Has a fanbase ever turned you off of watching something?

[Azure23]

Can I ask a question of any Bronies (or just fans of the show) here?

And I'd like to preface this with the firm statement that I am absolutely NOT coming from a place of malice, insincerity, or any of that garbage, I'm genuinely interested and curious.

What do you enjoy about the show? I've seen a couple episodes of Adventure Time and personally thought that there was an edge of subversive humor and visual jokes that only older viewers would get (the numerous DnD references and the Title Logo being a spoof of Conan's are good examples of this). I also caught one episode of friendship is magic when babysitting my younger cousin. It seemed (and I don't doubt that there are story lines and continuity and all that) like a simple, boilerplate children's cartoon with a good message and well designed appeal to very young girls and boys (because people who say a show is unilaterally for one sex or the other are stupid).

So I guess to focus my question more; I did not understand the appeal of it to an older audience and I'd be genuinely interested to hear more about it. Does it have thematic material that an adult could appreciate isn't so much my question (because it obviously does, given the phenomenon surrounding it), but more "what is that material?" My younger cousin looks up to me and I'd like to have more to talk about with her, so if this is a show that I can watch and enjoy then I'll definitely give it a shot. Looking forward to responses.

 

[Booklover13]

Lord of the Rings, I tried reading the books when I was younger but they were not written in a style I was interested in reading. Then the movie came out and it was everywhere and I just never was able to get around to it.

Now people just tell me about how good it is and how I have to see it. At this point I have decided to never see it just to spite people(you would be surprised at how many people are personally insulted by that). Yes, I understand its well-made, epic, and a corner stone of nerdom, I just don't care. Plus, at this point between the people trying to tell me how great it is, the amount of references to it and the overall overexposure of the material, I think I could give a plot summary with out having watched more then five minutes on TNT.

 

[Shiftygiant]

Doctor who. It used to be a weird British thing, but now the larger American fanbase is affecting the show as Moffat attempts to please everyone making it Generic.

MLP. I could try to get into it, like I have been with a lot of kids shows recently, however being associated with Bronies (Sorry guys) has turned me off it.

House of Cards (USA, I love the UK version), West Wing, 24. Fuck my brother. He likes those, and he's a dick head, so I refuse to watch either.

Supernatural. Everything has been spoiled by the fans, and the first and only time I ever saw it was in the company of Fans, who spent most the time gushing and going on about how awesome it is.

 

[busterkeatonrules]

My wife still refuses to watch Frozen because of the absurd levels of hype and obsession.

I can relate. I don't give a sh*t what the rest of any fanbase is like - I'M into this thing, and that's what matters to me. Excessive hype, on the other hand, THAT'S an instant buzzkill for me!

 

[Zontar]

I can't really state anything that wouldn't be a broken record at this point, so I'll say this:

I'm glad I got into Doctor Who BEFORE it became cool. Hipster though it may sound, I remember watching a few reruns on CBC when I was young, not understanding a thing about it but hey, we like everything at that age. Then the revived series came and was aired on CBC. Still had dial up back then, so even if the community had formed I wouldn't have been aware of it. By the time it DID form, the show was already a few series in and my internet was high-speed but with a ridiculously low cap even compared to the one I have now.

I was.... deeply depressed by what I say.

 

[scorptatious]

Well the MLP crowd isn't very good at bringing in new people, I'll tell you that much. I'm mostly repelled by the memetic craze that seems to drive that show.

Yeah, while I still like the show itself, I have noticed that a large part of the fan base is a little... off so to say. There are some people who hypnotize themselves into acting like their favorite ponies from what I've read.

http://hypnoponies.net/

 

[Colour Scientist]

Supernatural. Everything has been spoiled by the fans, and the first and only time I ever saw it was in the company of Fans, who spent most the time gushing and going on about how awesome it is.

I think I really dodged a bullet by watching Supernatural on the recommendation of a real life friend who just thought it was cool, ignorant of the Internet fans.

I'm five seasons in and really enjoying it.
I only became aware of the weird Internet fans relatively recently and I just steer clear because of spoilers and I don't want my enjoyment of the show to be tainted by super fans and fucking shipping.


OP: I wouldn't say it turned me off but the insane levels of hype for Breaking Bad definitely ruined it a bit for me.
It had been built up so much that I kept waiting for it to become insanely mind-bogglingly amazing but it never happened. Obviously nothing could live up to that level of hype.
I still enjoyed it but I got kinda bored halfway through season four and I still haven't gone back to it.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

On a side note, what's with all the Nintendo fans suddenly lashing back at some sort of imaginary condescension from the gaming community? It's almost as if they suddenly decided everybody hates them or something.

 

[V da Mighty Taco]

Can I ask a question of any Bronies (or just fans of the show) here?

And I'd like to preface this with the firm statement that I am absolutely NOT coming from a place of malice, insincerity, or any of that garbage, I'm genuinely interested and curious.

What do you enjoy about the show? I've seen a couple episodes of Adventure Time and personally thought that there was an edge of subversive humor and visual jokes that only older viewers would get (the numerous DnD references and the Title Logo being a spoof of Conan's are good examples of this). I also caught one episode of friendship is magic when babysitting my younger cousin. It seemed (and I don't doubt that there are story lines and continuity and all that) like a simple, boilerplate children's cartoon with a good message and well designed appeal to very young girls and boys (because people who say a show is unilaterally for one sex or the other are stupid).

So I guess to focus my question more; I did not understand the appeal of it to an older audience and I'd be genuinely interested to hear more about it. Does it have thematic material that an adult could appreciate isn't so much my question (because it obviously does, given the phenomenon surrounding it), but more "what is that material?" My younger cousin looks up to me and I'd like to have more to talk about with her, so if this is a show that I can watch and enjoy then I'll definitely give it a shot. Looking forward to responses.

To cut it short, the characters and lightheartedness are what really did it for me (though a good deal of the lightheartedness unfortunately got lost after S1). In particular, Pinkie Pie from Seasons 1 and 2 remind me heavily of myself and who I try to be. It was also the first show where I really began to pay attention to things like animation and voice actor quality, two things the show does really well that a surprising number of other shows don't. On top of that, it has a fair amount of world-building going on as well, which - along with believable characters - is something that I'm a complete sucker for.

Another thing I like about FiM is that it more often than not avoids that obnoxious teenage humor that annoys me so much (looking at you, Regular Show), as well as that crude "mature" humor that the likes of Family Guy thrive off of and made horribly stale in the process. Lastly, it doesn't fall into many of the same trappings that most shows made for kids do, thanks in large part to the fact that the show was designed to be enjoyed by the entire family as opposed to just five-year-olds. Turns out the mentality Disney takes with it's main movies can actually result in popular, money-making products - too bad nobody else in the American entertainment industry seems to have gotten the memo. >_>

If you want, I could go into more detail on what FiM does right and wrong even, though for now I think I'll cut it off there. It's certainly not a show for everyone and the fandom's rep for assholery isn't exactly undeserved (though it's not all bad by any means). However, it's still a show that clearly has a lot of effort and passion put into it, and is worth at least checking out on that merit alone if you like lighthearted, character-driven shows. I wouldn't coin it a masterpiece, but it certainly is fun imho.

 

[sextus the crazy]

I don't like any fanbases, but they'll never be able to turn me off a good thing.

Quoted for Truth.

I don't really care about the fanbase of any given work, seeing as I don't tend to know much about it before enter into the work.

 

[scorptatious]

Supernatural. Everything has been spoiled by the fans, and the first and only time I ever saw it was in the company of Fans, who spent most the time gushing and going on about how awesome it is.

I think I really dodged a bullet by watching Supernatural on the recommendation of a real life friend who just thought it was cool, ignorant of the Internet fans.

I'm five seasons in and really enjoying it.
I only became aware of the weird Internet fans relatively recently and I just steer clear because of spoilers and I don't want my enjoyment of the show to be tainted by super fans and fucking shipping.


OP: I wouldn't say it turned me off but the insane levels of hype for Breaking Bad definitely ruined it a bit for me.
It had been built up so much that I kept waiting for it to become insanely mind-bogglingly amazing but it never happened. Obviously nothing could live up to that level of hype.
I still enjoyed it but I got kinda bored halfway through season four and I still haven't gone back to it.

I personally enjoyed the entirety of Breaking Bad. Although I wasn't aware of how much hype the show had other than, "it's a very good show". So I was able to watch it and enjoy it as it was.

 

[Zontar]

On a side note, what's with all the Nintendo fans suddenly lashing back at some sort of imaginary condescension from the gaming community? It's almost as if they suddenly decided everybody hates them or something.

It's not all of the sudden, it happens time and again (mainly due to the whole image Nintendo seems to have with some people). You think it's bad now, you should have seen it back in '08 or '06. Now THAT was a time of war and of fighting.

 

[MrCalavera_v1legacy]

Game of Thrones.

It says something, since i've a)watched first 2 seasons and liked it b)was around mlp fanbase.

I was actually waiting for the 3rd season, but didn't have time to watch it just when it was aired . Then every site that i'm frequently visiting was flooded with so much GoT content(or maybe i'm just a Bad Luck Bran, hehe-NO, STOP.), that i went from 'quite hype' to 'nope, fuck it, i'm done.' It doesn't even made me mad, just sucked out entire enthusiasm. Maybe i'll go back to the show, maybe not.

 

[Evonisia]

I don't feel the need to go any further into Breaking Bad. The fanbase is hyping it up as this great thing but I'm half way through Season 1 and not seeing any of the greatest thing ever nonsense from it. I don't really feel like going back to it either.

Game of Thrones, too, even though my Dad has Season 1 and 2 on DVD. I could watch it anytime, but I'm not touching something that is so tainted by the fan base.

Edit: Well the only reason I dismiss things because of the fans is because they set a stupid standard for you. At least with video games it's a single, shorter experience, TV shows are significantly longer and require more investment to get through all of it. I mean, I avoided the House fanbase for this reason, and five seasons in I'm loving it.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

No, not really. I've been turned off a franchise for other reasons. Like for example Game of Thrones. Unless someone can convince me that it's more than just a fantasy themed porno, I won't touch it.

 

[Michael Tabbut]

Oh Christ, where to begin. Game of Thrones, MLP, Breaking Bad, Attack on Titan, Homestuck, Street Fighter, the blinding majority of Triple-A games, Sherlock, Community, Frozen, Rise of the Guardians (if it's still a thing), etc. It's a combination of overhype, ridiculously crazy fans, shipping (in some cases, It would be hypocritical for me to say I've never dabbled), and just complete lack of interest and scorn exacerbated by people telling me there thing is the best shit in existence!

 

[RaikuFA]

Monster Hunter, fighters and MOBA's.

All occupied by nothing more than neckbeards that think that newcomers have no right playing their games.

 

[Ishal]

So I guess to focus my question more; I did not understand the appeal of it to an older audience and I'd be genuinely interested to hear more about it. Does it have thematic material that an adult could appreciate isn't so much my question (because it obviously does, given the phenomenon surrounding it), but more "what is that material?" My younger cousin looks up to me and I'd like to have more to talk about with her, so if this is a show that I can watch and enjoy then I'll definitely give it a shot. Looking forward to responses.

Novels have been written about why people watch the show and everything about why it draws such a large adult fanbase.

Those who would tell you that it totally breaks boundaries and it's this huge involved thing, would be exaggerating. It does do those things, it does subvert tropes, but at it's heart, it's still just a little kids show.

But it's the way things are presented. It's smart about it, always has been and still is. It's the nuances. As to why I like it, it's just another piece of the pie chart that is my media interests. It's the colorful, happy, dose of goodness I can use to wash my brain of any bullshit that comes my way.

Specific examples would be the episode where they talked about disabilities. The way they handled it was what made it so great. Scootaloo is a pegasus pony who can't fly yet. Other ponies her age can, and she's tried and tried, but she still can't. She get's bullied about it and begins to be sad, cuz yeah, that sucks. Besides the bullies, none of her friends react to it, and that's the beauty of it. They don't caudal her, or look down on her with half-hearted sympathy, they just treat her the same as she always has been treated. It shows this in the actions of it's characters. It's show don't tell, and it never comes right out and says she's disabled. It lets the audience piece things together by itself, because it respects them.

I could write more, but to this day I think this video succinctly sums up why people love it so much.

Spoiler

OT: It's like Yahtzee said, most fanbases are pretty awful. But that shouldn't be applied to the work in question. The reason I don't watch Dr. Who is not because of it's fans. I don't watch it because it doesn't look that interesting to me, and I don't see the appeal of the Doctor as a character. It's just not my cup of tea.

 

[Nazulu]

No, fan-bases just scare me away from fan-bases. Unfortunately, it's almost all of them.