“Some of the issue here is the misconception that science fiction and fantasy fandoms have long been a preserve for straight white men when they have some of the most diverse fan bases of any genre. So some of the toxicity is definitely a small percentage of white straight male fans conflating mainstreaming with a forced diversification when that diversity has always been there. The bottom line is that these types of fans are used to being at the centre of these stories, and now that is shifting they likely feel a loss of power when, ironically, they remain privileged in almost all respects.”

Jenkins, however, remains optimistic in the power of fandom – and its power to bring us together as well as tear us apart.

Among other things, this resulted in a petition of more than a million signatures for HBO to remake the last series without ‘incompetent’ showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss.

“The sense of ownership reflects the way humans have always engaged with stories,” he says. “We use stories to make sense of who we are. We use stories to debate our values, fears, and aspirations. We display our attachment to stories in various ways and we define ourselves through which stories mean the most to us. There’s nothing odd about this. What is odd is the idea that corporations want to claim a monopoly over the storytelling process, resist input from their audience, and lock down stories from further circulation and elaboration.”

Fitzgerald and Marquez decided to follow the enterprising content creator’s credo: Create your own peg, preferably with a perspective that no one else can replicate.

“After a long day of work, the idea of coming home, watching TV, and then staying up until the wee hours of the morning writing a recap summary of a TV show that is mostly gonna be read by people who watch that show? I resented that work,” Jensen says, laughing. “I was like, We all watched the show! Why do you need me to tell you what happened?”

“Sopranos and Mad Men are two of the best shows to write recaps of, because they’re so dense and laden with meaning and subtext and symbolism,” Sepinwall explains. “You get to really dive in deep with, Well, what does all that mean? What was the show trying to say?” This would prove a common theme of the rise of recapping: More was being written about TV because, in many critics’ minds, there was more to write about.