It's too bad so many people in this community can't appreciate the content without having to be the content maker's fan.

Or ... "It's too too bad so many people in this community aren't comfortable simply being in disagreement with other people about controversial community figures."

You say that like the content absolutely demands and deserves appreciation and utter reverence, but it's only people's petty juvenile opinions of the authors that lead to them not receiving the recognition they so clearly deserve.

I don't think Thoorin or RL produce great content. I think they have fantastic opportunities and access to the esports world by virtue of getting in very early, and I think that they turn those opportunities into fairly average content. It's better than nothing, I will grant you. I think that in many cases someone else with the same opportunity could have produced better content, and at times I wish that someone else had got the opportunity rather than one of the boys.

I enjoy both Richard Lewis and Thorin's content,

That's cool. I'm not saying you shouldn't. No one is.

But please try and understand that those of us who don't aren't just letting some personal grudge get between us and recognizing near-divine talent. They're just writers with a style that is more polarizing than many, and personalities that

even if sometimes they can be a bit aggressive with their personality.

even their fans and defenders admit can be off-putting if not downright abrasive. Considering that neither is really up for just leaving their content in isolation from their personality (RL likes to trawl through any sort of discussion on him or his work, Thoorin is not far off.) and they both prefer roles where their personality is much more front and center than their work - talk shows, hosting, etc; over straight-up esports journalism, "just take their work in isolation" is something both of them might as well be trying to make difficult.

I don't think it's fair or reasonable to simply say "well, if you ignore everything negative about them and their work, they're awesome, and because they're awesome, everyone else should appreciate them like I do."

I wish people could show a bit of forgiveness and support good content within our community.

I support it when I see it, just like you. We just don't agree on what it is. And ... it feels a little disingenuous to make it out like I and folks like me got some sort of personal vendetta holding epic grudges over ... what? Simple criticism of what we see as mediocre content creators with longstanding patterns of shitty behaviour in our and other communities.

Like, especially when a huge part of the complaints around those two specific is that they really struggle to take negative feedback or criticism ... like mature, professional, adults. That whole 'grudges and content-blindness' is, from their fans, the same brand of thin-skinned ego salvage that they get criticized for directly.

Honestly, if they were pumping out what I consider awesome content way more, they'd never be in their current controversial position because way fewer people would have criticized mediocre work and RL & Thoorin wouldn't be so perma-triggered and spend so much time lashing out at haters and critics.

It's really hard to dislike or even have strong negative feelings about someone who just publishes dope work and otherwise doesn't make a fuss or pitch temper tantrums when someone inevitably - this is the internet, after all - has some silly nitpick-y complaint.