Fan Disillusionment: Difference between revisions

''You are such an asshole!

''You are such an asshole!

 

The word "fan", originally descended from "fanatic", suggests a sense of loyalty to something, usually a particular media franchise. And most fans are, for the most part, a fairly resilient breed who will put up with a lot. However, you can only push them so far; if a fan perceives their loyalty to have been abused or betrayed, the disillusionment that follows can be bitter indeed. Whilst some may soldier on, resulting in the formation of various [[Broken Base|Broken]] and [[Unpleasable Fanbase]]s, true '''Fan Disillusionment''' occurs when a fan abandons the show, book, or whatever it was that they lost faith in for good.

Compare [[Artist Disillusionment]]. See also [[Ruined FOREVER]] for just how many times fans will claim this is happening in perfectly healthy franchises.

 

{{examples}}

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

 

== Films ==

* In ''The Fan'', Robert De Niro is an obsessive fan of Wesley Snipes' baseball star who goes berserk after hearing Snipes criticize his fandom.

* In ''[[Big Fan]]'', Paul Aufiero is obsessed with the New York Giants, especially star player Quantrell Bishop. He's 36, still lives with his mother, works in a parking lot, and watches home games in the parking lot of the stadium via a television hooked to his car battery. When he and a friend chance bump into Bishop at a strip joint, he decides to take the plunge and introduce himself to him. Things do not go as planned, a fight breaks out, leaving Paul with a black eye and a confused conscience as to how he should present himself as a court witness against his hero.

 

== Literature ==

{{quote|"[[Bored with Insanity|Good news for you, good sirs, that I am no longer Don Quixote of La Mancha, but Alonso Quixano, whose way of life won for him the name of Good]]. Now am I the enemy of [[Knight in Shining Armor|Amadis of Gaul]] [[Follow the Leader|and of the whole countless troop of his descendants]]; [[Cliché Storm|odious to me now are all the profane stories of knight-errantry;]] [[Heel Realization|now I perceive my folly]], [[The New Rock and Roll|and the peril into which reading them brought me;]] [[It Seemed Like a Good Idea At the Time|now, by God's mercy schooled into my right senses, I loathe them.]]"}}

 

* The [[Sitcom]] ''[[Growing Pains]]'' featured an episode in which Ben, at a concert featuring his favorite singer, gets a backstage pass to the singer's dressing room... and is disgusted to find that the "wholesome" artist is having a tawdry affair.

* The British TV comedy/drama one-off ''Cruise of the Gods'' is about all of the confusions, disappointments and shattered illusions that result when the fans, writers and actors of an old science fiction series meet up at a shipboard convention.

* A slightly [[Narm|hilarious]] version of this occurred on ''[[Law and Order Special Victims Unit|SVU]]'' when Elliot found out that his famous astronaut friend—after whom he'd ''named his son''—was in fact {{spoiler|a murderer}}.

* In ''[[Doctor Who]]'', the Doctor and Martha encounter Shakespeare and experience Fan Disillusionment upon discovering his loud and bawdy behavior, more akin to a frat boy than a literary legend. Martha remarks, "You should never meet your heroes." However, they eventually grow to like him.

 

== Manga ==

* In ''[[Otaku no Musume-san]]'' there is a scene where Kouta's [[Otaku]] fans rush onto his stand in the Comiket manga fair, but when they find out that he actually ''has a daughter'', many of them get disillusioned by the fact that Kouta is not ''so'' much nerdy as ''they'' are.

 

== Music ==

* The song "Van Halen" by Nerf Herder is about a [[Van Halen]] fan who becomes disillusioned after Sammy Hagar replaced David Lee Roth.

* "Stan" by [[Eminem]]. He kills himself and his pregnant girlfriend over not getting a timely response to his letters.

 

== Web Comics ==

** A [http://somethingpositive.net/sp03132005.shtml storyline] about Mike's Fan Disillusionment upon learning that his favourite sci-fi author disagreed with him on gay rights. (The author was a thinly disguised Orson Scott Card, whose own views were in the news at the time, but he could just as well represent Heinlein, Clarke, or any number of others—sci-fi attracts writers with all sorts of controversial opinions.) Ultimately, Mike decided to focus on his love of the author's work, not his politics.

** ''[[Something*Positive]]'' also featured a couple of the main characters writing "Neko Neko Holy-chan", a webcomic which was an over-the-top catgirl parody... that acquired a large and very obsessive fanbase consisting of the very catgirls they were mocking. After fan disillusionment (when {{spoiler|one of the creators objects to the murder of a man who spoke against the comic, claiming it isn't that important}}) at a convention, they [[Berserk Button|react poorly]].

 

== Western Animation ==