You know, there’s a lot of things people do on the internet that I don’t think I will ever understand. From people who say that gaming is “dead” or “isn’t good anymore” while also ignoring the existence of all the great and wonderful games we have gotten over the past few years to react channels on YouTube where there success is built entirely of just reacting to other people’s stuff to how people will call out how awful AI is (which it IS awful, I am not denying that at all) but then turn around and defend AI when it’s used for “fun.” I could go on about every negative trend that’s popped up on the internet but there’s one in particular I really dislike and will never understand why some people do it. Hate art.

As someone who regularly commissions artists and has even become good friends with certain artists I have commissioned I have strong opinions on hate art. In fact, I didn’t even know hate art was really a thing until I started getting commissions and many artists having on there comm sheets that they won’t do hate art, and for good reason. And while I thankfully don’t see hate art as frequently as you might think, just the concept alone makes me groan and roll my eyes at. I don’t think I need to explain what it even is since the definition is in the name. Hate Art is art based solely on your own hatred for a character, series, person or anything really and usually in a manner that showcases stuff like those characters getting beaten up or dying or anything really. I also don’t think I need to explain why that concept on its own is a fucking stupid idea but since I’m bound to get some people asking me “Why are you agents the idea of hate art?” regardless allow me to answer that with my own question. Why waste your energy and creativity on making something solely for the purpose of telling people how much you hate that thing when you can instead be focusing that creative energy to create something based around a character or series you do love?

Look, I get it. We all have different opinions on different things based on certain factors regardless of if it’s loving something to not loving something. There are things that I love and have a passion for that no doubt some of my friends and followers don’t love as much as me. Just as how you all probably have something you love that I don’t and there is nothing wrong with that. My problem is when people’s hate for something is so strong they resort to making art solely for the intention of showing how much they hate it, maybe even doing it solely just to get under the skin of the people who do like it.

And sadly, I use to follow someone who one day decided to resort to making hate art. I’m not going to name names because even with me expressing how much I dislike the idea of hate art I don’t want people to go after anyone in particular but it was an artist I had been following for years up to that point and had some genuinely good art and had even commissioned them in the past but one day about a year ago they decided to actually make hate art. They made hate art of a certain character I loved but they really didn’t like sinking in actual shit and went on some big rant in their description about how much they hated them and I’m sorry, but I didn’t even have to think twice about unfollowing them because come on dude, really?

And yeah, you could make the argument that as artists they should have the freedom to draw whatever they want for whatever reasons they want and we shouldn’t control them. Which yeah, I do agree with on the whole "artists should be allowed to have freedom" part. I have always been in favour of the idea that any artists should have the freedom to do whatever they want with their medium. Even if I or really a majority of people are not personally a fan of how certain artists chose to use their talent (*cough* Pixar seriously thinking continuing the Toy Story movies after the emotional and amazing ending of 3 is a good idea. *cough*) I would be a pretty big hypocrite if I was such a supporter of artistic creative freedom but then tried to control how people used their creativity. Thing is, I also think criticising how some people use their talent is also just as fair because how are you going to ever improve if you don't take some legitimate criticism? Especially when you use you talent for a purely hateful reason as well!

No matter how much of a supporter of artistic creative freedom I might be, you will NEVER convince me that hate art is something I should be okay with or even get done myself even with the amount of characters from fiction I do hate.

For example; if I was still writing stories I could just as easily write one about Yami from Komi Can’t Communicate getting sentenced to and dying in prison because she is by far my least favourite character from that show due to her whole personality revolving around nothing but Komi and is even willing to kidnap and threaten to kill one of her friends just to spend time with her but the reason I won’t is because why do that when I can instead make Komi Can’t Communicate part of my crossover universe and write a story about a character from another franchise I like helping Komi get over her shyness and anxiety of interacting with other people. I could also just as easily commission an artist to draw for me a pic of Stella from Helluva Boss getting beaten to an inch of her life because she is a character I absolutely despite due to how abusive she is towards her husband Stolas, a character I actually do really like, and openly admits that she enjoys tormenting him on top of how she hit’s WAY to close to home for me personally as someone who had to put up with an abusive and manipulative step mother that came into my life during my teenage years who ended up being the cause of many of my personal issues or making the ones I already had even worse but even with how much I’d want to punch Stella in the face if I ever met her I will NEVER waste my money on something like that when spending it on a commission of Stolas sounds like a much, MUCH better use of my time given how much I like him more and slightly relate to him!

I know I’m not the only one who see’s just how stupid hate art is. Plenty of people agree with me that hate art is the dumbest thing in the world. I mentioned before that many of the artists I’ve commissioned in the past or want to commission in the future have on their commission sheets that they will turn down your requests if it’s hate art and I’m so glad they do because hate art is something we need to stop from being a thing. It’s just a shame that I know this concept won’t just go away because I call out how stupid it is because nothing get's you attention more than negativity nowadays!