#handgate

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. 

Yes the lighting looks similar, but in Rey’s shot it’s sharper and coming from the left side of the screen, while in Kylo’s is more diffused.

Also there’s no trace of embers or even flickering light in Rey’s shot, while there’s plenty in Kylo’s. The air around Rey is calm and the hue is blueish, in sharp contrast with the warm lighting on her face, whereas Kylo seems to be in the middle of a giant fire or in the aftermath of an explosion. (x)

I also doubt Kylo’s offering his hand is a direct response to Rey’s line about needing someone to show her place. Either it’s two different scenes, or it’s the same scene but edited in a way that leaves something substantial out between Rey’s line and Kylo’s hand. I tend to think it’s the former, because Rey is in her first act hairstyle and costume, while Kylo’s scar is almost completely healed so that should be from act II or even III. It could be that Rey at some point reverts to her original hairstyle and jacket, but I don’t think it’s particularly likely.

Nevertheless, I have zero doubts it’s Rey that Kylo is reaching out to. She’s the most important character in his narrative aside from Luke and Leia, with whom he has a different relationship anyway. As I said in this post on my main, the outstretched hand combined with his demeanor and expression suggests he’s reaching out to a rival/equal, while Luke/Leia are parental figures to him; and parental figures are typically the ones who reach out to their wayward kids, rather than the other way around. 

Kylo’s expression betrays eagerness, trepidation and awe, which is consistent with his interactions with Rey in TFA, the surprise of finding out how strong she is with the Force, the stunned look he had when she summoned Luke’s saber, his offer to be his teacher. And with the huge focus on Rey and Kylo in the trailer, and the heavy-handed parallels drawn between them, I see no reason to believe it’s anyone but Rey. 

Being cautious is good, and it’s always possible that it’s someone else, but the Kylo/Rey dynamic is the central conflict of this trilogy, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. TFA made it clear (well, clear enough for us) that this is not going to remain a static, uncomplicated hero VS villain dynamic. They intentionally made these two characters two faces of the same coin, one mirroring the other, one excelling where they other failed, two people of similar age, similar amount of powers, similar (yet opposite) struggles. It’s only a natural evolution of this dynamic that they would start gravitating towards each other, and shoehorning any other character in Rey’s place at the opposite end of that extended hand would be bad, clumsy and ultimately weak storytelling because no other “meeting halfway” moment was built up the way Rey and Kylo’s has. (not even Kylo and Luke’s. Luke is an important character, and definitely central in Kylo’s backstory, but he belongs to the old generation. The main conflict can’t be between the new villain and him. It’s not a coincidence that we have yet to see Kylo and Luke interact on screen—we know they have history together but we haven’t seen it—while Rey and Kylo had plenty of antagonistic BUT meaningful interaction in TFA).