User blog:SolZen321/I'm a Fan not a Fanboy

Hey guys SolZen here, so I'm writing this after my previous blog, Things I don't like in the Ultra Series . There I made a statement, paraphrasing Hideki Goh from Mebius 'if you love something, you have to acknowledge both the good and the bad'. Now as a person I take this to heart, as a fan, even more so, which was the point of that post, for us to sit down and admit that the series we all love and adore, is not without faults. It's healthy for us.

So coming off of that, I want to talk about Fanboys and Fangirls, but since Ultraman is mainly targeted towards boys, I will be using the gender neutral 'he'. Also note, this blog is not just about the Ultra Franchise but Franchises in general.

Now there's a big difference between Fans and Fanboys, there is. A fan is like your typical Muslim (I have three friends and acquaintances so I can say this), says their prayers, lives an honest hard working life, but they get this bad rap from these other guys. These 'guys' being the Fanboys, who are like the Jihadists who want to blow you to kingdom come for just suspecting you think differently and even go after the normal fans.

Now extreme as my analogy may be, you can't say I'm wrong. Take for example 'Geewunners'. Now this is a term reserved for a specific type of Transformers fans. They are best described as people who hold anything after the G1 cartoon as garbage, even anything past season 2.

Now here's the proble with that outlook, G1...wasn't that great of a show. No seriously it come out in the 80's animation wasn't that great, in most Anime. It was all limited, some of the stories have less sense and more plot holes than the Michael Bay movies. When the first one came out, they hated the designs for no reason other than they were not G1 designs.

I grew up with Beast Wars, even so I can admit it had it shortcomings. When the first live action came out, I loved the designs and the moving part effects, but even as a kid back then, I was not expecting them to try and put the blocky G1 style on live action. That style doesn't work in live action, the point of which was, 'if they were real they would look like this.' G1 doesn't do that anymore. Now don't get me wrong I stil despite alot of the design choices in later movies (THEY ARE ROBOTS WHY IS RED AND GREEN LIQUID COMING OUT OF THEM!!!!!!!), but there is a difference between an utter insult to the franchise (which literally thrives on the concept of change and has so many different versions) and fans hating it because it's different.

The problem is Geewunners is that...they hate everything after G1, they would prefer that the series simply stay as it was. That is not healthy, for the franchise or its fans. Things change, but franchises still stick to certain universalities within themselves. Look at Ultraman, it has changed from kid oriented, to dark and mature and even the present toy-selling tactics, have helped to keep it alive.

Franchises survive by changing as the times demand, yes, they can be timeless but things that were acceptable in past may not work today. Younger audiances may not like the Showa era shows due to the effect, but modern shows just use the same techniques, modernized and modern special effects. The franchise grew of the old, without which there would be no present. By the logic of fanboys, franchises should stagnate and fall to the wayside.

Worse, are fanboys who cannot admit a franchises faults. I personally do not believe in perfection, that anything of this three dimensional world can be 'perfect'. What word means to me may be different for you, but I digress.

There are Godzilla fans who would swear to the powers above that Big G could kill all the Ultras. Now this is wrong, on so many levels, but I already did a blog about that. No, the point of that statement is that they are projecting this image of invincibility to Godzilla, that the series itself never did. Godzilla was beaten by Mothra in the Showa Series, and in most of the Heisei movies, he was defeated in some form or fashion. In Godzilla VS DESTROYAH, he didn't even beat the titular monster and in the original movie he died. Most movies have it that the new Godzilla is a different one. In this need to elevate Godzilla they often try to denounce the abilities of Ultraman. Fanboyism made them enemies of another franchise, one that shares roots with Godzilla.

Marvel and DC fanboys aren't much better, neither seems willing to acknoledge that neither company is without faults or that it's okay to like both. The same with Godzilla fan boys and the Ultra or Gamera series.

I am, a Superman, Batman, Brian Azerello run of Wonder Woman, Ultraman, Kamen Rider, Gamera, Godzilla, Transformers, Samura Jack, Thor (no I am not a fan of how they introduced Lady Thor), ....( a whole list of things, most of which I can't remember) Super Robot fan, in no particular order. I am a 'fanboy' of none of these. I have not limited what I like, out of some misplaced zealous sense of 'loyalty', nor am I fool, blind to what the franchises I like really are, or represent.

I am a fan, I like the Ultra Series for 'x' reasons, acknowledge it faults, would like to see them fixed, I acknowledge the people, writers, producers are not perfect and in the end, I just want to see my beloved franchise(s) succeed and get better. That means they have to grow and change, and if that bothers you...then sorry, you're not a fan, you're a fanboy. If it doesn't, then I would like to welcome you to a community that strives to be fans, not fanboys.