Episode 1: Pandering to Your Audience

      Today, media pandering to their audience is all the rage. Especially in cinema and television, creators love to give their consumers exactly what they want. Not only does this please fans and earn the creators good reviews, it also causes more people to give money to the product, thus more money in the creators' pockets. So why not give your base exactly what it wants to see?

   

Fan-Service

       The first type of pandering I want to talk about is fan-service. I wanna start with this one because I think this is the best form of pandering, and I wanna start off this episode on a positive note.

   

   Fan-service is when long-time fans of the franchise are rewarded for their fandom. A long-missing hero returns, something iconic from the comics happens, a bad person has a change of heart, something that was teased for a long time finally comes to be, etc.

   

   My favorite movie of all time is one that's full of fan-service, Avengers: Endgame. MCU spoilers ahead, so beware. It was so awesome to see the remaining Avengers band up to time travel and collect the infinity stones to restore the half of the universe's population that Thanos wiped out in Avengers: Infinity War. One of the most iconic scenes is when Tony (Iron Man), sacrifices himself to kill Thanos and his army when Thanos is seconds away from winning again. Thanos thought he had all the stones, and he coyly said "I am inevitable" as he snapped his fingers, hoping his snap would destroy the universe completely. But when he snapped, nothing happened. He turns to see that Tony is on the ground with the Infinity Gauntlet on his hand, decked out in all six infinity stones. The look of surprise and fear and Thanos' face is priceless, as Tony responds, "and I... am... Iron Man."

 

     Tony snaps, and Thanos' army all turns to dust, and Thanos sits down to accept his fate before he turns to dust himself. But the force of the snap was too much for any normal man to endure, and it kills Tony. But he knew it would kill him, and he willingly gave his life for the survival of the universe. As he dies, he gets to talk to his wife, Pepper Potts, and his protégé, Peter Parker (Spider-Man), one last time.

     

     This is an excellent example of fan-service, because Tony's sacrifice was great pay-off and a great exit for a beloved character who had been in many movies for over a decade. The MCU itself started with Iron Man, in his self-titled movie in 2008. He went in on star in two sequels, all four Avengers movies, and played a central part in Captain America: Civil War and Spider-Man: Homecoming. It was great to see the crass, self-centered millionaire Tony started as grow to be the hero to make the sacrifice play.

     

     There's just another scene in Endgame I wanna mention, then I'll shut up about it. When Steve (Captain America) wields Thor's hammer, Mjolnir. Most fans could recall a scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron, where the Avengers are hanging out after a party. Thor dares the other Avengers to try and lift his hammer, and Clint (Hawkeye) is the one most sure he can do it. But of course, Clint tries and the hammer doesn't budge. Others try and it still doesn't budge. Tony and Rhodey (War Machine) even try together, using their machinery, and it still doesn't budge. But when Steve tries, it budges ever so slightly, but enough to make Thor notice. This scene showed that Steve was on the verge of being worthy enough to lift it, and set fans hoping that we would eventually see him actually use it.

     Sure enough, we do get to see him use it. During the final battle, Thanos has Tony beat and is pinning Thor down, beginning to drive Thor's own axe into his chest. Mind you, the "big three" Avengers (Tony, Steve, and Thor) are the only ones fighting Thanos at this point. Mjolnir is just out of Thor's reach, so he can't get it. Just as all hope seems lost for Thor, Mjolnir starts to lift off the ground, and darts through the air until it lands in Steve's outstretched hand. Steve proceeds to use both Mjolnir and his shield in a combo to absolutely sauce on Thanos.

      These moments and moments like them are great pandering. The pandering I pay to see and then write a stupid blog about two years later. I'm thankful for this pandering. But let's talk about one other kind of pandering.

Diversity

    Don't get me wrong, I'm all for diversity and representation. Take Eternals, the most recent MCU movie for example. Among the team, there are multiple people of color, a Deaf woman, and some white people. This is the kind of range I love to see. I don't think any creative work should be dominated by one kind of people but should instead be a mixture of many kinds.

    What I don't like, though, is pressure to be diverse. While I agree that writers should incorporate characters of minorities into their work, I don't think they should have to force themselves to. That leads to creators writing someone in just to be the Black one, and that's not fair. And I don't think someone should be labeled a racist if there isn't a character for every race. Or when previously established characters are changed for the sake of diversity. If you want your franchise to be more diverse, that's great! So then, create more product for your existing minority characters or create more minority characters. Don't change the characters that already exist.

That concludes this week's episode. See you next week!