can you imagine if tumblr was around when the original star wars came out and in the two year gap between movies there were heated arguments between luke/leia shippers and han/leia shippers and all kind of vague posts and fandom wank and thousands of luke/leia fics on ao3 and people devotedly making gifsets of luke/leia with florence + the machine lyrics only for it be revealed that they were SIBLINGS like can you imagine the fallout
like i’m imagining something akin to the great ron/hermione vs harry/hermione ship war of 2011 and all the thousands of words of meta and hate blogging debates over the dancing scene in deathly hallows, like if all that had happened and people became so deeply entrenched in their points of view and then jk rowling was like “word of god is that harry and hermione are long lost twins” like IT WOULD BE INCREDIBLE
But this sort of stuff DID HAPPEN.
fandom shit WAS THERE since 1977 and onwards. Just because the technology was different doesn’t mean it wasn’t there.
There were fan clubs like The Royal Order of the Rebel Forces, started in 1977 by “Paula Truelove”. There was an official newsletter Bantha Tracks that published fan art and meta.
There was adult het and slash (Han/Luke) themed fan fiction since the early 1980s, much of which (especially the latter), had to be circulated privately bc of the uproar it caused with some of the fandom and Lucasfilm.
“Before the internet, fans kept in contact via regular mail and letterzines, which were small, cheaply produced zines that printed letters from the subscribers, often including new zine announcements, meta discussions and essays, and flame wars as well as friendly chat and news about the movies and the fan community. Some fan club groups also produced their own letterzines, some including members’ fan fiction and fan art.” Check the vintage zines out, they’re still selling on ebay
I imagine perusing the family photo album leads to some awkward moments nowadays.
…People forget. Or in some cases, they were just born too soon.
The only thing that has changed about fandom is the communications technology. Everything else remains the same.
(And at this end of things, I’ve been around long enough for my first-and-only Star Wars fanfic to have been published in paper. [Happy accident associated with this: someone involved with the fanzine was instrumental in helping the FBI catch the woman who was running around impersonating me.])
The Han/Luke wars were epic.* And so many other meta wanks it would make your head spin. Issues of the Star Wars newsletter/letterzine, The Southern Enclave, are online and you can some of it. It captures the moment in the mid-1900s when Star Wars fans decided to start publishing slash fiction in defiance of decades of threats from fellow fans (and of course Lucasfilm).
*From Fanlore: “In the 1980s, the phrase “Han/Luke” did not always refer to the slash pairing - instead it was most often used to discuss the fandom wars between those fans who preferred Han Solo to Luke Skywalker(or vice versa). “
