Toxic Fandoms and "True Fans"- Some Thoughts

You want to know one of the phrases I hate the most? (Of course you do.) True fan. You hear that thrown around a lot in the nerd community as people accuse others of not being "true fans" for one reason or another.

I love fandoms, but they can be a toxic place sometimes, especially recently. With the rise of the internet, it's become even easier to post your opinions and thoughts online (like I am now). There's nothing wrong with that, but people need to remember that their words can affect others.

I've been thinking on topic of fandom a lot since watching things like the latest Star Wars episodes or reading books like Geekerella. Fans are, understandably, attached to different franchises. Most of the time we grew up with them, so they have very fond memories for us.

Unfortunately, studios like to play on that nostalgia and either remake or continue the films of our childhood and completely ruin them. Newer, younger generations might enjoy them, but most of the time they aren't even well written pieces of fiction. They just pump it out because they know we're suckers and will pay to watch it anyway.

That's how we end up with things like Star Wars episodes 1-3 and 7-9. Or spin-offs like the Mandalorian or Clone Wars. Continuing different shows in the Star Trek universe or Doctor Who. Remakes of classic movies like Cinderella or Power Rangers. (It wouldn't be so bad if they actually had decent writers for half these things. I mean, what the heck was going on with Episodes 7, 8, and 9?)

Anyway, these types of things can divide their fandom. (Heck, things like "who shot first, Greedo or Han", can split people up, fans aren't always the most stable people.) Some people love the new remakes or spin-offs or continuations. Others are die-hard original fans. Both sides think the other is stupid.

There isn't a right or wrong in these kinds of situations. I know a lot of people like The Force Awakes (like myself) and others who think The Last Jedi is the best thing to happen to Star Wars. All of us, however, agree the Rise of Skywalker is a hot mess. I'm not more right than people who like TLJ and they're not more right than me. It's a matter of taste and opinion.

That's where the whole "true fan" part comes in. A "true fan" wouldn't watch anything but the original three Star Wars movies, all the others are terrible. A "true fan" would have watched all six million Star Trek shows. A "true fan" would know every piece of trivia.

But to me, there's not such thing as a true fan. If you like something and enjoy watching it, you're a fan. If you go to cons and cosplay as your favorite characters, you're a fan. Even if you don't know everything about the character, or story, you're still a fan.

Some days I just get so tired of all the hate about movies and different franchises. People argue about everything and criticize every plot point. Why don't some of you try making a movie and see how difficult it is sometime?

It could be the non-confrontational side of me, but I just want everyone to get along, and watch movies just for the sake of enjoying the story they're telling. A little friendly debate about things is fine, but when you have people boycotting Doctor Who because they cast a female doctor (which was totally coming anyway), things are going to far.

People created these movie and TV series because they loved the characters or stories. We watch them for the same reason. I admit, I'm a critic myself. We do that because we want these movies to be as good as we think they should be. But it just doesn't always work out.

Anyway, this was just kind of some random stuff that's been tumbling through my head. Feel free to join in the discussion below and share you're thoughts. Hopefully you were able to get some sense out of all this.

What are your thoughts on this topic? What's a controversial movie opinion you have? Tell me in the comments.

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