by R.C. Samo
Editor-in-Chief
Wind the clock back to April, of this year. Kristen Stewart was favored to win MTV’s Best Hero Award for 2013. However, thanks to a small band of rag-tag Ringer mega fans, that was not the case.
Becky Wetherill of Yorkshire, England was not having any of that. Wetherill took to Twitter under her handle of @LTGothmog to challenge the Twihards and their fandom of shiney vampires.
“I got annoyed when I found Twihards were cheating so I set up an account to hunt down bots. Search and destroy, so that’s what I did,” said Wetherill, shifting all her efforts to push for Bilbo Baggins of The Hobbit.
With the help of Erin O’Malley, Nicole Wildgoose and several others, including the casts of The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, tweeting out #votebilbo to MTV and were able to secure the victory after having started off in last place.
“We all tweeted, ‘VICTORY! WE HAVE VICTORY!’ We tweeted for another two hours and the determination of the fandom to go from 300 votes to over a million and collectively join together,” said Wetherill, who is meeting the rest of her Gothmog Army for the first time face-to-face at DragonCon in Atlanta, GA.
According to Wetherill, MTV had extending the voting hours for the category of Best Hero in order for Stewart to win the award. However, it seems that the Viacom company underestimated the loyalty of Ringers and had to concede to the power of the one ring that ruled them all. With only a mumbling on the aired award show, Bilbo Baggins won, in what could only be compared as the Geeky version of Rocky.
The power of fandom transcends boarders, as Gothmog Army met for the first time face-to-face at DragonCon in Atlanta, GA. A convention with over 90,000 attendees, DragonCon was the epicenter for Gothmog Army to finally unite.
“This is the first time I have been to America in 10 years and my first con ever. I almost naturally felt comfortable with everyone here. Online you could feel socially awkward with everyone but feel open. Maybe that’s because all I’ve had all day is a ham sandwich and a ton of caffeine,” said Wildgoose, Coppercliff, Ontario, Canada.
The power of fandom has won out over the corporate empire and Gothmog Army was the international presence that was able to do so via social media.
“It has been a fun experience and I’m glad that DragonCon was able to bring us together,” said O’Malley, Indianapolis, Indiana.
GROND! ARMY SALUTE!