So About Them Fanbases....

Today's journal entry is gonna be a liiiitle bit different from my usual fare. It's going to be more of a "giving my thoughts on a certain issue" type of entry rather than a review. It's an issue that has existed on the Internet since, well, ever, but I notice it popping up again and again more and more frequently: fanbases. *DUN DUN DUUUUUUUN* Unlike what you're probably expecting from a journal entry with this title, I'm actually going to be doing everything I can to show that fanbases....get ready for this....are not all that bad. I'm not telling this to anyone in particular, I just want to express my thoughts and maybe give people a different perspective.

I want to start with an argument I see get brought up a lot: "I don't like (insert video game/movie/TV show here) because the fanbase is cancer!" My fellow deviant actually had a clever response to this that I wholeheartedly agree with: "Ok.....I don't know what that has to do with anything, but ok". I think that sums it up wonderfully. You're seriously not going to enjoy a well-loved piece of entertainment because there also exist a few rabid and/or undesirable supporters of said entertainment? Never got this argument, never will.

One of the many reasons fanbases get a lot of judgment is because of a few very unfortunate incidents that have occurred within the fanbase. You all know the ones. The suicide incident with that one Steven Universe artist, the threats (yes, some of which are death threats) given to writers of shows like SpongeBob, MLP:FiM, The Loud House, etc., and do I even need to mention SammyClassicSonicFan? Nah, I didn’t think so. And yeah, all of those incidents are inexcusable, horrible incidents that should never be wished on anyone. But you know what? If you ask a majority of people in any of the fanbases mentioned earlier, they’ll agree wholeheartedly with what I just said. I guarantee you that the amount of people in the Steven Universe fanbase that are utterly disgusted with that suicide incident and don’t want that to be associated with the show they love. Most just want to express their thoughts on an episode, or perhaps cover a song from an episode, or draw some loving fanart, or just, you know, WATCH THE SHOW. The same can be said for those other three shows I mentioned. A vast majority of the fans of each show would never ever think of doing something as horrible as wishing bad things to happen upon one of the show’s writers. In fact, people like and , all of whom are people that I would declare are rational fans of the shows they love (and respectfully dislike shows they don’t), have lambasted people that threaten the writers of cartoons, even if they didn’t care much for the writer themselves. I’m not going to deny that there are toxic members of every fanbase in existence. But you know what? That’s kind of the point I’m trying to make here. You can look into the darkest aspects of any, I repeat ANY fanbase and find something to hate. Even Overwatch, which has even been praised as having one of the best fanbases of anything ever, has a lot of bad seeds. Trust me guys, I play the game almost every day. I’ve seen some shit. The point is, saying that something has a bad fanbase is meaningless at this point, because there are bad aspects to every fanbase in existence and most members of fanbases do not represent the worst of humanity that the bad seeds will lead you to believe.

This can apply even to online fanbases. I could list them all here, but I suppose I might as well just use the example of bar none the most polarizing figure on the internet: Mr. Enter. Now, my opinion on the guy and his reviews is irrelevant at the moment, I’m just going to talk about how most people view his fanbase. The general consensus is if you agree with him on any subject whatsoever, you’re a mindless fanboy, or Enterbot, as it were. Doesn’t matter if you disagree with him on certain points, if you think The Drawn Together Movie is bad, or Adult Party Cartoon is bad, well, you obviously only have that opinion because he does and you can’t think for yourself. This is another trend that needs to die. Are there people in his fanbase that blindly agree with everything he says? Yes, but what this stereotyping of fanbases is doing is conflating a few people with the vast majority. I visit MrEnter’s deviantart page every day and have come across tons of rational, independent fans of his that, contrary to popular belief, respectfully disagree with some of his points or reviews. People like all have at one point or another expressed an opinion that differed from Enter’s and did so in a completely rational way. And those are just a few examples, if I were to list all of them we’d be here all damn day. Point once again being: irrational, thoughtless members of a fanbase ≠ the whole fanbase.

Do you wanna know why I never judge something by its fanbase? Because as I mentioned earlier, most people that like a certain show, movie, video game, or whatever, are friendly, caring people that either want to express it in a harmless way, or just enjoy whatever it is they want to enjoy. Call me naïve, call me overly optimistic, but I just have enough faith in humanity to not instantly assume that because a few members of a fanbase threatened a writer of a show with death (which I stress that I am not defending) then that means the whole fanbase is like that. I really hope I’m not coming off as angry in this. It’s just that I see so much discussion around the lines of “Oh, this fanbase is cancer, there was this one isolated incident and I hate them all now” or “Wow, you agree with Enter that Legend of Chamberlain Heights is a bad show? Enterbot!” that I thought I would give my two cents on the subject. Hopefully you either agree with me or can at least take some of my points into account the next time the urge to judge a fanbase rises.

On a slightly more positive note, I would like to give a shout-out to my two latest watchers, and . Both are insanely cool people that you should check out at your earliest convenience if you haven’t already. I wish you could have been plugged in a more positive journal entry, but oh well. Next one will be more positive, I promise. Until then, take care everyone.