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Fan Myopia: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''"You're referencing literature I have no way to be familiar with!"''|'''[[Humanity Ensues|Anya]]'''
Fans of a particular work or medium see things differently from people who aren't fans of the same things. For instance, a fan might assume that the work they are a fan of is much better known than it actually is. Or, conversely, they might assume that nobody knows a different work simply because they and their circle never heard of it. The fan's perspective is a little warped because they are so close to certain materials and so distanced from others.
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Fan Myopia can lead to behaviors such as:
* [["Weird Al" Effect|Failing to realize]] that a joke in their favorite comedy is actually a reference to something that's [[Older Than They Think]]. Usually an effect of being too young to have known the source of the reference, but definitely a kind of myopia.
* Failing to understand why a cherished TV show was canceled, or why a book, movie, or video game doesn't sell highly, when in fact hardly anyone was interested in it aside from its cult fanbase. It's even conceivable that it wasn't [[Screwed by the Network]], but rather that people simply weren't into it.
* Failing to understand how one can be just a "casual fan" of a particular work. [[Complaining About People Not Liking the Show|Or, indeed, not a fan at all]].
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Tropers are not immune to Fan Myopia, nor do they claim to be. Indeed, much of this wiki could not have come about if it weren't for zealous fans of television and other media. However, generalizing from your own experience is usually a bad idea. Assuming that other people know more than they do can result in incomprehensible attempts at [[Two Words: Obvious Trope]] or similar, or telling the world that the ending to something is [[It Was His Sled]] when it wasn't, really.
== Bad
* Citing examples of characters or episodes without explaining what work they're talking about, because "surely everyone knows what I'm referring to". (''[[Action 52|Cheetahmen II]]'')
* Committing the infamous "How could this trope go so long without mentioning Show X?" [[Word Cruft]].
* Adding images that are [[Just a Face
* [[Trope Namer Syndrome|Naming tropes after a character or quote from their favorite work]], without realizing that people unfamiliar with the work will not understand the trope name or quote, or without realizing that ''most people on the planet'' are in fact unfamiliar with that work.
* [[Pothole|Pot Holing]] to the characters/situations/quotes without identifying the work they come from out of the belief that it's so [[Self Explanatory]] that ''everyone's'' seen it and knows instantly who or what is being discussed.
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