The State of the Supergirl Fandom

the majority of the fandom hates the character.

says you. Baseless claims like this are silly to make. the internet fan echo chambers are far smaller than you believe. to believe otherwise would be foolish.

Ugh, Pedowitz annoys me, there's been MANY articles detailing how Mon-el is bringing down the show, plus the majority of the fandom hates the character but he's choosing to ignore this for some reason.

Just as I have asked that no one make broad generalizations about fandom groups like Supercorp or Karamel, or communities like the LGBTQ+, I will also ask you not to make broad sweeping statements about the Supergirl fandom as a whole.

As I've said before, there are the folks who are passionate enough about the show and aspects of it to be vocal. There are authors who write articles too (as you said), but I think the proof is in the pudding. I said earlier in this thread that The CW, or any network for that matter isn't going to make changes to their products (and that is was Supergirl is, a product to sell advertisements) without getting the metrics and data to back it up.

We don't work at The CW, Warner Brothers, or DC Comics and because of that no one has access to the giant information gathering algorithms that they do. Supegirl is a business and if Mon-El was truly a deal breaker for the show, then they wouldn't have brought him back. No one is going to have more access to that kind of information than Pedowitz, so that said I think the majority of silent fans, (which I have to assume out weighs vocal fans), enjoy Mon-El's character and that is why he's back.

It's not a state of the fandom post; more, what I have learnt from this fandom post. Read on if you will.
So. I had prepared something for this forum, and then, decided against posting it because I felt it would come off as corny. Or cheesy?
But, now, I have decided that I should. Just to show appreciation. Even if it does come across as corny or cheesy.
I came into this forum (and Superherohype) last year after it was announced that Alex was going to be gay. I didn't like that development for personal reasons, but when I came over here and read the posts against it... well.. let us say... I reacted badly. And came in with guns blazing on why it is perfectly okay for Alex to be gay.
That has been my nearly first experience of interacting within a fandom; even interacting online (except for one or two comments here and there that nobody noticed).
Even now, my experience online is limited. I don't follow Supergirl on twitter, for example. And on tumblr, I follow very few people. So, yeah... what I say would seem weird.

But, so far, my personal experience online in this fandom has only led to great learning. It has expanded my thinking enough for me to even help in every day life. I have learnt that:

a. One aspect of a person does not define that person. There is no reason to judge them based on that even if you dislike that particular aspect. There may be many other aspects of them that you can like and even love. If I don't agree with them on that one thing, I can just point that out once, and then move on and focus on the things I like about them.

For example: This is not from the show; my parents are mildly homophobic; as in, they don't mind other people being gay or getting married or whatever, but they don't want me to be gay (and I am pretty sure they won't care all that much for gay representation). And, I am gay. But, I do still love them despite that. Because they are wonderful people who have taught me the best I know irrespective of that.
When, it comes to online, it is easy to lose sight of this, I think.
At least, I do it.... And then, I when i see more of these online people, I notice so many other great things about them.. And I try to focus on that. But, it is not always possible (we may only have an instant to form judgment). So, it is best to just ignore (or at least, not form judgments).

b. People experience the world differently. There as many world experiences (and if you put a Hindu spin on it; as many worlds) as there are people. One is not more important than the other.
Yes, there are some basic values that we all should work towards: More kindness and compassion, better working together, more inclusiveness, more freedom; peace!. But...even with those basic values in mind, people may see things differently. And that is okay.

c. What people like and dislike in a show (or in general) is a reflection of a sliver of their personality and experience. It is NOT a reflection of what they think about my personality, experience and likes and dislikes.

d. Shows, folks. people, all are complex. Real life is complex. You can't fit them into black and white, yes or no, bad and good (in a way that fits everyone, every time, at every place). (This appears to be a corollary of a).

None of this precludes discussions by the way. I think the way most folks in this thread have discussed things is wonderful! I have learnt a lot from that too.

Oh... and I am not exactly saying that I didn't know all this before. I did..mostly theoretically. It's quite another thing to actually experience it.
(And this is not a lecture on you all: I am always worried about how I saw come across online, so I try and insert that every time. If you disagree with all or most of it, that is fine. And that doesn't change what I think. Or, have learnt. )

And I am happy that I took that step last year... and I am happy to be here.

Bows to you all!

Saw the video. He did nothing wrong. He correctly addressed an over-agressive and over-assertive ship community. It was not an attack on sexuality. Answer this: If Lena was a male character, and he rectified that they were only friends, would that be an attack on hetero relationships?

I'm guessing it wouldn't be. So why would it be an attack on same-sex relationships? Is it more fragile and vulnerable than straight relations? I'd think not, because now that would be homophobic. If the two concepts are equal, then there should be no problem.

Those who demanded an apology from Jeremy in fact owe him one. It is blatant bullying, and he was nice enough to say sorry for something he did not need to. It is a violation of both the nature of the intended canon of the show, and his dignity,

I do acknowledge it. But it's hard to forgive when this is the kind of stuff us lgbt folk live through on a day to day basis. And to get it from one of our favorite shows is painful on a personal level.

So if somebody says that certain two people are just gonna stay friends that insults your sexuality?

I think the jokes of being scared of the reaction of the shippers had less to do with the sexuality of the fans but instead with the specific bad reputation that these shippers have for their actions against the actors.

A lot of the fans who attack the actors claim that this is fair behavior because "every action will have a reaction", basically "somebody was horrible to me, so I'm justified in being horrible to all kinds of other people". And yet people don't take responsibility that if they act horrible on twitter or instagramm then that will also have an effect, like developing a bad reputation.

And yes, I think it is absolutely within the responsibility of the fan group to at least try to curtail the belligerent behavior of their fellow fans.

People overreact about something like this, send hateful comments, and wonder why the cast of this show continually bail on conventions.

Jeremy did NOT bash w/w relations, or anything LGBT. He has been championing LGBT rights for a long time. He cracked a joke about a group of shippers. Do you get it? A group of effing shippers. When did shipping become a life and death issue for people, warranting hate speech and threatening messages?

Kara and Lena have NEVER been insinuated to be more than friends on the show. Yeah, Supercorp shippers have wanted more, but that's NEVER been the direction of the show. And you guys now want to be hateful towards Jeremy Jordan because he cracked a joke at a group of shippers who have built a HORRID reputation for themselves because of the way they conduct themselves online and at conventions? To the point that even the CAST knows how volatile they are?

Seriously, I used to like coming to this forum, but it's ruined for me. Jeremy didn't attack women, or LGBT people. He joked about a self absorbed and self entitled group of shippers who've done nothing but create an absolutely terrible reputation for themselves online, through spewing hateful comments to the cast, creators, and anyone else who disagrees with them.

Now let me be clear. I advocate for LGBT rights. And I have absolutely nothing against the Supercorps shippers who have been polite and treated people with respect. Honestly, if they writers did swing the story in that direction, I'd be cool with it.

But when it comes to the Supercorp shippers who have contributed to the groups reputation by overreacting to every little effin thing (and some of you are on this forum), this rant is for you, and I have no sympathy for you. I'd be just as ticked off at the Karamel shippers, or any other group of shippers, if they had built the reputation you had. The very fact that the cast feels the need to watch what they say about a non-existant fictional romantic relationship between to characters...your entire shipping fandom is out of hand.

There is absolutely no reason Jeremy should feel so guilt ridden at the end of what SHOULD have a been a fun and amazing day, because of a joke he made.

Yeah, if he had ACTUALLY said anything hateful or derogatory towards women or LGBT people, then yes, I'd be angry. But you took a joke and blew it WAY out of proportion, and made a KNOWN LGBT rights activist fees sh*tty about himself.

These are people. Doing a JOB.

I hope you all are happy with yourselves. The Supercorp reputation is so bad, at this point, that I wouldn't blame the writers if they dismissed Supercorp straight out. Why should they reward the behavior that shipping group has shown? And as many of you can take offense to this post as you like. I don't care. But I haven't called you names, I haven't threatened you. I've even gone out of my way to point out that this post is NOT directed towards the peaceful and respectful SUPERCORP shippers. But the rest of you have ruined it for everybody. And I hope you all feel just as crappy as you made cast member feel tonight.

The purpose in showing the screenshots was to go along with our original and long discussion on this matter.

A few here said the angered LGBTQ fans' pain had nothing to do with homophobia, that no one was labeling the cast as such. Clearly, I'm seeing much different.

But, experience shows, all of this nonsense will die down; and people will either stay and watch or move along.

Bring on Season 3. I, for one, am stoked and have a renewed joy for the show and cast. Thanks for that, Comic Con.

It took a few days to wade through all the SDCC coverage (great job by the admins, btw!) and I've mostly stayed mum on this thread since everyone else pretty much echoed my sentiments (it's actually scary how Thaloli and Kelly and I are almost always on the same wavelength on most issues) but please allow me to share my thoughts on the rightful mess post-SDCC.

As far as I see it:

1) The LGBT community wanted representation so they made up the Supercorp ship (nothing wrong with that)
2) Sometime during S2, they allowed the vilest, most disgusting elements to become the voice of their fandom
3) That toxic group started harassing/bullying cast and crew whenever their dream ship isn't being serviced
4) The cast/crew has had enough and began fighting back, culminating in Jeremy invalidating the whole SC ship
5) The shippers feel slighted and doubled down on their hate

And my reaction/opinion to that is:

I absolutely have no sympathy for them and they deserve whatever comeuppance comes their way. If you've hurled vicious threats all season long but have the audacity to play the victims after the casts' negative response to your vitriol, you deserve dirt. I'm sorry, but there's really no justifying their behavior.

That being said, it was unfortunate that some of the non-toxic fans were hurt in the process and they deserve every bit of our empathy. It's also regrettable that in this day and age, anything said/done can offend just about anyone (and that toxic group is always on the lookout to pick apart anything to feel affronted by). So while not all members of the LGBT community took offense to Jeremy's outburst, to make matters worse, the ones that did rallied their troops so that even non-fans started piling on the hate.

We all know that Jeremy was clapping back at the behavior of the toxic SC fans. The part of it being blown out of proportion was that even LGBT folks who aren't even fans of the show put on an assault, throwing around words like "homophobia" so casually without even bothering to educate themselves about Jeremy's history as an LGBT advocate. And adding their hateful rhetoric to those from the SC hooligans only further exposed how much toxicity is within the LGBT community itself (although a lot of them voiced their concerns respectfully as well).

If that's the kind of representation they wanted, then congrats to them for succeeding. Supercorp has now become a pariah in Hollywood circles and they only have themselves to blame for that. The behavior of their toxic fans run counter-intuitive to what they're trying to accomplish and the message they're trying to send. If I were a showrunner, it would definitely give me pause to introduce any LGBT storylines if there's even a remote chance of opening up my cast to such attacks. If I was a casting director, I'd really think twice about hiring talent with a history of troublesome fans, not when I have a whole pool of other actors to choose from (I really like Katie but boy does she have a lot of messed up fans). And cannibalizing one of their strongest supporters does no favors to the LGBT community at large. I genuinely feel for the respectful LGBT folks and the good SC'ers whose whole fandom has been dragged through the mud but maybe this incident empowers them to TAKE THEIR FANDOM BACK.

As of this writing, the nasties are currently harassing David (him and Melissa have blocked people anew) and even started on Rahul again. Isn't it just sad that the cast actually expects vitriol hurled their way whenever they say/do something? In their interviews, you can clearly see them visibly stiffen up and throw each other side glances whenever the Kara/Lena relationship is even broached. It wouldn't surprise me one bit if the cast cancels every con on the future than deal with this BS.

The only potential silver lining in all this is that I hope the hooligans actually follow through with their threat to stop watching the show (yeah, right). To that I say good riddance. Please go ruin some other show and leave us alone. The SG fandom will be so much better without them.

Hello again,

A lot has happened since comic con. First I want to thank you all for keeping it civil while we were traveling. I have said that I was going to keep a close eye on this thread and I have, but traveling and covering the convention hasn't made it easy for me to comment, make suggestions, or moderate. While there are some comments I think that are a little borderline for this thread (considering the heightened scrutiny) I believe you all have comported yourselves with respect and dignity.

So for all of that thank you!

I wanted to take a moment and weigh in on what I think is going on with the fandom and the events of the SDCC song.

I believe that Squishpanda wrote a wonderful timeline of what has happened, but this is my list of the events that happened to get us here (the following is from my point of view only).

1. The strong female characters of Supergirl in season 1 drew crowds of people from all sorts of different creeds, genres, sexual orientations, and nerd cultures.
   
2. As Supergirl’s popularity grew, fandoms and shipping started to take hold, an innocent and common activity for all shows.
   
3. Some groups found something in Supergirl that they could relate to and wanted more of. While the show wasn’t necessarily perfect for them, they were able to add the portion they felt might have been missing through fan fictions and shippings. Again a totally normal and innocent practice.
   
4. A group that rose to some popularity was the Supergirl and Cat shippers. They wanted two strong positive female role models to be together romantically.
   
5. While the creators of the show didn’t want to go that route, bringing a lesbian or LGBTQ relationship to the show would help further balance equal representation on the show.
   
6. Alex was given the lesbian storyline where she would explore her own sexuality. Now let me be clear, I don’t think this was to placate anyone, nor do I think this was to just bring along the story for the heck of it. Greg Berlanti and his shows have a history of trying to be more balanced in their representation of many cultures in America.
   
7. Next, and this part I am a little confused about, James was removed as a romantic interest and Mon-El was brought in.
   
8. So as season 2 started, we had the stage set to maneuver everything to where it is today. Calista Flockhart (Cat Grant) wasn’t able to move to Vancouver. She was essentially removed from the show. This meant that Cat and Supergirl shippers didn’t have that level of entertainment of having Cat on each episode. Now did they go to Supercorp? I have no idea. But I would imagine that with the absence of Cat and the addition of Lena, some shippers were excited at the possibility of those two powerful female role models being together.
   
9. Furthermore, Mon-El replaces James as a romantic interest and Mon-El isn’t the lovable character that James is right out of the gate. While James has all the lovability of Jimmy Olsen’s character behind him, the lesser known Mon-El is given a storyline that writers want to develop. They want to show how Kara inspires the best in everyone. While we saw that with her talking the gunman down without powers in season one, or getting the prisoners of the fight club in Roulette’s gang to turn on her for the greater good, the Mon-El storyline was there to show how Kara could inspire someone who was never a hero to become one of the best heroes of Earth. They also wanted to do that over many episodes rather than just a simple example that lasts one episode.
   
10. So as Supergirl season 2 continues, more characters, new network, and new stories allow for new shipper groups to form. You get Karamel, Supercorp, Sanvers, and so on. Furthermore, folks can be in one, multiple, or all because its all there for fans to be apart of. However, As Mon-El and Kara actually do start to date and the Karamel shippers start to get their ship as canon, there is a sense of validation for them. Alternatively, Supercorp fans are not receiving that validation.
    
11. Now, bad apples begin to ruin everything. Because Karamel and Supergirl share the titular character, a division appears. One group feels validated as their ship becomes canon, and one feels attacked (and is attacked) by some because their ship isn’t canon.
    
12. The bad apples continue, more arguments start. The bad apples (and notice I am not saying all, just the few) of Supercorp start to attack more publicly. This especially heats up when Rahul Kohli is cast as Lena’s heterosexual ex-lover. After being attacked by Karamel bad apples, for so long, that their ship wasn’t canon a casting event happens that some would view invalidates their ship. The bad apples of Supercorp attack Rahul. This the biggest public event to happen to date.
    
13. Now, feeling more invalidated, and having Mon-El win Kara back in the musical, bad apples (after being attacked by Karamel bad apples) take it too far again and go after Chris Wood. Negating Mon-El’s character, for some, is a way to get back at the Karamel folks. (there are legitimate concerns for Mon-El don’t get me wrong, we’ve discussed them at length here). However the attacks on Chris Wood were hateful and specific. They went after his father and his charity. The culmination was in the Heroes for Heroes charity event where an organized effort was created to boo and embarrass Chris and Executive Producer Andrew Kriesberg. This was a charity event! Chris wasn't there but you know he was made aware of what happened.
    
14. I would imagine now, that the bad apples on both sides are going crazy! Karamel bad apples are attacking Katie McGrath in response to Chris being attacked and things are spiraling out of control. I have seen the tweets against Katie and they are just as appalling as the attacks on Chris.
    

I know that was a lot to recap but I think its important to recap how we got here. This is where I want to share my thoughts on the events at SDCC. Having seen the cast and crew together, not in front of cameras, they are very close. I can attest to that personally. They are totally aware of what is going on because some of them were literally experiencing it. Furthermore, they are all friends and they don’t want to hear their friends are getting attacked.

I think that is actually an important piece to what happened at the convention. Jeremy knows that Chris was attacked hard. I talked with Chris at one of the parties I went to and he was super nice. I told him how much I personally loved the Mon-El character and his addition to the show. You can hear in our interview with him how he addresses the “toxic” nature of Kara and Mon-El. He used the words that are often thrown at him in the attacks on Twitter.

So you have Chris probably feeling a bit worried about going to SDCC with the Supergirl cast because he was booed, embarrassed and targeted at the charity event (even though I know he wasn't there). He probably was worried he would be attacked again. So, interview after interview, the cast continues to keep up their positive attitude and try and have fun. Finally in song, Jeremy sees a moment to comment on the events of season 2 and he throws out the “Lena and Kara are not going to get together” and yells “they’re just friends”. Consciously or subconsciously in my opinion, Jeremy was standing up for his friend Chris. Furthermore that is why Melissa said he was brave during the interview. You can hear Jeremy note that he knows he’ll get backlash from his comments but I think that’s why Melissa said he is brave. I think they were just standing up for their friend after having all the attacks laid against Chris from the end of season 2.

I personally don’t think that Jeremy was saying or singing what he was to negate the LGBTQ community but rather to aim at the bad apples of the Supercorp shippers. Was it right? I don’t think so, as we’ve seen the backlash be way more than what he thought it would be. There are news articles about it, attacks on almost all the cast members now and people calling for Melissa to issue an apology. Ultimately, I think Jeremy, in the heat of song, used a large of a weapon to defend his friend but his intentions were never that of homophobia.

There are a lot of good ideas and comments being presented. I, however, want to raise a somewhat different view of the events and the shipping. My wife is a therapist and what I believe I am observing is "projection." This is projecting my feelings on others. I believe that this is going on right now with respect to Jeremy's song and the shipping. To those of you living outside the US, I understand. I lived in the Middle-East and SEA. I saw first hand how sexual preference was dealt with there. While I respect the cultural impacts of those societies, I cannot expect that the cast is even remotely aware of how the gay community is portrayed in film and tv. I can say that I saw how blacks were portrayed over in those parts of the world, and it was disgusting to say the least.

Every culture has its biases and prejudices, and when we are producing programs that eventually go international, there is no way of knowing what cultural taboos you may cross. So give the actors a break.

At t he same time, American Society has developed a mindset of what are insults, micro aggressions, and an intolerance for differing views. Call it political correctness or whatever, but keep in mind a vitriolic attitude is part of this. Those of you who have read Orwell's 1984, should remember newspeak, a form of controlled speech that very much resembles what is going on today. This is what we are seeing on the anonymity of social media today.

I am a fan of Supergirl. Not everything about the show is to my taste. Still I enjoy it. The actors have brought to life with great support a wonderful story. We should all enjoy it without throwing rocks at aspects or characters we don't. Melissa, Jeremy et al are human beings practicing their craft. Let's show them the respect and gratitude for their accomplishments.

Let's chill,

Argo

Casting my support for the cast. ALL the cast.

My question to all is are there really that many fans who dislike Mon-El or are they just very vocal? Personally, I enjoy him. I think there is a great on-screen chemistry between Kara and Min-El. I believe t hat the EPs made a mistake in rushing the romance. They could have let develop over two seasons. That may have allayed angry fans.

Argo

VeeJer: I hope this doesn't come off as rude but this really isn't the place for character discussions. I'm sure if you started a new topic there would be plenty of people on this site willing to exchange views/opinions with you

admin said he was going to monitor the thread closely. he's got it under control.

Admin hasn't been online though. So they haven't been monitoring this thread recently.

To be clear, I don't have to be "online" to moderate. Everything that happens on the site is sent to me for me to review. I didn't see any hate or alarming items in the thread here so I let it go. Folks have continued to be passionate about their opinions but so far the name calling, attacks and snide comments seem to have been respectful. Of course I request that at any point if any of you feel things are getting out of hand to email me right away at the contact page and I will get on it asap.

As for the Mon-El character analysis going on. I don't mind it here. I think that because it is a large source of the division in the fandom, it's ok to talk through. Respectfully of course.

Finally, on a side note, kelsey and we're out and about today trying to buy up as many comic con TV guides with Supergirl on them as possible. Maybe we can get them signed at SDCC

I didn't see any hate or alarming items in the thread here so I let it go. Folks have continued to be passionate about their opinions but so far the name calling, attacks and snide comments seem to have been respectful. Of course I request that at any point if any of you feel things are getting out of hand to email me right away at the contact page and I will get on it asap.

As for the Mon-El character analysis going on. I don't mind it here. I think that because it is a large source of the division in the fandom, it's ok to talk through. Respectfully of course.

Although I realize his character is a big reason for the hate plaguing the fandom, I thought the thread was meant to focus on the bad behavior of fans, not him.

Mon-El is a very touchy subject here. There are some very passionate opinions surrounding him and I didn't want to see the discussion around the toxicity of our fandom and how to change it turn into an internet fight over him. That was my only concern.

thing is Mon-El isnt the real problem, he is simply the the current target because he happens to be in the way of an agenda campaigned by the supercorp fandom. Anyone in the way of that agenda gets attacked. I point to Jack Spheer played by Rahul Kohli as evidence who expressed his distaste for some of those fans because he received enough hate during his 1 episode stint to make a public statement.

Agenda seems to be a hot word that was lead to a bit of a land slide. I made some fast edits there.

Let me weigh in a bit. The tweet Kelly shared illustrates the shipping that is going on. I actually don't have a problem with it. It's like fan fiction.

What gets me concerned is the people, whomever group or non group, that are planning disruptions at comic con, harassing the actors and forcing other fans to have less access because of it.

The other day I saw someone tweet directly at Dean Cain that he should be fired from Supergirl for his political views. Why? He is a good actor and plays his part well. What does his personal life have to do with it.

It's that kind of thing that is worrisome

Although I do not use or subscribe to Twitter or really follow all of the "ship" brouhahas currently going on, what it really implies to me is that within the last year, due to whatever reason (be it social, political or otherwise), a vocal, anti-social minority has taken control of public discourse and attempted to railroad any constructive debate. It is a sign of collective mental illness. Plain and simple.

Sadly, this is a reflection of our modern society in which he / she who screams loudest is the one whose (ill-informed, mean-spirited, patently false or downright kooky) ruminations or threats hold sway. Given this, is there really any wonder why more and more actors cancel or skip certain conventions altogether? Until certain segments of society get their acts together and behave, this degrading (and thanks to the Twitterverse, often anonymous) vitriol will continue to be front and centre.

As a small word of advice, for whatever it is worth to our board members, is to skip the run-of-the-mill Twitter Fan Groups (stalkers, actually) and focus on the more positive and like-minded fan communities as it relates to the show - yes, they are fewer and farther between. It'll save you the nagging migraines, needless stress and the need to reach for antacids on a routine basis.

At least i think we can all agree on one thing here and that is they could actually kill every character off on the show except Kara/Supergirl and the show would still be fine

maybe Alex, those two, gosh and J'onn, and Winn... ugh now I am getting teary-eyed don't kill any of them, lol

The "agenda" excuse ignores the fact that people have real, valid reasons for not liking mon el. It's a way to discredit people. I didn't mean to insinuate that you were homophobic, and I'm sorry that it seemed that way. That was not my intention. But saying that people only hate mon el for a f/f shipping agenda is homophobic.

The problem is that while valid reasons exist, some people do things that are completely not valid.

A good example is the trashing of the actor who played Jack just because he was cast. Jack wasn't even on screen and the actor was already sent hate messages. Something that isn't reasonable in any interpretation possible.

Similarly, a lot of things have been used as "reasons" that were flat out untrue (like "Kara and Mon-El are blood related in the comics", something that has never been a thing in any comic incarnation).

People don't need "reasons" to prefer one ship over another, most people just gravitate towards who they find more hot or whose story archetype (ie friends to lovers, childhood sweethearts, enemies falling for each other) they like most. But if some people keep up listing things that are flat out untrue or unreasonable, like sending hate mail to the actor of a character who hasn't even aired yet, that's when other people will grow weary of those supposed reasons.

Not to mention people who call Mon-El abusive, yet see nothing wrong with other characters who do things that are easily comparable if not worse than things Mon-El has done in the relationship.

That's why a lot of the times people like what they like and they then use supposed reasons to explain why nobody else should like them and why the writers should stop writing them.

And that's when it moves away from something being a "reason" to really being more like laundry lists in a pseudo political argument about why your position of "I think this couple is cuter than that couple" is somehow "more right" and more morally righteous. It makes it feel like rather than watching the show and taking it for face value and talking about what you actually see on the show, some people start parsing it for arguments they can use in their laundry lists so they can beat the laundry lists of all the other people.

And that's why people start calling it "agenda". That it seems like some people have a goal, to "defeat" the other couples and have their couple reign supreme and they look for "weapons" in this "fight".

I don't need a laundry list of reasons to dislike a character. Usually there is like one scene at the most, then I start not liking the character, but to me that's it. I just move on to liking the characters I like. And unless the character I started to dislike does something spectacular to make me like them, I pretty much ignore them and don't look for new reasons to not like them.

one of which (abusive relationship traits)

But that's the problem. Some people not accepting that it's just one option, one that isn't shared by the writers. But instead people acting like that's the only right and true interpretation that everybody must share and if they don't share it they are wrong.

Again, that obviously wasn't the intent but it is becoming problematic that this is how people are interpreting it.

And I think it's problematic if people are incapable of moving on from an interpretation they got stuck on and act like they try to force it as the only one and true interpretation. And again, the fact that they lock on on just one relationship and just one character rather than having a fair look at how a variety of characters on the show have acted with each other (again Lena and Jack joking about how she threw a hard object at him during a fight, Mon-El talking about how he expects to be beaten up as punishment during training by Kara and her agreeing with that, Alex taking Kara to the kryptonite room and beating her to teach her a lesson about being more careful in the field) makes it really hard to buy that they really have a genuine interest in how relationships are portrayed on tv or on Supergirl in particular. And if at the same time they ferociously lobby for a ship of their choice AND also refuse to accept if the situation has changed (like: Mon-El used to want to protect Kara even if she didn't want it, to him taking her orders even if it puts her into danger, or Mon-El doubting Kara's heroism to Mon-El praising Kara's heroism over and over) to makes it even harder to truly get into their arguments.

You fail to realize that people voicing their frustrations aren't all shippers. You've now turned the 'agenda' into a shipping thing which quickly falls into the 'gay' agenda issue.

No I'm saying those fans who latch on to this argument AND then turn around and ferociously ship something come across like that (again, zeroing in on one character, rather than giving a fair assessment of the actions of other characters too), respectively use it as part of their laundry list shipper arguments to explain to the world why their ship is so much better and how everybody shipping something else is wrong and immoral.

There is plenty of shippers who don't use these arguments and there are people who use those arguments and aren't shippers.

For everybody who isn't a shipper but shares those arguments, my response would always be, either consider that the show is going with a different interpretation and story or if you can't overcome this apprehension, watch something that doesn't upset you.

Well, the cast, aside from Mehcad, is probably done with social media for a while. And I don't blame them. The comments they've gotten are 1000x worse than anything they actually did or said.

Poor Melissa. She finally starts to come out of her shell, on social media, after being pretty much silent for 2 seasons, and these jerks rip her apart. I honestly wish people could disable comments on twitter and instagram.