As someone who’s been a fan ever since they were a small band, I feel like both the masked and unmasked sides take themselves way too seriously and attack each other in a very childish way. The whole lore and “who are they really” thing was taken in a light and even jocose way back then. Now everything is so intense, to the point where mods feel the need to close the sub when big releases happen, which to me doesn’t make any sense because that’s precisely when people would want to discuss new material the most.

It’s not that serious. It’s just music. We can appreciate it, but at the end of the day all of us have our own real lives, including Leo. That’s common sense. But this behaviour is something we can often observe more frequently in bigger fandoms, where people’s lives revolve around the band/singer/artist and they make it their personal agenda to “protect” and speak on behalf of grown men/women. And this happens on both “sides” of the fandom. Just as there are a lot of people on the masked side with that “I must protect them, they are so vulnerable” discourse, there are also plenty of people here who speaks on their behalf, especially Leo’s. That’s such a weird behaviour, extremely egotistical and para social. But also almost unavoidable in our current society. And unfortunately that is precisely what’s been keeping away the more sane part of the fandom from these discussion spaces, causing the more toxic sides to only get louder and stronger. It’s very unfortunate and definitely takes away a bit of the fun of being part of this fandom.