The Fan Wars Continue: Purists vs. Completists

2017 witnessed the arrival of three long-awaited entries in three different franchises: Alien: Covenant, Blade Runner 2049, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Despite their different levels of performance at the box office, I enjoyed all three of these movies. Each was well made by talented, creative individuals who added rich new content to their respective franchises. This post is about a trend that I've been observing for years (decades, actually) about the different kinds of reactions fans have when their cherished franchises expand into multiple sequels, prequels and spin-offs, and how the larger media outlets reflect these reactions. Regardless of the franchise, I think that the primary conflict within fan communities is between Purists and Completists. Read on...

The word "Completist" speaks for itself. These are the kind of fans who have a much more comprehensive approach to their favorite franchises, collecting and examining as much of them as they can. In contrast, Purists fixate on particular aspects of a franchise (and anything that reflect and reinforce those aspects) and actively reject the rest. Putting levels of fan interest on a two-dimensional scale, I would place Completists on the left side, Purists on the right, and casual fans at the center.

The "casual fans" label applies to how genre fans probably feel about most franchises: interested in some aspects of a franchise, but not interested enough to look into the rest of it. Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho grew into a franchise with multiple movies, TV shows and novels, but I've only been interested in what Hitchcock did. It's not that the other aspects of the Psycho franchise are horrible; I'm just not interested enough in what the other movies, TV shows and novels have to offer.

In case you couldn't tell by the overall content of this blog, I consistently tilt towards the Completist end of the spectrum for franchises that consistently engage me. (See my retrospectives of the franchises built around The Fly and Scream for examples.) Even when I don't care about all entries in a particular franchise, I'll go along with them anyway if there is a chance to learn more and gain new insights. I enjoy the first three entries in the Jaws franchise, although I have no desire to see Jaws: The Revenge ever again. However, if Universal would release a deluxe Jaws Blu-ray box set that includes a hefty set of behind-the-scenes extras for each of the movies, I'd pick it up in a heartbeat because the Jaws franchise as a whole still fascinates me and captures my imagination.

I've noticed that of the fan categories I've listed, Purists are the most vocal, most single-minded, and most easily offended. They have a particular standard in mind when it comes to their favorite franchises, and they will complain for years and decades on end about everything within their preferred franchises that do not meet their standard. Sequels have a well-earned reputation of being poor, uninspired cash-ins on a popular title. Yet when sequels actually aim to expand upon the original story, it's usually the Purists who react the loudest and most persistently when the sequel does not match their preconceived notion of what a sequel for a particular franchise should be, regardless of the sequel's actual quality as a movie or TV show.

The Purist's dilemma, in a nutshell.

I believe that fans should feel free to react to their favorite franchises however they see fit. Yet as a fan myself, I find the Purists to be the most excruciating and discouraging when reading their thoughts about their favorite franchises. Their discourse is rooted in inflexibility and outrage, with a much greater interest in being snarky and offensive than making thoughtful and inspired observations about the media they are consuming.

Furthermore, such a response is so predictable and repetitive: It doesn't matter which franchise is the topic of discussion (e.g., Star Trek, Star Wars, Terminator, etc.), I've noticed that the Purists' response is almost always the same, routinely panning the same things they don't like about the franchise whenever it becomes the topic of conversation. It usually boils down to comments bashing every sequel (or prequel) since the first film or TV series, or that the franchise reached its creative apex with an entry that was released a few decades ago, or that the franchise's creator has somehow irreversibly tarnished the franchise's reputation by creating subsequent entries. For such fans, I have to wonder: If you genuinely feel that your favorite franchise was at its best so long ago (say, the '80s) and that everything released since then was garbage (and that you feel compelled to say this every time the franchise is brought up) then why do you still bother with the franchise at all? Complaining about the same thing over and over again for years at a time while still claiming to be a fan makes absolutely no sense to me.

I've walked away from plenty of fan sites and publications because of the Purists' persistent, unimaginative bitterness. I've even read book-length franchise retrospectives that were written from the Purist viewpoint and they have been frustrating to finish. I end up learning more about what the author likes and doesn't like about the franchise than about the franchise itself, which defeats the entire purpose of writing the retrospective in the first place. It's as lazy as it is unprofessional.

If dealing with Purists in fan media isn't bad enough, I've seen the Purist attitude carry over to more mainstream press coverage of franchises. This could be because many Purists have become writers at such outlets, or it could be that the management at these outlets prefers the angry, confrontational disposition of Purist thinking to stir controversy and by extension reader interest (I'm guessing that it's a little bit of both). Regardless, I find this kind of coverage bereft of useful details and insightful commentary; it's a dysfunctional mixture of promotional content with petty grievances, and I've given up on it as a way to learn more about the things that interest me.

I'm not sure what drives the Purists' inexhaustible shrillness. The relationship between art and commerce has always been a turbulent one, and I suspect that the society in which we live that is dominated by mass consumerism only makes it more so. As such, the Purist perspective puts customer satisfaction far ahead of creative vision: Anything that does not meet their satisfaction is a defective product, and they will continue voicing the same dissatisfactions repeatedly until their favorite franchises make customer service a top priority.

Ultimately, fans should be encouraged to follow the franchises that entertain them and not feel obligated to follow those that do not. I want my writing to enhance the understanding and entertainment value of the franchises that I and others enjoy. I want my blog to encourage genre and franchise appreciation, not disparagement, and I hope that whoever is reading this feels that I am fulfilling this goal.