#shipper!Jared

[lambmotifz]

d*stiel never had a chance against wincest ♡

[jacarandaaaas]

I’m so normal about them

[freemaagyemans]

AND THAT DAY FINALLY CAME!

[outlanderfandomfollies]

Every so often I just have to say: "Really?"

I rarely post anymore about Outlander fandom nonsense, but recently I checked in on the fandom and saw that the two "alternate reality" fandom factions were continuing to post away, still lost in their respective conspiracy theories.

It's hard to believe that after all these years, and countless debunks of the "receipts" for their far-fetched and utterly impractical conspiracy theories, that they are STILL lost down their respective rabbit holes.

Of course, nothing I write will influence anything they think, but sometimes I just have to say, "Really?"

And so once again, I am saying "Really?" Not just for me, but for the small contingent of Tumblr Outlander fans who are not living in an "alternate reality," and who perhaps need to know they are not alone.

In my recent fandom check-ins, I caught up on what had been happening in the past month. Below the cut are my thoughts about two of the topics that rocked the fandom in the past month, and how those living in their respective "alternate realities" perceived them.

The Ship is STILL Lost at Sea

Not surprisingly, the most farfetched recent drama in the fandom came from Shipperville.

THE SHIPPER "SLEUTHS" HAVE BEEN BUSY: As is par for the course for them, some shipper "sleuths" went searching through video footage of a June 8th Edinburgh concert crowd to find a small SC "breadcrumb" that they believed could keep their ship afloat.

As a result of their search, they found evidence that C had given S some hugs and--from what shippers perceived--at least one kiss on the mouth. Looking at the very blurry enlarged clips being shared on Tumblr from the Paramore - The Only Exception concert video, it seems to me that S & C hugged, and if they exchanged a kiss, it appeared to be a kiss on the cheek.

But even if it were a kiss on the mouth, it was a quick peck in greeting at most. The speed of the the SC "hug & 'kiss'" is evident when you look at the two gifs below. The first gif on the left shows the SC "hug & 'kiss'" at a "normal" speed. The second gif on the right shows the same scene in slow motion. The SC "hug & 'kiss'" fly by at "normal" speed. If you blink, you'll miss it.

Finally, as seen below, C also hugged someone else (Sophie?) and then John Bell, and might have even given John a kiss in greeting. Yet, the shippers didn't think that meant anything more than what it was--just a greeting between good friends.

Once again shippers ignore the fact that actors tend to be touchy feely people. Consequently, it is common for actors to greet each other with hugs and kisses--even kisses on the lips! 👄😱😉 But that ISN'T evidence that S & C are "secretly married." 🙄

Closet Crew Smugness

SPARE US THE SMUGNESS: What never fails to amaze me is the smugness of the closet crew, given their own history of believing in conspiracy theories. But the irony was apparently lost on them when they were clucking about those poor misguided shippers who were writing their own "romantic fanfic" regarding the SC concert "kiss."

The smugness is particularly problematic for the subset of the closet crew who used to be long-term shippers themselves, especially the ones who were caught up for years* in SC conspiracy theories.

Eventually, these former shippers saw the light, and left the SC conspiracy theories behind--only to get immersed in the closet crew conspiracy theories!🤦🏻‍♀️ Talk about "Out of the frying pan into the fire."

THE TWO GROUPS AREN'T SO DIFFERENT: Although the closet crew conspiracies IMHO are slightly less out in left field than the SC conspiracies, they are still similar in that they are impractical and improbable, and ignore (or rationalize away) a lot of evidence that contradicts and/or debunks their "receipts."

CONFIRMATION BIAS: Like the SC shippers, confirmation bias clouds how the closet crew perceives any new information about S. Case in point, the recent brouhaha over the May 29th photos in Just Jared that show S holding hands with a woman.

CALL THE PAPARAZZI: Naturally, the closet crew assumed S and/or his PR team set up a pap walk for S in order to bolster his heterosexual image.

However, that assumption overlooks the fact that there was absolutely nothing positive about these photos in terms of PR for S.

CUE THE FANDOM "SLEUTHS": In my opinion, S & his PR team would not have chosen this particular woman for S to do a pap walk with because they would have known that the fandom "sleuths" would quickly comb the Internet and discover that the woman in the photo was LM.

Furthermore, S & his PR team also had to have known that the sleuthing might reveal some unsavory information about LM that many fans would be unfortunately all too ready to believe.

For instance, some fans convinced themselves that they had found evidence that LM is an "escort." Yet, certain other fans think that some of the escort stuff doesn't pan out if closely examined, because it appears that lots of escort sites have pictures of beautiful women who aren't actual escorts. In addition, apparently at least some of the photos that are supposed to be of LM don't match in terms of tattoos.

I tend to side with the skeptics here because some fans had the same reasons to make similar assertions about Gia that later turned out to be FALSE.

Still, in general, everyone agrees that there seems to be something a little sketchy about LM. It is those sketchy qualities that would NOT make a S & LM pap walk something that S or anyone on his PR team would want to set up.

If anyone called the paparazzi, it seems to me it would either have been some third party who recognized S, or it would have been LM (who might have something to gain by being seen with S).

S reportedly turned off his tags as soon as he learned about the photos. Most likely that was because he knew he would be harassed by the fandom. Which, once again, suggests this is NOT something he willingly set himself up for.

In fact, there is evidence that S is wary of paparazzi seeing him with women. In a DEUX/U podcast, Paige W. said that she believed that S backed out of a date with her because of his fear of her interest in posting paparazzi photos.

A SIMPLE EXPLANATION: The simplest explanation (and the only one that doesn't involve a conspiracy theory) is that S saw LM for a no-strings-attached hookup. Perhaps they had had encounters in the past, and hence the hand holding. (Or perhaps it is easier not to get separated walking in a city if one holds hands.)

Either LM called the paparazzi (because it could benefit her), some third party recognized S and called the paparazzi, or a paparazzi was on the street for something else, recognized S, and took the photo.

LET'S NOT FORGET THE "PINEAPPLES": And given what the fandom recently learned about "pineapples" (mentioned during a podcast with LH, who apparently had dated S), it appears that S just might be a "swinger" (big surprise--not). So it makes sense that he would be into no-strings-attached hookups.

A WEAK RATIONALE: To me the hookup explanation of why S and LM were seen together makes more sense than the highly questionable belief that this was a "fake date" that S, a little known actor (even Just Jared had to explain who S was for people who didn't know), wanted to have photographed so he could keep up a long "history" of costly, "fake dates" with women in order to hide his "sexuality."🙄

LET'S NOT FORGET "BRIDGERTON": And BTW, regarding the closet crew belief that Outlander fans would not accept a gay actor playing Jamie Fraser, remember that Jonathan Bailey, who plays Anthony in Bridgerton, has done a bang up job in both seasons 2 and 3 playing a heterosexual man in love with a woman, Kate Sharma (Simone Ashley).

Many of the same kinds of people who are drawn to Outlander are drawn to Bridgerton, and casting Baily to play a heterosexual romantic lead apparently didn't affect ratings. In fact, Bridgerton's season 2 ratings were reportedly higher than those for season 1.

Again, I believe S, who said in a 07/24/18 Logo interview that he isn't gay. But even if it turned out he were, and it came out, true Outlander fans would go right on watching.

The rationales the closet crew come up with for their conspiracies seem to me to be nearly as silly as the reasons the SC shippers have for why they believe TPTB have "forced" S & C to "hide" their marriage and their 3-5 "boos" from the world for years.

IT'S HARD TO CLIMB BACK OUT OF THE RABBIT HOLE: Unfortunately, both "alternate reality" groups will most likely continue to believe in their conspiracies--at least as long as Outlander is on the air. (Although I believe some of the hardcore shippers will continue indefinitely, much like the Twilight Robsten shippers.)

Because if you stay down the rabbit hole too long, it is very difficult to climb back out.

I also think the reason some of these "alternate reality" fans stay down their respective rabbit holes is that they have developed bonds with their communities and don't want to lose their friends. They also don't know how to continue being a part of the larger Outlander community without being a part of their respective "alternate reality" communities.

I guess it is easier to stay down a rabbit hole you know than to find out what's outside of it.

Originally posted 06/20/24; edited and slightly updated 06/20/24.

____________ *Full disclosure: I lightly shipped SC for about 2 months back in 2015, but quickly realized they weren't a couple. These gifs/images were modified from their sources: the "Really?" gif, the Ship in the storm image, the Fandom "Sleuth" gif, the Nancy Drew gif, the Sam in pineapple swimwear gif, the Occam's razor gif, and the "That's rubbish!" gif. These gifs/ images that were NOT modified from their sources: the Smug gif, the Just Jared photo, the Bridgerton gif; and the Alice & the rabbit hole image. My paparazzi meme: The paparazzi image was slightly modified from the source image. My gifs: The "Out of the frying pan" gif was made from this video; subtitles were from Forever Dreaming Transcripts. The first and second "S & C at the concert" gifs were made from the Paramore video; the third "S & C at the concert" gif was made from a section of the Paramore video found on this post.

[hippychick006]

It’s very interesting they have that laundry list of lies they trot out about Jared time and time again and yet absolutely nothing on Misha’s factual rape and slavery “jokes” or that he queerbaited and profited financially from doing so, or that he is the only straight person to have to come out as straight because he pretended to be bi one too many times,, or that his treasure hunts had extremely questionable items on it, not least the nudes covered only in food products (when his known fanbase is young impressionable girls), or that he found himself outside school fences staring at young girls as he prepared for Karla and felt invigorated in the scenes he was beating a woman, or that he tried to get a threesome from 2 barely legal teens when he was in his 30s, and in the same night was so drunk he fell but instead of admitting to that, tried to get sympathy by saying he was mugged. Like bffr who the asshole in the supernatural actors is

[ardentpoop]

[at the homophobe convention] you don’t think my ship should be canon? kill yourself, homophobe

[laf-outloud]

@odetteannable TONIGHT IS THE NIGHT! Season finale of @thecwwalker. We worked hard, we love each other, we support each other and we get to keep doing it for another season (at least!!!) Thank you to the #walkerverse #walkerfamily for being the very very best! We love you! See you tonight 8/c. 🤠♥️🤠♥️🤠♥️

That is a fabulous photo of Jared and Odette!

[mpregspn]

i think you're blocked because they said they'd temporarily block anyone who joked about wanting to kill dean in the tags

i knowwwww but i had to bc it's real&true

[pinkhysteria]

matt/reilly being treated as a more legitimate showmance by production than cory/america is hysterical LMFAO.

[mewmewgirl101]

ANTI DESTIEL SHIPPERS IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH ME DO NOT LEAVE I COMMET IF YOU LEAVE A MEAN HATEFUL OR NEGATIVE COMMENT IT WILL GET DELTED CAUSE I DONT NEED OR WANT YOUR NEGATIVELY. IF YOU LEAVE A NICE COMMENT I WILL GLADLY POST IT ON HERE WITH YOUR USERNAME WITH YOUR PERMISSION OF COURSE

Megstiel is the best ship even god agrees. But Crowley doesn’t want Castile to be happy cause he’s a demon and he hates angels

Megstiel is the best ship ever.cass wants revenge on Crowly.and if nattily knew cass was in love with meg we all know she would make cass kill meg over and over.after she came back I was like noooooooo I thought they killed the b****if they can bring that b**** back. Why couldn’t meg come back.love how her picked to stay at the hospital with Meg many times instead of going to heaven or with Dean. And looked at her with so much love when Dean and Sam came to Visit. Or how happy he was saw Meg and not Dean. in the empty but looked so broken when it wasn’t really her. And how kissing her was a good memory. And if they lived through getting the angel table have ordered pizza and moved furniture if you know what I mean and she loved him

I got a Very mean comment in the comments even though I put a lot of different ways to anti deastiel tags so i don’t get hate from people who do ship them. to show I don’t ship them. and lots of different types of pro megstiel tags and other tags to show ship megstiel hard.😡and I make it very clear I only ship megstiel so I don’t get hate about that either.I want to put something mean for people who deliberately leave hate. But I am lady

I hate When people leave mean comments and even though you put very specific tags so that doesn’t happen. But happens away Do they look it up just so they can be mean or something and leave a negative comment to make people feel bad. I would say some thing mean but as I said before I am a lady

😡😠

[im-not-a-l0ser]

So, fun fact about me is that I am okay shipping Tree Bros, and I'm okay shipping Conman, but I am not okay shipping Kleinsen or Sincerely Three.

I mean personally, I have nothing against the people who ship either of those. But for me, I think Jared and Evan both deserve better in different ways.

Anyway, the lack of Conman on AO3 is driving me up the fucking wall.

[hyperpagee]

[lilacpaperbird]

*white knuckling the bathroom sink* do NOT infodump ppl about the fact that the first spn fic was a wincest one and that it was posted mere hours after the pilot and that the founder of ao3 was a wincestie and that the first fic on ao3 was wincest too and that the omegaverse as we know it was created by wincest shippers for jared/jensen fics *pointing at myself in the mirror with a shaky hand* ppl will think you're weird and off-putting you need to control yourself–

[upside-down-low]

i think jared is a very possible ship name for jonathan/argyle/eddie

[rowantheteenagewitch]

Someone save me. Why the fuck does like most of the supernatural fandom on here ship wincest. Like stop it please😭 EWW it's gross. And shipping Jared and Jensen is terrible to. Just stop being weirdos I beg of you. If anyone who is in the supernatural fandom and is NOT a wincest shipper sees this please be my mutual fr,I beg. I don't care if it's fictional,why do you want to see brothers fuck each other.

[eisforeidolon]

Lest we forget, "Fan Fiction" was the first and only ep that Jensen flew down to LA to speak with Carver/Thompson about, because of the Destiel shit in it. Even Thompson said he was a bit worried he was getting fired, because again, while Jared and Jensen have met with the writers before, it was usually before the start of the seasons, and never in the middle of one after reading a script.

Yeah, not only has Jensen repeatedly said he never played Dean that way? When they decided to do an episode which only just mentioned the ship as part of the whole fanfiction thing? He went directly to ask what the hell they were doing in a way he hadn't ever done before [X]. Because he cared about his character and the story and wanted to know what the message was supposed to be, to make sure it wasn't something that didn't fit.

This is not somebody who has just never ~*considered the possibility*~. This is somebody who put a lot of thought and effort into crafting a character across fifteen seasons of a show. For a fair span of which, he did so while having to try and be patient dealing with "fans" at conventions who repeatedly made it clear they were too busy fantasizing about him having gay sex to pay attention to literally anything else. They've been shoving NSFW fanart in his face, demanding he read deluded essays about Dean's sexuality, trying to box him in with leading questions to make him admit Dean's bi and lurves Castiel romantically, labeling him a homophobe if he doesn't agree with them, and just generally telling him in a million ways they don't care about him as an actor or even about any version of Dean that isn't half their ship for a long-ass time.

Given those givens? If you think he hasn't been very aware of anything that would even hint at an other-than-brotherly relationship with Castiel in a legitimate way (i.e. not lighting or bacon or other shipper hallucinations of significance)? C'mon. So, no, rewatching the show isn't going to magically change his mind by showing him something he ~*never noticed*~ before. One, because there literally is no there there without shipper goggles welded to your face. Two, because we know of times where he took deliberate steps to make sure there continued to be no there there. Because that wasn't canon Dean's story.