Chapter One
Fangirl Geek
Are you able to tell the difference between Badtz-Maru and Chi Chai Monchan? Back slowly away from the Sanrio store, rifle through your bag for some sort of writing implement, and test your fangirl geek knowledge!
1. Director George Lucas made a very controversial change to a scene in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, where Greedo comes to the Mos Eisley Cantina to collect the bounty on Han Soloâs head. In the 1997 Special Edition version, Greedo fires his blaster at Solo first and misses, and then Solo retaliates by shooting Greedo. However, in the 1977 original film, Solo shoots Greedo without the Rodian bounty hunter ever firing a shot. Fans upset with the change can often be found uttering the phrase:
A. âGreedo shot first.â
B. âA bird in the Han is worth two in the Bossk.â
C. âHan shot first.â
2. In Dr. Who, the longest-running sci-fi drama in history, the doctor travels through time on his spacecraft, which is called the TARDIS. What is TARDIS an acronym for?
A. Taking Apart Rational Distance If Stimulated.
B. You really shouldnât say the word âtardis.â Itâs not very politically correct. They preferred to be called âspecialâ or âchallenged.â
C. Time and Relative Dimensions in Space.
3. Which of the following Neil Gaiman books has not been made into a movie?
A. Stardust.
B. Coraline.
C. The Day I Swapped My Dad for Two Goldfish.
4. What is the Honor System in World of Warcraft?
A. A code of practice based on trust and honesty.
B. Donât you mean Honor Society? Theyâre a pop-rock band on the Jonas Brothersâ record label, Jonas Records. Duh.
C. It allows WoW players to gain Honor Points, which are earned through Battlegrounds and World Outdoor PvP and are based on PvP kills and battles. Players can then spend said Honor Points on special rewards, like equipment and weapons.
5. In 1988, comic book artist Jamie Hewlett debuted the Tank Girl series, which centered around a foul-mouthed, drug- addled female outlaw with a multimillion-dollar bounty on her Mohawked head. Though she spent most of her time running around postapocalyptic Australia (and then postapocalyptic Britain) with her boyfriend Booga, a mutant kangaroo, she would go on to become an anarchist antiheroine. Hewlett was involved with the comic until 1996, after which he started the first âvirtual bandâ made of comic book characters. That band is called:
A. Wolfmother.
B. The Monkeys.
C. Gorillaz.
ANSWER KEY
Mostly As: Your gumption is greatly admired, but youâre going to have to do a lot more than watch Coraline in 3-D to be considered a true fangirl geek. Donât worry, though. By the end of this chapter, youâll be bursting with fangirl wisdom.
Mostly Bs: Sorry, Heidi Montag, but just because your body is 70 percent synthetic material doesnât mean you have anything in common with the kind of plastic used to make designer toys for Kidrobot and Tokidoki. In fact, donât you have to attend the opening of an envelope right about now? I wonât be offended if you have to excuse yourself. In fact, I insist.
Mostly Cs: Major props, mademoiselle. Youâre a bona fide fangirl geek!
CHARACTER SKETCH
There comes a time in almost every girlâs life when she outgrows her toys. Her collection of American Girl dolls and accessories disappears from her bedside table and begins a mass migration to the attic, along with her Bratz, Barbies, and all their teeny-tiny high heels with them. She asks for the Project Runway Make-up Artist Studio Box for her next birthday. She stops playing Super Mario Bros. on her Nintendo DS in favor of watching the Jonas Brothers in Camp Rock, and before you know it, sheâs one pack of Justin Bieber Silly Bandz away from becoming a dreaded tween.
âBeing fangirly isnât just a content love of the subject, itâs a consuming obsession that can only be satiated by constant listening, viewing, thinking about, and writing fan fiction of the obsessed object.â
Zoe Yeaton
Tyrone, PA
The thing that separates the fangirl from the average girl is that she never really outgrows her toys. Instead, her girlhood obsession becomes more serious and intense with age. For fangirls, collecting Hello Kitty cookware, rocking along to Jem & the Holograms, or reading about Archie Andrews is more than just a hobby; itâs an unfettered source of happinessâand why would anyone want to put an end to their happiness just because theyâve reached an arbitrary age ceiling? That just seems cruel and inhumane.
The teenage years can be tough on the fangirl, though. Clothes and boys excite her classmates, while sheâs more stoked by a marathon screening of Dexter. Her peers canât wait for the weekend so they can go to school dances or drink Booneâs Farm behind the bleachers, but her favorite day of the week is Wednesday because thatâs when all the new comics come out. For these reasons, fangirls often rank somewhere between the euphonium player in the marching band and the drama club lighting designer on the high school popularity totem pole. Itâs no wonder that most fangirls have a hard time relating to their contemporaries and often choose to participate in online communities rather than partake in real-world socialization. After all, by creating an avatar, fangirls are free to be whoever they areâor whoever they want to beâwithout the fear of mockery, misunderstanding, or the impending threat of being shoved into a locker.
âIâd describe a fangirl as someone who prays to Joss Whedon, kisses her Edward Cullen action figure good night, and meets her soul mate at Comic-Con. Sheâs strange in the best ways and awkward to the core.â
Kendra Beltran
Cabazon, CA
âNever be ashamed! Thereâs some whoâll hold it against you, but theyâre not worth bothering with.â
âauthor J. K. Rowling
SAY WHAT? THE FANGIRL LEXICON
It would be tough to bond with a fangirl geek without mastering the proper syntax. After all, you donât want to tweet something like ROTFL when you really meant to type RTFM. That would be embarrassing. In order to save yourself from a future FML moment, Iâve compiled a glossary of essential fangirl terms so you can mingle seamlessly with the manga masses.
Anime (n.) Abbreviation for âJapanese animation.â The drawing style is typified by panel layouts, exclamatory dialogue, and characters that have exaggerated features and lip-synch worse than Ashlee Simpson.
Avatar (n.) A computer-generated representation of a gamer.
Cosplay (n.) Abbreviation for âcostume play,â as when a fan dresses up like her favorite movie, comic book, and/or anime character for a convention, to go LARPing (see below), or, for those with less of...