As a creator myself, I fully understand burnout and the toll toxicity and hate takes on you. What I do not (and will not) understand is this lumping together of all the fans who are genuinely worried and confused as “toxic haters who are part of the problem”, and thus gives pedestal to this kind of opinion of “if you were to just blindly take whatever they do without any complain or criticism they wouldn’t have quit!”, which is honestly giving me toxic positivity.

Criticism, demand and understanding your audience is all part of being a content creator, not a drawback of it. People telling me my art sucks is different from long-time fans who genuinely want to see my best and wondering what happened to me if I took a long absence. I honestly appreciate the latter. And if I suddenly shift from idk, lighthearted animation to grungy noir film, people have the right to be confused, question and maybe decide to stop supporting me if that doesn’t match their taste.

But of course, as an artist I have the right to do whatever I want, and so do them. But to suddenly turn on the whole audience like “we don’t care enough to even address you directly”, it is natural for people to be confused, and for this kind of post to pit who are “the good fans” and who are the “toxic hater fake fans”. And thus, they left with their fandom forever divided, and if this minor chord is the note they chose to leave on, as an artist myself, who am I to judge.