I will offer maybe an alternative POV about K's IG stories from yesterday from a bearding perspective (please read my AoA post to understand where I'm coming from).
Torontonian paparazzo Sean O'Neill posts saying he has "crazy new pics" of Hudcon. Nobody knows what they are so the fandom scrambles, with many thinking maybe they were about to be very intimate, revealing pictures. Based on Sean's tweets, he clearly did this of his own volition, he wasn't paid to pap the boys. Like that one photographer at the Vanity Fair Party said, "These guys sell," and anyone who can get exclusive photos of them is going to make quite a nice chunk of change for their efforts.
While the public didn't know the content of these photos, when they were taken, or what Hudcon could've been caught doing (I'd argue their teams might've known because the photos were up for sale for a few days). We know now that the photos aren't particularly revealing, just two "bros" walking down the street. But there's a narrative H's team has spent significant resources crafting for months, and the public has been swallowing and (mostly) loving it. Paparazzi shots that might sway some of the people buying the narrative away from it can create a domino effect, especially since this is just the beginning of these two men publicly hanging out, and there will be more unethical photos over the next few months that could slowly tell a much more compelling and eventually inarguable story. And so…
10 minutes after Sean's post, a member of Hudson's team whose role is The Partner, posts about being in the same area as him in 2 months. To remind people that she's still in his life romantically, and that she will be out there to see him long enough to have a pop-up tattoo shop. it's a clumsy enough post with all the markers of organic scrambling.
And just like that, the story changes.
Now The Partner is inextricable from conversations about the pictures.
For Shippers: It's no longer just about the boys and their heart eyes towards each other, but also about the cataract attempting to cover those heart eyes. We start guessing at her intentions, comparing the candids and paparazzi pics she was in with the recent ones, wondering why she just won't give up, wondering how October goes, etc etc etc. The conversations around the pictures is no longer as joyful, our perception of them becomes a little sour (remember Vanity Fair?).
For the Public: When we talk about these pictures to people not in the fandom, we'll mention Her, call her attention seeking, a thorn in everyone's side. But people who aren't as invested only hear that two coworkers went on a walk and one of the coworker's romantic partner is going to be staying with him at some point during the working period. They won't think she's interfering in a budding love story. To them, it just sounds like she and her boyfriend have a joint future plan to cohabit for a few days/week.
For Non-Shipping Fandom: The same goes for anyone in the fandom who isn't a shipper, which happens to be a majority of the fandom. Anyone who could've been swayed by the boys' ease around each other and heart eyes has been reminded that a girlfriend exists, and that whatever was in those pictures was friendly, platonic, even professional ('pAp wAlK fOR sEAsON tWO pROmO').
Great Bearding Success!!!
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