Topic: Fan Service

Fan Service: ‘Harry Potter’ and the Uncomfortable Erotica

I started reading the Harry Potter books around the time I started writing fan fiction, though I didn’t combine the two until a few years later. Still, Harry Potter was easily the most popular category on FanFiction.net, surging to the forefront with thousands of new fics each day. As of writing this post, there are 528,202 stories listed on Ff.n, though the number would be larger if there hadn’t been The Great Porn Fic Shakedown of 2001. More »

Fan Service: I’m Convinced There Are New York Potterphiles Sporting Glasses and Lightning Bolt Scars

A few weekends ago, my sister, boyfriend, and I were in Williamsburg checking out a clothing store. When we went to ring up (I got a cute black skirt, btw), I noticed the employee’s distinctive Coke bottle glasses, which definitely reminded me of a certain boy wizard. And when he moved his head, I could’ve sworn I saw the distinctive lightning bolt scar on the right side of his forehead. More »

Fan Service: This ‘Hunger Games’ Fan Art Really Helps Us Envision Josh Hutcherson and Liam Hemsworth In Character

Those of you still not convinced by Lionsgate’s casting choices for The Hunger Games should check out EmmilyTM‘s pieces on deviantART (via Down With the Capitol). Pulling from photo shoots and candids, she gives us a preview of what the makeup chair will do: Make the actors better resemble Katniss, Gale, and Peeta. We’ve already seen Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss thanks to the Entertainment Weekly cover, and she looked rockin’. But aside from a few paparazzi shots or old magazine shoots, we haven’t had the chance to really envision either guy as her two love interests. (It doesn’t help that each has the opposite coloring of his character.) More »

Fan Service: This Japanese Pop Group’s Perfect (Fake) Woman Could Lose a Lot of Fans

I don’t really get Japanese pop culture’s affection for schoolgirls and girl bands, but the phenomenon you see in this video is pretty universal: AKB48′s newest member Eguchi Aimi is impossibly beautiful, because she’s not real. My first thought was “Robot!”, but no, she’s actually a digital composite of all of the other band members. Eguchi’s fans — some of which were harboring real crushes on the star — were stunned upon discovering the truth, thanks to this leaked making-of video. More »

Fan Service: Why Can’t Fans and Creators Get Along When It Comes to Fan Creations?

Lionsgate’s legal department has shut down two of the biggest Hunger Games fansites, Hunger Games Tesserae and Welcome to Panem. As you might remember from a few months ago, these sites were what really spurred the fandom into action (right before all the casting announcements) by sorting users into one of the twelve districts, putting in their names for the Hunger Games, and sending cryptic messages from the capital. We had suspected that Lionsgate was running some sort of ARG (Alternate Reality Game — a great way to build buzz and draw in new fans), but it’s clear now that these sites, though ARGs, were fan-run. More »

Fan Service: Why Theater Audiences Need to Move from Patrons to Fans

With the Tonys coming up this Sunday, I’ve decided to turn this week’s Fan Service away from Internet memes or TV/movies, over to the more low-tech, intimate realm of theater. Mac Rogers, a playwright whom I admire for his breathtaking play Viral (follow him on Twitter @macwrites) retweeted this essay a few months ago. Posting to the theater blog Parabasis, a user named 99 Seats looks at the tenuous relationship between playwrights and the audiences that sustain them. More »

Fan Service: ‘X-Men: First Class’ the Latest Prequel Movie to Include Meta Jokes for Fans

This’ll be another week where you see two Fan Service columns, because scheduling kept me from writing this one last week. Part of the fun of a prequel film like X-Men: First Class is the in-jokes that reward viewers for having seen the movies that were released years ago but, chronologically, take place after the prequel. It’s almost like we can see into the future: We know the fates of a lot of the characters profiled, which allows us to better connect with them in the prequel. I won’t be able to get into any more detail without mentioning spoilers, so beware. More »

Fan Service: The Significance of Sex to Fandom

You know those posters that say All I know about life, I learned in kindergarten? Well, all I know about sex, I learned from fan fiction. I was 12 when I first got into fandom, and about 14 when I started reading graphic fan fiction. I didn’t do so indiscriminately; Firefly had gotten cancelled after half a season, so I was struggling to prolong the stories through fanfiction. R-rated fiction happened to appear on every site I visited. To be honest, I was curious, and there was nothing stopping me except for an “Are you over 17?” pop-up that I could click with only a shadow of guilt. More »

Fan Service: Why Lisa Edelstein Leaving ‘House’ Has Nothing to Do with the House/Cuddy Breakup

This week we learned that Lisa Edelstein, who plays Dr. Lisa Cuddy on Fox’s House, won’t be returning for the show’s eighth (and probably final) season. The big question, of course, is how House (Hugh Laurie) will function without his boss/ex-lover, and if Edelstein’s exit may have hastened along this season’s House/Cuddy breakup. More »

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Fan Service: What ‘Bones’ Teaches Us About Killing Off Beloved TV Characters

Since I didn’t get to write a Fan Service for last week, this week will have two entries. Friday’s will hopefully be lighter, since today’s is about death — losing TV characters forever.

For the past few weeks, Bones showrunner Hart Hanson had hinted that in last Thursday’s episode (one before the season finale), a major player would die by sniper bullet. Cue the panicked reactions: Which actors had gigs lined up for next year? Which character could conceivably finish their time on the procedural after May 12? But Hanson and every Bones actor (even the non-regulars) were able to keep mum until Thursday’s episode. More »

Fan Service: The ‘Green Lantern’ People Send Out the Coolest Merchandise

A huge perk of being an entertainment blogger is of course getting to see the movie or TV show in question before anyone else. (I got to go to an advance screening of Watchmen in 2009, and I lorded that over my friends.) But even more special is getting treated like you’re the studio’s number-one fan, with awesome freebies like this box of upcoming Green Lantern merchandise that a ComicsAlliance writer received. Join me in wading through the goodies after the jump. More »

Fan Service: Comedians Sara Benincasa and Kevin Avery on Social Media and When Fans Go Too Far

Comedians Sara Benincasa and Kevin Avery often find themselves stuck between a rock and a hard place when it comes to being performers with Internet followings: They use sites like Twitter and YouTube to work on material and chat with fans, but thanks to social media, often the line between “performer” and “friend” blurs. They spoke to Crushable about getting to meet their idols over Twitter, their relationships being made public, and why it’s awful that Rebecca Black is getting death threats. More »