#toxic Fandom

[hotdaemondtargaryen]

people arguing and fighting over fan art is so fucking crazy.

[wetsocksinbed]

genuinely hate how we are at a point where you can’t have a single criticism about a character without a good chunk of the fandom going for your throat. Especially when you actually like that character. The perfect example is Astarion from BG3. I absolutely love Astarion, he’s my favourite romance option, and I’ll defend him till the day I die.

However he is canonically an evil character. His alignment at the start of the game is Neutral Evil. He’s done terrible things, and was a terrible person even before Cazador met him. I am allowed to point that out while still loving him.

[allaboutalf]

“We’re just having fun”, “No one can have fun anymore”, “It’s a joke”, “why are you taking things so seriously?” and it’s in response to people taking issue with toxic shippers hating on an actor for playing a LI they think stands in the way of their ship. Cropping him out of a bts photo or putting pie on his face. Saying he’s ‘there’, he’s ‘ugly’, he’s whatever negative thing you dream up. That’s not jokes, babes, that’s being a crappy person.

[redheadsdefender]

Well good morning to you too I guess.

TW: grape threats

I received that this morning on Instagram from the user @persichekaur :

This is a FICTIONAL BOOK. with FICTIONAL CHARACTERS.

Get your heads out of your asses.

PS1: IF you're a woman wishing for grape on any fictional or real person, you're a disgrace.

PS2: feel free to use this picture however you see fitting to spread the message.

[theultimatenonbinarynerd]

Epic Fandom We Need To Talk! (An Open Letter)

As a former survivor of severe Cyberbullying and harrasment I can no longer stay silent anymore. You have forced my hand.

This has gone way too far and I am massively disappointed. All I ask is that you listen to what I have to say. This is no longer a joke as a survivor of Cyberbullying and harrasment I can say that a misunderstanding has turned into The Epic Fandom putting the livelihood and well being of artists in danger. I ask you to be respectful and understand I am speaking from old wounds and experience. Please don't twist my words, I don't support 🍇 or Antinous he is a horrible character.

Tw: Mentions of Cyberbullying, 🍇 and harassment

Dear Epic Fandom,

You are better then this, I know you are. Polites taught us to greet the world with open arms and accept when people make mistakes and stop holding onto are anger. The fandom is growing and we can't stop it but I'm really disappointed in the people letting hate win and turning the fandom venomous and toxic

We are all Epic Fans but behind the glass on your screen there's a person, a person with feelings who you know nothing about. You all don't know the real Melody typing this but your all probably gonna make assumptions based on what you dont know and that is the danger of being online. The person who posted fanart of Antinous and Telemachus you didn't like, they have real feelings. Complicated messy feelings that aren't able to be articulated enough online.

As a survivor of bullying myself my motto is block or scroll. I myself am very uncomfortable with a lot of the ao3 tags shipping Odysseus with Poseidon or Zeus but do I go angrily type on my keyboard? No I don't cos it's none of my damnn business. When I saw that art, I was confused and uncomfortable but instead of being reckless and sentimental I asked for clarification. Taking Polites advice I used open arms and talked about what was bothering me without attacking the artist. Instead of being like Polites you all became Poseidon. Ruthlessness Is Mercy is not the way to go, it's a toxic way to go about life. Did you all not listen to that Thunder Saga and see how it destroyed everything Odysseus had known for the past thirteen years.

You should all be absolutely ashamed of yourself. This is not what the Epic Fandom should be. You don't like someone's fan art ask for clarification and or block. There is no need to be Ruthless and cruel. The fact two genuine heartfelt Apologises have been made and you still can't let it go very much clearly shows your character. You are very much like Poseidon and Zeus and should be ashamed. In Ares words you are all sick cowards. Not only that but you are clearly projecting. I suggest you go to therapy if you think your time in the Epic the musical fandom should be spent bullying and harassing people then leave. The number one rule is that there is always a person behind the screen and that you should think before you type.

I'm still not over the fact how you have twisted and triggered someone's truama. I also can't believe hate is being given after the artist mentioned her experience. 🍇 is not a thing to weaponise. I feel like the Wisdom Saga has made you far too comfortable in how you handle and discuss 🍇. The artist forgot her trigger warnings and wasn't even trying to imply the twisted image you put on her. Also I pointed out she shouldn't have tagged it Epic and apologied. Jorge has made adaptations to The Odssey a piece of fiction. What Jorge has done with Antinous is his own creative liberties. If you can't have sensitive and respectful conversation about something that is still happening to people I don't know what to say. Accusing someone of supporting 🍇 is not okay at all. The artist wasn't attending that way and understands she shouldn't have done what she did but it goes both ways. Look for context before you slam. Judging someone based on an honest mistake and huge misunderstanding is dangerous and cruel. Do you not understand the dangers this could put the artist in in real life. Please have open arms and think before you type. This is a serious topic and not a joke.

Moving on I want to talk about why I think this blew up so bad. It's because Elian was commissioned to do an animatic for Jorge. Listen you all would have blocked if it wasn't for that. I read comments saying they idolised her and that is a really f**** dangerous thing to do. Idiolising someone because they've been noticed or hired by Jorge isn't healthy at all. At the end of the day we are all human beings. Elian is allowed to make mistakes and grow. Outside of Epic this is becoming a massive problem in genuine.

Worse I've seen and heard about Artists like Mirscy and AnniFlamma getting attacked just for defending their friend. I'm sorry are we not allowed to defend our friends now from bullying? I can't speak for them but if I saw my friend getting hated and harassed on I'd be angry too, it's like a natural emotion to feel. Then again you are the same fandom that mocks Eurylochus for sticking up for his crew so I'm not suprised. These artists are human beings and not God's because Jorge noticed and appreciated their work. Stop twisting these artists into people there not.

I'm not Tiresias but I can see Jorge stopping collaborating with artists on animatics if you keep this disgusting behaviour up. Constructive criticism is okay but falsely twisting the image of an artist is not okay at all by doing this you are dehumanising artists and doing exactly what Hollywood does. Jorge will have to stop commissioning people it you keep using the fact he noticed them against them when they make mistakes like all human beings do.

Please do better and stop being Poseidons. An 8 year grudge was unhealthy and got him nowhere. Be more like Polites and Greet The World with open arms. Not everything is black and white. Tik Tok built the Epic Fandom up and you hold all the power.

Stay kind and great the world the world with open arms.

Yours Sincerely,

Melody

They/Them

Ps: If you send me hate and twist my words be warned I have friends as well. One particular friend was there when a lot of my Cyberbullying truama happened and is aware why this has triggered me so badly and caused an episode.

Attack you will be blocked. I'll also remove reblogs.

Attack and you will be reported.

You don't scare me.

Be nice Epic Fandom and don't become The Monster. I'm willing to have civil conversations but that's it.

[kathrahender]

"We should stop normalizing abuse" "We should stop normalizing toxic relationships in media" "We should stop normalizing shipping X and Y characters together" "We should stop normalizing X trope" "We should stop normalizing this" "We should stop normalizing that"

How about we stop normalizing harrasing people over something fictional, hmm? Or you know- how about we stop normalizing telling REAL people to kill themselves?

And with "harassment" I mean "harassment" for any reason. For any reason. So don't start commenting things like "Yeah, harassing is bad, but-". No. If you're okay with harassing people in certain cases, get the hell out of my blog and block me NOW.

[imjsateenagegirl-blog]

I love yapping about zutara because wtaf are people going to do if I ship them? It's a fictional ship, they aren't real, it's not that deep like yes I ship zutara if you don't like that then womp womp I don't know what to tell you, I just really hate ship wars.🙏🏾😭

[thebroccolination]

TOXIC FAN PRESSURE

So a lot of us saw this exchange yesterday between Krist and a toxic fan who got flatly shut down when they tried to make Krist choose between GawinKrist and KristSingto:

I made a whole thread on Twitter to provide context about it (that I might also put on here).

And, y’know, even though this gives people like that more undeserved attention, I’m sharing these other tweets to show people outside the fandom the level of nonsense Krist has been putting up with for months just because he’s still friends with Gawin and won’t pretend he doesn’t exist for the sake of their fantasies.

Krist is twenty-eight now, and he’s clearly ready to set some boundaries with fans who try to take liberties, but I want to take this as an opportunity to point out that he’s been dealing with this and worse since SOTUS aired while he was still in university.

He’s famous for being a people-pleaser, kind to all to his own detriment, so it shocked and pleased a lot of long-time fans to see him finally clap back yesterday. And it’s fitting that he did it to protect the people he loves.

And these are sock puppet accounts posting publicly, so I can’t imagine what they’re sending to his DMs.

All because he found a friend.

I’m glad he stood up to them.

[whatamessofthoughtswithjess]

I’d like to talk about my experience with being a part of a fandom. It’s something I’ve never been involved in before. It’s something I’ll never be a part of again going forward. This is all my opinion, my thoughts, and my experience. I’ll remind you that you do not have to agree with what I say but, I do ask for you to be respectful of my space, & keep the hate out of my comment section.

Let’s discuss toxic behavior amongst fandoms, shall we?

I, myself had never been a part of a fandom until recently, therefore I was unaware of parasocial behaviors. I must say that witnessing this sort of behavior has been quite an experience. One in which I could have went my entire life without learning about & I would have been A okay with that. 😅

I’ve always been a fan of Bridgerton. I began watching the show during the COVID lockdown & I immediately fell in love with the series. I was what they in the fandom would describe as a “general audience” watcher. I enjoyed the show immensely but, I wasn’t completely obsessed.

It wasn’t until the season 3 press tour that I became engulfed in the show, the storyline, & by the actors playing the roles of Penelope & Colin. I, amongst thousands of others became completely obsessed. We were completely immersed in the love story that was being sold to us. It became this unhealthy obsession which in turn lead to blurring the lines between fiction and reality.

The Bridgerton fandom, specifically the Lukola/Polin fandom has gone from great fun, excitement, & and a way to escape the hardships of life, to now a toxic atmosphere, full of bullies spreading hate & unrealistic narratives.

I’ve noticed that there are different groups within the fandom. It’s like High School all over again, full of clicks. You’ve got:

1.) Polinators: this group of individuals solely “ships” Penelope Featherington & Colin Bridgerton. Any content made or discussions had are kept within the show & to the characters. Luke Newton & Nicola Coughlan aren’t discussed as they are separate from the characters they play.

2.) Polinators/Lukolas: this group of individuals ship both Penelope & Colin as well as Nicola & Luke. This group will make content for both Polin & Lukola. Most individuals within this group can still separate the characters from the actors. Lines exist but at times become blurred. These individuals are still logical & will accept evidence presented to them. They recognize that storytelling and reality are separate from one other. Typically they can have conversations with others within the fandom without hateful rhetoric or bullying.

3.) LocoLukolas: these individuals have completely morphed Luke & Nicola into Colin & Penelope. They can’t decipher who is who, what is done for PR, or what is reality. The lines aren’t blurred, they are completely erased. These individuals took the PR tour as a real life love story unfolding between Luke & Nicola. They’ve created these elaborate stories and narratives in their minds & fed them to others within their SM platforms. The insane narratives spread like wildfire which in turn creates division within the fandom. Once division is created, bullying & unhinged, creepy behavior begins. There is no arguing with this group. They won’t be told differently from the narrative they’ve created within their minds. They’ll gaslight anyone who tries to go against the narrative they’ve created. They’ll use their platform to push this narrative which in turn creates more individuals thinking the exact same as they do. They can’t be convinced of anything that will go against the narrative they’ve created. These individuals can be very dangerous. Spreading lies and opinion as fact rather than opinion. Gaslighting anyone who doesn’t agree. Don’t waste your time fighting with them. It isn’t worth it.

LukeStans: this group worships Luke Newton. “All hail Luke Newton! He’s our King!” Do not criticize Luke, do not judge his life choices, do not disagree with his decisions, do not speak unkindly about Luke in any sort of way.. or these people will morph into vicious, venomous creatures who will attack you without mercy. Luke does no wrong. He makes no mistakes. He makes no ill choices. He’s perfect. Precious. Needs protected at all costs. These people will also talk all sorts of shit about his girlfriend. Belittle the relationship that him and her have. Encourage cheating with him and Nicola. Disrespect Nicola’s relationship if not with Luke. But.. don’t dare talk bad about Luke. Don’t defend Antonia. Don’t defend Nicola & Jake Dunn.. or be prepared to go to war.

NicolaStans: this group worships NicolaCoughlan. “All hail Nicola Coughlan! She’s our Queen!” Do not criticize Nicola in any sort of manner. Like the LukeStans the NicolaStans will also morph into vicious, venomous creatures that will attack you without mercy. They’ll state they love Nicola but only if she’s pinning after a taken man. They’ll defend Nicola but, only if it’s for reasons that include Luke Newton. They’ll quickly turn on Nicola if you mention her relationship with Jake Dunn. They’ll ask you to respect her privacy all while “manifesting pictures from Brazil” that would show both parties cheating on their significant others. Ope. They’ll turn on her if you even mention the idea that she could be in a serious relationship with a man 13 years younger than her.. insisting that “she would never be so public about her love life” or “she’d never date a man that young.” This group is only fans of Nicola if she abides to the expectations they’ve created for her in their minds.

When I first joined the fandom it was during the press tour. Therefore everyone was riding the high that the PR tour was providing everyone with. New videos were being released every few days. It was fun, exciting, and entertaining for everyone! We were eagerly anticipating the release of season 3. It was happy times, fun times.

Once the press tour ended & part two released the fandom imploded. I’d say exploded but no, it imploded. The fandom is collapsing within itself, quite suddenly, and violently. You’ve got rational fans who understand that Luke & Nic are separate from Colin & Pen and who respect their private lives. You’ve got semi rational fans who understand that they are separate from their characters but still hope they’ll be endgame. You’ve got the LukeStans fighting with the NicolaStans. Then you’ve got the LucoLukolas who are just outright insane. Spreading misinformation and creating elaborate false narratives to keep their already sunken ship afloat. You’ve got recovering Lukolas trying to be some sort of voice of reason.. and it’s all just one big chaotic cluster f**k at this point. The fandom is split. It’s chaos. It’s not fun anymore.

Luke went into hiding because fans are weird AF. He comes back after over a month MIA and the fans are already acting bat shit crazy. Fans were messaging the resort he stayed in, asking who stayed with him, forcing the resort to remove a thank you post to Luke. ABSOLUTE INSANITY! TOXIC BEHAVIOR! The entitlement fans have regarding Luke’s personal life is absolutely disgusting. This man owes the fans nothing. He deserves his privacy. He deserves to spend time with his girlfriend without the bullshit comments on how “he’s yet to claim her” or have his relationship be called a “situationship” only because he’s not made a post on his SM “claiming her” because “he owes the fans that.” Absolutely insane! He owes the fans nothing. If he wants to keep his personal life off his business SM page then we as his fans need to respect that decision. He’s travelled with Antonia multiple times, he’s been papped with her on several occasions, she attends work events with him, vacations with him privately, she’s close with his family and friends, that man HAS CLAIMED HER PUBLICLY. Something as ridiculous as a SM post means nothing when the evidence is already there for all to see. If fans choose to ignore that? That’s on them not on Luke. Stop with the entitlement. It’s weird. He owes you nothing.

Nicola has said over and over again that she is chronically online. She sees the weird shit that’s posted. She sees the lives discussing sunglasses reflections and t shirt creases.. elaborate stories from Brazil that never happened, the belittling of her relationship with Jake Dunn, calling her man gay and claiming he has a boyfriend when this man has NEVER stated his sexuality publicly, she sees this shit. It’s toxic, it’s weird, and it’s sure as hell disrespectful AF especially considering it’s coming from people who claim they are her fans. 🥴 She is posting less & less on social media & I can’t say I blame her. Who wants to have every single thing they post become a 3 hour TikTok live conspiracy theory break down? I sure as hell wouldn’t want that if it were me.

This fandom has got to take a serious step back. If it’s consuming your thoughts, disturbing your mental health, or emotional health then take some time away from SM & spend some time focusing on other things. Read a book, listen to some music, go out with friends or family, spend some time in nature, do whatever you need to do in order to protect yourself from all of the toxicity.

For the love of all things holy.. stop taking the crazy behavior directly to Nicola and Luke & to anyone involved in their lives. We as fans need to remember that these are real life people, with real life lives and loved ones, who like us have feelings and emotions. We need to respect their privacy. They owe us nothing regarding their personal lives. We shouldn’t expect as much. These two gave us such an amazing season. The least we can do is support their choices even if we don’t agree with them. 🫶🏻

Again, these are my opinions & my personal experiences with dealing with people within this fandom. I’ve had my fair share of arguments with people & I’ve been attacked by many who didn’t like the evidence I presented them with that went against their narrative. My experiences are my own. I understand not everyone is toxic in this fandom but, at the same time there are many that are. We as a fandom need to accept what is, let go of what isn’t meant to be, and continue to support Luke & Nicola in all their future endeavors. As their fans, we owe them that much!

Y’all behave yourselves & have a good one! ✌🏻

[stra-tek]

A reminder about ultra negative YouTube rage vids:

[shyjusticewarrior]

Why do kind characters have such mean fandoms

[allaboutalf]

So yet another Top Gun and TGM sereshaw/hangster fan artist has had buddie shippers commenting on their art trying to claim their art is buddie and not what it actually is.

And doubling down when the artist calls them out to say they have no right to be upset and that people can interact with their art however they want…

It’s just bloody rude and disrespectful. And so entitled and selfish.

And again it doesn’t look like buddie. It looks like Jake and Bradley. It looks like Glen and Miles. Who don’t look like Oliver and RG.

RG has had a moustache for a few weeks only and Eddie hasn’t even appeared in an episode with it yet. Whereas it’s iconic to Rooster (and Goose before him). Stop trying to overtake another fandom because of a recent development in yours. And again, the actors don’t even look alike anyway and the artists capture Hangman and Rooster really well.

It speaks so much about how certain shippers in the 9-1-1 fandom see their interpretation and fandom experience as more important and more centered than everyone else. That everything else is irrelevant except for their opinions. That they think they can just speak over others because they’re louder. And they don’t get how bad that makes the rest of the fandom look.

Just stop it! Stop it. It’s incredibly infuriating to see and can be exceptionally disheartening for fan artists to deal with.

Once again apologising on behalf of 9-1-1 fandom and giving my support on behalf of TGM fandom.

And if anyone can point me in the direction of that artist on here (it’s the Olympics AU art), I’d appreciate it as I’d love to reblog.

[danieldrivesfast]

Hey, so, if you think what Will Buxton said about Daniel and George is okay, funny, or somehow acceptable in his scope of work, you're a bad person. Full stop.

(Honestly, saying Oscar is great because he has no personality is also not okay, but I don't expect people to understand that.)

Buxton's job is to speak objectively about Formula 1 racing, not attack these drivers' personalities or who they are as people. George and Daniel are two of the most sincere people on the grid, according to the people who know and work with them. George wearing his heart on his sleeve and being his goofy self (while also being the advocate for driver safety and fairness in competition) and Daniel being kind to everyone he encounters and trying to keep an upbeat energy no matter what doesn't harm the sport in any way, unless humanizing drivers is somehow a problem.

I'm (not) sorry the cool kids didn't pick you, bitchboy.

What Buxton said about George is especially egregious when you take into account all the things calling him "Talented Mr. Ripley" implies, the closeted gay man part in particular.

I guess it's easy to attack people like George and Daniel who always meet bullshit with grace and kindness. It would be nice if they'd meet this particular bullshit by calling him out to his face and refusing his interviews, because there's no world in which what Buxton said is okay or remotely professional.

[houseofpendragons]

People are so toxic in this fandom. Can we have a conversation without people blindly siding with one side or the other. All of the characters have faults, all of the characters can be good; the fact is that some just have more good than some of the others. That doesn’t change the face that no one is inherently evil.

Shireen Baratheon said it the best, it was all the choosing sides that made it so horrible.

Everyone on this app or any other app who is rude, inconsiderate, or childish - you are the fucking problems. You are all childish. I’m getting really tired of all of the rude responses and just posts in general towards one another in this fandom

It’s literally sickening, and makes me ashamed to be involved with some of these people sometimes. Do better as human beings, there is real shit going on in the world that you can focus all that anger, hate and insecurity onto. Don’t bring it here, to a FANTASY show that has in no way, shape or form a hint of reality.

You’re arguing over an incest family with dragons🤡 find something better to do if you don’t wanna have honest conversations. The adults are talking honey

Oh and by the way anyone who comments something rude ✨is getting blocked from now onnnnn✨

[samasmith23]

Dear @hellyeahheroes/@filipfatalattractionrblog,

All that me and my friend @sjbattleangel ask is that you and the rest of your friends on this blog please acknowledge and apologize for creating such a toxic echo chamber with your blog, which encourages and enables hyperbolic and inflammatory mischaracterization and harassment if comic creators that you personally dislike. If you don’t like the works of people like Jason Aaron, Dan Slott, Brian Michael Bendis, Donny Cates, Jonathan Hickman, Scott Snyder, James Tynion IV, Joshua Williamson etc., that’s fine; but it is UNACCEPTABLE to constantly slander and demonize them as “perverts”, "misogynists", "homophobes", "eugenists" or “fascist apologists” when there’s ZERO evidence to substantiate such extreme claims. Just because these creators wrote comics that you personally disliked does NOT mean that they're even remotely comparable to legitimately bigoted scumbags like Ethan Van Sciver & Chuck Dixon like you treat them as based on the way you constantly talk about them!

And some members of your community, like KK4EverStuff, have gone even further by using your defamatory statements as an excuse to write literal death threats towards said-creators such as these:

These are NOT ad-hominem or hyperbolic Angry Video Game Nerd style criticisms like majingojira once tried to claim. This is violent an unhinged cyberbullying on KK4EverStuff's part. Plain and simple. Your blog encouraged and enabled his kind of toxic behavior, and you need to acknowledge that and do better going forward.

Then there is the X-Men series (particularly anything non-New X-Men: Academy X or post-Schism), Batgirls, any post-One Year Later Cass Cain-stared story or any post-One More Day Spider-Man story. It's fine if they don't appeal to you but deliberately choosing to hate them way before you even read them or gave them a proper chance? That isn't good or healthy criticism, that's just hate-reading for the sake of hate-reading. All it does is create an atmosphere of constant negativity and toxic gatekeeping which really hurt comic fans who just want to have fun. If anything after Avengers: Arena, X-Men: Schism, Robin: One Year Later or One More Day upset you that much then why you are reading them if you're automatically going to hate them? Just don't read them. It's that easy.

So please, acknowledge that you have done wrong with your past attacks against specific comic creators, toxic bad-faith comic criticism and apologize. That’s all we ask for.

Do better!

[wilwheaton]

One of your reblogs showed up right under this post on my dash, https://www.tumblr.com/swedebeast/738561479746387968

I've been playing 40K since Rogue Trader. I left the hobby because of all the fascists and gatekeeping dickheads, like that person, and the first response from someone who is angry that the show could make 40K popular. As popular as Magic: The Gathering! OH NO! NOT THAT!

But I love how this guy says that my noticing a hobby that I've been part of for over 30 years is going to be the end of everything.

Look, the only thing I want to end in the 40K universe is all the toxic fandom that's keeping people away from a really fun game and a universe saturated with amazing lore.