mika shimotsuki’s public defender

FRIEREN: BEYOND JOURNEY'S END ↳ Onion/Reductress Headlines

I had the misfortune of being targeted by the Julia stan after discovering Cowboy Bebop last year. I reblogged some interesting posts by plutomango that looked at Spike and Faye's relationship from a narrative perspective and even made my own post about how I don't hate Julia as a character and I just wanted to look at certain relationship dynamics with my narrative goggles on rather than shipping goggles.

It wasn't enough for the Julia stan who sent me the same tired "one true love" message and the same Keiko Nobumoto Julia is Spike's girl message (really convenient that they ignore what Watanabe says about Spike having feelings for Faye; you know the creator of the anime) until thanks to jetspikepub I promptly blocked them.

I wanted to say all this because I really appreciate you sticking up for the true Cowboy Bebop fans old and new who have been constantly harassed by this Julia stan for not towing the line.

Sorry I'm answering this ask a million years late, but thank you so much for reaching out!

Everyone in the Cowboy Bebop fandom has been dealing with this particular "fan" for almost 10 years, and it's honestly super exhausting. I'm all for people having different opinions than my own and often enjoy talking to them about those opinions, but this individual cannot be reasoned with. He is a troll, full-stop. You can present him with a literal treasure trove of evidence to back up your claims, but if that evidence in any way contradicts his incredibly shallow narrative, he refuses to engage with it.

Case in point: He'll twist himself into a pretzel trying to explain away Watanabe's quote about Spike "pursuing" Faye, saying that Watanabe was joking, his tone was misinterpreted, etc. -- as if he has the first fucking clue what Watanabe's tone was. Meanwhile, he clings to that one Keiko Nobumoto interview as if it's the word of God. As a Bebop fan, I appreciate Nobumoto's work more than I can say, but she is not the show's creator -- Watanabe is. If he says Spike likes Faye, then I'm gonna take him at his word and assume Spike likes Faye. Not that I even need his direct confirmation, considering I have eyes and ears and have watched the show, which does a pretty good job of confirming Spike/Faye all on its own. The fact that this dude cannot grasp something as simple and straightforward as the creator's own words is honestly concerning. Then again, I don't really think he's as dumb as he pretends to be. He understands what Watanabe is saying, he just doesn't like it, so he's gonna ignore it or second-guess it into oblivion, because that's what insecure people do.

At the end of the day, that's what everyone needs to realize: This guy is incredibly insecure. If he actually had faith in his ship, he wouldn't need to create all these burner accounts to put down Spike/Faye, Spike/Jet, Spike/Elektra, etc. It's one thing to post about your ship -- we all do that -- but it's quite another to hop on every post that doesn't directly support your ship and make a scene. That kind of behavior is toxic, immature, and embarrassing. It's also a clear indicator that he's super insecure about the fact that no one really cares about his ship. Anyone who's been in the Cowboy Bebop fandom for more than five minutes knows the most popular ship is Spike/Faye, followed directly by Spike/Jet. Clearly, this is incredibly distressing to Mr. Julia Simp 5,000, which is why he jumps on every post he can find that isn't Spike/Julie to share his sad little manifesto. After all, if he wasn't hijacking other people's posts, how would anyone hear about Spike/Julia? No one else is posting about them, so he's got to make sure he spams everyone else’s content just to make sure people don’t forget about his precious Julia. Extreme loser behavior, if you ask me (or anyone else in this fandom).

Anyway, don’t let this weirdo discourage you from being an active member of the Cowboy Bebop fandom. Aside from him, I’ve had nothing but pleasant experiences with my fellow Bebop fans, whether we agree on ships or not. And hey -- if there's a silver lining to this guy's creepy, bullying behavior, it's that fans like you and me get to bond over what a nuisance he is.