#capgate

See, Anons, if I hadn’t been here for over 5 years and seen the same thing play out over and over again, I may have given credence to what you’re trying to sell me. But I HAVE been here over years and KNOW FOR SURE that the ones who get this outraged by Sam’s “behavior” as it relates to women he dates are Extreme Shippers, ex-Extreme Shippers, Regular Shippers, Closet Shippers, and what I call Shipper-Sympathizers. Why do I say this?

Because back in the day, when there was the outrage over Amy Shiels, and then Cody Kennedy, I was still a shipper. And I was one of the ones who treated them horribly and harassed them, and I saw what sides people fell into (I’ve since apologized directly to them for my bad behavior). There was the Shipper side who was PISSED at Sam for not frolicking in pools and on the beach with Cait, and showed public HATE towards the non-Caits. There were the Mean Girls who hung out with us, who weren’t necessarily Shippers, but they were our friends aka Shipper Sympathizers, and they got sick pleasure out of trolling just for the sake of trolling. AND then separately, there were the Super Fans. The ones who had been book fans and then became Outlander TV show fans, and they were appalled at Shipper, Mean Girl, and Shipper Sympathizer behavior. There were also the Regular Fans who may or may not have read the books, but were mostly TV show fans, but were not Shippers. The latter two categories: Super Fans and Regular Fans did not get involved in talking about Sam or Cait’s personal lives and looked down on those who did. 

Those categories have not changed much in 5 years. I can assure you that Super Fans and Regular fans are not spending their time tagging Sam directly to scold him about being in Hawaii. They don’t focus on Sam’s personal life, they’re not invested in it, therefore nothing he does in that regard “disappoints” them. They’re about the books, the show, the charities, and Sam’s other endeavors. As long as Sam fulfills his obligations to those, they don’t care what he’s doing on his off time. Are there Super Fans and Regular Fans who have heard about Sam being in Hawaii with Gia and maybe thought he could have made a different choice? Sure. BUT the difference is they are NOT tagging Sam or Gia complaining to them directly, or whining about it all over social media. And they are certainly NOT creating hate sock troll accounts to hate on Sam and Gia. That category is reserved solely for Extreme Shippers. The ones who PUBLICLY proclaim that their ship is still sailing and Sam and Cait are secretly together are just fronting for their back alley alter egos who reside as hate sock troll accounts on Instagram and Tumblr. Kim the Flutist is a perfect example of this duplicity. On her regular Flutist account, she’s all love and light and support for both Cait and Sam, despite now being blocked by both of them. But in the dirty back alleys of Instagram slums, she herself has admitted, she resides there as Outlanderlover2013, and used to be fameho_ who HATED HEAVILY on Sam’s ex, Mackenzie Mauzy. And it’s pretty clear she’s at least one of the current Gia hate accounts on IG. That’s what’s so sick about ES. They can act all sweet and normal to people’s faces, but their true angry, miserable selves come out via their other social media personas.

So, you can keep coming back sending me these types of Anon Asks trying to convince me that Sam’s “really done it this time” because now it’s not just Extreme Shippers who are angry at Sam, and therefore trying to legitimize the outrage, but I’m not buying the manure you’re selling. Because I know what’s what and who’s who. And the what’s what and who’s who is that ONLY shippers and anyone related to them get this riled up and hateful over how and with whom Sam spends his off time. I looked at the accounts of the people complaining to Sam and there is NOT ONE that is not in some way related with shippers. Not one. 

I would bet good money if it had been Sam and Cait who had holed up together in Hawaii during the quarantine, all these faux outragers would be sending them messages of support “you made the right choice not to take a long flight back to the UK, so wise of youuuuuu.” And shipping them food, embroidered blankets, pillows, homemade masks, etc, etc, etc. That’s all she wrote, folks. TRUTH and FACTS. Simple as that. 

I feel like this speaks to a problem that keeps coming up in comics, even more in movie adaptions: Writers want their own character.

The cap writers clearly aren’t interested in Steve Rogers, American Hero, Symbol Of All Things USA: Military Might, Patriotism, and the General Doling of Justice. Their cap is a sneaky backstabbing Nazi spy.

It’s reasonable, and even likely, to assume they just want a shitty twist for the sake of shitty twists. But I (as an outsider to the situation and admittedly not a cap fan) get the sense that the writers are trying to bring something that they feel readers will relate to: a sense of backhanded betrayal from someone who was supposed to do only good. And hey, sometimes that’s a good plot device. But it isn’t necessary, and here it betrays more than the writer’s Captain America, but several generations of Captain America, which for many represented a shining paragon of doing what was right.