Saturday, October 4, 2014

Fantasy and Science Fiction Fans

Anyone who’s a fan of fantasy and science fiction knows how much of an inflammatory minefield describing fantasy and science fictions can be.

You can’t go in with the stereotypical ‘basement dwelling Morloc’ description anymore because fantasy and science fiction has become widely accepted in modern culture that to nail down one specific fan base as having an atypical style is pretty much impossible.

Granted there are those that are easy to spot, they’re normally sporting some sort of reference to the genre they love either in hat, beanie, t-shirt, belt and in some cases belt buckles and even tattoos. It’s the same way in which sports fans wear team shirts or people who love music wear their favourite band shirts, it’s their way of saying “Hey world, this is what I like.”

Fans of these genres are no longer confined to old stereotypes anymore as they can be pretty much anyone which means you can now longer judge a person’s interests on their looks alone.

Take Vin Diesel for example, he may look like a muscle bound action movie star but he’s admitted in interviews that he’s a huge fan of Dungeons and Dragons and still plays it to this day. He even used to play World of Warcraft for hours with his Fast and the Furious Co-star Paul Walker before he passed away.

Fantasy and sci-fi fans do have one thing in common and that’s a passion for what they love. They’ll drone on for days on the thing that they know as well as vehemently defending it when someone else comes in with a conflicting opinion.

They’ll write fan-fiction, create plushies and in some cases write fan-fiction or even the most badly crowbarred in and rather disturbing character crossovers they can imagine, like Captain Picard meets My Little Pony.

Although this may paint them in a bad light, these fans are actually the nicest people you can meet. They love human contact and will happily chat to you about anything and everything. They’re not the anti-social people that society used to paint them out to be, they’re wonderful community of characters that you’ll always love to have a chat with.

Once upon a time, fantasy and science fiction fans were kept confined to conventions and special events in the past, but with the Marvel movies and Hobbit films hitting blockbuster level, the fantasy and science fiction genres have finally become mainstream.

This is generally down to more people sparking an interest which in turn makes it more widely accepted and ok to talk about in day-to-day life. But if it hadn’t accrued this kind of interest it would still remain that weird hobby it’s managed to separate itself from.

It’s the same kind of attitude people still express now when they look at anyone who spends time and money on online casino games, because they have no interest in it they consider them to be a bunch of weirdos who waste their money on frivolous games.

Overall there’s no specific way to define someone who’s a fantasy or sci-fi fan. They come in all shapes and sizes and to have such a passion for a genre or hobby is something that we all should have.

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