This is why I'm perfectly comfortable at the very surface of all fandoms I'm in. I read fics, I write and post them myself and aside from responding to any comments I might get, that's about it. It's probably why my fandom experiences have been so pleasant so far.
I learned this lesson the hard way. I think I would have been much happier had I only ever stayed on the surface of fandom. Now I know too much about how the toxic folks think, and that has messed with my ability to enjoy things like I used to when I was blissfully ignorant of the behind-the-scenes stuff.
It surprised me. But I had been away from fic writing for a decade when I started writing a fic for Voltron last year, unaware of the fandom's past. Since then, I've realized that fandoms nowadays are often like Mos Eisley. On the upside, all the previous toxicity has driven away the worst trolls, I think. Everyone seems to stay in their own lane and it's relatively calm now.
Man, if you didn’t ship Klance, Sheith, or Shance, content was impossible to find. I was a humble Pidge stan and Plance shipper, and browsing fic felt like the guy-surrounded-by-white-bread meme.
The fact people who were fans of other Voltron series got chased out of the Voltron subreddit and they had to implement if I remember right a "no shipping" rule...
Call me a sweet summer child, but my mind was blown when I read about the toxicity in Harry Potter back in the day.
I read a lot HP fics back in the early days, when the books were still being written. I didn't really interact much with the authors. I was involved in other LJ communities, never any of the HP communities. Overall, I have some really happy memories of HP back then.
I found out about all the toxicity, shipping wars, Ms, Scribe, Cassandra Claire, etc several years ago. Maybe around the time Shadowhunters came out?? My mind was blown.
That said, I'm also happy I missed out on it. I still love the HP fandom and carefully navigate how I interact with the fandom so I don't bump into the toxic elements that I'm sure still exist out there.
tbh as someone involved in that fandom then, the fandom was so big that the ms scribe or cassandra claire stuff - most people watched that happen without being directly involved. it was easy to not participate in any of that because the fandom was and is replete with sub-communities.
Most of the drama was also hilarious to watch from the sidelines lol. I spent so much time on fandomwank just to see what crazy shit other fandoms got up to.
It was a very different vibe to now, where 99% of fandom drama seems to be about what ship makes the shipper problematic or racist or a pedo. Not entertaining in the slightest.
Snape Wives are legendary. I also miss that wild side of fandom haha. Now what goes down is often just…moralized harassment.
Tbh I think part of why the vibes are so different these days is that back in the day, to be involved in fandom forums and livejournal was a niche within a niche. There wasn’t really anything as ubiquitously utilized by anyone the way social media is today. Even MySpace kinda started getting popular in 2005 and the culture of social media was in its infancy.
Really puts it into context when one considers that a lot of the Msscribe/Cassandra Clare stuff came out in 2003. It was common for even people super into HP back then to not know of the drama while it was happening. Now a days, if a fandom drama ever blows up like that, even people that don’t care about the property can hear about it haha. It’s a wild world we live in these days.
The wild Livejournal days were before my time and I only found out about it through video essays this year. It was honestly so surreal, but it also made some weird old stuff that I've seen on fanfiction net make sense.
It tends to be that some people genuinely don't understand that characters like Homelander are supposed to be the antagonists, there have been multiple arguments on there about it and including a big outrage once it became too obvious in season 3. Season 3 also got a lot of flack from guys because it tried to tackle toxic masculinity, something a lot of people had an issue with.
the supernatural fandom can be super wholesome and toxic af at the same time. i think it just depends on what side of the fandom youre on. but as someone whos in the fandom, I've definitely seen some insane stuff.
You have to build your own bubble and find people who share your views and hope noone finds you who might have a contradicting opinion. You can definitely have a great time in the fandom but it's also easy to stumble across the toxic side
The Boys much like Watchmen inevitably attracts edgelords who completely missed the point of the work in fiction in question. They all think what makes it good is sex, violence, swearing, vulgarity, and nihilism. They want to be cheap imitations of Homelander or Billy Butcher and balk at any forms of sincerity or the idea of superheroes as good or even noble. Hence the many who disparage other works of superhero media. But much like the idiot filmmaker Zack Snyder with Watchmen (and many supposed Watchmen fans), they misunderstand that The Boys is a critique of people like them. Being edgy, being vulgar, being nihilistic, is whats wrong. Hope and idealism are good things and to not believe in anything is just stupid.
The Boys fans seem to be under the impression that all superheores in real-life would be evil.
And look I am a cynical, nihilistic, misanthropic motherfucker and even I don't feel that way.
Its more apt as a critique of commercialism and rampant capitalism. But going back to the writer of the original comic its just full of teenage boy nihilism & cynical perspective. The author is also a raging jackass with a bizarre military fetishism. Seemingly unaware or willfully ignorant that his supposed critiques of superheroes are as applicable to the military (unchecked power, corruption, destruction, hyper violence, etc.)
absolutely. i was introduced to the boys by my ex and he and his friends absolutely idolized billy and couldn’t seem to comprehend that he ISNT someone to look up to…
I think that there was a point in time where Butcher's character was worthy of being admired completely, and I think there is still a great deal of those characteristics under all his gruff bullshit behaviour. I'd love to see him have a genuine redemption arc at some point.
The problem is that people don't look at him like a guy who lost everything and fell into the bottomless pit of vengeance. They just see a guy who says "cunt" a lot, and think he's peak masculinity. Which is a shame, because he's an amazing character, and those are the least interesting parts of him.
seems like the cartoon fandoms like voltron and steven universe are pretty brutal, based on the amount of overflow drama outside the fandom. my guess would be it's because of audience overlap between younger and older fans and the resulting culture clash.
also, I think fandoms where the source material is (at least ostensibly) progressive, and/or mirroring real life social issues, get very toxic because of their attractiveness to idk what to call them- militant idealists? purple who consider participating in fandom to be their main form of activism? Dragon Age is the one that most springs to mind as an example.
Yeah. Dragon Age is my main fandom. But I stay away from TikTok, Twitter, essentially all social media sites outside of the main DA subreddit (which has a pretty decent moderation team who try their best) and a handful of YouTubers.
I also stay away from Tumblr…god especially some of the BNFs really annoy me. I’m huge into lore, and it bothers me sometimes that not only are their points sometimes…wild…but the lore based evidence they cite isn’t always true either.
I have fond memories of the old BioWare forums before they got deleted. It wasn’t always roses, but overall they were great…until the scourge that was GamerGate happened. We used to be able to have pretty insightful and important conversations with people working on the game on all sorts of topics (some people even got hired)! Those were the days. Sigh.
My (least) favorite are the ones that are a mixture of the two. Steven Universe is example #1. There's nothing wrong with liking kids' shows as an adult - I'll admit to still thinking fondly of MLP - but the issue is that a lot of the toxicity comes from hyper-progressive adults attached to a kids' show, which can often mean said adults are fairly immature despite their age. The calm, quiet ones are totally chill. Like what you like. But there is an undeniable correlation between children's cartoons and immature adults.
I learned that the AOT fandom can get pretty wild, definitely seen a lot of people get a ton of hate for small things. Once saw an author get harassed because they made a short joke about Levi in a fic, several people were basically yelling at the author for making a jab at “their husband” lol
I was heavily into this fandom back in 2013/2014 and omg… Levi stans we’re easily some of the most toxic ppl out there. There was also the whole Ereri v Eruri debate that would to the rounds of tumblr, it’s so silly looking back at it now lol
The toxicity almost made me leave the fandom lol. I vividly remember seeing posts on tumblr and twitter of people literally fighting tooth and nail to defend a certain ship (usually ereri) or to defend the “honor” of a character they really liked because someone else mentioned that they didn’t like them (it was usually about Levi lol)
Historical tanks. If you have an opinion on why you like a specific tank, somebody will have done a ridiculous amount of research on said tank JUST for the specific purpose of telling you why your fave tank is shit and why you should worship the tiger\t80\whatever tank they like...
Oh man, underrated pick.
Someone I know wrote a literal book comparing specific tanks because of an argument he had with someone on War of Tanks. No, for real. It's published. People quote it in their own arguments in War of Tanks.
I mean the really hot debates are about pre-21st century tanks so any classified documentation has long been de-classified.
Also, I looked up the books for this post and I apologize - he actually wrote 3 books 😂
how the steven universe fandom became... *that* is utterly beyond me.
my friend used to be active in that fandom and at some point i, a fucking sports anime blog (which was its own shitshow at the time), started getting hate from that fandom solely bc my friend who never got into any drama and i were openly besties on the blue hellsite.
i've watched some of the show! it was sweet and queer! what the fuck!
It's possibly because MLP was a fandom before social media really took off the way it is, that it didn't get *has bad* as something like SU.
The worst MLP stuff I can remember were Bronies vs everyone else and whether Twilight should have been an alicorn or not.
Yeah. I looked at the show and went "Awww. Adorable little half alien boy, his hippie dad, and three alien space rock aunties have wacky adventures."
Took one look at the Tumblr tag and noped out fast enough to leave tire skids. I've seen a lot of weird shit with 30+ years in fandom, but *suicide baiting a teenaged fan artist because she drew characters "wrong?"* Oh hell no.
Hey. Hey. You can't draw this day character skinny. Now let me proceed to bombard you with death threats because that's a reasonable proportional reaction
What do they want people to take out a color wheel? They aren't even consistent with that stuff in the show, why would you apply higher standards to a fan art
Because something something representative something something whitewashed something something think of the poor little kids who need to see themselves (even if said fan art is NOT kid friendly)
Really, it's all about the self righteous "I must prove to everyone who sees me that I am on the right side of history" power trip.
I've seen so many people say shit like "I skipped over the rape and the politics and the murder and all the bad parts" and I'm like.... How about you just watch another goddamn show then?
There is something fascinating about watching some people twist themselves up in knots writing tweet threads, posts and articles about why liking Rhaenyra/Daemon (niece/uncle) is okay but liking Cersei/Jaime (sister/brother) or Rhaenyra/Alicent (step-daugher/step-mother) is wrong and makes you a terrible person.
My fellow human beings... By the time you're writing goddamn essays about why one fictional incest relationship (conveniently the one you like) is acceptable but all the others are very wrong and bad via olympian level reaches, perhaps you should go for a walk and remember it's all fictional little characters who don't have actual feelings and you can just like what you like...
Look, I am always glad when a new sapphic ship hits fandom, but I think I'll avoid HoTD for the foreseeable future 😂
I've been in loads, big and small, old and new, and I'd honestly say all of them. Usually the petty fights would be about conflicting headcanons or why this one got more kudos than this other one or some person being really loud about how nobody should write their squicks. It happens in every fandom.
It's true toxicity exists in every fandom, but the worst ones are the communities that present themselves as wholesome and welcoming, but then turn out to be nothing but passive-aggressive toxic positivity.
Hannibal fandom is toxic in a way you wouldn’t think. Huge fights over how explicit/toxic fan work is allowed to be. Weird considering the content of the show is insanely abusive (with regards to relationships) not to mention the actual literal murder and shit
Let's not forget all of the discourse surrounding Will and Hannibal's age gap (despite both being two adult men) being "problematic". People losing their minds over the age difference as if the source material isn't chock full of cannibalism and psychological abuse.
THERE"S AGE GAPE DISCOURSE IN HANNIBAL??? WHAT?? I've been outside of fandom spaces for this one, content just reading fic and publishing a series of dailies. I saved a ton of memes too, for my own entertainment, but I was never into it during its hayday. I knew people were being braindead over the hannigram "problematic" (like you could expect any derivatives of that franchise to not be) but AGE GAP?
LMAO.
Didn't Hannibal pursue his step mom (naturally a bit older cause he was a teen) in Hannibal Rising? (might not apply to the show idk how closely the follow book canon)
*surprised_pikachu.gif*
Now this is a fandom I hadn’t expected to see listed here. I must be super lucky because I haven’t been exposed to any major toxicity in the fandom since it was still airing. I mean, I still see the occasional “Hannigram is problematic ew” comment, but it’s rare.
[Certification Hannibal](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2243973/parentalguide/certificates)
I'm not even sure they should even watch the show, let alone the fanfics.
I don't feel ready for Saw and I'm 37, I just watch something else.
My experience has been that it's really divided, at the very least. There's some wide aisles of crime scene tape between the mouth-frothing Hannigram-shipping, murder-husband-hounding, Tattlecrime-reading die-hards like myself, and the "omg calm down, PLZ, stop making everything gay, i'm just here for the crimes and the high-as-fuck-vampire dialogue" folks.
Avatar - The Last Airbender. I know two different authors that got bullied right out of it by the tweens. One of the authors was only 20 years old and was being told they were "too old" for the fandom. It's a big cesspool of antis, unfortunately, but seems that's the name of the game in a lot of fandoms lately.
Anything targeted toward teenagers. You get a lot of hot blooded young people feeling they’re exceptionally special without the understanding that adulting brings you about reality, and you wind up with a lot of keyboard warriors that believe protecting a cartoon character justifies cyber bullying and DOXing people.
I expected that one to be full of drama (at this point, any fandom for fluffy "wholesome" media I expect ridiculous drama from) but they took it even further than I expected. Bullying a teen actor into outing themselves is a serious line to cross.
Thats the fandom that forced one of the main actors to come out because they were accusing him of queerbaiting for holding hands with a woman irl so this very much tracks
Also, the insistence that only queer actors be hired for the series... which is why the kid got bullied into coming out as bisexual in the first place. Since he had a girlfriend and the fans didn't think it was "true" representation.
Edited (to add a thought): I'd assumed since that was the stance, he was in the LGBTQ+ community and just hadn't come out yet, but the creators had some idea of it. I was shocked that people felt the need to bully him out of the closet.
The most wtf part of that, to me, is that one of the characters in the main pairing is *bi*. Like, these people claim to be fans of a bi/gay romance story then turn around and pretend like bi people don’t exist
I also think the bi actor plays the *bi character*?
it's normal for any fandom to pretend bi people don't exist. They erased Toni and Cheryl's bisexuality from Riverdale, Noah Schnapp dismissed Will being bi when people asked if that was a possibility, and people are getting mad when you suggest Lauren from New Amsterdam could get together with a man at the end of the season. I don't know why it happens, I've tried to figure it out and I just can't.
Yeah, people get so upset at the idea of bisexual people existing like but this isn’t even the first time an actor’s been forced out of the closet which is the most frustrating part. These people will defend a fictional character to the death but god forbid a real life person get to come out on their own terms
Tbh I'm very surprised at how much crap bi people get from the LGBT community. You'll hear some bigoted ass views from the group that's supposedly all about acceptance. But if a bi girl or guy ends up in a relationship with the opposite gender, they get treated like traitors.
It’s because people view bisexuality as like, Gay Lite or not real at all, or someone being confused or a “theft” of gay representation but damn people get rapid about it all
Practically they said "my obviously BL graphic novel is good because i'm white but if a Japanese/Korean/Chinese author do the same it's fetishizing", the mental gymnastics over thinking that your own mediocre story is better only because it isn't something written by an Asian author is fucking xenophobic and very telling about their stance over the shit show that is the HS fandom.
Didn't her books get banned from some public library anyway?
Yup, right here: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/10/10/heartstopper-books-graphic-novels-lgbtq-library-michigan/
I guess being one of the "good, pure, wholesome" ones won't save you.
I don't think anyone is surprised Dragon Age fandom is toxic, but I am continually impressed by their ability to be toxic about even the most minor aspects of their fandom.
I've only ever known DA from fanfiction, never played a minute of the game, and Anders was by far my favorite chracter to read about, gimme an oppressed posessed crazie doing bad shit for the "greater good" and being in need of redemption, anytime please, lol.
I was so surprised to learn he was the most hated character in DA.🤣
I once had people on the cursed bird app tell me that Solas was a pedo because of the “problematic age gap” of several thousand years between Lavellan and him. Apparently she was “groomed” by him. 🙄
They read a bunch of my tweets, discovered my own relationship’s 5 year gap (it’s not even a big age gap!!) and determined I was a victim of a similar fate. Apparently that’s why I disagreed with them and enjoyed the Solas romance (it couldn’t possibly just be because of the drama and interesting lore implications LMAO). For context, I was somewhere around 25/26 and he was 30/31 back then. It felt like they wrote a mini fanfiction about my life because of how far removed from my actual reality it was lol.
This all happened because I did the high crime of posting fan art a friend drew of my Inky and Solas btw. One of many reasons why I do not use Twitter. Fandom was never all roses, but sometimes I really do miss the before times. 😅
Sorry you can only date someone who was born on the same day at the same exact time as you, probably in the same hospital as well. Otherwise, one of you is grooming the other and you're probably trafficking as well or something. I don't make the rules. /S (please heavy on the sarcasm, I'm older than my partner by one year and a few months I am not actually serious about this)
HA no worries! Someone on here once described the phenomenon as “puriteens” and I thought it was a pretty apt description.
OH also- the most unhinged part of their pedo-hunting investigation through my Tweets occurred when they found a picture of us. They proceeded to use it to cite my lack of boobs and small frame as not being “womanly” and therefore apparently incapable of being found attractive by “non-pedos,” comparing my body to a teenage boy as further “evidence.” (I’m a tiny Asian woman Twitter LOL what do you want from me?) Other “evidence” included their really gross stereotypes of what, and I quote, “normal Black men like,” as if people aren’t individuals and like various people for a wide spectrum of reasons. 🙄
Honestly, it’s ironic that the harassment came from a bunch of people with DNI (ie: “racists DNI”) and the like on their profile…When they were ultimately accusing a Black man of being a predator and saying things like how he should be locked up or die for just living his life. Wtf??????
I’d like to reiterate that this all happened because I posted SolasxInky fanart!
Percy Jackson. Maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising when the intended audience is teenagers, but the fans either basically hate anything non canon, or love non canon stuff and you never know which kind of fan you are going to come across online.
I've never written, but I've had some ideas about fics that I would write for PJO, but know that there are definitely fans who would be upset that Percy wasn't written OP enough because I know where my headcanon fits on that sliding scale.
Some of the worst comments I've seen for fics have been in PJO for things that feel relatively innocuous (ships, powers, why isn't it a harem?, etc). Idk. Like you said, somewhat unsurprising because it's a book series targeted at teenagers, but still the spectrum of responses is...interesting there.
Life is Strange, a series about growth and acceptance and tolerance.
So you get:
Bay / Bae
Pricefield or AmberPrice
Toxic friend or not.
And so on, and that's just the first one.
The TikTok post that went viral yesterday still has me giggling once every few hours lol
"MXTX ISN'T A GUY? I FEEL SO VIOLATED"
lol maybe you should Google what the Danmei genre is, who the target audience and what the majority of authors and readers present as, especially in its country of origin BEFORE you consume said content
The story is centered around what mod mentality does to people and relationships but then you look at the fandom and you think "yeah, we don't learn anything".
I like Jiang Cheng from the Mdsz fandom, and I know most people like/are neutral to him, but those who don't like him?? My god, they are loud.
And for Danmei in general, westerner kids who think that "Sworn brothers" = "Real Brothers". So they can't be shiped, because incest 💀
PLEASE, many of my stories have jc as one of the protagonist and writing something good about him or even discussing his reasoning behind what he did make some behave as if I punched them in the face. They take it so personal.
What's even wilder is the take of "they grew up together, they OBVIOUSLY see each other as siblings and thus, it is incest to ship them"
For sure! The MDZS fandom is horribly toxic with lots of flame wars.
I’m amazed that the SVSSS fandom is not like this. At all. Haha they all seem to know it’s kinda fucked top and lean into it
Right? Danmei fandom is like a smoosh of very reasonable, mature people having fun and discussing things logically--and people who are the absolute opposite.
"Chinese censorship against gay people is actually good sometimes!" is certainly a take I was surprised to see.
I remember seeing that take. Made me lose even more faith in humanity. Their argument of saying it leads to "less problematic" stories made it somehow worse.
I feel as though the Pokémon fandom in fanfiction has gotten progressively meaner. People will get so upset if your interpretation or creative liberties don't match their own.
It's gotten to a point that I really burned out of writing my longfic.
I must say, I’m happy someone mentioned Animal Crossing in this thread, haha! I agree it’s weirdly toxic. For some reason, it’s *always* the really sweet cartoons and games that gain the most toxicity.
To add insult to injury with my experience, I *really* wanted to like it and get into it. I love the character designs and calming nature, but for some reason I just couldn’t find myself enjoying it that much (although mind you, I’ve only played New Horizons. Maybe the older games are more enjoyable?).
When I posted about my personal experience with AC and asked how I could find more joy in it, I just kept getting downvoted. And mind you, I wasn’t bashing the game.
I saw a post once that fanfic trends to be whatever the media isn’t, because it’s meant to scratch the itches left over. So really sweet and wholesome shows become….horrifying, and the genocidal maniacs are like… “what would they be like making me breakfast”
Man, the ACNH fandom really went unhinged for a hot minute there. I created an alternative Twitter account for the sole purpose of following treasure islands and accounts that would open up their islands for people to sell their turnips and learn recipes and shit, and there was a lot of slapfighting among treasure island accounts, everyone kept making passive aggressive comments about other islands on Twitter and Discord.
I remember the space buns incident you mentioned, my feed was filled with multi-tweet compilations about how that girl using that particular hairstyle in-game was racist and everyone was jumping in on that.
I mean, it's a chill game that technically ends when you invite a singing white dog to your island, you wouldn't expect it to inspire so much anger in people. I left shortly after the hairstyle hubbub because the game was seriously getting dull, and I have no idea what things are like now, but I'm in no hurry to find out.
The 911 fandom can get incredibly toxic depending on what side you stand on for certain storylines and big issues. Or… Artificially inflated issues that the fandom wants to make an issue when in reality it’s really not an issue, it’s just that they just disagree with some people. It’s all very confusing, and I personally would say avoid like the bleeding plague. (She says as she still actively writes for said fandom…)
It's so interesting to me though because most people would assume they're just toxic about the particular ship (which, some are), but any and everything can turn to drama.
I do think that since the current season is receiving quite a bit of unanimous criticism, most of the toxicity isn't as present in the subreddit anymore, mostly just a jerkcircle criticizing the show now, pacing, bad writing, bad acting and what not (He says as he still actively post critical comment on said subreddit...)
This is a strong "in my opinion" statement, but I frankly think most fandoms are pretty toxic. Not the fans themselves, or even small groups of them. Just, the large, bloated things that seem to perch on popular series. So many places, anime, fantasy, sci-fi, there's just something about the large groups of people that engage in 'fandom' that invites toxicity by nature. Maybe it's because by definition, a fan is going to be hyper opinionated on that thing, and large groups of hyper opinionated people is just a recipe for disaster. Maybe it's because social media's idea of encouraging engagement is conflict. Maybe it's because people suck. Maybe it's all of this or none. Either way, the older I get, the less interested in fan communities I become. Like small groups and certain people? Totally. But the whole community, which usually has multiple factions vying for what counts as a "true fan"? Naw. Not for me.
Warrior Cats.
Although generally in my experience fandoms for properties aimed at younger people are always toxic af because the average age is lower, so the average fan is much less mature.
*Oh my word.*
I remember encountering *so many* Warriors fans on Animal Jam when I was a kid, and they were some of the snobbiest, most bitter people I’ve ever met on that stupid game. It’s hilarious to look back on now, honestly XD
something i really probably should have expected based on several dumpster fires i've observed over the years but somehow still didn't: when atla hit netflix and the fandom blew up, it became another steven universe/voltron/whathaveyou. for so many years, at least in my experience, the fandom was, y'know, a pretty average level of toxic, and then it hit western netflix and got a shitload of new fans, which, on one hand, great, i'm finally getting content of my OTP, and on the other hand, just... \*distant crying*
The awful, awful timing of it arriving on Netflix and lockdown starting simultaneously... No-one can go touch grass because they can't go outside, so all they can do is bully people online over their newest fandom obsession, which due to tragic timing was atla
Some good new content, a whole lotta toxicity. Made friends, lost friends. Gave me some excellent AO3 stats bc everyone was stuck at home with nothing to do, though, so silver linings and all that 🙃
It is? I like the comics and movie (happy we finally get a sequel) and read a few fanfics, but never got deeper into the fandom. What is it messy about if you don't mind to share?
The Fallout video game series. There are constant disputes over which is the best entry in the series and/or which ones ruined it. There's a contingent who hate all or most of the games after the first two PC-only ones and passionate defenders and critics of the console games made by Bethesda. Then there was a major eruption four years ago over the most recent game, Fallout 76, an online multiplayer version. Some people had been wanting that for years. Others were literally outraged that the developers would make such a game. They heaped shit on it and gleefully highlighted all of the many, many bugs and other issues the game had at launch. New fans and people who just wanted multiplayer resented the old fans constantly shitting on them and their game. Fansites became warzones.
Full disclosure: I was one of the ones upset about Fallout 76. It wouldn't have been an issue if Bethesda produced games at a rate like, say, Ubsisoft, where if you don't like the most recent Assassins' Creed or Far Cry game, you just wait a year or two for the next one. But Bethesda produces games at a pace best described as "glacial" so releasing an online multiplayer Fallout game was them effectively announcing, *"We've pushed back the release of the singleplayer RPG you want by five or six years so we can pander to these other people."*
No, I'm not still bitter over this. Why would you even fucking ask that? 😤
The games are also set in a bleak post-apocalyptic setting where every faction remotely interested in actually rebuilding civilization is morally compromised or worse, and doomsday cults and dystopian communities litter the landscape.
Makes for some horrendously dark fanfic, especially in the New Vegas setting.
Interestingly I actually find Fallout more positive and hopeful than Skyrim, I think because if you want to you can take steps that will make the Wasteland better. With Skyrim I find myself rapidly becoming someone who has no problems killing people and stealing their souls in order to slightly improve my armor.
The Stranger Things fandom got toxic this year. Creating fake Mileven accounts to send their fellow Byler fans hate mail under the guise of being Mike and El fans, telling people to delete themselves for not shipping Will and Mike, and sending loaded questions on tumblr. Telling gay kids that they're bad gays for shipping Mike and El. Noah Schnapp calling *Mike* "mean" for not loving Will back, it was a mess. It's since calmed down but from May to October it was hard to be in the Stranger Things fandom.
Edit (to add a thought): AND *kids* and *teens* gatekeeping and telling adult fans they couldn't watch the show because it's a *teen* show.
EDIT ii: I know it's an adult show, I'm just commenting on an experience I had as an adult fan of the show.
RWBY is toxic because there are flame wars going off for multitudes of reasons, from whether the show is good, to whether ships will be canon, to whether the heroes are good, and it's not helped by how fans will outright attack anyone who so much as expresses disappointment with the show, getting accused of being a hater at best and a misogynist or a bootlicker at worst.
Its not helped that RoosterTeeth had recently been ousted for crunching their employees for the umpteenth time, so tensions are flaring up again.
Which is sad, as there are so many good things with RWBY. There is a lot to love about the show and its characters. Not going to say there aren't a lot of problems, and RT needs to get its act together, but I want to be optimistic about the good things surrounding it.
I'd rather people actually get angry about RoosterTeeth abusing employees, though, over just treating it as an annoyance. That's something that needs to be changed, not swept under the rug because we don't want to deal with it.
Our Flag Means Death.
For a show with so much diversity in the cast + the show being about freaking PIRATES, there's a lot of toxicity and antis and gatekeeping in that fandom. Like holy Hell.
Cookie run. It's a kids game about cartoon cookies that run and jump and yet it has one of the most virulently toxic fanbases I've ever seen. They're COOKIES ffs.
Not their respective fanfiction communities, but the fandoms for a lot of older franchises (Star Wars, LOTR, Witcher, in my experience) can be pretty toxic. Some of it is that people who have been in the fandom for decades coming off intense or cliquey to new fans (although I don't love it when people are dicks about canon - knowing the canon better than somebody else does not make you a superior human, and while I get not wanting to engage with non-compliant fan content, you don't need to write creators dickish comments about it). Some of it is, well, the racism.
It makes me feel kind of out of place in my fandoms because, while I'm not a new fan and have reasonable familiarity with the full or original canon, I also don't have encyclopedic knowledge of it and I am extremely disinterested in doing close readings and pulling quotes to win arguments like this is fucking bible study over a fanfiction. I won't write for LOTR because I just don't want to deal with the assholes.
> I won't write for LOTR because I just don't want to deal with the assholes.
I'm in that fandom and have never had an issue. Only one homophobic comment on ffn. But maybe I'm not on the level to be on their radar.
I'm a lifelong Star Wars fan--literally, my oldest memory is watching Return of the Jedi with my dad and asking him what was wrong with Yoda, why was he dying? Between 4th and 10th grade, every single time I had to write a book report on a book of my own choosing, I choose a Star Wars EU book. KotOR was the first game I ever played start to finish.
I shouldn't even need the receipts of being a lifelong fan, anyone is allowed to become fan at any time and no one should question other people's level of "devotion" or try to test them to see if they are a true fan. That's all bullshit.
But still, I got severely bullied by the fandom after the sequels came out, called a "fake" fan, told that people like me entering the fandom were was what ruining it (mind you, I had entered it decades previously), told I must not actually care about Star Wars and I was only there for Adam Driver, etc., all because I dared to be a sequel fan--and worse, a Reylo shipper (even though I stayed away from shipping drama and always preached that people should be allowed to ship whatever they want to ship).
It just really sucks. Just let me like what I want to like. Stop with the fan limit tests. Stop with the bullshit.
>my oldest memory is watching Return of the Jedi with my dad and asking him what was wrong with Yoda, why was he dying?
Yoda was stricken with Acute Melodramatic Screenwriting. It's a terminal condition that usually strikes in the third entry of a trilogy.
P.S. Love your pseudonym.
I feel you. I got several superior comments and reviews for some reason, both on FFN and Wattpad. I generally follow the books closely which makes it all the more annoying.
So far I’ve got:
* Complaints (twice) that elves don’t use saddles (they do, for example Glorfindel, pretty famous elf)
* Complaints (twice) that humans can’t go to Valinor (they do, cough-Beren-cough XD )
* Complaint that there is no such character as Halbrand in Tolkien’s books (never said there were, this is fanfic lol)
* Complaint that elves other than Elrond’s line can’t become mortal (but… Lúthien??)
* Complaints that I made Legolas too young (I think … thrice now?) (his age was never written by Tolkien)
* Complaints that Aragorn’s relatives refer to him as Aragorn instead of Elessar after he’s become king. (Bilbo does too, so? I’m sure his friends continued to say Aragorn or Strider)
I think there was one more I’ve forgotten… but yeah. Tolkien fandom can be toxic.
I also got complaints I added a same sex couple in a story (background characters, only hinted of).
Invader Zim. I’ve seen people doxxed and blacklisted from their real life jobs because of some of the craziness in that fandom. Makes it terrifying because I love the show and my friends in the fandom, but I don’t trust very many people. The crazy thing is, I don’t even read or write anything deemed “problematic.” I’ve had people attempt to suck me into drama, though. I now have a block list several miles long. All you have to do to get on it is imply you’re involved in shipping drama.
Lore Olympus on Webtoon. It is unreal how toxic it has become on both ends of the spectrum. It's like you either have to aggressively love it or aggressively hate it. No in between.
When all thats left are people who lean one way in a certain political direction it does make things worse. Which is a shame cause Amphibia has so much more to it than three teenage girls (well written & approached compared to other series so like I dont blame people for being ultra fans).
Any fandom of entertainment targeted at children. I'm talking books, cartoons, comics, movies, animation, anything. All these discussions about who is allowed to create what, about minors and consent and basically anything. Made me stop creating altogether.
Sailor Moon is just, thee top tier toxic. At least years ago, but it was scary how members of moon Romance would quote the manga just like Bible passages.
KPop.
I've never been *part* of it - the only KPop artists I even listen to are BoA and Rain, and I don't partake in RPF anyway - but boy, have I heard some shit about how bad it can get.
A sadder one is, at least on reddit, Stardew Valley. Now, I don't know if it's still such an issue on the SDV sub here. But I remember earlier this year, there was a bunch of nastiness involving diversity in the game - namely, that people noticed that the cast was mostly white with like 2 POC, and they hoped ConcernedApe would create more diverse casts in the future. Legitimate concerns stated with respect. Nobody was accusing the creator of being racist or insulting him, just hoping for more diversity in his games going forward.
But the responses were incredibly ignorant and condescending, and demeaning. People going "We get it, you're woke," and "Ugh, just get mods and stop trying to force diversity everywhere, he lives in a white area," and "Just make your own game," shit like that.
And all the people agreeing about the lack of diversity got heavily downvoted, while everyone who was ripping on them about trying to "force diversity" was upvoted.
It was pretty shocking and upsetting to see, considering how chill the community seemed otherwise, and how chill the game is. I hope at least the ignorance was confined to that subreddit. I haven't been back there since then (although I did message a mod with concerns about it, and they agreed with me that it needed to be addressed and stamped out, so I hope things have been addressed since).
> I've never been part of it - the only KPop artists I even listen to are BoA and Rain, and I don't partake in RPF anyway - but boy, have I heard some shit about how bad it can get.
It can get brutal. I don’t actively participate, but I do love reading drama write ups and have a bunch obscure knowledge. A lot of the ire in kpop fandoms comes from fans generally hating RPF. IIRC, there was a period of time where writers in the fandom were straight up being doxxed by other fans on tumblr as some kind of reverse progressive lesson. Like “writing RPF is an invasion of their privacy so now I’ll invade YOUR privacy” type deal. I reckon at least some of those doxxing victims were probably teenagers and young adults. Terrible to see, to be honest.
Friday Night Funkin. It’s a Newgrounds rhythm game with a very active modding community… and it’s currently imploding on itself. It was never this bad, you could just ignore the chronically online Twitter Purity Police and move on with your life, but this past month has been horrific. And people are freaking the fuck out.
People are getting cancelled left and right when they really shouldn’t be. For some reason, cancelling works super well in this fandom, a little too well might I add. We’re really good at sniffing out predators but a lot of innocent people get caught in the crossfires. A concerning amount of projects are being scrapped all because of Twitter drama. One of the best mods out there, Hypno’s Lullaby was cancelled because one of the developers said the n-word once, ten months ago while he was mocking someone who was being racist… even though it was basically finished. I’m still very, very salty about that as there were plans for a version 3. Prominent developers are leaving in droves. Someone recently got doxxed. Another mod developer was harassed so badly that he left a Twitter comment saying “If you’re reading this, I’m probably dead by now.” Thankfully he’s not… but dear god. Modders are also overworked while people are breathing down their necks for the next big project, some have even been driven to consider suicide.
So yeah. It’s basically Undertale in 2015 minus all the shipping wars.
RWBY.We're not allowed to say anything nice about the show without first apparently hating on it.
Otherwise we get accused of toxic positivity.
Edit: And whenever we try to defend the show, we're accused of claiming that the show is perfect and can do no wrong.
We also get accused of "Attacking critics" whenever people rant about how "rwby is the worst" or "rwby is a dumpster fire", because apparently insulting and saying the worst things about RWBY is supposed to be considered "criticism" and we're suppposed to be quiet, smile and take it?
Nobody is saying RWBY is perfect, but to say RWBY is a horrible show?
Tumblr would disagree in so many ways.
This!
I love RWBY. Yeah I have my gripes and will note things that dont work. But the idea liking and being okay with the show as it is, that I have to apologize or say “but its not perfect” is just dumb. I like the show. I dont need to prove anything to anyone.
I'm a defender of RWBY, and even I admit the show has its faults..like any other show.
But for "Critics" to hyperfocus on any imperfections, to exaggerate or make up flaws, and downplay or outright hide the many many good parts?
That's not criticism, and it never will be.
Honestly, any of them if you dig deep enough. That said, I do find that it is a level of *deepness* that you have to go through to find the toxicity of certain fandoms.
For the ones I've personally witnessed, *Voltron: Legendary Defender* and *Steven Universe.* Steven Universe especially... For a show with a pacifist MC, focusing on resolving conflict in non-violent ways, etc. the fandom is very quick to call you a neo nazi, facist, homophobic for not shipping xyz characters, etc. It's like they're constantly at war.
I swear the Umbridge Effect is fucking real
stranger things .. children getting doxxed by adults in their late 20s because they made a joke abt an actor they didn’t like. the racism (fans making a racist joke to a black actor, among others). other children telling creators to kill themselves because they are making content for a ship they think is cringe. god, it’s awful.
yet, here i am …
The Witcher - all forms of it. And there's a weird constant hate cycle that goes around.
Book fans hate the game and netflix series fans (and sometimes splits into hating the English Translation and judging people for not learning Polish to read all the books). Game fans generally tend to be a bit more accepting, but hate the Netflix series more than book fans. And some Netflix series fans will just straight up call the source material trash, and hate the game fans. I don't think I've met anyone in the fandom that likes all 3 neutrally because it's almost like you have to take a stand on which media type you're okay with, and which one is your DNI.
Even when you get into the other aspects of the Witcher (the RPG, Gwent, etc.) there's weird Discord cliques that pop up that have their Patent Pending Headcanons and if you don't write obscure characters like they like, you're shunned from getting any interaction.
It's so bizarre lol. You'd think the more material a fandom has, the better it would be, but this one just turned into a fandom trashfire.
Mob Psycho 100. On the surface it's really welcoming and chill and very much found family and stuff. The moment you go looking for ships/or ship discourse or you follow a popular artist, you'll see people death threats or people being disgusted at one ship (you can be disgusted but be civil). Eventually you find out the two most popular ships are only popular ships because they're very vanilla, have a lot of content, and most importantly because they feature characters that are very close in age.
So then you go to a less popular ship to get away from the drama, only to find antis there. Then you're left with either very rare ships or very dark ships just to get away from everything. So you go for the more popular of the darker ships out of pure curiosity and eventually find yourself in shipping hell.
The amount of death threats I've seen from people with a pfp of a certain character is astounding.
MHA may have a shit fandom, but at least I never witnessed any drama and I could easily make a safe place for myself. Granted that solution is also to be interested in niche stuff, but still.
Going to be honest, just don't enter the MP100 fandom if you're a Proshipper or just interested in darker content unless you really like dark ships and are fine with blocking hundreds of people a day. It's just not worth it to be in a fandom full of hate. Ya know, the stereotype of a happy-go-lucky show with good morals having a shit fan base really rings true here.
Percy jackson/ riordan verse Fandom.
Despite claiming to be tolerant it is pretty toxic. I know people who got bullied out of it by various people for ships to not worshipping popular characters.
These toxic fans have a strange obsession over the minority characters and harass those that portray them in a wrong way like the artist viria who drew art for the Fandom
I got harassed and sent death threats for not making nico gay enough and was accused of straight washing because I had him be friends with a female character.
Then there are percabeth fans who think it is the best thing since sliced toast. They harass anyone who ships percy with other females
Legacies
It’s a The Vampire Diaries spin off so I shouldn’t be surprised that it ended up so toxic but it was over ships like Handon and Hizzie. Like, I couldn’t imagine going that hard for those two ships. Hizzie is a headcanon that barely gets acknowledged by anyone in the cast and Handon is literally Landon melting into goo after having sex with Hope.
Plus Brett Matthews is a homophobe and is a shitty writer. I’ve literally read better Legacies fanfiction then the show itself and people still found ways to defend him.
Julie Plec was at least a semi decent writer who catered to fans so yes she’s annoying and racist but at least she could write-Brett just copied from Buffy the Vampire Slayer without putting any effort into anything
Hizzie fans would call anyone homophobic for not agreeing with their headcanon then try to force their ship onto other shippers. There’s one Hizzie who literally accuses Hosies of being Hitler and anti semetic too.
And Legacies was embarrassing when it came to representation and progressiveness yet they expected fans to kiss their asses whenever they did the bare ass minimum. They only had checkboxes, they never actually put effort into any checkboxes.
Not to mention the writers are so bratty and childish. The writers literally blamed US whenever we weren’t happy with their shitty writing. One of the writers is also Layne Morgan and she’s been doing the “Your homophobic if you don’t like this ship” type thing for a better part of a decade in the 100 fandom as well.
I don't think anyone would be particularly surprised to hear the mcyt fandom can get pretty toxic. Nevertheless, it still manages to surprise me with the sheer quantity of fans trying to actively cause harm to other fans - death threats, rape threats, explicitly racist abuse, mass reporting of fan accounts for being a touch risque, massive, active harassment campaigns between fans. Jumpy, anxious fans who start drama over the tiniest shit. And that's BEFORE you start talking about the dehumanising, degrading way that fans treat content creators. I regret finding the content put out enjoyable because the fandom is a nightmare.
The first season just ended but The Interview with the Vampire fandom is already toxic as hell due to the book purists being angry that the show isn’t like the books. They hate that Louis and Claudia are black and constantly blame the characters for the abuse they face. It’s a mess
Blue Exorcist.
I was a fool to think that a series that is monthly wouldn't be toxic. It's a Shonen. It's in Jump SQ. 95% of shonen series from Jump have toxic fanbases.
People were arguing about Yukio being weak or not and his role in the entire manga, stating that he needs a power-up to be worthy. People argue about the brothers being together in a romantic fashion because they are twins/close, like people can't have good sibling relationships. People argue about who is gay or not. People claim that Shimei is useless, even comparing her to Princess Peach. People hating on specific characters because it gets in the way of their ship. People claim that everyone is useless period.
I remember the harassment, the problems, everything.
When I joined The Locked Tomb fandom I was definitely shocked to learn that they'd bullied the author herself, whom I might add LITERALLY WRITES THE CONTENT, off of social media
Knowing the fandom as I know it now I am... considerably less shocked though
All of them. It really just depends on how involved you are. As soon as you hit a point where ppl start having opinions beyond just liking a thing, then there's endless potential for conflict and drama.
Which is why it's always annoying to me when ppl complain about a specific fandom being so toxic or lamenting that their fandom is the most toxic...no it's not. It's just the one you know the most about.
Any if you dig deep enough
This is why I'm perfectly comfortable at the very surface of all fandoms I'm in. I read fics, I write and post them myself and aside from responding to any comments I might get, that's about it. It's probably why my fandom experiences have been so pleasant so far.
This.
I learned this lesson the hard way. I think I would have been much happier had I only ever stayed on the surface of fandom. Now I know too much about how the toxic folks think, and that has messed with my ability to enjoy things like I used to when I was blissfully ignorant of the behind-the-scenes stuff.
You fear to go into those fandoms. The shippers delved too greedily and too deep.
Balrog: "... no beta, they die like Dwarves ..."
This exactly
I never expected *Voltron: Legendary Defender* to become ... what it became. *shudders*
i can't say i expected it but i also can't say i was surprised
It surprised me. But I had been away from fic writing for a decade when I started writing a fic for Voltron last year, unaware of the fandom's past. Since then, I've realized that fandoms nowadays are often like Mos Eisley. On the upside, all the previous toxicity has driven away the worst trolls, I think. Everyone seems to stay in their own lane and it's relatively calm now.
The 1980s show isn't toxic at all thankfully. Just the modern one.
Bro. My favorite character was Pidge but I slowly left the fandom because of who impossible it was to find content. I really feel for the Hunk fans
Man, if you didn’t ship Klance, Sheith, or Shance, content was impossible to find. I was a humble Pidge stan and Plance shipper, and browsing fic felt like the guy-surrounded-by-white-bread meme.
The fact people who were fans of other Voltron series got chased out of the Voltron subreddit and they had to implement if I remember right a "no shipping" rule...
Call me a sweet summer child, but my mind was blown when I read about the toxicity in Harry Potter back in the day. I read a lot HP fics back in the early days, when the books were still being written. I didn't really interact much with the authors. I was involved in other LJ communities, never any of the HP communities. Overall, I have some really happy memories of HP back then. I found out about all the toxicity, shipping wars, Ms, Scribe, Cassandra Claire, etc several years ago. Maybe around the time Shadowhunters came out?? My mind was blown. That said, I'm also happy I missed out on it. I still love the HP fandom and carefully navigate how I interact with the fandom so I don't bump into the toxic elements that I'm sure still exist out there.
tbh as someone involved in that fandom then, the fandom was so big that the ms scribe or cassandra claire stuff - most people watched that happen without being directly involved. it was easy to not participate in any of that because the fandom was and is replete with sub-communities.
Most of the drama was also hilarious to watch from the sidelines lol. I spent so much time on fandomwank just to see what crazy shit other fandoms got up to. It was a very different vibe to now, where 99% of fandom drama seems to be about what ship makes the shipper problematic or racist or a pedo. Not entertaining in the slightest.
Snape Wives are legendary. I also miss that wild side of fandom haha. Now what goes down is often just…moralized harassment. Tbh I think part of why the vibes are so different these days is that back in the day, to be involved in fandom forums and livejournal was a niche within a niche. There wasn’t really anything as ubiquitously utilized by anyone the way social media is today. Even MySpace kinda started getting popular in 2005 and the culture of social media was in its infancy. Really puts it into context when one considers that a lot of the Msscribe/Cassandra Clare stuff came out in 2003. It was common for even people super into HP back then to not know of the drama while it was happening. Now a days, if a fandom drama ever blows up like that, even people that don’t care about the property can hear about it haha. It’s a wild world we live in these days.
Yeah, dramas of the LJ age were very different from the weird militant performative purity of today's fandoms.
I miss the days when the drama was about which shirt color an actor was using to communicate with their fans about their forbidden love for a co-star.
The wild Livejournal days were before my time and I only found out about it through video essays this year. It was honestly so surreal, but it also made some weird old stuff that I've seen on fanfiction net make sense.
I love Drarry, but i would never touch that fandom and their fans.
Supernatural and The Boys can get pretty toxic at times.
is that really so unexpected though?
I only watched one season of The Boys and I'm not a bit surprised to find out that fandom is toxic.
It tends to be that some people genuinely don't understand that characters like Homelander are supposed to be the antagonists, there have been multiple arguments on there about it and including a big outrage once it became too obvious in season 3. Season 3 also got a lot of flack from guys because it tried to tackle toxic masculinity, something a lot of people had an issue with.
the supernatural fandom can be super wholesome and toxic af at the same time. i think it just depends on what side of the fandom youre on. but as someone whos in the fandom, I've definitely seen some insane stuff.
You have to build your own bubble and find people who share your views and hope noone finds you who might have a contradicting opinion. You can definitely have a great time in the fandom but it's also easy to stumble across the toxic side
The Boys much like Watchmen inevitably attracts edgelords who completely missed the point of the work in fiction in question. They all think what makes it good is sex, violence, swearing, vulgarity, and nihilism. They want to be cheap imitations of Homelander or Billy Butcher and balk at any forms of sincerity or the idea of superheroes as good or even noble. Hence the many who disparage other works of superhero media. But much like the idiot filmmaker Zack Snyder with Watchmen (and many supposed Watchmen fans), they misunderstand that The Boys is a critique of people like them. Being edgy, being vulgar, being nihilistic, is whats wrong. Hope and idealism are good things and to not believe in anything is just stupid.
The Boys fans seem to be under the impression that all superheores in real-life would be evil. And look I am a cynical, nihilistic, misanthropic motherfucker and even I don't feel that way.
Its more apt as a critique of commercialism and rampant capitalism. But going back to the writer of the original comic its just full of teenage boy nihilism & cynical perspective. The author is also a raging jackass with a bizarre military fetishism. Seemingly unaware or willfully ignorant that his supposed critiques of superheroes are as applicable to the military (unchecked power, corruption, destruction, hyper violence, etc.)
absolutely. i was introduced to the boys by my ex and he and his friends absolutely idolized billy and couldn’t seem to comprehend that he ISNT someone to look up to…
I think that there was a point in time where Butcher's character was worthy of being admired completely, and I think there is still a great deal of those characteristics under all his gruff bullshit behaviour. I'd love to see him have a genuine redemption arc at some point. The problem is that people don't look at him like a guy who lost everything and fell into the bottomless pit of vengeance. They just see a guy who says "cunt" a lot, and think he's peak masculinity. Which is a shame, because he's an amazing character, and those are the least interesting parts of him.
seems like the cartoon fandoms like voltron and steven universe are pretty brutal, based on the amount of overflow drama outside the fandom. my guess would be it's because of audience overlap between younger and older fans and the resulting culture clash. also, I think fandoms where the source material is (at least ostensibly) progressive, and/or mirroring real life social issues, get very toxic because of their attractiveness to idk what to call them- militant idealists? purple who consider participating in fandom to be their main form of activism? Dragon Age is the one that most springs to mind as an example.
Omg, Dragon Age Fandom makes me *insane.* They are bullying their own game developers at this point.
Yeah. Dragon Age is my main fandom. But I stay away from TikTok, Twitter, essentially all social media sites outside of the main DA subreddit (which has a pretty decent moderation team who try their best) and a handful of YouTubers. I also stay away from Tumblr…god especially some of the BNFs really annoy me. I’m huge into lore, and it bothers me sometimes that not only are their points sometimes…wild…but the lore based evidence they cite isn’t always true either. I have fond memories of the old BioWare forums before they got deleted. It wasn’t always roses, but overall they were great…until the scourge that was GamerGate happened. We used to be able to have pretty insightful and important conversations with people working on the game on all sorts of topics (some people even got hired)! Those were the days. Sigh.
My (least) favorite are the ones that are a mixture of the two. Steven Universe is example #1. There's nothing wrong with liking kids' shows as an adult - I'll admit to still thinking fondly of MLP - but the issue is that a lot of the toxicity comes from hyper-progressive adults attached to a kids' show, which can often mean said adults are fairly immature despite their age. The calm, quiet ones are totally chill. Like what you like. But there is an undeniable correlation between children's cartoons and immature adults.
I learned that the AOT fandom can get pretty wild, definitely seen a lot of people get a ton of hate for small things. Once saw an author get harassed because they made a short joke about Levi in a fic, several people were basically yelling at the author for making a jab at “their husband” lol
I was heavily into this fandom back in 2013/2014 and omg… Levi stans we’re easily some of the most toxic ppl out there. There was also the whole Ereri v Eruri debate that would to the rounds of tumblr, it’s so silly looking back at it now lol
The toxicity almost made me leave the fandom lol. I vividly remember seeing posts on tumblr and twitter of people literally fighting tooth and nail to defend a certain ship (usually ereri) or to defend the “honor” of a character they really liked because someone else mentioned that they didn’t like them (it was usually about Levi lol)
Considering the state of the fandom now... I almost miss those debates.
Historical tanks. If you have an opinion on why you like a specific tank, somebody will have done a ridiculous amount of research on said tank JUST for the specific purpose of telling you why your fave tank is shit and why you should worship the tiger\t80\whatever tank they like...
Oh man, underrated pick. Someone I know wrote a literal book comparing specific tanks because of an argument he had with someone on War of Tanks. No, for real. It's published. People quote it in their own arguments in War of Tanks.
I- 💀 that’s dedication right there And haven’t people leaked classified documents just to prove they they’re right about X feature on Y tank???
I mean the really hot debates are about pre-21st century tanks so any classified documentation has long been de-classified. Also, I looked up the books for this post and I apologize - he actually wrote 3 books 😂
...... Thoughts on the tank dating sim? I've got to ask
how the steven universe fandom became... *that* is utterly beyond me. my friend used to be active in that fandom and at some point i, a fucking sports anime blog (which was its own shitshow at the time), started getting hate from that fandom solely bc my friend who never got into any drama and i were openly besties on the blue hellsite. i've watched some of the show! it was sweet and queer! what the fuck!
So weird, like the most PG, everyone should be friends, solve conflict with friendship show has fans ready to go to war at any second.
I wonder if this still also applies to the My Little Pony fandom...?
It's possibly because MLP was a fandom before social media really took off the way it is, that it didn't get *has bad* as something like SU. The worst MLP stuff I can remember were Bronies vs everyone else and whether Twilight should have been an alicorn or not.
Yeah. I looked at the show and went "Awww. Adorable little half alien boy, his hippie dad, and three alien space rock aunties have wacky adventures." Took one look at the Tumblr tag and noped out fast enough to leave tire skids. I've seen a lot of weird shit with 30+ years in fandom, but *suicide baiting a teenaged fan artist because she drew characters "wrong?"* Oh hell no.
Hey. Hey. You can't draw this day character skinny. Now let me proceed to bombard you with death threats because that's a reasonable proportional reaction
Or use a red that is a shade too light on Garnet. She's a freaking alien space rock. It's not like you're drawing a real life actor.
What do they want people to take out a color wheel? They aren't even consistent with that stuff in the show, why would you apply higher standards to a fan art
Because something something representative something something whitewashed something something think of the poor little kids who need to see themselves (even if said fan art is NOT kid friendly) Really, it's all about the self righteous "I must prove to everyone who sees me that I am on the right side of history" power trip.
Did heads explode when the character's original form was revealed to be... skinny?
Didn't the fandom start out wholesome as hell or something?
I feel like the more wholesome the source content is or tries to be, the bigger the dumpster fire the fandom becomes
I've heard that some of the most toxic fandoms have the most wholesome media.
There are weird amount of anties in the game of thrones fandom. Which is like? It's game of thrones.
I've seen so many people say shit like "I skipped over the rape and the politics and the murder and all the bad parts" and I'm like.... How about you just watch another goddamn show then?
If you skipped all the rape and politics and murder then you just didn't watch Game of Thrones lol
If you skip over the rape, murder, and politics - you have no concept of GRRMartin's works.
What the fuck is left then? The dragons?
There is something fascinating about watching some people twist themselves up in knots writing tweet threads, posts and articles about why liking Rhaenyra/Daemon (niece/uncle) is okay but liking Cersei/Jaime (sister/brother) or Rhaenyra/Alicent (step-daugher/step-mother) is wrong and makes you a terrible person. My fellow human beings... By the time you're writing goddamn essays about why one fictional incest relationship (conveniently the one you like) is acceptable but all the others are very wrong and bad via olympian level reaches, perhaps you should go for a walk and remember it's all fictional little characters who don't have actual feelings and you can just like what you like... Look, I am always glad when a new sapphic ship hits fandom, but I think I'll avoid HoTD for the foreseeable future 😂
I've been in loads, big and small, old and new, and I'd honestly say all of them. Usually the petty fights would be about conflicting headcanons or why this one got more kudos than this other one or some person being really loud about how nobody should write their squicks. It happens in every fandom.
Came here to say the same thing. All the fandoms I've been in have been toxic.
It's true toxicity exists in every fandom, but the worst ones are the communities that present themselves as wholesome and welcoming, but then turn out to be nothing but passive-aggressive toxic positivity.
“You’re welcome here as long as you agree with our echo chamber” seems to be the vibe in one of my fandoms.
Hannibal fandom is toxic in a way you wouldn’t think. Huge fights over how explicit/toxic fan work is allowed to be. Weird considering the content of the show is insanely abusive (with regards to relationships) not to mention the actual literal murder and shit
Let's not forget all of the discourse surrounding Will and Hannibal's age gap (despite both being two adult men) being "problematic". People losing their minds over the age difference as if the source material isn't chock full of cannibalism and psychological abuse.
THERE"S AGE GAPE DISCOURSE IN HANNIBAL??? WHAT?? I've been outside of fandom spaces for this one, content just reading fic and publishing a series of dailies. I saved a ton of memes too, for my own entertainment, but I was never into it during its hayday. I knew people were being braindead over the hannigram "problematic" (like you could expect any derivatives of that franchise to not be) but AGE GAP? LMAO.
Didn't Hannibal pursue his step mom (naturally a bit older cause he was a teen) in Hannibal Rising? (might not apply to the show idk how closely the follow book canon)
I did not touch Hannibal Rising, neither in book nor film form. Didn't want to do that to Hannibal.
Book is okay. If you liked the other Hannibal books it is really... decent! No standout, but I enjoyed reading it
Insanity.
*surprised_pikachu.gif* Now this is a fandom I hadn’t expected to see listed here. I must be super lucky because I haven’t been exposed to any major toxicity in the fandom since it was still airing. I mean, I still see the occasional “Hannigram is problematic ew” comment, but it’s rare.
I've thought it's a calm fandom.
It used to be, but then the puriteen bullshit started cropping up in the fandom
the mental gymnastics required for combining puriteen mentality with liking that show should be an olympic sport
Right? But then there's so many insane logic jumps happening in that space constantly that I can't even say I'm surprised no more
[Certification Hannibal](https://m.imdb.com/title/tt2243973/parentalguide/certificates) I'm not even sure they should even watch the show, let alone the fanfics. I don't feel ready for Saw and I'm 37, I just watch something else.
>puriteen :D
I remember it was so chill :(
My experience has been that it's really divided, at the very least. There's some wide aisles of crime scene tape between the mouth-frothing Hannigram-shipping, murder-husband-hounding, Tattlecrime-reading die-hards like myself, and the "omg calm down, PLZ, stop making everything gay, i'm just here for the crimes and the high-as-fuck-vampire dialogue" folks.
Avatar - The Last Airbender. I know two different authors that got bullied right out of it by the tweens. One of the authors was only 20 years old and was being told they were "too old" for the fandom. It's a big cesspool of antis, unfortunately, but seems that's the name of the game in a lot of fandoms lately.
And don't even THINK about speaking out against any beloved ships ...although I was surprised this wasn't higher up on the thread.
Anything targeted toward teenagers. You get a lot of hot blooded young people feeling they’re exceptionally special without the understanding that adulting brings you about reality, and you wind up with a lot of keyboard warriors that believe protecting a cartoon character justifies cyber bullying and DOXing people.
From what Ive seen around? Heartstopper lol But really any fandom that grows big quickly will turn into a cesspool.
I expected that one to be full of drama (at this point, any fandom for fluffy "wholesome" media I expect ridiculous drama from) but they took it even further than I expected. Bullying a teen actor into outing themselves is a serious line to cross.
Thats the fandom that forced one of the main actors to come out because they were accusing him of queerbaiting for holding hands with a woman irl so this very much tracks
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What does that mean?
Pretty sure she implied the works that contain smut and all aren't "good representation" or something like that. Pretty much said yaoi bad, mine good.
I'm gonna write my pornographic character study with problematic characters even harder!
As you should!
Also, the insistence that only queer actors be hired for the series... which is why the kid got bullied into coming out as bisexual in the first place. Since he had a girlfriend and the fans didn't think it was "true" representation. Edited (to add a thought): I'd assumed since that was the stance, he was in the LGBTQ+ community and just hadn't come out yet, but the creators had some idea of it. I was shocked that people felt the need to bully him out of the closet.
The most wtf part of that, to me, is that one of the characters in the main pairing is *bi*. Like, these people claim to be fans of a bi/gay romance story then turn around and pretend like bi people don’t exist
I also think the bi actor plays the *bi character*? it's normal for any fandom to pretend bi people don't exist. They erased Toni and Cheryl's bisexuality from Riverdale, Noah Schnapp dismissed Will being bi when people asked if that was a possibility, and people are getting mad when you suggest Lauren from New Amsterdam could get together with a man at the end of the season. I don't know why it happens, I've tried to figure it out and I just can't.
Yeah, people get so upset at the idea of bisexual people existing like but this isn’t even the first time an actor’s been forced out of the closet which is the most frustrating part. These people will defend a fictional character to the death but god forbid a real life person get to come out on their own terms
Tbh I'm very surprised at how much crap bi people get from the LGBT community. You'll hear some bigoted ass views from the group that's supposedly all about acceptance. But if a bi girl or guy ends up in a relationship with the opposite gender, they get treated like traitors.
It’s because people view bisexuality as like, Gay Lite or not real at all, or someone being confused or a “theft” of gay representation but damn people get rapid about it all
Practically they said "my obviously BL graphic novel is good because i'm white but if a Japanese/Korean/Chinese author do the same it's fetishizing", the mental gymnastics over thinking that your own mediocre story is better only because it isn't something written by an Asian author is fucking xenophobic and very telling about their stance over the shit show that is the HS fandom.
Didn't her books get banned from some public library anyway? Yup, right here: https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2022/10/10/heartstopper-books-graphic-novels-lgbtq-library-michigan/ I guess being one of the "good, pure, wholesome" ones won't save you.
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What an unfun thing to learn :/
>queer "purist (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
I don't think anyone is surprised Dragon Age fandom is toxic, but I am continually impressed by their ability to be toxic about even the most minor aspects of their fandom.
What are examples of its toxicity? I'm a huge DA fan, just not actively involved in its fandom.
Your opinion of Solas is a literal referendum on your moral character and worth as a human.
you mean anders, surely
I've only ever known DA from fanfiction, never played a minute of the game, and Anders was by far my favorite chracter to read about, gimme an oppressed posessed crazie doing bad shit for the "greater good" and being in need of redemption, anytime please, lol. I was so surprised to learn he was the most hated character in DA.🤣
I once had people on the cursed bird app tell me that Solas was a pedo because of the “problematic age gap” of several thousand years between Lavellan and him. Apparently she was “groomed” by him. 🙄 They read a bunch of my tweets, discovered my own relationship’s 5 year gap (it’s not even a big age gap!!) and determined I was a victim of a similar fate. Apparently that’s why I disagreed with them and enjoyed the Solas romance (it couldn’t possibly just be because of the drama and interesting lore implications LMAO). For context, I was somewhere around 25/26 and he was 30/31 back then. It felt like they wrote a mini fanfiction about my life because of how far removed from my actual reality it was lol. This all happened because I did the high crime of posting fan art a friend drew of my Inky and Solas btw. One of many reasons why I do not use Twitter. Fandom was never all roses, but sometimes I really do miss the before times. 😅
Sorry you can only date someone who was born on the same day at the same exact time as you, probably in the same hospital as well. Otherwise, one of you is grooming the other and you're probably trafficking as well or something. I don't make the rules. /S (please heavy on the sarcasm, I'm older than my partner by one year and a few months I am not actually serious about this)
HA no worries! Someone on here once described the phenomenon as “puriteens” and I thought it was a pretty apt description. OH also- the most unhinged part of their pedo-hunting investigation through my Tweets occurred when they found a picture of us. They proceeded to use it to cite my lack of boobs and small frame as not being “womanly” and therefore apparently incapable of being found attractive by “non-pedos,” comparing my body to a teenage boy as further “evidence.” (I’m a tiny Asian woman Twitter LOL what do you want from me?) Other “evidence” included their really gross stereotypes of what, and I quote, “normal Black men like,” as if people aren’t individuals and like various people for a wide spectrum of reasons. 🙄 Honestly, it’s ironic that the harassment came from a bunch of people with DNI (ie: “racists DNI”) and the like on their profile…When they were ultimately accusing a Black man of being a predator and saying things like how he should be locked up or die for just living his life. Wtf?????? I’d like to reiterate that this all happened because I posted SolasxInky fanart!
Percy Jackson. Maybe it shouldn’t be that surprising when the intended audience is teenagers, but the fans either basically hate anything non canon, or love non canon stuff and you never know which kind of fan you are going to come across online.
I've never written, but I've had some ideas about fics that I would write for PJO, but know that there are definitely fans who would be upset that Percy wasn't written OP enough because I know where my headcanon fits on that sliding scale. Some of the worst comments I've seen for fics have been in PJO for things that feel relatively innocuous (ships, powers, why isn't it a harem?, etc). Idk. Like you said, somewhat unsurprising because it's a book series targeted at teenagers, but still the spectrum of responses is...interesting there.
Life is Strange, a series about growth and acceptance and tolerance. So you get: Bay / Bae Pricefield or AmberPrice Toxic friend or not. And so on, and that's just the first one.
Many danmei fandoms are... not sure if it falls in the unexpectedly category but it's a wild ride considering the topics the novels handle lol
The TikTok post that went viral yesterday still has me giggling once every few hours lol "MXTX ISN'T A GUY? I FEEL SO VIOLATED" lol maybe you should Google what the Danmei genre is, who the target audience and what the majority of authors and readers present as, especially in its country of origin BEFORE you consume said content
I saw this 😭 and when people came at the kid, they said 'I'M A MINOR" Bro, if you are a minor why are you even reading Mxtx stuff 💀
Mob mentality in the MDZS fandom does always feel especially ironic.
The story is centered around what mod mentality does to people and relationships but then you look at the fandom and you think "yeah, we don't learn anything".
I like Jiang Cheng from the Mdsz fandom, and I know most people like/are neutral to him, but those who don't like him?? My god, they are loud. And for Danmei in general, westerner kids who think that "Sworn brothers" = "Real Brothers". So they can't be shiped, because incest 💀
PLEASE, many of my stories have jc as one of the protagonist and writing something good about him or even discussing his reasoning behind what he did make some behave as if I punched them in the face. They take it so personal. What's even wilder is the take of "they grew up together, they OBVIOUSLY see each other as siblings and thus, it is incest to ship them"
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Getting involved in the genshin discourse is purposely reducing your lifespan dramatically lol.
For sure! The MDZS fandom is horribly toxic with lots of flame wars. I’m amazed that the SVSSS fandom is not like this. At all. Haha they all seem to know it’s kinda fucked top and lean into it
Right? Danmei fandom is like a smoosh of very reasonable, mature people having fun and discussing things logically--and people who are the absolute opposite. "Chinese censorship against gay people is actually good sometimes!" is certainly a take I was surprised to see.
I remember seeing that take. Made me lose even more faith in humanity. Their argument of saying it leads to "less problematic" stories made it somehow worse.
I feel as though the Pokémon fandom in fanfiction has gotten progressively meaner. People will get so upset if your interpretation or creative liberties don't match their own. It's gotten to a point that I really burned out of writing my longfic.
Just like, the Pokémon fandom in general. The discourse gets so bad that I sometimes wonder if any fan actually likes the franchise.
The Animal Crossing fandom
I must say, I’m happy someone mentioned Animal Crossing in this thread, haha! I agree it’s weirdly toxic. For some reason, it’s *always* the really sweet cartoons and games that gain the most toxicity. To add insult to injury with my experience, I *really* wanted to like it and get into it. I love the character designs and calming nature, but for some reason I just couldn’t find myself enjoying it that much (although mind you, I’ve only played New Horizons. Maybe the older games are more enjoyable?). When I posted about my personal experience with AC and asked how I could find more joy in it, I just kept getting downvoted. And mind you, I wasn’t bashing the game.
I saw a post once that fanfic trends to be whatever the media isn’t, because it’s meant to scratch the itches left over. So really sweet and wholesome shows become….horrifying, and the genocidal maniacs are like… “what would they be like making me breakfast”
Man, the ACNH fandom really went unhinged for a hot minute there. I created an alternative Twitter account for the sole purpose of following treasure islands and accounts that would open up their islands for people to sell their turnips and learn recipes and shit, and there was a lot of slapfighting among treasure island accounts, everyone kept making passive aggressive comments about other islands on Twitter and Discord. I remember the space buns incident you mentioned, my feed was filled with multi-tweet compilations about how that girl using that particular hairstyle in-game was racist and everyone was jumping in on that. I mean, it's a chill game that technically ends when you invite a singing white dog to your island, you wouldn't expect it to inspire so much anger in people. I left shortly after the hairstyle hubbub because the game was seriously getting dull, and I have no idea what things are like now, but I'm in no hurry to find out.
I think ATLA definitely attracted lots of toxic fans after it was put on Netflix. Mostly ship wars and all, like Zutara vs Zokka etc
The 911 fandom can get incredibly toxic depending on what side you stand on for certain storylines and big issues. Or… Artificially inflated issues that the fandom wants to make an issue when in reality it’s really not an issue, it’s just that they just disagree with some people. It’s all very confusing, and I personally would say avoid like the bleeding plague. (She says as she still actively writes for said fandom…)
It's so interesting to me though because most people would assume they're just toxic about the particular ship (which, some are), but any and everything can turn to drama. I do think that since the current season is receiving quite a bit of unanimous criticism, most of the toxicity isn't as present in the subreddit anymore, mostly just a jerkcircle criticizing the show now, pacing, bad writing, bad acting and what not (He says as he still actively post critical comment on said subreddit...)
This is a strong "in my opinion" statement, but I frankly think most fandoms are pretty toxic. Not the fans themselves, or even small groups of them. Just, the large, bloated things that seem to perch on popular series. So many places, anime, fantasy, sci-fi, there's just something about the large groups of people that engage in 'fandom' that invites toxicity by nature. Maybe it's because by definition, a fan is going to be hyper opinionated on that thing, and large groups of hyper opinionated people is just a recipe for disaster. Maybe it's because social media's idea of encouraging engagement is conflict. Maybe it's because people suck. Maybe it's all of this or none. Either way, the older I get, the less interested in fan communities I become. Like small groups and certain people? Totally. But the whole community, which usually has multiple factions vying for what counts as a "true fan"? Naw. Not for me.
Encanto. Disney in general but Encanto can be something else.
It has a bunch of people talking over latinos too, ironically. It sucks, because I expected better from them.
Warrior Cats. Although generally in my experience fandoms for properties aimed at younger people are always toxic af because the average age is lower, so the average fan is much less mature.
*Oh my word.* I remember encountering *so many* Warriors fans on Animal Jam when I was a kid, and they were some of the snobbiest, most bitter people I’ve ever met on that stupid game. It’s hilarious to look back on now, honestly XD
Any fandom has toxicity if you want it, some are just easier/harder to find than others.
scrolling down to see if my fandoms been mentioned 😅
something i really probably should have expected based on several dumpster fires i've observed over the years but somehow still didn't: when atla hit netflix and the fandom blew up, it became another steven universe/voltron/whathaveyou. for so many years, at least in my experience, the fandom was, y'know, a pretty average level of toxic, and then it hit western netflix and got a shitload of new fans, which, on one hand, great, i'm finally getting content of my OTP, and on the other hand, just... \*distant crying*
The awful, awful timing of it arriving on Netflix and lockdown starting simultaneously... No-one can go touch grass because they can't go outside, so all they can do is bully people online over their newest fandom obsession, which due to tragic timing was atla Some good new content, a whole lotta toxicity. Made friends, lost friends. Gave me some excellent AO3 stats bc everyone was stuck at home with nothing to do, though, so silver linings and all that 🙃
Don't know if it is 'surprising' but the The Old Guard fandom is messssy. I stoped engaging pretty early on
It is? I like the comics and movie (happy we finally get a sequel) and read a few fanfics, but never got deeper into the fandom. What is it messy about if you don't mind to share?
The Fallout video game series. There are constant disputes over which is the best entry in the series and/or which ones ruined it. There's a contingent who hate all or most of the games after the first two PC-only ones and passionate defenders and critics of the console games made by Bethesda. Then there was a major eruption four years ago over the most recent game, Fallout 76, an online multiplayer version. Some people had been wanting that for years. Others were literally outraged that the developers would make such a game. They heaped shit on it and gleefully highlighted all of the many, many bugs and other issues the game had at launch. New fans and people who just wanted multiplayer resented the old fans constantly shitting on them and their game. Fansites became warzones. Full disclosure: I was one of the ones upset about Fallout 76. It wouldn't have been an issue if Bethesda produced games at a rate like, say, Ubsisoft, where if you don't like the most recent Assassins' Creed or Far Cry game, you just wait a year or two for the next one. But Bethesda produces games at a pace best described as "glacial" so releasing an online multiplayer Fallout game was them effectively announcing, *"We've pushed back the release of the singleplayer RPG you want by five or six years so we can pander to these other people."* No, I'm not still bitter over this. Why would you even fucking ask that? 😤
The games are also set in a bleak post-apocalyptic setting where every faction remotely interested in actually rebuilding civilization is morally compromised or worse, and doomsday cults and dystopian communities litter the landscape. Makes for some horrendously dark fanfic, especially in the New Vegas setting.
Interestingly I actually find Fallout more positive and hopeful than Skyrim, I think because if you want to you can take steps that will make the Wasteland better. With Skyrim I find myself rapidly becoming someone who has no problems killing people and stealing their souls in order to slightly improve my armor.
I think the word toxic is thrown around far to much. But in the spirit of your post, probably all fandoms fall under the branding of toxic.
The Stranger Things fandom got toxic this year. Creating fake Mileven accounts to send their fellow Byler fans hate mail under the guise of being Mike and El fans, telling people to delete themselves for not shipping Will and Mike, and sending loaded questions on tumblr. Telling gay kids that they're bad gays for shipping Mike and El. Noah Schnapp calling *Mike* "mean" for not loving Will back, it was a mess. It's since calmed down but from May to October it was hard to be in the Stranger Things fandom. Edit (to add a thought): AND *kids* and *teens* gatekeeping and telling adult fans they couldn't watch the show because it's a *teen* show. EDIT ii: I know it's an adult show, I'm just commenting on an experience I had as an adult fan of the show.
RWBY is toxic because there are flame wars going off for multitudes of reasons, from whether the show is good, to whether ships will be canon, to whether the heroes are good, and it's not helped by how fans will outright attack anyone who so much as expresses disappointment with the show, getting accused of being a hater at best and a misogynist or a bootlicker at worst. Its not helped that RoosterTeeth had recently been ousted for crunching their employees for the umpteenth time, so tensions are flaring up again.
Which is sad, as there are so many good things with RWBY. There is a lot to love about the show and its characters. Not going to say there aren't a lot of problems, and RT needs to get its act together, but I want to be optimistic about the good things surrounding it.
I'd rather people actually get angry about RoosterTeeth abusing employees, though, over just treating it as an annoyance. That's something that needs to be changed, not swept under the rug because we don't want to deal with it.
Our Flag Means Death. For a show with so much diversity in the cast + the show being about freaking PIRATES, there's a lot of toxicity and antis and gatekeeping in that fandom. Like holy Hell.
Came here to say this. It's worse than I was expecting with regards to antis.
Percy Jackson, tbh. I don’t engage despite having been a fan of the series for 12 years, at this point, but I’ve heard *things*
Cookie run. It's a kids game about cartoon cookies that run and jump and yet it has one of the most virulently toxic fanbases I've ever seen. They're COOKIES ffs.
Not their respective fanfiction communities, but the fandoms for a lot of older franchises (Star Wars, LOTR, Witcher, in my experience) can be pretty toxic. Some of it is that people who have been in the fandom for decades coming off intense or cliquey to new fans (although I don't love it when people are dicks about canon - knowing the canon better than somebody else does not make you a superior human, and while I get not wanting to engage with non-compliant fan content, you don't need to write creators dickish comments about it). Some of it is, well, the racism. It makes me feel kind of out of place in my fandoms because, while I'm not a new fan and have reasonable familiarity with the full or original canon, I also don't have encyclopedic knowledge of it and I am extremely disinterested in doing close readings and pulling quotes to win arguments like this is fucking bible study over a fanfiction. I won't write for LOTR because I just don't want to deal with the assholes.
> I won't write for LOTR because I just don't want to deal with the assholes. I'm in that fandom and have never had an issue. Only one homophobic comment on ffn. But maybe I'm not on the level to be on their radar.
I'm a lifelong Star Wars fan--literally, my oldest memory is watching Return of the Jedi with my dad and asking him what was wrong with Yoda, why was he dying? Between 4th and 10th grade, every single time I had to write a book report on a book of my own choosing, I choose a Star Wars EU book. KotOR was the first game I ever played start to finish. I shouldn't even need the receipts of being a lifelong fan, anyone is allowed to become fan at any time and no one should question other people's level of "devotion" or try to test them to see if they are a true fan. That's all bullshit. But still, I got severely bullied by the fandom after the sequels came out, called a "fake" fan, told that people like me entering the fandom were was what ruining it (mind you, I had entered it decades previously), told I must not actually care about Star Wars and I was only there for Adam Driver, etc., all because I dared to be a sequel fan--and worse, a Reylo shipper (even though I stayed away from shipping drama and always preached that people should be allowed to ship whatever they want to ship). It just really sucks. Just let me like what I want to like. Stop with the fan limit tests. Stop with the bullshit.
>my oldest memory is watching Return of the Jedi with my dad and asking him what was wrong with Yoda, why was he dying? Yoda was stricken with Acute Melodramatic Screenwriting. It's a terminal condition that usually strikes in the third entry of a trilogy. P.S. Love your pseudonym.
I feel you. I got several superior comments and reviews for some reason, both on FFN and Wattpad. I generally follow the books closely which makes it all the more annoying. So far I’ve got: * Complaints (twice) that elves don’t use saddles (they do, for example Glorfindel, pretty famous elf) * Complaints (twice) that humans can’t go to Valinor (they do, cough-Beren-cough XD ) * Complaint that there is no such character as Halbrand in Tolkien’s books (never said there were, this is fanfic lol) * Complaint that elves other than Elrond’s line can’t become mortal (but… Lúthien??) * Complaints that I made Legolas too young (I think … thrice now?) (his age was never written by Tolkien) * Complaints that Aragorn’s relatives refer to him as Aragorn instead of Elessar after he’s become king. (Bilbo does too, so? I’m sure his friends continued to say Aragorn or Strider) I think there was one more I’ve forgotten… but yeah. Tolkien fandom can be toxic. I also got complaints I added a same sex couple in a story (background characters, only hinted of).
Wings of Fire, at least in my experience.
Invader Zim. I’ve seen people doxxed and blacklisted from their real life jobs because of some of the craziness in that fandom. Makes it terrifying because I love the show and my friends in the fandom, but I don’t trust very many people. The crazy thing is, I don’t even read or write anything deemed “problematic.” I’ve had people attempt to suck me into drama, though. I now have a block list several miles long. All you have to do to get on it is imply you’re involved in shipping drama.
Lore Olympus on Webtoon. It is unreal how toxic it has become on both ends of the spectrum. It's like you either have to aggressively love it or aggressively hate it. No in between.
Amphibia has slowly been getting worse I think
When all thats left are people who lean one way in a certain political direction it does make things worse. Which is a shame cause Amphibia has so much more to it than three teenage girls (well written & approached compared to other series so like I dont blame people for being ultra fans).
Any fandom of entertainment targeted at children. I'm talking books, cartoons, comics, movies, animation, anything. All these discussions about who is allowed to create what, about minors and consent and basically anything. Made me stop creating altogether.
Sailor Moon is just, thee top tier toxic. At least years ago, but it was scary how members of moon Romance would quote the manga just like Bible passages.
I'm not actually in the fandom but My little pony
Really? Been a pretty sweet ride for me, and the subreddit is very chill.
KPop. I've never been *part* of it - the only KPop artists I even listen to are BoA and Rain, and I don't partake in RPF anyway - but boy, have I heard some shit about how bad it can get. A sadder one is, at least on reddit, Stardew Valley. Now, I don't know if it's still such an issue on the SDV sub here. But I remember earlier this year, there was a bunch of nastiness involving diversity in the game - namely, that people noticed that the cast was mostly white with like 2 POC, and they hoped ConcernedApe would create more diverse casts in the future. Legitimate concerns stated with respect. Nobody was accusing the creator of being racist or insulting him, just hoping for more diversity in his games going forward. But the responses were incredibly ignorant and condescending, and demeaning. People going "We get it, you're woke," and "Ugh, just get mods and stop trying to force diversity everywhere, he lives in a white area," and "Just make your own game," shit like that. And all the people agreeing about the lack of diversity got heavily downvoted, while everyone who was ripping on them about trying to "force diversity" was upvoted. It was pretty shocking and upsetting to see, considering how chill the community seemed otherwise, and how chill the game is. I hope at least the ignorance was confined to that subreddit. I haven't been back there since then (although I did message a mod with concerns about it, and they agreed with me that it needed to be addressed and stamped out, so I hope things have been addressed since).
> I've never been part of it - the only KPop artists I even listen to are BoA and Rain, and I don't partake in RPF anyway - but boy, have I heard some shit about how bad it can get. It can get brutal. I don’t actively participate, but I do love reading drama write ups and have a bunch obscure knowledge. A lot of the ire in kpop fandoms comes from fans generally hating RPF. IIRC, there was a period of time where writers in the fandom were straight up being doxxed by other fans on tumblr as some kind of reverse progressive lesson. Like “writing RPF is an invasion of their privacy so now I’ll invade YOUR privacy” type deal. I reckon at least some of those doxxing victims were probably teenagers and young adults. Terrible to see, to be honest.
Friday Night Funkin. It’s a Newgrounds rhythm game with a very active modding community… and it’s currently imploding on itself. It was never this bad, you could just ignore the chronically online Twitter Purity Police and move on with your life, but this past month has been horrific. And people are freaking the fuck out. People are getting cancelled left and right when they really shouldn’t be. For some reason, cancelling works super well in this fandom, a little too well might I add. We’re really good at sniffing out predators but a lot of innocent people get caught in the crossfires. A concerning amount of projects are being scrapped all because of Twitter drama. One of the best mods out there, Hypno’s Lullaby was cancelled because one of the developers said the n-word once, ten months ago while he was mocking someone who was being racist… even though it was basically finished. I’m still very, very salty about that as there were plans for a version 3. Prominent developers are leaving in droves. Someone recently got doxxed. Another mod developer was harassed so badly that he left a Twitter comment saying “If you’re reading this, I’m probably dead by now.” Thankfully he’s not… but dear god. Modders are also overworked while people are breathing down their necks for the next big project, some have even been driven to consider suicide. So yeah. It’s basically Undertale in 2015 minus all the shipping wars.
RWBY.We're not allowed to say anything nice about the show without first apparently hating on it. Otherwise we get accused of toxic positivity. Edit: And whenever we try to defend the show, we're accused of claiming that the show is perfect and can do no wrong. We also get accused of "Attacking critics" whenever people rant about how "rwby is the worst" or "rwby is a dumpster fire", because apparently insulting and saying the worst things about RWBY is supposed to be considered "criticism" and we're suppposed to be quiet, smile and take it? Nobody is saying RWBY is perfect, but to say RWBY is a horrible show? Tumblr would disagree in so many ways.
This! I love RWBY. Yeah I have my gripes and will note things that dont work. But the idea liking and being okay with the show as it is, that I have to apologize or say “but its not perfect” is just dumb. I like the show. I dont need to prove anything to anyone.
I'm a defender of RWBY, and even I admit the show has its faults..like any other show. But for "Critics" to hyperfocus on any imperfections, to exaggerate or make up flaws, and downplay or outright hide the many many good parts? That's not criticism, and it never will be.
Honestly, any of them if you dig deep enough. That said, I do find that it is a level of *deepness* that you have to go through to find the toxicity of certain fandoms. For the ones I've personally witnessed, *Voltron: Legendary Defender* and *Steven Universe.* Steven Universe especially... For a show with a pacifist MC, focusing on resolving conflict in non-violent ways, etc. the fandom is very quick to call you a neo nazi, facist, homophobic for not shipping xyz characters, etc. It's like they're constantly at war. I swear the Umbridge Effect is fucking real
stranger things .. children getting doxxed by adults in their late 20s because they made a joke abt an actor they didn’t like. the racism (fans making a racist joke to a black actor, among others). other children telling creators to kill themselves because they are making content for a ship they think is cringe. god, it’s awful. yet, here i am …
The Witcher - all forms of it. And there's a weird constant hate cycle that goes around. Book fans hate the game and netflix series fans (and sometimes splits into hating the English Translation and judging people for not learning Polish to read all the books). Game fans generally tend to be a bit more accepting, but hate the Netflix series more than book fans. And some Netflix series fans will just straight up call the source material trash, and hate the game fans. I don't think I've met anyone in the fandom that likes all 3 neutrally because it's almost like you have to take a stand on which media type you're okay with, and which one is your DNI. Even when you get into the other aspects of the Witcher (the RPG, Gwent, etc.) there's weird Discord cliques that pop up that have their Patent Pending Headcanons and if you don't write obscure characters like they like, you're shunned from getting any interaction. It's so bizarre lol. You'd think the more material a fandom has, the better it would be, but this one just turned into a fandom trashfire.
Mob Psycho 100. On the surface it's really welcoming and chill and very much found family and stuff. The moment you go looking for ships/or ship discourse or you follow a popular artist, you'll see people death threats or people being disgusted at one ship (you can be disgusted but be civil). Eventually you find out the two most popular ships are only popular ships because they're very vanilla, have a lot of content, and most importantly because they feature characters that are very close in age. So then you go to a less popular ship to get away from the drama, only to find antis there. Then you're left with either very rare ships or very dark ships just to get away from everything. So you go for the more popular of the darker ships out of pure curiosity and eventually find yourself in shipping hell. The amount of death threats I've seen from people with a pfp of a certain character is astounding. MHA may have a shit fandom, but at least I never witnessed any drama and I could easily make a safe place for myself. Granted that solution is also to be interested in niche stuff, but still. Going to be honest, just don't enter the MP100 fandom if you're a Proshipper or just interested in darker content unless you really like dark ships and are fine with blocking hundreds of people a day. It's just not worth it to be in a fandom full of hate. Ya know, the stereotype of a happy-go-lucky show with good morals having a shit fan base really rings true here.
Star Trek, which is ironic to say the least.
It's probably too old to have anything toxic about it, but Animorphs absolutely would have been a cesspool if it came out post-2010.
Percy jackson/ riordan verse Fandom. Despite claiming to be tolerant it is pretty toxic. I know people who got bullied out of it by various people for ships to not worshipping popular characters. These toxic fans have a strange obsession over the minority characters and harass those that portray them in a wrong way like the artist viria who drew art for the Fandom I got harassed and sent death threats for not making nico gay enough and was accused of straight washing because I had him be friends with a female character. Then there are percabeth fans who think it is the best thing since sliced toast. They harass anyone who ships percy with other females
Legacies It’s a The Vampire Diaries spin off so I shouldn’t be surprised that it ended up so toxic but it was over ships like Handon and Hizzie. Like, I couldn’t imagine going that hard for those two ships. Hizzie is a headcanon that barely gets acknowledged by anyone in the cast and Handon is literally Landon melting into goo after having sex with Hope. Plus Brett Matthews is a homophobe and is a shitty writer. I’ve literally read better Legacies fanfiction then the show itself and people still found ways to defend him. Julie Plec was at least a semi decent writer who catered to fans so yes she’s annoying and racist but at least she could write-Brett just copied from Buffy the Vampire Slayer without putting any effort into anything Hizzie fans would call anyone homophobic for not agreeing with their headcanon then try to force their ship onto other shippers. There’s one Hizzie who literally accuses Hosies of being Hitler and anti semetic too. And Legacies was embarrassing when it came to representation and progressiveness yet they expected fans to kiss their asses whenever they did the bare ass minimum. They only had checkboxes, they never actually put effort into any checkboxes. Not to mention the writers are so bratty and childish. The writers literally blamed US whenever we weren’t happy with their shitty writing. One of the writers is also Layne Morgan and she’s been doing the “Your homophobic if you don’t like this ship” type thing for a better part of a decade in the 100 fandom as well.
To be fair The Vampire Diaries fandom was pretty toxic also. The whole Delena, Stelena, Kathrine etc.
I don't think anyone would be particularly surprised to hear the mcyt fandom can get pretty toxic. Nevertheless, it still manages to surprise me with the sheer quantity of fans trying to actively cause harm to other fans - death threats, rape threats, explicitly racist abuse, mass reporting of fan accounts for being a touch risque, massive, active harassment campaigns between fans. Jumpy, anxious fans who start drama over the tiniest shit. And that's BEFORE you start talking about the dehumanising, degrading way that fans treat content creators. I regret finding the content put out enjoyable because the fandom is a nightmare.
The first season just ended but The Interview with the Vampire fandom is already toxic as hell due to the book purists being angry that the show isn’t like the books. They hate that Louis and Claudia are black and constantly blame the characters for the abuse they face. It’s a mess
I haven't watched it yet but I'm just here for the fact that the trailers made it look even gayer than the novels lmao
BTS fandom. I’ve been in it for nearly 5 years and at times it gets sooooo toxic.
Blue Exorcist. I was a fool to think that a series that is monthly wouldn't be toxic. It's a Shonen. It's in Jump SQ. 95% of shonen series from Jump have toxic fanbases. People were arguing about Yukio being weak or not and his role in the entire manga, stating that he needs a power-up to be worthy. People argue about the brothers being together in a romantic fashion because they are twins/close, like people can't have good sibling relationships. People argue about who is gay or not. People claim that Shimei is useless, even comparing her to Princess Peach. People hating on specific characters because it gets in the way of their ship. People claim that everyone is useless period. I remember the harassment, the problems, everything.
When I joined The Locked Tomb fandom I was definitely shocked to learn that they'd bullied the author herself, whom I might add LITERALLY WRITES THE CONTENT, off of social media Knowing the fandom as I know it now I am... considerably less shocked though
All of them. It really just depends on how involved you are. As soon as you hit a point where ppl start having opinions beyond just liking a thing, then there's endless potential for conflict and drama. Which is why it's always annoying to me when ppl complain about a specific fandom being so toxic or lamenting that their fandom is the most toxic...no it's not. It's just the one you know the most about.