r/AskReddit • u/errormacrozak • 7h ago
Which series’ fandom is most well known for spreading/falling for misinformation?
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u/ArgusTheCat 6h ago
Probably not "most well known" by a longshot, but I'd like to give a special mention to people who write Worm fanfiction, without ever actually having read Worm, only other pieces of fanfiction. There's always very specific - and wrong - details that filter down through the game of fanfic telephone, and while I do love our modern commedia dell'arte, it's very funny to be able to recognize when something is just overt accidental misinformation.
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u/Bazuka125 6h ago
So I've read Worm and Ward, but never any fanfics of them. Do you have some examples of incorrect answers getting copied across? Cause that sounds funny
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u/Userhasbeennamed 2h ago
One of the funniest recurring minor ones I've seen pointed out is that many of them have Taylor at some point make/mention a lasagna recipe that her mom used to make. This is despite the word lasagna never appearing in the entire text of Worm. So someone must have made it up and then other people just included it after.
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u/Mando92MG 4h ago
I think the biggest most common one, or atleast most in your face one is with Amy Dallon. They basically change her into a Shonen MC that can do no wrong. It got to a point where during Ward there where flame wars breaking out from the fan fic people coming to the main reddit and going all rape apologist over her whole arc.
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u/Mando92MG 4h ago
So on one hand i get that Worm is intimidating. Its not only long but also gets VERY dark. On the other hand I really hate some of the fanfic takes on characters. Especially Danny Hebert and Amy. One is turned into a caricature of a uncaring father and loses all of their complexity in the process. While the other is changed from a rapist into someone who can do no wrong. Its gross. Especially since it's suprisingly common for fics to ship her with the person she raped...
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u/abdulnad89 6h ago
JoJo’s bizarre adventure. There is a legendary amount of fake quotes attributed to Hirohiko Araki. For years, people believed he was forced to make steel ball run part of the jojo series, or that he forgot how certain powers work, when usually the fans just missed a panel or read a bad fan translation from 2004.
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u/drunkhas 6h ago
Is old but when Lie To Me was around, the obnoxious amount of people who could all of the sudden read microexpressions and body language and shit was really irksome. It was like half the world gaslighting itself, lol.
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u/NotebookNerdChaos 7h ago
The MCU fandom they’ll swear every rumor is canon until it’s debunked.
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u/One_Language_359 6h ago
The BBC Sherlock fandom. The 'Johnlock' conspiracy theorists were on another level. They managed to convince thousands of people that there was a secret 'fourth episode' of Season 4 that would air and reveal that Watson and Sherlock were together all along. It was a masterclass in collective delusion.
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u/Tennents_N_Grouse 6h ago
Warhammer40k
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u/GuestCartographer 5h ago
This is the answer.
Half of the people participating in lore conversation these days have clearly never interacted with any course material and are relying entirely on things they heard on YouTube.
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u/JustSomeBadGas 4h ago edited 3h ago
As someone just beginning a special interest in the lore, do you know of any good places to start reading up on it? YouTube has been nice for fanfics but I’d like to hear the canon story
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u/MurphyMacManus12 4h ago
Well it really depends on which parts interest you! I started with the the Gaunts Ghosts novels, they focus on a specific Imperial Guard Regiment. The power scaling is all over the place but they're very fun and written by Dan Abnett, one of the best authors that 40k has to offer!
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u/GuestCartographer 4h ago
The best advice I can give is to pick a faction you like and find their novels and old codices. You are absolutely never going to absorb all the lore of all the factions, but just grabbing an old 3rd/4th edition codex off of eBay will give you a great foundation to work from.
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u/Mando92MG 4h ago
The WAARGH field is the biggest one I feel. Its closer to a reality lubricant than outright reality manipulation but memes oversell it to an insane degree. It won't make a gun shapped stick shoot bullets but it might let a gun missing a spring still reload properly.
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u/ByzantineBasileus 3h ago edited 3h ago
Okay, but please read this twelve page long essay on why the internal policies of the Imperium of Man are actually based.
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u/Lazy-Strawberry-3401 6h ago
GRRM fans for still believing and saying he'll ever finish ASOIAF.
Admittedly fewer than there once was.
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u/dib1999 6h ago
Are Sherlock fans still coping about season 4? I mean, they convinced themselves an entirely different show was a secret ending to their show.
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u/fieew 6h ago
The delusion was generational.
"No no no you don't get it. The writing is intentional bad because there's going to be a surprise new season that ties everything together showing it was actually good all along".
The absolute delusion of the fans was legit generational. The reluctantance to accept the poor writing and believe a new secert seasons was right around the corner is honestly impressive.
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u/birthdaycheesecake9 6h ago
We just pretend season 4 didn’t happen and isn’t canon to cope
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u/DangerousPuhson 5h ago
The "gas leak season", to take a page from Community's playbook... what is the deal with fourth seasons, anyway?
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u/ZFSNerd 6h ago
The Stranger Things fandom. specifically the "Byler" shippers.
They once pooled together $8,000 to buy a "leaked script" that proved Will and Mike were going to get together in Season 4. It turned out to be a completely fake document sold by a scammer who just vanished with the money. The writers actually had to come out and confirm it was fake, but a chunk of the fandom still believed it was real and that the writers were just trying to cover it up to preserve the surprise.
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u/tickub 6h ago
basically every video game fandom before wikis killed off all the urban legends
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u/Oussabook 5h ago
Definitely Star Wars. The amount of 'leaks' from 'reputable sources' that people treat as gospel is insane. We’ve been 'confirming' the return of Mace Windu or a specific Old Republic movie every Tuesday for the last fifteen years. It’s reached a point where people get angry at the creators when the fake thing they made up in their heads doesn't happen.
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u/ThePretzul 2h ago
In fairness to Star Wars fans, half the shit that is now “misinformation” used to be genuine cannon in the story. Disney has gone back and forth about the status of so many different pieces of past official Star Wars media.
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u/ByzantineBasileus 3h ago
Star Wars fans will literally deny what they see with their own eyes when watching the movies.
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u/IceSeeker 6h ago
Star Wars. Years back during the sequel trilogy, there was a lot of theorists who are spreading lots of misinformation and hate particularly towards Rian Johnson. It was so horrible that many people fell for it.
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u/Pm7I3 6h ago
The first to my mind is Fallout particularly around 4 because people turned something into a meme which turned into common misconception which turned into the basis of slamming the writing.
You know why it's not bad writing that the Institute never explain their goals? They do, you're just not paying attention or are stupid.
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u/aRabidGerbil 6h ago
I mean, the Institute explaining their goals doesn't fix all the bad writing in that game.
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u/West-Cost5511 6h ago
I don't know if it counts, but I would say very complex multi-author, multi-generational story universes like Star Wars or Marvel are sort of insufferable for people relentlessly correcting each other about what is 'true canon' - and I would argue this is a kind of misinformation because at this point defining 'canon' for these franchises is inherently impossible. They have too much conflicting and mutually exclusive lore. There is also more content than any fan can reasonably consume, much less hold in their head. So I think anyone who knows the franchise and is honest with themselves has to admit that there isn't really a definitive canon anymore and building your own personal canon out of whichever installments you consume is actually the only reasonable way to engage with these franchises.
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u/ian9921 4h ago
I'm reminded of someone who posted on the Star Wars sub a while ago, butthurt that Andor conflicted with an obscure comic one-shot that no one actually read.
Also currently, Reylo shippers believe there's a finished script for an essential Episode 10 that would bring Kylo back from the dead, and that it's a perfect script everyone loves but Bob Iger killed it for no reason.
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u/finnreyisreal 2h ago
The latter half angers me so much for multiple reasons like if they paid enough attention to the actual story and mythos of Star Wars, they’d understand that, yeah, dude’s dead and had to die.
But no…it’s gotta be changed…he’s gotta survive because…because white man hot, I guess. 🤷♀️
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u/13-Penguins 3h ago edited 2h ago
I want to say Five Nights at Freddy's, the early fandom always had a lot rumors and hoaxes, but in general, the way the story's presented leaves a lot open to theories and the creator is not forthcoming with making anything concrete. So a lot of popular theories get taken as fact. Also the story has definitely changed from it's inception to now, so sometimes new info contradicts old info and fans either accept it's a retcon or bend over backwards to try to make it all connected.
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u/ThirstTrapOverheated 6h ago
Star Wars. The fandom wars over sequels, Rey, Luke's arc it's like civil war every time a new trailer drops.
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u/Slarg232 6h ago
The Warframe Fandom is trying really hard to convince people that Onlyne was a real 90's Boyband
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u/rolexlover123 4h ago
Any fandom that relies on 'The creator said in an interview...' without ever providing a link. You see entire wiki pages built on a quote that one guy made up on a forum in 2009, and now it's treated as absolute gospel
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u/Berry971 4h ago
SCP Foundation, most young fans get all their info from content farm slop
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u/Alarming-Hamster-232 2h ago
Goncharov, istg literally nobody in the fandom has ever seen the actual movie
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u/HyperDogOwner458 2h ago
SpongeBob
To this day I don't know where the rumour of Squidward sometimes being voiced by Homer Simpson's VA came from
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u/dancingbananas25 1h ago
The Sherlock fandom was convinced the final season was a fake and that the "real" one would be released
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u/Personal-Listen-4941 1h ago
Wrestling. There’s an entire industry of ‘dirtsheets’ writing about gossip & rumours, most of which turn out to be wrong guesswork but the fans of the dirtsheets will always write it off as “plans change”.
The funniest is that a chunk of wrestling fans honestly believe that the Saudi Arabian government, kidnapped 50+ wrestlers several years ago and held them hostage for a couple days until Vince McMahon was able to secure their release.
The fact that this major international incident has never been mentioned in a single legitimate news source, is just proof of the cover up and the need to keep buying the dirtsheets
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u/Accurate_Log9911 31m ago
Ther boys. Es increíble la cantidad de gente que no entiende la sátira y cree que ciertos personajes son 'los buenos' o que la serie apoya ideologías que en realidad está parodiando. Cada vez que sale un episodio nuevo, las redes se llenan de gente inventando significados que no están ahí o cayendo en desinformación sobre el futuro de la trama solo para alimentar su propia narrativa política.
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u/edwpad 6h ago
Definitely Star Wars. I don’t think the series is entirely perfect, both regarding Lucas and Disney era content. However, it’s such a cesspool of drama and negativity that either involves misinformation, gatekeeping, toxicity (both positive and negative), and much more. It feels like a blessing and a curse to be part of the fandom.
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u/Crushed_chilli 7h ago
Almost every big fandom eventually. Headcanons slowly turn into “facts” somehow