What a difference 8 years makes in how Outlander sells the show!
OUTLANDER SEASON ONE WAS ABOUT "ROMANCE": Back in April 2015, Outlander PR wanted to play up the chemistry of Sam and Cait in order to sell the romance between Jamie and Claire--which was what the show was all about in season 1.
I recall shippers being over-the-top with joy because they interpreted this photo of Sam and Cait in a BED 😱 as evidence that they must be a real life couple (overlooking the fact that they were wearing street clothes and most likely there was a tech crew in the room.🤦🏻♀️)
IT'S JUST PR: Of course, the shippers didn't realize that what Sam and Cait were doing in the bed was just a PR pitch that has been used with other romantic (or potentially romantic) leads.
For instance, in the gif below, we see Gillian Anderson (Dana Scully) and David Duchovny (Fox Mulder) from The X-Files in bed as part of a tweet for a charity fundraising auction that the show was sponsoring.
OUTLANDER SEASON SEVEN IS ABOUT "FAMILY": Fast forward to June 2023. Outlander PR appears to want to sell the show using the appeal of the Fraser extended family--because now that is largely what the show is about.
So unless Sam, Cait and John Bell are involved in a triple 😱, I think it is safe to say that this is all just PR.
By the way, yes, John Bell said, "I just walked in to see what [Sam and Caitriona] were doing, and they were both just lying there in bed." However, he left out the part that they were WEARING CLOTHES. He also left out the part that there was (at least for the photo with the furry blanket at the top right of this post) SOMEONE TAKING PHOTOS (possibly even a camera crew).
How clueless do you have to be to continue to believe in the SamCait ship nearly four years AFTER Cait married Tony?🤦🏻♀️
I guess pretty clueless. 🤷🏻♀️
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Photo/gif sources: 01*, 02*, 03*, 04*, 05, 06; *these photos/gifs were modified from their source
I try not to read too much of the very intense “shipping” and all of that stuff, but sometimes, it gets a little mean. You obviously feel protective. You want to make sure that the people who aren’t part of your work aren’t harmed.
Caitriona Balfe, Inquirer.net
Yes, it seems that Cait is quite aware that sometimes “the very intense ‘shipping’...gets a little mean.”
Of course the extreme shippers (ES) have been angry with Cait for daring to criticize them. After all, in their minds Cait and Sam have been “gaslighting” them for years, so they deserve the hate the ES express towards them and their loved ones. 🙄
But the rest of us see this for what it is. A group of fans who cannot admit they have been wrong about Sam and Cait for over five years, who keep leading themselves on by finding fuzzy, ambiguous “receipts,” and who take their frustration about no SamCait “reveal” ever happening by hating on Cait, (sometimes) Sam, and their SOs.
Cait and Sam know this is happening.
Their friends and colleagues know this is happening.
All of them think it is ridiculous.
I just wish the ES who persist in this behavior could take a step back and ask themselves why they continue doing this.
The faux "funeral receipts" the extreme shippers use are most certainly NOT "undebunkable" 🙄
Someone recently sent me this comment by a SamCait shipper regarding my debunk of the "funeral receipts."
Hi @sgiandubh. It is interesting that you claim to have read my debunk of the "funeral photos" on my main Contemplating Outlander (CO) blog, even though those debunks are not on that blog (which is no longer an Outlander blog). Instead, they are on my side blog, Outlander Fandom Follies, which I have been using to post debunks during the past three years.🤔
For those who don't know, I shipped SC for two months in the spring of 2015, until I figured out that they weren't a couple. (It really wasn't hard to figure out--as long as one was willing to SEE the mountain of evidence that the ship wasn't real.)
Although I understand the appeal of shipping, I also understand one has to use pretzel logic to keep believing in the SC ship. Especially now that we definitely know that C and T got married 4 years ago in a Roman Catholic ceremony (confirmed by the MC that some fans got from the GRO--which, BTW, cannot send out copies of a "fake" MC).
IT'S JUST NOT REAL: The bottom line is that after C married T, the SC conspiracy that supports the SC ship has become a bizarre belief that has no basis in reality.
As S said in the IFH: "You know... it's just-- It's not real."**
Despite sgiandubh's protestations that the "funeral receipts" are "undebunkable," those of us who haven't chosen to get lost down the SC rabbit hole know they are false "receipts," based on shipper wishful thinking. This is because:
C is married to T and NOT to S.
Screenshots of someone's back (or screenshots where one otherwise cannot see someone's face) are not sufficient to definitely identify anyone. (Haven't you ever mistaken someone from the back, and when they turned around you realized they were someone else?🤷🏻♀️) Furthermore, we certainly have lots of examples of S and C "receipts" that later turned out not to be S or C, but instead, just someone who looked like S or C from the back or from a distance.
S's hairline on the side of his forehead does NOT match the guy's in the funeral video, which is more rounded. (However, C's brother K's hairline matches.) In addition, S's hair had been shaved down at that time and the man's hair in the video wasn't shaved (and neither was K's hair). To rationalize away that inconvenient fact, the shippers claimed S had to have been wearing a "wig." 🙄 Sorry, but if the ONLY way you can make a person in a screencap "receipt" match the person you want them to be is to claim that they must have been wearing a "wig," your "receipt" is NOT in the realm of "undebunkable."
Although some shippers say that the guy in the video could not be C's brother K, because he doesn't have the right build, I disagree. First of all K is a big guy (and we don't know what he looks like from the back). Second, some of the "bulk" in the screencaps appears to be due to fuzzy resolution. Someone sent me a very clear screencap, and the guy's body build looked less bulky and more like K's build. In addition, if K was wearing a jacket with shoulder pads, his back would have seemed wider.
The woman in the funeral video whom the shippers say is S's mother CH, has much blonder hair than CH. And CH has only worn her hair in that exact style a few times. I also think the two women's body shapes and heights are different. (I go into more detail about all of this under the cut.)
Finally, it seems pretty clear that S was in Mexico on Aug.10, 2022. (You can read why @bcacstuff claims that S was in Mexico the evening of Aug. 10th in her comment in the reblog of this POST).
See POST 1, POST 2, POST 3 for some detailed debunks (from myself and others) about the funeral "receipts."
See below the cut for:
A more detailed "CH funeral receipt" debunk.
Some more detail about the "S funeral receipt" debunk.
How confirmation bias impacts the outcome of shipper searches for "receipts," often leading them to find false receipts of random people whom they assume are S or C.
More reasons why I don't believe the ship is real.
Why I believe the SC shipper beliefs are based on the 5 common (false) tinhat beliefs that have been found in tinhat groups across fandoms.
How Confirmation Bias Skews the SamCait Shipper "Receipt" Searches
THE PROBLEM WITH "SEARCHING" FOR "RECEIPTS": The SamCait shippers didn't just "happen" to see someone in the funeral video whose back vaguely looked like S's. They went purposely hunting through grainy funeral video footage for someone who resembled S--because in the obituary, the reference to T (and not S) as a son-in-law had freaked them out. In other words, they were looking for reassurance that the ship was "real."
Confirmation bias is the tendency to overvalue information that supports one’s beliefs and to undervalue or overlook information that does not. When one goes searching for something, confirmation bias will often lead one to see what one wants to see.
I believe the false "funeral receipts" involving S and his mother CH are examples of how confirmation bias resulted in shippers being led astray.
A MORE DETAILED DEBUNK OF THE CH "FUNERAL RECEIPT": The CH "funeral receipt" is very easy to debunk. The reality is the shippers found a woman with light blonde hair and a hairdo that CH sometimes wears and must have decided that no other woman in the world wears that hairdo.🤦🏻♀️
However, if you just do a quick google search for CH, you will see that she has worn her hair all sorts of ways and not always the way the woman wore it in the funeral video. As can be seen in the thumbnail photos below, CH's hair color is also much darker than the light blonde hair of the woman in the video. Finally, the body shape (and possibly height) of the two women don't seem to match (at least in my opinion).
Regardless, IMHO to claim that that woman in the funeral video was definitely CH is a real stretch.
AN ADDITIONAL DEBUNK OF THE "S FUNERAL RECEIPT": I believe that the man that C is next to at the funeral mass is most likely her brother K or some other relative. Shippers claim that K doesn't have the right build. However, earlier in this post, I explained why I still thought it was likely K. In addition, I previously also explained why K's hairline and hair length better match the man in the video than S's hairline and hair length. (And no, I don't believe that was S in a "wig."🤦🏻♀️)
K also has a large forehead like S and like the man in the video.
Also, at least when I looked at the video, the few times you could see the mystery man turn slightly, he didn't have S's cheekbones. (And no, I'm not going to post pictures of the guy from the funeral or of K to prove my point--it just feels like a step too far into intrusiveness to do so, especially regarding screenshots from a video at a family funeral. I acknowledge that there is some hypocrisy on my part, because I'm writing about what I saw when I looked at the video and screencaps people sent me. But somehow that seems like a lesser offense. 🤷🏻♀️)
Finally, as I've said before, we have countless examples of how extreme shippers touted blurry photos, or photos of the back of someone, as being SC “receipts” that were later debunked when we got a better look at the person they were claiming was either S or C. A few examples are: Faux S at the Women’s March in Jan. 2017; Faux S at the Delpozo NYFW show in Sept. 2017; Faux S in Paris in Oct. 2016; the 3 Faux Cs (yes 3) at the Laophroaig anniversary event in Sept. 2015; and a Faux C and a Faux CH (S's Mom) at the National Theater in August 2015.
In conclusion, it is just not true for SC shippers to claim that the screencaps/ gifs/ video clips of the back of a man or a woman with a blonde hairdo at the funeral are "undebunkable," and therefore must be S and CH. It is much more reasonable to assume that the man in the video was either C's brother K or another family member, and the woman was just some unknown relative or friend of the family.
THIS Is "Tinhat" Shipping
THE SC SHIP IS A "TINHAT" SHIP: The current SC shipper beliefs are a form of "tinhat shipping" (based on 5 common (false) tinhat beliefs) that exists across many fandoms.
Sometimes it is easier to see how off-the-wall these beliefs can be if they are seen from a distance from one's own fandom. So let's see how these beliefs play out in a different fandom: the Twilight fandom, and the Robsten "tinhat" ship.
THE ROBSTEN "TINHAT" SHIP: Perhaps the closest parallel to the current SC shipper beliefs are the beliefs of the Twilight Robsten shippers. The Robstens believe that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson are secretly married with children, despite the fact that Robert has been dating Suki Waterhouse for 5 years, and Kristen has been in a lesbian relationship with her fiancée Dylan Meyer for four years.
Sounds (and looks) familiar, doesn't it?
BTW, in terms of finding "receipts," the Robstens do something very similar to what the SC extreme shippers (ES) do. According to Bustle:
Several [Robsten] blogs scour paparazzi photos of either celebrity for bystanders that resemble their "partner."
No wonder, the Robstens are so off-base with their beliefs about Robert and Kristen.
Other Reasons Why the SC Ship Isn't Real
THE SAMCAIT CONSPIRACY WOULD NOT BE LEGAL: First of all, there is no legal way in this day and age that TPTB could force two B/C-list actors to "hide" a relationship/ marriage and "3-5 boos" for nearly 10 years--while simultaneously being forced to date others and (in C's case to "pretend" to be married to T).
THE SC CONSPIRACY ISN'T PLAUSIBLE: In addition, none of the variations on the SC conspiracy theory make any sense. They don't meet the basic criteria that John Stewart proposed to determine whether a conspiracy could be plausible.
For instance, it would be completely impractical to hide an entire family for years, swear countless friends, family, colleague, teachers, babysitters, fans with camera phones, etc. to secrecy, and make two B/C-list stars "pretend" to date/be married to others and to spend holidays apart, etc. All to "hide" a romance that would actually be a publicity goldmine for the show.
There is a point where anyone with any common sense knows that such a weird belief just isn't real. The SC ship hit that mark years ago.
I don't care how much "evidence" the SC shippers come up with to support their ship. It won't change my mind because the underlying premise of the SC ship is not plausible.
When a belief isn't true, you know the "receipts" used to support it are based on the true believers "seeing" what they want to see.
That makes ALL of the SamCait "receipts" debunkable.
NOTE: I don't often write full debunks anymore, but I do so when I feel that the shippers have crossed boundaries regarding C, T, and S. In addition, I have always done debunks to help fence sitters and new fans avoid making the mistake of falling down the SC rabbit hole. Finally, I also do it for the seasick shippers who are just tired of the ups and downs of the ship and who are looking for a way off.
[edited]
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IMAGE SOURCES: 1) "It's just not real" gif source; 2) "Sam in Mexico" video source; 3) "People don't really want the truth" meme source (before minor edits); 4) CH image search source; 5) video source (before edits) for the "It's just not true" gif; 6) "Robsten manip" source (before edits); 7) video source (before edits) for the "That's not legal" gif; 8) video source for "conspiracy plausibility" screenshot; 9) video source (before edits) for the "You know that isn't true" gif
**Below are links to some other posts that explain why I am so sure that the SC ship isn't real:
A general debunk of the rationale behind all the SC conspiracy theories can be found HERE.
This POST explains the ways in which SC shipper leaders have manipulated their followers in order to keep the ship afloat, and how current SC shipper beliefs are right out of the tinhat shipper playbook.
A partial list of past debunks of SC "receipts" can be found HERE.
This POST (only found on the web version of my CO blog) lists some old posts that explain why one cannot believe what one thinks one sees between two romantic leads based on interviews, PR events, behind-the-scenes photos/videos, etc.
There are many other posts that you can find if you look at the "Pages About Fandom and Blog" on the web version of my Outlander Fandom Follies side blog.
THIS IS PR: Romantic leads in a series often play up their chemistry to promote their show
In real life, Jessica Chastain is married to Gian Luca Passi de Preposulo and Oscar Isaac is married to Elvira Lind. And yet they appeared to be very affectionate on the red carpet while promoting their new HBO mini-series Scenes From a Marriage at the Venice International Film Festival.
But no, Jessica and Oscar aren’t having a clandestine affair.
What looks like “love” between Oscar and Jessica in the slow motion gif above and the photo below is actually PR. This is what is often expected in the film and TV industry of many romantic co-stars when they are promoting their shows.
Some of the actors in film/TV romantic pairings are better at playing up their chemistry for PR than others. Clearly, Jessica and Oscar are very good at this kind of PR work.
Undoubtedly, Oscar and Jessica are physically familiar with each other at this point, after playing husband and wife for months during filming. So they aren’t shy about touching each other. This makes it easier for them to play up their chemistry at PR events to promote their show. [See this POST if you want to understand more about the touchy-feely behavior of actors & why their significant others (SOs) are okay with that.]
SamCait Extreme Shippers Often Misunderstand PR
Despite the alleged “PR experts” 🙄 among them, over the years many Outlander SamCait extreme shippers (ES) have appeared to confuse S & C’s flirty behavior when trying to promote Outlander with a real life romance.
S & C played up their chemistry the first couple of years the show was on--and of course the ES replay those slow-motion gifs (often taken out of context) over and over again as “evidence” that their ship is “real.”
Ex-shippers also don’t seem to understand that S & C weren’t deliberately “gaslighting” them in the past. They were just doing their jobs. They also weren’t being “disrespectful” to their real SOs. They were “acting”--even while doing PR--and their real SOs understood that.
According to Cait, she and Sam also share a similar sense of humor, so that may be why some of their fan service banter on twitter had all sorts of juvenile sexual innuendo in it. But that was never meant to be taken literally.
The rest of us got the memo years ago that S & C weren’t a real couple, especially when Sam and Cait’s respective SOs showed up at events. Unlike extreme shippers, we didn’t assume Cait’s romantic partner T and the women that S has dated were “fake” SOs. Rather, we assumed (correctly) that S & C had just played up their chemistry for PR purposes--like many romantic leads are expected to do.
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image sources: 01 (video source for gif), 02, 03; note that all images were modified from their original sources.
Over the weekend Caitriona Balfe posted an Instagram Story of her next to a tree walking. The background color of the picture is brown and it said,
Sunday walks with my gorgeous @maria mcmanus trench 🤎
Now shippers have put together a post of that picture of her and the mystery woman that was in the BTS MIK video with Sam confirming it’s a match. Which is Caitriona herself with the same physiognomy. I admit I usually roll my eyes and laugh when they do these types of posts like shadows behind a mirror or wine glass to prove Sam and Cait are together but I have to say it’s very compelling evidence. Cait’s hairstyle, face mask, and clothing in her recent picture look very similar to the woman in the video. Including, her legs and height. It’s a striking resemblance! It’s possible that was her. Maybe Sam and Graham invited her to be a part of the action as a friend and she accepted. Have you seen the comparison and what do you think?
If you haven’t seen the photo italianoutlanders on tumblr posted it just for reference. Thanks!
Thanks for your ask Anon!
After Hawaii last year. After what Olympian MA recently said. After all the women that have been associated with S over the years. After C’s marriage to T. After all that, anyone who still believes in the SC ship is just lost in conspiracy theory land. 🤦♀️
Again, why they have a need to “prove” that it was C in this scenario also makes no sense. Because even if it were C, she certainly could visit S and G on the set as their friend and colleague.
But anyway, I don’t think it was C. But lets looks at this again.
So there’s C in the photo above left. The two other edited screencaps above are the mystery woman. I could see how some people thought the middle screencap looks vaguely like C but certainly isn’t a “match.” She doesn’t seem to have C’s swan neck. But the screencap on the far right looks even less like C to me. Her torso is not as elongated as C’s IMHO.
Back in Sept. 2020, someone sent me an ES gif of the mystery woman. Below is a cropped, shortened, and sharpened version of the gif.
To me the woman just looks like someone on the film crew. She has a number of items hanging off of her that make it look like she is involved in production. Whoever she is, she appears to have absolutely no interest in interacting with S -- and S seems to have no interest in interacting with her.
If she isn’t a part of the film crew, the other possibility is she’s G’s girlfriend.
Sorry, but after 6 years, it is just so sad that these women continue to have a need to keep trying to prove their faux ship. 🤦♀️
“Reinterpreting Randomness” (i.e., “connecting the dots”) in Fandom Celebrity Conspiracy Theories
In a different POST that had a link to an excellent May 15, 2020 article in The Conversation: Coronavirus, 'Plandemic' and the seven traits of conspiratorial thinking. @doctortwhohiddles commented regarding the Benedict Cumberbatch septics (aka skeptics):
The septics tick all the boxes. It’s specially true about the 7th point when it comes to the Dismal Duo.
For those who haven’t read the article, this is the 7th point:
7. Reinterpreting randomness
“ Conspiracy theorists see patterns everywhere – they’re all about connecting the dots. Random events are reinterpreted as being caused by the conspiracy and woven into a broader, interconnected pattern. Any connections are imbued with sinister meaning. ”
Yup. Conspiracy theorists everywhere go wild “connecting the dots.” For instance, here’s a visual of a bizarre exercise in dot connecting by SIS Brazil a while back when they tried to prove that Cait’s engagement to Tony was “fake.” 🤦♀️
Maybe SIS Brazil should have simply listened to Cait’s mother talking about how Tony rang Cait’s parents up before he proposed to Cait. (You can listen to the Jan. 8, 2018 audiotape HERE.)
Below is a transcript of what Cait’s mother said:
“She got engaged on the 28th I think it was. Eh, Tony actually rang us (chuckles) the night before. Eh, I had been wondering, you know, coming up to Christmas would be a possibility but he waited until after Christmas and they were in Australia for Christmas and he proposed to her there. So we’re thrilled for her. It could either be um a little quiet one somewhere but I don’t know what the plans are. We haven’t talked about it yet. I’m dying for the chat about it all when she does get back to Scotland.”
If anyone thinks this elderly woman who has been married for decades to a now retired Garda Sergeant (i.e., policeman) would be a part of a “conspiracy” to “hide” Cait’s “real marriage” to Sam, they’ve been spending way too much time staring at boards like the one above that connects random dots in bizarre ways.
Anyone who engages in this sort of nonsensical thinking in any fandom is going to be way off base with the conclusions they come to.
It’s high time the word gets out. THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO TRUTH TO ANY OF THE CURRENT FANDOM CELEBRITY CONSPIRACY THEORIES. They are all based to some extent on the tinhatter playbook.
Don’t bother trying to refute these convoluted beliefs with conspiracy theorists. Just remind them that celebrity conspiracy theories are always full of logical fallacies and inevitably turn out to be wrong. Wish them well and hope that they can eventually see past whatever conspiracy theory they are entangled in that has clouded their perceptions.
Sam and Cait (and certain fans) during the time of coronavirus pandemic social distancing
Yes, I know. I’m commenting on some fandom stuff in this post.🤦♀️ But given everything that happened this week (especially with Sam), it is hard not to.
Anyway, Sam and Cait have been dealing with the coronavirus pandemic in two very different ways--with decidedly different reactions from certain people in the fandom.
CAIT’S ISOLATING HERSELF AT HOME. Cait has apparently chosen to stay home as a way of social distancing, as is evidenced on March 18th when she posted about cooking at home:
The photos above show a beautifully garnished meal for two hungry adults (about half a chicken each--breast, thigh and wing), plus maybe some leftovers for Eddie. Since adults are not having dinner with friends during the pandemic, who was the adult that joined Cait for that meal? Sam wasn’t there; common sense dictates it was Cait’s husband Tony. (And no–Cait didn’t make that meal for the “imaginary toddlers’ she has. That isn’t a meal for little ones who generally don’t like fancy herbs on their chicken--if they eat chicken at all.)
Indeed in Cait’s IG/ Twitter Q & A yesterday, it was clear that she is choosing to isolate at home. It was also clear that she hadn’t seen Sam in a while:
Q: Do you see Sam Heughan?
Cait’s A: “I do sometimes see Sam Heughan. I work with Sam Heughan and I see him at press stuff. I have not seen him in quite a while because he’s gallivanting around the world doing all the things that he does. He’s very busy. But I’m sure I’m gonna-- well actually I don’t know when I’m going to see him again.” [emphasis added]
That doesn’t sound like Cait is #somarried to Sam. IMHO no real couple would choose to be apart during a pandemic. And no “wife” would be without a clue as to when she was going to see her “husband” again.
SAM IS KEEPING SOCIAL DISTANCE PROBABLY IN HAWAII. Sam meanwhile appears to be on the other side of the world in Hawaii with a certain woman--G. I was sent a lot of information about this in DM. Some fans have decided that the two are social distancing at a private rental. I have no idea if any of this is true but if Sam and G are doing so, even if flying for vacation purposes during this time raises concerns, it seems like they are taking some precautions regarding the coronavirus by staying in a secluded location.
This post is long, so the rest will be under the cut.
[edited]
Of course, it’s no surprise that the haters are all over this. They are saying some truly awful things, one of which is that G is a “paid escort.” From what I can tell, G is a model who has posed for Playboy; she is also a makeup artist. Regarding the clickbait escort service ad that some of these haters found, escort services are known to take Playboy model photos and to pretend that their service will offer dates with these models. It’s most likely just clickbait. I sincerely doubt that G is an escort.
I also think it is hilarious that anyone would believe that Sam would need to pay an escort to have female companionship on a holiday. Even if by some stretch of the imagination Sam needed a “fake girlfriend,” he could certainly find one to be with to whom he didn’t have to pay ridiculous sums of money each day. Heck, he could have hung out with his friend Danielle for free if he was going back to Hawaii. Again, the paid “fake girlfriend” or “beard” theories make no sense.🙄
Anyway, that Sam is in Hawaii with someone who isn’t Cait is clearly annoying some fans. Rather than addressing what they are probably actually annoyed about, it appears that some have decided to directly attack his choice to take a holiday during a pandemic.
Okay, one could argue that Sam was taking a risk by flying to Hawaii at this time. However, Paleyfest was canceled a few days before everyone went on full pandemic alert in the States. So judging Sam in retrospect doesn’t seem quite fair.
But some haters went even further in expressing their anger. One of them chose to jump on a tweet from the official Bloodshot account to try to put Sam down:
But Sam didn’t let the fan get away with this:
I’m glad that Sam stood up for himself. He has a ridiculous schedule. He clearly jumped at an unexpected break in his schedule to take a holiday where he could just relax. If he is staying at a private, isolated rental, he is at least taking some social distancing precautions.
But this person’s tweet seems to have been the final straw for Sam after years of certain fans expressing hate towards himself and the women he has dated. He went on to say something that showed how angry he was:
I haven’t checked, but knowing the haters, they are probably all over Sam for having called certain fans “delusional.” Okay, as you know, I’m not a big fan of anyone calling fans “delusional.” But Sam was clearly very angry at being personally attacked on the official Bloodshot site. Sam knows how certain fans continue to believe that he is married to Cait--despite many denials, much evidence against the ship, and Cait’s marriage to Tony. Sam certainly knows that some of these fans have harassed every woman Sam has dated. It seems that Sam has had enough.
Putting this in perspective, Sam’s expressing that level of anger is very much like what Benedict Cumberbatch expressed towards the Skeptics in an interview with Vanity Fair:
The ES and their allies might want to stop for a minute if they are angry at Sam for saying what he said and ask themselves would a nice guy like Sam really say something like that if he were actually married to Cait?
No. Of course he wouldn’t. Because that really would be gaslighting.
Sam’s not married to or having a “secret relationship” with Cait. He’s not gay. He’s just a single guy who is currently dating different women and who is taking a secluded holiday reportedly with a woman he knows because he apparently really needs a break.
That’s all this is. Please let Sam be, even if you disagree with what he did.
ADDENDUM: I appreciate that some fans who have nothing to do with SamCait are upset that Sam chose to go on a vacation at this time given the pandemic. I can understand how you feel. He was certainly taking some risk by doing so. But I would also hope that fans who disagree with his decision would not directly attack Sam on his social media. It was the way that he was attacked that didn’t seem fair to me. JMHO
Given Hawaii-gate and Sophie Skelton’s confirmation that the Cait & Tony wedding happened, certain ES are becoming more creative in the ways they insist the SamCait ship is real.
“If Caitriona ‘married’ Tony she would be a bigamist. Some folks know for a fact that she married Sam in 2015. I am waiting for those ‘folks’ to accept your challenge....as ‘brassy’ as it is....and publish the truth.”
Did she just say that Cait would be a “bigamist” if she married Tony?
Don’t you just love the bravado?
She might want to tell the priest who married Cait and Tony.
Can he somehow undo the knot?
You have to appreciate a creative lie!
Yeah, well, if anyone in this fandom had a real SamCait marriage certificate, it would have been broadcast to the entire fandom years ago.
Either that or so many people would have seen it privately by now there would be no doubt that it existed.
This sounds a bit like the Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart “marriage certificate” that certain Robstens claim exists, even though it has never seen the public light of day.
But I like the bigamist line. That line had flair. 😘
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“Wait, what?” gif source; “hot priest” video source for gif
