Unpleasable Fanbase

"I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." —Bill Cosby

Sometimes, fanbases are, or appear to be, perennially complaining not just about minute details of the Canon, but about everything. This sometimes relates to fake fannishness: some people just don't like a piece of fiction, yet insist on consuming it. It's not just Snark Bait, it's just some people who call themselves fans but think, "Well, those new additions aren't very good. But, then again, it wasn't very good in the beginning either."

A possible sign of an Unpleasable Fanbase is a Catch-22: if they complain about one thing, and the people behind the franchise listen and fix it, only to have other parts of the fanbase complain about the change. This is because, in extremely large fandoms, different portions of the fandom complain about distinctly different things, so that any change (and in particularly bad cases, any lack of change) will inevitably anger someone.

Basically, this is about a fanbase which is so varied and divided in opinion that it's impossible to give everyone in it what they want.

While Unpleasable Fanbase has been a problem for any media with a sufficiently large fanbase (you simply cannot please all of the people all of the time), in the Internet Age it takes on a new dimension when even a small minority can make their opinions heard. It's enough to make an author want to give up.

See also Accentuate the Negative, Contested Sequel, The Law of Fan Jackassery, Ruined FOREVER, Hypocritical Fandom, Fan Dumb, They Changed It, Now It Sucks, It Is the Same Now It Sucks, Complaining About Complaining and Why Fandom Can't Have Nice Things. When the creators announce something that actually does get the fandom in line with them, it's And the Fandom Rejoiced.

Examples are okay. Just don't get into flame wars.

Film

• If the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy will be remembered for anything, it will be for proving the existence of "The Fandom Menace." After the Prequels, Disney and Lucasfilm opted for a Revisiting the Roots approach to the franchise which resulted in everyone saying that The Force Awakens was too similar to A New Hope. The studio heard this and made The Last Jedi different which fans thought was too different. And trying to split the difference in The Rise of Skywalker made no one happy.
• During Phases 4 and 5 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, fan reception to the Kang the Conqueror and the Multiverse was rather more mixed than it had been to Thanos and the Infinity Stones in Phases 1-3. After Kang's actor suffered a Role Ending Misdemeanor, Marvel scrapped the arc and replaced Kang with Doctor Doom. The audience reaction? Mourning that Kang amounted to an Aborted Arc and thinking that the plans for the scrapped Avengers: The Kang Dynasty sounded cool.

Video Games

• The Sonic the Hedgehog fanbase.
• Fire Emblem fandom.

Western Animation

• Voltron: Legendary Defender‍'‍s fandom takes the crown for this trope. While many shows have toxic fanbases, not many have the poor fan behavior listed on their Wikipedia page.
• The My Little Pony fandom in general, but especially since My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic came out and the franchise went mainstream.
• The South Park fandom, especially in its later seasons.
• The Transformers fanbase takes change rather poorly. How poorly? They named "Ruined Forever".