By Daniel Webber
Imagine either of these scenarios: You’re a fan of a certain movie or TV show. Then, when you express your fandom of the show, a random internet troll badmouths you about your opinion online. OR, you have progressive views, supporting various worthy causes. Once a bunch of nasty street preachers find out about you, they carry picket signs, verbally abuse you, and tell you that “you’re going to Hell”. What do both of these scenarios have in common? A lot, actually.
Ever since the dawn of man, religions have always been the ultimate fanbases. As we all know, religions are groups of people dedicated to the worship of a specific deity. In ancient times, these groups would be very exclusive, and saw outsiders as worthy of death and Hellfire-unless, of course, those outsiders decided to dedicate their lives to that group. Nowadays, though, people everywhere befriend different people from different religions, although there are still some sects out there who refuse to grow up and be Christ-like in a way that welcomes the outsider.
In this day and age, fanbases and fandoms have become the religions of entertainment and media. Just like religions, fanbases are groups of people dedicated to a specific topic, revolving around a licensed property. Some fans are loyal as can be to movies or shows which they adore, but unconditionally love and respect those from other fanbases. Other devotees can become so disgusted by blasphemers or reboots of their favorite properties that they go as far as to hurt anyone responsible by means of words or actions; they sometimes take extreme measures, such as making threats.
Before we continue discussion on fiery fandoms, let’s first dive into the modern climate of world religion. In the religious world, we have certain sects of religions, such as The Taliban, The Westboro Baptist Church, The Ku-Klux-Klan, and Al-Quaeda, all of whom go to extreme measures for their “beliefs”, attacking, or even killing, anyone different from them. This is all due to misunderstandings of ancient sacred texts such as the Bible (Old and New Testaments) and the Qur’an. For centuries, many Christian extremists have used the Bible to justify slavery, homophobia, corporal punishment, sexist patriarchy/misogyny, and even the death penalty. On the other side, Muslim extremists used the Qur’an to justify violence, murder, and terrorism.
Now let’s talk about the fanboys. Some YouTubers have ranted about their hatred for movies of shows, and sometimes in ways where they’re just trying to get attention; Many of them would hate on shows like Teen Titans Go or Powerpuff Girls 2016, and even make clickbait-style videos to get more views and subscribers; Others have been nasty enough to directly hurt or threaten anyone involved with those licensed properties, such as the cast and/or creators. This also happened when the 2016 Ghostbusters reboot was released, and the cast was attacked with racist and misogynistic remarks online. Even properties that have been adored by fans have been the subject of this controversy; In late 2015, Steven Universe devotees cyberbullied an internet artist for drawing characters from the series in a way not like they are on TV; this went so far that the artist attempted suicide—but fortunately survived. Rick and Morty fans also went full-throttle on anger after McDonald’s made a Szechuan Sauce comeback campaign that was based on an episode of the show; since only a few locations participated, each with very limited amounts of the sauce, fans took things to extreme measures that ranged from jumping on countertops to viciously rioting outside the restaurants (the latter of which may sound like they were declaring holy war). Next, Star Wars fanbase extremists would bully Kelly Marie Tran (who played Rose in The Last Jedi) so hard that she had to delete all of her previous Instagram activity. If all these examples aren’t bad enough, earlier in 2018, there was an instance where a far-right Twitter troll tweeted a mass shooting threat “joke” against CalArts, a school where many collegiate art students study their craft; This threat was made over the Announcement that Cartoon Network had plans for 2019 to reboot Thundercats in a way akin to Teen Titans Go. You know that fandoms can reach peak controversy and infamy when you hear of stories like these.
These are all the reason and pieces of evidence as to why fanbases are basically like religions; the extremists are the outliers in otherwise peaceful groups. It’s totally okay if you’re a loyal fan of any movie, TV show, book series, etc., just don’t go as far as to worship it like an idol. Just as the Bible says that idolatry is a major curse, going too far in your adoration of a licensed property can have consequences that will haunt you forever. Above all, never forget to love your neighbor as yourself, regardless of what they like or don’t like.
My name’s Daniel Webber. I’m a warrior for the arts who loves to share his own ideas!