According to Wikipedia, a fandom is a subculture of people who are usually part of a significant social network with other fans. They often produce fan-made content such as memes, art, music, and fanfiction, and are a driving force in promoting their favorite franchise. Most people have interracted with or contributed to a fandom at some point; even something as minor as buying a few pastel Pokémon stickers on RedBubble can constitute as participating in fandom subculture. However, there are those who immerse themselves so deeply within their fandom bubbles that trouble begins to brew. When it comes to some of the most beloved TV shows, these are their fandoms who took things a little bit too far.
Learning about the latest celebrity drama and gossip in Hollywood can be fun. However, nothing compares to the deep and complicated history of fandom discourse.
Ah yes, Superwholock. A mashed up fandom of Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock that reached its peak 2013-2014 on Tumblr. Interestingly enough, this specific community doesn’t have particularly scandalous drama. The juiciest discourse started by Superwholock was the supposed “war” against One Direction fans. A famous example of this is a Tumblr post stating that One Direction fans claimed the 50th anniversary of Doctor Who as 1DDay, causing tension between the two fandoms.
Other than that, whatever could possibly qualify as “controversial” was just cringey things ex-Superwholockians did in their past. Everyone in the fandom, whether they were only into 1 of the 3 shows or all of them, participated in the Mishapocolypse in 2013, where fans spammed images and gifs of Supernatural actor Misha Collins all over Tumblr, Facebook, and other sites on April Fools Day. That, or they helped create DashCon, Tumblr’s unofficial convention meant to bring together fans but ultimately went down in flames as it was severely underfunded and poorly planned. An hour in the ball pit, anyone?
A once beloved reboot about five paladins using the powers of Voltron, a giant robot, to take down the Galra Empire. As of 2020, it feels like the show never existed since the fandom quickly died after the series finale. One controversy stirred up by the show is the killing of Shiro’s ex-boyfriend after months of the creators flaunting Shiro’s LGBTQ+ status to please fans, which the creators apologized on Twitter for.
This brought up discussion about the “bury your gays” trope, where queer characters are often the only ones to be killed while their heterosexual counterparts live on. When presented with a disappointing series finale, dedicated fans claimed that corporate influence caused the show’s downfall and started the “FreeVLDS8” (Free Voltron: Legendary Defender Season 8) movement. That eventually died out as well, and the fandom crumbled to dust over the years.
Known for its diversity and representation of LGBTQ+ characters, Steven Universe gained a strong following since release. However, such a massively popular show is not without its problems. One of the most famous examples of fandom drama is Skinny Rose, which showed how fans may feel a little too strongly about their favorite characters. Back in 2015, Tumblr user zamii070 published Steven Universe artwork depicting Steven and his parents embracing, however users noticed something different about Rose Quartz’s appearance: she was noticeably skinnier.
This post received heavy backlash from fans who harassed the artist, leading to her attempting suicide. While zamii070 survived and posted about her recovery, this controversy came to the attention of Steven Universe creators, who condemned the harassment. In another case of extreme fandom backlash, storyboard artist Lauren Zuke left the show after supposedly supporting the ship Lapis Lazuli and Peridot due to official art being leaked and misinterpreted by fans who did not agree with the ship.
Hetalia was originally a webcomic published in 2008, eventually turning into a manga, then an anime series. Around 2012, the series gained a massive following that spawned some questionable fanart and meetups. Hetalia: Axis Powers centers around the personifications of various countries, specifically focusing on the WWII Axis Powers Japan, Italy, and Germany. The show is filled with controversial content that has led to equally controversial fan content, such as fans cosplaying as 1940s Germany using the Nazi salute, sexually explicit fanfiction of the Nanjing Massacre for a kink meme, and the infamous Hetalia slave art, just to name a few.
As if that wasn’t enough, there were allegedly real Neo-Nazis who attended Hetalia meetups, where fans mistook them for very accurate cosplays of Germany and Prussia and took pictures with them. Interestingly, the Hetalia fandom is still alive and kicking as an anime adaptation of Hetalia: World Stars was announced in October. In the words of John Mulaney, “Now we don’t have time to unpack ALL of that!”
“We popping the biggest bottles when MaKorra happens tomorrow!” Words said at the end of a turbulent era, and the birth of a new beginning. Since the premiere of Avatar: The Last Airbender, shipping wars were rampant, specifically focusing on Katara’s romantic interests. This did not end with The Legend of Korra as fans turned their attention to Korra’s love life. Who will she choose? Bolin? Mako? Maybe even Asami? The first two seasons focused heavily on Korra’s relationship with Mako, causing anti-shippers to tear their hair out and MaKorra shippers to rejoice. This ended by the third season however when the couple broke up, and the series took a break from Korra’s love life. That was until season 4, when the episodes started hinting towards a romantic relationship between Korra and Asami.
Still, the MaKorra shippers insisted that the Avatar and the handsome firebender would still end up together, leading to the aforementioned quote to be posted on Tumblr. Even when Korra and Asami held hands and ran off into the spirit world together at the end, it took the creators of the show announcing that the two female characters did indeed end up together to crush any hopes of MaKorra happening.
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