This past weekend, Happy got grumpy. Sorry, bad pun, I know. I couldn’t resist. Let me start over.
On Friday night, the actor who plays Happy on Once Upon a Time started a wee bit of a twitter riot. It started during a Q & A Michael Coleman was having, and became an argument that seems to have lasted quite a bit of time.
He has since deleted the original offending tweets, but it started with him saying SwanQueen wasn’t a ship and that it was never going to happen, and that SwanQueen shippers were rude and aggressive. Coleman then engaged in back-and-forth with people trying to explain to him why what he said was offensive. He kept insisting what he said wasn’t insulting and was just fact.
Here are some of his “apology” tweets.
I think I missed the 15K mark but it was worth it to share in the love. #Oncers #SwanQueens (who love and don’t hate) thank you! <3
– Michael Coleman (@1MichaelColeman) December 20, 2013
Apologies to those reading misquotes. Ship what you want to ship & not all cast hate all #SwanQueen #Oncers I use personally don’t “ship” it – Michael Coleman (@1MichaelColeman) December 20, 2013 And I do still prefer the writers to write the show and not the fans. Love you all to pieces but the team of writers has this and I love it. – Michael Coleman (@1MichaelColeman) December 20, 2013 For the record I love #Oncers and I love #SwanQueens but none of the cast will tolerate hate, swearing or disrespect to any of us. #Love – Michael Coleman (@1MichaelColeman) December 20, 2013 Dude needs to take a class in apologies, if you ask me. It’s fine if you want to stand by what you originally said, but don’t claim people are twisting your words and then repeat exactly what you said and what people are saying you said. Quite frankly, I prefer the writers write the show and not this guy. I also prefer the fandom ship the ships. Happy can walk the plank. Speaking of ships, Coleman also obviously doesn’t understand what a “ship” is.
@KovuandKiara_ @TnDani Keep watching the show. See what you want to see. I didn’t kill your ship as it never had life. – Michael Coleman (@1MichaelColeman) December 20, 2013
Much like fairies, all a ship needs to exist is for someone to believe. And there are so many of us who believe in this ship – even if we don’t think it will ever happen on screen doesn’t mean we can’t ship it with all of our hearts. And besides, there is no way he knows what the writers have planned for the future. Brittana started out as a femslash ship we thought would never happen. Just saying.
Source: teambrittanaisendgame.tumblr.com The real issue wasn’t in his opinions on SwanQueen in general. He’s allowed to not ship it. The problem was when he started generalizing and calling the SwanQueen fandom rude, even going so far as to say the fandom’s rudeness was notorious on set and that Jennifer Morrison and Lana Parrilla have noticed and that it doesn’t look good for us. He even went so far as to say the only negative things he has heard about fans of the show have been about aggressive and fundamentalist-his word, not mine-SwanQueen shippers.
Are there rude SwanQueen shippers? Sure there are. But I’m willing to bet there are also rude SwanFire shippers and rude CaptainSwan shippers. Heck, there might even be a fandom for people who ship Happy with Grumpy or Belle or something. And I bet there’s a rude person in that bunch, too. Because in any group of people, you’re bound to get a variety of personalities. But you cannot define the group based on a subset of it.
Eventually, Happy’s comments made their way to the cast and crew. Adam spoke up for the writers, saying that Michael Coleman didn’t speak for anyone but himself.
To be clear, @1MichaelColeman DOES NOT speak for me, Eddy, the cast or anyone at ONCE. We sincerely apologize for any misunderstanding. – Adam Horowitz (@AdamHorowitzLA) December 20, 2013
Adam then took to Twitter and was answering fans individually, explaining that Michael is entitled to his opinions, but he doesn’t speak for anyone else. He also assured fans that, as Michael implied, the cast doesn’t hate the SwanQueen fandom. Jen and Lana also caught wind of this and spoke up in support of the fandom. Jen reiterated what she had said at New York ComicCon and tweeted that she supports all fans and all ships.
As I have said before I love all of the ships surrounding Emma: swanfire, captainswan, and swanqueen. – Jennifer Morrison (@jenmorrisonlive) December 20, 2013 Jen actually seemed a little angry that someone was speaking on her behalf, and even called Michael Coleman out and told him he was “out of line.” She also said she loved the passion of her fans and couldn’t imagine why anyone would say negative things about SwanQueen.
Lana also spoke out, reminding everyone that she loves and supports all of her fans.
TBC, @1MichaelColeman doesn’t speak 4 me. I love all of our fans & appreciate ur love for our characters! #SwanQueen #EvilRegals #ABC #OUAT
– Lana Parrilla (@LanaParrilla) December 20, 2013
So don’t fret, SwanQueen fandom, Jen and Lana are still captaining this ship with grace and poise. They see us and they love our love for them, and they’ll stick up for us and remind us of their support when it counts.
I’m going to go ahead and consider that Jen and Lana’s Christmas gift to fandom.
Happy holidays, everyone!
