Rock Candy Reviews

Spoilers for Helluva Boss, Arcane, and My Little Pony Friendship is Magic

Almost every fandom I have been in has had some sort of problem with blind hatred. Whether it’s a specific character, a plot point, or general direction of a show. When people don’t like something, they let it cloud their judgement for everything related to it.

This can seem like a problem with no solution, but there is one. It’s just one that no one wants to commit to, because it involves self exploring and accountability.

Fandoms need to start forcing everyone to have a stance or opinion of every little thing. If an individual has no experience or personal ties to an issue, there is no reason for that person to feel any pressure to speak on the topic. However, fandoms have become increasingly obsessed with forcing people to give their takes on things that they probably shouldn’t. This isn’t to say that opinions can only be valid if backed up by direct exposure, but bias and blind hatred have no place in critical discussion.

When people know they have a bias or hatred towards a certain thing, it is not good to indulge in critical discussions surrounding that thing, unless they know they can put their personal feelings aside. For instance, if the discussion is about writing trope you can’t stand, don’t jump into a conversation about it just to rant about how much you don’t like it. Only engage if you have meaningful critique or new information. Also, people shouldn’t pressure others into talking about topics that there is already personal anger towards. Forcing someone to give their thoughts on something that they hate without any real reason is a waste of time and energy for both parties.

A recent example would be the discourse surrounding the show Arcane, and Helluva Boss. In both shows, the fans have blind hatred towards certain characters, and ignore canon events in order to keep their hatred burning. They actively seek out people who like those characters, just to tell them how wrong and unintelligent they are. The character of Stolas and Jinx come to mind.

Also, in both cases the fans put their personal feelings towards the characters before common sense interactions with real life people. They will threaten or humiliate the voice actors behind the characters, and relentlessly bully the writers of their respective shows. This is not only unacceptable behavior, but also discourages genuine conversation.

A personal story from me involves My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. I would listen to, but never really participate in discussions about episodes centered around Fluttershy. This is because I knew I strongly disliked her, but not for her writing or character development. I disliked her because I couldn’t stand the way other fans put her above the other ponies in terms of excusing her flaws and mistakes, but not giving anyone else the same grace. This was my opinion, but I was able to step back, and acknowledge that this was not a problem with the show. It was my own, personal beef. So, I did not talk about Fluttershy very much, because I knew I couldn’t get past my personal bias. It was hard to admit, but it saved me some peace of mind in the long run.

In today’s fandom spaces, the term “fake fan” gets thrown around as way to punish people for not talking about topics or controversy. There shouldn’t be this much shame in staying out of specific discussions. There also shouldn’t be so much pride in blindly hating something for petty reasons.

Blind hatred enables people to mistreat and harass others. Especially when people treat blind hatred as valid criticism. Hating on something just to gain popularity or validation isn’t healthy for anybody.

This kind of thinking also ends up ruining pieces of media for both the hater and the fan. Despising a show just because of blind hatred of one character, ship, or twist is not only ridiculously shallow, but also robs people of enjoyment. No matter how much you hate something, it is not an excuse to demand others to share your level of hatred.

A couple things to remember before jumping in the comment section:

• It is not the writer’s responsibility to cater to you specifically.
• Your personal feelings or experiences are not the only valid ones.
• Just because you don’t forgive the character, doesn’t mean the characters have to hold a grudge as well.
• Disliking a character’s personality is not the same as the character having bad writing.
• A project being successful is not a deep reason for hating it.
• Insulting someone or harassing them actually weakens your argument.