Why do people spend so much time purposely hating on characters from TV shows?

[CyberCubed]

This is what I don't get. There have always been plenty of characters in various shows/cartoons, etc. that I either didn't like or didn't care for that much. But I could never bring myself to literally sit there "hating" on a character and making huge posts across the internet spreading said hate.

Usually when I don't like a character in a show, I'm just "Meh" about it and move on. But I always see on various forums people who continually post, FOR YEARS, endless amounts of ranting hate about a fictional character as if they ruined their life or something.

I mean what is the point of this? Even characters in shows who are *intended* to be hated (like villains or people who do something immoral in a show), don't require that much energy to sit there loathing a character and fuming at the mouth.

Then there's also insane shippers, mostly female, who spend all their time hating a male or female character who gets in the way of their ship. Which is beyond retarded for altogether different reasons, because if you're getting butt-hurt that two fictional characters didn't get together because another pairing came to be, you have serious problems.

Why do people do this?

[Netkeeper]

As soon as I saw the thread title I knew you were the OP. Bravo, CyberCubed.

[plastroncafe]

Pot, call from kettle on line one.

[Cure]

Yeah, I'm in agreement with you this time, CyberCubed. People just take everything super seriously and it's kind of bizarre.

Although it is a little odd this is coming from you.

[Leo656]

Pot, call from kettle on line one.

He must've gotten bored of whacking off to Korra and whatsername holding hands while simultaneously complaining about how awful it was. :lol:

[Refractive Reflections]

This is what I don't get. There have always been plenty of characters in various shows/cartoons, etc. that I either didn't like or didn't care for that much. But I could never bring myself to literally sit there "hating" on a character and making huge posts across the internet spreading said hate.

Usually when I don't like a character in a show, I'm just "Meh" about it and move on. But I always see on various forums people who continually post, FOR YEARS, endless amounts of ranting hate about a fictional character as if they ruined their life or something.

I mean what is the point of this? Even characters in shows who are *intended* to be hated (like villains or people who do something immoral in a show), don't require that much energy to sit there loathing a character and fuming at the mouth.

Then there's also insane shippers, mostly female, who spend all their time hating a male or female character who gets in the way of their ship. Which is beyond retarded for altogether different reasons, because if you're getting butt-hurt that two fictional characters didn't get together because another pairing came to be, you have serious problems.

Why do people do this?

So you can't understand the "hate" on television shows, hmm... so what about movies then (http://forums.thetechnodrome.com/search.php?searchid=943838)? ;) ...You'll have to elaborate on the difference here CyberCubed. :lol:

[Coola Yagami]

Possibly the worst person to make a topic about something he's usually the biggest offender of.


Genius. Just sheer genius.

[CyberCubed]

I am looking forward to the discussion. Let's begin.

[Leo656]

I am looking forward to the discussion. Let's begin.

http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/8/8/2/352882.gif?v=1

That about covers it.

[Coola Yagami]

This thread needs to be locked.

[Katie]

I agree with you on your OP, strange coming from a guy who went ballistic over a character design change.

But to answer your question, the Internet is filled with people who literally have nothing better to do than go on the Internet. People who have nothing better in their real life than the shows and movies they watch.

If you're the kind of person who didn't fit in with peers in your real life, it isn't hard to find a tribe of like minded people on the Internet and sometimes people join in with opinions and mannerisms with a found group just to fit in. Thus it grows.

[ZariusTwo]

I think a lot of these people have an "ideal" notion about love with their favorite pairings and sometimes they get into such an odd mental state they sort of latch onto them as the solution to their own problems in life "Oh, if it could happen to someone I LIKE, It can happen to me". Reality tends to surround us with things that contradict that, and when the shows reflect things they try to escape from (i.e not every loving relationship works out or can be fixed with love, people change etc), they have a tough time taking to it.

[Brooke507]

I agree. Fictional characters aren't real, they're just there for entertainment purposes, so I see no reason to actually hate them. I was reading on this one blog post that this one user thought that Donatello is a spoiled conceited brat. So I'm all like fine that's your choice, but I'm still going to like the ninja turtle in purple.

[PangolinFeets]

Yea. Like, who cares if Hun isn't blonde in 2k12?

[NinjaPug]

Yea. Like, who cares if Hun isn't blonde in 2k12?

That's not Hun. They should've called him Akira.

[snake]

They spend too much time on the internet.

[CyberCubed]

I think a lot of these people have an "ideal" notion about love with their favorite pairings and sometimes they get into such an odd mental state they sort of latch onto them as the solution to their own problems in life "Oh, if it could happen to someone I LIKE, It can happen to me". Reality tends to surround us with things that contradict that, and when the shows reflect things they try to escape from (i.e not every loving relationship works out or can be fixed with love, people change etc), they have a tough time taking to it.

I think a lot of these female fans self-insert themselves into the characters they like and then decide who they want to be with. And then when the author takes the characters in a different direction or goes to an opposing pairing, they get all angry and defensive over it.

Shipping is wish-fullfilment to some of these people. They either have poor relationships or no relationships in real life, so they care about the pairings of cartoon/anime characters more than their own. If an opposing female "steals away the guy they wanted for their favorite character" they see it as if its the same threat in real life. When a character winds up in a ship they like they're content as if they "won" like they got their wish-fullfilment ending in real life.

Its funny, us males like relationships in shows too and sometimes ship, but we don't go crazy over it. If an opposing ship happens, then so be it. I don't know why female shippers go ballistic over it.

[plastroncafe]

Translation:

THESE ICKY GIRLS ARE PLAYING WITH DOLLS DIFFERENTLY THAN I DO!

[Leo656]

That was good.

[slashpieturtlemix]

lol I can understand if it is a nostalgic property (Ninja turtles, Transformers, Mega Man, etc) because everyone wants it to live up to their mental image of what the show used to be. I hated on a bunch of Transformers series as a kid because I deemed (still do) the '86 movie as amazing. We all like shows because we think they are amazing.

Now this does not apply for those newer shows. If you don't like a newer character, then you just need to forget his name and move on.

[ssjup81]

I'm the same way. I can't just outright hate a character. I can dislike the portrayal of said character or dislike aspects of some characters, but I can't just "hate" them, as I have the mentality that all characters serve a purpose no matter how big or small. Even if the character was written to serve no purpose at all, then the purpose was served as that was the authorial intent. I did put up a list of characters I didn't like, but "hate" would be a strong word. It's just that the character types of those particular characters don't appeal to me, like extreme selfishness. *Looking at you Light Yagami of Deathnote* or those who come across as snobby or act as if they're better than everyone else (Aeka from the Tenchi Muyo series pops into into mind as well as Takeda from Death note) or characters that come across as disrespectful in some way (Chibi Usa of the Sailor Moon anime comes to mind; I had no problems with her manga portrayal).

I do find fans way more bothersome than most characters that didn't appeal to me, especially those who hate on a character for something as petty as shipping reasons. "I hate character C because it interferes with the non-existent romantic relationship of Character A & Character B" or, "Character A and Character C hooked up, when he/she should've been with Character B! I hate Character C!" Geez, being part of the Harry Potter fandom and the Digimon Adventure/02 one years ago, it was disheartening seeing so much hate towards characters like Ron or Ginny from the vehement Harry x Hermione shippers or the hate of Sora from Taichi x Yamato fans or the hate of Daisuke from Takeru x Hikari fans, for example. I just didn't, and still don't, get it. Oh going back to the HP stuff, it got so bad at the Chamber of Secrets forums, they banned anyone from talking about shipping (the books weren't all out yet at the time, maybe up to book 5 then) and put up a character bashing rule and how posters weren't allowed to bash characters, meaning posting up false information uncanon just to suit your argument....for example, and I do recall this one....

"Ginny can't be with Harry because she looks like a man." Ginny's character, in the book, resembled the twins in looks. They were also "short and stocky", and Molly is short. I think Charlie took after Molly as well, whereas Bill, Percy, and Ron took after Arthur (Tall and lanky). Of course it isn't true, Ginny doesn't look like a man. It just shows that she is definitely related to her brothers.

There was another poster I recall bashing Ron (as she hated him for shipping reasons and glorified Harry x Hermione) actually used to say, "IF they got together Ron would beat on Hermione because he has a temper." It was pointed out by others that, in the book, nowhere had Ron ever hit or harmed his friends, despite how he was feeling. Ironically, both Harry and Hermione had attacked him at some point or another and that was canon...but nope, would still argue that point.

So yeah, I can't understand putting in so much energy to "hate" a character, especially for petty reasons like shipping. Seems like a waste of time and energy to me.

[ssjup81]

I think a lot of these female fans self-insert themselves into the characters they like and then decide who they want to be with. And then when the author takes the characters in a different direction or goes to an opposing pairing, they get all angry and defensive over it.

Shipping is wish-fullfilment to some of these people. They either have poor relationships or no relationships in real life, so they care about the pairings of cartoon/anime characters more than their own. If an opposing female "steals away the guy they wanted for their favorite character" they see it as if its the same threat in real life. When a character winds up in a ship they like they're content as if they "won" like they got their wish-fullfilment ending in real life.

Its funny, us males like relationships in shows too and sometimes ship, but we don't go crazy over it. If an opposing ship happens, then so be it. I don't know why female shippers go ballistic over it.Once again, you're living inside a bubble. Male and female shippers (the extremist) are the same.

I know of a person (male) who is an extreme Koushirou x Mimi fan of (Digimon Adventure/02). He hated on any other character that wold intefere with the ship. He would only review or read fics or look at fanart with these two characters paired up despite how terrible or bad it actually was. If anyone else was portrayed with either character, let the bashing ensue. He got himself banned for the most part.

But yeah, this goes both ways.

[CyberCubed]

There are insane male shippers, but all the most vocal ones are female. They also purposely write hate fanfictions where the character they dislike is usually humiliated and then killed in the worst way possible over and over again.

Its baffling really. Why take the time to write a fanfic to show such volatile to a fictional character? I mean what purpose does it serve?

[plastroncafe]

The answer is similar as to why you feel the need to start threads about stuff like this on a ninja turtle forum:

http://media.tumblr.com/10627d114c6cf5e7ee2e027959b76000/tumblr_inline_nddbkaR8TV1rdtmwj.gif

[slashpieturtlemix]

There are insane male shippers, but all the most vocal ones are female. They also purposely write hate fanfictions where the character they dislike is usually humiliated and then killed in the worst way possible over and over again.

Its baffling really. Why take the time to write a fanfic to show such volatile to a fictional character? I mean what purpose does it serve?

I am thinking that they are not shipping and that they just have a fetish for murder fiction. Bunch of people got that problem. Also, I never recommend fan fiction for that very reason lol its fun to write but if you are seeing anything negative, it'll probably just upset you.

[BubblyShell22]

There are insane male shippers, but all the most vocal ones are female. They also purposely write hate fanfictions where the character they dislike is usually humiliated and then killed in the worst way possible over and over again.

Its baffling really. Why take the time to write a fanfic to show such volatile to a fictional character? I mean what purpose does it serve?

Because writing is a good way to express one's self, so these people feel the need to write a fic to express their feelings. I'm a fan fic writer myself, but I've never done anything like this because I see no point. Hell, I hated Cody Jones from Fast Forward, but I never wrote fics where he was killed off or treated badly. I just never wrote in that universe as it wasn't my favorite. But some people just don't feel that way.