"You don't have to like all the gens to be a fan of something. It does help to not constantly complain about them, though."
This can work with any piece of entertainment that has generations but I'm going to go with the two I'm more familiar with: Pokemon and MLP. Now I have two very differing looks on their generations. I love every single Pokemon one and I only like one gen other than the fourth for MLP.
That said though...it does get ear-gratingly annoying when people complain about how THE NEW POKEMON GAMES ARE SUCKY NINTENDO HAS NO VISION ANYMORE THEY'RE ALL SO LAME WHAT THE FUCK ICE CREAM. Over. And over. And good God man. You must have grown up with these right? And you had to have been at an age where you could remember them very, very well, right? Well then, you must be an adult. Complaining about a game made for kids. Think about that. That said though, if you just don't really like some that doesn't mean you're not a true fan.
And same goes for MLP. It's like Pokemon, just backwards: All of the old gens are piles of horse shit. Okay, yeah, if you look at them with a critical eye, they're really not good. Only one I like is trying to give a shit, but it doesn't do it particularly well. Yet again, complaining constantly about them just gets annoying. Yes, we get it, you hate G3, G3 was a bucket of commercial toy-selling colorful vomit, move on. But, if you don't like any before Friendship is Magic, that doesn't immediately make you 'not a true fan'.
I'm tired so that's all I have to the rant this evening.
It's pretty pathethic how people cry over all the generations of Pokemon and MLP. Personally, although I really like the old Pokemon games and anime, the Pokemon for the newer generations are a lot less cheesy. As for MLP, I was never into them when I was younger, but they do look better now.
Plus, the main structure of the Pokemon games barely changes (gameplay-wise), so saying one gen sucks and another rocks doesn't really make much sense to me. (Of course, this is coming from the guy who's only played White....)
as for mlp, if people don't like the previous generations, just remind them that the mane six are based off of characters from generation one~
Even though gen 1 had it's bouts of uncreativity as well.