Here's why DCEU fans believe in a conspiracy against the franchise

I've written before about how the negative press and the anti-DC Extended Universe rhetoric that we see on a regular basis is actually strengthening the resolve of the fan base that it already has and is actually causing people to "defend" it more vehemently. I still stand by that and it continues to be true from what I've seen. 

That being said, the fans of the DCEU that are tired of the constant negative rhetoric against it are being told the following by people: 

You know, this is actually an example of a bigger problem in society. You know, the one where no one listens to anybody else and never tries to see their side of the story? It is extremely frustrating for the people that are trying to get others to understand what they are seeing. Fortunately, I have a blog so I can do what I can here to help. 

We are going to look at the reasons why a lot of DCEU fans believe there is a conspiracy to tank the franchise and crumble it to the ground. Let's start with the easy one:

1 - ROTTEN TOMATOES

We all know that Rotten Tomatoes has rated every single DCEU film rotten:

But that alone doesn't make it a conspiracy. Adding the RT scores for the Marvel Cinematic Universe does:

14 movies over eight years and not one single rotten score. In fact, the lowest score comes from Thor: The Dark World at 66 percent fresh. It's hard not to see a bias with this. 

Now, we have argued endlessly to this point about how Rotten Tomatoes is merely a review aggregator and all it does is collect and average the reviews given to it, so we are told that we can't call it a conspiracy because it's unable to target DCEU films. We're also reminded that Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight Trilogy is all positively reviewed and that WB owns a share of Rotten Tomatoes, making any conspiracy claim even more ludicrous. 

Okay, then. Explain this:

That's a tweet from Matt Atchity, the Editor-in-Chief of Rotten Tomatoes, openly advocating a form of violence against anyone that worked on what is arguably the most polarizing DCEU film to exist, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. Doesn't seem very unbiased, does he? 

So the site is full of critics that appear to hate DCEU movies and the Editor-in-Chief of the site is taking potshots at one of its movies on Twitter almost 11 months after its commercial release. You might see where some people would think Rotten Tomatoes has a clear bias against the DCEU, whether it does or not. 

2 - THE CRITICS WON'T LET IT GO

Atchity's tweet is one example of people that have been using The LEGO Batman Movie to further denigrate the DCEU in general:

These are reviews for a non-DCEU movie that came out in February of 2017, several months after the release of the last DCEU movie, Suicide Squad, and almost a full year after the release of the movie they compare it to the most, BvS. Why is that necessary? What is it about the DCEU that these critics cannot seem to let go? Why do they feel the need to lazily do their jobs by comparing the movie they are reviewing to another one just for the sake of throwing shade? Someone who is reading reviews and making a decision to take their family to see LEGO Batman is not concerned with how much it's not like the DCEU. They are all under DC's umbrella, but LEGO Batman is clearly aimed for a more family-friendly audience and no one needs these reviews to tell them that. 

So why do it if not to just toss the DCEU in front of a train of critical panning yet again, even when it's another movie being released that should be focused on? We've known since the week of March 25, 2016 that critics do not like BvS and we found out last August that they don't like Suicide Squad. Constantly reminding people how much you didn't like them in your subsequent reviews of other movies suggests that you have a pretty big and immature ax to grind at best, and an underlying deep-seated nefarious motivation at worst. 

3 - THE BLOGGERS AND THEIR CLICKBAIT

This is the most consistent and arguably strongest reason for believing a conspiracy on this list. In a world filled with "too much information" (yes, I'm going to keep quoting Denzel Washington with that) we now have people that are looking to fill the downtime between major news announcements with whatever they want......even if it doesn't have ironclad sources:

Or if it's a manipulated headline:

Taken from a quote with a completely different context:

But mostly, it's "reporting" on things with a negative tone on a regular basis:

This is just a fraction of what we see on social media all the time about the DCEU, and it is lapped up by many fans who either actively hate the movies or want to see them rebooted to their own personal standards. Whenever something actually does happen within the DCEU like this: 

It always manages to get "reported" from multiple outlets like this: 

While similar things can happen to other comic book movies:

And the outlets find a way to objectively report facts instead of inject negative opinions:

When you see people on social media and websites constantly telling you that your franchise is garbage, vastly inferior to its competitors and you are just a mindless fanboy psycho for defending it since "the world" clearly knows it sucks, you might see how DCEU fans could think there is a conspiracy against their movies.

It also doesn't help when people in the comic book industry admit things like this:

Everything shown here is just the tip of the iceberg of what DCEU fans have to deal with on a regular basis and sure, it's extremely easy to tell them all that "this is what happens when your movies suck," but that's a complete cop out excuse for this level of consistent hatred toward one singular franchise. The critics refuse to let it go, the boss of Rotten Tomatoes is openly slamming it on Twitter and the bloggers find a new way to stoke the fire and get clicks on a daily basis all about the DCEU and it's "troubled" existence. Whether there is a conspiracy against it or not, how can we look at this evidence and not understand even a little how someone could believe there is indeed a conspiracy against it? Marvel Studios and FOX have lost directors, replaced actors, delayed production on movies and have released films that not everyone in their fanbase cares for, but where those two companies seemingly get a free pass to conduct their business of making movies, everything that happens to WB and DC right now gets scrutinized and seemingly twisted into a negative right off the bat. 

There are many fans who say that part of the reason this is happening is because WB has not done a good job of handling these situations with any kind of announcements or public relations to put out the "hater fires." The thing is, there is so much of it that for the studio to acknowledge it all would mean wasting valuable time on a regular basis just to deal with unfounded clickbait every day. Not only that, but WB HAS been forthcoming with announcements for the past several months regarding their movie properties, including Gotham City Sirens, Aquaman, Man of Steel 2, Black Adam and the solo Batman movie. This is all with two DCEU movies in full post-production for 2017 releases as well, so if there is indeed a conspiracy it surely is not working.

The bottom line is that there is ample justification for DCEU fans to believe in either a bias or a conspiracy against the franchise based on how it has been treated in the past year, and again it is far beyond a simple "I dislike these movies" or "I disagree with your opinion" as many opponents of DCEU fans like to dismiss the arguments with. This isn't a case of so many people being upset because people disagree with them, it's a case of so many people being upset because no one is listening to them and just writing them off as crazy or a delusional fanboy.  A number of the bloggers and critics of the DCEU have commented on Twitter about how reprehensible the fans have been to them and how many they have had to block because their lives have been ruined. A few of them have even blocked me. There is no justification for anyone getting personal, levying threats or being blatantly insulting to someone else for a disagreement, but there is no accountability at all on the part of these bloggers and critics for the messages they convey to the audience they have. It should work both ways where there is accountability for both, but because there isn't, this is what we have and quite frankly, it sucks. 

I don't want to write about how there just might be a conspiracy to tank a comic book movie franchise, especially the one that I love the most, but I like many others can't ignore what's being tossed out there constantly against the DCEU. I'm not personally willing to say it's a conspiracy, but I'm more than willing to let that voice of the fans be heard in some legitimate sense. So please, think about that the next time you immediately strike to call a DCEU fan crazy or delusional for thinking their franchise is getting intentionally crapped on. All it takes is a quick look from their perspective to see where they are coming from, even if you don't agree with it.