"I Don't Like X Because of the Fandom;" Why?

[Tahaneira]

This is something I keep seeing, and my curiosity has reached a level where fear of potential rudeness can no longer contain it. There is a topic, or a news article, or a thread derailment, or something, about some franchise (let's say, My Little Pony, or Homestuck). Among the posts praising and decrying this thing, one reason for disliking it is voiced: "I don't like this thing because the fandom is stupid/annoying/disturbing."

This has always confused me. Just because you watch/read something doesn't mean you have to partake in fan activities. Let's take MLP and Homestuck, things that I watch and read. I like them both, to a high degree, yet I cannot call myself a "brony" or a... whatever those in the Homestuck community call themselves. I've never touched a MLP site, or gone on a Homestuck forum, changed my avatar or crusaded that others should pay attention to these things. I am not a part of the fandom, basically; it doesn't take a lot of effort to do.

Now, this isn't meant to be derogatory, or an "I do this, so why doesn't everyone!" topic. I'm just genuinely confused as to why people will hate something for an aspect that is completely apart from the thing itself and that they are not required to take part in. I'm not trying to be judgmental, I just want someone to explain the reasoning to me.

 

[Moderated]

Group X watches Show Y
Group X is undesirable
You want to watch Show Y, but you don't want to be a part of undesirable group X.

 

[Genocidicles]

Usually when I say I don't like something because of the fandom, I have never watched/read the thing in question.

It's just the fandom is so obnoxious, spamming their shit all over the internet, acting all superior and high and mighty that I want nothing to do with them. They seem like idiots, so why should I watch something loved by idiots?

 

[IceForce]

People seem to have an inability to separate the two.

Not me though.
If I like something, I like it. If I don't like the associated fandom, I don't associate with them.

It's as simple as that.

 

[Lord Krunk]

I used to enjoy Supernatural, and I am a fan of the BBC Sherlock series. I also grew up loving Harry Potter.

Those three are but a few examples of communities of things I love that I wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. There are a variety of reasons (most of which start and/or end with "Tumblr"), but one that stands out are shippers who proudly harass the actors or creators. Just look at the recent Ron/Hermione debacle. Or Sherlock fans sending death threats to the actress of Mary, purely because she gets in the way of their fetish for homosexuals. Or Misha Collins being sexually harassed by teenage girls at conventions.

It's far from a representation of everyone in these fandoms, but these are the aspects that are the most ostentatious (and sometimes celebrated). I can't associate with that rabble and still have my integrity, and it seems that many other people feel the same way.

 

[Zak757]

I can understand where it comes from. If you are a fan of a show, but a fandom of that same show have a strong negative reputation, it's going to affect your ability to share your love for that show, as people may judge you to be like that fandom. It's kind of like how I imagine a mature, adult Call of Duty player who just plays for fun feels when he admits loving said game on a forum like this. The "percieved norm" for a Call of Duty player is a whiny shitchild who likes to boast about his K/D ratio and do no scopes off of roofs.

 

[Nouw]

I'm getting dangerously close to viewing Frozen this way, even though I enjoyed watching it; the amount of Frozen related shit on my newsfeed is more than I'd like to see in my entire life. It was a good movie, now let it go!

 

[Vausch]

I'm getting dangerously close to viewing Frozen this way, even though I enjoyed watching it; the amount of Frozen related shit on my newsfeed is more than I'd like to see in my entire life. It was a good movie, now let it go!

I get it!

OT: it's image association. If an undesirable group of people like something then it's possible said group can be looked at as the norm because they're the most loud/easiest to see.

 

[FalloutJack]

Group X watches Show Y
Group X is undesirable
You want to watch Show Y, but you don't want to be a part of undesirable group X.

Pretty much. Sometimes, the community for something just spoils the experience of it. Do you really want to be part of this?

 

[Zontar]

A bad and/or annoying fandom can make a wall many just don't want to climb. I'm actually glad that I got into Doctor Who with the rebooted series and into Evangelion reruns before I got a better connection then dialup. I probably wouldn't have wanted to watch either given the way the fandoms of both act.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

People seem to have an inability to separate the two.

Not me though.
If I like something, I like it. If I don't like the associated fandom, I don't associate with them.

It's as simple as that.

Indeed. It's pretty damn simple to like something and not interact with the fandom at all.

 

[Casual Shinji]

It's pretty damn simple to like something and not interact with the fandom at all.

Yeah, but sometimes the fandom interacts with you, whether you like it or not.

At the height of Portal's popularity you couldn't go into a thread without someone referencing the damn thing. I really liked the game, and my enjoyment of it started to get hampered by the unending 'cake' jokes from the community.

 

[Ubiquitous Duck]

Sometimes the fandom is a lot more unavoidable.

I know it's a standard example, but the LoL community definitely has a detrimental effect on playing that game. A great amount of the fun I had when I played MMOs, Asherons Call 2, WoW, etc., was getting to know people and talking with them.

I have played 500/600? games of LoL. I have met no one.

The vast majority of interaction in this game is just flaming and people tend to disrupt their own silence on the basis of insulting someone.

I can only imagine that I would enjoy the game more and maybe still play it, if it were not so infuriating in its people interaction. You can say it is the game that causes people to be like this, but I think people should be held accountable for their own interactions, especially in unranked, casual games with strangers.

I can't speak for everyone, but I don't hurl abuse at people in the streets or shout at people on buses... it's normally the actions reserved for the mentally unstable. Perhaps therein lies the answer to the mindset of the LoL community.

 

[Drummodino]

I think it depends on the property as to whether or not the fandom annoys me. For something like a multiplayer game where you're forced to interact with them, yea they can get annoying and turn me off the game. Dota 2 is the prime example of that for me, I rarely play that now. I got fed up with being insulted and abused constantly. Whenever I do play it's normally only bot games where people generally don't take it too seriously.

For something like a single player game or an anime though? It's usually pretty easy to avoid the community if they're irritating. Of course if it's crazy popular and is constantly referenced everywhere (e.g. Portal) that's a bit more difficult. Not many things reach that level though, so I generally don't get too fussed over it.

 

[ShinyCharizard]

It's pretty damn simple to like something and not interact with the fandom at all.

Yeah, but sometimes the fandom interacts with you, whether you like it or not.

At the height of Portal's popularity you couldn't go into a thread without someone referencing the damn thing. I really liked the game, and my enjoyment of it started to get hampered by the unending 'cake' jokes from the community.

Ah yeah in that case I see what you mean. Especially considering those cake jokes were never funny to begin with. But I don't think any fandom, no matter how obnoxious, could make me hate something that I liked to begin with. I'd just do my best to avoid any contact with em.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

I don't like the term 'fan' at all. I think being fanatical[footnote]A person marked or motivated by an extreme, unreasoning enthusiasm, as for a cause.[/footnote] about anything is a serious personality flaw and a dangerous part of ones personality. Therfore by default I am instantly suspicious and disliking of anyone who acts in this particular manner including all 'fandoms'. This subjectiveness and non self aware devotion without compromise really makes me uncomfortable.

On the other hand I do enjoy media resonably and rationally with others with a like, open mind...

 

[Mersadeon]

For me, it is Doctor Who. From what I can see, it is an average show, and its only draw seems to be the fandom surrounding it. The only thing special I can find in that show are references and shout-outs to earlier Seasons which appeal to the fandom, other than that it just seems like your average sci-fi-themed-but-actually-closer-to-fantasy show that crumbles underneat its own running time and its own past, since it drags around all those silly old-school things while desperately trying to be "epic".

But the fandom. The fandom god damn ruined it for me. They are obnoxious.

So I totally understand disliking a franchise because of its fans - for me, Doctor Who is good enough for me to watch, but I couldn't ever talk to anyone about it because they either never watched it or are part of that fandom that just cannot see how someone might not think Doctor Who is the best thing since sliced bread.




So, a fandom can't make me dislike something I really like, but it CAN mean that a show that teeters on the edge of watchable for me can fall off.

 

[Quellist]

Oh Nevermind, from the title i thought this was some inexplicable hate thread for 'X' before its even released. I wondered what the Xenogears/Saga/Blade fanbase had ever done to offend anyone...

 

[Techno Squidgy]

This is something I keep seeing, and my curiosity has reached a level where fear of potential rudeness can no longer contain it. There is a topic, or a news article, or a thread derailment, or something, about some franchise (let's say, My Little Pony, or Homestuck). Among the posts praising and decrying this thing, one reason for disliking it is voiced: "I don't like this thing because the fandom is stupid/annoying/disturbing."

This has always confused me. Just because you watch/read something doesn't mean you have to partake in fan activities. Let's take MLP and Homestuck, things that I watch and read. I like them both, to a high degree, yet I cannot call myself a "brony" or a... whatever those in the Homestuck community call themselves. I've never touched a MLP site, or gone on a Homestuck forum, changed my avatar or crusaded that others should pay attention to these things. I am not a part of the fandom, basically; it doesn't take a lot of effort to do.

Now, this isn't meant to be derogatory, or an "I do this, so why doesn't everyone!" topic. I'm just genuinely confused as to why people will hate something for an aspect that is completely apart from the thing itself and that they are not required to take part in. I'm not trying to be judgmental, I just want someone to explain the reasoning to me.

I watched the MLP pilot not long after it came out. I quite liked it.

I then went onto 4chan, to see what was happening, any new memes or fun stuff going on... Load page.

PONIES. PONIES EVERYWHERE. SHITTING UP EVERY BOARD, EVERY THREAD, EVERYTHING.
THIS WENT ON FOR DAYS.
MAYBE EVEN WEEKS.

And then it was everywhere, facebook, the escapist, all the other sites I frequently browse. That made me pretty damn annoyed.

The real kicker though was seeing a beautiful Mauser cut down, with some PoS synthetic furniture, painted up bright blue, with a pony it. I will most likely never get to touch a rifle like that, a piece of history, and some autistic manchild desecrated it, fucking up the original furniture and plastering the damn thing with ponies.

You just don't do shit like that to antiques.

Oh and I had 3 separate people spam my facebook with "love and tolerance" or whatever the brony catchphrase was when this shit started.

 

[Yarkaz]

I used to hate it when people said they wouldn't try something because of the fandom, and then I started liking things with rabid fans and I kinda started to get it. I got into Sherlock, Doctor Who, Homestuck, all of these things before they got big and loved them, but eventually the association between them and their annoying fandoms got too big to ignore. Consuming the media itself started to remind me of the fandoms, and eventually it became unbearable. Gets even worse in the cases when the shows/comics/whatever get wind of their fandoms and start catering to them; I hate the mass-appeal, welcome-American-fans approach Moffat takes to Doctor Who these days, and the shipping/teen-romance/whatever in Homestuck ecently has all but killed my interest in the comic. I still haven't watched series 7 of Doctor Who and I have no plans to, though a friend constantly tells me I'd love the 50th. I don't really ride my longboard anymore either, because i gave it a custom Homestuck paint job a couple years back and I'm too ashamed to be seen with it.

Sherlock still caught my interest though, I only watched it at the egging of a friend a week after it came out, and I loved all the potshots it took at the fandom, I got a few laughs out of the girl telling her Sherlock Death Theory midway through and the final nail in the SherlockXWatson coffin was great.