you are aware of the seriousness than can underly comedy and the absurdity in drama
This is very true, and very important! (And I speak as someone who spent their adult life learning carefully not to Insert Joke/Ridiculous Flippant Statement Here, and failing far too often.)
I haven't read the article (I haven't see TLJ yet and hope to reasonably soon) but the "make it cool/dark" is a bit of a 'fanboy' thing (we have had it a lot in DW over the years), but maybe "taking it too seriously" isn't entirely the right way to put it? Don't lose perspective, or self-awareness, or don't bully, perhaps - it's trying to force the thing itself to be what you see it as, which in life or fiction, generally gets very toxic and hurtful quickly, whether it's making stuff properly cool, or tinhat shipping, or deciding this one fandom is the most Evil and going on a moral crusade against it and all its fans. Whatever you call it, it's the eternal pools of toxicity in fandom, and while generalities are always problematic the need to be cool does tend to be on 'fanboy' end of the scale. I don't know what the solution is: possibly don't human being, I don't know. (Maybe that's too cynical? Hopefully.)
But there are too many people who think there's nothing serious or worthwhile in something when it's absurd or comedic or even just fantastical, and you are not one of those. And people who get that are indeed one of the joys of being in fannish spaces/talking to people online. <3
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This is very true, and very important! (And I speak as someone who spent their adult life learning carefully not to Insert Joke/Ridiculous Flippant Statement Here, and failing far too often.)
I haven't read the article (I haven't see TLJ yet and hope to reasonably soon) but the "make it cool/dark" is a bit of a 'fanboy' thing (we have had it a lot in DW over the years), but maybe "taking it too seriously" isn't entirely the right way to put it? Don't lose perspective, or self-awareness, or don't bully, perhaps - it's trying to force the thing itself to be what you see it as, which in life or fiction, generally gets very toxic and hurtful quickly, whether it's making stuff properly cool, or tinhat shipping, or deciding this one fandom is the most Evil and going on a moral crusade against it and all its fans. Whatever you call it, it's the eternal pools of toxicity in fandom, and while generalities are always problematic the need to be cool does tend to be on 'fanboy' end of the scale. I don't know what the solution is: possibly don't human being, I don't know. (Maybe that's too cynical? Hopefully.)
But there are too many people who think there's nothing serious or worthwhile in something when it's absurd or comedic or even just fantastical, and you are not one of those. And people who get that are indeed one of the joys of being in fannish spaces/talking to people online. <3