What Makes One a True Zelda Fan?

[DuelMark]

So some time ago, my friend and I were watching (Poking fun at) the "Zelda Cartoon Appreciation Rant" on YouTube. Those who know my stance on the cartoon will figure out what my stance on this video is, but I'm not here to talk about that. What I do want to talk about is something he says at the end... "If you are a true Zelda fan, you can appreciate this show". While I would disagree with him on every level, and did and got blocked from commenting ever again on his videos, it got me thinking of something.

What does make one a "true" Zelda fan? What is YOU'RE perception on this topic?

For me it is this. The idea of us needing to appreciate a cartoon that is mixed among its fanbase isn't necessarily something a "true fan" should do. If anything, a true fan, though sticking up for its love of the series, should accept the flaws, mistakes and alike of it. What I mean is this, some time ago I started a topic called "Does making fun of Zelda annoy you?" And while it does indeed annoy me, that doesn't mean I don't poke fun at it, albeit in a less insulting manner than "IT'S GAY BECAUSE IT ISN'T CALL OF DUTY" or whatever idiocy like that. As such, hating the cartoon doesn't make me less of a "true fan" any more than someone who liked The Phantom Menace is a "true fan" of Star Wars... though that is sad.

As much as I enjoy Zelda, I admit some characters are weird, creepy and can do without... looking at you Tingle. Sometimes Nintendo makes some bad decisions, such as sailing the Great Sea for too long or using a train to get around. And the interesting idea of Link and Zelda's connection becomes non-existant, like in Twilight Princess, which was an aspect I didn't want averted.

It's the same with other franchises I'm into, like Transformers. I admit, the G1 cartoon, while memorable, wasn't perfect. The animation didn't hold up, the robots were more human than the one dimensional flesh creatures they were friends with, sometimes they'll make the poor choice of stereotyping an actor's race to make him leave the show, the size inconsistency was ridiculous, and more. I'll defend it when someone praises the Zelda cartoon over Transformers which they'd call a terrible cartoon, but that doesn't mean I can't make a friendly joke about it.

So what do I think makes me a true fan? Well, for starters, I care about the games themselves. I don't care about any non-gaming material that Nintendo had little to nothing to do with. I care about the main series itself. This is the same issue I get with Sonic fans when I mention I thought SatAM is overrated since it was just an adaptation in name only and SEGA had almost nothing to do with it and had a troll on DA gives me enough backstory on its creation and why it should have been canon in the games for a whole chapter in Lord of the Rings. I just told him this "I don't care about SatAM, I care about the games themselves." If you like the non-gaming material of a game series... even that blasted cartoon... fine, more power to you. But liking or hating them or any merchandise doesn't make you more or less of a fan.

 

[Cel-Shaded Deku]

I say that there is no such thing as a true fan of anything, just fans. Do you like the product, yes or no? If you answer yes then you're a fan and if you say no you're not a fan. I often interpret "true fan" status as obsession. No offence intended to anyone who sees themselves as a true fan, I consider myself mildly obsessed.

 

[MW7]

I say that there is no such thing as a true fan of anything, just fans. Do you like the product, yes or no? If you answer yes then you're a fan and if you say no you're not a fan. I often interpret "true fan" status as obsession. No offence intended to anyone who sees themselves as a true fan, I consider myself mildly obsessed.

Yes, I would agree with you. Most people don't realize that fan is short for fanatic which means "marked by excessive enthusiasm and often intense uncritical devotion" (source Wikipedia). Its etymology is the Latin term fanaticus, meaning "insanely but divinely inspired" (Wikipedia again). So if someone wants to call themselves a "true fan", that's fine but realize that you mean that you are blindly devoted to something to the point of insanity. I feel that the term "true fan" applies to very few people, and the people that it does apply to have bigger problems to worry about than who is labeled a "true fan" or not.

Also, adding to Cel-Shaded Deku's do you like the product- yes or no; I would say that to be a fan of Zelda in the colloquial sense, you must like at least 2 separate Zelda games. Otherwise you'd be more a fan of a particular game rather than the whole series.

EDIT: I would also say I'm mildly obsessed as well. A by-product of that obsession would be that whenever someone says Twilight Princess is the best Zelda game, I get the urge to verbally assault them. Luckily the urge usually passes as I remember that everyone is entitled to their opinion.

 

[Satsy]

You're a true fan if you've been playing, and enjoying, the games. If you like the series, and the world built up around it, you're a fan. You don't have to necessarily like the spin-off stuff to be a fan of Zelda, like you don't have to be a fan of Mario Party to be a Mario fan, or a fan of Mystery Dungeon to be a Pokemon fan. Not liking one or two elements that come from the series doesn't make you not-a-fan. You don't have to be obsessive to be a fan at all. It's one thing a lot of different communities of various franchises seem to forget.

Besides, fandom has its varying levels, in the same way that 'gamer' has varying levels.

 

[Seth]

I never liked the term "true fan". People can enjoy something in any way they like and how ever much they like it. No need to get into a "My fanhood is bigger then your fanhood!" pissing match. This happens a lot, especially in sports. Just enjoy the game and don't worry about how much someone is or isn't into it.

 

[zeldan]

In my view there are no true fans! everyone who has played a zelda game and liked it is a fan of zelda. sure you can have bigger fans then others for example, someone who posts regularly on zelda forums and has completed every zelda game is a much bigger zelda fan then someone whos only played one zelda game! both are fans but one is clearly a bigger fan then the other.

 

[Ventus]

A true fan doesn't exist. There is the hardcore fanatic, and the mild fanatic. The hardcore fan is obviously the one who goes out of his/her way to collect, hoard even, Zelda products of any kind be they the TP TCG or the CD-I games. I'm not calling anyone out in specfic, but I do recall watching a video of a certain someone who literally shows their collection. That video series is supposedly on hiatus, or maybe I am not in the loop, but it is interesting.

The mild fanatic would be more like me; simply playing the games and more or less blindly defending them. Though, I wouldn't call myself a fan of the series at all as I vigorously hate on Twilight Princess whenever the chance presents itself...then again, I don't think that warrants me to not be within the circle of Zelda fandom.

 

[Post-organic]

Anyone who plays and enjoys Zelda games. To nitpick from there is to invoke the "no true Scotsman" fallacy.

 

[Irishmile]

Anyone who likes or loves Zelda is a true fan... from there I would say the only differences is varying degrees of knowledge of it or financial commitments to collecting all the Zelda items they can... I've played all the games and own collectables but I would not say my fandom is any more true than the kid that could only afford one of the games and loved it with all their heart... obviously their knowledge in the franchise would not be as expansive but the love is still as genuine.

Also I liked the Zelda cartoon for what it was... it was fun, the characters may be way different from what we got after but you can always just think of it as just one of many many different incarnations of the characters.

 

[MonkeyFightSquad]

zelda

o.oif you played all the zelda games, and action figures,costumes,

 

[onidarklink2]

imo a true Zelda fan is just someone who likes the series, shows at least some degree of devotion to it, and isn't afraid to criticize it(doesn't just mindlessly warship the series).

 

[xmajorax]

True Zelda fan? There is no 'true' Zelda fan, that's only a name fanboys call themselves if they can't accept themselves as fanboys.
Back when I started to listen to Heavy Metal, I was all like 'Yeaaah Metal Burn stuff! Screw the governement! Everything that isn't metal sucks! Yeaaarrrggghh!' That being said, anything that wasn't 'metal' could not be listened to, for then you would lose your metal 'status'. In my mind, you weren't a true metal fan if you didn't listen and love only metal. But I eventually got tired of being the angry rebellious jerk, so I started listining to other bands, like Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kansas. I still love metal, but I don't listen to it religiously like I did before. So now I broaden my tastes by trying to listen with an open mind. Am I still a metal fan? I should think so.

Another example could be the fact that I didn't like Half Life 1. Am I not a real fan of Half Life? I like the series and games, but the first one just didn't go for me. I am still a fan however.

I did not like the Zelda cartoon, and there are a couple Zelda's that I just didn't like as much as the others. Am I still a true fan? Yeah.

Fanboys force themselves and others to love everything about their interests or else they aren't true fans, which is just obsessive and kinda sad. This is unfortunatly very common in the Zelda fanbase. On the ZD homepage, one of Zero Punctuation's video were posted. ZP is a game reveiwer, similar to AVGN as he points out every flaw in a game for comidic effect. He dosn't usually even say if the game is bad or not.The game in question here was OoT3D. The relpys to the video mostly consists of this: 'OMG this guy probobly only plays FPS he dare he insult Zelda OoT is and always will be a legend.' In their eyes, the can only be true fans if they defend Zelda from every single joke made about it. But that isn't a true Zelda fan, thats just obsessed.

 

[zeldahuman]

A true Zelda fan would do this just because he knows that not everyone can be as lucky as him.

 

[FlatandSharp]

A true Zelda fan? Someone who played all the games, knows everything about the Zelda universe there is to know, makes YouTube videos about Zelda, posts constantly on Zelda forums? That's just someone who like Zelda more than the other guy who just enjoys playing Zelda. That doesn't make you a "true Zelda fan". There's no such thing. If you just enjoy playing Zelda, you're a fan. If you know everything about the Zelda series, you're just a fan who did some research. There's no difference between those two: they're both just Zelda fans. Using the term "true Zelda fan" is just a way for someone to show that they consider themselves better than people who just play the games. Even if you've just played TP and enjoyed it, you're a Zelda fan. That's something people seem to forget. Because TP is one of the newest and most hyped games, people don't see you as a significant member of their Zelda world if you've just played that one game. It's really sad actually. You're just as much a fan than people who played all the games over and over again. There's no such thing as a "true Zelda fan". Zelda is there for everyone to enjoy, not some privilege for only the "true Zelda fans".

 

[Mubble]

To be a fan of something, anything - you simply need to enjoy it. I don't think "true" is a very accurate term, as that implies that there is a "false" fan too. Technically, one could be a false fan, in that they are faux interested in Zelda and claim to play and enjoy the game series, but they don't - perhaps for attention or to fit in? Who knows. Other than that, if you enjoy something, be it a game or food or football team, you're a fan of it - whatever effort you put into it past that point is up to you, and your dedication can be declared and shown in various means, whether through fan-made projects, discussing it, playing the game all the time, or so on.