Lili Reinhart slams Bughead fans who attacked Shannon Purser after Ethel and Jughead’s kiss

31 October 2018, 14:11

By Katie Louise Smith

"You are not a fan of mine if you treat my friend like this."

Last week's Riverdale hit us with a lot of wild twists including an unexpected kiss between Jughead Jones and Ethel Muggs.

In a bid to find more about the 'Gryphons and Gargoyles' game that claimed the lives of Dilton Doiley and Ben Button, Jug went to visit Ethel, who was playing the game in the bunker. In exchange for the rule book, Ethel told Jughead that she had to kiss him. He did. It was a little weird, yes, but it clearly didn't mean anything serious. Unfortunately, fans didn't take it that way.

A day after the episode aired, Shannon Purser, who plays Ethel, took to Twitter to reveal that a group of Bughead fans had been sending her hateful comments following the scene.

And now Lili Reinhart (Betty Cooper) has responded to the negative comments and has slammed the fans who attacked her personally for the actions of her character.

Following the kiss between Jughead and Ethel, a small amount of Bughead fans reportedly started calling Shannon Purser "fat" and "ugly" - because they thought that her actions would become a problem for Betty and Jughead, presumably.

In two now deleted tweets, Shannon wrote: "all the stans who finally feel comfortable calling me fat/ugly now that Ethel has interfered with their ship" alongside an image of the out of breath Spongebob meme.

She then went on to add: "I’m not stressed about it, trust me. I just wonder what these people will think in like 10 yrs when they remember their twitter and realize they insulted and attacked real human beings for their character on a tv show..."

To be honest, Shannon handled the whole thing incredibly well but it goes without saying that the behaviour of these fans is completely unacceptable and no one should have to be subjected to hate comments because of the actions of a character.

Lili Reinhart has now responded to the comments and has slammed the small amount of Bughead fans that have been insulting Shannon on Twitter.

In a tweet posted last night (Oct 30), Lili wrote: "Shannon is my friend, and it is embarrassing that people felt the need to attack her personally for something that happened on a SHOW. Written by WRITERS. You are not a fan of mine if you treat my friend like this."

Unfortunately, it's not the first time this has happened to the actors on the show, and it's not even the first time this has happened with that small subsection of Bughead fans.

Back in 2017, when it was announced that Vanessa Morgan would be joining the cast as Toni Topaz, she received death threats from fans who took issue with her *potentially* coming between Betty and Jughead. (Lili also addressed those comments over on her Tumblr, writing "this is a fictional couple for God's sake.")

There's an alarming amount of negativity in the Riverdale fandom toward certain actors on the show because of the actions of their characters - and it needs to stop. We get it! You love your ship! But please just remember that it is JUST a TV show and it is not real. There are real people with real feelings and quite frankly, any threats or hateful comments made about them are disgusting.