Unpopular Fandom Opinions
So I went to my first Arisia (Boston's local Sci-Fi/Fantasy con) last weekend. We had a room at the hotel so I could escape whenever I felt the need (which was helpful especially in the late afternoon and I got tired of ALL THE PEOPLE).
One of the things they do is take over one of the television stations in the hotel and broadcast "Arisia TV" with appropriately geeky movies and TV shows (and the Masquerade, LIVE) all weekend long. And I saw parts of Princess Bride, and Young Frankenstein, and other bits and pieces (the very first 12 minute Alice in Wonderland filmed in 1909 or something, with an appropriate geeky voiceover narrating bits about the film). One of the things they showed was the pilot episode of Firefly.
Now, I've never seen the movie and I am about three episodes from seeing the whole series and while I like some of it, I do not LOVE IT. And it took a long time to figure out why, when so many of my friends we all about Firefly and how GOOD it was and "its a western set in outer space" and how amazing... blah blah blah blah blah.
I figured it out when I was watching the RKO Army do a combination of the Rocky Horror treatment and MST 3000 the hell out of the episode about the man called Jayne being all folkhero-ish.
This is my unpopular fandom opinion of the week. The reason I am not as fond of Firefly is because they are all so damned stupid. Not just run-of-the-mill stupid, they are all willfully, actively stupid. They get by on their luck. Which makes for a shit show that is only about an eighth of an inch deep and not very interesting. Can be entertaining at times, but not very interesting.
I mean, have you never lived in the same universe the rest of us have? Folk heros are heros to the little guy, because they are ENEMIES of the people in POWER. You expect it to be easy? You expect there to be no reparcussions? You are stupid, and don't deserve to captain a tugboat let alone a space ship. My 6 year old nephew could do better.
So there it is. Unpopular fandom opinion.
The rest of the event was lovely, and I went to two science track panels, and two costuming panels and several on diversity and gender. I was impressed by some of the art, loved lots of things in the vendor room, and enjoyed the Masquerade from the comfort of my hotel room (I was underwhelmed by the group of Master Costumers who came as the planets of the solar system. I could do better with sheets and my neice's fifth grade class in an afternoon.). The guy that got Best in Show as a NOVICE totally pwned the masters and journeymen costumers there. His Samarai Iron Man was *awesome.*
One of the things they do is take over one of the television stations in the hotel and broadcast "Arisia TV" with appropriately geeky movies and TV shows (and the Masquerade, LIVE) all weekend long. And I saw parts of Princess Bride, and Young Frankenstein, and other bits and pieces (the very first 12 minute Alice in Wonderland filmed in 1909 or something, with an appropriate geeky voiceover narrating bits about the film). One of the things they showed was the pilot episode of Firefly.
Now, I've never seen the movie and I am about three episodes from seeing the whole series and while I like some of it, I do not LOVE IT. And it took a long time to figure out why, when so many of my friends we all about Firefly and how GOOD it was and "its a western set in outer space" and how amazing... blah blah blah blah blah.
I figured it out when I was watching the RKO Army do a combination of the Rocky Horror treatment and MST 3000 the hell out of the episode about the man called Jayne being all folkhero-ish.
This is my unpopular fandom opinion of the week. The reason I am not as fond of Firefly is because they are all so damned stupid. Not just run-of-the-mill stupid, they are all willfully, actively stupid. They get by on their luck. Which makes for a shit show that is only about an eighth of an inch deep and not very interesting. Can be entertaining at times, but not very interesting.
I mean, have you never lived in the same universe the rest of us have? Folk heros are heros to the little guy, because they are ENEMIES of the people in POWER. You expect it to be easy? You expect there to be no reparcussions? You are stupid, and don't deserve to captain a tugboat let alone a space ship. My 6 year old nephew could do better.
So there it is. Unpopular fandom opinion.
The rest of the event was lovely, and I went to two science track panels, and two costuming panels and several on diversity and gender. I was impressed by some of the art, loved lots of things in the vendor room, and enjoyed the Masquerade from the comfort of my hotel room (I was underwhelmed by the group of Master Costumers who came as the planets of the solar system. I could do better with sheets and my neice's fifth grade class in an afternoon.). The guy that got Best in Show as a NOVICE totally pwned the masters and journeymen costumers there. His Samarai Iron Man was *awesome.*