Just a quick update: Ankle is not fractured. Sore, and my mummy took away my car.
This was supposed to be about “Uberpowerful Characters” but let’s just talk about science fiction and fantasy fans and, why you do not mess with the lore.
I played final fantasy video games on the PS1 when I was in junior high and high school. I whined when FFVIII came out and the characters were hyper-realistic, not manga-style inspired. Then FFIX came out, and I whined that they were cutesy and chibi, not realistic.
There’s no winning here.
Fast forward, and I’m in University, and the Compilation of FFVII starts milking us for all we’re worth and, I belonged to this I’m going to say, sassy pants group of CloudxTifa supporters who were really bonded by a love of sarcasm. I never played it, but Crisis Core came out, and we were all whining. Not because we hated Zack or that he had a bigger role to play than the original story let on.
No, the original character Genesis was rumored to be Sephiroth’s equal. Several members of my faction were mostly laughing that he was based on a musician, but in general we weren’t having any of it. Mostly, because that threw too many holes in the original story. Sephiroth was head and shoulders better than anyone else, there was no indication of any near-rival in universe. I never played Crisis Core or Before Crisis or really anything besides watching Advent Children and Last Order, the best I got is I’ve seen some clips online.
So when you’re dealing with people complaining about changing the lore – we fans complain about it. Like, a lot. Ad nauseum. I chatted with several of my friends from those days who played the FFVII remake, and they’re pretty blunt and honest about what game mechanics they liked, what stylistic choices they didn’t.
And I know it’s not easy to want to defend a property/show. When they put out trailers for Kingdom Hearts II, the Aerith fans were a little panicky, because the voice actress they picked for Aerith was… not the best, and this is around the time that Advent Children was coming out. Same actress.
Saying this character had weak voice acting or that costume or set was inferior to something else we saw is normal. It’s what we do. It doesn’t mean we hate something or it’s stupid, it’s that we talk and gripe a little.
So when I enter an established fandom, I kind of expect someone there who will complain and talk about the brilliance of what was done before, or talk about the original adaptation from back before I was born.
Straw-manning your opponents and pretending we don’t like something because it’s different… yeah. We’re going to grumble no matter what you do. I grew up on a diet of Mad Magazines and the Naked Gun Films, which basically made fun of the stuff I enjoyed, so us poking fun and making memes, that’s just part and parcel of the fandom. It’s not everyone – some people are purists, and I have been corrected by two panelists at at a convention for daring call Endor a planet (It’s a MOON!) but most of us will turn our brains off so long as the lore is mostly consistent.
Then there’s these fans.
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