Most m/m shippers, as in the people who read and write the fanfic, are usually straight and bi women. Shipping has been a huge part of fandom at least since Star Trek TOS. There were possibly even Sherlock/Watson shippers among the OG Victorian Sherlock Holmes fans (that’s the oldest fandom I’m aware of). I’d say…

Shipping has always been fairly mainstream in some fandoms.

I liked Mulan, but they had to go and crush her poor gay heart.

I was in the Dragonriders of Pern fandom from maybe 96-04. Anne McCaffrey DID allow fanfic, but heavily regulated what fans could write. Original characters only, no stories set in Benden Weyr, no mutated dragon colors. The fic could not be posted on public sites. It could only be published in zines, private email…

Watch out, you can get flamed here for complaining about spoilers being posted on io9 headlines. I’m lucky I was camping and offline up until I saw Infinity War last night, so I missed the headline.

Steven Universe has some thematic similarities to Animorphs, if you read that series growing up. Though they both feature children fighting in an epic space war, but the similarities are more thematic. That is, they explore the ethics of said space war with moral complexity that you don’t usually see in children’s…

I didn’t realize Steven Universe was on its last season (and don’t find any news of this being the case after a quick search).

The more I hear about the production of Mad Max Fury Road, the more I’m amazed the movie turned out near perfect.

I heard it here on io9 that her backstory in the comics wasn’t... great.

Xena should be on this list. Excellent finale season, terrible finale. We tell new fans to skip the last two episodes.

Why do folks hate the interpretive dancing on The OA but love it on Legion? Maybe someone with a dance background can help me out here.

Yup. I’d need to rewatch to double check, but I remember they showed her teen diary in season 1 and it said ‘98. If she’s in college during Trish’s music career, it’s probably 4-6 years later.

I’m in a Facebook group that is literally called, “Positive Fans of Star Trek Discovery.” It’s a good group of people, and well moderated.

Since I’m more of a Niner than a Trekkie, I would love anything filling in the backstory on my favorite Trek series.

I would love to see the amazing Ming Na Wen in Captain Marvel. This would be an excellent way for the MCU movies to start acknowledging the events of the television series.

That isn’t fandom gatekeeping though, unless you are telling the OG fans to get out. I haven’t seen any Discover fans shitting on old Star Trek, and I’m in some Discovery fan groups. They all love and watch the old Treks.

Good question. Fandom gatekeeping is trying to make a fandom exclusive and hard to join, and telling people they aren’t real fans if they don’t ascribe to the opinions of the inner circle of hardcore fans. A new fan might be made unwelcome if they came to a franchise through the reboot or don’t ship the most popular…

I don’t care if you like Discovery or not, but “real Trekkies” nonsense is fandom gatekeeping.

I’m really excited if this means Michelle Yeoh will be back in season 2.

Yikes! This is why I prefer scary things to be behind the cut.