I recently watched an episode of Star Trek Voyager that was just 45 minutes of people in a conference room debating the ethics of allowing an omnipotent godlike being to become mortal so they can commit suicide. The main difference is that the moral dilemma in Star Wars is so simple and black and white that a child can understand, and Star Trek is best viewed after graduating with a liberal arts degree.
Star Trek: Here is an episode of TNG where Picard bonds with an alien race with a unique mytho-narrative based linguistic structure by telling them story of the Epic of Gilgamesh Star Wars: here is another "hero's journey for dummies" mishmash homage to Kurosawa and Ford that is also a metaphor for WW2 for the 500th time in a row.
There’s a reason Trekkies were always made fun of back in the day. “Fandoms” in general are deeply weird and should be discouraged, whether it’s about Disney or Star Wars or things that are actually good. You shouldn’t form an identity around a piece of pop culture you like, just like you shouldn’t form an identity around your favorite sports team
If a fandom gives someone happiness in life and it’s not hurting them, what’s the big deal? I guess I’ll agree to disagree on this one
I think there is a big difference in forming a community around bonding over something you like and making it a central part of your identity.
Fandoms are not inherently bad in the same way communities in general are not inherently bad. There are toxic elements that take it too far within all fandoms like there are toxic elements in all communities.
It is chicken and the egg. Is gathering together to talk and bond about shared interests Inherently toxic and should be discouraged? or is the toxicity that comes with it just a natural part of groups of anyone gathering together for any reason at all? I think the latter.
Disney’s business model is tying their brand to childhood happiness so that kids forever associate them with happiness and feeling good through multiple levels of media, from movies to theme parks to TV, etc. They ride that good will towards their attempts at monopolizing as much entertainment and media as possible. Disney adults feel like a byproduct of that branding and ubiquitous presence.
Also with the Disney Adults thing you can also get into the whole "End Of History" and the post-9/11 era, and the effect the traumatic events of terrorism, mass shootings, war, financial instability, and uncertainty about the future of the 2000's onwards had on adolescent millennial psyches making a whole generation cling to the nostalgia of "the before times" as adults as a coping mechanism, and then corporations capitalizing on that 10th degree.
As for fandoms, I think in a vacuum they’re fine and largely communities of people sharing enjoyment in something. But the tribalism and aggressive demands for recognition that have overtaken basically every “fandom” in the internet age has undeniably turned really bad