Addressing Toxicity in Modern Fandoms

You are tuned in to Steve Megatron on Altered

Geek. Hello and welcome to Altered Geek. I'm

your host, Steve Megatron Phillips, and joining

me in this episode is... Mike the Birdman Dodd

from ThisWeekendGeek .net. Glad to be back here

on the show, as I think I was absent last week,

or was I? I don't remember. No, no. You were

here earlier this week, as a matter of fact.

Oh, holy crap. Time travel. It gets convoluted,

folks. We recorded last week. It released this

week. Okay, so I'm here now. That's what's important.

I'm here now. Yes, yes. So I figured it would

be kind of fun to discuss a multitude of things

in this episode. So it may be a little bit longer,

so I apologize. I figured that it would be fun

to kind of talk about... And I'm gonna do more

digging on the DC streaming service so that'll

be a later date, but I think that the the main

issue at the moment is internet fan rage and

Holy crap. Yeah, where do we start with this?

Well, well, it all started about 20 years ago.

No Well, for instance Star Wars seems to be the

the main attack point right now and and just

prefacing this with uh did we not get a lot of

fan hate during the late 90s early 2000s when

the prequels came out in yeah that's infancy

and people yeah very true losing it uh and then

we got the the lucas special editions with the

edits uh and then all of a sudden disney by star

wars or Lucasfilm, and then we get The Force

Awakens, which everybody loved until they realized

it was a rehash of A New Hope, and then they

dogged it. And then we got Rogue One, and everybody

either loved it or hated it, but again, it was

a prequel film. And then we got the announcement

that we were going to have a film every six months,

pretty much, or every year. If every year yeah,

yeah, so every either May or December and So

then we get the last Jedi and Everybody crapped

on it Then we got solo and everybody crapped

on it which only because it was like the worst

performing Star Wars film ever Due to a multitude

of reasons mostly marketing I would say and then

the fact that they're catering to not only the

fans, but they're playing in the prequel and

universe of doing a solo film, pardon the pun,

of a particular character and doing world building

on that character instead of creating something

new and... Now people are attacking the actors

from The Last Jedi, as well as complaining that

they think it's stupid that the Jedi wear the

same robes that Obi -Wan was using to hide in

Tatooine. So nobody's happy. See, part of my

problem with this is you look at the Star Wars

fandom and... I used to be a big part of the

fandom. I used to listen to Star Wars podcasts.

I collected the action figures for about five

or six years. And I was a moderator on a couple

of different boards for Star Wars. And Star Wars

fans are the absolute worst. This is the fandom

that drove several people off of Twitter, or

not Twitter, Instagram, most notably Daisy Ridley

or Riley. See, I didn't even know that she was

off. until I read the thing about Tran. Yeah,

they drove Tran off of her Instagram. And Ryan

Johnson and Twitter. Ryan Johnson has gotten

death threats. This is a franchise that drove

Jake Lloyd insane, made Hayden Christensen go

on a very long hiatus from acting. I mean, this

franchise, as profitable and fun as it is, destroys

lives. It is, and it's utterly Fucking tragic.

So now we've got our PG -13 rating. Um, but no

it's it's terrible this franchise tears People's

lives apart as much as it enriches them for 40

something years of history There's for every

success story There's one or two people that

have just had their lives torn apart by it and

the online fandom has never been more entitled

or whiny than I've that than I've ever seen them

in the last couple of years. Like when you started

talking about The Last Jedi, people loved it

or hated it. I thought it was pretty cool, the

fact that it went in a new direction. But you

look at the female -led Star Wars movies, and

people get all pissy about it, saying, oh, it's

not my Star Wars, SWJ, and liberal, and blah,

blah, blah. Man, you people are pissing and moaning

about a movie about space wizards with laser

swords. Frankly. See, and this is kind of funny,

and I've been reading and kind of trolling different

areas, just reading people's comments rather

than commenting because it's just kind of interesting

to see viewpoints anyway, that we're watching

the worst in people coming out, like the basement

dwellers that people used to make fun of years

ago are expressing their rage anonymously online

in front of a keyboard courage. and just being

bullies like to everyone and this kind of even

sad but true like when we did our 2010 bullying

thing about the internet and social media we

kind of predicted the future and it's just progressively

getting worse year by year and we used to be

able to run to entertainment to get away from

the stupidity of the world. And now the stupidity

of the world follows us into that entertainment

and never leaves. And they wonder why people

have depression issues, anxiety issues, and all

of these problems that kind of follow it all.

And it's because the internet really isn't healthy

for anybody at this point, because we're sitting

here making commentary. Granted I get offended

by certain things that that shows do like if

you listen to future imperfect I have my gripes

with with Star Trek and and their re -envisionings

but every series has to re -envision or it dies

and You look at Transformers. I hate the live

-action films, but what did it do? It was this

generation's revitalization to the franchise

because let's face it after The Unicron trilogy,

which was just rehashed Japanese animation with

dubbing, the franchise died. Yeah. And the films

revitalized it, so we got animated, we got Prime,

we got Robots in Disguise, and then we've got

a new series, Cyberverse, coming, and they've

already got the Prime Wars trilogy on Machinima.

So like, it revitalized it the way that Beast

Wars did in the 90s, and people were beating

that with a shovel because it was beasts in that

truck. not monkey conversation and then people

were giving death threats to the the writer Bob

Skeer on Beast Machines because he re -envisioned

Beast Wars and that was like early days of the

internet you know message boards and everything

and so like you can only imagine you know how

worse it's gotten now looking at you know all

of these franchises I mean look how often Ninja

Turtles re -imagines it's not like grossly different

but the fandoms support it which is usually usually

but it's one of the oddest things that the TMNT

family of of their their shows primarily support

all of their content when you look at you know

transformers you have a lot of splintering you

look at Star Wars they're splintering the new

Thundercats has done this the Thundercats roar

which looks like Steven Universe which Don't

get me wrong. I think it looks like garbage but

I'll give it a shot. I'm not gonna watch it but

that's just because I have a thing against that

kind of animation. It has nothing to do with

the the fact that it's touching thundercats like

some people would. say you know like they're

they're boiling my you know you know destroying

my my childhood you know i i didn't really care

for the original all that much anyway and it

wasn't all that great so like yes we got a good

you know he man revival we got a good thunder

cats revival but like ultimately i don't really

care and so i've kind of had to take that approach

to all of the other franchises that i like because

they've gotten so toxic it doesn't make it worthwhile

to be a fan Yeah, I mean Ninja Turtles as you

said usually gets a pass although this latest

alliteration I see more fan venom Than I have

in a while It's it's because of the the weird

curvatures that they've added to the characters

and because of the the different voice cast Like

because you have literally nobody that anybody

knows Or at least they're not like as known as

some of the other people that have been in previous

incarnations but it's just, I don't know, it's

gotten really ridiculous with franchises. I've

just had to kind of sign off on all of them,

like at this point. I watch them out of enjoyment.

and to support the people that have put all their

time into it. But I don't really try to interact

with any of the the fans on it anymore because

I steer clear of fandoms as well, because they're

just they just want to spill or just vitriol

and toxicity and everything. I mean, hell, people

give me shit for liking Teen Titans go. And they're

like, oh, Mike, it's terrible, but. Yeah, but

it got me through the hospital. So does it matter

that I enjoy it? Well, I mean, there's shows

that I think aren't very good either. And I'll

watch them because like I enjoy it for the time

being. It doesn't necessarily mean it's like

a show I'd ever watch again or I would put much

merit in saying that it's really good. But it's

it's one of those things that I just I don't.

Ultimately, like our opinions don't matter. Like

yeah, it's basically it comes down to to do you

enjoy this property? Yes or no? Do you enjoy

it? And I think to go away or do you want it

to stay? That's the main question. I mean my

thing is I think if you can enjoy a property

and and without Finding the toxic part of that

fan community like I've talked about Power Rangers

and Ghostbusters Which those communities can

be really welcoming or really not? depending

on where you go, especially on Facebook or on

message boards. And so far - Well, now that you

mention it, I do remember that there was a hate

on the new Ghostbusters, which I thought it wasn't

that bad. Yeah. See, I love the Ghostbusters

community, but man, you guys needed to take it

back a notch. It's not like we dug up the corpse

of Harold Ramis and had our way with it. Like,

jeez, guys, it's a movie. back off. Well, and

how many years did they try and get Dan Ackroyd

and the rest of them to come together? Bill Murray

is like, no, I'm not going to do it. And then

instead of just writing them out, they just end

doing their own film. They just stomp their feet

on it. And so like the studio finally was like,

all right, we got to make a new film. Yeah, exactly.

I mean, like it's so dumb and people can be like,

well, Mike, what if they took a beloved property

of yours and shat on it? Well, you know what?

They already did. It's called Mass Effect Andromeda.

And you know what? It was a bad game, but I still

played it, and I still had a good time. Did I

love it? No. But you know what? You can't love

everything. And people get so bent out of shape

over the littlest things. And it's stuff like

people getting bent out of shape, going after

people, issuing death threats, or just having

nothing good to say about it. I mean, It's it

sucks. Well, I used to be one of those people

that used to you know Get really upset like over

transformers and then I came to this realization

that I just don't care Like and I just stopped

talking about it because it was better For my

mental state and for people listening to the

podcast for me to just not talk about it and

talk about the things I do like about the franchise

Rather than sitting there and creating a crap

fest And making it uninteresting and then even

in future imperfect. I started out when I started

doing the reviews of discovery I Started off

on the the boat of I'm not sure what they're

doing I I'm a little upset of these things and

then I would I would constantly harp on certain

aspects the Klingon thing I won't let die until

they come up with something But even then like

I still watch it and still support it like it's

not But my tune changed the longer I watched

it because I ultimately was just more in support

of watching it than sitting there complaining.

And there's still people that do that online

and, you know, even Reboot. Reboot just got rebooted.

I think the show is utter garbage and it's poorly

written. It's very poorly written. Do I like

some of the CG aspects that they've come up with

because they're using a different engine? Yeah.

Do I think that the fan service was a slap in

the face and they should have just never included

it? Yes. But ultimately, there's also this other

option that people seem to forget. Don't watch

it. It's like spending your money. If you don't

like it, don't pay for it. Don't go after it.

There's one thing I saw and it was from a Sony

PR manager that I'm not... We're not particularly

close, but he said something on Twitter a few

months back, and it's always stuck with me. And

it was like, don't spread hate into the world.

Find something you love and evangelize it. Find

the positive. Spread the really good vibes about

it. Tell people about it. Be happy that you're

happy about it, and maybe that will spread. For

example, you talking about Reboot and you don't

like it, I thought it was okay. I had my problems

with it, but you know what? Want to know what's

gonna happen next and It's and you know what

I'll stick with it. I mean sure It's a little

bit goofy. It's a little bit dumb, but you know

what? Steve we are almost 40 years old and We

are talking about children. Well property one

Shut up I'll be 32 this year, but still but yeah

point of the matter is we're bitching about children's

properties for the vast majority of it and I

know it's But it's meant for everybody and blah,

blah, blah, blah, blah. Which is true. Like,

but everybody just needs to take a step back

and chill out. It's it's ultimately it's somebody's

entertainment vision. Like, yes, the writing

may totally blow. The concept may suck. There

may be broken elements like even going to the

Star Wars The Last Jedi. The only element I found

that was completely unnecessary to their entire

plot was the entire going to the other planet

with with Rose and Finn to pick up Benicio Del

Toro's character. That entire scene was completely

useless. Were the actors useless? No, like they

were kind of fun to add to the film, regardless

of who they are. Like I have no ill will against

any of the characters. It was just, I found that

scene to be kind of lackluster. But, you know,

it's again, it goes down to a writing issue.

I would never like even People that have never

written a screenplay don't realize how difficult

it is to have to craft something from nothing

and Then sit there and have to make it work on

screen Like especially if you wrote it and then

you're directing it that just makes it even more

difficult to sit there because you're not the

one that has to like It's easy almost easier

for somebody else that's translating it, but

the person that wrote it is gonna nitpick the

crap out of it Like as they're going through

it and even then like it's I think that Unless

you're in these people's shoes like people just

need to shut up Like ultimately like it's it's

not worth There's so much hate and like anger

in the world already between our newscasters

and our politics and Just like bad humanity decisions

being made To sit here and worry about our entertainment

that's supposed to take us away from all of that

Yeah, I mean... Ultimately, like I've been saying,

everybody just needs to chill out, man. Have

some fun. Eat something you're not supposed to.

And just enjoy the entertainment for what it

is. If there's something there you like, enjoy

it. If there's something there you don't like,

don't dwell on it. Just pass. Yeah, just let

it go. As the song goes, let it go. Yep. And...

I mean... It's, yeah, I don't know, it's... You'll

be much happier for it if you find, if you direct

the energy you had towards bitching, if you redirect

that into something positive, you'll probably

be a happier person. And that's what we're all

about, being happy. Yeah, and that's kind of

one of the nice things, and I saw this somewhere

else, they quoted, or paraphrased, like Wonder

Woman. The only way to end hate isn't with more

hate, it's with love. You share what you like,

what you love, and then hopefully others enjoy

it too. It's okay to pan things to an extent,

to kind of say, this is my thought, this is my

review of it, but beyond that, let it go. Just

stop. Because I've... I'll make like little little

commentaries little little notices on certain

things that I've I've watched or you know franchises

that have that have changed, you know But ultimately

like after I've said my piece it's done. It's

not something I need to revisit like it's a lot

of people just seem to have this thing where

they want to drag it through the mud until it's

a bone like the bones Bloodied carcass like it's

just ridiculous Yeah, I mean I think about the

biggest example of this I seen recently was everybody

getting up in arms about thundercats roar And

I just want to say okay, you're getting pissed

off about a toy commercial from the 1980s seriously

Y 'all need to go back and re -watch that, because

that wasn't exactly Masterpiece Theater. It was

a toy commercial. Yeah, Shnarf. Like, come on,

man. Like, the Thundercats were there to sell

toys. You were there to be in the moment. The

Thunder Tank was nothing more than buy this vehicle

from LJN Toys. And you know what? That's cool.

That's what it was. That was a product of the

times. Maybe Thundercats Rural will end up being

really funny. And I'm kind of hoping for that.

I don't expect high drama. You know what? We

got a reboot for that series and nobody watched

it because it wasn't marketed properly. And you

know what? It wasn't marketed properly just like

anything else that's, you know, even looking

at Young Justice. I mean, none of it was marketed

properly to anybody and they put it on the death

slot. So like between the two, like they seem

to have this, this thing where, unless it's real

easy animation and it's, it's something in that,

that vein, they just don't want to do it. Yeah,

I mean, and even the animation style, animation

evolves over time. This just happens to be what's

hot now, and that's OK. I mean, like I said,

a lot of people love Steven Universe and Gravity

Falls and stuff like that. That's OK. That's

totally cool. Hell, I'm on board with you. Just,

you know, this lino did not come out of the past

to Like I said, dig up the corpse of the 1985

series and have his way with it. I know I've

been using that metaphor a lot tonight. For some

reason, I'm in the necrophilia. But all I'm saying

is, people, y 'all need to chill out and relax.

It's a cartoon cat. For the love of God, it's

a cartoon cat. And that's, I think, a lot of

people forget. And you've brought it up many

times. It's supposed to be a distraction. It's

supposed to be fun. It's supposed to be a takeaway

from the world that is around us, the politics,

the drama, the war, the sadness, and whatever

else is going on. Entertainment is supposed to

be that entertainment, whether you find a character

you identify with, whether you see something

in an episode of Star Trek, or you see a love

story that touches you for a particular moment,

or something like that. Find the happiness in

that, rather than... Oh man, I'm so angry. Don't

be angry. You know what? I'm gonna give this

as a challenge to the listeners of Altered Geek.

Try not being angry for three days. If something

genuinely pisses you off, then yeah, obviously

deal with that emotion. But try not to let the

little things bother you for three days. See

how much better you feel. And I know that's big

advice because as of tonight's recording, A pretty

big thing happened where I live in my province,

which could affect my life, my livelihood. A

government got elected that is not very friendly

towards people on disability, nor is it very

friendly to my wife's job, who she is a supply

teacher, which means her work is occasional.

You know what? I voted, I spoke with my voice,

but you know what I'm gonna do? For the next

couple of days, I'm gonna chill out. I'm going

to watch some Power Rangers. I'm going to play

some video games. I'm going to have myself a

cheeseburger, and I'm going to let things roll

for the next few days, and I'll deal with that

next week when things are better. Because you

know what? It's E3 next week. I got something

to look forward to. See? I just did it. I got

something to look forward to. And that's what

you people should do, too. Don't be pissed off.

Find something to look forward to. Be happy for

it. Don't be mad. Be glad. Exactly. I mean, it

could be coming home to your wife, boyfriend,

significant other. Or it could be coming home

to your cat. It could be any number of things.

Just be happy. Because you know what? You're

here. You're alive. Watch kittens. Your life

could be a lot worse. Could be a lot better too.

But you know what? There's always something to

make you smile. And I think I learned that from

Mr. Rogers and Bob Ross. There's always something

to make you smile. And mine just happens to be

my wife and Dr. Wiley. He's waving at me right

now. Little boy cat. But yeah, I mean, that's,

I think, the big takeaway I want people to walk

away from this episode, is find something in

the entertainment world, or even just a simple

pleasure, and be happy. Try it for a couple of

days. See what happens. Something for those that

do want to complain, there's actually a Microsoft

AI they could do it to and do it privately. So

nobody has to actually see it. Yeah, go talk

to Microsoft Sam for a while. I'm sure he'll

listen. What Bob? Yes, he doesn't exist anymore.

And if you ask Microsoft's newest AI, not Cortana,

but the. The bitch and Cortana. Well, Cortana.

Cortana is actually like kind of useless. They

get this new one called Zo. But I want Cortana!

responses? Well, if that's the case, just go

on Omegle. I'm sure you'll probably find somebody

naked half the time or chat roulette, but hey,

you never know. Maybe you'll see something you

like. Or you could talk to the robot. From Lost

in Space. From Lost in Space. Just don't complain

about it. It will eat you. And those that are

complaining about IHOP changing its name. Same

thing as this episode. You know what? Go to IHOP,

grab yourself a stack of friggin' pancakes, and

shut the hell up. And stuff your mouth. Pancakes

are delicious. And stuff your mouth. Rather than

complain, have a bite of pancake. It could be

a lot worse. I'm just enjoying the fact that

they're trolling the entire internet right now

with changing their name. They're gonna be called

the International House of Breakfast. Whoopie

-doo. That's my prediction. I think they're gonna

be the International House of Burgers. I hope

does make a pretty good burger. I will say that

yeah, I think that they're wanting to garner

something different, but I do know that I was

reading something they they had and I don't know

if this is true or not, but saying that People

of certain ethnicities Refer to it as I have

because they don't have the letter P alphabet

and they had the letter B Weird I've never heard

that before I I wasn't sure if that's real or

not, but I was like okay I could kind of see

that but at the same time like I think that because

they would be almost more like inclusive that

way but I think that they're more than just pancakes

so if you're doing like breakfast or burgers

because they do a pretty mean burger as well

yeah I think that B kind of opens it up for you

know interpret it for what you will if it's breakfast

or burger but either way you win yeah exactly

so So, yeah, I thought it was kind of interesting

that they went that route. But they're having

fun trolling the internet and aren't going to

tell anybody what they're doing until Monday.

The only E3 announcement I'm looking forward

to, IHOP. IHOP, because they're trolling the

internet and nobody gets the joke. But yeah,

I'm looking forward to E3 stuff. I'm definitely

looking forward to seeing what what comes out

of that Just because it's always even if I don't

partake in in said games Every time like it's

still fun to see what's coming out and the technology

going into it the cutscenes and all the promotion

Yeah, I know will Do an alter geek on E3 after

it passes and I'm gonna take my own advice rather

than be like every other game journalist who

tries to be edgy and snarky. I'm gonna be happy

this year. I'm gonna post very very little snark.

I'm gonna be excited and I'm just gonna have

fun. This year's E3 is gonna be fun E3. Yep,

fun E3 with like just basically the highlights.

Yep, just gonna go with what looks cool. I'm

gonna have fun with it if it's... a game I don't

care about, like say FIFA, you know? Cause I

remember they tried to do a single player mode

in one of the football or basketball games. And

you know what? I thought that was cool. I can't,

it's not my game, but hey, that's innovation.

Good on you. Yep. So I think that about wraps

this up. Pretty much. So if you want to get in

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week in geek .net or alteredgeek .com. You can

get a hold of me on Twitter at scp21. You can

find me on Twitter, Instagram, on Facebook, at

Birdman. I'm always around and always looking

forward to interacting with you, the fans. So

until next time, from us here at the Geek Cash

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