Forums / Discussion / Serious Debate

Per the title, what are the worst, most toxic aspects of fandom? You can point out specific examples from specific fandoms, but I would prefer more general points that can apply to a majority of fanbases.

Also, let's try to be civil here.

I think the worst of all is the fandom being at inflammatory odds with the creators when they decide on a route they do not agree with. If the fandom wanted Princess Fifi to hook up with the dashing rogue Sir Cutthroat, but the creators decided Princess Fifi was a secret robot and spy to another kingdom and kills Sir Cutthroat, they then flood the creators' Twitter accounts with things you'd never say to your grandma.

-Fandoms taking any kind of criticism as hate to his beloved franchise.
-Fandoms reacting badly to changes happening to their beloved franchise

The list could go on but I these two I listed are the ones I remember.

I think that the big issue is that people start idolizing the things they like and have a not so proper behavior .And this can be also be applied to sports fans.

Counting their chickens before they hatch. As in, setting themselves up for unrealistic expectations.

We saw this with Nintendo's E3 2015 performance where some people were simply mad that they didn't get another Mario Galaxy, F-zero, or Metroid Prime game. It's not at all helped by those fake E3 leaks that were spreading like wildfire up to that point. It can be safe to say that the incident pretty much ended this site's circlejerk towards Nintendo as now, people's expectations for the company are far lower than previously.

When fandoms go rabid.
What I mean about that is if you criticize the subject of a fandom in any way, they go nuts and attack the critic. A fandom should acknowledge the mistakes that the subject has and even joke about it (i.e. the plot never advancing in Warhammer 40k, Matt Ward's canon rape, etc. BTW- Warhammer 40k is one of the best examples I can think of for this). They shouldn't pretend that the thing is perfect and then get butthurt when someone says it isn't.
As well, things get bad when a fandom oversexualizes certain aspects of a subject. More specifically, adding in disturbing fetishes. This aspect is more of an opinion of mine than a legit criticism

I wrote something about this a while back:

You can check it out here.

The classic "true fan" arguments. You're not a true fan unless you like/hate X, think this headcanon is correct, watch this episode, etc.

Yes, sports fandom counts too, if that wasn't clear.

The word fandom is mostly applied to media than sports but it is the same idea.

@xTSGx, I think that argument mostly applies to the new fans that might not have the same view as the older fans. This is a stupid argument, you should be happy that also someone like the same media as you even if differently,don't be an elitist, just because something is appreciated by just a few does not mean it's good.
And this made me remember or Fire emblem :awakening casual mode that a lot of people complained about,these fans should be grateful that more got to play that game because otherwise I would mean the end of the franchise.

Fans who elevate the older content to ridiculous levels and then complain that the new content isn't "real x" and then complain about it at any given opportunity.

Hating on a medium when something changes

SHIPPERS DESTROY FANDOMS

Not accepting others opinions and criticism.

That's what I was gonna say too, though I often use the term "fandom elitists." One fandom I often use is Dark Souls, because I love Dark Souls but I really detest parts of the fandom that act like "if you don't play the games a certain very specific way then you're not playing it right." This is a BS argument to me since Dark Souls is a series that encourages differing play styles, there is no one "right way" to play the games.

I've also gone on in the past how I find it annoying when some people will call one fandom "cancer" on the basis of "because the people in said fandom won't shut the fuck up about the thing they like," BUT yet they do the same thing with a work they happen to enjoy. For example I've seen Jojo fans who will berate bronies or Undertale fans for "never shutting the fuck up" about what they like or complaining "they keep shoving _______ into fucking everything," but yet said Jojo fans will then turn around and start going on and on about how awesome Jojo is and inserting elements from Jojo into other works. Now note I'm NOT saying they can't fanboy/girl over Jojo or compare other works to Jojo, I'm just saying I see a LOT of irony in members of one fandom berating members of another fandom for doing the same things they do, basically taking an annoying "well it's not wrong when WE do it" approach that's always bothered me.

Self-hating fandoms, fandoms that give themself a bad name (i.e. Sonic fandom with its history of histrionic fans) etc.

When they shove their favourite thing into everything else.

The word "fandom" itself is typically used as a "XDDD RANDUMB HUMOR" type of word and I see it plastered all over images and posts that are like: "REPOST IF FANDOMS ARE YOUR LIFE XDDDD!11!!!".

There's a lot of things wrong with fandoms in my opinion, but one of the worst aspects is how diehard fangirls/fanboys get offended to the point of where they act like you're personally insulting them just because you don't have the same interests.
Another thing I hate is people who are within a fandom that let the fandom control every aspect of their life -- every social media page they have is basically a shrine to said franchise and they live and breath it.

Fandoms are bad, when they get too big. This causes conflict within the fans, and this leads to extremist points of view.

Basicly when fans make a group they eventually feel the need to prove, that they like the franchise more than the next guy. They turn into Elitist and in extremist, and since it's not just one person but a group, those fans make the Fandom more toxic since it becomes a dick measurement contest. This leads to many of the bad rap Fandoms are getting nowadays.

I believe that fandom's in general are toxic as fuck. Why can't a person just be a fan without being part of a cancerous fandom? Also many fandom's are almost as salty as Hitler when he got his gas bill. They're butthurt all time when someone expresses a contrary opinion to theirs and proceed to go ape shit about it… For example: my friend, who's a brony, showed me a crossover fan art between The Binding Of Isaac's final boss, Satan, and that weird MLP dragon villan thingy, what ever it is. I said that I didn't like it. Well, neither did he like my opinion and started calling me a salty anti-brony… Needless to say, I needed to explain myself two times before he could jam that info into his head… He's still my good friend and we talk like that didn't ever happen but still, sometimes I just want to call him a moron. So yeah, fandom's are cancerous shit and more toxic than black heroine…

the worst aspect of fandoms is when people decide to hate a group of people for what they like and categorize them as "toxic"
:/

Suuuuureeeeee…..

When they obssess.

The invasiveness of certain fandoms is definitely a very shitty aspect, though it tends to be something that happens unintentionally. What I mean by invasiveness is when a fandom shoves a show/game/whatever everywhere on the internet, and you can't seem to find anywhere where it's absent. You'll see images of it on sites, like KYM. You may not be interested in the thing, hate it, or simply don't think it meets up to the hype it generates, causing you to hate the thing and its fanbase. Invasive fandoms almost always form around, and generate hype for, things that are heavily hyped for being really good. Examples of invasive fandoms (at least in my opinion) include Undertale, Five Nights at Freddy's, Steven Universe, Gravity Falls (to a smaller extent), and most importantly, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (This show is the fucking poster boy for an invasive fandom -- at least, it used to be when it was popular). A fandom's very invasiveness can easily damage the reputation of the thing it's formed around, much like how the other aspects listed here can damage it. It doesn't help that a fandom's invasiveness is unintentional, as it isn't something that's toxic by itself unless people get annoyed by the presence of the thing and all the hype surrounding it.