Hi Green Greek,

Welcome to the world of investing your time and emotion in your favorite things. It’s terrible, you’re gonna love it. 

Nowadays, “geek” is chic. Everyone has a favorite superhero. Everyone knows what a “Jedi” is. We know “the way”. We understand the multiverse. As someone who was picked on for loving sci fi and sorcery, it’s hard not to be both awed and also a little resentful. 

Hear me out, I’m not a gatekeeper. I don’t mean to put you down. I’m here to tell you, your childhood will be ruined and somehow it will be okay.

It’s common now to be obsessed with something pop culture. For something to be fundamental to your development, to be “so me” as it were. And I’m all for that, as a veteran geek. 

But here is a warning, noob. Your favorite things will come back and ruin you. Media will get money grubbing and your childhood loves will be rebooted and made worse.

Before this happens, I’m going to preempt it. It’s going to be okay. 

Your favorite authors will betray you, they are only human. Your favorite things will be milked for money. This is the world now.

Try not to rage against the night. Remember the ancient words of wisdom, “you either die a hero or live long enough to become the villain.” And there are no more heroes. Not in this reality.

We are in the endgame now. Post-Endgame–we have seen what multiple universes and reboots and recasts are like and we have accepted them. Creators make mistakes, get cancelled, and revealed. 

The world only makes what works. Right now, what works is adaptation. It is yet another way to provoke outrage.

What we don’t talk about is: adaptations are hard. When recreating audio books, authors find that one novel can take 12 hours to record. 12. That’s maybe 250 pages. That’s just the Bridge of Ice and Fire. The whole song would be inconceivable to put on TV, no matter how much money Netflix/Hulu/Disney/HBO throw at it to make it “Game of Thrones”. If you want more lore, read the books! Support content creators, read theories, pick up the comics or the novels and the encyclopedias. We have those now. You don’t have to troll fan sites and get homemade merch. Not anymore.

I’m really just looking out for you. As a Star Wars Extended Universe (retconned in 2016) obsessive suddenly looking at my library of paper backs now all supporting a universe that only exists in my mind or as a Potterhead who refused to sit through the Crimes of Grindelwald, I’m telling you outrage is devastating, it’s draining and usually for us, it’s misguided.

We focus on the names associated with the work and not what the work is pointing out. This is a distraction. This is another way for Those in Power to weaponize what we love against us. If we are talking about celebrities and their misdeeds, we aren’t talking about the subjects of the dystopias

There are too many things to be outraged about, and the stuff these books and movies point out, the real things we should be looking at. These issues are pushed to the background: income inequality, refugees, the patriarchy, white supremacy, the news, white supremacy, and the dangers of “prophecy” or putting stock in prophecy. Also White Supremacy. This is all stuff we ignore in favor of being outraged that Cynthia Erivo’s primal scream at the end of the Wicked movie wasn’t the same as the original. We’d rather be mad about how the movie changed the show. 

Try not to fall for the trap of outrage, it’s quick, violent and short sighted. Praise Anador and the Mandalorian for what they are and what their stories tell. 

The problem with outrage is that it’s hard to keep up. Save it for what really matters. 

Love, 

Vet Geek