Alright, so I've got a late-night thought to lay on the table;

Does fandom mentality make a series less enjoyable?

I'm not talking about obnoxious fans who storm the internet and make you embarrassed to admit you like something; I just mean the way "dedicated" fans of something will so heavily criticize certain parts of a series they so "love" and claim that a creative choice that maybe deviates from the norm has "ruined" that series. 

Now I know that the series I'm about to use as an example is one that can be really... "controversial" for lack of a better term, but it's what made me think of it so I'm going with it anyway. Earlier today I finally got around to watching the MLP season 4 finale that was sitting on my DVR (I realize 90% of you have probably stopped reading by now), and I, personally, kind of liked the magical girl-esque transformation sequence in the climax. The unexpectedness of it plus the sheer craziness of all that magic going around was pretty enjoyable to watch. And I kind of liked the designs, too. But now I'm learning that apparently that's a really unpopular opinion among MLP fans and everyone's raging about the transformations and letting that ruin the finale for them.

I mean transformations notwithstanding, all I could think about when I watched most of that finale was how unexpectedly intense the plot got, how great the animation was, etc... if the transformation was cut out I bet a lot more people would've liked it. I mean that animation was [i]gorgeous[/i], all through the finale. So, does fandom mentality make a series harder to enjoy? Is it wrong to so heavily criticize something like that if it makes it hard to enjoy any other part of it? Can you really call yourself a fan of something if you're tearing it apart?

Why am I even posting about this. I'm in a weird mood tonight.