Can fans ruin a character for you?
 

Have you ever started to dislike a character from a piece of fiction/media because the fans of that character got on your nerves? Like say you enjoy a show or movie and you really like a certain character. But after interacting with the fan base who also like the same character and they are either really unhinged about their how much they like a character, or they defend their favorite character even when the character does questionable things to an unreasonable degree?

I will admit that this is not a very mature response, running into obnoxious fan boys/girls shouldn't affect how you feel about a character you like, but I have noticed that on occasion how unsufferable fans can be can sour me a bit on a character. Especially if they are diehard fans defending a morally gray character to the point where they can't be objective about the character at all, and worse of all start bashing other characters and fans who like them. Or a very popular character who has become so big in the fandom that they basically want the whole narrative to revolve around them, and they become intolerant of any other characters getting any focus.

I actually went through a brief time all the way back in 2007 when the Imagi CGI ninja turtle's movie came out where I started to dislike Raphael just a little bit because a few Raphael fans I came across (not necessarily on this board) where being rude about the role he played in the movie's plot and how he should have had a bigger role. It took me stepping back from the fans that were irritating me and rewatching scenes with Raph to remind me of why I thought he was a great character.

Has something like happened to anyone else? Can how other fans sour you on a character but how they act about the character?

Kind of. Fangirls fangirling out for Daryl on Walking Dead already had me predisposed to dislike him... and then as the show went on I realized I was absolutely right to dislike him.

Naw, if anything it would make me stand up and defend the character.

The only way fans can change my mind is if they point out actual facts about the character in-story that might change my perspective, but I usually notice anything there it to notice about a character anyway.

The fact fangirls might go crazy over this character or that character makes no difference to me, especially since I'm usually checking out the lead female character assuming they're attractive.

Like I'd be a hypocrite getting mad at girls clamoring over Daryl, when I'd love to bang the hell out of Maggie.

When I was a kid I didn't like Tommy the green power ranger. I didn't like how he became the most popular ranger despite being the new guy. He also took over Jason's role as being the leader and most powerful ranger. He also won the affection of Kimberly the pink ranger who I just happened to have a crush on.

I tend to avoid fan groups, especially the larger communities. I'm sure there's good discussion to be found there, but you also have rampant spoilers and all kinds of bad takes. Ruining a character is small potatoes; fans can easily ruin entire worlds for me. Maybe I'm too easily influenced, but I think there's only so much negative association you can have for something before it overwhelms your natural impression. Like when Beethoven's 9th became horrifying in A Clockwork Orange.

Even when it's not "ruined," it's easy to have your perception warped by hyperbole. When you think a character's cool, and you're inundated with frothing fans declaring him THE BEST EVER, you're likely to pull away from that.

I think my own thoughts on characters and whatever else, always have. Others' opinions never sway me.

No, but I tend to avoid fan groups. Though I can get sick of character I didn't care much for to begin with.

That is actually a pretty mature way to go about things. I am not usually bothered by people fan boying/girling over a character though even at it's mildest it can be annoying. It's just when they get nasty with how much they like a character that they start bashing other characters who come up against them when narratively they are in the wrong. I have seen some fans perform impressive mental gymnastics to woobify their favorite. I am over how Loki from the Marvel Thor movies get the woobie treatment.

I am starting to feel the same way about interacting with fandoms myself. I used to enjoy interacting with fandoms in discussion boards, there was often so much good stuff the talk about and speculate. That's what this board the technodrome has been such a great place to be on. But over that last several years I just don't feel as much enjoyment from being in fan circles. Fans more than ever before have become more likely to fixate on a single character and play them up as the best thing ever to the point that they froth at the mouth that the narrative doesn't solely focus on them (especially if they aren't even the main character). This place is honestly one of the very few places I still visit to engage with media that I enjoy besides youtube. I stay the hell away from Twitter, Tumblr and reddit for the most part because those places are so extreme.

I never watched the Walking Dead but I know Daryl is super popular. Steven Yeun's character Glenn is the character that I thought was super popular, my sister really likes him and from I have seen he is a great character that deserves the adoration he gets.

I hate to admit this but the way fan girls in particular gush over certain character, especially male characters can REALLY turn me off on a character. I hate that it it has become a knee jerk reaction of irritation for me because there is male character that I despised initially when I was getting into Tangled the series because of how rabid and obnoxious this particular male character's fan girls were. And I found myself predisposed to dislike him based off how feral his fans were, I also came into the series in the middle of season 2 and only watched the last couple of episodes of season 1 that puts that character in a bad light. And I feel bad now, because when I watched the series from beginning to end and saw the plot beats and character interactions in it's proper context (especially in season 1) I found that I actually liked this character and realized that I allowed how his fan girls feral devotion to him turn me against him before I even gave in him a chance. I realized how immature that was of me. I didn't even give this character a chance at first because I was so put off by fans at first.

I notice people are usually more civil or at least agree to disagree in person that online. Like I've run into geeks and nerds discussing shows at cons and can't help but join into the convo and I haven't encountered people going crazy or insane shouting matches the way you'd imagine these twitter freaks to be like offline.

Now of course that's not to say there isn't the chance the people were chill with me in real life and then go post on twitter/reddit 'omg i ran into the loser nerd today that actually said the Governor was cooler than Negan, total dumbass AMIRITE?'

Nah, the character doesn't have anything to do with them and my "relationship" with various characters is my own and seperate. I'm more inclined to just think those people are a bit too emotionally invested and sometimes trying to make their fandom too much of their own identity.

I suppose it's a little like... what if you had a friend that reached some level of fame. Some fans of them are bound to act stupid over them and have some wild ideas, but your perspective of him/her isn't theirs, so other people's behavior doesn't really affect how you know them to be.