Fandom: Rise, Collapse, Fall (Patreon)

Hey, you! Don't you know? It's 2019, we're not allowed to enjoy Undertale anymore.

What- A sequel came out? Deltarune? It doesn't matter! Undertale is a cringey, dumb indie game which expiration date has long since passed, and anyone left actually enjoying or looking back fondly on this experience is honestly stupid.

Yeah, haven't we all heard stuff like that before.

I have talked about this in the past, what I call the Fandom Collapse Phenomenon, but with 4/13 around the corner at the time of writing this, it feels relevant. If you've been on the Internet for long enough, specially around Tumblr, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And specially, if you have enjoyed or still enjoy things such as Homestuck, Undertale, Five Nights at Freddy's, Steven Universe, and the like.

So what is this phenomenon I'm talking about?

The Collapse: Glory to Cringe

An Indie Game is released. It is an overnight success, with either its interesting story or game mechanics, it draws people in all over the Internet. It becomes regarded as an incredible experience, and goes Mainstream, to the point that even people outside of the Indie sphere, or even the Gaming sphere, are at least peripherally aware of it. And then, one day, you look back on that Game or Franchise, only to find out there's widespread hatred or ridicule of what seemed like an enjoyable thing for so long, that people almost seem to get shamed for enjoying it. Even as the Franchise continues, and Sequels come out, there's always some guy ready to laugh how you're still liking these things after years have passed.

A Series becomes popular. Its quirky storyline hides something more serious and intriguing beneath the surface, and people really start to enjoy crafting theories about what will happen next, and eagerly await the next episode. You fall off the series briefly, and try to get back into it shortly after only to find- Oh, didn't you know? The Series is actually trash! The art style is awful, the story is dumb, and the artists deserve death threats.

I didn't mention any specific names, but I bet those made some very real examples pop to mind, didn't they? There's nothing strange about something that was once popular losing part of its fans as time goes on, or for its popularity to fluctuate over time depending on their updating and release schedule, it's practically how it's expected to work. What seems almost unnaturally consistent, however, is the hatred for things that used to be extremely popular. It seems people aren't just moving on to new things, they are actively throwing dirt on that which used to be loved, and not allowing anyone else to enjoy it.

And don't get me wrong- Some of this hatred is warranted. Sometimes, authors do questionable things and push certain ideas that turn a lot of people off to the material. And other times, a bad Fandom can turn off new people from exploring what is otherwise a really good experience. But short of knowingly and maliciously pushing a bigoted point of view, there's a difference between being soured off to a certain experience, and going out of your way to insult people that love it, or even trying to find or making up the most asinine reasons to feel justified on that hatred.

But wait! It's sad that people turn on things that used to be beloved, and doing awful things such as sending death threats, but that is just the way the Internet is! I hear you say. It's basically how it works every time, so isn't that just expected behavior at this point?

To which I say, first and foremost, screw the idea that some things are 'just the way they are' and there's nothing to be done about changing them, one of the most defeatist and enabling points of view in the history of Humanity. But I could see people just considering that to be the way people enjoy things nowadays. Fast, quick consumption, burning out, moving on to the next thing.

Except...

The Exceptions

E3, 2020. Reggie is back in charge of Nintendo of America as Cyborg Reggie, his body more ready than it has ever been. The presentation has been an astonishing success, people are throwing their underwear at the screen their pre-recorded presentation is being shown on. "One last thing", he says, with a big, goofy grin, and the crowd goes wild as the lights go dim, and gameplay footage begins. It's the next entry in The Legend of Zelda series, what Majora's Mask was to Ocarina of Time, except for Breath of the Wild. An fantastic, well-crafted Open World with no 999 Korok Seeds to find, classic and themed dungeons that look interesting, a huge variety of enemies, and Zelda as a playable character.

The crowd immediately goes silent. "LUL" says a guy at the very front. "Zelda in 2019? Come on." Another disappointed fan chimes in. "That series is still going on? Ugh."

I'm not saying games such as those in TLOZ Franchise don't get or deserve criticism and hatred- They absolutely do. But most of the time, these complaints will fall under one of two categories. They are either things the Fans would love to see in the next entry, or a comparison to one of the previous entries, and why the previous entry is better. It doesn't apply just to games, either- Even though the latest influx of Star Wars movies seems to have left Fans a little bit lukewarm, any dislike towards the movies can usually be categorized similarly. People who would've preferred things to be done another way, hoping the next entry will be better, and those who much prefer the old movies. You will hear people sick of Star Wars and sick of certain Game Franchises, but within the community, they're notably a minority, or not noticeable enough.

If you mention your favorite game of all time is Ocarina of Time, you may get told you've got 'Nostalgia Goggles' on, and yet even statements like these will still come with an appreciation for said game, a mention of a game within the same series they prefer, and other such comments. If you mention your favorite game of all time is Undertale, you're likely to get reminded MatPat gifted a copy of it to the Pope, which has absolutely no bearing on your enjoyment of the game itself.

So is this just a problem of Indie vs Triple-A? Of small developers and big companies?

Is Capitalism to blame again?

Well- Capitalism is always to blame, but I think the truth of this issue lies somewhere else.

Demographic Shift - Immature Fandom - Cringe Culture

Whew! isn't that title a mouthful? Let me explain...

When new Fandoms start to get really popular and undergo a rapid growth, a good deal of these new fans will be young. And there is nothing wrong about that! We've all been teens, but the fact is that a lot of teens can be quite loud and fixated on that which they like. There's a desire to be in the 'in' group, and share said group with others and spread it more, glorifying things they enjoy. Peer pressure, seeking validation, and on top of that, their desire to get more involved in this content they enjoy often leads to 'cringey' displays of attachment. We'll come back to that in a moment.

On the other hand, alongside the Fans, there will always be groups of people who dislike the content, no matter what it is. From genuine complaints about the material, to bigoted assholes trying to bash on something for its show of diversity or its 'political agenda', there will always be a group of people dedicated to telling people what they enjoy is not good. And this shouldn't be a problem, if something is good, the Fans should overwhelm them in sheer numbers.

The issue here being... Sheer numbers. As a Fandom grows in size, so does the amount of people who enjoy the content that are also assholes. Much like the haters, these will be present in most Fandoms, from Elitists to people trying to force a way to play/interpret certain things and will not take kindly to people disagreeing with them. Even if they're proportionally the minority, the more people in the Fandom, the bigger their group is, and as such, the more vocal they may be. And with the amount of young people getting into new things nowadays, there's always the risks of these teens trying to fit in to begin emulating these bad behaviors without realizing they're harming what they love.

The cherry on top really is the concept of Cringe Culture. The second-hand embarrassment, the silly things people do lacking awareness. This is... Very stupid to say the least, because it often resorts to bashing on people who're just beginning to express their creativity and who honestly are doing nothing wrong, only because they are excited to share the work with other fans, and so allow it to be put on public display.  Maybe you find it embarrassing or weird that someone is shipping themselves with a character. Or perhaps an OC you saw reminds you of your own bad OCs from back in the day. And that's fair! Humans are very empathetic creatures. But the thing to remember is that none of this is harming anyone. It's just harmless, self-indulgent fun. The only harm done, is when people take these expressions of love and creativity, and turn them into something to feel bad about.

So then, we have an ever-expanding Fandom, with loud, young people spreading it far enough that it becomes impossible to ignore. The people who dislike it get sick of it being everywhere, and start to lash back. The bad side of the fans is loud, and only adds fuel to the fire, possibly even confronting the haters which only escalates the situation further. And those who like it see the pandemonium ensue around them, and are possibly shamed for liking what they do, either for the work they've made, or being compared to the bad side of the Fandom.

Ideally, the Fans should be assertive. Not let the hatred get under their skin, and defuse the bad Fans to build a better, less toxic community. But as I mentioned, peer pressure is a powerful thing. People want to fit in, and suddenly the thing they loved, they are seeing, is starting to become less liked. In turn, they themselves are becoming less liked. And with the current culture of the Internet, it just becomes easy to latch onto something they consider to be 'bad' in the Fandom they used to love. The 'in' group isn't the Fans anymore, it's the haters, and so people seek excuses to dislike what they were a Fan of. They don't leave, they become part of the growing problem.

In the end, what's left in the Fandom are people who genuinely love what they love unapologetically, and get stereotyped as part of the bad fans, and said Bad, loud side of the Fandom that seems to be the only thing giving it a reputation anymore.

This problem is largely an Internet problem. It's facilitated by the speed at which we consume and spread things around, and that is why Franchises such as The Legend of Zelda suffer less from it. They're long-running series that had time to settle, they had time to keep a more mature set of fans. It's already something largely seen positively in the world, so no matter how much hate an entry may have gotten at the time, or what Bad Fans it may have, the 'in' group is already so grounded no surge in new fans or haters could tip it anymore.

So. What do we do?

This is going to sound stupidly obvious, specially if you already like something that's usually considering 'Cringey'- And given most of my stuff revolves around Homestuck in some way, chances are you do. But the most important thing you can do, is to love what you love.

That really is it. Don't allow that other's jaded opinions and attempts to make you dislike something you genuinely love for arbitrary reasons get to you.

The biggest problem right now when it comes to Fandoms and the longevity of works in the Internet, is this mentality that after a while, everyone left enjoying a new Series or Game must be a 'Cringey' person who does embarrassing stuff, or some obsessed weirdo that sends death threats to the authors because their ship isn't canon. It's been normalized that this is how things work within any new Fandoms, and there's the idea that nothing new can be looked back upon nostalgically or regarded in the same way as 'Classics' have been in the past.

We don't know what will become a 'Classic' in the future. But if we just allow this mentality to continue, where we must burn to the ground anything that was popular a few years back, then nothing will ever be 'Classic' and relevant ever again.

So love. Be vocal about what you love, but be kind and understanding of those who genuinely don't like things. Act with maturity where people just imagine you to be infantile and immature. Explore why you like a work, and don't simply stand by when you see things beginning to become toxic.

Because allowing the toxicity to go unchecked under the premise of it just being the way things work, or not wanting to feed the trolls, only ever allows this toxicity to become widespread in the first place.

And if you have ever been turned off from checking out something that you think would be weird or cringey, but would've otherwise been interested in... Why not give it a try?

Don't let others dictate what you should and shouldn't enjoy. Do it for yourself, and do it because you love it.

See you soon!