Top 10 Toxic Fanbases
toxic (adj):
1. poisonous
2. unpleasant, harmful, extremely bad
Fandoms exist in two categories. One is the surface, where you are allowed to have opinions and nobody scolds you for not being part of the fanbase. Then there is the deep, dark underbelly - the small part of the fandom that often represents the entire fandom for being so notorious.
METALHEADS
Self-entitled, opinionated individuals with a superiority complex like no other - metalheads share similar qualities with most obsessive fans. They are quick to aggression and will try to shove their tastes to you. Their arguments go along the line of "Why don't you listen to real music like metal?", or "Why don't you listen to this underground band? Aren't you a metal fan?" Music fans in general bicker on tastes but most metalheads can't acknowledge the existence of other genres.
FOOTBALL FANS
Football fans are crazy. 90% of the time its just harmless quarrel between one another. But the remaining 10% have people physically harming one another because of personal preferences. There have been instances in Europe and South America where people have killed each other because of conflicting opinions. Newcastle fans are infamous for misbehaving on away matches.
NOSTALGIA FANS
Nostalgia isn't a franchise or a sport. It is a general term coined to those who just don't seem to let things go. They exist in two categories, the ones that resist change by attacking the development of the franchise and the ones that resist change by attacking the newer fans. For example, a football fan complaining the good old days were the best and a football fan complaining the newer fans didn't experience the good old days and are hence not real fans.
ANIME FANS
Anime fans exist in several categories. Some bring about anime into real life, and act accordingly. While anime fans do exist in a spectrum from good to bad, the worse side of the fandom gets the most representation. They will include Japanese in their regular talking, berate people for not watching anime and argue in forums on fictional characters. They are a blend of metalheads and nostalgia fans. Some anime fans call themselves true fans since they read the manga as well as watch the anime.
SONIC FANS
DeviantArt is a wonderful place.
YOUTUBER FANBASE
There are many YouTubers and most have despicable fanbases. Some of the more infamous fanbases include the PewDiePie and Filthy Frank fanbase. They are compared to cancer in how toxic they are. Some of these fans have entire lifestyles to either mimic these YouTubers or just talk about said YouTuber constantly.
ANTI FANS
This one is an odd one in the list. These people are highly against a particular fanbase and are incredibly hostile towards it or anything close to it. These people make such fools of themselves that they turn out to be no different than the fanbase they oppose. While all fanbases have their spectrums ranging from good to horrible, anti fans make sure to generalise them and despise them entirely. A well known anti fanbase is the anti-anime fanbase, and the ABU (Anything But United) fanbase hating on Manchester United.
NINTENDRONES
Nintendo is a company that produces games and consoles and an obnoxious fanbase. These people are unable to find faults in the company and remain docile to its bad decisions. Like all companies, Nintendo makes a lot of mistakes, but Nintendrones think of Nintendo as The Holy Grail of gaming. They insult other people on their gaming choices and sticks by Nintendo at all times.
LEAGUE OF LEGENDS
League of Legends is said to be the worst massive multiplayer online game. The hate is not focused on the game itself but rather the community that it has. While this game isn't a sport, most of the players have no conduct or sportsmanship. These fans are arrogant and absolutely full of themselves. They show little respect to one another and will never think twice on their own abilities when losing. While this shares a lot with Call of Duty's fanbase, the League of Legends fanbase is arguably worse due to its one being larger and more diverse. That being said it is very entertaining to frustrate other people in the community.
STEVEN UNIVERSE
If there were to be a single fanbase that had to take the crown for the worst fanbase there is, more than half would vote for Steven Universe. Every fandom is familiar to fan art. Sonic the Hedgehog and Five Nights at Freddie's are often highly criticised for this, but Steven Universe is where people draw the line. An artist (Zamii070) was driven to suicide because her art didn't appeal to the fandom. This type of childlike behaviour in a community filled with pre-teen to post-teen women is appalling. The worst thing is that some of the cyber bullies didn't apologise, but rather gloated that they were able to make Zamii attempt suicide. There is speculation on whether Zamii did attempt or not but the bullying is not justifiable.
Less Toxic Mentions: Frozen fangirls, Adventure Time fans, Superwholock fans, Bronies.
*The article by no means encompasses the entire fanbases. These are only for fanbases that have the worst toxic fans.
Taimur Rahman is a man of few words. He can be reached at taimurrahman98@gmail.com