r/HonestHotTakes • u/RowAdministrative264 • 6h ago
If you consider being a fan of something involves turning a blind eye to all criticisms of it, then you don't really care about it and are not a fan.
Pretty much what the title says. A real fan is the contrary of what "real fans" claim to be.
A fan who actually cares will be interested in understanding the basis for the criticisms surrounding the thing they like, and wish to see an improvement of said thing regarding those criticisms they end up deeming valid.
Someone willing to defend something to the end of times no matter how many criticisms keep piling on about it, and without ever bothering to check why that might be, doesn't actually care about the thing they claim to like.
This applies to being a fan of someone as well.
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u/Marine_Corp 6h ago
If you think you're not a true fan unless you care about all the stuff, then you're just gatekeeping.
You can be a huge fan of a musician and listen to them every day and have zero interest in their personal life. You're a fan of the musician as far as the music goes.
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u/RowAdministrative264 6h ago
The concept still applies if you just care about the music though.
If a musician's new launches keep getting more criticisms because part of the fandom considers them of worse quality than previous records, wouldn't you reflect on why that may be?
And if you eventually deem some of those criticisms correct, wouldn't you wish to see an improvement regarding them so the quality of future records keeps improving?
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u/Marine_Corp 6h ago
If a musician's new launches keep getting more criticisms because part of the fandom considers them of worse quality than previous records, wouldn't you reflect on why that may be?
Nope. I'd just listen to the music and see if I like it. I don't care about ratings or reviews or other people's takes really at all.
I don't need to know what score a song got to know if I enjoy listening to it.
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u/RowAdministrative264 5h ago
Ykw? Fair.
Tbh my post was mostly referring to the kind of active toxic fans online who look for discussions to take part in and their only contribution is "if you don't like it, stop engaging with it" or "why keep engaging with it if you're only gonna hate", instead of actually entertaining the criticisms the discussion is about.
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u/Marine_Corp 5h ago
I think you're right that its bad to try to muzzle people with legitimate complaints about artists. Everyone can choose to just not engage with that stuff if they don't want to get into debates about it.
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u/RowAdministrative264 5h ago edited 5h ago
True. Problem is when you actively look to engage in debates without ever really engaging, you know what I mean? Not engaging is a non issue.
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u/Classic-Pea6815 6h ago
I really enjoy Solo Leveling. That show/manwha has a lot of fans and a lot of critics. The reason I don’t care about what the critiques are is because most people just don’t like it and don’t have any actual constructive criticism and just call it trash. Or they expect it to be deep, it’s not meant to be deep it’s just entertaining. So yeah I don’t care about what the people with criticism has to say and if that makes me “not a fan” in your book I literally could care less. I’m still going to enjoy it. I could also care less what the fans have to say to gloat about it either. It’s made, it’s what it is, alright.
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u/Chaotic_Order 6h ago
100%. I'm a fan of sci-fi as a genre, and have been since I was a kid. Sci-fi today being a "mainstream" interest rather than the corner where weird nerds obsessed about pointless shit didn't come about because there wasn't criticism of it. There was, and loads of it was valid - and the writers adapted to that criticism to improve their craft and make it appealing to wider audiences. Not through watering the genre down, but through iterating and improving it.
You can have a soft spot for Hugo and Nebula award classics, I certainly do. But try and tell me that Black Mirror is somehow worse than the stainless steel rat series?
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u/crustboi93 6h ago
God, ain't that the truth.
You give a mild and well-thought criticism and suddenly you're a hater who's spreading negativity.
Of all games, im dealing with this right now with Planet Zoo 2. The roster is skewed as fuck, but everyone's like "JUST WAIT FOR THE DLC!" No. If you want to incentivize people to get your DLC, then make the base game a well-rounded experience first.
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u/Organic-Try-5581 6h ago
And this toxic positivity drives the death of many games & television shows. They shout down criticism and sure, all is well within their echo chamber, but the average fans dissapate until only the toxic positives remain. Then they disappear as the flaws become too much for them to bear. We see it in SO MANY video games. That exact cycle played out in Helldivers 2, Arc Raiders, Overwatch, WoW... the list goes on and on.
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u/DetectiveCrafty5413 6h ago
A real fan is in some terminally online weirdo who gets caught up and all kinds of nonsensical drama. So yes, stop treating it like a morality contest, it's not impressive. It's worrying.
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u/DNxHD36 6h ago
The toxic positivity of most fandoms I've been unfortunate enough go cross is exhausting and emotionally immature.
I've seen too many "Let people like what they like!" angrily thrown at criticism of their thing that wasn't even remotely judgmental of the fans themselves.