I often come across posts where people are discussing the logic of a movie or comic book. An example could be Star Wars, where they discuss how a light saber works. Or which superheroes would win in a fight against each other. To me, it seems pointless to discuss such things as it is fiction. Just an insight into someone else’s imagination.
I don’t think a post has ever felt this alien to me. Lol.
Enjoying fiction at any level is an exercise in tricking yourself that something fake is something real, but the deeper you can take that process, the more fun the experience is.
Those of us who do that type of thing are unsatisfied with “insight into someone else’s imagination,” which sounds like an extremely shallow appreciation for fiction. We want full immersion in that imagination. With that comes an appreciation for internal consistency, well thought out lore, curiosity in how different universes we care about might interact, disagreements with any of the former, etc. all colored by our real lived experiences.
I’ll use your example as my example. I’m a big STEM guy, so naturally, I appreciate thinking that’s more in line with those areas. I think George Lucas’ idea of lightsabers being lasers frozen in place is dumb. I prefer to think of them as electromagnetically contained plasma, which also explains other sabers and laser/plasma projectiles bouncing off of them. That headcanon allows me to appreciate lightsabers (and thus the stories around them) more. That headcanon is also fun to express to others (like here).