Unacceptable Targets/Fictional Examples

Since it is extremely disrespectful to people that have suffered in real life to have fictional characters and settings listed alongside them as Unacceptable Targets, we've decided to place them on a separate page.

It should go without saying that these "unacceptable" targets are only considered as such to their respective fandoms and anywhere else the works are considered Serious Business; in the right company, they can be perfectly acceptable to mock.

Works and Creators of any work that is considered as "True Art"
See Also: It's Popular, Now It Sucks, True Art, Sacred Cow, Defensive Fans, Critical Dissonance, and Public Medium Ignorance.

An example of this when it comes to media instead of people: Whenever and wherever the It's Popular, Now It Sucks trope is in effect, any media that fits any of the True Art categories; as well as their creators, are granted immunity to any form of criticism in any way in these areas. In other words, these are works which are met with near universal approval and are outside the bounds of criticism for some even if flaws are present. Covering anything from a whole series down to props within that universe, these works are considered so either out of respect, nostalgia or plain fan love.

Unfortunately, this also means a fair critique cannot be made against it at any point in time as it'll be met with the same revulsion as Squick-inducing Shipping or trolling. Furthermore, many of these works tend to get a free pass when it comes to flaws that popular works would be slammed if they didn't bear such a pass. An unfortunate amount of Fan Dumb, Fandom Heresy, Hypocritical Fandom, Nostalgia Filter, and The Law of Fan Jackassery tend to come from this.

Comic Books

 * The comic community site Scans Daily seems to have a rule of "the more mainstream it is, the more critical we are." High-profile works in particular seem to be prone to getting picked apart, while lesser known comics are considered off limits to criticism.

Film

 * People have noticed that in most recent years, the majority of Oscar winners and nominees for best picture have been both low budget and low box-office. Recent examples of these include The Hurt Locker and The Artist following older examples such as Annie Hall and Citizen Kane.

Live Action TV

 * Examples of these include Top Gear.

Music

 * Anything listed as a "Classic" or "oldies" tends to fall into this as time marches on. If you actually say you do not like bands such as The Beatles today and aren't very old, you WILL be treated like a heretic.
 * If a musician died young, it's usually a bad idea to criticize their music (see also: Dead Artists Are Better) because people who do like them will treat you like you just sprouted horns and a tail. God help you if you say in public that you don't care for music made by John Lennon, Kurt Cobain, Jimi Hendrix, Michael Jackson, Amy Winehouse, or countless other dead musicians.

Software

 * The Mac OS (or anything made by Apple for that matter) has gotten this treatment (and arguably still does) back in the day in that any sort of criticism of the Mac (or simply preferring Windows over Mac) is bound to get you burned to a crisp. This is less frequent today due to the resurgence of Apple as well as some of the controversies Apple has been involved in as a new-found Mega Corp and all, but you can still find some very Defensive Fans in some areas.
 * Depending on where you are, don't trash Linux. You will be accused of "supporting the evil Micro$oft empire." (although you can also say the same for Mac OS). Exceptions may be granted if you choose instead to bag on a particular Linux distribution though.

Video Games

 * Examples of these include, System Shock 2, The Elder Scrolls (But only Daggerfall as well as Morrowind in some areas.), Baldur's Gate, StarCraft (The first one especially), Warhammer Fantasy Battle, Shadowrun or Old World of Darkness anything, Cave Story, and anything made by Valve Corporation (Especially Half-Life and Portal).
 * Online gaming wise, a good way to find out if a game or service is given the "Immunity to Criticism" label is how the service is received when it comes to discussions about GIFT. If you mention popular or non-sacred works such as Counter-Strike, Quake, World of Warcraft, or anything on Xbox Live in such topics, bombardments of complaints will occur which basically summarize down to "The game/service should be killed with fire and everyone that plays it should be beaten mercilessly. And i don't care if the griefers are a Vocal Minority." However, if you did to same to a game or service that is given Sacred Cow status, say Team Fortress 2 or anything on Playstation Network, it will either fall on deaf ears and/or you will be bombarded with No True Scotsman type fallacies that the service or game is immune to this.
 * The quickest way a gaming critic or gamer can kill their street cred is to trash PC Gaming, or even say you enjoy consoles better.

Web Original

 * In the modding community - if you ever, in any way criticise AlienSlof (a female modder responsible for creating much of The Elder Scrolls male-oriented Rule 34 and fetish mods), you are a Complete Monster and you will have every member of the community against you.

Yotsuba
ANONYMOUS and their affiliated websites (4chan, Encyclopedia Dramatica, Something Awful, etc.) have a nearly unlimited list of Acceptable Targets. Yet even in their circles they have Unacceptable Targets, one of which is the title character of Yotsuba&!. You do not ask for Rule 34 of Yotsuba; they will destroy you. Without regret.

Web Original

 * Some people have gone out of their way to make exceptions involving aged-up versions of the characters. One such instance was the Comiket doujin Four Leaf Lover.  It was apparently requested and translated by 4chan /d/ members. That's /d/ for you. That said, when the same people made an (even worse) sequel, Anonymous turned its wrath on them.