My Fandom is dying

Help, the brony fandom is dying, the community is-HAHAHAHAHAHA, so sorrry, I couldn't keep a straight face after the first two minutes.


To all of you who are worried that the brony fandom (and indeed, any) is dying, I want you to do this. Go outside, take a deep breath, and look around you. Then I want you to ask yourself a few questions, "Am I still enjoying this fandom? Do I still love looking up the various arts and stories that come from my fandom? Is it still fun to have friends here?" If your answer to any of the above is a yes, then no, your fandom is not dead and it won't ever be. Take it from a guy who is a member of more fandoms than I can care to count and still have a blast in each one (The SATAM fandom being one of those)

But, I bet you are actually worried for it, you are scared because you read something online or saw a guy yelling about it until his typing fingers are blue. These are, sadly, expected in any fandom. Such is life, and you can't really do anything about it. There will always be a doomsayer who wants to stir things up and then there will be a thousand more who will knock him back down. This is natural, because we are humans, and the only way to wipe out people like that is to remove free will. Why? Bcause some people just want it to be that bad, they want it to be the end of the world, because they feel like something good in their lives can't be eternal and are just waiting for the shoe to drop.

This is an ok feeling, and it doesn't make them any less of a person. Just a person like you and me.

Using the brony community as an example, there are occasionally people who will pop up and yell to the foums "The Brony fandom is dying! The endtimes are near and you need to abandon the site before it all burns. Women and OCs first!" and when I see that, all I can do is shake my head and just walk away. I want to respond, but I think other people say what I want to say far more eliquently than I ever could.

"Its odd to say that a fandom with so much fanart and cons are dying"

"The truth is, we have more fanart and fanfics than a whole lot of other fandoms out there"

"When the show ends, it will just temper off and become natural."

"We aren't dying, we have just tempered off."


And, this is all true. The truth is, we in the brony fandom have thirty to fourty pieces of fanart DAILY. We have close to seventeen hundred fics monthly and music galore, sometimes original and sometimes remixes. Our cons, for being what they are, are still popular, and we still have people talking about the show. I may not have the numbers (Though Google shows that FIM is still looked at a high rate) but that doesn't sound like a dead fandom to me, but one that is still popular and have a ton of people coming and going.

Now, I won't lie. One day, FIM will end and Hasbro will most likely put in G5. It will probably be good, but not as loved as G4 and the G4 fans will mix with the fans of other generations and become a larger MLP community. Fimfic will remain online and Equestria Daily will be run by a few hangers on until the next big generation of bronies come along. We (bronies) have become large and bigger than one might imagine, and that is something that wont die out easily, just shrink until it becomes home to a great group of people.

Fandoms really don't die, just shrink. Take it from me.

After all, the SATAM fans are still around and there are a ton of people who love Gargoyles. The Sailor Moon fandom had enough fans after its dormancy to beat out Naruto in the sales. Star Trek, Doctor Who, and Sherlock have plenty of moments of dormancy and I dare you to tell me that those fandoms are dead.

But, I think the greatest example of all is this...

Back in 1993, a little show called Babylon 5 appeared on PTEN and it was awesome. It was one of the best, if not the greatest, sci-fi shows out there. However, due to it being on such a channel and not very many people getting a chance to see it, not very many people know about it. Even less are the people who will watch an online review of each episode. For a time, I was a little sad. I thought this meant that a show that meant so much to me as a kid would be forgotten and not talked about. I wouldn't find much fanart of this or people who would tell me that they like it.

...Then I looked up fanlore wiki. And I was shocked to find people who still talked about it, people who were still in love with it, and people who made fanart and fanfics about it. When I mention it to my brony friends, I get a "Oh yeah, loved it" from a lot of them. I have seen people love it and are still huge fans of it. That was when I started to think, that if a fandom as small as B5 can still exist after all of this time, then why not a much larger one like the brony community?

I have seen my future as a brony in the Babylon 5 fandom, and it is good.

See, this is what I mean. Fandoms don't really die, nor do they fade away. They just stablize into a particular niche of fun people who will continue to create fanart, fics, and more of thier favorite show. It only really dies, for you, when you decide to quit and leave. But, it will still be here for you, and so will I.

Because, I don't leave fandoms, I take breaks.

Cw's the Flash: a step in the right direction?

     Superhero movies are a big and exciting commodity nowadays. There is no denial in this, as box office reports will show; however, it feels that the big two (Marvel and DC) look at their respective properties with different eyes. Marvel tries to treat their properties with a sense of awe and wonder, allowing us to have a myriad of adventures to choose from, be it from hiest film to a crime drama. DC wants to take a different approach, they want to "make movies about superheroes." This, sadly, usually means that most of their films have this tendency to be dark and bleak adventures that leave you with less of a feeling like you have been on an adventure and more like you have heard a person tell you why life is pain. While darkness works well with Batman, it can be hard to try and see a symbol of hope like Superman in this same bleakness. Which is why its odd that the tv side of DC takes on a whole different approach. Enter the Flash, a tv show that seems to understand what makes Marvel works. Here are a few ways that Flash works and might be a step in the right direction for the comic company.

1) Respect to the source material.

One thing that I feel that the directors of DC films do with their material is that they put in what they think looks cool. Superman kills a guy,YEAH! Joker kills Robin, YEAH! Batman beats Superman, YEAH!!! Jesus metaphors, YEAH!!!!!!!! While these are fine for some superheroes, it doesn't match all of them. If you listen to the reviews of FOX's recent failure in Fantastic Four, you'll hear about how bleak and somber the movie is. This is not to say that darkness is something to be avoided in all comic book films, Batman is something that works well in this regard, with stories such as the Killing Joke or the oft used Dark Knight Returns.

The Flash does none of these things, instead choosing to focus on what makes the character great and focus more on his legacy. He is hope, he is fast, and there is a bit of super science that is involved in all of it. While other DC films feel, at times, embarrased to be superhero films, the Flash revels in it. Whether it be references to the past (Tina Mcgee) the comics (the flash ring) or just general heroics. In the Flash, the series seems to do something that the film franchises are afraid to do-respect what the superhero is.


2) Light in the Darkness, embrace the fantastic.

"They will come back, because we need them to."

This was said by Nick Fury at the end of the Avengers, and it perfectly sums up a key difference between DC and Marvel. A light in the darkness. Again, Batman can handle the dark well, but that is who he is meant to be. He is supposed to be dark, serious, and black; however, he is one of the few.  Superman shouln't be needed to be told that he is a hero, when an adult. We shouldn't be told that Batman can be a symbol every five minutes. These are things that can be inferred, but the DC films seem to need to tell us this without much substance. Indeed, it feels like the 'heroes' at times need to be told to be heroes. Or worse, to hold back from being heroes  (the maybe quote) and to just let the world fade into darkness.

The Flash takes a different approach, as in once Barry gets the powers he wants to use them to help others. While there are episodes that have him deal with the repercussions of such a decision and have him to deal with problems with holding that vow, you never get the feeling that the right decision is to say no or that there should be doubt in being a hero. There is always a bit of light and the lash brings it.  He embraces the light and the fantastic.

The fantastic is something else that seems to get embraced by Flash. Time travel, super science, supervillians, codenames, and more would be thrown away in a DC film in favor for more 'realistic' approach to things. Here's an experiment, say this sentence out loud and see how hard it is to keep a straight face-

"Realistically, if a man were to turn into a giant green man whenever he got enraged thanks to gamma radiation, then he would be only marginally strong."

How far did you get before you grinned or giggled? While you should always approach a subject with respect,  there is still a bit of fantastic that you should always take with a grain of salt. That is what escapism is all about. We want to fly, to be strong, and fast, but DC at times feels like it wants to force us onto the ground and make us watch the bleakness of our lives play out on the big screen. While on the small screen, Flash does things like go through walls, go back in time, or face down a guy in a pouncho. The difference is that they made us believe in the characters, and thus, made the fantastical believable for us. While Superman is busy breaking necks or being beaten by Batman for the forty-seventh time, Flash is busy saving two people in a burning car or working with Arrow in an explosive team up. We want to defy the world, and the Flash gives us the opportunity to.

3) A story well told.

Another habit DC has in its production is the reuse of tropes in its films. Look no further than how Superman feels like Batman Begins, just with a guy in black and red as opposed to black and black. Flashbacks, doubt, needing to be told what to do, and even death of  a villain. It feels like Goyer was doing a find and replace job on his own script and hoping no one would notice. It makes one wonder how Wonder Woman and Flash are going to go.

What happens in the Flash, however, is another story. Twists, turns, discoveries, and more. There were times when I was even shocked by where the story went and what did the creators have for me next. It made me look at Smallville at times and shake my head in a slow disbelief about how predictable the plots could get. Even Dark Knight rises, made by a master of twisting and turning the truth, felt very predictable. (Seriously, he basically telegraphed Talia's identity) The flash feels in particular engaging and makes it feel even better on a second watch.


So is the Flash a step in the right direction? I think so. Its just a shame that it feels like DC doesn't think so.