What All This Was For

So I started this blog as an assignment for a class. The information on this blog was supposed to culminate into a feature story at the end of a month. I had a lot of fun writing this blog and may decide to keep up with it (does anyone even actually read this blog?) Anyway, this is the feature story I wrote that pertains to the information in this blog, so I thought I'd post it here:

We live in a world where practically everyone is online. We watch videos, chat with friends, update statuses, post opinions, and share our thoughts with the world. Never before has it been this easy to connect with people from across the globe, and out there among the facebook pages, the youtube accounts, the boards on pinterest and reddit, and the tumblr dashboards thrives a network.  A community where there are battles being fought, alliances being formed, jokes being shared, and tears being shed. Hope is gained and lost and loyalties are tested. They have their own phrases, references, jokes, icons; essentially they have their own culture. This network, these people, are the internet fandoms.

Often categorized as nerds, these individuals tend to be members of fandoms belonging to a lot of science fiction or British television shows such as Firefly, Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock. Movies that follow books, like the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings films, or comics, like Iron Man, Thor, and The Avengers, also have large followings on the internet. Now what separates a normal fan from a member of one of these internet fandoms? Typically it is the enthusiasm about the subject that differentiates the two. A normal fan might watch one of these shows or movies and come out of it saying that it was pretty good and they enjoyed it and then they would go on with their day. The members of the fandoms however become slightly more obsessed. Members of fandoms know and care about the lives of both the characters and the actors who portray them. They spend time analyzing and speculating about the plots of upcoming episodes of shows and they collaborate with others who share their enthusiasm.

While members of the different fandoms may occasionally argue amongst themselves or poke fun at one another, generally pointing out the sad death of a beloved character, they generally have pretty amiable relations. In fact, a lot of the time people will be members of more than one fandom; sometimes they are a member of all of them.

So, what do the members of these fandoms do when they are not posting GIF’s on tumblr, creating fan art, or dissecting the most recent episode of their favorite show on reddit? Waiting. Waiting seems to play a big part in the lives of those who belong to these fandoms. Waiting for another episode, waiting for another season, waiting for the next film, or waiting for things that will never come. No matter how long the wait though, the fandoms remain loyal. Fans of the British television show Sherlock have waited over a year for the third season of their beloved show to simply start filming after a heart-wrenching and intense season finale back in January of 2012. And those who follow Doctor Who are anxiously awaiting the shows 50^th anniversary episode that will debut in November later this year, which the show’s creators have promised them will be amazing and well worth the wait.

However, for some there is nothing left to wait for. The Browncoats, members of the Firefly fandom, are some of the most loyal fans out there. The space-cowboy sci-fi sensation was cancelled after its first season back in 2002 but over the years it has cultivated an almost cult like fan base. Earlier this year the Fox network, who owns the rights to firefly, sent out cease and desist notices to some members of the fandom who were selling homemade merchandise from the show online. This sparked a small rebellion amongst the fandom. While some of the merchants obeyed, others simply renamed their products and continued to sell them to fellow fans. These small acts of disobedience are not specific to the Browncoats however, members of the Sherlock fandom took to the streets after the season 2 finale of their show, graffiti-ing and stickering and painting on walls, signs, buildings, and streets, such phrases as “I believe in Sherlock Holmes” and “Moriarty is Real”.

Obviously the members of these fandoms truly love the shows and films they champion for, but how do the actors of these franchises view their fanbases? Honestly, most of them take it pretty well. In fact, some of them are members of the fandoms as well. Nathan Fillion is one such actor. Fillion played the part of Captain Malcolm Reynolds in the show Firefly and Captain Hammer in the film Doctor Horrible’s Sing Along Blog, which also has a grand following. Fillion interacts with his fans on a regular basis via his Twitter account where he is still referred to as Captain by many. In one interview at Comic con Fillion was asked if there was any way Fox could ever make it up to him for cancelling Firefly. His response, “I’m gonna need a well-appointed tropical island to which every year a cruise ship would arrive with Firefly fans. We would have a life size replica of the ship on which we can play out scenes from the show”. This man clearly loves his show just as much as his fans do.

While the members of these fandoms may seem crazy to the outside world, they are perfectly content with how they spend their time. In a world where we can connect with people on the other side of the planet with a few clicks of a mouse their ideas, creations, and speculations will continue to flood the social media sites and spread across the internet, while they continue to argue, discuss and wait.