🚪 Speak 'Fan' and Enter
On fandoms and who qualifies as a "true" fan
If there’s one thing passionate fandoms love, it’s debating which entry in the canon of their beloved stories is the best.
Is it the adaptation you grew up watching? The recent reboot that uses modern vernacular or technology? The TV miniseries? The original/sequel/prequel film trilogy? (Spoiler alert: it’s probably the one that you experienced when you were around 12 years old).
But while it’s only natural to want to compare and rank entries in a shared universe and enjoy the fun of debating their various merits, one common refrain that I see from fandom to fandom is that if you’re a true fan you’ll prefer one particular version or entry over the others. If you don’t agree with this opinion on which entry is superior (and it is ultimately just an opinion) then you aren’t a “true” fan.
This is, of course, rubbish. I couldn’t disagree more.
While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with preferring one version of a story or one chapter in a saga—I myself have favorites from franchise to franchise and will happily share why I like one more than another—when the exercise changes from “Here’s my favorite and why I like it” to “Here’s the only acceptable answer or else you aren’t a true fan,” we’ve gone over to the dark side of the fandom.
I’ve personally experienced this attitude when it comes to J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings books and the adaptations based on them. Passionate fans have expressed opinions to me like, “If you like Amazon’s The Rings of Power you aren’t a real fan,” and “True Tolkien fans hate The Hobbit trilogy; if you like those movies you aren’t one of them,” and “It’s only really experiencing The Lord of the Rings if you read the books, not if you watch any of the adaptations.”1
I’ve also seen it in other fandoms:
“You aren’t a true Star Wars fan if you enjoy any of the Disney Star Wars! …except maybe Rogue One and Andor!”
“You aren’t really a Jane Austen fan if you prefer the 2005 Pride & Prejudice film over the 1995 BBC TV miniseries!”
And on and on and on.
But who are we exactly to make such judgments about what makes a true fan and who exactly qualifies anyways?
Returning to Tolkien, of course Tolkien’s books are the original and most complete version of these stories! And the very nature of changing mediums will force any adaptation to make at times difficult choices about how to best translate the story from page to screen, with the likelihood that not all of the potential changes will be good ones.
But to say that one must start with the books or you’re not a true fan or to imply that if someone likes an adaptation you don’t means they’re a fake is pure foolishness. It’s an especially pedantic and judgmental variety of gatekeeping. As you insist that the books or your favorite onscreen version are the only real way to experience Middle-earth, you might imagine that you are keeping the forces of darkness at bay like Gandalf saying, “You cannot pass!” to the Balrog at the bridge of Khazad-dûm, but you’re really much more like Gríma Wormtongue whispering, “They are not welcome here.”
We can criticize the specific choices an adaptation makes in relation to the source material without putting down those who enjoy those adaptations and trying to say that they don’t belong in the fandom or aren’t as “good” or “pure” as other fans.
Who are we to keep the wonders of our chosen fandom from someone like that? As Gandalf might say, that is not for us to decide.
I believe if you consider yourself a fan of The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien’s wider world, then you are one, no matter what your favorite work within that world is. Simple as that. The same goes for that galaxy Far, Far Away, Narnia, Earthsea, and all the other magical realms and stories that have served as inspiration for popular adaptations on the big and little screens.
We should be celebrating every time someone experiences our favorite fictional universe for the first time, whatever the medium, and we should be glad to share the joys of the fandom with those who consider themselves part of it, not trying to convince them that they aren’t a real fan or judging them for taking a different path than we ourselves took.
So let’s be people who encourage people to join our fandoms wherever they’d like to begin and be fans of whatever entries in the canon that they enjoy. May it be no more difficult to wander into Middle-earth than speaking ‘Friend’ and watching the doors to the fandom swing wide in welcome.
Appendices
There are a lot of great deals on Tolkien books currently on Amazon! As of the time of me writing this newsletter, my favorite The Lord of the Rings, the Illustrated by the Author edition, is 65% off ahead of Prime Day! AND there’s a coupon you can add to get an additional $5 off, which brings it down to just over $26! (it says it’s a Prime exclusive but there’s also an option to buy it for a few more dollars but with a $7 coupon…so almost exactly the same price)
The companion Illustrated by the Author editions of The Hobbit and The Silmarillion are also on sale for over 40% off, with an additional $8 off coupon for The Silmarillion! (The Hobbit is part of a Get 3 for the Price of 2 Sale also running on Amazon)
The Illustrated by the Author editions I’ve collected all three of these plus other Tolkien-related items on sale on an Amazon list for those who are interested: Prime Day Tolkien Deals
Speaking of books and Tolkien, for a few weeks now I’ve been giving one of my e-Books, Exploring the Lore of Middle-earth, away to new subscribers when they sign up. However, if you subscribed before I started doing this but also want a free copy, here’s the link for you to download it for free!
(of course, you could always support me by paying for a copy! It’s pay what you want, with the suggested price at just $1!)
Special shout-out and thank you to Andrew W for upgrading to an Extended Edition membership this week!
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These are all real things that people have said to me. Isn’t the internet wonderful? Bringing people together…to argue lol.
YES. Agree 100%. This is a hill I will die on in the fandom. The only thing that makes someone a “true” Tolkien fan is if they enjoy Tolkien (in all its various forms).
I think this is a great take on what fandom ideally should be. I've been in a number of fandoms and you always have a certain percentage of extremists, especially online, who reject certain works and so in turn reject the people that appreciate them. A lot of it has to do with the perceived 'sacredness' of the work, in my opinion. As in, the gatekeepers view how within the property, there are some works that are 'canon' and others that are not. Being a true fan = only respecting the accepted canon and rejecting the unaccepted apocrypha.