It's quite standard for your average consumer to not understand exactly what goes into the productions they enjoy. So much of what goes on behind-the-scenes is kept under wraps for a reason, and most of what is available to the public can only be found if you go out of your way to find it. This is no different with animation, and as such cartoon fans have had a pretty mixed reputation in any interactions (direct or indirect) they've had with actual staffs. We all remember that unfortunate period where it was hip to look down upon or even toss insults at writers for writing bad material, and how many reviewers after struggled to comprehend even the most obvious of reasons for why some things just don't turn out well. To be clear, things have greatly improved on this front over time (just see most of your modern cartoon reviewers), but there's still bad seeds within them, to say nothing of the many 'cartoon boomers' who genuinely don't think it's a problem to talk down to modern artists. And I firmly believe it's important to acknowledge this behavior if we want these communities to learn from them.
Fans' relationship with cartoons has come in all forms, some much more closely-knit than others. Some of the most noteworthy are when people feel personal connections to a particular show or film because of the conflicts, environment, or just the characters themselves. It's why Luz from "The Owl House" has become such a beloved lead, "The Mitchells vs. the Machines" a cult smash among animation fans, and "Steven Universe" a major influence on animation communities as we know it. This has gone especially for any show that has positive portrayals of marginalized communities, particularly of the LGBTQ+ variety, because they don't see themselves get portrayed often enough and it may even help them overcome real-life societal adversity. By default, this is incredibly endearing to witness because not only do they naturally deserve all the widespread acknowledgement they can get, but the best of these shows are able to make others gain a new level of appreciation for such orientations and cultures.
But there can come a point where it feels disconcertingly obsessive. You have a handful of fanbases that have become pretty notorious about this, like "Rick & Morty" and "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" (not that there aren't plenty of friendly fans, of course), but we currently see this to similar extents with the likes of "Amphibia" and "The Owl House". With them, not only does it seem like those two shows are the only cartoons worth caring about (no matter how many others are out there that'd appeal to them), but they become weirdly vindictive about any backlash the shows get, whether it's deserved or not. It came to the point where Disney Channel cutting season 3 of the latter show short, while a very short-sighted and questionable decision for sure, was taken by many as a personal attack, thus blowing the reaction quite out of proportion and not even taking the time to fully understand the circumstances. There's simply a close-minded mentality going on within certain circles, and it snowballs into something rather toxic, even among those who really do mean well.
To be fair, there's some excuse for a lot of this. Because of who these kinds of shows target, these fanbases are full of teenagers - people too young to have developed many social cues. This goes double, of course, for those on the autism spectrum or otherwise neurodivergent (I would know from experience). There's always some kind of natural desire to justify your love and passion for something that is often misunderstood by others, and animation has always had that sort of reputation among the masses. In addition, heavily increased online activity and decreased in-person activity as the result of the ongoing pandemic has only made falling to peer pressure and mob mentalities all the more depressingly frequent. For some, the internet has basically become many's main 'reality', or at least source of social activity.
Of course, there's also a lot to be said about the platforms themselves. Twitter has become a particularly notorious hellhole in this department, as by nature it encourages close-knit circles, plus likes and retweets can often be seen as a means of vindication when they're just a small ripple in a huge sea. On top of that, their short-form message system leaves barely any room for clarification, allowing for tweets to be so easily misread. Not that others are really that much better; YouTube has a certain parasocial culture where a handful of opinionated people can easily be taken as gospel of a product's quality, so long as they try to sound informed and educated, and people like to absolve their favorite personalities of genuine wrongdoings. Then there's TikTok's clickbait-heavy nature, which has allowed for people to spread lies disguised as 'life hacks' and manufacture all sorts of ridiculous controversies, no matter how much people say they're wrong.
Don't get me wrong, cartoon fans have led to a number of positive interactions, especially in recent years. Very often, you see crew members sharing artwork, industry insights, or even the occasional production update out of the goodness of their hearts, which always goes appreciated, and with that comes some direct support right back to the showrunners. When a show is kept in limbo or in danger of cancellation, you can bet a trend party will come forth in an attempt to keep the show in the public zeitgeist, as was most notably seen with "The Owl House" and "Infinity Train". These lead to mixed results, sure, but it's always so heartwarming to see dedicated people come together to push a gem they believe isn't given their due. And, to name a more specific example, that time "Amphibia"'s season finale got abruptly pulled due to censorship concerns, and the resulting outcry ended up being a major factor in creator Matt Braly winning out against the network. There's also the occasional interview further strengthening trust, with names like Spencer Rothbell, Jeff Trammell, and Dan Milano being especially open about what they do.
But for every positive effect, the internet's ugliness rears its head. To start with, so often many of these fans just don't understand boundaries. They have a tendency to bother social media accounts, desperately begging for updates within unrelated posts, like that period everyone spammed Nick with "Rise of the TMNT" shortly after its premature cancellation. Obviously the idea is to get the company's attention, but not only will they not see that (given it's a low-pay team handling these accounts), but it just makes them look intrusive as it's the equivalent of butting in something completely unrelated to the conversation actually going on. This can even apply to the people working on these to some extent, though it's thankfully not as common there. And of course, there are the occasions when they effectively invade professional events and defend their behavior because they think the fact it's a kids show makes it fair game, context be damned; see "Amphibia"'s Lightbox event.
Frequently, people let their perceived quality of a product prevent them from facing reality, and this was very much true when "Thundercats Roar" was met with severe backlash (particularly on the artistic end) and "Q-Force"'s now-infamous initial teaser came off as very homophobic. With the latter, many crew members who expressed excitement over the project had to face outrage disguised as sympathy for 'being stuck with shit' when they aren't even the ones who are speaking from the inside. But nowhere was this more transparent than when Raye Rodriguez responded to some of the unfair backlash his show "High Guardian Spice" got. Many of the show's detractors, particularly anime elitists, took the thread as him "making excuses for having bad writers/making bad art" or outright shutting out their "totally valid criticisms" - and then turned them being blocked into some kind of weird game, as does tend to happen when someone becomes targeted.
Beyond the blatant misunderstanding on what the hell criticism actually is, this shows the worst kind of entitlement among so-called animation enthusiasts. It's one thing to dislike a show or point out faults of its, that is completely reasonable and people like Raye aren't calling that out. The problem is specifically using that bias to justify 'looking down' on the crew members, even if subconsciously, and distrusting whatever insight they try to give. Sure, we've had a fair share of creators who haven't reacted the best to these things, but there really is a lot that goes on in the entertainment world that we wouldn't understand, so most likely they'd know what they are talking about; things can indeed not turn out well even if budgets weren't a problem, and people have indeed done better with less, but it's never one size fits all - not that he deserves being approached with such extreme attitudes even if he's wrong anyway. And they seriously wonder why the professionals get upset and decide they don't want anything to do with them...
And what especially sucks about all this is that all staff involved in animation have more than enough to struggle with even taking out the internet entirely. If a project looks like it was rushed in any way, it's most likely because it straight up was, with overtime not an uncommon hurdle; and more often than not, creative faults can reasonably be attributed to studios meddling with the process, either by directly insisting on certain ideas or simply giving rough deadlines. And all for a career that by default pays significantly less than the live-action equivalents. On top of many other little things that a certain someone has described painfully well in his little comics, most of which stemming from streaming over-saturation and jobs becoming more short-term than ever before. Yeah, the animation business is quite a thankless one. So you can only imagine how tone-deaf it comes across to pick apart animated projects in this day and age for stuff that isn't as in the artists' control as you think, or letting fictitious stuff outright overshadow the ongoing NewDeal4Animation push to help rectify some of these issues.
I think now in particular, it is downright vital for we animation fans going forward to firmly lead by example, to continue the goodwill we've been trying to build up. Not just in calling out toxic behavior, and distancing ourselves from crowds encouraging this, but also in regards to how we approach cartoons in general. There's definitely a lot of room for critical thinking, and we can certainly be negative if a product or trend isn't clicking with us, but we need to be understanding of the people behind the scenes. And to stay in that frame of mind, I think we also need to reevaluate the sense of community. Animation fans come in all shapes and sizes, so naturally not everyone within these circles are gonna like each other. No matter how many people in the cartoon community you look up to and want to get along with, you really should predominantly care about your friends. Those who understand what makes you tick and who appreciates you for who you are. Never underestimate the purpose and happiness that can grow from strong friendships.
Course, limiting your social media activity helps too; keeping up with everything that goes on isn't all its cracked up to be. Cartoons aren't and shouldn't be your entire life, and heaven knows it's hurt my mentality more than I would like to admit. I know what I've said may sound like it goes without saying to most of you, but you'd be amazed what frequently gets forgotten the more time you spend on the internet, and especially when it comes to polarizing topics as well as having anonymity and the sense of having a platform on your side. Even if you're young or not the most socially confident, a little self-awareness and sensitivity can go such a long way in fostering a better and healthy space for praise and criticism alike, especially in shared spaces with those who deliver what they can.
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