Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: What happened to this?
, started by GoggleFox on Jul 7th 2011 at 8:55:55 PM
Um, what’s the difference between this and WMG? Other than this is arbitrarily declared to be a “bad” thing. A lot of “fan wank” is just WMG that’s arbitrarily declared wrong or stupid in my opinion.
Hide / Show Replies
My take on it is that WMG is about fans speculating about something, admitting the might not be right, where as wankery is often presented as being "the only thing that makes sense" or "a lot of fans think 'Something That Happened' is explain by 'This Thing'", though there may be other explanations. This is basically arguing about how to explain something, where as WMG is just that, admitted guess work and not necessarily intended as the solution, and WMG can be about things other than explanations. There's some overlap, but they aren't the same thing.
No idea why it double posted... Could be because of my semi-broken mouse, it sometimes registers a single click as two and maybe the server interpreted the two clicks as distinct replies. Can we somehow get a mod to remove on or the other?
Edited by JonVonBass I am the man who was slain by a ghoul, became a vampire, became a ghoul that killed my human self, became a soul in a sword.
My take on it is that WMG is about fans speculating about something, admitting the might not be right, where as wankery is often presented as being "the only thing that makes sense" or "a lot of fans think 'Something That Happened' is explain by 'This Thing'", though there may be other explanations. This is basically arguing about how to explain something, where as WMG is just that, admitted guess work and not necessarily intended as the solution, and WMG can be about things other than explanations. There's some overlap, but they aren't the same thing.
I am the man who was slain by a ghoul, became a vampire, became a ghoul that killed my human self, became a soul in a sword.
Why not the Souls series (Demon's Souls, Dark Souls and Dark Souls 2)? Their lore is pretty vague and never explain anything legit on what anything is or why it happens, and why you have such little choice.
Hide / Show Replies
Maybe nobody added it?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
pro lurker
Complete Arse(nal)
How is the picture an "eternal temptation"? The yes option is greyed out.
Why You Shouldn't Eat Meat
I think with fan wank Your Mileage May Vary on just about everything. One person's "fan wank" could easily be another person's totally brilliant idea.
Hide / Show Replies
What's your point? This sort of goes without saying. Every time anything idiotic happens, ever, be it in fiction or in real life, someone out there says "Okay, whose brilliant idea was this?"
A couple of the Star Wars examples are out of date and could use updating. I'd do it myself but I don't want to step on anyone's toes so I though I'd just point them out here and let either whoever put them in or else another, more experienced troper take care of it.
To be specific, there are two examples that are no longer accurate. The first is this: "But others point out that in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin killed all the Jedi but two, leaving two Jedi and two Sith — that's balance, right?" has since been proven false, as the many of Star Wars movies, shows, etc that have been released since Revenge of the Sith have revealed that in fact Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda were not the only Jedi to survive Order 66 (a handful of examples just off the top of my head include Cal Kestis and Cere Junda from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Kanan Jarrus from Star Wars: Rebels, Chirrut Imwe from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, the many younglings who Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and the Kenobi Disney+ show revealed were taken alive by the Empire and corrupted into the Inquisitors, the various fugitive Jedi shown in Kenobi and some of the other Disney+ shows that take place in the immediate aftermath of Order 66, and Ashoka Tano from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, although it is debatable whether she counts since she left the Jedi Order during the events of the final season of that show.
The second example that is no longer accurate is this (spoiler alert for Rise of Skywalker, by the way):
"Why didn't Hux shoot the Resistance ship when they arrived at the Resistance base at the start of the film? Many say because he was arrogant and wanted to make them suffer."
Rise of Skywalker explained this (in particularly unexpected fashion) when it revealed that Hux was, in fact, a spy for the Resistance the entire time.