Right now it seems like the toxic fans are getting worse every day. With all the youtube channels dedicated to promoting counterproductive attitudes as they promote and encourage aggressively destructive toxic actions, we are seeing a growing darkness expand over fandom in general right now.
I'll start off by trying to explain the basics of what it is to be a toxic fan. Just disliking a show or program or some creative choice in a franchise is not being a toxic fan. You can dislike something and just say 'I don't agree with what they did' or 'I didn't enjoy that show/movie' without being toxic. You can have opinions and express them in non-toxic ways. That is 100% fine. Toxic fans on the other hand dislike something and instead of just respectfully expressing their opinions, they go and try to burn the whole franchise down. They often resort to childish, personal attacks at a specific person that undeniably cross a line and have at times chased talented people away from social media and have made people suicidal or self destructive (Look up the life of Jake Lloyd to see a good example of this). Toxic fans also seem to think it a good idea to scare away new potential fans for the franchise they claim to be fans of, but are now acting like enemies of, basically ensuring the failure of the franchise.
So that is the kind of people I am referring to when I say 'toxic fan'.
The title for this post comes from e recent wave of titles on various youtube videos that were takes on 'Lucasfilm has Hit Rock Bottom'. All these videos by the toxic fan were all using almost that exact same title in their videos as they made some oddly ignorant attacks for the sake of making attacks against Lucasfilm, which the toxic fans are really being aggressive against right now. Not too long ago Lucasfilms announced the coming of a multimedia expanded universe event called Star Wars: The High Republic, a storyline that takes place 200 years before the Skywalker saga. In a typically and purely toxic response, all those fans went off on how horrible The High Republic was without having read a single story from it, all they had been given was the basic concept and a few character bios and they knew this was going to ruin the franchise and be an event that there was no recovering from as there won't be any 'real ' fans buying any of the books. The first books get released and they each keep becoming a #1 best seller as the toxic fans keep proclaiming the whole thing a total failure, somehow ignoring the sales and the reviews of every book. Then there is a announcement about the book 'Star Wars The High Republic: Into the Dark' and a character named Geode. Geode is a sentient rock. This is far from a new concept for sci-fi, although you wouldn't know that listening to all the toxic fans attack the idea. The went off on Geode being lazy and uncreative, showing just how big a failure The High Republic is if they have to use such lame concepts. Not single one of them spent any time reading the actual story they were attacking, because that would just be them actually showing integrity and giving the idea a chance, which goes against the beliefs of the toxic fan.
Because of this toxic attack I went and got a copy of the book and am almost done with it. I love Geode and love how cleverly written he is and how he is used. He is a minor character, but he is memorable. Every actual review I can find from people who have read the book has been very complimentary of Geode, including a two star review that talked about issues with plot and pacing, but loved Geode. So those who read the book enjoy Geode, those who try to prejudge it with next to no knowledge are being insulting about the concept. This is the toxicity that shows us how shallow and counterproductive those fans truly are.
Now I could go into so many other examples, but right now there is one major, massive toxic fan movement that is just so petty and self destructive that I have to talk about it.
Warner Brothers just released the Snyder Cut of DC's Justice League on HBO/Max. I'm not going into the the details of the movie and the history behind it. I though it was actually worse than the theatrical release, but I am not the target audience of the film as I am not a huge DC comics fan. The Snyder Cut itself was to some level giving into the toxic fans, which may be why it has stirred up the toxic fans to go to the next level as they now have.
The Snyder Cut gets released and a large batch of the DC comic fan proclaim it to be the greatest comicbook film ever, as it gets some impressive reviews (Although if you read the reviews, even though a lot of the 'good' ones are not that positive, being critical of it and giving it 3 out of 5 stars, which is one problem with the Rotten Tomato scoring system, where mediocre films often get good scores). With this new found artificial sense of righteousness, the toxic fans were on a new mission with #restorethesnyderverse, a movement to get WB to go back to following Snyder's vision for the DC comic films. That by itself would not be a big deal, but their movement is following a truly toxic strategy that is a burn it all down mentality. These toxic fans are going to sites like IMDB (They can't do this on Rotten Tomato, as after the toxic fans attack the Star Wars film Solo in this manner there, changes were made to keep it from happening again) where they are leaving 1 star reviews without seeing the films, for big blockbuster films like 'Godzilla vs Kong' (Which had been doing great over seas as well as highly positively reviewed by all who have actually seen it) where they openly leave #restorethesnyderverse as their review and are encouraging others to do the same. They are trying to take WB hostage unless they get their way. So yes, these toxic fans are using terrorist methods to force studios to give in to them. This is what the toxic fans are all about. They would rather see WB as a whole fall than accept that not everyone agree with their opinions.
While toxic fans have always been there. I could do several posts on the history of toxic fans and the harm they have done, right now they seem to be seeing a new growth in popularity thanks to the role social media is playing in people's lives. Several toxic fans put out some really obviously fake rumors, stories that have no logic to them, and there are more legitimate news sites who go and quote them, giving an illusion of legitimacy to their toxicity.
I am a critical fan and will openly break down aspects of movies and shows that I enjoy when they do something I dislike. You can be a fan and not like everything put out in a franchise while still building up the franchise as you are critical of aspects within it. But once you decided to try and burn the whole franchise to the ground, that is when you have crossed a line from fan to toxic fan.
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