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As a group we geeks and nerds place special importance to the cannon of our particular spheres of fandom. One of the most important aspects of a movie, TV show, book, or game based in a setting that has already been established is how well this new work adheres to the history already laid out in the previous works. This borders on a form of belief as if the past works are proven history and the new work is heresy. In order to fully enjoy these new works I propose a suspension of fandom while partaking of them. I think these works fall into three main categories, the untouched, the slightly changed, and the completely new take.
The first one is almost the ideal type for a rabid fan boy or fan girl because it leaves the original story virtually unchanged. The example I have of this is the Last Airbender movie. While it was an atrocious piece of cinema, the movie itself deviated in only minor almost unnoticeable ways from the cartoon. The story felt like it was the exact copy of the first season of Avatar: The Last Airbender. As a diehard fan of this series I appreciated the writers’ not taking liberties with my favorite cartoon. This type of new work is usually widely regarded favorably among fans (except this movie, it was just that bad).
The second type of work deviates in small ways from the original. I am going to use The Lord of the Rings as my example for this type. Most of the story in the LOTR movies followed Tolkien’s works quite faithfully, with some parts chopped out. Most notably, Tom Bombadil made no appearance whatsoever in the movies. A lot of fans were quite disappointed with this omission, but they still loved the movies because they remained mostly true. Many movies of this type cut out parts or change parts to help fit the movie into a reasonable time frame for audiences.
The third type is the one that gets fans screaming bloody murder or complaining vociferously after partaking of the work. The two examples I have for this are the new X-Men movies and the Legend of the Seeker TV show. When my friends and I saw X-men 2 one of my friends was distraught that they had started the Dark Phoenix saga so early in the series. He went so far as to voice his opinion quite loudly in the theatre. For me, the Legend of the Seeker TV show is an abomination. Wizard’s First Rule is one of my favorite novels and to see the way they changed and butchered the story in the TV show left me a little dead on the inside.
My proposal of suspension of fandom is a way for me to put into words how I personally deal with these changes to works that I love. I view most of these movies and TV shows as original pieces of work that just so happen to contain characters that I like. I disassociate the new work with the previous work so that they do not interfere with each other. Taking the X-men movies as an example, these are merely just new threads in the Marvel world that contain the marvel characters. If you are distraught at the changes think on this, how many times has Marvel rebooted their universe? Marvel often reboots their universe with a new comic line, just think of these movies as a theatrical version of this.
So next time you go see a movie, TV show, or read something based in a universe or setting that you already enjoy, keep an open mind. Suspend your fandom for a little while and take this new piece as a standalone work without past works tainting your experience. With a few exceptions, this will help increase your enjoyment from the piece so that you may actually like it instead of hating it for challenging what you already know.
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