True and Loyal Fanbase
| “ | 1000000000+ | ” |
| Chris's totally accurate and unbiased estimate of the number of Sonichu fans, Common Questions, 26 January 2010. | ||
Chris constantly refers to his fans as his True and Loyal Fanbase (or "fandase"). In Mailbag #48, Chris stated that he believes he has over one billion fans, meaning that roughly one-seventh of the world's population (or one third of Internet users) has supposedly discovered and grown to love Sonichu since the comic began back in 2000.
Personal army
Like many individuals who have become notorious on the Internet, Chris believes that he has a sizable fanbase that adores him. Furthermore, he persists in this belief despite the fact that his "fanbase" has repeatedly proven to be composed exclusively of trolls.
Chris addresses his supposed supporters whenever he feels they would be most helpful, such as when he needs support in a contest or wants to see a troll taken care of, and speaks in the sincere expectation that total strangers will carry out his orders simply because he gave them. This belief was likely reinforced by the backfired trolling attempt during the GameStop Be A Star Sweepstakes, and it's possible that's what drives him to continue acting this way.
Chris tried to play the personal army game in the aftermath of his 12 April 2010 confrontation with Michael Snyder. The related Jackie e-mails gave us an interesting glance at Chris's perspective on his ability to command his fans, as well as this interesting tidbit:
| “ | Considering after what had transpired, I decided to upload the audio-only video onto my YouTube. I tried to be nice and peaceful. Now HE (Michael) will have to deal with my Trolls for his discrimination against me. | ” |
| Chris, expressing his belief that trolls will help him. | ||
It's currently unclear why Chris believes his trolls would bow to his requests. It's possible he thinks that his trolls are indiscriminately cruel to everyone, and that, if given a target, they would lash out against it without a second thought. Then again, given his sizable ego and shaky grasp on reality, it's also possible he thinks that trolls will do what he says just because he said it.
On 17 July 2010 Chris posted a series of tweets (if they can be called that given that Chris boldly defies the definition of microblogging) on his Twitter account after roughly three months of silence. In typical Chris fashion, he was only doing so not out of care for his fans but to ask for people to give him DLC codes for ModNation Racers, helping to push his agenda along by claiming that he was still working on the Sonichu comics. This is despite the fact that much of Chris's Sonichu fanbase had long ago given up hopes for any new pages. Along with e-begging, Chris proceeded to plug his ModNation Racers creations.
Chris's understanding of his personal army has become more apparent with the Calling Out videos. Somehow, Chris thinks that revealing the contact information of his trolls guarantees that they will be trolled. It is not difficult to see Chris's pattern of thought here, considering the fact that ever since his own address was released on the internet it made his house a hot spot for phone calls from trolls, letters from trolls, and hookers from trolls.
Chris's contempt for his fans
Chris takes his alleged fanbase entirely for granted. When he doesn't want something from them, he ignores them. He is happy to try and extort them, in fact, as when he threatened to withhold his comics unless the ED page was taken down. Despite his contemptuous attitude towards them, he assumes that his TRUE and LOYAL fans will keep the trolls in check. Another example came on 27 August 2009, when Chris implored his fanbase to remove every last video that showed the tour of his house after his father found out about it. To this day, mirrors of the two-part video still pop up to mock Chris.
Despite his belief that his fans adore him, Chris is notoriously inattentive to the sort of things that allow a person to continue having fans. He believes that people love him for his comic, and yet his updates are often months apart. His attitude is neatly summed up at the end of Sonichu #10, in the message from Marvey Blaziken. Chris wants the adulation that goes along with being a popular artist, but he thinks that he ought to receive it in exchange for whatever amount of effort he feels like putting forth. Which, Chris being Chris, isn't very much at all.
Chris refuses to take responsibility for his output or lack thereof, blaming any troubles on stress caused by the trolls. In a sense, because he expects his fans to take care of the trolls for him, he's blaming them for the fact that he can't keep updates regular. He also shows his fans contempt by having the radio on in the background during fan chats over Mumble[1][2] and giving extremely short, often rude, responses to lengthy, innocent questions in the Mailbag.
As his ego has swollen over the years, Chris seems to have come to believe he can control what his fans do with their lives. In a video from January 2010, Chris told his fans to never read an issue of Asperchu because "there are no LINKS" to Chris's works. He later went so far as to try and brainwash his followers into hating what he viewed as a rival comic.
Chris turns on his fans
In March 2010, after a troll interfered in Chris's pursuit of The Wallflower, Chris took to his blog and attacked his fans along with the trolls, accusing them of breaking up his quest for true love out of a selfish desire to consume more of his comics. "You all are just as Terrible as I portrayed Mary Lee Walsh to be," he declared, "so self-absorbed in yourselves, spoiled, and such, YOU ONLY want more story arcs and art MORE QUICKLY than my own Inspiration can come up with. You all are nothing bug greedy, impatient, unloved and corrupted people."
He also claimed to tire of trying to please the "millions" of fans he has. Instead, he explained that he only wants to please "the local few around me who I truly and deeply care about." What this could mean is a number of things. The biggest thing he feels they have done is trolled him just as badly as the trolls themselves just to get his comics. Thus, he feels that they share equal blame with the trolls just because he doesn't want to spend time working on his comic.
This might have represented a valuable moment of clarity on Chris's part. He may have managed to discover, however inadvertently, that all his comic really accomplishes is to draw unwelcome attention to him.
Unsurprisingly, Chris soon forgot all about this and went back to assuming command over his personal army, directing them to harass a manager for not letting him back into a store.
List of fans who aren't trolls
