The Toxic Side Of Fandoms

TV & Film

Aug 26

Toxic fandoms might seem like a new invention. Now, with the internet entrenched in our lives, when they act up, they’re in our feeds. But believe it or not, the Victorians had rabid fandoms too, Sherlock Holmes (the Arthur Conan Doyle novel, not the BBC Benedict Cumberbatch version) and Jane Austen (again, the book, not Colin Firth in a white shirt) caused a stir. But in modern society, what behaviours mark a fandom as out of control?

A Refusal To Accept Change

At the end of season one of Star Trek: The Next Generation, Gates McFadden was fired, and Diana Muldaur was brought in as Dr. Katherine Pulaski. Fans wrote into the studio en masse to voice their displeasure, and Beverley Crusher was brought back for season 3. This one ended well. But now we’re in an era of social media and bots, giving a fickle audience too much power to change storylines is risky. The X-Files fans flatly refused to accept Robert Patrick (Terminator 2) as a replacement for David Duchovny in Season 8 (albeit not as Fox Mulder) and tanked the ratings. The damage was done, and the show was eventually cancelled after nine seasons due to declining ratings despite Duchovny's return.

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Star Trek Fans — Image Source: The Mary Sue

Anime fans hating any form of dub can also go into this category, even when the dub was written by someone fluent in both languages and sympathetic to the source material.

Review Bombing

If it’s owned by Disney, it’s been review-bombed. Star Wars, Marvel, and Disney fans are the main culprits for this. Ironheart and The Acolyte both had episodes tank on IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes before they had been released. The Little Mermaid live-action also had to have its ratings moderated because of an attack from bots. These productions had another thing in common besides Disney: they all had female POC leads. DC and Sony fans are just as guilty, although bots were employed in the reverse direction to get Zac Snyder’s cut of The Justice League released.

Age Appropriate/Inappropriate Shipping

Ariana Greenblatt as Ahsoka — Image Source: YouTube

Fandoms aren’t great at regulating themselves regarding keeping minors out of spaces meant for adult shows. In particular, works that are animated. Underage Hazbin Hotel fans turned up at a panel at Vivziepop. An 11-year-old asked a question to the stars. On TikTok, many minors cosplay Angel Dust, a character who works as an adult movie performer.

Shipping is when fans create a romance between two characters (shorthand for relationship). Some fandoms ‘ship’ characters with inappropriate age gaps without considering what type of people it might attract into the fandom, or what type of behaviours it condones. An example is Eren and Levi from Attack on Titan. Ereni (the ship name) has over 17k tags on AO3. Eren Jaeger is just 15 years old. Star Wars has a similar problem. Ahsoka and Anakin come up frequently on fanfiction sites. Her character was 14-17 years old in the Clone Wars.

There are hardcore parts of the Pokémon fandom that also ship and sexualize certain Pokémon.

Headcanon

Fans get so invested in discussion boards and writing fanfiction that they sometimes create lore that doesn’t actually exist, known as headcanon. If creators make decisions that differ from fan headcanon, things can get really dicey. In Naruto, many fans imagined Naruto and Sakura as a couple (rather than Hinata), so they circulated a petition for Kishimoto to make an alternative ending where the pair marry. Fans said online they didn’t want it coming to the US, and Masashi Kishimoto also received death threats via his assistant’s social media.

New watchers coming into a fandom with a lot of established headcanon can struggle, as they might not understand much of the information online. The two worst fandoms for this are Supernatural and Harry Potter. Supernatural’s fanfiction writers became so crazed that they invented the Omegaverse. And Harry Potter fans have created backstories for characters and personalities for characters that only briefly appear, such as the Sytherins and the Marauders.

Loving The Material Too Much

There are times that a fandom loves its chosen medium so much that it crosses a line. Back in the 00s, Lord of the Rings female fans latched onto Orlando Bloom’s portrayal of Legolas so hard that they were calling his mum up to ask her to pass over their phone numbers and sending care packages to his film sets.

The Reylos and Dramione ship fandoms to this day, bind their favourite fanfictions and sell them online. Since they don’t own the characters, it’s a breach of copyright and very illegal. They frequently get caught, but it still happens.

The My Little Pony fandom (aka the Bronies) has developed its own language known as ponyspeak/bronyspeak. This sounds cute and harmless, but it’s basically impossible to get into the community as a new member.

So, if you’re part of a fandom, stop and think before you post online. Not only are the actors real people, but there is an example to set for new members coming in behind you.

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