Thread: April 1
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Old 04-02-2006, 12:30 AM
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Zeke Zeke is offline
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Default April 1



The time has come! In the last couple of days, I've spoken of a decision I was making, a realization I was coming to. Now I can finally reveal what that realization is.


Those of you who have been coming here for a long time know that my greatest frustration about sf fandom is what I call the "basher mentality." It's what happens when you let your hatred of something decide your opinions for you, particularly when hating that thing is in. The canonical example is Voyager-bashing. A lot of fans decided early on that they hated Voyager, and not only did they never bother to re-examine that view, but they let it form a basis for their other views. Voyager was terrible, therefore shows like Babylon 5, Farscape, and Buffy were infinitely superior, and Brannon Braga was either an evil mastermind or just a fool (sometimes both at once).


The basher mentality can now be seen in almost any fandom. You get shows it's hip to hate (Enterprise) and shows it's hip to worship (Veronica Mars). In a The OC forum I visit, you can like the show as long as you're careful to show contempt for it too, and Marissa must be universally loathed. Anyone in the Metroid sequence-breaking community is expected to despise Metroid Fusion and fall at the feet of Metroid Prime. It's "snark," it's intellectual laziness, and Television Without Pity can tell you that right now it's about the most popular thing on the net.


Why fight it?


This is my epiphany: it's time to lay down my burdens. Basher fandoms are right. Kira was right. This is what sells. Falling into line, liking and hating what I'm told to, these are the things that make me better than other people. And ending sentences like this? Is totally cool.


So I'm giving in -- and Jammer and evay have taught me the perfect way to do that. From now on this is Five-Minute Battlestar Galactica, where Ron Moore is God and all things bend to his will! The front page will direct you to our newest and only subsite. I was so caught up with my epiphany that I haven't had time to write the actual fivers yet, but don't worry, they'll show the appropriate deference.


A bold new era has begun. So say we all!


(Note: The blurbs contain spoilers. And if you let yourself get spoiled about this unbelievable show, I will personally hunt you down like a dog, so don't.)
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