I think “fanboys who can’t let go” is the opposite of this. The fact that this is all in-service of a community effort to turn something they didn’t like into something they do (or, well, tolerate) purely for the sake of their own personal enjoyment is inspiring. It feels to me like a vision of how creating mass-appeal art could actually progress in a world where creators didn’t have to worry so much about what corporate shareholders think is profitable. Even at it’s most dull, this is infinitely more productive than a bunch of people just whining about the movie not being good, because something is literally being produced, and not really out of spite (well, disappointment isn’t much better, but it’s not as mean).

Like, mods and fanedits are just kind of incredible to me? Even before Star Wars, I was absolutely blown away by things like One Pace, Dragon Ball Recut, Dreamcast Conversion and even stuff like Black Mesa (to an extent). It feels like this is just the purpose of fandom, in a way.