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Recently, The Originals executive producer Julie Plec took to twitter and made a controversial comment. Julie at one point told some fans they "just shouldn't watch" because they were criticizing relationships that have been on the show since day one.

Julie claims to have hit a breaking point with the fans. However, does Julie really have the right to be angry at shippers?

Tweet about Julie saying fans shouldn't watch: https://twitter.com/julieplec/status/721277948351778816

Tweet about Julie hitting a breaking point: https://twitter.com/julieplec/status/721279081417801728

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Over the years, producers, writers, etc. for The Originals have made claims that they do not cater to shippers. However, time and time again, they contradict themselves by making episodes centered around specific couples.

Producers, writers, etc. know that they need to have their audience build an attachment to the show. What better way then having them cheer on specific couples? They will purposely tease the fans with hints of possible romantic relationships. Thereby building an emotional attachment between the show and the audience. They will then tease a relationship that either never happens or something happens just as the relationship gets going.

Be honest with yourselves for a moment. The majority of viewers are invested in one ship or another. It doesn't matter if you ship canon, semi-canon, or non-canon ships. A majority of the episodes revolve around couples. Look back to the Pilot for a moment.

After the one night stand, Klaus tells Hayley of her birthmark's origin; drawing her to New Orleans. Shortly after, Klaus received word that a witch was plotting against him in New Orleans; drawing him back. There, they learn the one night stand led to a pregnancy.

The show began around a one time fling between two characters. From the start, we are shown Klaus and Hayley thrown together by circumstance, Elijah having an interest in Hayley, and Klaus taking an interest in Cami.

From there, all the viewers had to do was decide which pairing(s) they supported. Some viewers didn't even support couples shown on The Originals. They enjoyed a couple that had happened on the parent show, The Vampire Diaries.

Already, in the first episode conflict had been created. Some viewers supported a couple that originated on the parent show. Some viewers supported Klaus being with the mother of his child. Some viewers supported Elijah with the mother of Klaus's child. Some viewers supported Klaus with the new character.

The producers established love triangles. Elijah falls in love with Hayley who is caring his brother’s child. Klaus compels Cami to distract Marcel romantically while being interested her himself.

The relationships on The Originals were found wanting. Wanting to be something more but falling flat. The characters themselves that did not get proper individual development. Instead, the characters developed in a way that made them suitable for specific pairings.

The couples were simply thrust onto the viewers and viewers were told to accept them. If someone tells another person to just accept something, what usually happens?

Typically, you will see these reactions:

Those who simply accept it.

Those who do accept it but were reluctant too. 

Those who are neutral about it because they are not invested. 

Those who don't like it but are quite about it. 

Those who do not accept it will never accept it and are vocal about it. 

What type are you?

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With social media mentions, plot summaries, images, and even trailers the cast and crew can and do promote specific couples. They can control the majority of the promotions. Some shows have even gone to the point of purposely leaking spoilers to create chatter.

More often than not, you can find cast, crew, and fans who consistently tweet about their favorite pairings. While it is within their rights to do this, it can cause a lot of complications for themselves.

Examples:

A cast member comments they like these two interacting. Then suddenly that writer begins to receive insults and death threats from people who don't like those two characters interacting.

A writer is asked if two characters having a scene together. When they don't answer, they are suddenly confirming rumors because they won't answer a tweet. If they answer, it will happen because they said so.

A fan of the show sees a comment about a specific pairing they hate and feels the urge to comment about how much that pairing sucks compared to such and such pairing. Then suddenly, all people that like the same pairing are crucified.

Please note that these are hypothetical situations. Examples of some similar situations that have appeared over the past years. Situations like the above examples happen more often than anyone would like to admit. Situations like this occur because the cast, crew, or even other fans answer questions vaguely either on purpose or not.

These situations happen because viewers need to know and they need to know now. Viewers have an insatiable desire to know what is going to happen next, who is going to die, or who slept with who.

Much like fishermen dangling bait in front of a fish the cast, crew, and even fans know that if they dangle a little piece of information (true or not) or hopefulness in front of fans, they will bite. They know viewers will continue to watch when there is even the slightest hope that what they want will happen.

It should be mentioned that some cast and crew opt out of answer pairing type of questions.