'Toxic' Fandoms
I've been thinking about writing something about this topic for a while, but what spurred me on to get around to actually writing about it was seeing a post on my Facebook feed the other day regarding fans of Game of Thrones starting a petition to remake the show's recent 8th season. Now, I definitely wouldn't consider myself a GOT fan (I watched the first season about four years ago and never got back into it) so I'm not as bothered about seeing spoilers on my social media feeds, but from what I can gather, this season has been rather controversial with fans. Most the criticism I've seen from people following it appears to be legitimate criticism (at least on the surface), but seeing news that some fans were starting a petition to get HBO to spend an awful lot of money to remake something they had just spent a similar amount of money on just because they personally didn't like it reminded me of how fans of a certain franchise that I do consider myself a big fan of had a similar reaction to one of it's more recent instalments.
Of course, I'm referring to the backlash that some Star Wars fans gave to 2017's The Last Jedi. As I said in my previous post on this blog, while I found the film has a few issues, I really enjoyed it overall. However, not every fan saw it that way. In fact, quite a few felt it was the worst film in the series, or even yet, the worst film ever made. Rather than moving on and accepting that they didn't enjoy it, they proceeded to throw their toys out of the pram; complaining that Rian Johnson 'runied' Star Wars, starting petitions to get Disney/Lucasfilm to declare The Last Jedi as non canon, trying to raise funds to 'remake' The Last Jedi, demanding that George Lucas gets brought back in spite of throwing similar venom towards him in the late 90's and 2000's over the Prequel Trilogy, and harassing actress Kelly Marie Tran to the extent that she deactivated her Instagram account just because they didn't like the character she played in the film.
As stated in one of my points above, this is nothing new in the Star Wars fandom. When Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was initially released in May 1999, in spite of the initial buzz and hype, it too was met with a similar backlash that The Last Jedi is currently receiving from the fandom. Online forums were barraged with threads either praising or damning the film, and the character of Jar Jar Binks was also targeted with a large amount of criticism. So much that actor Ahmed Best was considering suicide on account of this backlash. Likewise, Jake Lloyd was met with so much ridicule for his portrayal of 9 year old Anakin Skywalker that he quit acting altogether in 2001, and proceeded to get rid of all his Star Wars merchandise.
Just to be clear, I'm not here to argue the pros and cons of either The Last Jedi or The Phantom Menace (in short, TPM has it's moments, but is weighed down by several flaws). I'm just pointing out that this element of the fandom has always existed, it's just now more widespread than before thanks to the advancements in technology made in the past two decades.
One of the key differences between 1999 and 2019 is the rise of the internet. While the internet existed in 1999, it was pretty limited, and you had to make do with a relatively slow dial up connection, meaning that access to the internet wasn't as widespread as it is nowadays. Of course, now in 2019, high speed internet is rather commonplace, and video sharing platforms such as YouTube give an incredibly loud minority of fans a platform to make videos with clickbait titles such as 'Why The Last Jedi Ruined Star Wars'. Sure, there have been videos discussing the prequels and their flaws as well, but nowhere near as numerous as these TLJ videos have been, and most the videos I've seen discussing the prequels have been legitimate criticism of those films.
I'm not saying that disliking The Last Jedi makes you a toxic fan, or that you're wrong for not enjoying the film. It's 100% okay to not like the film for legitimate reasons. The issues I have are with the parts of the fandom who take it personally that someone made a film that they didn't like, or those who's issues with it are because it features female characters in prominent roles as well as those who blame Kathleen Kennedy for pushing a so called 'feminist agenda' just because she's a woman and she's in charge of the company responsible for making Star Wars. Someone I know once told me that 'The only experience the people making these new Star Wars films have had previously is making Lindsey Lohan movies', which is not only untrue, but is essentially saying that women shouldn't have any part in making films of this kind. The same person also told me that I was 'wrong' because I enjoyed the film, but the majority of their argument for why they didn't like it stemmed down to that they felt it was 'SJW feminist propaganda'.
Another thing that I've found pretty rampant in fandoms is the toxic and elitist nature of declaring whether or not someone is a 'true fan' of something. Being a fan of something isn't a competition where we can begin gatekeeping and declaring who is or isn't a true fan. All that achieves is driving people away because of said gatekeeping when we should be encouraging these new fans to get into the franchises. For instance, claiming that someone isn't a true Star Wars fan because they enjoyed or didn't enjoy a certain film in the franchise. Now, I've been a die hard Star Wars fan since my dad took me to see The Phantom Menace in the cinema when I was 5 years old (also the first film I ever saw in the cinema). While I haven't read every novel and comic or played every video game with the Star Wars brand on it, I have definitely immersed myself in a fair amount of comics, novels, and games as well as every episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (both the 2003 and 2008 versions), so I definitely know what I'm talking about when it comes to the franchise. However, I wouldn't exclude someone or declare them as not being a true fan just because they enjoyed the prequel trilogy, don't like the current sequel trilogy, or haven't seen The Clone Wars. In fact, I'd be encouraging them to check out the show since, while it definitely has it's low points, it also has some of my favourite Star Wars moments ever and I'd love for more people to experience those moments.
Of course, Star Wars isn't the only fandom where toxicity can be found. Earlier this year, Captain Marvel received backlash just because it featured a woman in the lead role. Much like Game of Thrones, I don't really consider myself a massive fan of the MCU and have fallen out of the loop big time with the films, but from what I've seen, it looks pretty much the same as other films in the series, but it just features a great female character to empower women in the same way that characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor empower men. This backlash is still running rampant since, much like with The Last Jedi, there's several clickbait videos targeting not just the film itself, but lead actress Brie Larson. Likewise, the Rick and Morty fandom rose to infamy in late 2017 through people taking an ironic statement that 'you have to have a high IQ to enjoy Rick and Morty' seriously and fans harassing McDonalds workers just doing their jobs over a fucking condiment. That fandom also has a sexist portion within it, blaming the fact that creator Dan Harmon brought on more women to write episodes as to why they didn't like the show's third season as much.
Is there a point to this that has been worth writing paragraph after paragraph about it? Well, it all seems to stem from people being overly passionate about the things that they enjoy. There's nothing wrong with being passionate about these things. Heck, I'm incredibly passionate about the things that I enjoy, but I think the issue stems from people taking it personally when someone makes a film/episode/season that they don't like. They feel that because they're fans of the series, they are entitled to have everything within that series to be made to their standards, and if anything doesn't meet those standards (i.e. their theory as to who Rey's parents are isn't what's presented on screen), they feel that they are entitled to act like man babies and demand the heads of everyone involved in the project.
However, while this portion of fandoms appear to be very loud, they luckily appear to be a minority. During Star Wars Celebration last month, both Kelly Marie Tran and Ahmed Best were met with overwhelming cheers from the crowd during panels they appeared at, showing that the loud fans harassing them online do not speak for everyone in the fandom, and fans of the MCU have openly embraced both Captain Marvel and Brie Larson, showing that not every fan is an entitled asshole who is worried about their hypermasculine fantasies being threatened by the presence of equally strong women in the franchise.
So, to summarise, while there are elements of toxicity in pretty much every fandom, the toxic fans are luckily nothing more than an overly loud minority. It's great to enjoy the things you enjoy, but it's also okay to not like things as well. Just don't be a dick about it.
Of course, I'm referring to the backlash that some Star Wars fans gave to 2017's The Last Jedi. As I said in my previous post on this blog, while I found the film has a few issues, I really enjoyed it overall. However, not every fan saw it that way. In fact, quite a few felt it was the worst film in the series, or even yet, the worst film ever made. Rather than moving on and accepting that they didn't enjoy it, they proceeded to throw their toys out of the pram; complaining that Rian Johnson 'runied' Star Wars, starting petitions to get Disney/Lucasfilm to declare The Last Jedi as non canon, trying to raise funds to 'remake' The Last Jedi, demanding that George Lucas gets brought back in spite of throwing similar venom towards him in the late 90's and 2000's over the Prequel Trilogy, and harassing actress Kelly Marie Tran to the extent that she deactivated her Instagram account just because they didn't like the character she played in the film.
As stated in one of my points above, this is nothing new in the Star Wars fandom. When Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was initially released in May 1999, in spite of the initial buzz and hype, it too was met with a similar backlash that The Last Jedi is currently receiving from the fandom. Online forums were barraged with threads either praising or damning the film, and the character of Jar Jar Binks was also targeted with a large amount of criticism. So much that actor Ahmed Best was considering suicide on account of this backlash. Likewise, Jake Lloyd was met with so much ridicule for his portrayal of 9 year old Anakin Skywalker that he quit acting altogether in 2001, and proceeded to get rid of all his Star Wars merchandise.
Just to be clear, I'm not here to argue the pros and cons of either The Last Jedi or The Phantom Menace (in short, TPM has it's moments, but is weighed down by several flaws). I'm just pointing out that this element of the fandom has always existed, it's just now more widespread than before thanks to the advancements in technology made in the past two decades.
One of the key differences between 1999 and 2019 is the rise of the internet. While the internet existed in 1999, it was pretty limited, and you had to make do with a relatively slow dial up connection, meaning that access to the internet wasn't as widespread as it is nowadays. Of course, now in 2019, high speed internet is rather commonplace, and video sharing platforms such as YouTube give an incredibly loud minority of fans a platform to make videos with clickbait titles such as 'Why The Last Jedi Ruined Star Wars'. Sure, there have been videos discussing the prequels and their flaws as well, but nowhere near as numerous as these TLJ videos have been, and most the videos I've seen discussing the prequels have been legitimate criticism of those films.
I'm not saying that disliking The Last Jedi makes you a toxic fan, or that you're wrong for not enjoying the film. It's 100% okay to not like the film for legitimate reasons. The issues I have are with the parts of the fandom who take it personally that someone made a film that they didn't like, or those who's issues with it are because it features female characters in prominent roles as well as those who blame Kathleen Kennedy for pushing a so called 'feminist agenda' just because she's a woman and she's in charge of the company responsible for making Star Wars. Someone I know once told me that 'The only experience the people making these new Star Wars films have had previously is making Lindsey Lohan movies', which is not only untrue, but is essentially saying that women shouldn't have any part in making films of this kind. The same person also told me that I was 'wrong' because I enjoyed the film, but the majority of their argument for why they didn't like it stemmed down to that they felt it was 'SJW feminist propaganda'.
Another thing that I've found pretty rampant in fandoms is the toxic and elitist nature of declaring whether or not someone is a 'true fan' of something. Being a fan of something isn't a competition where we can begin gatekeeping and declaring who is or isn't a true fan. All that achieves is driving people away because of said gatekeeping when we should be encouraging these new fans to get into the franchises. For instance, claiming that someone isn't a true Star Wars fan because they enjoyed or didn't enjoy a certain film in the franchise. Now, I've been a die hard Star Wars fan since my dad took me to see The Phantom Menace in the cinema when I was 5 years old (also the first film I ever saw in the cinema). While I haven't read every novel and comic or played every video game with the Star Wars brand on it, I have definitely immersed myself in a fair amount of comics, novels, and games as well as every episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars (both the 2003 and 2008 versions), so I definitely know what I'm talking about when it comes to the franchise. However, I wouldn't exclude someone or declare them as not being a true fan just because they enjoyed the prequel trilogy, don't like the current sequel trilogy, or haven't seen The Clone Wars. In fact, I'd be encouraging them to check out the show since, while it definitely has it's low points, it also has some of my favourite Star Wars moments ever and I'd love for more people to experience those moments.
Of course, Star Wars isn't the only fandom where toxicity can be found. Earlier this year, Captain Marvel received backlash just because it featured a woman in the lead role. Much like Game of Thrones, I don't really consider myself a massive fan of the MCU and have fallen out of the loop big time with the films, but from what I've seen, it looks pretty much the same as other films in the series, but it just features a great female character to empower women in the same way that characters like Iron Man, Captain America, and Thor empower men. This backlash is still running rampant since, much like with The Last Jedi, there's several clickbait videos targeting not just the film itself, but lead actress Brie Larson. Likewise, the Rick and Morty fandom rose to infamy in late 2017 through people taking an ironic statement that 'you have to have a high IQ to enjoy Rick and Morty' seriously and fans harassing McDonalds workers just doing their jobs over a fucking condiment. That fandom also has a sexist portion within it, blaming the fact that creator Dan Harmon brought on more women to write episodes as to why they didn't like the show's third season as much.
Is there a point to this that has been worth writing paragraph after paragraph about it? Well, it all seems to stem from people being overly passionate about the things that they enjoy. There's nothing wrong with being passionate about these things. Heck, I'm incredibly passionate about the things that I enjoy, but I think the issue stems from people taking it personally when someone makes a film/episode/season that they don't like. They feel that because they're fans of the series, they are entitled to have everything within that series to be made to their standards, and if anything doesn't meet those standards (i.e. their theory as to who Rey's parents are isn't what's presented on screen), they feel that they are entitled to act like man babies and demand the heads of everyone involved in the project.
However, while this portion of fandoms appear to be very loud, they luckily appear to be a minority. During Star Wars Celebration last month, both Kelly Marie Tran and Ahmed Best were met with overwhelming cheers from the crowd during panels they appeared at, showing that the loud fans harassing them online do not speak for everyone in the fandom, and fans of the MCU have openly embraced both Captain Marvel and Brie Larson, showing that not every fan is an entitled asshole who is worried about their hypermasculine fantasies being threatened by the presence of equally strong women in the franchise.
So, to summarise, while there are elements of toxicity in pretty much every fandom, the toxic fans are luckily nothing more than an overly loud minority. It's great to enjoy the things you enjoy, but it's also okay to not like things as well. Just don't be a dick about it.
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