I originally imagined them getting annoyed by the comments, but no.

Elliot and Susan are too clever for that!

In the course of the storyline, I've been asked about authors defining who is or isn't a "real fan" of their work. My opinion on that is that authors don't really get to decide who is or isn't a fan of their work, and what they're actually expressing is which fans THEY'RE not fans of.

The logic of which, if going by the definition Elliot and Susan settled on for "fan", objectively checks out. There's no part of the definition that involves the creators giving their blessing, and the creator in this instance is stating who they do not enthusiastically like, and may well dislike.

Therefore, who they say are fans of their work is irrelevant to who are fans, and they're clearly not fans of the people they claim don't get to count as fans.

Unless, somehow, they enthusiastically like the people they're adamantly claiming are not real fans of they're work? People can be contradictory like that, but I give it low odds.