"Text-centric" versus "character-centric" fandoms.

[eclective]

I've been slowly coming to realise something about fandoms and how they operate. I haven't quite pinned it down yet, but this is as far as I've got so far; let me know if you have further thoughts.

Comments

[luna_manar]

I think it's also true that certain types of stories invite certain types of fandom, and the stories that are both rich in character/plotholes and rich in worldbuildy are likely to attract both types of fans.

While there is technology in FF7, there's never much rhyme or reason to how that technology works, and most of the stuff that you see or hear about in the game, most of the claims that are made about people and companies and monsters, is so fantastical that you kind of just have to take the game's word for it. Otherwise you're stuck with "wait, that doesn't make sense, that would never happen" and wouldn't be able to parse the story (indeed, some people can't). That's the issue with a lot of anime, in fact, and the reason I think anime fandoms tend to be more character-fannish than canon-fannish; canon relies on a suspension of belief on the player/viewer/reader's part, and as such there isn't much to personalize on a creative level. Characters, on the other hand, are more malleable, their motivations and emotions less certain, and can be more concretely defined and, curiously, therefore more easily manipulated.

[eclective]

That's the issue with a lot of anime, in fact, and the reason I think anime fandoms tend to be more character-fannish than canon-fannish; canon relies on a suspension of belief on the player/viewer/reader's part, and as such there isn't much to personalize on a creative level.

Actually, I want to speculate that it's this very lack of detail and excess of Applied Phlebotinum that causes such fandoms to tend more towards creative play than canon adherence. In order to make the vagueries of the canon work, you have to throw in a lot of your own speculations and hypotheses and little additions to canon; whereas with more intricately constructed tech, people are more likely to obsess over the details of what's there.