What’s Your Supernatural Fan Rank?
I’ll freely admit – I am a bad fan about many things.
Now I don’t mean that I’m a bad person (well – no more than usual). Rather, I’m referring in an objective manner to what it means to be a fan. Growing up I loved a lot of things that I was unable to properly enjoy. For example, I was a bad fan of Godzilla. The movies were never on any TV station we could get. It would be years before we got a VCR and even then it was rare I could find copies at the rental store, much less ever get time with the TV to watch it in the first place. The best I could do was a book in the school library that talked about Godzilla and his films which I read over and over as often as I could. From a perspective of fandom, I couldn’t directly experience the thing that interested me. I had to enjoy it through a kind of proxy lens until years later. Even with toys, I only had one or two Toho monsters I could play with. Compared to fans who had seen films in theaters and had libraries of tapes, I was a very bad fan of the big green G. (It is partially why I can’t ever hate the American rendition of Godzilla 1985 – it was one of the first I got to watch. Likewise Godzilla vs the Sea Monster was the first VHS I got to own and to this day I won’t say anything bad about it.)
Supernatural, however, was one of the first things for which I got to be a great fan. I was able to watch it by the time the second episode aired and kept watching every episode with some faithfulness as soon as I could. Looking back at both ends of the fandom I got to experience has made me realize that there are grades/ranks to fandom. Which are you when it comes to Supernatural?
-0 (Negative Zero)
We start here with the rank of complete ignorance. You know nothing about Supernatural. You hear “Winchester” and think of the gun makers. This is obviously where we all begin – even I was a negative zero fan of the show until the WB finally aired it. Of course, part of the fun in fandom is getting the chance to guide someone from this starting point to one of the higher ranks.
F (is for Furious)
Some people may know about the show, and just not like it. This is the rank for them – the grade for the haters. F rank fans are aware of Supernatural, know about it, and don’t like it one bit. Hey, sometimes that’s just the way it is. I know how it can be if you’re higher up on the grade and you run into an F level fan, but sometimes you just have to accept it and not let it bother you.
F++
A special grade for special haters. These are people who not only hate Supernatural, they hate it so much they could challenge an A rank fan in a trivia contest about the show. Most often these people were former fans of Supernatural who were displeased or disenchanted by later developments that caused their love turn to hate.
Maybe we can at least take a moment to remember the good times?
D (is for Disinterested)
This is the rank where you’ve heard about Supernatural, but you just don’t care. Yeah, you might know who “Sam” or “Dean” are but Charlie and Jack mean nothing to you. Almost every work wants to become so well known that more of the population is D rank than -0 rank.
This is where I must give Supernatural some credit. It seems very few franchises could really reach the D-grade level of wide cultural penetration. Star Trek and Star Wars seem like one of the few that people at least heard of even if they never watched any of it. Well, after 15 seasons and who knows how many replays in syndication, I must admit that Supernatural seems to be reaching that level where folks at least know of it, since you can sometimes find references to the Winchesters in random places you would never expect. As someone who remembers when the show first began and nobody would have any idea what I was talking about if I ever brought it up, it has been satisfying to see Sam and Dean get more love after a decade and half of the family business.
C (is for Casual)
The bulk of the fans. You know Supernatural. You like Supernatural. You have experienced Supernatural, but you’re not obsessed with it. You might enjoy jokes and references to the show, but you won’t go out of your way to expand your experience. You enjoyed what you did about it, and feel satisfied by that. You’ll stop on a rerun if you catch it while channel surfing but you don’t set up rewatch parties for certain seasons.
You probably have some favorite memes and gifs, and maybe one t-shirt, but you’ll still mix up some of the side characters with each other.
B (is for Beyond)
Those who have moved past casual. If you’re here reading this, you’re probably at least a B rank fan. At this level, you have not only read fan fiction, you’ve started writing it. You may also do cosplay, and your merchandise purchases equals the GDP of some small countries. You don’t just enjoy Supernatural, you want to experience it outside the regular context and more often in your life in different circumstances. You are a solid contestant in trivia contests about the thing. You may not seek out Supernatural specific conventions, but when you go to a geek convention, you are definitely prioritizing the Supernatural-themed events.
A (is for Adulation)
The A rank fans are those who have gone beyond the others. You don’t just know about Supernatural, you know the most obscure facts about it. You probably own extremely rare items related to it. You don’t write fan fic – you write dissertations. It’s shorter to list the franchise-related merch you do not have. You don’t just know the trivia, you’re able to correct the judges in a trivia contest in real time. You’ve not only experienced Supernatural, you’ve revisited it so many times you can recite episodes from memory. If someone shows you a screenshot, you can identify which episode it’s from.
You are – in short – a high priest of the fandom. We must try to be friendly and magnanimous to encourage more people to join the fandom and not fear reaching our level.
S (is for Stupendous)
The rarest of rare fans, you have gone above and beyond what any other fan has dreamed up. This spot is reserved for the fans who have actually touched something from the show itself. Whether shaken the hand of someone involved, talked with the creator, or even acquired a piece of the production, we all salute you. Even the highest of A rank fans bow their heads to the S rank in humility and honor of those who have accomplished what many of us dreamed.
Yes, I would nominate this site admin, Alice Jester, and site editor, Nightsky, as full Supernatural S-rank fans. And thank them for the privilege to work with them.
So far, all my examples have been for Supernatural, but The WFB covers so much more than Supernatural. On here, we’re fans of The Boys, Walker, Walker: Independence, The Winchesters, Gotham Knights and so many others! What is your Fan Rank for those shows? What other shows deserve a Fan Rank for/from you? .
Now, the most fun part of every fandom grade? Doing the homework to try and improve it since it is all up to you. 😉 Maybe I’ll go through my blu-rays and see if there’s any commentary tracks I haven’t listened to yet. Or maybe it’s time for another fanfiction…
What are your Fan Ranks and What’s Your Homework?
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