturday Night Live that was bound to be the cause of it. In fact, if you don't know the skit, I'll link it here (I don't know if this one has any region blocking, so I'm going to be responsible if that's the case).
To summarize the skit, William Shatner is at a Star Trek convention among socially awkward fans. After some absurd questions from said fans, Shatner gives a harsh message to the fans at the convention..."Get a life!". Then goes ranting about them needing to live and not make Star Trek their lives. After background argument over his contract, he then goes covering up the whole thing by claiming he was recreating an evil version of Kirk from an episode of Star Trek.
Pretty much, the skit was Shatner being bold enough to take a stab at his bread & butter but it pretty much said it out loud. Don't make Star Trek your life. I even know the Star Trek tribute episode of Futurama had a theme where you'll need to move on from it at some point.
There's a particular reason why I brought those two things up. In the other years, I have felt like a Shatner in that skit. I mean, I know Tales fansite Abyssal Chronicles uses the tagline, "Tales is our life." in some areas. I guess it's because of a group of fans have rubbed me the wrong way in the same way that I felt that Shatner-esque feeling. If anything, I think that's where I felt the whole, "Tales is not my life and it should not be my life." Maybe during my earlier years, it did feel like it might have been a big part of my life. For 2009-2011, there was no localized Tales game & I felt like seeing the fans made me feel like I really should get a life or something.
Of course, when I say anything like this or knowing some, "useless trivia", I'm probably going to get some talk about the contrary. You can say how nerds are cool these days like with having a U.S. president like Obama being embracing of the modern day, there's a part of me that still has this feeling of "uncool nerds" (I definitely wouldn't categorize myself as a cool nerd, if anything). I mean, it's not like I "made it" in life. So how's that "no trivia is useless" thing doing for me? Not particularly well. Well, I have taken stabs at myself when I said, "I don't want to make an MMO my entire non-existing life."
If I can describe this whole entry in one way, it's me picturing Yuri Lowell in the William Shatner role, telling fans to "Get a life." I certainly feel like someone's going to tell me that either way.
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Entry originally posted at http://clessaileron.dreamwidth.org/25612.html.
I'm starting off with Star Wars. I remember hearing about the actor that played Obi Wan Kenobi in A New Hope (Alec Guinness [Also, what I referenced came from his Wikipedia page]). After the original movie became a smash hit, he ended up later on resenting the role and the fan following from the original Star Wars trilogy that he even threw away Star Wars fan mail. I even heard at one point, he told a fan that proclaimed he watched the movie a hundred times that he'll give him an autograph if the fan swears never to watch the movie again for it'll have ill effect on him. There has been different version of that story but it gives the same feeling here.
Onto Star Trek, despite not being a fan of of the franchise, there's things I know about it and a few things I can give respect for it (some social commentary stuff & the series' hopeful outlook to the future). Some things I know are more on the infamous side. Like I've known an earlier term for Star Trek fans was Trekkies. However, that became a derogatory term for someone too obsessed with Star Trek that Trekkers have been adapted to distance themselves from the Trekkie term. I know it was because of an infamous skit on Saturday Night Live that was bound to be the cause of it. In fact, if you don't know the skit, I'll link it here (I don't know if this one has any region blocking, so I'm going to be responsible if that's the case).
To summarize the skit, William Shatner is at a Star Trek convention among socially awkward fans. After some absurd questions from said fans, Shatner gives a harsh message to the fans at the convention..."Get a life!". Then goes ranting about them needing to live and not make Star Trek their lives. After background argument over his contract, he then goes covering up the whole thing by claiming he was recreating an evil version of Kirk from an episode of Star Trek.
Pretty much, the skit was Shatner being bold enough to take a stab at his bread & butter but it pretty much said it out loud. Don't make Star Trek your life. I even know the Star Trek tribute episode of Futurama had a theme where you'll need to move on from it at some point.
There's a particular reason why I brought those two things up. In the other years, I have felt like a Shatner in that skit. I mean, I know Tales fansite Abyssal Chronicles uses the tagline, "Tales is our life." in some areas. I guess it's because of a group of fans have rubbed me the wrong way in the same way that I felt that Shatner-esque feeling. If anything, I think that's where I felt the whole, "Tales is not my life and it should not be my life." Maybe during my earlier years, it did feel like it might have been a big part of my life. For 2009-2011, there was no localized Tales game & I felt like seeing the fans made me feel like I really should get a life or something.
Of course, when I say anything like this or knowing some, "useless trivia", I'm probably going to get some talk about the contrary. You can say how nerds are cool these days like with having a U.S. president like Obama being embracing of the modern day, there's a part of me that still has this feeling of "uncool nerds" (I definitely wouldn't categorize myself as a cool nerd, if anything). I mean, it's not like I "made it" in life. So how's that "no trivia is useless" thing doing for me? Not particularly well. Well, I have taken stabs at myself when I said, "I don't want to make an MMO my entire non-existing life."
If I can describe this whole entry in one way, it's me picturing Yuri Lowell in the William Shatner role, telling fans to "Get a life." I certainly feel like someone's going to tell me that either way.
---
Entry originally posted at http://clessaileron.dreamwidth.org/25612.html.