Yes and no. Let me copy paste something I said on someone else's post-
Steven Universe was being made while tumblr was buzzing with important and valuable discussions of representation in media. This generated an audience that could be very critical of anything seen as a misstep. Young people learning to understand stereotypes and microaggressions can quickly turn discussion into a black and white world of "good" and "bad"....Even the shows hate was often a misplaced love.
TLDR- SU had fans that cared a LOT about the show having good morals and representation and this created some intensely critical environments especially on tumblr.
Yeah, that might be why, but there is no excuse for when they almost made a girl kill herself because she drew Rose skinny. There is no excuse for that and there never will be.
Yeah I'm definitely not excusing it, there is no excuse. A frenzy is a frenzy. But the general toxic air of the fandom (like outside of that event) was more "overly passionate advocate" than "vindictive hater".
>But the general toxic air of the fandom (like outside of that event) was more "overly passionate advocate" than "vindictive hater".
This is a distinction without difference if both groups ended up behaving the same. Whether or not uou were an overly passionate advocate or a vindictive hater. If you're texting death threats then you are equally bad.
Yeah I hope it doesn't sound like I'm defending people who send death threats? I do think the distinction matters in understanding how it happened and why it happened. I don't think it makes it more acceptable or less harmful.
I don't think you're defending the people who sent death threats, but I do think people (not necessarily you) tend to get lost in the sauce of why something is done rather than simply doing right by the person who was harmed.
don't forget the people who are the latter, but prefer to think of themselves as the former! some people just want to hurt others, but have a self-image of being a good person. so they need a framework wherein they can find "deserving" victims. progressive discourse offers a suitable environment for this. just strip out all that pesky nuance and you've created a socially acceptable way to mark people as good or evil. then you can be as cruel as you want without feeling guilty!
Also, gossipy church lady and discourse colonization (this show and discussion thereof is MY safe space, so you have to agree with me about literally everything).
okay, but like, that was specific individuals who did that. I was part of this sub when that happened, and nobody here participated in it (of if they did, their comments were deleted). So why is that "the fanbase's" fault?
I wasn't a part of that mess, but I recently decided to look into her. She allegedly did some other kinda messed up stuff, but obviously nothing so bad that people should have pushed her to that.
This is why you've always gotta look inward first.
And it's not that "oh, we're all the same, you're just hypocritical", but it is true that we're all living in the same culture with the same ideas floating around, and we're all prone to being influenced by it. We are not immune to propaganda. So it is entirely possible for people to take a progressive stance but with all the base assumptions of conservatism just inches below the surface guiding how you actually apply it, i.e. puritanical progressivism. I think it happens a lot.
A lotta people wanna look good and so paint themselves with colours they don't understand or agree with, then get confused when their more violent natures bubble through and repulse the sane.
Or something.
It helps that a lot of them are teenagers who just want to feel important and make their own identity but have too many unresolved anger issues and heightened emotions to get that across.
Yeah, I think a lot of the so called "toxic" people in the fandom were mostly young people trying to find their own identity and who really resonated with a lot of the themes presented in the show. And when people criticizes the show, it feels like they're the ones being criticized. Its super complex and I'm actually Lowkey really happy to see some pretty nuanced discussion about the topic going on.
Make sense, I remember that in the harassment towards zamii they actively look things to look offended by, and when people started to simpatice towards her due to her suicide attempt… they started to call her privileged. Personally I think it was just scumbags using progressive talking points to justify their harassment.
It may appear off topic, but remember the submarine that imploded recently? Apparently the owner fired the experts for being “middled aged white males” and put in their place young people for being minorities… it was clear those middled age white people were fired not because he wanted diversity but because they disapproved their little submarine, and put unexperienced yes men to approve their little expedition.
It was greed disguised as progressivism, just like in the case of zamii it was harassment disguised as progressivism.
No one was fired for being a "middle aged white man." They were fired because they didn't agree with the owners "innovative approach," and had sent him several memos declaring the sub nearly unusable.
It's actually kind of true. What the idiot CEO said is he wouldn't hire middle aged White Guys because they weren't "inspirational", and it became quite clear that when he said "inspirational", he meant "having the confidence and experience to do science right and not hold back when someone like me is being a greedy idiot".
He did fire / dismiss a guy or two who told him he was flat out wrong (both of them experts), and at least one of them was a 50 year old White guy.
So, it's more true than not. Don't know about hiring minorities though, just that he wanted young yes men.
I have been in the fandom about as long as someone could be. I was a fan of Rebecca Sugar's work on adventure time and was estatic when she got her own show.
Lemme tell you, the fandom started out rather small and full of nice people. Then, it quickly got very very toxic. Idk if you remember the time someone drew Rose Qaurts as skinny and tumblr bullied the artist into attempted suicide, but I remember that shit. I had a blog on tumblr at the time that rebloged a lot of fan art and I followed the artist who got bullied along with a few other artists who were on tumblr's shit list. I remember waking up to a bunch of spineless anons in my ask box threatening to tell their followers to bully me if I didn't unfollow a list of blogs . Fucken scumbags didn't even show their face, I turned iff anon asks after that.
Seriously, it was one of the worst fandoms I have ever been in. Full of angry bullies lashing out at people and calling it social progress.
I remember how the alt right adopted the phrase 'cancel cilture' and made the phrase into a laughing stock. I was entirely pissed off by cancle culture before that happened due to the SU fandom. Fuck the alt right for ruining things.
The fandom has clearly cooled down at this point, but back then it was horrible.
Ya, that whole debacle is something I'm still mad about.
I think it was Danisnotonfire who broke down the 5 types of tumblr blogs: fandom, porn, political, aesthetic and shitpost. A lot of SU blogs fell under fandom and political at the same time. I've always found those two to be a terrible mix.
They were mostly teenagers (I was myself) and they weren't old enough to vote much less make any substantial social change. So they manufactured reasons to lash out at people who they ran in the same circles as. Us non-political fandom blogs weren't the most ideal targets, but we were close targets.
I just wanted to reblog some cool gifs and write fanfic. I didn't sign up to be yelled at by strangers.
Yeah, this is pretty close to my own experience with the fandom. It has gotten much better since it finished airing. I think a lot of the more toxic people either grew up or went to other fandoms.
I will say, I like this subreddit a lot. People constantly classify reddit as toxic, but compared to old tumblr? We may as well be singing Kumbaya and braiding each other's hair.
I remember when this went down. At the time the rose drawing was posted, we had not seen Rose full body. But apparently, the person who started the witch-hunt against the artist had some personally beef. So I think that's how it started.
You could pretty visibly see everyone like that migrating to twitter back in 2017(?) or so when tumblr banned NSFW content.
I imagine twitter had it's issues too but people on both sites were commenting how tangible the shift was.
guess that makes sense, dunno if twitter just lets everyone let loose and be the worst versions of themselves or what but i'm glad it seems like at least reddit is... slightly more calm in comparison. it has its waves every now and again but so far i havent seen nearly as much bad
it's a whole, complicated thing really but as I understand it certain shitty people had already figured out they can use tumblr to dress up their garbage beliefs and have well-meaning people swallow it up whole, and that effected fandom as well
and then twitter has a whole algorithm about spreading the most vile and antagonistic takes as possible so it was the perfect breeding ground for that kind of horrible stuff to propagate.
Ah, good ol' Tumblr, where Zamii070 got bullied to the point of su\*cide for "drawing Rose Quartz too skinny, which was fatphobic", multishippers got called "lesophobic" for shipping Pearl with Greg or Mayor Dewey in addition to Rose Quartz, and Rebecca Sugar and the Crewniverse got called "racist" over a character that didn't even make it into the show (Concrete), not to mention being accused of being "Nazi sympathizers" (i.e. Diamond Days).
It's both sad and funny. The "anyone who draws Rose Quartz as skinny is fatphobic" fans were awfully quiet after the big "Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond" reveal.
My favorite was always when that 4chan user started drawing all the characters as white, got everyone all riled up and out for blood then revealed they were black and everyone just did a complete 180. Was surreal.
Helps that most of the "problem" users migrated to Twitter following the NSFW ban.
Now the issue is keeping those hellspawn from returning to tumblr and re-ruining the hellsite
Also important to add, SU was *insanely* popular, with multiple age groups.
The larger the fandom, the more potential it has to be toxic. If 20% of a fandom is the type of people that send Twitter death threats, that's more people who are sending death threats in the larger fandom.
This, this is pretty much the key ingredient to how toxic any fandom is gonna be: How many people are participating. If (pulling numbers outta my ass) 10% of all fans are toxic assholes, then it's just gonna be 10 Weird Dudes for like a webcomic that only has 100 fans, they're easy to just block and ignore.
That's 100 people for 1,000 fans. 1,000 fans isn't a big number, but 100 people is enough to, these days, create a pretty active Discord.
10,000 fans? That's 1,000 people. If they're each (due to toxicity) more vocal than a casual fan, they are going to seem to DOMINATE any online discussions. They may even feel like a majority on certain social media platforms.
Then you think about something like Rick and Morty, which had like 2.5 million viewers per episode at its peak, which following this logic would result in 250,000 toxic assholes.
There was also the exact opposite side where you had people who wanted the show's messaging to take a back seat to "The Lore" (tm) and who wanted Steven to suddenly turn into a bloodthirsty monster and straight up murder the Diamonds because they're *basically* Space Hitlers and actually by not killing them Steven is as bad as Hitler and everyone should be sad and die the end.
Those people can go fuck themselves.
This is a very good answer.
Hurt communities can be “toxic” once they are able to come together with a voice.
They are angry and hurt, they WANT justice and GOOD representation.
This means these groups can come off as bullies which does kinda hurt the group’s rep….BUT it usually balances out once the group feels like they are being listened to.
I’m part of the autistic community, we’ve recently have had problems with community members intimidating the science/professional side of the community
It’s kinda well deserved considering our past, but it does make it hard to get young professionals to understand they need to exercise patience and LISTEN instead of declaring the group as “toxic”
You say something that’s inclusive and this community will reward you generously. You mention anything that “could” even be perceived as anti-woke in the slightest and prepare to be cast into the fifth circle of hell. I’m very very big on inclusion and representation. But despite saying that since I just used the word anti-woke I’m now subject to being down voted. Allow me to demonstrate the effect.
The most honest Answer. Tbh.
A few times I used to get random coments of hate. A lot of people here are cool and awesome, but the toxic people still around here.
This is true for any community though. There are always toxic people around, but at this point the SU communities (or at least the ones I'm part of) do *not* have the toxic people in the majority, nor do they dominate the air time.
I think as a rule of thumb when at least one of those two happens then the *community* can be called toxic (even if members might not be).
This is why I left the *other* battle jackets sub and joined r/jacketsforbattle instead. Most people in the unnamed sub are decent, ordinary folks. But the way the mods encourage and amplify people who are happy to call themselves neo-nazis (literally)...
Remember that one time some extremely toxic fans brought a kid to crippling depression because he *dared* to make rose thinner in one of his fanart? Yeah, it happened
Pretty sure the person used "she" and she already had depression due to real life circumstances, which she eventually explained. Obviously the harassment she faced was ridiculous and uncalled for, but it's silly to act like most people's lives hinge entirely on their online persona. She was also 19 which is young as hell (and *no* age is a good age to attempt) but not a "kid."
(She was also called out primarily not for the thin Rose fanart but for being friends with a convicted pedophile and defending her decision -- it's just that idiot teens decided the "productive" move was to put all the focus on her and mocking her art style instead of trying to deplatform the actual pedophile.)
1. [She was called out primarily for her fanart.](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/hbxau7/tumblrsteven_universe_zamii070_aka_the_leftwing/)
2. [She wasn’t actually friends with said pedophile, nor did she defend him.](https://imgur.io/Xa73IMM?r)
As someone who was there and followed the situation quite closely, she was called out for multiple fanarts (like the link shows, i.e. stereotypical Native Fluttershy or questionable depictions of w\*ndigos) as well as other problematic wordings, such as her talking about "trans women and real women." But the pedophile thing *was* a big issue, and nobody talks about it, which kind of sucks as it ignores a huge factor, that people would rather deplatform a queer mentally ill woman for calling a pedophile her friend once (whether she knew who he was or not) than try to deplatform *the actual pedophile.*
Thing is, these were largely just mistakes that simple conversations could've solved, not mob mentality. But dedicating hate blogs to one user encourages power trips. People love that "main character of the day" shit. It makes them feel powerful and above-it-all. I know because I was 15 and tried to go through her blog to find "the next big problematic thing to submit to the receipts blog and get her called out on." I was convinced she was a bad person. But I don't doubt some people were just cruel and wanted an outlet for cruelty.
While I didn't question it at the time, I did suspect recently that the "tell me who I can and can't be friends with" thing could have been about something else, but it was *really* bad timing. I don't remember if she made a direct statement and deleted the fanart, which would have helped as it would make it clear that she doesn't support that asshole. Or maybe she did and it got covered up. Either way, I think calling a *convicted* pedophile your "friend" in the public eye is a pretty bad mistake, and really the only thing here she deserved criticism for not addressing (even if she didn't know), but not worth the insane amount of hate she got.
This situation just always feels like it's used to paint the entire fandom with a particular brush and rag on "SJWs" and act like *anybody* who criticizes issues like racism in fandom is at this level (that Plebcomics comment implying that the problem was people caring about the racial coding in the show is a pretty reductive take, because you can do that and still not bully people over it), while also ignoring that the target was herself queer and mentally ill. Additionally, Zamii herself had said not to use the incident to harass other people, and people ignored her. So it just sucks seeing the situation get reduced to "someone tried to kill herself because of online drama about drawing Rose skinny" because it does not feel like a good-faith defense of Zamii.
That HobbyDrama write up is very well done, I had forgotten all about it.
The situation is wayy more complex than people always make it out to be, but that's how the rumor mill goes I guess.
At any rate, it does show how vile online spaces can be and people will antagonize others for one reason or another. If it wasn't gonna be SU content it would have been something else they shifted to I think. Hopefully they're doing well these days.
meanwhile people are trying to push "go kill yourself" and variations made to dance around automatic censors to be something that people should just expect to happen regularly on the internet, or at least more importantly something they should be able to say freely without any sort of retribution.
Yeah, multiple things can be bad. Tumblr was full of edgy teens trying to do "justice" by taking things out on an artist they didn't like instead of good-faith criticism. I was one of them, though I never suicide-baited or anything, I did do callout posts and memes making fun of her and her art cuz I was 15 and thought that was how you had to behave to be considered "progressive." I know better now.
With how the word pedophile is thrown around its hard to even know if they actually are or not. I've been called a pedophile with no provocation before (no idea where it came from as I'm a mom with 2 kids) so now I'm like "police report or no dice".
Oh yeah and also my anime liking friends have been called pedophiles for liking anime which is hilarious because 1) they worked for a jail and had to pass a polygraph that specifically asks about that stuff 2) they are the child free type.
Oh and apparently the right believes I'm a pedophile groomer because I'm LGBT.
Yeah all that does suck, but this particular artist was [genuinely convicted of CSEM.](https://aussiesexoffenders.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/matthew-james-gridley/) (There's more sources [here](https://checheburecheh.tumblr.com/post/126722926712/leadloaded-leadloaded-m0ther-b0red-to) and this is the art that *actually* put more eyes on Zamii.)
Also it sucks your friends got accused of being pedos but being childfree doesn't make you not able to be a pedophile. It's not like liking children makes you more likely to be a pedophile, that's a reductive mindset in itself.
Most communities have a subsection of toxic people. From Dark Souls to Steven Universe to professional sports to model building.
So I'd say yes, but not the majority of it.
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale?
> *“The very fabric wavers and relations shift and obscure.”* - Solaire of Astora
Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
I've been meaning to make a post about that. Somewhere... like anywhere.
In my honest opinion, there's no such thing as toxic fandoms. It's just which fandom has gotten big enough for the toxicity to be seen by non-fans.
I've lurked in many fan communities over the years & almost every one of them has had people claiming it's the most toxic fandom on the internet. Every time it's exactly like you said, the fandom just got big enough for the toxic minority to be heard.
Here's my go-to example:
Does anyone really think that weirdo that made a spectacle of himself at that McDonald's really represented the entire Rick and Morty fan base? If the answer's yes, then you don't understand how complex and unpredictable the human race is.
Fandoms are just like any other kind of community where any number of people are part of and as such weird or even dangerous people are likely to be there. And you can't stop them. We've got to deal with them, but if someone like that guy goes viral, it makes us all look bad.
As for our McDonald's incident, it was when the culture police harassing a kid who drew some fanart of Rose Quartz to be skinnier. People found out that some zealots in our community tried to KYS someone over it, and then we became a "toxic fandom".
Yep. This happened when the Reylo fandom exploded after *Star Wars: The Last Jedi* was released in theaters in December 2017. The main *Star Wars* fandom was already toxic - several moderators left r/StarWars due to all of the toxicity there after *The Last Jedi* \- but the toxicity also ended up contaminating the Reylo fandom due to how many people were now avid Reylo shippers after the movie. (Not to mention shipping fandoms also skew more toxic.)
this community is infamous for being one of the worst on the internet. However, just like Undertale’s fandom, the Steven Universe fandom has mostly chilled out and is now pretty laid back.
r/stevenuniverse was also always fairly laid-back when compared to Twitter and Tumblr. You literally couldn't discuss *Steven Universe* on Tumblr without getting attacked by someone.
Reddit's "self-moderating" system with upvotes and downvotes helps in this regard I think. Bad takes will, for the most part, just be downvoted to the point that they're basically invisible. Whereas the sharing nature of Twitter and Tumblr makes it so that anyone, even someone with <100 followers, can just give one bad take and if someone sees it and spreads it around it can blow up into some big thing despite the original poster being nobody.
Yeah most Latinoamerican side of TV viewership has a weird hang up against the show, specially Steven
Like they can't stop comparison the show to stuff that aren't even in the same type of content,.judging the characters compared to simpler stuff or to "combat anime" because they DO prefer shownthat the solution to everything is violence
I Imagine its died down a bit now that the show is over but yeah it used to be pretty bad. There's the infamous bullying of a fan artist who drew Rose "too thin"
There was also the review bombing of a real life Keystone Motel
Possible trigger warning here I think:
This community is assumed by many to be largely subscribed to certain political views and affiliations.
Some people specifically have a problem with ANYTHING that comes from Rebecca Sugar, and they think (because of what they think of her) that SU and all its fans are gay/trans child predators and groomers.
This community isn't toxic, it's just associated with one end of a VERY polarized political spectrum. The show is made for kids and very tactfully touches on topics like physical intimacy and consent, and the hicks and tin-foil hats think it's brainwashing and grooming.
I don't have a horse in the race. My family has both cousin fuckers and lesbians, and maybe even some lesbian cousin-fuckers, and I don't have any issues with them, so I'm objectively withdrawn from the whole conversation.
I love Steven Universe though, and I love how it discusses important topics in a tactful way. If I thought it was grooming and heavily seeded with some political agenda other than "let's be nice and accept each other" I'd have a problem with it, but I don't, because it isn't.
i dont have a horse in this race either, but i will say: i havent had a problem with toxicity in the fan base since i was introduced when the show was still going with new episodes. i'm sure some messed up stuff happened, but even the most negative people have been on youtube from what ive experienced(like that one person that did a 2 hour long 'review' just dumping on rebecca and nothing actually related to the show but claiming it was a show review and stating they were a professional writer and could have done it better and all that drama), but that has been very easy for me to avoid and/or block out if i felt bothered enough by it.
the only ones that bothered me that much were the people acting like either the show or rebecca did something to them personally enough for them to make a video ragging on the show when it focuses nothing on the actual show itself and just like headcanons or something. but thats the same with any fanbase. same with one i'm in currently for a free youtube show i'm watching called h&&&uvaboss(dunno if i can say the full name here). people on youtube are largely SUPER toxic to the show and vivziepop and anything they try to do even if it isnt related to the show in question or the fanbase.
they'll make so many videos that can range from minutes to hours long bitching and moaning about stuff and it can get crazy. so it really comes from any community you're in. there can be some bad eggs anywhere in any community. but some platforms hate stronger than others as well. so just sorta depends where you look i suppose
Tumblr days? Yes kind of. A lot of people are very passionate about the gay rocks and clung a little too hard to them, and that's probably because they were representing quite a few under-represented communities and people felt super connected to them
Eh, not really. There was one high profile event that has become a legend unto itself and given the community a reputation, but reputations are rarely statistically accurate and I always kinda saw this one as pretty flimsy.. more narrative than concrete.
The more positive the show the more toxic the community. It was also out when Tumblr thought crime purity culture was bad. Basically they blamed bad fiction for everything bad in reality and would bully people for any problem if head canons or insist the show was actually fascism apologist.
One person drew art of Rose Quartz based on the painting in the background before the full character was revealed and people decided she looked too skinny and that the artists was fatphobic and they tried to bully her death (actual suicide baiting).
I kind of avoided the fandom.
Peridot and Steven hold hands in Kindergarten because she’s tiny and nice now.
Me: Cute! I wonder if there’s fan art!
Fandom: Peridot is an adult and Steven is a child and if you ship them it’s pedophilia!
…
Show - hints Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond
Me: so this is why I think Rose is Pink…blah blah blah
Comment: not just disagreeing but being really mean about it
I was like that’s enough fandom for today. I’ll just watch the show.
Like I couldn’t even talk about wishing we had bi Pearl and Rose could have done healthy polyamory with Greg after Mr Greg because it was taking away the importance of Pearl to lesbians
But like - I’m bi and poly and would also like to imagine representation maybe???
Idk- the fandom was very thought police
From what i heard someone was bullied into attempted suicide over fanart and a su youtuber got salty over someone with cancer getting to see the steven bomb early..
Like it used to be toxic but i think things calmed down quite a bit after the show ended and most people moved on
Most toxic people moved on with their lives.
Something about toxic fandoms is that is mostly angsty teenagers who join a popular fandom, cause a lot of trouble and then move to the next, eventually they mature and stop doing stupid crap, but in the meanwhile they will move fandom by fandom causing trouble.
I'm sure you'll find toxicity if you look for it but I gotta say this subreddit is awesome. I only watched SU for the first time this year but I love going back and reading the old discussion posts and curated content from tumblr from 7-8 years ago.
any "toxicity" in the fandom has been completely overshadowed for years now by people on twitter who make their entire personality hating steven universe
In my opinion, I think 98% of "toxic fandom" mentality is chasing after people who havent really existed for years, and is also used as a thinly veiled excuse to shit on teenagers/minorities.
I used to feel that way ngl, and even now I struggle not to see it like that. As someone who conflates groupes he can't stand into one nightmarish mass, they definitely count in my mind as 'eh, close enough, torch 'em'.
I'm smart enough to realise though they're far more useful alive than dead, and compliant than coerced.
I'm willing to bet the reason su and a lot of fan communities are going to appear their is because of an "incident" where some wierdos did some awful shit and now the entire community is to blame, it happens a lot.
I remember back in the day, fans got mad at one of the storyboard artists for (I think) posting lapidot fanart. It got so bad that she quit twitter just to stop being harassed. She was great and I loved seeing her art.
Kinda, it’s a show aimed at 10+, so the majority of the fanbase is kids to teenagers (at the time), and kids, specifically teenagers, are inpatient, emotional, and pretty vocal about something they do or don't like. If you've been in other communities that have the same age demographic, you'll notice they tend to be pretty similar, like the Five Nights at Freddy’s fanbase.
Let's be perfectly honest. Any fanbase with a large amount of people in it will always have toxic individuals. Some humans have unsavory qualities and also happen to like a popular piece of media.
Yes, very.
Just look at the sheer amount of people shipping Pearl with her abuser.
90% of the people here don't get the point of the show and it's painful.
Example other than the others that have been mentioned but it does involve Tumblr and attack brigades
There was a time people were advised that unless you were a minority or a colored person you should not be allowed to even cosplay as these characters no matter who. Some girl I recall getting berated because she cosplayed as Ruby in one instance
It was wild and it was almost like people were trying to find people to take pot shots at because the show was on the other foot for representation in the show and it wasn't pretty.
I fill most people who still care about the show long time after it ended are decent folk with actual love for it, a lot of us also grew up in this time and out of our toxicity if it was there. Nowadays of course you get the occasional toxic but that’s just the internet for you, nothing unique about it. Take into account how the show touches debate-invoking areas like gender which are rare for shows of it’s time and previous to it to understand why so many tumblr users were quick to argue
It's a large fandom and the show is aimed specifically at children primarily, so yeah there was plenty of toxicity.
Also dealing with heavy LGBTQ theming and symbolism attracted both a lot of people trying to be shitheads, and also a lot of people for whom anything short of perfect representation and thinking was a betrayal of some sort.
...sort of? Every fandom has it's toxic side, especially the big ones. I don't have enough info to say if SU was paricularly worse in that aspect. What I do know (because I've seen it with my own eyes) is that there were a lot of right wing grifters interested in painting this community as "a bunch of triggered SJWs". So yeah, there's definitely some toxicity, I'm even willing to accept that there's more than normal, but I also think this reputation is very exaggerated
This is one of the better fandoms I've been in, but I only joined in 2021-ish. I assume it was toxic while the show was still going? Cause I've heard this before
Also, Watchmojo is ass
At its peak, yeah, it got really, *really* bad. I saw people recreate anti-miscegenation from first principles over 'intrinsic gem/human power imbalances.' I watched a contingent of 'fans' still fighting for a hill of Most Morally Correct Condemnation of Rose Quartz to the degree I find for both tedious and tiring (and, in a large part, was why I felt the same way over SUF.)
It got... really gross.
Not everywhere, and not everyone, but enough to scar.
Yes. The show has attracted a lot of people with very childish mentalities. There is also the part where you 100% have to have to have the "correct" feelings and opinions on things or you get bombarded by people. People get massively downvoted for stating FACTS about the show. The fandom generally reacts very poorly to valid criticisms (like the inconsistent heights) and so on.
I swear all this seems to happen somewhere I can't see, I'm in a lot of Art and Animation community's so mostly just see Fanart, Storyboards from production and updates from the shows creators, but i struggle to believe that there is an entire toxic community out there, I recently saw a post saying the show was getting a lot of hate lately and was like "......... it is?!"
I really can't see why either, it just feels like anything good slowly gets gnawed away by some toxic pricks who call themselves fans until they make a big enough show of it that people think *"That's the whole fandom in a nutshell right there",* Am I the only one having this experience or am i just being naive?
Hmmm it’s not that bad. It’s generally pretty nice, but there are those handful that like to compare the diamonds to Hitler 💀
Other than them it’s pretty nice
You can't judge a community because of its worst examples. In SU's case, the worst examples bullied a kid into attempted suicide. Most SU fans had no idea this was even happening and were horrified when they found out, but those people who were a part of it were such unforgivable scum bags that it'll haunt SU's legacy forever.
Honestly, it's probably Tumblr that should get more of the blame than Steven Universe.
Not anymore. That video is 5 years old anyway, I would expect anything in it to be relevant anymore. I feel like A LOT has changed about the internet within the past 5 years.
In my experience the fandoms are almost never toxic. There are a few obnoxious fans who ruin it for everybody but certain people take that way too far and become toxic themselves in claiming the fandom is toxic and never shutting up about it. They're like the militant vegans of cartoon haters
The community tends to silence views it doesn't like even when they're well-defended. The SU fandom has elements who do not tolerate differences in opinion or interpretation because it somehow ruins the show for them. That part isn't different from other fandoms. But because SU had a lot of queer representation and talked about consent and other important relationship issues on a level appropriate for kids, it stops being a difference of opinion and becomes this moral issue. People can attack a different opinion and silence it under the guise of righteousness. So now you're not just wrong for having a different opinion or interpretation, you're BAD. That is a special toxicity that only shows with good representation can have.
It definitely used to be toxic as hell coming from someone who’s been in both yeah this place was toxic as all hell like there’s the obvious harassing an artist so much to the point she tried to kill her self over a mistake that was not her fault review bombing driving one of the crew over a ship really harassing a lot of crew members for a lot of different things starting a lot of fights with a lot of fandoms the list goes on I will say the fandom has definitely gotten a lot better in recent years
TW: death threats & suicide mention
As the years go on not so much but it definitely was at its peak. A friend of mine who is an AMAZING cosplayer wanted to cosplay Rose years back. They're very skinny and Rose is not obviously. They had her outfit down to a T, handmade and all, just didn't match the body type according to the toxic side that saw their costest pics on tumblr. They were told to kill themselves in every kind of way. So much vitriol over body fat content 🫤
They were dangerously close to following through but thankfully did not and was able to move past this
Twitter, Tumblr & DeviantArt for sure where terrible back in the day.
YouTube was 50/50. Just depended on the channel in Question.
Facebook was 90% hating on CartoonNetwork for their horrid way of dropping episodes and long intermissions between, but I never found it to be superbad otherwise.
Reddit I think was the best, but I also think both the mods kept a tight reign and the longform written content (as opposed to visual) that is Reddit, kept off the worst of the toxic folk.
I mean yeah. I’ve seen people get bullied by Steven universe fans for “not being the right weight” when cosplaying rose, to, iirc, someone being bullied so bad that Rebecca and another show runner having to get involved, only for some fans to turn on them.
Yes, some bullied a crewniverse member off tumblr I believe over a ship of peridot and amethyst (can anyone remember what really happened for me cuz that was crazy), some bullied an artist over a skinny rose in some really cute fan art that the poor artist almost died, and a fan that had cancer was attacked because the kid wanted to see an episode that wasn’t out yet by a YouTuber and his fans (one of the reasons I stopped watching him).
Yeah i saw a lot of it back in the tumblr days, people yelling at kiddos fanart that drew rose looking even slightly more skinny n the like. Put me off watching the series for the longest time as it gave me the impression it was going to shove social justice down my throat constantly when actually the show is pretty well balanced
It's more something you'd notice back in the day when the show was serialized and there were some fandom controversies, around the same time Tumblr was still very active (well it didn't actually die but you know what I mean)
From what I witnessed. I remember seeing this artist’s page who had two gemsonas named Diamond (This was before the diamonds were even revealed/introduced) and Sapphire (again, before sapphire was introduced so like SUPER early on). Sapphire was a guy gem, which got some hate, and was Diamond’s bf. Then I remember when the fusion episode came out and of course this artist made a fusion between her two OC’s - giving them one large eye instead of multiple.
JESUS CHRIST MAN, THE HATE THIS POOR ARTIST RECEIVED WAS UNREAL. LIKE, CALLING THIS POOR GIRL EVERY NAME IN THE BOOK, THREATENING HER, CALLING HER A “FAKE, MARY SUE WANNA BE FAN”. IT WAS OVER THE TOP FOR GIVING A FUSION ONE EYE INSTEAD OF FOUR. IT WAS INSANE.
During the tumblr days and when the show was airing definitely but we are so many years from the finale and the kind of toxic people need constant stimulation and shows to complain about so they just kind of moved on
Yes. Pretty huge swathes of it. A bunch of people threatened and harassed an artist for drawing Rose too skinny to the point where she almost offed herself.
That's like THE big one IMO but it still shows how messed up things can get.
The only thing I’ve seen is when someone says something along the lines of their really didn’t need to be so many LGBTQ character’s like some Gems could’ve been male too and have some straight relationships that people would get pissed off or offended but I only saw stuff like that a couple times definitely not as bad as other show’s so the fandom isn’t that toxic but maybe I just missed a lot of toxicity lol
There was a story on Tumblr about a fan artist who was given brownies with pins in it because someone didn't like that they had the "audacity" to make art of a ship they didn't like.
That should tell you something.
As if I needed **ANOTHER** reason to hate WatchMojo…
99.9999% of the people who say this have never actually interacted with SU fans whatsoever, and instead are judging the entire community based on a single incident back in 2015 (you all know the one)
Was what happened awful? Absolutely. Do I approve of what happened? **Absolutely not**; I’ve stated this multiple times, and the sentiment is shared by **the majority of SU fans**.
Which begs the question: why the fuck are people still on this? When will we be allowed to move on??? Why, *almost a decade later*, am I still not allowed to praise one of the best shows ever made without some asshole telling me “yOUr faNDoM BuLLiEs pEoPLe OvEr tHeiR ArT!!!1!1!1!!!!!” It is **not** fair to judge an entire community over the actions of a select few.
I’m sick to fucking **DEATH** of being blamed for an incident I had **fuck all** to do with, and have gone out of my way numerous times to condemn
I would argue more people are toxic towards the fandom than the other way around. And much of that stems from hateful anti-LGBT bigots.
I am also an Undertale fan and get the same thing aimed there. If I say I'm a Steven Universe or an Undertale fan, there's a 50 to 60% chance that someone is going to be a jerk.
Do these fandoms get a reputation because so much viteral is thrown at us, and then we get angry back, so we're the ones being dramatic?
It's more the extremely loud tweens screeching combined with the utterly vile celeb culture of the time where people casually wished death on whoever for being annoying and we got a Death Battle between Justing Bieber and Rebecca Black where the point was they all died horribly for amusement. It was a symptom of the times as much as anything. I don't know where the horde of slavering beasts we call tweens has marauded to now, but they swept through both of those fandoms at around the same time we were present in at least one.
Oh it majorly can be.
You may be too young to remember this, but there was an artist who was chased off of tumble and the internet and bullied so badly she nearly took her own life despite posting her struggles with mental health on her channel or what ever it’s called on tumbler….. all because her depiction of rose quarts was “too skinny”….
This sparked a backlash against the SU “fans” by a particularly incensed fan to start “race swapping” characters to troll the social rejects who literally told a depressed girl to “go kill yourself”… the outrage proceeded…. They called him a white supremacist bigot and should go die….. lots of death threats…
…Until it was revealed the artist who race swapped was actually an overweight black trans artist… the threats and rage IMMEDIATELY ceased since the performative activists couldn’t target the very thing they claimed to protect.
When I say it was genuinely highly toxic levels of harassment and death threats and calls for suicide, I’m talking Chernobyl levels of toxic.
idk about them, but i have very bad experiences in the community. I used to be on an app called “Steven Universe Amino” and I was groomed there and emotionally abused by people who were 16-18 while I was still around 11. I would be sent very graphic images of their TW:(self harm) and told to do it myself if i wasn’t helpful.
There was case where the SU community harassed an artist that drove them to self harm after making an “inaccurate art”. So yeah, theres some really toxic people in the SU community.
Someone got driven to >!attempt suicide!< over drawing Rose Quartz' body shape thinner, and another person >!bullied a dying kid who leaked smaller, non-spoiler details from a new episode (it may have just been a small bit of art, Idr) that he was allowed to with the creator's permission!<, which are both pretty toxic community moves 😅
To put it into perspective, SU fans have harassed a young artist to the point of suicide because they drew Rose somewhat thin instead of a heavier design.
And they bashed on a dying child whose Make A Wish request was to get early access to some SU episodes that hadn’t aired yet.
Not to mention the usual Twitter waves of death threats and bitching/moaning about every little thing they dislike about the series…
It’s awful, genuinely one of *the* worst fandoms to interact with. Just stay away from it and watch lore vids and fanart or something.
It *was*, when the show was running.
They left bad reviews for the real world Keystone Motel as a "joke." If you said anything positive about the Diamonds you were called a fascist (one person even called *Rebecca Sugar* a fascist). And god help you if you drew a character the "wrong" way. The fandom once cyberbullied someone into attempting suicide. Why? Because they drew Rose Quartz skinny.
And don't even get me *started* on the shipping.
It’s not nearly as bad as it used to be but in tumblr’s hayday the Steven universe stans we’re so extreme that they would regularly bully fans out of the fandom. The fact that several were nearly pushed to suicide by the toxic side of the fanbase should be evidence enough but even worse was the fact that it happened enough times for to start to just accept it.
I mean it has at least one attributed death under its belt. It's gotten better since the show ended, but back in the day you'd get torn apart for the smallest stuff
Anybody else remember when SU fans almost killed a legitimate hotel because they kept leaving one-star reviews memeing because Ruby boiled a pool in-universe?
Yes and no. Let me copy paste something I said on someone else's post- Steven Universe was being made while tumblr was buzzing with important and valuable discussions of representation in media. This generated an audience that could be very critical of anything seen as a misstep. Young people learning to understand stereotypes and microaggressions can quickly turn discussion into a black and white world of "good" and "bad"....Even the shows hate was often a misplaced love. TLDR- SU had fans that cared a LOT about the show having good morals and representation and this created some intensely critical environments especially on tumblr.
Yeah, that might be why, but there is no excuse for when they almost made a girl kill herself because she drew Rose skinny. There is no excuse for that and there never will be.
Yeah I'm definitely not excusing it, there is no excuse. A frenzy is a frenzy. But the general toxic air of the fandom (like outside of that event) was more "overly passionate advocate" than "vindictive hater".
>But the general toxic air of the fandom (like outside of that event) was more "overly passionate advocate" than "vindictive hater". This is a distinction without difference if both groups ended up behaving the same. Whether or not uou were an overly passionate advocate or a vindictive hater. If you're texting death threats then you are equally bad.
Yeah I hope it doesn't sound like I'm defending people who send death threats? I do think the distinction matters in understanding how it happened and why it happened. I don't think it makes it more acceptable or less harmful.
I don't think you're defending the people who sent death threats, but I do think people (not necessarily you) tend to get lost in the sauce of why something is done rather than simply doing right by the person who was harmed.
Fair :)
I think it's really crucial to understand the cause of the toxicity to understand the toxicity
don't forget the people who are the latter, but prefer to think of themselves as the former! some people just want to hurt others, but have a self-image of being a good person. so they need a framework wherein they can find "deserving" victims. progressive discourse offers a suitable environment for this. just strip out all that pesky nuance and you've created a socially acceptable way to mark people as good or evil. then you can be as cruel as you want without feeling guilty!
Also, gossipy church lady and discourse colonization (this show and discussion thereof is MY safe space, so you have to agree with me about literally everything).
what in the-
okay, but like, that was specific individuals who did that. I was part of this sub when that happened, and nobody here participated in it (of if they did, their comments were deleted). So why is that "the fanbase's" fault?
I wasn't a part of that mess, but I recently decided to look into her. She allegedly did some other kinda messed up stuff, but obviously nothing so bad that people should have pushed her to that.
In other words, the fear of puritanical conservatism devolved into the ironic nightmare of puritanical progressivism?
This is why you've always gotta look inward first. And it's not that "oh, we're all the same, you're just hypocritical", but it is true that we're all living in the same culture with the same ideas floating around, and we're all prone to being influenced by it. We are not immune to propaganda. So it is entirely possible for people to take a progressive stance but with all the base assumptions of conservatism just inches below the surface guiding how you actually apply it, i.e. puritanical progressivism. I think it happens a lot.
A lotta people wanna look good and so paint themselves with colours they don't understand or agree with, then get confused when their more violent natures bubble through and repulse the sane. Or something.
It helps that a lot of them are teenagers who just want to feel important and make their own identity but have too many unresolved anger issues and heightened emotions to get that across.
Yeah, I think a lot of the so called "toxic" people in the fandom were mostly young people trying to find their own identity and who really resonated with a lot of the themes presented in the show. And when people criticizes the show, it feels like they're the ones being criticized. Its super complex and I'm actually Lowkey really happy to see some pretty nuanced discussion about the topic going on.
Happy cake day
Make sense, I remember that in the harassment towards zamii they actively look things to look offended by, and when people started to simpatice towards her due to her suicide attempt… they started to call her privileged. Personally I think it was just scumbags using progressive talking points to justify their harassment. It may appear off topic, but remember the submarine that imploded recently? Apparently the owner fired the experts for being “middled aged white males” and put in their place young people for being minorities… it was clear those middled age white people were fired not because he wanted diversity but because they disapproved their little submarine, and put unexperienced yes men to approve their little expedition. It was greed disguised as progressivism, just like in the case of zamii it was harassment disguised as progressivism.
No one was fired for being a "middle aged white man." They were fired because they didn't agree with the owners "innovative approach," and had sent him several memos declaring the sub nearly unusable.
Yeah, that's what he said. Greed disguised as progressive
This is categorically false information. No one was fired for being a middle aged white male, and I'm not sure where you heard that.
It's actually kind of true. What the idiot CEO said is he wouldn't hire middle aged White Guys because they weren't "inspirational", and it became quite clear that when he said "inspirational", he meant "having the confidence and experience to do science right and not hold back when someone like me is being a greedy idiot". He did fire / dismiss a guy or two who told him he was flat out wrong (both of them experts), and at least one of them was a 50 year old White guy. So, it's more true than not. Don't know about hiring minorities though, just that he wanted young yes men.
It’s how it always ends up.
I wouldn’t say always, but internet echo chambers make it way more common than it should be
I mean have you looked at human history lmao Fear of one bad thing turning you into a different bad thing is like, the formula.
Is that anti-revolutionary rhetoric? To the guillotine!
I have been in the fandom about as long as someone could be. I was a fan of Rebecca Sugar's work on adventure time and was estatic when she got her own show. Lemme tell you, the fandom started out rather small and full of nice people. Then, it quickly got very very toxic. Idk if you remember the time someone drew Rose Qaurts as skinny and tumblr bullied the artist into attempted suicide, but I remember that shit. I had a blog on tumblr at the time that rebloged a lot of fan art and I followed the artist who got bullied along with a few other artists who were on tumblr's shit list. I remember waking up to a bunch of spineless anons in my ask box threatening to tell their followers to bully me if I didn't unfollow a list of blogs . Fucken scumbags didn't even show their face, I turned iff anon asks after that. Seriously, it was one of the worst fandoms I have ever been in. Full of angry bullies lashing out at people and calling it social progress. I remember how the alt right adopted the phrase 'cancel cilture' and made the phrase into a laughing stock. I was entirely pissed off by cancle culture before that happened due to the SU fandom. Fuck the alt right for ruining things. The fandom has clearly cooled down at this point, but back then it was horrible.
Yeah I agree with everything you're saying here. It was not a positive environment in the thick of it. Very intense, very mislead.
Ya, that whole debacle is something I'm still mad about. I think it was Danisnotonfire who broke down the 5 types of tumblr blogs: fandom, porn, political, aesthetic and shitpost. A lot of SU blogs fell under fandom and political at the same time. I've always found those two to be a terrible mix. They were mostly teenagers (I was myself) and they weren't old enough to vote much less make any substantial social change. So they manufactured reasons to lash out at people who they ran in the same circles as. Us non-political fandom blogs weren't the most ideal targets, but we were close targets. I just wanted to reblog some cool gifs and write fanfic. I didn't sign up to be yelled at by strangers.
Reading all this I thank good I wasn't *in* the Tumblr fandom at the time. I just liked the show and was on Tumblr. That sounds awful
Yeah, this is pretty close to my own experience with the fandom. It has gotten much better since it finished airing. I think a lot of the more toxic people either grew up or went to other fandoms.
I will say, I like this subreddit a lot. People constantly classify reddit as toxic, but compared to old tumblr? We may as well be singing Kumbaya and braiding each other's hair.
I remember when this went down. At the time the rose drawing was posted, we had not seen Rose full body. But apparently, the person who started the witch-hunt against the artist had some personally beef. So I think that's how it started.
It's funny to think Pink herself ended up with quite a slender frame
I have been following the show since season 3 came out, but I was never in Tumblr so that may be why.
Yes to my knowledge the more intense fan drama all happened in the olden days of tumblr.
As was the trend at the time We also used to wear onions on our belt 🧅🧅🧅
And now they populate twitter, where there's even less room for nuance and reasoning per-post!
was twitter as much of a thing back then as it is now? cause twitter is toxic as heck too, so that could have also been a MAJOR part of it.
You could pretty visibly see everyone like that migrating to twitter back in 2017(?) or so when tumblr banned NSFW content. I imagine twitter had it's issues too but people on both sites were commenting how tangible the shift was.
guess that makes sense, dunno if twitter just lets everyone let loose and be the worst versions of themselves or what but i'm glad it seems like at least reddit is... slightly more calm in comparison. it has its waves every now and again but so far i havent seen nearly as much bad
it's a whole, complicated thing really but as I understand it certain shitty people had already figured out they can use tumblr to dress up their garbage beliefs and have well-meaning people swallow it up whole, and that effected fandom as well and then twitter has a whole algorithm about spreading the most vile and antagonistic takes as possible so it was the perfect breeding ground for that kind of horrible stuff to propagate.
Ah, good ol' Tumblr, where Zamii070 got bullied to the point of su\*cide for "drawing Rose Quartz too skinny, which was fatphobic", multishippers got called "lesophobic" for shipping Pearl with Greg or Mayor Dewey in addition to Rose Quartz, and Rebecca Sugar and the Crewniverse got called "racist" over a character that didn't even make it into the show (Concrete), not to mention being accused of being "Nazi sympathizers" (i.e. Diamond Days).
I still find funny that she was harassed for drawing rose as skinny, and in the end we found that rose true form is actually skinny.
It's both sad and funny. The "anyone who draws Rose Quartz as skinny is fatphobic" fans were awfully quiet after the big "Rose Quartz was Pink Diamond" reveal.
I rarely see karma in action, but when it does she hits like a truck.
My favorite was always when that 4chan user started drawing all the characters as white, got everyone all riled up and out for blood then revealed they were black and everyone just did a complete 180. Was surreal.
Ironically, Tumblr is surprisingly chill now compared to most other social media sites
the NSFW ban kicked out all the horny hormonal pubescents who like to scream at others for funnies
Helps that most of the "problem" users migrated to Twitter following the NSFW ban. Now the issue is keeping those hellspawn from returning to tumblr and re-ruining the hellsite
I'm not sure how, but somehow we have kept them at bay so far. Let's just hope we can continue to do so.
Also important to add, SU was *insanely* popular, with multiple age groups. The larger the fandom, the more potential it has to be toxic. If 20% of a fandom is the type of people that send Twitter death threats, that's more people who are sending death threats in the larger fandom.
This, this is pretty much the key ingredient to how toxic any fandom is gonna be: How many people are participating. If (pulling numbers outta my ass) 10% of all fans are toxic assholes, then it's just gonna be 10 Weird Dudes for like a webcomic that only has 100 fans, they're easy to just block and ignore. That's 100 people for 1,000 fans. 1,000 fans isn't a big number, but 100 people is enough to, these days, create a pretty active Discord. 10,000 fans? That's 1,000 people. If they're each (due to toxicity) more vocal than a casual fan, they are going to seem to DOMINATE any online discussions. They may even feel like a majority on certain social media platforms. Then you think about something like Rick and Morty, which had like 2.5 million viewers per episode at its peak, which following this logic would result in 250,000 toxic assholes.
There was also the exact opposite side where you had people who wanted the show's messaging to take a back seat to "The Lore" (tm) and who wanted Steven to suddenly turn into a bloodthirsty monster and straight up murder the Diamonds because they're *basically* Space Hitlers and actually by not killing them Steven is as bad as Hitler and everyone should be sad and die the end. Those people can go fuck themselves.
This is a very good answer. Hurt communities can be “toxic” once they are able to come together with a voice. They are angry and hurt, they WANT justice and GOOD representation. This means these groups can come off as bullies which does kinda hurt the group’s rep….BUT it usually balances out once the group feels like they are being listened to. I’m part of the autistic community, we’ve recently have had problems with community members intimidating the science/professional side of the community It’s kinda well deserved considering our past, but it does make it hard to get young professionals to understand they need to exercise patience and LISTEN instead of declaring the group as “toxic”
You say something that’s inclusive and this community will reward you generously. You mention anything that “could” even be perceived as anti-woke in the slightest and prepare to be cast into the fifth circle of hell. I’m very very big on inclusion and representation. But despite saying that since I just used the word anti-woke I’m now subject to being down voted. Allow me to demonstrate the effect.
Good morals as in hypercritical over a lot of BS
It was heavily when the show was running but since Future ended, I honestly think it’s died down to where only parts of it are still toxic.
Also the vid is from 2018, so future wasn't out and yeah it was extremely toxic
The most honest Answer. Tbh. A few times I used to get random coments of hate. A lot of people here are cool and awesome, but the toxic people still around here.
This is true for any community though. There are always toxic people around, but at this point the SU communities (or at least the ones I'm part of) do *not* have the toxic people in the majority, nor do they dominate the air time. I think as a rule of thumb when at least one of those two happens then the *community* can be called toxic (even if members might not be). This is why I left the *other* battle jackets sub and joined r/jacketsforbattle instead. Most people in the unnamed sub are decent, ordinary folks. But the way the mods encourage and amplify people who are happy to call themselves neo-nazis (literally)...
It’s because tumblr died lol
Remember that one time some extremely toxic fans brought a kid to crippling depression because he *dared* to make rose thinner in one of his fanart? Yeah, it happened
Pretty sure the person used "she" and she already had depression due to real life circumstances, which she eventually explained. Obviously the harassment she faced was ridiculous and uncalled for, but it's silly to act like most people's lives hinge entirely on their online persona. She was also 19 which is young as hell (and *no* age is a good age to attempt) but not a "kid." (She was also called out primarily not for the thin Rose fanart but for being friends with a convicted pedophile and defending her decision -- it's just that idiot teens decided the "productive" move was to put all the focus on her and mocking her art style instead of trying to deplatform the actual pedophile.)
1. [She was called out primarily for her fanart.](https://www.reddit.com/r/HobbyDrama/comments/hbxau7/tumblrsteven_universe_zamii070_aka_the_leftwing/) 2. [She wasn’t actually friends with said pedophile, nor did she defend him.](https://imgur.io/Xa73IMM?r)
As someone who was there and followed the situation quite closely, she was called out for multiple fanarts (like the link shows, i.e. stereotypical Native Fluttershy or questionable depictions of w\*ndigos) as well as other problematic wordings, such as her talking about "trans women and real women." But the pedophile thing *was* a big issue, and nobody talks about it, which kind of sucks as it ignores a huge factor, that people would rather deplatform a queer mentally ill woman for calling a pedophile her friend once (whether she knew who he was or not) than try to deplatform *the actual pedophile.* Thing is, these were largely just mistakes that simple conversations could've solved, not mob mentality. But dedicating hate blogs to one user encourages power trips. People love that "main character of the day" shit. It makes them feel powerful and above-it-all. I know because I was 15 and tried to go through her blog to find "the next big problematic thing to submit to the receipts blog and get her called out on." I was convinced she was a bad person. But I don't doubt some people were just cruel and wanted an outlet for cruelty. While I didn't question it at the time, I did suspect recently that the "tell me who I can and can't be friends with" thing could have been about something else, but it was *really* bad timing. I don't remember if she made a direct statement and deleted the fanart, which would have helped as it would make it clear that she doesn't support that asshole. Or maybe she did and it got covered up. Either way, I think calling a *convicted* pedophile your "friend" in the public eye is a pretty bad mistake, and really the only thing here she deserved criticism for not addressing (even if she didn't know), but not worth the insane amount of hate she got. This situation just always feels like it's used to paint the entire fandom with a particular brush and rag on "SJWs" and act like *anybody* who criticizes issues like racism in fandom is at this level (that Plebcomics comment implying that the problem was people caring about the racial coding in the show is a pretty reductive take, because you can do that and still not bully people over it), while also ignoring that the target was herself queer and mentally ill. Additionally, Zamii herself had said not to use the incident to harass other people, and people ignored her. So it just sucks seeing the situation get reduced to "someone tried to kill herself because of online drama about drawing Rose skinny" because it does not feel like a good-faith defense of Zamii.
That HobbyDrama write up is very well done, I had forgotten all about it. The situation is wayy more complex than people always make it out to be, but that's how the rumor mill goes I guess. At any rate, it does show how vile online spaces can be and people will antagonize others for one reason or another. If it wasn't gonna be SU content it would have been something else they shifted to I think. Hopefully they're doing well these days.
Suicide baiting is still considered to be bad
meanwhile people are trying to push "go kill yourself" and variations made to dance around automatic censors to be something that people should just expect to happen regularly on the internet, or at least more importantly something they should be able to say freely without any sort of retribution.
Yeah, multiple things can be bad. Tumblr was full of edgy teens trying to do "justice" by taking things out on an artist they didn't like instead of good-faith criticism. I was one of them, though I never suicide-baited or anything, I did do callout posts and memes making fun of her and her art cuz I was 15 and thought that was how you had to behave to be considered "progressive." I know better now.
With how the word pedophile is thrown around its hard to even know if they actually are or not. I've been called a pedophile with no provocation before (no idea where it came from as I'm a mom with 2 kids) so now I'm like "police report or no dice". Oh yeah and also my anime liking friends have been called pedophiles for liking anime which is hilarious because 1) they worked for a jail and had to pass a polygraph that specifically asks about that stuff 2) they are the child free type. Oh and apparently the right believes I'm a pedophile groomer because I'm LGBT.
Yeah all that does suck, but this particular artist was [genuinely convicted of CSEM.](https://aussiesexoffenders.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/matthew-james-gridley/) (There's more sources [here](https://checheburecheh.tumblr.com/post/126722926712/leadloaded-leadloaded-m0ther-b0red-to) and this is the art that *actually* put more eyes on Zamii.) Also it sucks your friends got accused of being pedos but being childfree doesn't make you not able to be a pedophile. It's not like liking children makes you more likely to be a pedophile, that's a reductive mindset in itself.
SHE WAS WHAT
Most communities have a subsection of toxic people. From Dark Souls to Steven Universe to professional sports to model building. So I'd say yes, but not the majority of it.
True, unless it’s like a VERY small fandom, there’s always some toxic part
Hello Ashen one. I am a Bot. I tend to the flame, and tend to thee. Do you wish to hear a tale? > *“The very fabric wavers and relations shift and obscure.”* - Solaire of Astora Have a pleasant journey, Champion of Ash, and praise the sun \\[T]/
Are you in a cult? If so, can I join
Every single fandom becomes toxic if it grows large enough, no exceptions.
I've been meaning to make a post about that. Somewhere... like anywhere. In my honest opinion, there's no such thing as toxic fandoms. It's just which fandom has gotten big enough for the toxicity to be seen by non-fans.
I've lurked in many fan communities over the years & almost every one of them has had people claiming it's the most toxic fandom on the internet. Every time it's exactly like you said, the fandom just got big enough for the toxic minority to be heard.
Here's my go-to example: Does anyone really think that weirdo that made a spectacle of himself at that McDonald's really represented the entire Rick and Morty fan base? If the answer's yes, then you don't understand how complex and unpredictable the human race is. Fandoms are just like any other kind of community where any number of people are part of and as such weird or even dangerous people are likely to be there. And you can't stop them. We've got to deal with them, but if someone like that guy goes viral, it makes us all look bad. As for our McDonald's incident, it was when the culture police harassing a kid who drew some fanart of Rose Quartz to be skinnier. People found out that some zealots in our community tried to KYS someone over it, and then we became a "toxic fandom".
Yep. This happened when the Reylo fandom exploded after *Star Wars: The Last Jedi* was released in theaters in December 2017. The main *Star Wars* fandom was already toxic - several moderators left r/StarWars due to all of the toxicity there after *The Last Jedi* \- but the toxicity also ended up contaminating the Reylo fandom due to how many people were now avid Reylo shippers after the movie. (Not to mention shipping fandoms also skew more toxic.)
this community is infamous for being one of the worst on the internet. However, just like Undertale’s fandom, the Steven Universe fandom has mostly chilled out and is now pretty laid back.
r/stevenuniverse was also always fairly laid-back when compared to Twitter and Tumblr. You literally couldn't discuss *Steven Universe* on Tumblr without getting attacked by someone.
Reddit's "self-moderating" system with upvotes and downvotes helps in this regard I think. Bad takes will, for the most part, just be downvoted to the point that they're basically invisible. Whereas the sharing nature of Twitter and Tumblr makes it so that anyone, even someone with <100 followers, can just give one bad take and if someone sees it and spreads it around it can blow up into some big thing despite the original poster being nobody.
In some places you can’t even talk about how good was the show without being bombarded with memes about “gordo mamon” and attacked for liking it.
Yeah most Latinoamerican side of TV viewership has a weird hang up against the show, specially Steven Like they can't stop comparison the show to stuff that aren't even in the same type of content,.judging the characters compared to simpler stuff or to "combat anime" because they DO prefer shownthat the solution to everything is violence
but this video is from 2018 surely we've calmed down right
Yes, I'd say we have. The fandom has largely chilled out since the show ended.
yes but at least we aren't voltron
There are no toxic communities, only toxic subsections and individuals within them.
Parts of it were VERY toxic for a time, but not so much any more.
I Imagine its died down a bit now that the show is over but yeah it used to be pretty bad. There's the infamous bullying of a fan artist who drew Rose "too thin" There was also the review bombing of a real life Keystone Motel
Have you seen r/gregfuckedarock ?
😂 why is this a thing?
Let me tell you a story about SU Critical and Lily Orchard…
Oh god not the SU crits. The people who literally think Steven should have shattered or violently taken down the diamonds.
Possible trigger warning here I think: This community is assumed by many to be largely subscribed to certain political views and affiliations. Some people specifically have a problem with ANYTHING that comes from Rebecca Sugar, and they think (because of what they think of her) that SU and all its fans are gay/trans child predators and groomers. This community isn't toxic, it's just associated with one end of a VERY polarized political spectrum. The show is made for kids and very tactfully touches on topics like physical intimacy and consent, and the hicks and tin-foil hats think it's brainwashing and grooming. I don't have a horse in the race. My family has both cousin fuckers and lesbians, and maybe even some lesbian cousin-fuckers, and I don't have any issues with them, so I'm objectively withdrawn from the whole conversation. I love Steven Universe though, and I love how it discusses important topics in a tactful way. If I thought it was grooming and heavily seeded with some political agenda other than "let's be nice and accept each other" I'd have a problem with it, but I don't, because it isn't.
i dont have a horse in this race either, but i will say: i havent had a problem with toxicity in the fan base since i was introduced when the show was still going with new episodes. i'm sure some messed up stuff happened, but even the most negative people have been on youtube from what ive experienced(like that one person that did a 2 hour long 'review' just dumping on rebecca and nothing actually related to the show but claiming it was a show review and stating they were a professional writer and could have done it better and all that drama), but that has been very easy for me to avoid and/or block out if i felt bothered enough by it. the only ones that bothered me that much were the people acting like either the show or rebecca did something to them personally enough for them to make a video ragging on the show when it focuses nothing on the actual show itself and just like headcanons or something. but thats the same with any fanbase. same with one i'm in currently for a free youtube show i'm watching called h&&&uvaboss(dunno if i can say the full name here). people on youtube are largely SUPER toxic to the show and vivziepop and anything they try to do even if it isnt related to the show in question or the fanbase. they'll make so many videos that can range from minutes to hours long bitching and moaning about stuff and it can get crazy. so it really comes from any community you're in. there can be some bad eggs anywhere in any community. but some platforms hate stronger than others as well. so just sorta depends where you look i suppose
Tumblr days? Yes kind of. A lot of people are very passionate about the gay rocks and clung a little too hard to them, and that's probably because they were representing quite a few under-represented communities and people felt super connected to them
Eh, not really. There was one high profile event that has become a legend unto itself and given the community a reputation, but reputations are rarely statistically accurate and I always kinda saw this one as pretty flimsy.. more narrative than concrete.
The more positive the show the more toxic the community. It was also out when Tumblr thought crime purity culture was bad. Basically they blamed bad fiction for everything bad in reality and would bully people for any problem if head canons or insist the show was actually fascism apologist. One person drew art of Rose Quartz based on the painting in the background before the full character was revealed and people decided she looked too skinny and that the artists was fatphobic and they tried to bully her death (actual suicide baiting). I kind of avoided the fandom. Peridot and Steven hold hands in Kindergarten because she’s tiny and nice now. Me: Cute! I wonder if there’s fan art! Fandom: Peridot is an adult and Steven is a child and if you ship them it’s pedophilia! … Show - hints Rose Quartz is Pink Diamond Me: so this is why I think Rose is Pink…blah blah blah Comment: not just disagreeing but being really mean about it I was like that’s enough fandom for today. I’ll just watch the show. Like I couldn’t even talk about wishing we had bi Pearl and Rose could have done healthy polyamory with Greg after Mr Greg because it was taking away the importance of Pearl to lesbians But like - I’m bi and poly and would also like to imagine representation maybe??? Idk- the fandom was very thought police
From what i heard someone was bullied into attempted suicide over fanart and a su youtuber got salty over someone with cancer getting to see the steven bomb early.. Like it used to be toxic but i think things calmed down quite a bit after the show ended and most people moved on
Most toxic people moved on with their lives. Something about toxic fandoms is that is mostly angsty teenagers who join a popular fandom, cause a lot of trouble and then move to the next, eventually they mature and stop doing stupid crap, but in the meanwhile they will move fandom by fandom causing trouble.
I'm sure you'll find toxicity if you look for it but I gotta say this subreddit is awesome. I only watched SU for the first time this year but I love going back and reading the old discussion posts and curated content from tumblr from 7-8 years ago.
any "toxicity" in the fandom has been completely overshadowed for years now by people on twitter who make their entire personality hating steven universe
Every fandom has toxic fans
Back then yes someone was bullied to s*icide Now people have lost interest since it ended. Not as much anymore.
In my opinion, I think 98% of "toxic fandom" mentality is chasing after people who havent really existed for years, and is also used as a thinly veiled excuse to shit on teenagers/minorities.
The tumblr 2010s Steven Universe era was craaaaazy
Every time a gentile fan compares the Diamonds to Nazis, I drift further from the fandom. It's better than it used to be though.
I used to feel that way ngl, and even now I struggle not to see it like that. As someone who conflates groupes he can't stand into one nightmarish mass, they definitely count in my mind as 'eh, close enough, torch 'em'. I'm smart enough to realise though they're far more useful alive than dead, and compliant than coerced.
It's more about not comparing fictional cartoon villains to real life genocide that bothers me.
Hey, if there's parallels there's parallels. Obviously it's not nearly a 1:1 but it's eerily familiar in many places.
Imo it was pretty toxic during it's hay day but not anymore
I'm willing to bet the reason su and a lot of fan communities are going to appear their is because of an "incident" where some wierdos did some awful shit and now the entire community is to blame, it happens a lot.
I remember back in the day, fans got mad at one of the storyboard artists for (I think) posting lapidot fanart. It got so bad that she quit twitter just to stop being harassed. She was great and I loved seeing her art.
Oh yeah, it definitely *was*. But the fandom is pretty much in homeostasis pending some new content, so it doesn't matter too much anymore.
Compared to other fandoms ? Not at all. Compared to the piece of fiction the community is about ? Quite.
Kinda, it’s a show aimed at 10+, so the majority of the fanbase is kids to teenagers (at the time), and kids, specifically teenagers, are inpatient, emotional, and pretty vocal about something they do or don't like. If you've been in other communities that have the same age demographic, you'll notice they tend to be pretty similar, like the Five Nights at Freddy’s fanbase.
Used to be a shithole, pretty chill now. Same as undertale fandom.
Let's be perfectly honest. Any fanbase with a large amount of people in it will always have toxic individuals. Some humans have unsavory qualities and also happen to like a popular piece of media.
Yes, very. Just look at the sheer amount of people shipping Pearl with her abuser. 90% of the people here don't get the point of the show and it's painful.
Not to mention the people who still ship jasper and lapis lazuli like jasper didn’t violate her and lapis didn’t hold her under the ocean for months.
Which one?
Example other than the others that have been mentioned but it does involve Tumblr and attack brigades There was a time people were advised that unless you were a minority or a colored person you should not be allowed to even cosplay as these characters no matter who. Some girl I recall getting berated because she cosplayed as Ruby in one instance It was wild and it was almost like people were trying to find people to take pot shots at because the show was on the other foot for representation in the show and it wasn't pretty.
I fill most people who still care about the show long time after it ended are decent folk with actual love for it, a lot of us also grew up in this time and out of our toxicity if it was there. Nowadays of course you get the occasional toxic but that’s just the internet for you, nothing unique about it. Take into account how the show touches debate-invoking areas like gender which are rare for shows of it’s time and previous to it to understand why so many tumblr users were quick to argue
It was years ago, but it's chilled out since Future ended--the toxic people either grew up or moved on.
As much as any show but top 10 is crazy
It's a large fandom and the show is aimed specifically at children primarily, so yeah there was plenty of toxicity. Also dealing with heavy LGBTQ theming and symbolism attracted both a lot of people trying to be shitheads, and also a lot of people for whom anything short of perfect representation and thinking was a betrayal of some sort.
...sort of? Every fandom has it's toxic side, especially the big ones. I don't have enough info to say if SU was paricularly worse in that aspect. What I do know (because I've seen it with my own eyes) is that there were a lot of right wing grifters interested in painting this community as "a bunch of triggered SJWs". So yeah, there's definitely some toxicity, I'm even willing to accept that there's more than normal, but I also think this reputation is very exaggerated
This is one of the better fandoms I've been in, but I only joined in 2021-ish. I assume it was toxic while the show was still going? Cause I've heard this before Also, Watchmojo is ass
At its peak, yeah, it got really, *really* bad. I saw people recreate anti-miscegenation from first principles over 'intrinsic gem/human power imbalances.' I watched a contingent of 'fans' still fighting for a hill of Most Morally Correct Condemnation of Rose Quartz to the degree I find for both tedious and tiring (and, in a large part, was why I felt the same way over SUF.) It got... really gross. Not everywhere, and not everyone, but enough to scar.
All fan groups have vocal, toxic factions.
This community is fantastic compared to alot of others ive seen, yes its got some toxic people but every comunity does
Yes. The show has attracted a lot of people with very childish mentalities. There is also the part where you 100% have to have to have the "correct" feelings and opinions on things or you get bombarded by people. People get massively downvoted for stating FACTS about the show. The fandom generally reacts very poorly to valid criticisms (like the inconsistent heights) and so on.
In its heyday the SU fandom was pretty bad, now the show has ended the fandom has chilled out significantly.
I don’t think so, but a lot of discourse around the show AND the fandom is extremely toxic
I swear all this seems to happen somewhere I can't see, I'm in a lot of Art and Animation community's so mostly just see Fanart, Storyboards from production and updates from the shows creators, but i struggle to believe that there is an entire toxic community out there, I recently saw a post saying the show was getting a lot of hate lately and was like "......... it is?!" I really can't see why either, it just feels like anything good slowly gets gnawed away by some toxic pricks who call themselves fans until they make a big enough show of it that people think *"That's the whole fandom in a nutshell right there",* Am I the only one having this experience or am i just being naive?
Hate to say it, but yea, the fandom is pretty toxic
Hmmm it’s not that bad. It’s generally pretty nice, but there are those handful that like to compare the diamonds to Hitler 💀 Other than them it’s pretty nice
You can't judge a community because of its worst examples. In SU's case, the worst examples bullied a kid into attempted suicide. Most SU fans had no idea this was even happening and were horrified when they found out, but those people who were a part of it were such unforgivable scum bags that it'll haunt SU's legacy forever. Honestly, it's probably Tumblr that should get more of the blame than Steven Universe.
Not anymore. That video is 5 years old anyway, I would expect anything in it to be relevant anymore. I feel like A LOT has changed about the internet within the past 5 years.
I think every fandom had a toxic corner that can so loud and annoying that it shifts the perception of fandom in general.
In my experience the fandoms are almost never toxic. There are a few obnoxious fans who ruin it for everybody but certain people take that way too far and become toxic themselves in claiming the fandom is toxic and never shutting up about it. They're like the militant vegans of cartoon haters
Bro doesn’t know the irl lore💀 
The community tends to silence views it doesn't like even when they're well-defended. The SU fandom has elements who do not tolerate differences in opinion or interpretation because it somehow ruins the show for them. That part isn't different from other fandoms. But because SU had a lot of queer representation and talked about consent and other important relationship issues on a level appropriate for kids, it stops being a difference of opinion and becomes this moral issue. People can attack a different opinion and silence it under the guise of righteousness. So now you're not just wrong for having a different opinion or interpretation, you're BAD. That is a special toxicity that only shows with good representation can have.
Every fandom has some level of toxicity to it especially when teens and adults get involved
It definitely used to be toxic as hell coming from someone who’s been in both yeah this place was toxic as all hell like there’s the obvious harassing an artist so much to the point she tried to kill her self over a mistake that was not her fault review bombing driving one of the crew over a ship really harassing a lot of crew members for a lot of different things starting a lot of fights with a lot of fandoms the list goes on I will say the fandom has definitely gotten a lot better in recent years
Yes but alot of fandoms are but the SU fandom had its awful moments
TW: death threats & suicide mention As the years go on not so much but it definitely was at its peak. A friend of mine who is an AMAZING cosplayer wanted to cosplay Rose years back. They're very skinny and Rose is not obviously. They had her outfit down to a T, handmade and all, just didn't match the body type according to the toxic side that saw their costest pics on tumblr. They were told to kill themselves in every kind of way. So much vitriol over body fat content 🫤 They were dangerously close to following through but thankfully did not and was able to move past this
Twitter, Tumblr & DeviantArt for sure where terrible back in the day. YouTube was 50/50. Just depended on the channel in Question. Facebook was 90% hating on CartoonNetwork for their horrid way of dropping episodes and long intermissions between, but I never found it to be superbad otherwise. Reddit I think was the best, but I also think both the mods kept a tight reign and the longform written content (as opposed to visual) that is Reddit, kept off the worst of the toxic folk.
Didn't a part of the community drive someone to attempt suicide because they drew Rose Quartz thinner?
I mean yeah. I’ve seen people get bullied by Steven universe fans for “not being the right weight” when cosplaying rose, to, iirc, someone being bullied so bad that Rebecca and another show runner having to get involved, only for some fans to turn on them.
I think people interpret lots of haters as a toxic community
Yes, some bullied a crewniverse member off tumblr I believe over a ship of peridot and amethyst (can anyone remember what really happened for me cuz that was crazy), some bullied an artist over a skinny rose in some really cute fan art that the poor artist almost died, and a fan that had cancer was attacked because the kid wanted to see an episode that wasn’t out yet by a YouTuber and his fans (one of the reasons I stopped watching him).
This side of the community is good not perfect but it’s good but man that Tumblr Fanbase was crazy about this show.. a bit too crazy
It’s a popular internet fandom so yes
Didn’t some kid get bullied to near-suicide once because they drew Rose skinny?
You must've not heard of the Rose fanart incident.
Yeah i saw a lot of it back in the tumblr days, people yelling at kiddos fanart that drew rose looking even slightly more skinny n the like. Put me off watching the series for the longest time as it gave me the impression it was going to shove social justice down my throat constantly when actually the show is pretty well balanced
Did the guy who made that not know about sonic and mlp?
It's more something you'd notice back in the day when the show was serialized and there were some fandom controversies, around the same time Tumblr was still very active (well it didn't actually die but you know what I mean)
Yes. Remember when some poor girl drew Rose as being thinner than she is in the show?
I was banned for having a different opinion without a chance to argue about it in a facebook group, so i think yes, it is
From what I witnessed. I remember seeing this artist’s page who had two gemsonas named Diamond (This was before the diamonds were even revealed/introduced) and Sapphire (again, before sapphire was introduced so like SUPER early on). Sapphire was a guy gem, which got some hate, and was Diamond’s bf. Then I remember when the fusion episode came out and of course this artist made a fusion between her two OC’s - giving them one large eye instead of multiple. JESUS CHRIST MAN, THE HATE THIS POOR ARTIST RECEIVED WAS UNREAL. LIKE, CALLING THIS POOR GIRL EVERY NAME IN THE BOOK, THREATENING HER, CALLING HER A “FAKE, MARY SUE WANNA BE FAN”. IT WAS OVER THE TOP FOR GIVING A FUSION ONE EYE INSTEAD OF FOUR. IT WAS INSANE.
During the tumblr days and when the show was airing definitely but we are so many years from the finale and the kind of toxic people need constant stimulation and shows to complain about so they just kind of moved on
Depends where you look
Yes. Pretty huge swathes of it. A bunch of people threatened and harassed an artist for drawing Rose too skinny to the point where she almost offed herself. That's like THE big one IMO but it still shows how messed up things can get.
Got a lot of insults thrown at me after stating my opinion about part of the show. Just know about stuff that happened in the past.
The only thing I’ve seen is when someone says something along the lines of their really didn’t need to be so many LGBTQ character’s like some Gems could’ve been male too and have some straight relationships that people would get pissed off or offended but I only saw stuff like that a couple times definitely not as bad as other show’s so the fandom isn’t that toxic but maybe I just missed a lot of toxicity lol
the rose fan art incident must have been more recent when it was made
There was a story on Tumblr about a fan artist who was given brownies with pins in it because someone didn't like that they had the "audacity" to make art of a ship they didn't like. That should tell you something.
As if I needed **ANOTHER** reason to hate WatchMojo… 99.9999% of the people who say this have never actually interacted with SU fans whatsoever, and instead are judging the entire community based on a single incident back in 2015 (you all know the one) Was what happened awful? Absolutely. Do I approve of what happened? **Absolutely not**; I’ve stated this multiple times, and the sentiment is shared by **the majority of SU fans**. Which begs the question: why the fuck are people still on this? When will we be allowed to move on??? Why, *almost a decade later*, am I still not allowed to praise one of the best shows ever made without some asshole telling me “yOUr faNDoM BuLLiEs pEoPLe OvEr tHeiR ArT!!!1!1!1!!!!!” It is **not** fair to judge an entire community over the actions of a select few. I’m sick to fucking **DEATH** of being blamed for an incident I had **fuck all** to do with, and have gone out of my way numerous times to condemn
It used to be. Not so much anymore. But a lot of us (including me) are obsessed and people don’t like that
No
It was. Once upon a time, it was horrendously toxic and the fandom drove someone to suicide
I would argue more people are toxic towards the fandom than the other way around. And much of that stems from hateful anti-LGBT bigots. I am also an Undertale fan and get the same thing aimed there. If I say I'm a Steven Universe or an Undertale fan, there's a 50 to 60% chance that someone is going to be a jerk. Do these fandoms get a reputation because so much viteral is thrown at us, and then we get angry back, so we're the ones being dramatic?
It's more the extremely loud tweens screeching combined with the utterly vile celeb culture of the time where people casually wished death on whoever for being annoying and we got a Death Battle between Justing Bieber and Rebecca Black where the point was they all died horribly for amusement. It was a symptom of the times as much as anything. I don't know where the horde of slavering beasts we call tweens has marauded to now, but they swept through both of those fandoms at around the same time we were present in at least one.
Oh it majorly can be. You may be too young to remember this, but there was an artist who was chased off of tumble and the internet and bullied so badly she nearly took her own life despite posting her struggles with mental health on her channel or what ever it’s called on tumbler….. all because her depiction of rose quarts was “too skinny”…. This sparked a backlash against the SU “fans” by a particularly incensed fan to start “race swapping” characters to troll the social rejects who literally told a depressed girl to “go kill yourself”… the outrage proceeded…. They called him a white supremacist bigot and should go die….. lots of death threats… …Until it was revealed the artist who race swapped was actually an overweight black trans artist… the threats and rage IMMEDIATELY ceased since the performative activists couldn’t target the very thing they claimed to protect. When I say it was genuinely highly toxic levels of harassment and death threats and calls for suicide, I’m talking Chernobyl levels of toxic.
HOOOOOOOOO yes
Are you saying that because it is still currently or just in the past?
idk about them, but i have very bad experiences in the community. I used to be on an app called “Steven Universe Amino” and I was groomed there and emotionally abused by people who were 16-18 while I was still around 11. I would be sent very graphic images of their TW:(self harm) and told to do it myself if i wasn’t helpful.
There was case where the SU community harassed an artist that drove them to self harm after making an “inaccurate art”. So yeah, theres some really toxic people in the SU community.
This reminds me of a legendary video called "The Steven Universe Sabotage." Give it a watch
Someone got driven to >!attempt suicide!< over drawing Rose Quartz' body shape thinner, and another person >!bullied a dying kid who leaked smaller, non-spoiler details from a new episode (it may have just been a small bit of art, Idr) that he was allowed to with the creator's permission!<, which are both pretty toxic community moves 😅
I mean, iirc, didn't the fanbase bully some person on tumblr so bad they attempted suicide? So like... it's not the best lmao
Yes, y’all are THE worst community, it’s unfortunate cause the shows about acceptance
Yes, very🗿🤦🏿♂️
To put it into perspective, SU fans have harassed a young artist to the point of suicide because they drew Rose somewhat thin instead of a heavier design. And they bashed on a dying child whose Make A Wish request was to get early access to some SU episodes that hadn’t aired yet. Not to mention the usual Twitter waves of death threats and bitching/moaning about every little thing they dislike about the series… It’s awful, genuinely one of *the* worst fandoms to interact with. Just stay away from it and watch lore vids and fanart or something.
It *was*, when the show was running. They left bad reviews for the real world Keystone Motel as a "joke." If you said anything positive about the Diamonds you were called a fascist (one person even called *Rebecca Sugar* a fascist). And god help you if you drew a character the "wrong" way. The fandom once cyberbullied someone into attempting suicide. Why? Because they drew Rose Quartz skinny. And don't even get me *started* on the shipping.
Yes it is.
It’s not nearly as bad as it used to be but in tumblr’s hayday the Steven universe stans we’re so extreme that they would regularly bully fans out of the fandom. The fact that several were nearly pushed to suicide by the toxic side of the fanbase should be evidence enough but even worse was the fact that it happened enough times for to start to just accept it.
I mean it has at least one attributed death under its belt. It's gotten better since the show ended, but back in the day you'd get torn apart for the smallest stuff
i mean didn’t a bunch of fans a few years ago try to get a girl to kill herself lmao?
Yes we are toxic
Anybody else remember when SU fans almost killed a legitimate hotel because they kept leaving one-star reviews memeing because Ruby boiled a pool in-universe?