Working Title: Fair Weather Followers
Laconic Title: When the followers of a certain leader and/or ideology are quick to abandon it as soon as something goes wrong or something they like better comes up.
So there's this swanky new idea, or celebrity.
Then something goes wrong. Maybe
Suddenly, all those loyal followers depart en masse. These are followers who bail at the first sign of trouble or the next new big thing.
You've got Fair Weather Followers on your hands.
This can happen for several reasons:
- Something newer, better, and cooler comes along
- It's become actually dangerous to continue following the ideology or individual because governing authorities declaired it immoral or illegal to associate with this movement or person.
Basically it's when a whole group of people are Fair Weather Friends,
This is a group of people who abandon a leader or ideology for similar reasons as the Fair-Weather Friend. Losing the followers isn't necessarily a reflection of the actual merit of the ideology or person. This trope is when the followers leave for their own personal reasons.
Please note this if fans or followers jump ship because the person or ideology they were following no longer benefits or entertains them. If no outside catalyst prompted the followers to leave, it may just be the natural cooldown period of the Fandom Life Cycle.
Compare: Fair-Weather Friend, Cult Defector, Not What I Signed Up For, Broken Pedestal, Always Someone Better, Screw This, I'm Out of Here!, Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!.
Contrast: Undying Loyalty
Examples:
You don't have a soul. You are a soul. You have a body.-CS Lewis
Likely to be said in some form by The Souless once they gain (or regain) a soul.