What is the dumbest case of fandom infighting you have ever seen?

[Zak757]

Battletech purists who wanted to apply all the rules from a 1980's tabletop game (Battletech) to a first person mecha simulator (Mechwarrior Online) during it's pre-beta phase. Yes, that's right. Apparently you can just copy and paste game mechanics from a tabletop game to shooter and have it work out perfectly. A lot of people wanted everything short of rolling 20-sided dice, including the 10 second reload times every weapon has in the tabletop. They argued that this was better than just balancing the game from the ground up because "the framework was already there." I shit you not. I was not on that side of the debate, of course.

You might as well try to copy and paste game mechanics from an RTS to a third person shooter, it makes just as much sense.

 

[The Rogue Wolf]

Mystery Science Theater 3000. Joel-era or Mike-era? Whichever you choose, prepare to be derided by the other side. Either the show stunk the moment Joel Hodgson stepped away and Mike Nelson completely ruined it, or Joel was the only thing holding it back from reaching the stratsophere of quality and Mike took the helm to deliver it there.

(Personally, I preferred Mike; he was much more natural and engaging in front of the camera. But the whole show was Joel's baby, and I won't deny that there were a number of supremely funny moments during his run.)

What's funny is that Joel and Mike both like to anonymously go on Internet forums from time to time and start flamewars... by claiming the other was better.

 

[Blitsie]

You know, I vividly remember one fan going on a proper vendetta because Batman's suit in Arkham City wasn't as black as he hoped for. He created youtube videos, tried to amass people for his cause and tried to defame the game on quite a few forums.

It was hilarious.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

Let's go classic: Early Beatles or later Beatles?

In the same regard: Beatles vs Rolling Stones. Putting that one up is like waiting for a bomb to go off.

You know, I had typed out that exact thing before I changed it to The Beatles' earlier/later and the John/Paul debates! The reason I changed it was because I couldn't think of one specific fandom arguing Beatles/Stones, rather that it was more like two fandoms duking it out for nearly five decades.

The closest I can come to thinking up a single fandom would maybe be '60s music aficionados who debate The Beatles (and poppy Beatles clones) vs. just about everything else that was around toward the end of their career: stuff like the Stones, The Who, The Doors, early Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Jefferson Airplane, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, etc. When the world seemed blown away by John's lyric "I'd love to turn you on" in A Day in the Life, people rarely counter that with the fact that The Doors recorded their debut album in August 1966, released January 4, 1967, and included the lyrics "She get high" (Break on Through) and about a minute of Morrison singing "Fuck me baby, fuck, fuck, fuck yeah" (The End). The Beatles only started recording Sgt. Pepper in December '66 and it was released June 1 of '67, five months after The Doors' debut album. Furthermore, Pink Floyd's track Candy and a Currant Bun released in April '67 as the b-side to their first single, Arnold Layne, and contained the lyric "Ooh, don't talk to me/Please just fuck with me." That also predates Sgt. Pepper.

So yeah... that might be the only single fandom with infighting between Beatles/Stones.

 

[Saetha]

This keeps getting brought up, but what does shipping mean in this context? I keep thinking of an oil tanker and that is just plain silly.

"Shipping" in this context means when people - usually the fans - take two or more characters of a work and pair them together romantically. The term's a shortened verb form of "relationship." Shipping's often done without regard for the characters' gender, sexuality, age, canon relationship (Both between the characters concerned and other characters in the story) and sometimes, it doesn't even matter if the characters are related. Incest's free game, too. Everything is, really - no matter how screwed up it sounds, someone probably wrote a shipping fic about it.

It can, and often does, get really absurd. Shippers will latch onto a couple as their OTP (An acronym for "One True Pairing." If more than two characters are involved, it'll be an OT3 or more) and many shippers will declare any pairing that conflicts with theirs - yes, even canon pairings - to be heresy and usually proceed to attack anyone who doesn't agree with them. They typically write fanfic distorting the characters to fit their twisted ideal, scour the work in question for "proof" of their ship, and then throw a tantrum when it never comes to pass. Not all shippers are like this, of course, but enough are to poison the well for everyone.

It's absurd, really. I hate the community mostly because it's one giant echo chamber of "Guys! I totally found evidence that Tony Stark and Captain America are gay for each other! See, look at how Tony glances in Steve's direction this one time! He's totally got the hots for him!" to which every one completely agrees, celebrates how they're totally on the same wavelength as the writers, proceed to write fic about how Tony and Steve have a baby together, and then flame anyone who thinks they're a bit off base. Shippers also have a tendency to ignore literally everything about a work besides the characters and how badly they may or may not want to screw each other.

It's not an inherently bad thing, in itself. It's just that shippers tend to insanely militant and... don't really appreciate the non-romantic aspects of a work. If you got your information solely from them, you'd think Sherlock and Supernatural and the like were little more than gay porn.

 

[Legion]

snip

Hey, this is entirely unrelated, but where is your avatar from?

Cute girls doing cute things is one of my favorite things :3

It is from the anime Puella Magi Madoka Magica, which is both a series and a trilogy of films. Although the first two films are a recap of the series while the third is a continuation of it.

*snip*

A bit of a generalisation, but I have certainly seen the worst kinds you describe.

I think the funniest one I have seen was Adam Jensen and Francis Prittchard from Deus Ex Human Revolution. Whereas the strangest ones are where the two characters are not even from the same work of fiction.

 

[FPLOON]

This thread would not be complete without a mention of the brony fandom, and all the infighting involved with the Derpy and Alicorn Twilight sagas.

Don't forget Equestria Girls, the 65th episode cutoff paranoia, and Cadancegate! This is a fandom that manages a major flareup nearly twice a season.

I especially like those little flareup where one side loves the new episode while the other sides hates said new episode... and then they both text-fight to see who's more in the right...

What irks me the most about some bronies is that I've never seen a large section of a fandom be so absolutely dedicated to censorship and prejudice. You'd think that a show about love and understanding would at worse have fans that argue passionately. Not ones that want to make everything they touch aggressively worse

Well, this video "could" sum up the fandom in a nutshell...

Spoiler: Just replace the word house with show...

Just replace the word "house" with "show"...

But, mostly... Those Bronies just want the show to cater to them more than the original demographic at times... It sometimes get worse when their headcanon get completely shot down by the show's actual canon, but I digress...

Sometimes, those kind of Bronies should just go with the flow, appreciating each other within their enjoyment of a colorful show and its various messages throughout...

 

[EternallyBored]

This thread would not be complete without a mention of the brony fandom, and all the infighting involved with the Derpy and Alicorn Twilight sagas.

Don't forget Equestria Girls, the 65th episode cutoff paranoia, and Cadancegate! This is a fandom that manages a major flareup nearly twice a season.

I especially like those little flareup where one side loves the new episode while the other sides hates said new episode... and then they both text-fight to see who's more in the right...

What irks me the most about some bronies is that I've never seen a large section of a fandom be so absolutely dedicated to censorship and prejudice. You'd think that a show about love and understanding would at worse have fans that argue passionately. Not ones that want to make everything they touch aggressively worse

Well, this video "could" sum up the fandom in a nutshell...

Spoiler: Just replace the word house with show...

Just replace the word "house" with "show"...

But, mostly... Those Bronies just want the show to cater to them more than the original demographic at times... It sometimes get worse when their headcanon get completely shot down by the show's actual canon, but I digress...

Sometimes, those kind of Bronies should just go with the flow, appreciating each other within their enjoyment of a colorful show and its various messages throughout...

This isn't really unique to bronies, welcome to pretty much any long running fandom based on a franchise, comic fans have been pulling this shit for decades. Especially when it comes to comics that are aimed at different demographics, there always seems to be comics fans out there complaining that the family friendly titles are kiddying up their "super serious hobby", whilst another group will jump on anything remotely dark or gritty and hail it as a second coming of the over the top grimdark that infested comics in the 90's.

Everybody wants their show or fandom of choice to cater to them to some extent, but some people take it way too far and expect everything to cater to what they wish something was, rather than what it actually is, To use another Hasbro property, Transformers cartoon fans and comic book fans have frequently fought over this issue in the past, with one group wanting the comics to be more like the cartoons, and another group vice versa. Seems to boil down to just being hard to satisfy anyone when it comes to giving everyone what they want, well that, and older geeks tend to expect properties to cater to their older sensibilities, especially if it's something they grew up with, god the Transformers fandom has that problem in spades.

 

[Mangod]

Star Trek

Is the Federation good, or the Evil Empire with a really good PR department?
Is the Prime Directive meant to protect insufficiently advanced species from explotation, or just an excuse to let people die?
Captain Kathryn Janeway; Prime Directive fanatic, anti-Prime Directive pragmatist, genocidal lunatic, or the broken shell of a woman with too much on her plate who continues to struggle to bring her crew home?

... still the best captain in all the series

that's another one, specific to Star Trek: 'who's the best captain?' cavated with 'does Sisco count as a 'captain'?'

And while on the subject; what IS the Prime Directive? Voyager is just the most blatant about it, but nobody seems to be able to agree on what the Prime Directive actually entails.

And on the subject of Janeway; should she be put on trial for crimes against sapience? There's the "incident" where Janeway and Paris travel backwards in time on a planet that they know is going to die, and when Paris wants to warn the planets people of this, Janeway tells him no, because the consequences might be worse. When Paris points out that the consequences couldn't be worse than planetary extinction, Janeway pulls rank, rather than come up with a counter-argument.

Contrast with TOS, where Kirk makes the same argument, that changing a people is preferable to letting them die out, and Spock agrees; Spock being the one who bring up that they might be violating the Prime Directive in the first place.

 

[Ikasury]

Star Trek

Is the Federation good, or the Evil Empire with a really good PR department?
Is the Prime Directive meant to protect insufficiently advanced species from explotation, or just an excuse to let people die?
Captain Kathryn Janeway; Prime Directive fanatic, anti-Prime Directive pragmatist, genocidal lunatic, or the broken shell of a woman with too much on her plate who continues to struggle to bring her crew home?

... still the best captain in all the series

that's another one, specific to Star Trek: 'who's the best captain?' cavated with 'does Sisco count as a 'captain'?'

And while on the subject; what IS the Prime Directive? Voyager is just the most blatant about it, but nobody seems to be able to agree on what the Prime Directive actually entails.

And on the subject of Janeway; should she be put on trial for crimes against sapience? There's the "incident" where Janeway and Paris travel backwards in time on a planet that they know is going to die, and when Paris wants to warn the planets people of this, Janeway tells him no, because the consequences might be worse. When Paris points out that the consequences couldn't be worse than planetary extinction, Janeway pulls rank, rather than come up with a counter-argument.

Contrast with TOS, where Kirk makes the same argument, that changing a people is preferable to letting them die out, and Spock agrees; Spock being the one who bring up that they might be violating the Prime Directive in the first place.

i thought the prime directive was created BECAUSE of all the bullshit Kirk got up to ._. but yea, i can see him just blatantly ignoring it because he's Kirk... Kirk does what Kirk does because Kirk... Kirk... *snickers* and Spock pretty much agreed with whatever he did in the end XD

and i remember that ep, its like 2 or 3 in the ENTIRE series, my vote is that at the time this is still 'early' Janeway, pre-insanity-that-is-voyager so still trying to do things by the 'straight and narrow'... she figures out that doesn't work pretty quick *snorts* you cant really put her on trial for 'following' the silly law, or trying too... she usually wound up telling everyone 'no you can't do that because PD' then did it herself expecting severe repercussions, she took all the blame on herself, something of a flaw that she 'got better at' throughout the series...

plus its Janeway... even time-gods can't match the shenanigans she can at a whim

they tried XD

 

[Saetha]

*snip*

A bit of a generalisation, but I have certainly seen the worst kinds you describe.

I think the funniest one I have seen was Adam Jensen and Francis Prittchard from Deus Ex Human Revolution. Whereas the strangest ones are where the two characters are not even from the same work of fiction.

Yeah, I know I can be a bit... vicious in my thoughts on shipping, as well as Tumblr and it's fandom culture in general, really. I try to remember that it's probably mostly sane, rational people getting drowned out by the vocal minority, and that I get a little fan-girly myself sometimes, so I'm not in the best place to judge. Still though... I just get burned out so easily by the whole environment.

And oh, I've seen weirder fic. I've seen Dean Winchester shipped with his car. As in, a demon possessed his car, took on the form of Idris Elba (Of all people) and proceeded to... dance the vertical tango with Dean. That was... a weird day.

But yeah, the crossover fics are weird. Like, shipping characters who have chemisty (Or who you atleast think have chemistry) is one thing. Taking characters who have never interacted with each other, who never will interact with each other, and putting them together? That's just... creepy and weird, to be honest. Not to mention all the "OmegaVerse" stuff.

 

[Spider RedNight]

Shipping is the cancer that kills fan love.

This, so very much.

I can handle fan speculation about histories or making "light" predictions about if characters might or might not end up together or even if a character might die but even reading about people and their OTP makes me feel emotions from laughing at the stupidity to making me want to cry.

I know everyone doesn't feel the same as I do but when I watched Frozen, it helped me realize how much I value my relationship with my sister and how I felt like I hadn't been as attentive as I could've been. That movie helped shape me but when I happen to catch discussions and how it's JUST about "HansxElsa and KristoffxAnna?" it drives me insane because it misses the ENTIRE POINT of the movie. Even worse is the whole "Well, Elsa's not interested in males so she must be a lesbian" argument and the one I think is just insulting on every level is "AnnaxElsa is obviously a thing because the movie said it was about their love, right?" That's DISGUSTING.

That's the only thing I think actually bothers me on a personal level, though. One thing I noticed when I dislike someone's pairings is that if I dislike "DarylxRick", then I'm automatically called a homophobe. Is that like some self-justification or a defense mechanism for (at this point) accidentally saying that I don't really agree with "FreddyxJason" (It's been done, folks) regardless of whether or not I like the characters involved. It's just weird.

Yeah, shipping is a big thing that bugs me in ANY fandom and I can't help but laugh whenever there's a popular pairing I know of that goes down in flames because "Word of God" does something about it.

 

[sageoftruth]

MegaTen fans have some of the dumbest instances of in-fighting I've ever seen.

You've got the people who only like the Shin Megami Tensei series and hate all the Persona players...

and then you've got MORE in-fighting amongst the Persona players between people who liked P1/P2 and think those who came in with P3/P4 are ruining the series for everyone...and then you've also got JUST the P4 people who fight against everyone else, ever, trying to claim the the Megami Tensei franchise will never have a more precious jewel than P4.

MegaTen fans are nuts. There are layers upon layers of in-fighting and hatred amongst us. We're like a big onion of hate and hurt feelings.

Where did you see this? The only place where I've ever seen those games discussed is here on the Escapist, where everyone either says (MegaTen Game) is such an awesome RPG, or doesn't say anything because he hasn't played it.

 

[Queen Michael]

Whether Aeris should be called Aeris or Aerith. Her name in the actual game is Aeris. Quod erat motherfucking demonstrandum.

Well, see... that is why people fight over it. Because people who played FFVII back then keep holding onto it.

Because she's only Aeris in the localized version of FFVII. And I hope both you and I can agree that the translating work in FFVII was not exactly top-notch, her name notwithstanding. In the Japanese FFVII manual, Crisis Core, Kingdom Hearts and wherever else since FFVII, she has been named Aerith.

It's true that the FFVII localization was far from perfect, but that's still what her name is in it. And concerning the Japanese manual... Well, the Japanese director of the Hellsing anime insisted that the protagonist's name had to be Arucard and not Alucard, because "otherwise it won't be Dracura backwards!" I don't trust Japanese people to actually know enough English to determine that kind of thing unless I've seen some clear evidence that the people in charge know what they're doing.

And Kingdom Hearts does not count as far as I'm concerned -- it's a game with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in it. That doesn't exactly scream "official canon!"

 

[Cenryk]

Who shot first. Nuff said. Stupidest argument ever.

 

[balladbird]

word bro... though i think the only thing that gets worse or as bad as those trenchs is over in Naruto where its either Naruto x Sakura, Sakura x Sasuke, Naruto x Sasuke, Naruto x Hinata, Hinata x Sasuke, Hinata x Sakura... etc. etc. etc. and it gets downright bloody... and that's only FOUR people out of the cast... where the ships are effectively EVERYONE X EVERYONE... RUN FOR THE HILLS!!

I don't ship in Naruto... because for a ship to be appealing, both the male and female halves have to be good characters, and Kishi has trouble with his wimmins, but I do know that NaruSaku vs NaruHina is a pretty bloody battlefield...a fact not helped at all by Kishi's love for trolling the shipping community. I only really interact with the HetShippers, since yaoi fangirls are a whole different level of obsessive, so I only speak from my own experience, though. In the case of shipping in Naruto, it doesn't help

Really, when it comes to het shipping, that's where the big schism always goes. The most violent fans go for either "Main character x the action girl" or "main character x the girly girl" and become violently opposed to the other.

i'll just stick to my little boat and scurry on under the radar... as i'm sure my ships are either 'obvious' along with canon or just crack in my head... and i'm okay with that ._.

that's the best way to ship, I reckon. XD I don't mean to give shippers a bad name. Most of them are just passionate fans, same as anyone else, and it's a fun little group to hang out in. It just has a dark underbelly, same as anywhere else.

 

[The_Echo]

It's true that the FFVII localization was far from perfect, but that's still what her name is in it. And concerning the Japanese manual... Well, the Japanese director of the Hellsing anime insisted that the protagonist's name had to be Arucard and not Alucard, because "otherwise it won't be Dracura backwards!" I don't trust Japanese people to actually know enough English to determine that kind of thing unless I've seen some clear evidence that the people in charge know what they're doing.

Well, I don't think it's fair to say "this one Japanese guy can't into English, so these guys probably can't either."

That said, neither "Aeris" nor "Aerith" are exactly English names. Not to mention "Aerith" is an anagram for "I, Earth" which works thematically.

And Kingdom Hearts does not count as far as I'm concerned -- it's a game with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in it. That doesn't exactly scream "official canon!"

No, not exactly. But the FF guest characters do retain their original names.

Plus having her name be Aerith in other FFVII materials, it seems--though nobody at Square has officially said so as far as I know--that "Aeris" was definitely a mistake on the translator's part. Which, given the rest of the translation, I think holds some weight.

 

[Queen Michael]

Plus having her name be Aerith in other FFVII materials, it seems--though nobody at Square has officially said so as far as I know--that "Aeris" was definitely a mistake on the translator's part. Which, given the rest of the translation, I think holds some weight.

Her name was Aeris in Final Fantasy Tactics, though. So it's not like it's just one game.

 

[Ikasury]

word bro... though i think the only thing that gets worse or as bad as those trenchs is over in Naruto where its either Naruto x Sakura, Sakura x Sasuke, Naruto x Sasuke, Naruto x Hinata, Hinata x Sasuke, Hinata x Sakura... etc. etc. etc. and it gets downright bloody... and that's only FOUR people out of the cast... where the ships are effectively EVERYONE X EVERYONE... RUN FOR THE HILLS!!

I don't ship in Naruto... because for a ship to be appealing, both the male and female halves have to be good characters, and Kishi has trouble with his wimmins, but I do know that NaruSaku vs NaruHina is a pretty bloody battlefield...a fact not helped at all by Kishi's love for trolling the shipping community. I only really interact with the HetShippers, since yaoi fangirls are a whole different level of obsessive, so I only speak from my own experience, though. In the case of shipping in Naruto, it doesn't help

Really, when it comes to het shipping, that's where the big schism always goes. The most violent fans go for either "Main character x the action girl" or "main character x the girly girl" and become violently opposed to the other.

i'll just stick to my little boat and scurry on under the radar... as i'm sure my ships are either 'obvious' along with canon or just crack in my head... and i'm okay with that ._.

that's the best way to ship, I reckon. XD I don't mean to give shippers a bad name. Most of them are just passionate fans, same as anyone else, and it's a fun little group to hang out in. It just has a dark underbelly, same as anywhere else.

dear lord the Yaoi/Yuri shippers can be some of the worst... just because most of the time the only reason they 'ship' is because they themselves like both parties and not that either actually... interact... or anything... i have nothing against Yaoi/Yuri, just their fans are quite... 'eccentric'? ._. i'm quite the Haruka/Michiru from Sailor Moon fan... but i digress, THAT ship makes sense... things like Sasu/Ita or Kaka/Iru... erm... wha? x,x

i'm all for crack shipping (seriously i have probably the weirdest ship for bleach that started as a joke and ended up just running with it as it was the only thing keeping me sane while reading that thing... KomaSoi btw... XD) but there's no way i'm going to get so serious as to upheaval the world or threaten the creator... its just funny... but oh lord... the trenches... oh the trenches of shipping wars x.x

... and just to say, i can't call Sakura an 'action girl' as much as she seems to think/want to be... sorry, when you FUCK-UP that much... no, just no... i will take the Filler-Only Guren as 'Lady of War' or even that dimwitted chick all over the sluggy guy as real Action Girls before Sakura... ._. Tenten... ya know its probably better she's off screen more often then not... can't really fuck up that way XD

but yes... shipping... the most dangerous/insane of forum subjects

 

[Ikasury]

This keeps getting brought up, but what does shipping mean in this context? I keep thinking of an oil tanker and that is just plain silly.

Ship- fandom slang for 'relationship'

started with Spirk (Kirk/Spock) back from original Star Trek, the origin of fanfiction by the way, and over time it has evolved and morphed to cover all of the internet like plague... because no matter the generation, there are teenage girls and boys that become so invested in a series they aren't satisfied with the forlorn looks and minute details, and start setting things out in their head... thus forming 'ships', IE: Kataang, Zutara, etc. etc.

i swear creators of series LOVE shippers, as they will keep a series alive with only their passionate burning drive to prove their 'ship' is the best... and CANON!! and will only be vindicated by CANON!! and even then, if they aren't canon, they will resist, keeping it in mind and continuing the endless siege of the internet with their insanity... and thus the war continues~

that about sum it up?