Fuel Your Fandom

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Food. It's a fandom! As the boys say in every episode, everything is. We all have our favorites, whether that's simple, home-grown comfort food, or high-end fine dining and gourmet cuisine. But what if you knew your next meal was going to be your last? That's a pretty heavy choice. It's gonna be the final thing you'll ever eat, so you might as well make it count. And while not all of us get the luxury of knowing which plate will be our exit indulgence, it's exactly this momentous decision that faces many death row inmates. How could one possibly decide? On this edition of FYF, Saint and Jim take a look at the dank, delicious and downright daffy dishes some of these doomed souls selected as their final meal. Plus, the usual news and wandering tangents. You and your earholes know what's up.  

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In 2022, one-time BoingBoing.com editor Cory Doctorow coined the term "Enshittification" to describe a phenomenon with which every internet user is intimately familiar. Also referred to as "Platform Decay," enshittification is (according to Wikipedia): "a re-prioritization pattern where online product and service providers experience a decline in quality over time." In other words, That Thing You Like is great at first, and then morphs into a lesser version of itself. Think: apps that de-activate features, websites that install paywalls, DRM *yoinking* a book off of your e-Reader over rights issues, and video games that wedge in ads and microtransactions. Clearly, we can't have nice things. So in this episode of FYF, Saint and Jim take a look at the well-worn idea of "They changed it, now it sucks." 

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When it comes to digital entertainment, Saint and Jim have been eyebrow-deep in pixels since LONG before it was even called that. Videogaming is one of the biggest bricks that forms the foundation of fandom for each of them. But, just like movies, TV and comics, videogames are constantly evolving – and so are the people who are playing them. So in this edition of FYF, your intrepid co-hosts take a look at how games are changing, how the fandom is adapting, and what that means for the state of the hobby. Plus, Comic-Con happened. And there was no notable news there. So there's no reason to discuss any of THAT, or anything, right? Ooof. 

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Hey, Friends of Fuel. Saint and Jim are back from their summer vacation, and they're kicking off the second half of the season with a bang. As promised, FYF welcomes a very special guest for the first post-hiatus show. Jenny Stiven may well be the ultimate ascended fan. After growing up geek playing D&D, reading comics and watching Star Trek, Jenny eventually went to work as a marketer within some of the biggest nerd media that's ever hit pop culture — creating award-winning campaigns for titanic entities like 20th Century Fox, MGM, Star Trek, James Bond, Star Wars, DC, Stargate, Predator, Alien, Buffy, and tons more we just don't have the space to discuss. For the last decade, she's worked as a consultant liaison helping to build and manage relationships between content creators and their fandoms. As such, her insight on the state and nature of these communities is second-to-none. You do NOT want to miss the wisdom she drops about toxic fandoms, creator accountability, fan responsibility, and how it all comes together. So earhole it up with a quickness.  

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After their recent news note regarding the (only MILDLY suggestive) Deadpool and Wolverine popcorn bucket, Saint and Jim got to thinking about what other off-the-wall movie tie-in goodies might approach that level of bizarre. So, they went looking. And the internet did what the internet do. Specifically, it revealed a completely nutso underbelly of movie merch they never would've believed existed outside the freakish fever dreams of stimulant-addled studio execs. From "Do you want to smell like Iron Man" fragrance lines, to soundtrack albums to movies with no music, to novelizations of films that were based on books to begin with, there seems to be no end to the bizarro-world swag movie fans could snag to commemorate their fave flicks. So earhole this, and prepare to be confused. Because they were.

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One of the most fascinating aspects of speculative science fiction is the tech. Whatever creators can dream up, futurenauts can use. Teleporters! Time Travel! Fantastic weaponry! Wouldn't it be great if we actually had this stuff for real? Well, not so fast. Heroes of fiction are just that: heroes. So they only tend to use this stuff for mostly altruistic reasons. If these things actually existed? There would be potential downsides. And BIG ones. In this episode, Saint and Jim break down why some of the sci-fi tech items of our dreams might actually be nightmares in tangible reality.  

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Hollywood is having a really difficult time as of late. It seems as tough for every "Barbie" or "Super Mario" that makes literally a billion dollars, there are a dozen flicks like "Furiosa" and "Garfield" that fall severely short in terms of critical reception and box office take. Movie theatres are suffering, studios are scrambling, and ultimately, it's the fans who pay the price. But what's causing it? COVID hangover? Sequel fatigue? Ticket prices? All of that and then some? On this episode, Saint and Jim take a look at some of the possible reasons behind the downward trends in the movie industry, and what might be done to address them. Of course, there's also more nerd news than you can shake a popcorn bucket at. 

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Fandom is a powerful thing. Hey, this entire podcast is built around it. Even so, we've all experienced moments where we stopped fueling certain fandoms, and they just...run out of gas. Sometimes that's a decision. Whether it's a dip in quality, a creator who disappoints you or a shift in priorities, we all walk away from things about which we were fromerly passionate over the course of our lives. But it's not always a conscious thing. Occasionally, we just lose interest in stuff, or get sidetracked by life and drift away. In this edition of FYF, Saint and Jim look at the idea of faded fandom, reminisce about some things they used to be into and now aren't, and examine some of the reasons why these things happen — whether via decision, overwhelm, or apathy. Plus, news aplenty. 

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There's no denying that the last couple of years have proven cape cinema to be not quite as bulletproof as the heroes on the screen. DC has been struggling with quality consistency, and even the once-foolproof Marvel has had some stumbles as of late. But can this be chalked up to (as critics have termed it) "superhero fatigue"? Or are there larger issues at play? On this edition of FYF, Saint and Jim try to crack open the underlying causes behind why tights-n'-flights flicks could be running out of steam. Plus: news, tangents musings and more.  

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Some weeks are just heavier than others when it comes to all the goings-on that are good to geek out over, and this was definitely one of those. So hereabouts, Saint and Jim do a rundown of what's up in niche nerd news — albeit with a specialized focus on whatever fresh hell seems to be plaguing the video game world as of late. Layoffs, studio closings and canceled titles seem to be the norm these days, despite the fact that digital entertainment as an industry still out-earns Hollywood, and companies like Microsoft and Sony seem to be doing better than ever on the ol' financial end. So cram this noise in your earholes, check out the headlines, and let the boys know what you think about all that's up in this deepest of dork dispatches.