Results of Ruminations

I've long recognized that I have dichotomous tastes. A life-long fan of comics (mostly superhero comics, but there are some others that I appreciate), video games, and parts of anime, I've grown up subsisting on a steady diet of the fantastic. The Chronicles of Prydain  formed a background of middle grade and young adult fantasy (since Harry Potter  wasn't around--and when he showed up, I was anti-Potter), with Anne McCaffery's worlds filling in the gaps. I watched some Star Trek  with my mom, thought Star Wars  was fine (until it wasn't, ruined by constant viewings of the VHS tapes by my little brother--to the point it bred a bit of antipathy in me about them), and I read Animorphs . Both science fiction and fantasy swirled throughout much of my early life. Because of my obsessive personality, I definitely focused on Spider-Man a lot more than other properties, relying on that fusion of science fiction/fantasy that, frankly, has always been the most comfortable ...

Out of curiosity, I googled "Why is Star Wars so good?" It gave me a lot of would-be think pieces about if the next Star Wars will live up to its hype. I had to tweak my search, and eventually I found a couple of articles that listed stuff the writer liked about Star Wars as an explanation for why it's worthwhile. Frustrated, I finally landed on an article from 1983 that actually talks about the film as a film. It didn't expand too much for me, but it was nice to see someone had tried to articulate what Star Wars does successfully. On a whim, I googled "Why is Game of Thrones so good?" and, within two hits, had found a thought-provoking, intriguing article that made a case for GoT 's success that goes far beyond "sex and violence". I don't really know what to make of this, since we've had decades to think about Star Wars and only six years to figure out GoT, but I think there's a momentum of fan ossification (mixed metaphor...s...