impureimpulse:

I’m a Persona and SMT fan. 

We’ve played Persona 3 & 4, Devil Summoner 1 & 2, and are well into Nocturne.

Digital Devil Saga 1 & 2, Eternal Punishment, Innocent Sin, and Devil Survivor 1 & 2 sit on our shelf,  waiting for their turn among  full-time jobs and adult responsibilities.
 
I’ve made about 25 Persona costumes, helped with many more, have plans for other Atlus cosplays, and spent over a year of my life building a massive sculpture of Izanami-no-Okami for Fanime 2013. Line and I helped start the California SMT/ Persona Cosplay community on Facebook. We’ve run many gatherings,  and organized King’s Games for some of them.

At AX this year, my friend was planning to wear Princess Yukiko, so I wore my Yukiko costume to get a few photos with her, and to be comfortable.  A man approached me, and asked for a picture.  I happily let him take it.

And then.
Then, he looked at me with this condescending smile, and asked how many hours I’d put into my Persona 4 playthrough. The anime had come out recently,  and he obviously, blatantly  thought I hadn’t played the game at all.

This insufferable Asshole actually quizzed my “nerd cred”, in a clear attempt to expose me as a “fake geek girl”. I muttered something about “oh, about 100 hours. On the 1st playthrough.” He walked off.

But seriously? 

None of what I mentioned above matters. I can cosplay Yukiko having seen only the anime if I freaking want, and it’s none of this douchebag’s business.  I never got a chance to say it to him, but:

Dude, fuck you. Go fuck yourself. Take  your sanctimonious, fan-policing, fake-geek bullshit, and get the fuck out of MY fandom.

And you know what? I’ve never been asked anything like that when cosplaying Yosuke. Or Kanji. Or Souji, Dojima, Adachi, or anything without tits and a skirt. It’s just sad.

This happened to me back in 2012, but it wasn’t a guy, it was another girl.  I was just standing in line at a con for registration and my wifey and I were talking about Persona.  The girl in front of us started going on and on about it, talking about the game, the anime, even the live action porno, just mentioning all of these things to try and out Persona 4 knowledge me, trying to see what I knew and trying to have the upper hand of Persona 4 knowledge.  Each time I was like, “Yep.  Know about that too,” ect. ect.

So finally I was like, “Hey, do you know about Persona 4 Arena?”  It was going to be released soon that year.

She was like, “Oh yeah!  I can’t wait it looks great!”

And I was like, “Oh yeah it’s really fun.  I actually played it at E3 this year.”

She shut right up.

But still, at the end of the day we’re all fans of the same thing, it doesn’t matter how you know it, whether it’s just the anime, or from the game, or even from the likes of Arena (which I have a friend who loves fighting games so that’s how I got him into Persona 4).  It just baffles my mind when the fandom can be so divided just because of how a person is introduced to it.  Not to mention that the Persona 4 fandom, or any SMT fandom for that matter, isn’t the biggest fandom in the world.  It’s no Supernatural or Dr. Who or Sherlock or even Attack on Titan and things like that.  When you’re at a con walking through the dealer’s room you’re probably going to see the same figures, if you see any, and maybe a key chain or something… maybe.  When you walk through artist alley good luck finding fanart.  There aren’t a bunch of cosplayers walking around.  Just… it’s not that big compared to what else is out there.  So, honestly, when I see a fan the first thing on my mind is, “OMG YAY ANOTHER ONE,” not, “Ugh I bet they just watched the anime, scoff.”  I mean I don’t care if you call him “Yu” or “Souji” I’m just happy that you even know who he is.

Also how rude is it to challenge someone’s “nerd cred” after asking for a picture?  Jeez.