Welcome to This Week in Fandom, the OTW’s roundup of things which are happening! Before we start, a note that, sadly, this volume does not contain the answer to life, the universe, and everything. More’s the pity.
Let’s start with the obvious. There was a flub at the Oscars on Sunday night. Oh, such a flub. The Best Picture award was accidentally given to La La Land at first, when the winner was actually Moonlight. You can watch video of what happened here on The Hollywood Reporter‘s website. According to CBC News, apologies have been made for the mistakes that led to the incorrect announcement, and hopefully this will not happen again.
For now, though, it’s meme time.
If you enjoyed the #Oscars last night, here's some library book recommendations! #librarylife pic.twitter.com/KqvxWCl4oR
— Platteville Library (@PlattevillePL) February 27, 2017
In other news, there’s been some discussion in the Steven Universe fandom about the recent episode Rocknaldo (so spoilers ahead). Fans are wondering whether the episode was intended as a message to fandom that it should behave itself. In the episode, an obnoxious character creates what is essentially a Gemsona for themselves and then starts telling the Crystal Gems how to behave. Website Monkeys Fighting Robots took exception to this story, saying it “takes a swing at” the fandom. That article is somewhat divided, though. Its main objection is to the “mean spirited” portrayal of the character as a “sad anime [fan] practicing with their katana.” (It may be worth noting that this article was written by a man.) It does approve of the message being sent, though, saying also that fans “create an exclusionary environment,” which the episode may remind them to stop. This discussion has been happening on Tumblr, too, with some people agreeing that the fandom should be less demanding, while others argue that making an entire episode to call out your fans is ineffectual and self-righteous.
Other perspectives include the one that Comics Alliance took in its analysis of the episode (which was written by two women). This analysis begins with an acknowledgement that they are not fond of the character, who they say is “a perfect portrayal of a specific type of person who we’ve all met, but that just means he’s annoying in a very realistic way.” It goes on to argue that the episode is about a “misguided ally,” saying “It’s such a perfect portrait of a certain type of young activist, the way he goes so quickly from being convinced to care about something, to letting it dominate his life, to insisting that he understands the issue better than people who were born to it.”
Rounding things out, we have Den of Geek‘s take from their review of the episode. The author (another man) admits that he likes the character the episode is about, saying that “in high school I kind of was [them],” and “[they] might be the most sympathetic realistic nerd on TV.” According to this review, the episode sends the message that “eventually you have to call people out if they’re acting a fool” and that it’s more important that the character “means well” than that they’re a “perfect person.”
So, what was your take on the episode? Did you feel insulted? Exasperated? Or were you more just annoyed that there was a misleading teaser from Cartoon Network? Tell us in the comments!
Elsewhere, Inverse is investigating one of the big questions: Would Kirk and Spock actually hook up in canon? “After a thorough investigation,” the article says, “we think it’s pretty damn likely that they’d at least experiment.” Their conclusion may seem obvious to some, but it’s kind of nice to have it affirmed. The article goes through Vulcan biology and Kirk and Spock’s relationship from the original series and “Amok Time” through to the Nu!Trek reboot movies. Even though it quotes the Script Editor from the original series as saying that there’s nothing but friendship between Kirk and Spock, it uses the evidence of the media to argue against that. Sorry, Dorothy Fontana.
Lastly, if you’re looking for something to read, Bustle has a list of seven books for fandom lovers being released in 2017. Which do you prefer: reading about people in fandom, or reading fanworks? Let us know!
We want your suggestions! If you have a story you think we should include, please contact us! Suggestions are welcome in all languages. Submitting a story doesn’t guarantee that it will be included in a TWIF post, and inclusion of a story doesn’t mean that it is endorsed by the OTW.