Ever avoided a fandom because of the fans?

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Well, have you?

I was all apprehensive about getting into Kingdom Hearts due to its large fanbase of girls who scream over Org XIII. Now that I've played it, I think it's a decent series with some really good concepts.

Now Twilight. I don't like the books, nor do I like the fans. The writing is too stodgy and the fans are too insane. So i will never give into it.

You ever tended to avoid a fandom due to the bad rep of the fans, but then gave in and became a fan?

Final Fantasy VII and Kingdom Hearts were pretty good... until the fandom came blew them way out of proportion.
Now I dislike those titles just cause of their insane fandom.

for me, Twilight is an okay movie. I'd have watched it (non-reluctantly) if there weren't so many screaming 13 year-olds.

I just remember what it's like to be a fan of certain things, to eat, live and breathe the object of my fandom.

When I was 15, I forced myself to stop being a fan of Naruto when it became wildly popular and people on other forums (mostly GaiaOnline) started referring to fans of the series as "Narutards". Back then I wasn't secure in who I was, and it would have devastated me to get teased because of my obsession.

Now that I'm older, I look back on Naruto and realize that it probably isn't something I could get into again. It's not because of the fanbase, but because my taste in anime has changed. I started out being a fan of run-of-the-mill shounen (boys') series, and now I've shifted to liking seinen (mens') series and even shoujo (girls') series!

OMG I will NEVER read Twilight, not after seeing the effect it has had on my poor cousin who actually THINKS she's a vampire.

Other than that, not really.

Sometimes overobessive fandom can be a good thing, though. As an example, does anyone remember a show that came on Cartoon Network a while back called Code Lyoko? The concept of this show (a bunch of school-age kids fighting against a malevolent AI within a virtual world) was cool, but the plot kinda sucked especially toward the end. HOWEVER, even though it hasn't been aired in America for over a year, the fanbase is still going strong by doing fan-fiction and oekaki (fan mangas). I know two people on Deviant Art who are doing just that, and their stories based off of Code Lyoko seriously outshine the show itself.

For every overly obsesssed annoying fan out there, there is another fan who seriously has artistic talent, and because they are a fan, use that talent for the benefit of the show itself. I've seen some great artwork from the KH fangirls that kind of flesh out the Organization and it's members. Then there is the Code Lyoko fandom that is still strong even though it's been running on fan fiction for a year now because it stopped airing in America. Fandom isn't necessarily a BAD thing, it depends on the fans.

I seldom watch anime, and when I do I watch it in private.

I had to FORCE myself to try Naruto. I'd seen the anime and I'd hated it, but the manga is a ton better. It's the kind of animu I'd have liked when I was about 10, an action-based one, but now my tastes aim more towards more extreme (bloody) action and shoujo.

Hetalia is probably my favourite anime right now, but I was reluctant to try it at first because of the enormous popularity it had on dA. THEN I clapped eyes on Iceland... My fav characters are two fan favourites and one character who hasn't even APPEARED in the anime yet- Sealand, North Italy and Iceland. It's also genuinely funny, if historically inaccurate at places.

If I like something and want to be a fan of it, then I will do so. I really couldn't give a toss who the other fans are or what they are like.

+1

Don't care what other people think of it either.

I don't avoid fandoms because of the fans, but I have left at least one because of them.

Ocarina of Time - At first, I just got sick of this game. To me, it doesn't deserve to be called the greatest video game of all time, because I've played many 3D action-adventure games that were far better than it (IMO at least), and I personally think that it's the worst of the 3D Zelda games. I know the game was revolutionary for its time, but to me it matters most which does it best, not which does it first. But what REALLY caused me to not just grow out of, but basically hate this game are the elitists who like to go on and on about how Ocarina will NEVER be topped by ANY game. One of these elitists happens to be my brother, who went on a two hour rant (I kid you not) on how Nintendo "sucks" and how the other Zelda games will "never" top Ocarina and that Wind Waker (my favorite game in the series no less) completely "ruined" the Zelda franchise. Now I don't hate my brother, but when you actually see a video game elitist in real life ranting for two hours straight, you lose a lot of respect for video games, and feel ashamed to be a gamer.

Hetalia's a pretty cute series. I hope they bring it over to America because I would like to collect DVDs of it. My favorite character is America, because I believe he's a dead-on accurate stereotype. I also like Germany, because my family has a ton of German blood in it. Once when I showed Hetalia to my mom, she said she thought France was "hot"!

kind of further out...I will Never belong to an ice-skating fandom thing again, of any kind. Talk about lunatics.

Sonic fans are pretty divided over the pre and post Sonic Adventure games... and whiny that the latest games are not very good really.... but I still am a member of the fandom.

I think this is best illustraited by the Sonic Cycle, this is a meme that won't go away in the fandom:

http://i158.photobucket.com/albums/t102 ... CEMORE.png

Speaking of the Sonic fanbase, I do get annoyed that whenever a new Sonic game is announced, some fans will upload a petition to bring Brian Drummand back as the voice of Sonic, even though Jason Griffith (at least from what I heard in Brawl) has vastly improved his role as Sonic to the point where there's no longer a big difference between the two.

Your cousin would get along with my GF very well, LOL

On another note, I tend to avoid religions because of their fandom.