working theory 101: why continue to bash Sam if he really doesn't threaten the twu wuv 4evah?

[lyssie]

I was mentioning this to someone while at work yesterday (I think it was greycoupon), and I think it actually explains some of the vociferous and constant mauling of Sam Anders.

Because most of the Kara/Lee shippers I know don't spent ten thousand woman hours on disproving Sam's love for Kara. They're, y'know, sane. But then there are some... and I randomly tossed out the following, in an attempt to be funny.

"Sometimes, I don't get it. Do Sam-bashers have a personal vendetta against Sam Anders? Because there's no point in constantly bashing him unless it is personal--or unless they feel threatened and truly suspect Kara/Sam is the True Luv Forevah kind. IE, THE LADY DOTH PROTEST TOO MUCH."

Huh. I think I might actually have hit the reason for the massive amount of hatred and dislike of Sam from certain quarters. It's that he threatens the otp, and does it well enough they can a) see the show ending with Kara and Sam together and, b) that doesn't sit well with any of them (and possibly they're feeling like chumps for believing the star-crossed lovers party line). So they are trying everything in their power to disprove that he loves Kara/she loves him."

Which is sad. If they spent all that energy on creating Kara/Lee meta and fic without the Sam hatred, they'd be such happy people."

eta: I forgot one of the other things I was thinking at the time, which is that, subconsciously, they find Sam hot (which, he is), and they're trying to fight that, too.

Comments

[scarfman]

I believe I once before, prolly during BSG's second season, mentioned to you that I refer to this phenomenon as Riley Finn Syndrome. No, I remember now, it was a time you were writing rather about Sam and Pete on SG1. I coined the phrase when scarfmom was showing us La Femme Nikita, about Jurgen. The same thing probably accounts for most of the Martha Jones hatred in the world, too.

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

*nods* Yes! I did, and I think this also accounts for the Rose hatred, as well, though not all of it--some of it is backlash against the Rose fans (I can't count how many times I've seen someone say, "I liked her until her fans..." and I myself hate her if I see the hardcore kids going at it about how awesome she is, when objectively, I actually happen to like Rose.)

And I know this isn't as simple as it seems, I know there are lots of different factors, but I do think some of it is just their perceived threat in canon.