Ask Lemmy

Not really a "fandom", but Science Fiction. My two most controversial takes:

1. In Alien 3, Hicks and Newt had to die in order to thematically be an Alien film. Alien (the original trilogy) was always Ripley's story; a woman who has had everything taken away from her and ends up an outsider where the only real touchstone left to her is the very xenomorph that she battles. In Alien, she's an outcast among the crew. In Aliens, she's a civilian amongst a bunch of mega-macho mercenaries. In Alien 3, she's a female among male prisoners. Thematically, Ripley simply can't have an ensemble cast around her at the beginning or the end of each film. Fincher understood that.

2. In Blade Runner (before future movies retconned it), not only is Deckard a replicant, he's a very specific replicant. Gaff was the original Blade Runner on the case, and he got wounded in the leg during the escaped Replicant's first attempt at getting into the Tyrell Corporation. Supposedly one of them got fried going through an electric fence, but in reality, that replicant was captured and reprogrammed with Gaff's life; Gaff's memories in order to continue the investigation. Meanwhile, Gaff himself is forced to babysit this "replacement" that everyone else thinks can do just a good a job as he can, and so he's bitter about it through the whole film and taunts the replicant with cryptic hints about his memories.

Furry. As for how controversial this is, I couldn't give a definitive answer, but if you are fursuiting, do your best within your limits to always keep your head on, regardless of the situation. At the very least keep that head on when in a furry con and don't ever take it off unless it's an emergency, you are in the headless lounge, or are somewhere where it doesn't matter if you ruin the magic, like a hotel room or somewhere outside the con. The head is the bare minimum you should be wearing of a suit. And I don't see a fursuit as a status symbol but more of a fandom obligation to adhere to that type of usage.

Otherwise, it's either that, or that people need to stop buying things like those cheap Halloween animal masks and sprucing them up because that signals to greedy corporations that they can waltz in here and start stealing the jobs of fursuit creators. How? By eventually just cutting the middle man and stealing their designs and printing cheap copies that the younglings will have their parents buy instead of originals, pushing creators to charge more. It's a vicious cycle I don't wanna see happen, like we have been seeing for regular fursuits.

I don't really have a fandom.. It's just a never-ending string of temporary hyperfixations, although some of them do get reruns.

But hmm, what about:

• Synthesis is the best Mass Effect ending, or
• Chloe Decker is the worst character in Lucifer, and there is zero chemistry in Deckerstar, or
• Dragon Age 2 is the best DA game.

I really love Ghostbusters, as in the first film, not as in anything that’s in the universe.

I thought Afterlife was awful.

Webcomics I guess?

It's the one niche interest I have the most often online discussion about

Blakes 7, but its hard to think of a genuine controversial take that isn't just disagreeing with crusty old misogynists.

Ironically, I think I'm going to come to the partial defence of a writer that many perceive as a misogynist.

I think Ben Steed is more of a chauvinist, but I dont see him as a misogynist. There is a recurring theme of burly men mishandling women, but aside from the first occasion it is pretty clearly depicted as an objectionable and awful thing. (One of the men in question is literally called Grose for crying out loud).

Steed had an utterly fascinating insight into the overreliance and fixation on technology, and more specifically computers that do the thinking for people, that feels so shockingly relevant in today's society.

I think it's just a real shame that he also had an obsession with battle of the sexes as a theme, and that tends to get in the way of deconstructing person vs machine. Its at its worst in his third and final story, which includes a pretty grim metaphor for female circumcision that seems to get ignored by the 'hero' once it provides a 'solution' to a problem for him.

Tl;dr, Ben Steed more chauvinist than misogynist, lets it get in the way of genuinely fascinating commentaries on AI ahead of his time.

Actually I do have a Harry Potter view. Everyone who likes slitheren must be an asshole. That house has no redeeming story arc at all. They are just “the bad guys” if you relate to that house the most you must be a crappy person.

Not exactly a fandom but more of a sub/counterculture identity- the punk movement. It’s not a monolith, it’s not dogmatic, but it is pretty well defined that it’s a leftist movement. Some punks express that through solidarity and unity with other likeminded and values holding individuals that share beliefs but don’t consider themselves personally to be punk, some are utter anarchists to the point their self-expression is self-destruction, some enjoy the music and ideals but don’t commit to it as if it’s a full lifestyle and not appreciating the art of artists’ whose style and message they enjoy.

It’s also fueled by youth and living in the present, not forgetting the fights that came before but confronting the wrongs of society right now, as they are. There’s always been older folks in the scene, even in the early years, but now it’s a 50yr old counterculture with folks who grew up after it began, have lived through a couple of cycles of relevancy, and have children they raised in it when they themselves found it as a source of teenage rejection of their parents.

We have a problem of revisionist history. Punk and feminism and Pride have always gone hand in hand, but it wasn’t always a perfect road. We’ve had predators, “gay is okay but be gay over there”, and it’s been a fairly white, male dominated scene, especially the most successful and influential. Some of the earliest founders wore swastikas for shock value, and while that got nixed pretty quick, it’s still an example of “we’ve made some poor decisions for the sake of rebellion”. Which is fine, it doesn’t mean sweep it under the rug or pretend like those times didn’t happen, it means reflect on the who/what/when/where/why and decide from the actions of that person then and going forward after being confronted about it- did they make a choice to do better and move on in a better way.

Punk seems to blossom when the youth born on the cusp of a “generation” come into their teens, Gen Jones fueled 1st wave, Xennials are the Warped Generation, Zillenials are American Idiots, and Zalphas who’ve basically grown up under this regime are showing up in increasing numbers. Each comes with a different perspective even if we tend to agree on the bigger picture, but we also have gatekeepers who have forgotten nothing lasts forever and it wasn’t always “better back in the day”, and youth who, while fighting the fight as best they can, try and fight a certain fight we’ve tried before and lost because that method doesn’t win, or the win is temporary and the system will adapt before we can lock in the change. We’re also not fighting Regan/Thatcher/W type conservatives who want to maintain the system anymore, we’re up against regressives that are breaking it to achieve something far worse. We might have been calling them Nazis for the past five decades but they were Diet Fascism. Here’s the real deal, and I’m sorry we couldn’t stop it, kid, but we’re still around and we got your back as best we can.

Biggest hot-take on the scene- battlejackets don’t have to be bands only, and they don’t have to be the most obscure bands to be legit. It what you like, and if it’s a bunch of handmade slogans and virtue signaling, so what. As long as the wearer lives the slogans they’re fronting and strives to make the virtue they signal a reality, who gives a shit. The act of constructing your jacket is your dedication. Giving feedback on construction and suggestions on design are fine if they ask, not everyone has been taught how to sew or knows how to paint/dye fabric. But unless they’re bigots appropriating the style or bought all their patches off Temu… eh, we all had a hodgepodge of statements and opinions when we were 15 and figuring ourselves out. And it’s not like those of us over 40 have our shit together or without slip-ups and skeletons, hopefully we’ve amended and strive to do better.

Not to get too Matt Damon or anything, but I'm an unapologetic Weezer fan. And I'll say that I think they released their strongest album after Blue 20 years into their career with Everything Will be Alright in the End.

As a 50 year old, Pinkerton has become so cringy and uncomfortable to listen to. I won't say it isn't still a great album, but ugh.

Robotech / Macross

Both the original Japanese edition and the American adaptation are equally good.

40k I approve of female Space Marines.

Homestuck. 'Nuff said.

Well, my wife’s fandom is My Hero Academia and my most controversial opinion on it is that All Might should have died in the USJ incident at the end of season 1. He was pretty useless anyway after that, and it would have been a great “holy shit” moment that would have motivated Midoriya more.

Most in the fandom don’t agree. I stand by it.

Not sure if this counts but I like clowns. Not party clowns. Professional cirque de solie kind of clowns.

The controversial view: only crappy clowns talk. Real clowns don’t talk. No that doesn’t make them a mime. Clowns can have sound elements in their routine just no voice. I will die on this hill!

I'm a furry and I'm tired of seeing so many furries who clearly fap to art of animal dicks fail to deal with their post-nut shame of having fapped to art of animal dicks by harassing other furries who fap to art of animal dicks

LARP. Heavier fighting gear makes a more interesting and enjoyable combat metagame.

I love Sailor Moon. I know that it is an important franchise for the LGBTQ community. But I disagree with the popular takes that claim that all the seshis are bisexual/pansexual. I won't hate on anyone's ship either, but seeing every hug of two characters as proof that there is romantic/sexual chemistry between them is not only tiring but puts it into a light where any kind of physical touch or emotional connection between two people has to be romantic or sexual and cannot be platonic, friendship based, or simple kindness. It has an "oh look Timmy is hugging Susie he must have a crush on her haha!" energy that tainted tons of friendships in my youth.

I think part of that annoyance comes with the fact that there are canonically very gay characters in the franchise already. Two senshis are literally lesbians. They include a third one (non sexually tho) in a rainbow family construct to raise a reborn senshi. You have gender switching senshis. It is quite versatile as it is. For what it's worth, I am talking about characters who canonically have straight love interests in the main story or in some side story.

But that being said, if you find strength, support, or comfort in your headcanon and interpretation of any fictional character being a closeted gay, that's obviously great and more power to you. If this is what you need in your life that's absolutely fine.

Doctor Who - Peter Capaldi's era was awful. Just really, really bad. I think he's a good actor, but the show was garbage during his tenure.

“Punk”. Steam, cyber, diesel. Any and all… Star Wars is cyberpunk.

Does Monster Hunter count as a fandom?

It doesn't need a story.

Fun story; I wrote one about Ace Attorney, in relation to its premise of "If there's a mystery with a big reveal, we build it up and resolve it in one game before the credits roll." Instead, it made me realize I had a lot to say about Half-Life.

The series has built up a following around mysterious figures and theories. While the games themselves are fantastic, I should've had the confidence as a writer years ago to say no one, even at Valve, has any idea what's going on in their stories. They very likely have no specific, well-formed plans about answering "who is the G-man", and a certain dramatic event late in Episode 2 was very lazily shoe-horned to try to manufacture stakes, as made evident...

Half-Life: Alyx (VR game)

...from them using time travel to retcon that event

It's tricky because I still love HL2 for its good, snappy character writing, use of advanced facial tech, the way it never removes the player's presence for the sake of cutscenes, etc. But they likely shouldn't be used as reference for overall story direction.

I'm a mountain biker and judging by my exposure to other mountain bikers I'd say many of them would claim that I ride the wrong kind of bike (e-assist FatBike) and I wear the wrong kind of gear (hiking clothes, combat boots and a heavy backpack)

The Stickworld

Dolph Dundgren can defeat The Ultimate Stickfigure (assuming it is not on autopilot and does not somehow shield The Scientist from Dark Veil)

High level racquetball is incredibly boring to watch. They need to tweak the game so that each rally goes for more than two hits.