History MisaimedFandom / Film

** A good chunk of the fandom and even some creators have mistaken the Jedi practicing mindfulness and emotional discipline as repressing and supressing emotions. Despite numerous examples of Jedi characters being told to trust their feelings and the emotional expression we see both on and off-screen. Part of the problem is you could remove the Jedi Order entirely from the Prequels and have the only Jedi characters be Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Qui-Gon Jinn, and Yoda and the plot would be the exact same. We simply don't get a lot of exploration of Jedi culture and teachings not even in [[TheCloneWars]] because that wasn't the story Prequel media was telling. Fans went in expecting the Prequels to be heavily focused on the Jedi and Jedi Order when both were easily removable window dressing. Even officially liscenced [[DaveFiloni creators]]have fallen into this.

** Fans complain about the Jedi taking command of an age-accelerated slave army of clones, something not helped by Creator/KarenTraviss echoing this in every one of her books. What they don't consider is just how the Jedi were supposed to fight the Separatist Army without them--the Republic had no real military to speak of, and the Order was made up of around 10,000 Jedi at the time, including {{Non Action Guy}}s, the very young, and very old. In a galaxy of '''one billion''' star systems. Meanwhile, the Separatists, under Dooku, were mobilized and ready for war and had an army numbering in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions. If the Jedi had stood aside and not fought at all, or tried to fight without the clones, the Republic they were sworn to protect would have been conquered by the Sith in a matter of weeks, at ''most.''

* The ''Film/{{Saw}}'' franchise has a disturbing number of fans who believe Jigsaw's methods of torturing people into appreciating life is actually ''beneficial''. The guy's a manipulative, vindictive sadist who's crippled countless people and killed far more, [[{{Hypocrite}} many of whom were innocent even by his standards,]] and has even endangered [[WouldHurtAChild children.]] Quite a few characters actually [[ShutUpHannibal call him out on this]] throughout the series, including even his own henchmen. Granted, these moments tend to be fleeting compared to how often the films' portray him as fundamentally [[MagnificentBastard wise, charismatic and sympathetic,]] emphasize his philosophy as something important, or focus on his victim's failings. According to [[https://www.reddit.com/r/horror/comments/nbii85/saw_veteran_kevin_greutert_explains_why_jigsaw/ one of the later films directors, its now just the fans who sometimes think this way, either. ]]

* The ''Film/{{Saw}}'' franchise has a disturbing number of fans who believe Jigsaw's methods of torturing people into appreciating life is actually ''beneficial''. Never mind the fact that the guy's a manipulative, hypocritical, homicidal sadist who ruins far more lives than he saves, but he's also endangered dozens of innocents, [[WouldHurtAChild including children.]] Quite a few characters actually [[ShutUpHannibal call him out on this]] throughout the series, including a DirtyCop looking for his son, a doctor he's holding hostage to cure his brain tumor, and even his own henchmen. ''Saw VI'' even has a scene where one of the survivors rants about [[YouMonster how Jigsaw and his minions made her life irrevocably worse]], and how stupid you'd have to be to think any of Jigsaw's methods help people.

** On the other side of the spectrum, it also gained a Misaimed Hatedom from more social justice-minded viewers due to a belief that Summer is a ManicPixieDreamGirl and the film is misogynistic because of it, even though in reality she's a deconstruction of this concept much like Clementine in Film/EternalSunshineOfTheSpotlessMind.

* ''Film/IntoTheWild'' is a dramatized account of Christopher [=McCandless=]' final days living alone in Alaska. Like the book and the real-life events that inspired it, the film ends with Chris (weak and starving to death) realizing that "happiness is only real when shared", and that you need other people in your life to live and thrive. Soon after this, Chris [[DyingAlone dies alone]] while wanting to be with his family again. That goes without mentioning he dies [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome due to serious lack of preparation and skills needed to survive in the wilderness]]. Yet, bring the subject of the film or [=McCandless=] up online, and you'll see at least a few people who either romanticize his actions or show disdain for modern society, seeking to emulate him.
** Unfortunately, some of these people have gone as far as making pilgrimages to the actual bus site, which is a 26-mile hike from the nearest road; many are unprepared for such a deep trip into the Alaskan wilderness, requiring that they be rescued. A couple have died in the process.

* Creator/JoelSchumacher was dismayed by the number of people who identified with D-FENS in ''Film/FallingDown'' and praised him for "telling it like it is".

* Inverted with the film version of ''Film/{{The Birth of a Nation|1915}}'' where the fandom got the racist subtext of the original Thomas Dixon work but D. W. Griffith apparently didn't or just went with it anyway. Griffith was himself not really all that racist; his next film ''Film/{{Intolerance}}'' actually dealt with the negative effects of prejudice. His later film ''Film/BrokenBlossoms'' even went out of its way to make the Chinese protagonist very sympathetic as a reaction to the [[YellowPeril rabid anti-Chinese sentiment]] of the time.

* With ''Film/TheWickerMan1973'', there are two groups of misaimed neopagan viewers. Some, who have a beef with Christianity, actually applaud the Summerisle Pagan cult for killing devoutly Christian Sgt. Howie at the end, despite the fact that this is ''murder'' and ''not'' supposed to be admirable or justified in the least, and while prudish and foolish, Howie was the [[DoomedMoralVictor one in the right here.]] Other neopagans resent the film for portraying their religion in a bad light, when in fact the Summerisle cult is stated in film to be a special case with a history behind it, and is in no way representative of other neopagan groups around the world. Creator/ChristopherLee himself states that it's less a condemnation of paganism and more of a condemnation of ''cults'' in general.

** It also has to be said that the fanatical love many fans have of Boba Fett is something of an anomaly. He was essentially an EliteMook alongside a handful of others brought in to show the Empire was enlisting specialists to help capture our heroes. He had very few lines and never got into a serious fight with the protagonists, taking potshots at them while the Imperials lead by Vader actually arrested them. In the end when a fight does break out, his jetpack gets shot near the start by a mostly blind Han which sends him careening down the Sarlacc's throat. This hasn't stopped him from being one of the most popular characters with the best selling toy and piles of fanfiction written about him. Wiki/ThatOtherWiki even has several hefty paragraphs dedicated to why he is so popular, which essentially boils down to the fact that [[OCStandIn he was a cool looking blank that kids were able to project themselves and their fantasies of being a badass into]].

** The movie also has a lot of misogyny due to the main character being an UnreliableNarrator who has issues with women. You sometimes run into fans of the film who praise it for showing "the truth about women" or something.

* The 1970 film ''Film/{{Joe}}'' starred Peter Boyle as a working-class reactionary who fantasizes about murdering hippies (and does so in the film's climax). Boyle was horrified to find audiences cheering the character at screenings, and reportedly turned down the role of Popeye Doyle in ''Film/TheFrenchConnection'' at least partly out of fear of inspiring a similar reaction.

** The {{Trope Codifier}}s of Gangster Films (''Film/LittleCaesar'', ''Film/ThePublicEnemy'', and the original ''Film/{{Scarface 1932}}'') were actually what led to the creation of UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode (along with allegations of leering female sexuality). The MoralGuardians were so disturbed that the American public saw these criminals as heroes that they created this code and the rule that criminals couldn't be seen as heroes nor could they do things that impressionable viewers could imitate.

* ''Film/{{Juno}}'' got some appreciation from anti-abortion groups, because Juno considers an abortion and opts out. The filmmakers did not share that position on the issue and were surprised to hear this praise. (It's particularly strange since one of the scenes, where one of Juno's ditzy classmates is protesting outside an abortion clinic saying nonsensical things like that fetuses have fingernails, seems to be mocking anti-abortion protesters.) After all, Juno doesn't change her mind for moral reasons; she just finds the clinic almost inexplicably intimidating.

* ''Film/{{Juno}}'' got some appreciation from anti-abortion groups, because Juno considers an abortion and opts out. The filmmakers did not share that position on the issue and were surprised to hear this praise. (It's particularly strange since one of the scenes seems to be mocking anti-abortion protesters, where one of Juno's ditzy classmates is protesting outside an abortion clinic saying nonsensical things like that fetuses have fingernails.) After all, Juno doesn't change her mind for moral reasons; she just finds the clinic almost inexplicably intimidating.

* ''Film/{{Juno}}'' got some appreciation from anti-abortion groups, because Juno considers an abortion and opts out. The filmmakers did not share that position on the issue and were surprised to hear this praise. After all, Juno doesn't change her mind for moral reasons; she just finds the clinic almost inexplicably intimidating.

* If ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}'' isn't the epitome of a film doomed for misaimed fandom, nothing is. Creator/BrianDePalma intended for this movie to be a dark, unrelenting look at the downfall of a gangster who quickly climbed to the top of the drug trade, only to become addicted to coke and alienate those around him. Instead, rappers sample Tony Montana's quotes, admire him for being all gangster, and have a bunch of their fans and misled teens suddenly become fans or the film without seeing what the point of the film was. [[CreatorBacklash Brian De Palma isn't happy about this ''at all''.]]

** A ''[[VideoGame/ScarfaceTheWorldIsYours video game]]'' of the movie was made too. Which was a ''sequel'' to the movie, dictated that Tony Montana somehow '''survived''' the ending of the film, and has him go about his business with no negative consequences. Takes misaimed fandom up to eleven. While one of the most famous examples, ''The World Is Yours'' is hardly the sole offender as ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' and other games in the crime genre are Misaimed Fandoms by their very nature.[[note]]Funnily enough, the main thing stopping the videogame from being a faithful adaptation with a possible DownerEnding was the release of ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas'', an extremely successful WholePlotReference to ''Scarface''. It was impossible to do a straight adaptation without being accused of ripping off their own successor.[[/note]]

*** In response, the filmmakers made an AuthorsSavingThrow with ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' by making Thanos even worse. [[spoiler:First and foremost, even though [[TheBadGuyWins Thanos does indeed kill half of all people in the universe]], it doesn't do what he hopes to do. And when a past version of Thanos sees that it doesn't work, he changes his goal to just killing ''everyone'' and starting completely over.]] As a result, while most people got the message, there were still a scant few who insisted that Thanos was right, in a perverse sort of way.

*** Kylo Ren/Ben Solo's mother, Leia Organa Skywalker herself even lampshades this in ''Literature/{{Bloodline}}''.

* Inverted by ''Film/ShotCaller''. The Beast recommends Jacob one of his books, ''The Human Animal'' by Desmond Morris. Just in case any genuine white supremacist who was rooting for the Aryan Brotherhood tried to find a copy assuming it to be a celebration of racism, the book actually argues ''against'' that and makes the case that genetic differences between human lineages are negligible. It's also a very subtle hint that the Beast might be a StrawHypocrite.

*** Kylo Ren/Ben Solo's mother, Leia Organa Skywalker herself even lampshades this in ''Literature/Bloodline''.

* ''Film/TheNotebook'': A lot of females loved this movie, and wanted a relationship like Allie and Noah. The fact is, for all his charm, Noah is basically a stalker and their relationship is ridiculously toxic. They do nothing but fight when they’re not making out, he asks her out, she says no, he refuses to take no for an answer, essentially emotionally blackmails her into going out with him. While he does build her dream house on a whim, and writes her 365 litters, one for every day of the year, but it is just part of his constant pressure on Allie. At least part of the misaimed part comes from the fact Noah is being played by young and deliberately very sexy Creator/RyanGosling.

* The Notebook: A lot of females loved this movie, and wanted a relationship like Allie and Noah. The fact is, for all his charm, Noah is basically a stalker and their relationship is ridiculously toxic. They do nothing but fight when they’re not making out, he asks her out, she says no, he refuses to take no for an answer, essentially emotionally blackmails her into going out with him, he builds her dream house on a whim, and writes her 365 litters, one for every day of the year. If that movie were made today, he would be treated like the villain in a Lifetime movie.

*** It is particularly popular among many reactionary right-wing groups, misogynists and the like. This is despite the fact that the movies were directed by two trans women and per WordOfGod are allegories for being trans. Creator/LillyWachowski [[PrecisionFStrike replied]] to one instance of Ivanka Trump and Elon Musk [[https://twitter.com/lilly_wachowski/status/1262104754496339968?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1262104754496339968%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.vulture.com%2F2020%2F05%2Flilly-wachowski-rebukes-elon-musk-over-matrix-red-pill-tweet.html/ talking about the red pill]], which became a meme in the trans community.

** A ''[[VideoGame/ScarfaceTheWorldIsYours video game]]'' of the movie was made too. Which was a ''sequel'' to the movie, dictated that Tony Montana somehow '''survived''' the ending of the film, and has him go about his business with no negative consequences. Takes misaimed fandom up to eleven. While one of the most famous examples, ''The World Is Yours'' is hardly the sole offender as ''VideoGame/GrandTheftAuto'' and other games in the crime genre are Misaimed Fandoms by their very nature.

* If ''Film/{{Scarface 1983}}'' isn't the epitome of a film doomed for misaimed fandom, nothing is. Creator/BrianDePalma intended for this movie to be a dark, unrelenting look at the downfall of a gangster who quickly climbed to the top of the drug trade, only to become addicted to coke and alienate those around him. Instead, rappers sample Tony Montana's quotes, admire him for being all gangster, and have a bunch of their fans and misled teens suddenly become fans or the film without seeing what the point of the film was. Brian De Palma isn't happy about this ''at all''.