Are you a Fan or a Fandom?

I'm not talking about a fan to keep you cool, I'm talking about a fanatic: a person with an obsessive interest in and enthusiasm for something or a person filled with excessive and single-minded zeal for something. But how can you define a fan? 

Is it the person who just wears a superhero shirt and calls themselves a fan of that superhero, but doesn't know much about that character other than what's on their shirt and maybe who played them in a movie or TV show? 

Or calling yourself a fan of Captain America just because you've watched his movies only because you think Chris Evans is hot, which is the same thing as going to the Lord of the Rings movies just because Orlando Bloom is in it.

 Most things have what are called a fandom: the state or condition of being a fan of someone or something or fans of a particular person, team, fictional series, etc. regarded collectively as a community or subculture. Most fandoms have a particular name to define them, the most common one would be Trekkie (fans of the TV show Star Trek), yet many "Trekkies" prefer the term Trekker despite Trekkie being added to the Miriam Webster dictionary. 

 -Even music groups and artists have fandoms: Beliebers (Justin Beiber), Directioners (One Direction), Swifties (Taylor Swift), Panheads (Skillet), Beatlemanics/Beatlenuts (The Beatles), Metallibangers/Metallicats (Metallica), etc. 
 And let's not forget those sports people: Cheeseheads/Packer-Backers (Green Bay Packers), Raider Nation (Oakland Raiders), The Lake Show (LA Lakers), Rainbow Warriors (Jeff Gordon), Derbyverse (Roller Derby), Cubbies (Chicago Cubs), etc.
Though when talking about fandom this usually refers to the group of fans of a TV show, movie, fictional character, book series, cartoon, anime/manga, or video game. Most people might not even realize that even comic books have a fandom name. Some of these fandoms can be quite ridiculous and some are huge for something that didn't last all that long.

Bronies or Pegasisters are the two names that refer to the fandom of My Little Pony. And I'm not talking about the toys or the cartoon from the 80's, this is the 2010 reboot more commonly known as My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Overall the term Bronies was used for all of them, however male fans of this show took over the term Brony, female fans adopted the name Pegasisters, which comes from the term of fans of the older ponies PegaSis. While I understand being a fan of a cartoon show, this one I cannot understand. I used to watch the old show and played with the old style of ponies. But how can this reboot that is a pale image of the original have such a large following? I may never know, but it does.

Original Cartoon had humans that followed the ponies on their adventures. And often had creatures who were asking for help or helped out along the way. It ran for 2 seasons and had a spin off called, My Little Pony Tales, which only ran for one season.

 Friendship is Magic might have a large following solely on the fact that it's created by animator/writer, Lauren Faust, who is well known for The Powerpuff Girls and Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, which are two of Cartoon Network's most popular shows. And for some reason this show is 6 seasons strong ans still going... 

And it's spun off a movie series called My Little Pony: Equestria Girls where the ponies are humanized.....Um okay, I've never seen a blue, purple, or orange skinned human. Friendship is Magic also has a few video games and a comic book series. 



Along with My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic other Western Animations have developed their own fandoms: Avatards (Avatar: the Last Airbender), Darklings (Darkwing Duck), Fallers (Gravity Falls), Transfans (Transformers), Steventhusiasts (Steven Universe), Slackers (Regular Show), Ooovians (Adventure Time), etc.
And while the fandom of Spongebob Squarepants have no name, Spongetards has been coined to describe the less intelligent part of the fandom. 

Japanese anime and manga fans have an overall term, Otaku. This term has had a negative connotation to refer to a person who seems to have no life outside of their anime and manga, this is also true for comic book geeks and gamers. Like with all fandoms you have those who seem to have some sort of social disorder, however there are a strong amount of members who are able to live in the real world. With the Otakus there's small fractions that are for certain anime/manga series:

Narutards (Naruto), Troops (Attack on Titan), Black Knights (Code Geass), DigiFans/Digidestined (Digimon), Fairies (FairyTail), Dragonballers (Dragonball series), Hetalians (Hetalia series), Moonies (Sailor Moon), etc.

Some of the American voice actors have their own fandom for example: Risembool Rangers (Vic Mignogna) and the Miniskirt Army (Travis Willingham).

Also Toonami the anime block of Cartoon Network has a name for it's fans used often by the host TOM, Toonami Faithful. These fans are the reason for the revival of the block in 2012 as apart of Cartoon Network's Adult Swim on Saturdays.

As I stated earlier, even comic books have fandoms too. Marvel Comics fans are called "True Believers" by Stan Lee himself, before that people called them Marvel Zombies which doesn't work now that there is a comic series by that name, and many call fans of DC comics, DCers. Several series/characters have their own name for their fans:
 Batfans/Batmaniacs (Batman), Wingnuts (Nightwing), Birdboys/Birdgirls (Robin), Titans (Teen Titans, All New Teen Titans, Titans, and Nightwing's Outsider series), Arrowheads (Green Arrow and his TV show, Arrow), Flash Mob/Zoomers (The Flash and his 2014 TV show), Ringheads (Green Lantern and off shoot series), Leaguers/Be-Leaguers (Justice League and off shoots), Shellheads (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), Boomers (Sonic the Hedgehog comic), Webheads (Spiderman and other Marvel spider heroes), The Carol Corps/The Kamala Corps (Ms. Marvel & Captain Marvel), Poolheads (Deadpool), Hornheads (Daredevil), Assemblers/Avengers (Avengers), etc.

 And as a result of Tom Hiddleston's portrayal of Marvel's Loki in Marvel Studio's Thor and Avengers films, a fandom around Loki has formed known simply as Loki's Army. And is army is mostly made up of female fans.

Many TV shows have fandoms, yet the most noted are the Sci-Fi (Science Fiction) and Fantasy Shows, such as the Browncoats (Firefly) pictured above. While Trekkie might be the most well known overall, there is another such fandom that has been added to the Miriam Webster dictionary, Whovian.

Yes, Whovian is the term for someone inside the fandom world of Doctor Who (BBC) which has been running since 1964, a British show that has been as popular as Star Trek due to it's modern reboot in 2005. Like Trekker, Whovians have another term that they like almost as well as the dictionary term, Wholigans, though it's most commonly used in the UK.
-Other BBC show fandoms include: Smithies (The Sarah Jane Adventures), Clone Club (Orphan Black), Downtonians (Downton Abby), Merliners/Merkers/Merkiners (Merlin), Woodies (Torchwood), and Sherlockians (Sherlock)
-Other popular Sci-Fi show fandoms include: X-Philes (X-Files), Scaper (Farscape), Gaters (Stargate franchise), Leapers (Quantum Leap), Sidekicks (Heroes), and Babblers/Fivers (Babylon 5)
-Popular fantasy show fandoms include: Scoobies/Buffistas/Buffonia (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), Oncers (Once Upon a Time), Gothamites (Gotham), Saltgunners (Supernatural), and Xenites (Xena: Warrior Princess)
Surprisingly enough Game of Throne fandom as a whole doesn't have a name, they've been split into two groups Unsullied (those who haven't read the books) and Bookwalkers (those who have read the books)
-Kid show fandoms include: Mouseketeers (Mickey Mouse Club), Power Force (Power Rangers franchise), iCarlies (iCarly), and Flynatics (ANT Farm)
-Other show fandoms include: Gleeks (Glee), Lostralians/Lostaways/Lostie (Lost), Psych-Os (Psych), Whosers (Whose Line is it Anway?), Wheel Watchers (Wheel of Fortune), etc.
-The popularity of Doctor Who, Sherlock, and Supernatural has spun a few crossover fandoms: SuperWhoLockians, Wholockians, and Superwhovians. 

-Movie fandoms include: Backies (Back to the Future), Ghostheads (Ghostbusters), Warsies/Jeheads/501st Legion (Star Wars), Rum Runners (Pirates of the Caribbean), Programers (Tron), Insiders (Inside Out), Frozenites/Ice Troopers (Frozen), Rappers (Tangled), 9-tards (9), etc.

-Movie/Book series fandoms include: Demigods (Percy Jackson series), Potterheads (Harry Potter series), Twihards (Twilight series), Tributes/Mockingjays (Hunger Games series), Ringers/Tolkinites (Lord of the Rings series), Narnians (Chronicle of Narnia series), Hitchhikers (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series), etc.

Gamer, like Otaku, has had a bad vibe over the years, but it has gained a more positive light as video games are become more popular as a "cheap" escape to the world. Gamer is the term for the video game fandom as a whole, like Otaku there are sub fandoms for individual games:
Pokemonfanatics/Pokefans/Pokemon Trainers (Pokemon series) pictured above, Sonicfags/Sonicfans/Boomers (Sonic the Hedgehog series), Assassins (Assassin's Creed), Minecrafters/Mincraftians (Minecraft), SPARTANs/ODSTs (Halo series), Smashers (Super Smash Bros. series), Drainpipers/Muchroomheads (Super Mario Bros. series), Flocks (Angry Birds), Undertale Trash/Trash (Undertale), RuneScapers/Gielinorians (RuneScape), etc.

 Cosplayers are those who love to dress up as characters from various fandoms, most of which they're members of them as well. While Halloween is a nice time to cosplay, the best way to show off your cosplay skills is at a Con, or convention. These are like big parties for the geeks and nerds of these fandoms. Almost every place has a Con or two for various things, and some are for a little of everything such as, WonderCon and it's larger sister Con, ComicCon (every geeks' dream is to go to this one either in San Diego or New York City).

Till next time,
FoxCat ya later.