Over the weekend I caught MTV's True Life episode titled "I'm a Fanboy." The documentary followed the lives of three people: A 26-year-old Power Rangers fan seeking love, a horror fan trying to break into the horror film industry and a World of Warcraft player dealing with her love life.
The Power Rangers fan stole the show for me. He was probably the most relatively extreme when it came to being without social skills, specifically in the opposite sex arena. He wasn't a complete leper, he maintained a regular job at Staples, but you could tell he was socially awkward. At least the other two people documented on the show had significant others, indicating they could function minimally outside of their fantasy worlds. The focus his struggle, the Power Rangers fan, was finding a girlfriend as he's been without a girlfriend all of his life. During the course of the show, he managed to find another girl at an anime convention who was also a die-hard Power Rangers fan. All seemed to go well with his quest, until he revealed that she was only 17! He's 26! I'd say the most awkward moment was when he decided to ask her out. It went something like this: "Would you... maybe... consider... going out with me... in the distant future... maybe?" as the sound of crickets and awkwardness ensued! She didn't flat out reject him, but she squeamishly said no. They did remain friends though.
It was interesting watching their stories unfold, all while sitting at the edge of my seat, wondering where I'd see elements they had that I could relate to. Thankfully, their lives don't mimic mine [at least I don't think so], but I shouldn't be quick to make fun or judge them. After all, we are all fans, just on different degrees of weirdness, and there is nothing wrong with that!
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