Intersting Interview with Rahul Kohli (Jack Spheer)

He isn't the only one, Dean Cain, Melissa herself, her sister, the showrunners on their Saturn win, and most recently Leanne Aguilera who is hosting the panel for Supergirl and Riverdale...

if it were one time, one person, one incident, it wouldn't be a big deal....but its not.

The entire fandom is being judged over all of this, and it is ridiculous.

The Karamel shippers do not help the situation one bit by constantly arguing with #Supercorp shippers anywhere and anytime they can.

So far this has been a rather healthy discussion, so lets try and keep it in that lane.

Can we agree that all of ships have some bad fans with in them? can we also agree that all of the ships also have some respectful fans among them? If we can agree on those 2 things, can we perhaps instead of the fan base being split among ships, maybe we all simply need to start calling out bad fans asking them to keep it respectful and not start stuff? How I define a bad fan, someone that is disrespectful to the cast, other fans or the show in general.

1 persons fun is anothers hell. It is completely ok to have a difference of opinion, its ok to agree to disagree. Its is very respectful to also allow people of a difference of opinion there moments to celebrate their favorites.

I dont understand the need to sully the other; sure it might score you a few 'internet cool points', but what about the person you just disparaged? how do they feel? or do their feelings not matter? If you find your opinions in a schism dont engage in a 'last person to post win bout'; simply try and steer the conversation to something more palatable for everyone involved. Is there simply no way for everyone to have fun together?

I would simply like to see a little more civility from all fans, diffusing arguments and getting people to calm down. if someone simply wont calm down, send them to read this

I want to be clear, I am not a shipper at all. I am a fan of the show because of the character supergirl and comic book story lines. I was hoping to raise some awareness as to how we as fans are being represented by a very vocal minority. the actors, crew etc that are being attacked arent asking what ship the person is a part of, they are lumping us all together; fair or not.

I am sorry if you are or anyone has felt attacked or biased against in this thread., not my intention at all.



I think most of us here aren't shippers. That probably shows in that we haven't fought with each other the way they do. You most definitely raised awareness, no question about it, I was merely pointing out that the post you supplied us is somewhat biased in what hate they chose to depict. But thank you nonetheless for sharing it.

And I agree, it's completely unfair to the rest of us that we're being lumped in with the shippers and they're becoming the face of our fandom. It's unacceptable.

What makes this even sadder is that a lot of the negativity surrounding his 'arrival' wasn't about him personally, but rather his character's relationship to Lena Luthor. The 'backlash' wasn't about Jack Spheer interfering with the idea of SuperCorp (especially since it was known he would only be around for 1 ep) but rather it was about him being used as a big 'no homo' in regards to Lena.

Which goes to show you how a bunch of crazed SJW extreme snowflakes can RUIN things. I think Kelly can somehow relate to this given all the problems she has seen on social media, and for that matter myself as well. I don't even follow the #Supergirl on Twitter.

#Karamel vitriol is towards #Supercorp, not actors, not their families, not a random person that will be doing the panel that happened to have been the interviewer from ET that was part of the "Duets" episode and would of course bring up Kara and Mon-el's relationship, it was a part of the episode.

That is FAR different from what I have seen from #Supercorp fans on Twitter and Tumblr, FAR DIFFERENT....and to equate them in any way is ridiculous.

I despise the entire issue of "ships" I think they tear apart fan bases and are full of people that truly need to get a grip on reality.

But, in comparing these two particular "ships"....one is at least actually happening on the show, whereas the other is never going to happen so why spend so much time thinking, arguing, and spending time berating these people that put their hearts and souls into this series.

IMO, and this is just my IMO...people can agree with it or not, but this is how I look at it.

#Karamel -- annoying...
#Supercorp -- disrespectful to people that actually have had to endure abuse from a boyfriend, spouse, etc, and it drives me nuts when people equate this with anything people who have actually been abused have gone through. Absolutely nothing from this show has come even close to showing abuse in a relationship and it utterly ridiculous to think otherwise. As far as the slavery bit, that is just as ridiculous....its a show about a guy who came from a society where that was ok, not knowing any better, and changed....as far as the abuse cracks.... Having done my internship for my Sociology minor in college at a Women's cottage for abused spouses, girlfriends, etc.....I know what it looks like and this isn't it.....unbelievable ridiculous, emo driven farce that has grown into as the video states, a toxic, ridiculous wave of anger and rudeness. Though the two ships are a problem, to equate them in any way is unsubstantiated melarkey.

I know some here are involved with #Supercorp, that's fine you've been pretty respectful from what I've seen...as far as Twitter, I simply mute everyone that has either of the ships in their name, bio, etc....and it has made my time on Twitter much better. But it doesn't change the fact that the fandom as a whole gets judged because of these two ships, and i really wish both would go away. Again, my opinion, and if it offends anyone. Well....the true fandom of this show has been offended enough by both.

This will be the last I speak on it here, I don't want posts to be deleted or be banned...hopefully this post will be allowed to stay up because it simply gives my opinion.

Please allow me to chime in and give my thoughts on this.

At least in my personal experience on social media, the bad behavior of Supercorps FAR outweigh those of Karamels. There's no denying that there are bad eggs in both fandoms but Karamels tend to police themselves better and swiftly call out any wrongdoers whereas Supercorps appear to disregard (dare I say even condone) such behavior - and therein lies the difference.

I agree with Kelly in that Karamel vitriol is aimed towards Supercorp, and Supercorp alone (Karamels are always on the defensive because Supercorps constantly attack Mon-El). But I have seen so many instances of Supercorps going after cast/crew and their families. Again, just my experience. It's easy for Karamels to lord their ship over non-canons (and I believe they have a better footing to stand on - their ship IS canon), but they spread positivity for the most part and only push back when attacked (which is to be expected).

"As for the slavery bit, does that mean people who owned slaves in the past get a free pass because, as you said, they "came from a society where that was ok"? So as long as society accepts something that makes it ok?"

Hindsight is always preferential when dealing with touchy subjects like this. According to that logic,
everyone who owned slaves before the Emancipation should be condemned (including our Founding Fathers and Presidents). All our ancestors who had slaves when it was widely practiced should not be accorded any respect whatsoever regardless of their contributions to modern society. Notice how condescending that sounds?

(Along the same vein, given that Mon-El detractors always bring up the slaveowner issue, where's the outcry towards M'gann? She participated in GENOCIDE and should not be allowed redemption, correct? Might as well throw in Kara into the lot as well, since we should judge everybody by the sins of their fathers.)

But I digress. Fact is, Supercorp was specifically called out by a widely-respected actor for being toxic, racist, nasty, hooligans. Rahul was a guest star for only 1 episode and was harassed enough to have formed this opinion. Imagine what the cast and crew must think of Supercorp at this point. They needs to stamp out the toxicity within their ranks if they want public perception to change because it is reflecting poorly on the whole Supergirl fandom. Just imagine some bad egg turn up at SDCC spewing hate and being called out on an even bigger public stage... how embarrassing.

I think we can all agree that 'shipping' fandoms are by far the worst parts of an overall fandom. And in no way do the views and actions of karamel, supercorp or sanvers reflect upon the true Supergirl fandom.

First just wanted to thank folks for keeping it civil here. There's been some passionate comments but all have been respectful. Running this site and working with all of you great people takes up a lot of our time so we were actually surprised to see all the stuff that is going on. We actually took the afternoon to dive into Twitter and Tumblr to see what all was being said. Yikes!

Covering the news side of the show, we kind of missed some of the gossipy side of it. It's sad. Just sad to see. I dont know what can be done. It seems like actors and staff are removing themselves from it as best as they can but interacting with the fanbase is such a great thing to do, normally.

Our site here has a large community, and one that we are proud of. You guys inspire us to keep going. Saying that, we can't help but wonder if there was something Supergirl.tv could do? Should we just stay out of it? (Probably for the best). It's a difficult problem with no clear answers. Each "side" is still of the same coin. It's too bad both can't see that. Ultimately in the end, I don't want the actors and staff to take it personally. It's true what they say, you need thick skin to be in Hollywood.

Well,

Since we are talking about toxicity in the net; just a couple of thoughts. A bit philosophical.
About 10 years back, in college, I studied about Network Society by Jan van Dijk; I think there is also a book by Manuel Castells. I have not read the books (heh, sorry) but some of the ideas included how folks' behaviour on the net would change because they couldn't be identified. So, folks will have two separate personas. One on the net and one on the real social network. And of course, how this would give people the freedom to do things that they would not otherwise do in their immediate physical surroundings.

I see a lot of that in twitter: not just in show fandoms, but in politics; in completely non-controversial stuff like, I don't know, garbage cleaning or assault (assault is bad; but I don't think it's controversial).

It's sad; and also one of the reasons why I typically use the same rhetoric wherever I am (tumblr, Superherohype or here so that people know my stand); so that I am not tempted by anonymity to descent to cruelty (which by the way I am not, but just in case, I am angry or something ). Though, owing to my cousin's and sister's insistence, I stopped using my real name in my blogs.

I of course don't think everyone who use the net is like that. But then, everyone is not violent either. It is always the few that gets heard/seen/listened to. Because the others are polite.

And from what I have seen in tumblr and even in moderated sites it is from every corner of the fandom. (For example, Kara is my favorite character, and I have seen negative comments about Kara from all the shippers: karamel, SC and Sanvers). Even karolsen (though they tend to be minimal ).

On SC themselves:
I believe that minority groups, be it gay folks or women or people of colour, would react differently to how majority groups act because they believe that they need to speak up for the powers that be to listen; to effect change, they need to be vocal.

The questions you mention RSChick are a result of that. People (some of them) think they should speak up for LGBT/POC/Women with the show runners themselves. Show them the error of their ways so to speak. And to be honest, seeing how much Hollywood has dragged their feet with minority representation, I don't blame them. Well, not entirely. Their methods and how they go about it yes. I don't like them.

I'd prefer if they used positive critiquing instead of emotional outbursts or using accusatory tones. Because I believe even showrunners and writers have had a difficult ladder of hard work to climb to reach where they are. And there may be reasons behind their thinking that we don't know about. In any case, effecting changes on the scale that folks would like is not easy. And show runners for whatever reason do not go with one style or theme to hurt anyone.

I am not entirely sure why actors are involved in that set up anyways because they have limited power.

Just to be clear: I don't blame folks for critiquing the show if they think it is going wrong. But, I in no way and in no form condone or like ganging up on folks who have a different opinion from you regarding the show; or throwing negativity or vitriol towards them. (That sounds like I am royalty. That is not my intention. I am nobody. But, I just wanted to be clear to the folks here.)

Okay, I am done with my essay-shaped tupenny. It's more a pound, I guess.

My Favorite ship. My OTP

Kara and Food


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nadXcRfy4Q

Wow! Okay... The experience overshadowed his working with Supergirl?

Well, that is sad!


I hope the fans take a step back this season... And not use aphorisms of morality (which you really cannot judge from twitter or from a show or even from a brief interaction) to beat down people.

In other notes: Is he British? Or Australian?

Okay.. Google says British.

It's such a pity that his experience with the fandom wasn't initially a good one. He got so much love and support from the fans both before and after his ep, but to hear that the negativity he received from some has overshadowed the good truly makes me sad for him.

What makes this even sadder is that a lot of the negativity surrounding his 'arrival' wasn't about him personally, but rather his character's relationship to Lena Luthor. The 'backlash' wasn't about Jack Spheer interfering with the idea of SuperCorp (especially since it was known he would only be around for 1 ep) but rather it was about him being used as a big 'no homo' in regards to Lena. The fact that he felt the negativity on a personal level is upsetting to me.

But I'm a firm believer in not judging a group based on the actions of a few. Lots of large fandoms have some form of toxicity to them, that's nothing new. I find that SCs tend to form a mob mentality in terms of opinions and actions while KMs focus more on blindly obsessing over the actor/character. Both fandoms are extremely vocal and that in itself just adds fuel to the flames.

I am on twitter, I will say this is a stark difference between KM fans and SC fans. I have friends over on twitter from each ship, but I find the nastiness tends to come from the SC side

https://twitter.com/karadadvers/status/881108377371324416

you dont see KM fans posting stuff like this. SC fans are actually asking each other to ambush and trap cast/producers into making them feel bad about working on the show at cons.

The entire fandom is being judged over all of this, and it is ridiculous.

And it sort of degrades those of us who are fans who don't take part in the...chicanery if I can put a word to it, Kelly

The Karamel shippers do not help the situation one bit by constantly arguing with #Supercorp shippers anywhere and anytime they can.

Well I support both Karamel and Supercorp, but am not rooting for one over the other and losing my mind over this. Sometimes social media can lead to total mental instability.

I am on twitter, I will say this is a stark difference between KM fans and SC fans. I have friends over on twitter from each ship, but I find the nastiness tends to come from the SC side

https://twitter.com/karadadvers/status/881108377371324416

you dont see KM fans posting stuff like this. SC fans are actually asking each other to ambush and trap cast/producers into making them feel bad about working on the show at cons.

I'm on twitter (and tumblr) too. And the amount of vitriol that I see coming out of BOTH sides of the fandom is alarming. I'm sorry that you find more hate from the SC side but (as I don't care for Mon-El as a character) I find the disgusting childish behavior comes from the KM side.

I don't understand how those questions, if asked, would be an ambush/trap? Cons, although meant to be fun, are also meant to allow dialogue and interaction between fans and cast/crew. I'm sure the producers/writers are at least a bit aware of the opinions surrounding certain characters. If fans have legitimate concerns about their favorite show, wouldn't a convention be a great place for q&a as it affords a non-shipper biased audience?

@Kelly

I have seen plenty of #Karamel vitriol towards #Supercorp AND actors and their families (and vice versa). Let's please not act like there aren't bad eggs within the KM fandom who, like SC, take things way too far.

That's just it though, your social media experiences do not speak for everyone else's twitter/tumblr experiences. It appears you've had your fair share of awful SC interactions, whereas I've had my fair share of awful KM interactions. I think our experiences all depends on which side of the 'shipping spectrum' we fall closer to.

I agree, ships in fandoms really make it hard to fully enjoy a show/movie/etc. As for the "one is at least actually happening on the show", although true, it doesn't mean people can't ship non-canon ships. Non-canon shipping has been around for ages and fans invest their time into pairings ('real' or not) that they can relate to.

#Karamel -- annoying, homophobic, racist, childish
#Supercorp -- annoying, childish, quick to name-calling, broken records

(btw I don't find this to be true of the entire fandoms, just some of the shippers within them)

As far as the abuse stuff, there are abuse survivors who have spoken out about how the character's actions/certain scenes remind them of the awful things they themselves went through. Not everyone's experience of abuse is the same. Abuse comes in many shapes and forms (as I'm certain you're aware of as per your internship). And to discredit those survivors who have spoken out against some of the karamel scenes is disrespectful on your part.
As for the slavery bit, does that mean people who owned slaves in the past get a free pass because, as you said, they "came from a society where that was ok"? So as long as society accepts something that makes it ok? That's nonsense and you know it. The character himself said he never agreed with slavery, but yet the writers decided to have him do nothing about it (personally that's the part that bothers me).

The mute and block buttons are you best friends when it comes to social media. I have some SCs muted alongside KMs and even some Sanvers fans. Like you, I hope my opinion and views of the fandoms doesn't offend anyone too much (I'm sure I've ticked off someone somewhere lol). The entirety of our fandom is being narrowed down to the actions of these two groups and it's shameful.

I don't see why our posts should be deleted (or be banned), we're being respectful towards each other and only exchanging opinions on the topic of the video.

Again we are going on personal experiences here, as said. So to say that one fandom polices themselves better than another is pure speculation. You are basing that off of the interactions you've had. I would have to disagree on the idea that SCs are 'condoning' disgusting behavior (like sending Rahul hate). When the hate started, I witnessed plenty of SCs, KMs and others alike stepping up to call those people out and send Rahul some love and support. It's unfortunate that you've only had poor experiences with SC. I on the other hand have had poor experiences with all 3 of the shipping fandoms.

This is where we disagree. Karamel vitriol doesn't just end at Supercorp. It reaches to everyone and anyone who doesn't favor Mon-El. They've gone after cast members and their families too. Just because you haven't taken notice to it doesn't mean it hasn't happened. Yes, SC has done it too, I'm not denying they haven't. But to think that KM hasn't is just not true. From what I've seen so far:

SC -- gone after Chris and Rahul, catfished Katie's brother, harassed the sdcc panel moderator
KM -- gone after Katie, Mehcad, Melissa's sister, and harassed David and Odette

Agreed, it is a touchy subject and in all reality, the writers should have NEVER introduced slavery to the narrative. It has brought nothing but problems. That being said, I certainly do not respect anyone who has owned slaves, founding fathers or not. I can appreciate their contributions to modern society but I do not owe respect to people who thought it was justified to own other people. People back then knew it was wrong thus the birth of early antislavery.

This is a whole other topic of conversation but, as far as M'gann, there is no outcry because she has shown actual remorse for her past. Her scenes with J'onn were so emotionally heavy (on a personal note I loved those scenes). She has been given an actual redemption arc by returning to Mars to change things for the better. Mon-El is still lacking in that department. Yes he's said that he wasn't a fan of slavery, but that's as far as his redemption has gone. The writers seemed to have glossed over this part of his past. I'm not judging any character on the sins of their fathers, instead I'm judging characters based on the character itself. The way I see it, most characters are trying to make up for the sins of their past/sins of their family except for Mon-El.

True, Supercorp was called out. There's no denying it, how could anybody deny it? What they did was gross on so many levels. But for us to blame an entire group for the actions of the few isn't the right way to approach this. We can't judge entire subsets of the fandom based on the bad eggs can we? And I highly doubt anyone will be spewing hate at SDCC, I just don't see that happening.

here is what we as a supergirl fandom has done in recent months

https://411supergirl.tumblr.com/post/162609397251/winner-of-the-worst-fandom-award

we really should be ashamed of ourselves. We all need to do better guys. I would hate to think what supergirl would think of us.

I need to support my girl Kelly here. Also, some great points there, squishpanda.

My personal experience with a ship fandom was being "mob" attacked by a section of Sanver fans for simply stating I loved Alex and Winn in scenes together. Holy hale... You'd thunk I had sinned against all sins...the vitriol spewed at me. Saw dozens of people who quoted me saying foul foul things to me--bringing in their horde to also attack me.

But NOTHING compares to the foul, vile, sexual memes and comments I've seen almost daily coming from Supercorp peeps. And the attacks I've seen made on the writers, actors, Karmel etc etc... just divisive, toxic spew. It's really tainted the light hearted fun of the SUPERGIRL fandom of last year.

Again, this is coming from personal experience. I gave up following the hashtag Supergirl, which is sad. Last year, for those of us who were actual fans back then, to see #Supergirl trending was a real treat. We'd all get together and were almost gleeful about the cast and series getting recognition. We were all simply just Supergirl fans celebrating and chatting it all up.

Now? I stay here and only here--knowing Eric and Kelsey run a tight ship, as well as, knowing this forum overall is populated by a mature, well spoken fanbase. We disagree from time-to-time. But, remain united as Supergirl fans first and foremost. Being respectful to one another here is of utmost importance to the forum "regulars." Sadly, I don't see the same respect being given to one another "out there." Rather than celebrating Supergirl with each other, they fight about "ships." Just sad.

Yeah that's just gross behavior. This kind of stuff needs to be stopped but I fear it never will

And what makes it worse is that's not even half of what's been going on. If I'm not mistaken, that looks to be mostly supercorp and sanvers fans which is understandable as that is a pro-karamel blog.

here is what we as a supergirl fandom has done in recent months

https://411supergirl.tumblr.com/post/162609397251/winner-of-the-worst-fandom-award

we really should be ashamed of ourselves. We all need to do better guys. I would hate to think what supergirl would think of us.