What is the dumbest case of fandom infighting you have ever seen?

[WonkyWarmaiden]

Almost everyone has at least one fandom they're attached to in some way, be it just reading other people's opinions or jumping straight into a every discussion that peaks your interest, but sometimes an argument crops up that sweeps the entire fandom and while everybody else is name calling and throwing insults you're there just wondering how the hell it became such a massive thing.

So what would you guys say is the most ridiculous argument you've witnessed in a fandom of something you love?

My answer to that would be a fight that seems to plague the Welcome to Night Vale fandom on and off. For those of you who don't know, Welcome to Night Vale is a podcast masquerading as a radio show where the only main character is the radio show host, Cecil.

Being a podcast there are, of course, no visuals so fans started coming up with their own ideas of what Cecil could possibly look like. Silly, I know. Alas, being the internet something had to go wrong. People were imagining Cecil as black, Native American, latino, what have you. Then other people started saying they saw the character as white because the guy who voices him is and that eventually boiled down into fans calling those people racists.

Meanwhile, I'm sitting there seeing all this crap being slung from both sides and wondering how in the hell this cool little podcast could have these jackasses for fans.

Wow, I rambled a lot.

 

[Legion]

People who get way too serious about personal interpretations in series. This includes:

- Speculation of future events such as who Jon Snow's mother is in ASOIAF.
- "Shipping" in works of fiction when people argue over which pairings are more valid and so on.
- What something means in a series when it's not explicitly stated. This is normally in psychological works of fiction.
- Fan theories such as the Indoctrination Theory for Mass Effect 3.

I can understand people getting tired of the more idiotic ones, such as if somebody was adamant that Game of Thrones takes place in Tyrion's nightmares and never actually happened or something. But the way some people talk about it you'd think they were arguing against somebody claiming gravity doesn't exist.

 

[Barbas]

I don't know if this will end in fire, but I know it won't be because of me. With that in mind:

I became interested in the Battlefield series when Battlefield 3 came out; I had heard from various sources how good the second one had been and the internet was all abuzz at the news of the next installment. I played it for a bit and realized that I was buying the game simply because it was a military FPS that wasn't Call of Duty. The numerous bugs and other shifting issues were what caused me to drift away from it. I bought the next episode in the series out of sheer boredom, but again I was frustrated by bugs and glitches, and again I just couldn't stand the constant scuffling between the COD crowd and the BF crowd. Nothing was being gained, so I abandoned the series entirely. One the bright side, I look forward to spending the money I've saved on something quite nice in the future!

That may not seem particularly bad as these things go, but then again, it was useful experience for avoiding future conflicts between rival fan bases, so that was about as bad as it got for me. I also apparently missed that whole MLP thing that was supposed to have been big on the internet a while ago, before anyone mentions it. I never understood the attraction, but then I don't understand a lot of things.

 

[Colour Scientist]

- Speculation of future events such as who Jon Snow's mother is in ASOIAF.

Spoiler

He's totes Lyanna and Rhaegar's kid, right?

OP: I can't really think of anything.
I'm a fangirl of a few things but I don't generally involve myself in the online communities so any infighting would probably go right over my head.

 

[Eamar]

It's never got to anything approaching gaming flamewar levels, but I've seen heated arguments about what colour Legolas' hair should be (Tolkien never explicitly states it). Basically there's a passage that can sometimes be interpreted as showing he has dark hair, but there are equally strong indications that he's blond. Short of finding a hidden manuscript or something, there is literally no way anyone could prove it one way or the other so the whole thing is completely pointless.

 

[Barbas]

It's never got to anything approaching gaming flamewar levels, but I've seen heated arguments about what colour Legolas' hair should be (Tolkien never explicitly states it). Basically there's a passage that can sometimes be interpreted as showing he has dark hair, but there are equally strong indications that he's blond. Short of finding a hidden manuscript or something, there is literally no way anyone could prove it one way or the other so the whole thing is completely pointless.

Was it just me, or did he have brighter eyes in second Hobbit film than he did in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy? I remember that when The Fellowship of the Ring came out, many a doorway was blocked by crowds of excited people tittering about how heart-meltingly sexy he was. It was most uncomfortable.

Spoiler: I am so sorry.

I've been surprised by how angry some people are about the films. Sure, there are elements and even characters from the book who didn't make it in, but how many films would that have extended it to? There is a point at which a story just becomes bloated, for lack of a better word.

 

[shrekfan246]

Any Final Fantasy discussion.

Rare is the day that you see one which doesn't devolve into "What? How could you like [Number]?! It was the worst one ever!?!?" and just get worse from there.

Which is just made even more hilarious by the fact that, pre-XI, as different as they were most of the Final Fantasy games were actually pretty similar at their core.

 

[Vault101]

Weather or not Commander shepard is female or male..or which is "legit"

[b/]they specifically said there is no set cannon in regards to his/her gender[/b] YES male shep is part of the marketing, he is used more often [b/]but[/b] they did specifically avoid mentioning shps gender is everything else (and I don't bloody care if it "hurts your imersion" to see a female solder). Now EA being EA and the way fate usually goes I wouldn't be OVERLY surprised if they went with a "cannon" male shep some way down the line (ugghhh the blasphemy) [b/]but untill then[/b] we can accept the fact that it doesn't matter....my shep isn't anymore legit than your shep and your shep isn't more legit than mine.

on a less controversial note..

The Assari from mass effect...

look I "get" that there are sci fi-ish explanations of the ins and outs of the assari and [i/]why[/i] they look how they look and I appreciate the possible nod towards them not looking like that.

But lets not kid outselfs....[i/]they are hot lesbian aliens[/i] you can't possibly try and explain that away with a straight face...it is what it is...just enjoy it

[sub/] all that said thats why I love that running gag on Futurama where Kiff is considered the universal standard for beauty [/sub]

 

[Ellie O'Daire]

Worst case of fandom infighting I've ever seen was when Stargate Atlantis was cancelled for Stargate Universe. A lot of fans of the original spinoff were under the impression that trashing the new show would somehow bring both back, and surely enough the new show was never really able to get its feet under it, got cancelled, and now there hasn't been any new Stargate in years. Everyone loses.

 

[Thaluikhain]

It's never got to anything approaching gaming flamewar levels, but I've seen heated arguments about what colour Legolas' hair should be (Tolkien never explicitly states it). Basically there's a passage that can sometimes be interpreted as showing he has dark hair, but there are equally strong indications that he's blond. Short of finding a hidden manuscript or something, there is literally no way anyone could prove it one way or the other so the whole thing is completely pointless.

Eh, just have him wear a hat, problem solved.

 

[IceForce]

This thread would not be complete without a mention of the brony fandom, and all the infighting involved with the Derpy and Alicorn Twilight sagas.

 

[WhiteFangofWhoa]

Well in terms of effort invested ratio to relevance of topic (not that very many are relevant at all), probably Harmonians in Harry Potter fandom. Trolling forum boards, blacklisting anyone who didn't agree with them, death threats mailed to the author, you name it. Sort of like the Team Jacob/Edward thing except this time for a good book series where romance is not the only thing that matters in the universe.

Why does it matter so much to you if a two fictional characters you like get together? Can't they just be good friends?

 

[Eamar]

Was it just me, or did he have brighter eyes in second Hobbit film than he did in the Lord Of The Rings trilogy?

He did. I'm sure I heard that it's because (brown-eyed) Orlando Bloom didn't like wearing coloured contacts all the time (can't remember if he had some sort of reaction/discomfort or if it was just due to restricted vision and shit) so they used CGI to change the colour in post-production. Don't quote me on that, but it certainly sounds plausible.

Eh, just have him wear a hat, problem solved.

Nothing could ever compare to the birthday hat he made Aragorn though...

Spoiler: Pictured: majesty

 

[Auron225]

One that made me recoil was fans trying to start the whole "Team ..." bullshit with The Hunger Games series.

"Are you Team Gale or Team Peeta?"

Screw your team shit! Romance is the least important thing about this story! How in the hell can you watch kids being forced to fight each other to the death and the only thing you take away from it is "Which guy is she gonna end up with? ^.^" It annoys me to no end that the core messages of that series have been completely ignored in favour of the same horse-shit love-triangle that plagues absolutely everything these days.

 

[Barbas]

Nothing could ever compare to the birthday hat he made Aragorn though...

Spoiler: Pictured: majesty

If only he'd been wearing that when he nearly got arrested and/or shot for walking down the street and swinging Narsil about. I shall see your charming hat and raise you one divine wig:


Good gods, I love the behind-the-scenes shenanigans on that production...

EDIT: Of course, how could I forget: Team Edward and team Jacob. D'awwww!

 

[Neverhoodian]

This thread would not be complete without a mention of the brony fandom, and all the infighting involved with the Derpy and Alicorn Twilight sagas.

Don't forget the instances where a few of them have gotten pissed at the writers because the show didn't follow their headcanon. As if they're supposed to know that and are somehow beholden to random fanfiction. How self-centered and delusional can you get?

It's one of the reasons why, despite being a brony, I choose not to follow the fandom all that closely. While most of them are decent, level-headed human beings, there's enough of a "lunatic fringe" to have things get ugly from time to time.

 

[Strain42]

MegaTen fans have some of the dumbest instances of in-fighting I've ever seen.

You've got the people who only like the Shin Megami Tensei series and hate all the Persona players...

and then you've got MORE in-fighting amongst the Persona players between people who liked P1/P2 and think those who came in with P3/P4 are ruining the series for everyone...and then you've also got JUST the P4 people who fight against everyone else, ever, trying to claim the the Megami Tensei franchise will never have a more precious jewel than P4.

MegaTen fans are nuts. There are layers upon layers of in-fighting and hatred amongst us. We're like a big onion of hate and hurt feelings.

 

[Objectable]

Frenzy is Red, Rumble is blue!
or the other way around.