Fan Dumb

[tdotbabs]

I think I have this figured out now.

In 1990, someone wrote a Real Ghostbusters fan fiction called "Breathless Anticipation", in which Peter is hospitalized and hooked up to a breathing machine because he's cursed by a ghost that steals his breath. This triggered the feels of other ladies who, at the time, were in their 30s, and so THEY glomped onto this story and started writing their own tearjerker stories where Peter is hospitalized and injured and sick. They weren't fans of the source material (a few of them I've talked to refuse to touch the show itself), they were only fans of THAT FIC. The story could have been about the Sentinel, or Star Trek, or My Little Pony or the Muppet Babies, and the result would have been the same. Only these ladies insist on calling themselves a "fandom" of Real Ghostbusters.

Uh, no. Refusing the canon material, refusing to watch the show, eschewing how the characters were intended to be, acknowledging fan fiction only, and reimagining things from the ground up to tailor to your ideas isn't being a fan of something. I'm not exactly sure WHAT'S that called, but it sure as heck isn't fandom.

But that's just me. What do you guys think? What, to you, defines being a fan of something?

Comments

[tdotbabs]

THIS. I mean, okay, you want to write twisted crap about Real Ghostbusters? Fine. But for god's sakes watch the show!!! Do NOT call yourself a fan if you refuse all the canon, hate watching the show, and throw a tantrum when someone regards the RGB cast as cartoon characters.

Just...argh!

[serendipity8791]

Bahaha, Pete's face in your icon.

Some twisted crap can be good, but not without knowing how the characters should behave as a result to the twisted crap (the post I just made about Ray in IDW's comic series is pretty twisted, but at least, people are in character for it, and Burnham knows the source material REALLY well).

Huge beef of mine is all that smarmy stuff and the characters being so out-of-character that I'm spending the whole time reading the fic, thinking things like: Egon's not a mushy/merry man... Nope, Peter would NOT take that shit sitting down and he'd crank the sarcasm up to 11... Ray is bouncy and excitable, yes, but he's not a hyperactive 4-year-old having just downed a large can of Red Bull... and so on.

[tdotbabs]

YES!!! A THOUSAND TIMES YES!!!!! I can never get through any of the smarmy crap because of this precise reason, and it pisses me off how people just take Ray at face value, when there's a depth to him that WORKS.

Yes, he likes cartoons, and yes he loves what he does for a living. But at the same time, Ray has a shit ton of wisdom and discipline and maturity under his belt. This is why his character works so well; his life has the perfect balance of fun and mature wisdom and intelligence, that he's able to enjoy everything and still get all the work done. He's childlike in his enthusiasm, yes. But he's not naive or stupid or immature. He's incredibly smart, and is an amazing member of the Ghostbusting team.

As for the stories, I usually get to a point where things get too gushy or OOC for me...and then I imagine Peter bursting in and hollering, "I wouldn't act like THAT!!!! THIS IS STUPID!!" while grabbing the story, and ripping it shreds. XD

[serendipity8791]

Ray is awesome! And yay, he's getting the hot chick in the IDW comic, lol! Or it seemed like he and Jenny were getting closer. ;D

Egon's my favourite, but Ray comes in close second... ♥

Anything OOC bugs me the hell out, and I wind up stopping reading. LOL!

[tdotbabs]

Same here. Spinner's stories are the only ones I'll touch at this point. Though if you know of any other authors (movieverse or RGB, but preferably the former), by all means let me know! I'd love to check it out!

In the comics, my favourite characters are Janine and then probably Winston. Though Egon is definitely amusing. Ray is too, only I always hear John Goodman's voice in my head whenever I read him. :)

[serendipity8791]

Well, Omorka's gen stuff is pretty good (and she writes quite a bit of slice-of-life stuff), but she does love to write her smut. She has a lot of gen RGB fic and does write some movie-verse stuff, but you'd have to sift through the slashy ones and the smut. She's good about stating the rating and whether a fic has slash or slashy undertones or sexy scenes in it though, probably because she knows it's not for everybody.

On Livejournal, there was the user nesmith who started a multi-chapter movie-verse fan fic on the community called crossthestreams that was very promising to be very good, only to abandon it after four chapters, which made me very sad, lol.

I don't generally recommend his stuff because I sometimes find the characterizations often lapse into out-of-character territory at least slightly, and the guy sometimes gets on my nerves, because he tried to meddle with how Burnham was writing his comic, but Fritz Baugh's stuff on his site over at ectozone.com is pretty epic (in the sense that there is a lot of it, and it all has its own continuity), and you'd have stuff to read for ages. There is no smarm and no slash on that site. I won't touch the other Franchises fic with a ten foot pole (like Ghostbusters: West Coast Division) though because, while I don't necessarily mind self-inserts when well-written, if I am reading a Ghostbusters fan fiction, it's because I want to read about Stantz, Spengler, Venkman, Zeddemore and other actual characters in the actual source material, not a completely separate team that has nothing to do with stuff I've watched or read in the case of the comics.

[tdotbabs]

omorka's pretty cool! I've talked with her on Twitter and stuff before, and I like her! I know she writes slashy smut stuff, but she's one of the rare exceptions to my whole anti slash stance. I ended up reading some of it, and kinda liking it. I guess cos it was more slice of life, and I got to know her a little better, so she comes at it from a different angle.


I'll look for her gen stuff though. That is more within my comfort zone. :)

[serendipity8791]

I find she has something for everyone, for sure.

Her gen stuff is good. :)

[serendipity8791]

I hear Dan Aykroyd, for Ray... LOL! Well pretty much, I hear the movie actors for the four GBs, and other movie characters. Roger sounds like RGB/EGB Egon as played by Maurice Lamarche, lol.