Ok #Earpers, here's a little cautionary tale about a scifi genre show where a small sect of the fandom ruined things for everybody. 1/?

Once upon a time there was a little show called Farscape. It was about an astronaut who accidentally found himself in another galaxy on a weird living ship with a bunch of weird aliens. What's a guy to do? Fall in love with a sexy enemy combatant of course. 2/?

The burgeoning fandom loved it. The astronaut's "I hate you/I want you" energy vibed perfectly with the combatant's "I hate you/I want you" energy. In fact, their chemistry was SO PERFECT that some folx couldn't believe the actors playing them weren't a couple irl. 3/?

In fact, some folx irl couldn't believe that the astronaut actor was <gasp> happily married to <gasp> NOT the combatant actor??? But they were so perfect for each other! Couldn't they see that? 4/?

Some of these deeply... erm... invested... fans even went so far as sending letters to the astronaut's actor pointing out how perfect his chemistry was with the combatant's actor and how surely she would be there for him if he were to... say... leave his wife. 5/?

Meanwhile, fan conventions start happening. And for the most part the cast, including the astronaut and combatant, are happy to attend and meet the fans. But the small group of irl shipper fans are getting louder, and more aggressive; pushing their agenda 6/?

The astronaut starts pushing back, telling fans to respect his marriage and his wife, and to understand the difference between fact and fiction. 7/?

The irl shippers go harder, spreading rumors that the astronaut is trapped in a loveless marriage with a b*tch who is preventing him from freely being with the combatant. 8/?

Again, I must stress, this was a TINY offshoot of the fandom. The majority of the fandom was like, "these people are nuts and don't reflect us." But the irl shippers would. not. stop. 9/?

Then, finally, it happened. One or more threats were made against the astronaut's wife. And that was it. The astronaut said "Fuck this shit, I'm out." No more conventions, no more fan events. And without a figurehead, the fandom not-so-slowly imploded and died. 10/?

This was a straight ship. At the time, those of us quietly queer members of the fandom were like, "straight people be crazy, yo." I never thought I would see similar crap to this degree happening with queer ship in a fandom that claims to be about kindness. 11/?

IRL shippers will always exist, an unfortunate truth. But it's up to the rest of us to circle around this nonsense and get it contained; even ban folx if necessary. Because I could not stand it if the Earp fandom went the way of the Farscape fandom. We are better than this. 12/12