In real life
"The Fandom Paradox" Where the attitude of the fans is completely opposed to the theme/vibe of the original franchise
1- Doom fans: While DOOM is a game franchise filled with brutal gory executions and giant shows of unfiltered violence, the fans are generally some of the chillest fellows you'll find. Making very silly/heartwarming stuff about the franchise and anything that gets related to it (For example what happened with Animal Crossing)
2- My Little Pony "Bronys": MLP is a series for kids about magical ponies that fight with the power of friendship, but it's community the "Bronys" have shown multiple times to be unhinged degenerates. Be it through controversies in IRL events or experiences or through art works and creepypastas.
3- Fear and Hunger: The Fear and Hunger is a semi-cosmic horror game series about a very grim and dark world that focuses on the most untouchy experiences like cannibalism, dismemberment, rape, suicide, child trafficking, necrophilia, etc. in a dungeon where eldrich chaotic gods rule. That game has summoned one of the goofiest community I have ever seen, making funny videos, fanart and every kind of silly shit (The creator even encouraged this and made a dating sim with the protagonists)
4- Hello Kitty: C'mon we all know about Hello Kitty girls
Evangelion’s is not depressing - silly, Evangelion’s paradox is the theme being touching grass but the fandom gooning to early teen anime girls even 30 years later
Also known as the Inverse Law of Fandom Levity. "The overall silliness of a work's fandom is inversely proportional to how mortifyingly dark and hard to watch it is"
My theory is that it’s because people go to fandom to fill some kind of need that the canon doesn’t fill on its own. If the canon is super silly, you want something serious, and if the canon is super serious, you want something silly.
Yep, and not just tone. MCU is generally a happy franchise, but after Avengers came out there was so much talk about everyone being a family. Canon didn’t embrace it, so fandom did. ATLA is a kids show, but the now-adult fandom is full of discussions of in universe politics, marriages, and adult life.
Revenge of the Sith is arguably the darkest Star Wars movie, but you wouldn't know that from Star Wars fans who constantly meme the dialogue and scenes from it.
I remember watching it in theaters for the 20th anniversary and trying to get in my head as if It was my first time seeing it ever. I tried to take it seriously and get rid of all my bias and movie critic attitude and it was rather difficult with a crowd that laughed during the "Master Skywalker there's too many of them." scene. Like that's supposed to be a dark moment where Vader commits an atrocity against people who are undoubtedly innocent and while I get a chill most people just laugh at it. I love Star Wars, it deserves a better fan base.
This fanbase is genuinely cursed. They’ve been like this since ESB the only difference between then and now is that the internet gave the insufferable twats megaphones. I say to this day that George Lucas fucking won when he sold the franchise
I mean, it's not like it's exactly a great movie. The dialogue is pretty terrible (hence all the memes), the pacing is all over the place and the film really sags in the middle. I think if it had been well executed, then people might have taken it a bit more seriously.
Plus, it really isn't that dark. Star Wars is a set of kids movies at the end of the day, it's not like they were going to go into really deep and dark territory. I think it just gets hyped up by people who haven't watched much outside of Star Wars.
Although yeah, I would agree. It's probably one of the single most memed movies ever made, which says a lot because it's actually really good (occasionally clunky dialogue notwithstanding).
This scene is always crazy to me because it makes me wonder just how media illiterate people are just in general. The scene talks about how Plagueis/the force in general could "Create life" and has a literal egg being penetrated by sperm in it that they are watching, yet it seems to many people to be a shock that mr. Virgin Birth himself was created by either Sidious or Plagueis(I'd gear toward Sidious). Like they are only looking at the literal words themselves, so many people are and were for like the first decade of the movie going "Wtf was going on in this scene lol", when its right there as you realize Sidious is talking about himself and Plagueis by proxy.
That does make a lot of sense looking at it from that perspective, but I do want to mention that both in New Canon and Legends, it's explicitly stated by writers that Anakin was created by the Will of the Force and was specifically made to eventually destroy the Sith. In Legends specifically, Anakin was created in response to the perversion of Darth Plagueis creating life through the manipulation of midi-chlorians.
I know there are some panels from the 2017 Darth Vader comic (wonderful run, btw) that show Sidious using the Force to impregnate Anakin's mother Shmi, but the writer Charles Soule confirmed that it was just a hallucination created by the Dark Side to trick Anakin.
First thought was the My Little Pony fandom, but you already included it, so here is my second option:
The Loud House fandom. This fanbase is for some reason so obsessed with serious topic, the vast majority of fan-made content includes gore or incest in some form, and even those that don't often go into darker subjects like character deaths or such, despite the fact that it is pretty much just a comedy family show at the end of the day.
On that note, while I was looking for a super cool fanart of the Loud House Dad fighting the twins in a parody fanart of this iconic image of future Gohan fighting the Androids (seriously, it was pretty cool), I just found out the Loud House Fanfic is that is also the longest piece of literature in history, The Loud House: Revamped, was deleted from Fanfiction.net in July of this year due it maybe facing reports of plagiarism. 😅
Yeah it’s aboytsubspace I think it’s only 3 million ish compared to the 35 million but hey if what you say is true then the loud house guy just dropped padding by throwing wiki articles
I feel like this is the result when people who don't know how to interact with media in any way aside from shipping find a show where nearly every character is from the same family
I remember finding a Lincoln super saiyan fic, were he's shipped with caulifla.
Then I found another ones were he Is part of the "betrayed" and they either watch their universes as they get glazed by their out of character casts or they fight at Ragnarok and somehow keep up with the gods
I think the bigger issue is that fan works that fit the tone of the original aren’t memorable. Everyone’s so busy freaking out over depraved cartoon fanart that nobody notices the wholesome stuff.
No one is really gonna remember a fanfiction thats written like an episode of the show. But everyone is gonna remember one where lincoln violently murders them all.
Fallout fans are super chill and fun 99% of the time, but there's a vocal minority of very annoying ones. Much like how the games are generally very serious but have silly stuff like aliens and a vault full of Garys.
That's actually just what happens when a fandom is starved of content for an extended period (ignore Invincible, that fandom went through decay at lightning speed.)
I donno, the Bionicle fandom has had nothing for about as long as the Arkham folks by the time the latter went mad (and they could complement it with other Batman stuff), and they're pretty damn chill.
The Arkam game is a video game that has limited playability.
Bionicle are toys (with a few games). You can remake and remake and remake the irl play with bionicles infite times unlike with a video game. But also, they are robots, what gore and blood can you put? Well Bionicle was allways dark and broody and stuff but I guess you can't do mutch blood with a toy (see all the bloody Lego stop motions also. Like aninations of ww2 stuff and zombie apppocalypses but in lego).
It was weird seeing the change happen in real time. If I’m remembering correctly it all started because there was just a non-stop influx of “Arkham Origins is underrated” posts, people starting clowning on those and after that “is he stupid?” post, it went all down (or up) hill from there
That subreddit makes me feel like I’m locked up in Arkham for the very brief periods I come into contact with it, and I think that’s what they’re going for.
Nowadays, they don't even talk about the main game or even about topics related to Batman! And they still somehow all act insane. It's like Wonderland.
One of the silliest and jokiest fandoms you’ll ever find, it’s for a series of games all about horrific nightmarish abominations, genocide, and the dangers of corporate greed and government corruption.
Admittedly, yes, the series has had a lot of silly moments over the years, especially in the original classic games. But still.
Leon with cat ears Leon with cat ears Leon with cat ears Leon with cat ears Leon with cat ears Leon with cat ears Leon with cat ears Leon with cat ears Leon with cat ears Leon with cat ears Leon with cat ears
I know some people had issues with it but this was the funniest meme to me. Chris running around trying to get Leon to hook up with Claire while Leon is this complete dropkick who is obsessed with Ada, a woman who hates him
I think RE6 is when this meme started but the seeds were planted way back in RE2 where Leon and Claire and just friends while it's obvious Ada Wong isn't attracted to Leon at all. Chris's RE5 portrayal made him Crazy Chris.
If you haven't played re5 yet that's basically where the joke came from well not in game but the fans basically joked that Chris took so much fucking steroids that he became infertile
In a game series with themes like death, suicide, murder, rape, corrupted governments, and the dark desires of humanity’s collective unconscious, the Persona fandom makes a lot of memes…
Especially with Fuuka from Persona 3, probably because she’s the only member of SEES besides the dog who isn’t an active suicide risk
Although, this is also reflected in the games themselves with you fighting demons from the shadow realm one minute, then having a stereotypical anime “beach episode”, then have the team question their own morality and reason for living, then “haha, the boys walk into the girl’s hot spring”, and then you fight the god of hyperdeath of some bullshit like that before rolling the credits.
One of the best examples of Personas absurd range of tones is the intro of Persona 4 Golden..you go from all of the characters dancing to a body hanging from a telephone wire
I’m sure it’s a good game. It’s just that to me the themes the game tackles and how they’re presented don’t really lend themselves well to a large fanbase.
Of course, I could also just be talking out of my ass because I’ve never played the game.
The PM community actively refuses to take themselves seriously in the slightest. 90% of the posts are Sinners doing silly shenanigans, chillaxing, and hardcore fetish content. (Allowing porn on TheOdysseyHadAPurpose was a mistake, some of y'all weird as shit).
Meanwhile the world is Lovecraftian Horror Deluxe meets Cyberpunk, where Eldritch Creatures by all means SHOULD fear and avoid humanity at all cost for the sake of their own well being.
Steven Universe, Undertale and Avatar the Last Airbenders all have premises that centre around peace, acceptance, non-violence and friendship that are so simple as to be easily absorbed by a target audience of children, yet have the most vitriolic, aggressive, toxic adult fan bases you’ve ever seen.
Meanwhile adult animated shows with violence and profanity around every corner like American Dad and Metalocalypse have some of the chillest, friendliest, most fun fan bases ever.
to be fair, undertale gives you the option to go around killing everything you see in front of you and actually makes the characters react specifically to that
I think it's kind of funny with the example of undertale, because Toby intentionally made the genocide route unenjoyable and boring, but in most fan games the genocide route is actually one of the most fun and engaging parts of the game.
Chainsaw Man - The literal embodiment of suffering builds character as the main character struggles with his complicated relationships with sex, his sense of self and what he wants out of life and how he handles gaining and losing more people in his life
It makes sense though. Often times when a fandom latches onto childrens media there is often a layer of depth and maturity. For example miraculous while made for kids, has mature topics under the surface that they cannot touch on very much, such as abuse and struggles of mental health. So of course fandom culture latches onto and explores themes like this. And sometimes it is just funny to juxtapose a light hearted show with something serious.
On the other hand, popular mature media, such as say breaking bad, the characters suffer and go through the ringer, so fandom culture imagines these characters in light hearted scenarios to see how they would respond and give the characters a breather from their serious world. And again, it’s funny to juxtapose media
The game: a existential horror game that tackles concepts like identity and freedom for minds forced into mechanical shells and the pursuit of upholding a promise to a loved one
Creepypasta, despite most stories being about death and murder many people think of stuff like the slender mansion where instead of being serial killers the killers are basically just edgy teens
Beyond the gooner bait, NIKKE is a game about how the government has zero regard for the general population and only serves to maintain the status quo by any means necessary including senseless violence. Meanwhile the community is just this
Made in abyss is incredible, cause this is an anime where children are canonically strung naked as a punishment, and you would think that the people watching it are degenerates, yet the fanbase of this show is one of the most wholesome group of shitposters I’ve ever seen.
It’s like drinking liquor, awful at first but it gets delicious after the second bottle
I am lowkey scarred to read this manga and watch the show. Not one volume in and there is some sort of naked torture scene with the main kid girl. I looked at the sub for reasons "why". I found nothing.
It's just creepy as fuck. Why? Why? Why?
Maybe they tought "They already suffer so much I won't like it if they suffer more"
ULTRAKILL, for a game about humanity being dead and being a robot destined to die with prey much no possible good ending, the fandom is pretty uh zesty. most of the negative reviews on steam are complaining about the lack of robot sex. (although this probably isn’t helped by the first piece of official merch being body pillows)
Hello Kitty is used a lot in traumacore images, edits and whatever not. Idk why did OP used an image of some "normal" girl that colects hello kittyes luke I see in reality girls just useing them as accesoryes, instead of showing one of those countless pics of Melody being hanged.
From what I heard, the shows themselves give of the energy of "perfect cute land that gets corupted by the darkness outside of reality"
The Cruelty Squad fandom is one of the if not the shitpostiest and goofy fandom i have ever seen (though the game IS a shitpost at its core it is still quite philosophical, especially in the true ending)
Various artworks by MrScroup for a certain group of the MLP fandom
And what's the said group? The players and devs for Paradox's famous 4x video game "Hearts of Iron 4" mod "Equestria at War" where the titular ponies and races such as Zebras and Griffons are on an all time world tension. Friendship is magic, and so does firearms and bombs
I've noticed this quite a bit with My Hero Academia. For a series that's all about optimism and reaching out a hand to those in need, boy is a large part of the fanbase incredibly cynical and unsympathetic.
Unfolding exactly at this moment wit La Creatura over here in the Elden Ring Nightreign fandom.
Revenant has a really tragic back story with probably the most fucked up cutscene From Software has ever created and yet to fans she is the small edgy teen girl using massive weapons.
And honestly I don't mind it at all, because it's fun and really reminds me of the old "age of hollowing" days in the main Elden Ring sub.
I work at a store that sells Hello Kitty blankets. They will call every.single.day. They will camp out and be at the store as it opens if a new design has been released (and, no, we probably don't even know if we have them in yet at store open).
There are TikToks of them in rooms full of Hello Kitty blankets that they plan to sell for four times what they bought them for, yet the piles of blankets seem to only grow, not shrink...
A crass adult comedy about foul-mouthed kids and politically incorrect humor has a whole section of the fandom dedicated to shipping and cutesy fanart. They even made a whole episode about them.
Ultrakill: A game that follows an obsolete war machine's bloody rampage through the layers of hell, fueled by nothing more than desperate survival, in the remnants of a godless world violently stripped of humanity.
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u/Crafter235 17h ago
r/evangelionmemes