Fan elite
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A fan elite is a mentality popular in many genre fandom subcultures where self styled inner circles are inevitable. The term may have seen its origins in the comic book fandom where letters pages in the back of comics were once popular.
Fan elitists do not call themselves elitists and most don't really separate themselves from the majority of fandom but in fact enjoy showing off to whom they perceive as lesser fans. They are generally recognizable by their behavior. They are often fussy and nitpicky about details, especially continuity and technical aspects. At one time, especially Marvel comics challenged fans to point out mistakes in continuity resulting in a possible award of a No-Prize. A common practice is that a fan elitist will test another fan's devotion to a subject by throwing him trivia questions or will chastise another fan for not knowing something that "every real fan should know". Especially in the case of Star Trek where many Trekkies do not consider one a real fan if they care little about the continuity, science or technological aspects of the show. Many do enjoy the show largely for the humanistic aspects but they are often dismissed as posers by the so-called real fans.
These kinds of fans are often very proprietary and possessive of their interest and often adopt very conservative attitudes. They have been known to be openly hostile towards writers and producers who take an alternate stand on an issue. Most notorious in recent years, was the hostility of many hardcore anime fans toward Carl Macek of Streamline Pictures. Macek promoted anime as being accessible to general audiences and often upon translating anime, heavily rewrote dialogue to this effect. This upset purists, and Macek even found himself the recipient of death threats. Flyers with stock phrases like "Death before Dubbing" or with pictures of Macek with satanic horns drawn in (hence the term Anime Antichrist), were once a regular site at anime conventions. Many fans will only watch subtitled anime no matter how good the dub may be and stock phrases such as "Friends don't let friends watch dubs" are still a common sight at conventions and on the internet.
A strong fan elite mentality exists for the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and many of them find various reasons to dislike the Lord of the Rings films. Despite the films' successes in bringing the book into the public awareness, many will nevertheless argue that "real Tolkien fans read his books". Of course, this is justified in their view, as many simply find the books better and view the films as inaccurate representations of Tolkien's work, which, to their regret, is accepted as the "real" work by some. This also entails reading and appreciating the rest of Tolkien's Middle-earth writings.
Elitist fans are often noticeably hostile to the idea of their interest becoming mainstream and will often drop it at the hint of it happening. Or they will go back underground. It is worth noting that at one point the fandoms for genres such as science fiction, fantasy, comics, and anime mostly appealed to and were largely populated by so-called geeks, nerds, and other sometimes self-styled misfits. And they saw these genres offering them something that they felt that only they could properly appreciate. In becoming mainstream, they feel that the genres are being taken away from them.
The fan elite is mostly unpopular among the general fandom and are highly criticized as taking the enjoyment out of the genre fandom. Many wish they would simply relax and enjoy the many works instead of telling writers creators what they should create. Many leave the fandom due to the mentality of such individuals. Others prefer to leave them alone entirely and avoid giving them the much wanted attention. At conventions, although guests are mostly preferred to appear gracious (except maybe Harlan Ellison), usually, no one holds it against them when they identify a fan elite and "call him out".
