#shipping culture

[demonwithshades]

I truly and deeply hate it when one of my favorite characters (Sampo Koski) is only popular around fandom spaces because of the popular ship they're in (sampard) and not because of their smart, creative and heartwrenchingly deep character writing.

YES THEY ARE GAY. YEAH I OBVIOUSLY CANNOT STOP THE SHIP. YEAH I THINK IT IS WONDERFUL THAT THEY ARE QUEER AND HAPPY. BUT LET ME ENJOY MY CHARACTER WITHOUT ANY PAIRINGS PLEASE!! I WANT TO SEE JUST THEM!! HAPPY AND THRIVING ALONE!! THIS IS TOTALLY NOT BECAUSE IM AROACE AND IM PROJECTING!!!!

#mfw I looked up sampo fics on ao3 and it was all sampard. #I dont have anything personal against the ship ofc #I think its pretty cute #but I want to see JUST sampo #sampo koski #hsr sampo #I may be autistic about sampo #shipping #shipping culture

[anonymousqualities]

Normies need to understand, there's no logic to shipping culture-we're all DELUSIONAL and very okay with that.

#fandoms #as long as its not illegal #jaskier #wolfstar #drarry #jegulus #bakudeku #todobakudeku #tododeku #asheiji #dabihawks #sukufushi #megumi x yuuji #punkflower #bitomas #erasermic #erasermight #rosekiller #superbats #shipping culture #eremin #aonunete #nanago #kevedd

[bloggingboutburgers]

Y'all are persistent huh

I know when I'm beat

#no one can know i don't like sex #shipping culture #aromantic #asexual #aroace #my art #nonburger

[noperopesaredope]

"It's not about the CANONICAL chemistry. Canon can go fuck itself. It's about the POTENTIAL for chemistry. It's about the fact that, had things gone just a little differently, had they gotten just a little more screentime together, they would be in a serious relationship."

-- Me explaining rarepairs and crackships and stuff to my sib

#this was inspired by #alenoah #noco #yeah they've gotten popular but they have rarepair energy #you know? #rarepair #crackship #fandom culture #fandom commentary #shipping #shipping culture #fanon #canon vs fanon #jessie x delia #hanamusashipping #every time i remember a delightful and beloved ‘rarepair’ type ship I add it in the tags

[winterr-w0nderland]

Seen a lot of ship bingos so I made my own

#ship bingo #otps #shipping culture #feel free to use

[very-feral-lesbian]

been thinking a lot about how ashamed i used to be for using ao3 and tumblr. but like ao3 survives solely off of user support and dedication to fandom, that shits beautiful.

#ao3 #fandom stuff #13 year old me could never imagine that i discuss my blog with my friends openly #shipping culture #yes i may have been reading embarrassing teen wolf and 1D fanfic #but ive graduated #steddie #buddie #leatin #shoni #the wilds #eyewitness #philkas #ronance #young royals #byler #lumax #fruity four #malex #text post #text #txt

[lanniisters]

On Friends-To-Lovers:

I get so annoyed when people throw around the “healthy platonic relationships are so important” thing because YES THEY ARE but you don’t actually think that.

What you think is that, in this particular case, I want these two characters to stay platonic so that I can ship my ship and, simultaneously, feel morally superior. The reality is that there are multiple non-canon ships for whom this applies… but one of them happens to be queer.

Woah hold those trigger fingers!!

While this train of logic does apply to people calling queer coded relationships “besties” or, heaven forbid, “brothers”, it also applies to straight (or straight-presenting) relationships.

You do not need to write two characters as romantic interests (or *groan* enemies) for the story to be romantic. It is OKAY for those characters to form a deep, romantic and emotional bond after years of building trust and loyalty.

As a person who identifies as demisexual, I find the erasure of friends-to-lovers extremely harmful and inherently invalidating. Especially now that we are seeing screenwriters and authors being critical of the trope.

Please, sit me down and explain to me in excruciating details why these two characters - who have seen each other through their darkest periods, who have been each other’s personal cheerleaders, who have loved each other unconditionally - are not good as lovers?

“But can’t two characters just be friends anymore?!”

They certainly can and good for you for believing that characters should show genuine love for one another without having any romantic feelings. But that doesn’t mean the latter can’t exist.

Listen, I never go in expecting my ship to happen and I never expect everyone to agree with it but it drives me up the wall to be invalidated purely because friendship and romantic love can’t coexist in your world. If you want to believe that platonic soulmates should be a thing (AND THEY SHOULD), you also need to understand that you cannot use that term to invalidate another’s ship when the foundations of your own (usually rival) ship are the exact same as mine.

#friends to lovers #tropes #discussion #enemies to lovers #strangers to lovers #shipping #shipping culture #ship wars #destiel #tedbecca #tedtrent #queer #harmione #kiribaku #wolfstar #haiykuu #Ted lasso #Harry potter #supernatural #lunami #stucky

[smallsies]

sorry but. something about how fanfiction is vastly undervalued by readers in fandom culture. how people love to read stories about their favorite characters but only if they're in love, or if they at least sleep with each other. there's so many incredible stories that are just missed because fandom culture struggles to see beyond romantic pairings and relationships.

#idk is there some fear people have of engaging w characters beyond being half of a gay ship? #maybe this is just me but like. don't you want to get inside their head? share a piece of their thoughts and how they see the world? #even just seeing them in silly Situations . like. that is truly unappealing to you without any romantic aspect alongside it? #i don't mean to come off as bitter ot anything but this is just something i see time and time again #ship culture in fandom and particularly within fanfic is just. a bit of a nightmare #maybe i'm too aroace for this idk #fandom #fandom culture #ao3 #fanfic #ship culture #shipping culture

[whomst-the-hell]

we are not the same

#steddie #andreil #timkon #codywan #sterek #i dont really ship sterek but still relevant #i think every bnha ship with deku #caitvi #fandom #fanfiction #shipping culture

[a-flaming-triple-a]

Shippers claim they aren't amatanormative/arophobic but then they make a post saying "there's no platonic explanation for this" and it'll be a photo of two characters hugging. Or smiling at each other. Or holding hands. Or sharing food. Or saying they love each other.

Sorry to break it to you, but none of those actions are inherently romantic. I do all of these with my friends. This proves nothing about the validity of your ship. Guess what, you can ship anything and it doesn't have to be supported by the text. Don't make it out like platonic interpretations are wrong just because you want validation from the text. There is always a platonic explanation, you're just cowards who believe romance is the only interesting dynamic between two people.

#amatonormativity #shipping culture #aromantic #aro #platonic

[aborddelimpala]

hey really don't know what is mean proship. can you explain to me? thx 😊🙏

Sure thing hun' 😊

Being "proship" means I accept any pairing in fiction. I don't care what people ship and if a ship irks me or makes me uncomfortable, I just stay away from it.

I think shipping is fun and if you enjoy two characters being together together, go for it. Who am I to tell you you shouldn't ship it ?????

Ship and let ship 😉

#shipping culture #there is no such thing as problematic ship #this is all fictionnal #and for fun

[blueratgrmln]

🌟OPEN DISCUSSION about the 2020's era of shipping culture, Sonadow in the Sonic Fandom, and how well-intended activism can circle back to the language and violence of oppressors 🌟

(Link to chapter PARTS >>>HERE<<<)

INTRO

I gotta get something off my chest in regards to shipping. I wasn't super invested in the shipping part of the Sonic Fandom community when I was growing up. There were a few ships I liked and I enjoyed the fanart people made of those ships. And then I forgot about it for a number of years. Now in adulthood I am getting back into shipping Sonic characters a bit more, because it's fun to look back at the things I liked as a kid and seeing how my opinions have changed since gaining more life experience. Plus I've become much more active on the internet, in Fandom spaces, and more aware of social justice issues during adulthood. So here is a long-ish essay where I gather my thoughts about Sonadow shipping, fandoms, and activism together💙

MIDDLE CHILD EXPERIENCE IN THE SONIC FANDOM

It's odd being a Middle Child of the Sonic Fandom "family" that grew up during the age of "cringe culture" cyberbullying and shipping wars. I was aware of the stereotypes and disdain people had both on and off the internet toward the Sonic Fanbase and the notoriety it had. It influenced me to tone-down my external Sonic geekiness around my peers. While some of the stereotypes had some truth to it (when they weren't used as cyberbullying put-downs), I noticed that there was a very prominent difference how the Sonic Franchise/Fandom was viewed by the pop culture savvy public and how the fandom acted amongst/within itself as a creative and meaning-making community, despite the in-fighting that occasionally happened. On the internet, I oddly didn't experience or witness much discourse about ethics, specifically about shipping, when I was a kid cruising the internet for the fanart I liked. The spaces I visited were usually very supportive of people creating meaning, joy, and comfort with these ships. These shipping spaces loved Sonic × Amy, Shadow × Amy, Knuckles × Rouge, Sonic × Sally, Silver × Blaze and also any ship between Sonic, Shadow, and Silver. While there were specific ships that I enjoyed, I was happy to see other people enjoying other ships and hearing them geek about it. Yes, there was sometimes shipping discourse pitting pairings against each other, but I did not notice intense targeting or harassment in the name of "ethics" to the same degree as I am witnessing nowadays.

THE ETHICAL VS UNETHICAL DEBATES

Fast forward to the 2020's age of the internet and fandom culture. I had no idea what the evolved discussion about "ethical vs unethical" shipping was beyond just "this ship is the best" mentalities until about a year ago. After reading about the various viewpoints, I started out not really caring about the ethics of fictional shipping and not fully caring on which "side" I would fit, even though my views in adulthood realistically lean towards anti-censorship sentiments. However, it's important to note that if I'd discovered this specific "ethical vs unethical" debate when I was younger, I would have leaned pro-censorship, a view directly influenced by the small-town evangelical church indoctrination that kept my mind closed-off from the nuances of sociology, psychology, and humanity. I was the type of person that got emotional and reactionary about the idea of people being sex workers, about the idea of kink and BDSM being a normal thing between consenting adults, and about other socially charged topics. Then as I learned from other people's experiences and researched those topics, my mindset changed to be more supportive and more aware of all the nuances that go beyond black vs white thinking. I learned to not demonize people and instead find out the reasons WHY something happens or WHY people do something, and actually LISTEN to the person and BELIEVE them when they give their answer. Similar mindset changes have happened in adulthood since I've done research about both the generational divides and social justice intersectionality of this cultural shift in today's internet Fandom spaces. I am noticing this divide and these debates happening more and more in the Sonic Fandom.

SONADOW IN THE 2020'S

For some context, when I was a kid moderately involved with shipping content, I did not ship Sonic × Shadow. I somewhat avoided anything to do with gay ships or gay content due to my small-town church upbringing teaching me to not support anything LGBTQ+. So now as an adult having interest in shipping again, having discarded homophobia, embracing my own queerness, and having new understandings of the Sonic characters' personalities/backstories/dynamics, I am opening myself up to considering ships I hadn't been interested in before and ships that I actively avoided due to internalized homophobia. Watching Sonic Prime and the wonderful joy it sparked across the Fandom (in both shippers and non-shippers alike) was the marker when I finally started enjoying the Sonadow ship. It was after reading people's interpretations of Sonic and Shadow and understanding the ship more when I realized why Sonadow is such a beloved and timeless ship. In response to the new wave of Sonadow popularity, it's getting lots of heated criticism. People are having arguments everyday about both Shadow and Sonic's true ages, whether Shadow is 15 or 18 or 50, whether it makes any difference that SEGA quietly removed the characters' official ages. The debate creates these polarized "sides", with some people on one side claiming that it's an inherently unethical ship and claiming that you are a bad person, or at least suspicious in some way, for supporting it.

REPRESENTATION & QUEER JOY

One prominent feeling I have about the common criticisms toward Sonadow and about other shipping discourse is feeling alarmed that a lot of Queer people end up getting harassed because of these debates, sometimes by fellow Queer people. From my Middle Child perspective in the Sonic Fandom, the reasons WHY many people embraced LGBTQ+ Sonic ships was to create and celebrate representation in a franchise that doesn't outright confirm or have much on-screen representation. Even though Sega has a general "no official confirmed couples" mandate, the company has consistently supported and encouraged the fans' shipping headcanons including LGBTQ+ ships, and the company has showed real, tangible, and financial support for the LGBTQ+ community (to my knowledge). Tangle and Whisper in the IDW comics are written with specific chemistry that leads most people to view them as a lesbian couple with the writers' and company's encouragement, even if they're not verbally stated as "officially canon." Sonic × Shadow, although not canon, has been a noteworthy ship acknowledged by the writers, company, and voice actors as being one of the most beloved and celebrated gay Sonic ships. It has given Queer people a sense of joy, hope, comfort, and visibility ever since 2001 when Sonic Adventure 2 released and Shadow debuted as a character. The reasons people immediately shipped these characters together was never about being creepy or encouraging "unethical" dynamics. It was simply Queer Sonic fans, both closeted and uncloseted, creating meaning via representation as an act of queer resistance and radical acceptance. This has been a constant throughout the present day, Sonadow being one of the most recognizable and longstanding ships that inspires widespread Queer Joy that even breaks the boundaries of the internet microcosm.

LANGUAGE AND VIOLENCE OF OPPRESSORS

Now is where I will delve into the connection between Sonadow shipping (and overall shipping) debates and how well-intentioned activism loops back into mimicking oppressors. Thinking about how Sonadow is historically important to the Sonic Franchise, the Sonic Fandom, LGBTQ+ Sonic Fans, and maybe even video game history as a whole, I feel major discomfort and even dread when I see so many people (particularly those that are young) throwing around very serious accusations at (fellow) Sonic Fans and (fellow) Sonic shippers. Accusations supporting pedophilia or pedophilia itself is one of the most egregious. I've seen it thrown at Sonadow shippers, Vector x Espio shippers because Vector is 20 and Espio is 16 (despite it being another extremely popular LGBTQ+ headcanon-ed ship due to lack of representation), and even Knuckles x Rouge because Rouge is 18 and Knuckles is 16. It strikes me as counterintuitive and unnecessary at least, and actively dangerous at most/worst, seeing fellow Queer people utilizing the morality-policing, fear tactics, surveillance methods, censorship mindset, and rhetoric/language of our oppressors and using those things against the people in their own communities. Realizing that long-time Sonadow fans who felt inspired to come out and be unapologetically Queer because of that specific ship have been facing harassment and slander from fellow Queer people (who are likely younger than them), getting called "pedos" or "dangerous" or "suspicious" or "unethical" over the mere act of creating representation and Queer Joy with fictional characters and seeking some sense of comfort while surviving homophobic environments...bluntly, my stomach is churned and my blood is boiled. The last thing we need in this rapidly backwards-turning world is more in-fighting within the broader LGBTQ+ community that distracts our thoughts, emotions, time, energy, organizing, education, community-building, and activism away from the oppressors who are causing us real-world tangible harm, suffering, and death.

A random teenager on the internet drawing fanart of Sonic and Shadow holding hands, or even random adults on the internet drawing suggestive art or outright porn of these characters, is NOT going to be the catalyst that rapidly or gradually normalizes pedophilia or inspires worldwide support for unethical relationships. And yes, this includes content about the "weirdo/unethical/dark" ships that are found in the shadowy fringes of the internet and Fandom spaces. I am uncomfortable with a lot of it myself. But those ships and the people that engage with them ALSO DO NOT have the same level of impact and reach (key words: Same Level) that real life oppressive systems have to cause widespread suffering. The key difference that makes widespread abuse possible is that the real life oppressive systems are disguised as wholesome safe environments that develop trust and closeness with community members. Those oppressive systems and the harmful people that support them are usually NOT on the freaky/dark/weird fringes of society, they don't outwardly appear that way, and they demonize the "degenerates", not associate with any such label. The Catholic church institution is a big example, the institution covering up uncountable cases of their clergy members abusing minors while those clergy members are positioned as a pure, trusted facet of society that people actively look to for guidance, safety, and belonging.

At NO point am I ever going to say that everyone online is perfectly pure and that we should ignore everyone's behavior online. When we do encounter legitimate creeps causing harm to real people (not watered-down definitions of what being a creep means) we absolutely need to call them out and keep each other safe. HOWEVER, by pitting fellow Sonic Fans, fellow Queer people, fellow shippers against each other with this blanket "us vs them" mentality that overshadows the real life patterns and signs of how widespread oppression and real life harm happens, we end up accomplishing a lot of what our oppressors want anyway: divisions, distractions, and outright mimicking the violent language and behaviors that they display toward us at ourselves. This is the point where well-intentioned activism goes wrong and circles back around to oppression without meaning to.

Many people are super-duper-sure that they have dismantled all of their -isms and -phobias and now identify with labels and movements that are on the right side of history. But all of us STILL need to be aware of the fact that our thought patterns, behaviors, logic, and emotional responses can be tied to previously held beliefs and mindsets, and they can sometimes carry over and linger in our minds even after significant "character development". This is true even if we don't immediately realize it and think that we are a "safe person" within our own marginalized communities and for other marginalized communities. It can be really hard to identify if/when that is happening sometimes, but it is pertinent that we are actively checking in with ourselves, listening to constructive criticism, and cross-analyzing whether we are unintentionally mimicking the language, behaviors, and violence of our oppressors, and what effects that can have on the people in our shared communities and the people we care about.

ADDITIONAL: MY PERSONAL OPINIONS AND LOGIC ABOUT SHADOW'S AGE

Most of the fandom will continue arguing about Shadow's "true age" for the rest of time and how that "should" influence people's shipping headcanons. In my opinion, it is a very unnecessary thing to argue about simply because of the uniqueness and the fantastical nature of Shadow's existence within the Sonic Universe. Very specifically, he is a test tube science project super soldier who is immortal with an unclarified "birth date."

It's most likely that Professor Gerald Robotnik started the process of creating Shadow AFTER Maria was born and they discovered her incurable disease; Project Shadow could have taken a significant amount of time to complete considering all of the scientific processes, research, and intergalactic communication needed. It is also important to remember that Maria died when she was only 12 years old. If we are just talking about the amount of time that Shadow was physically and mentally conscious, communicating, and learning (excluding the 50 years he spent in cryo-stasis), this would mean that Shadow's age could be anything up to Maria's exact age at her time of death. Realistically his youngest possible age would be much greater than 1 day, since it probably took a noteworthy amount of time for Shadow and Maria to develop their trusting best friend and/or sibling bond.

Otherwise, in the less likely scenario, Professor Gerald could've had foresight and somehow gotten confirmation about Maria's condition before she was born with the scientifically and medically advanced technology aboard the Space Colony ARK, and then completed Project Shadow before she was born. But in EITHER possible chronology, Shadow could be around the same age or a handful of years younger than 15 (one of the possible ages in this debate), if we are to consider his game manual or Wiki-page biographies for his true age. This could put the Sonadow ship in the same boat of age-gap and maturity-difference criticism that the Sonic x Amy ship gets because Sonic is 15 and Amy is 12.

Even though Shadow is one of the most complex characters within the broad Sonic Lore, at the same time he's one of the most mysterious characters, especially since we don't have any official content that shows the complete scientific/medical/technological details of his creation process from start to finish. Everyone has a different opinion whether the game manual and Wiki-page age(s) indicates Shadow's number of conscious years lived, his current physical age, or both. People also debate whether his current physical age matters in terms of shipping ethics. Considering that Shadow is an immortal science experiment with the DNA/blood of an alien species and he could have grown up in a test tube, I like to think that any of the "teen" ages used in this debate could simply describe what his physical vessel looks like (compared to 100% Mobian hedgehogs) at the point Project Shadow was deemed successfully completed. It's possible that his early development deviated from that of a human baby, a Mobian hedgehog baby, and a normal hedgehog baby. Maybe he grew generally faster or went through the same developmental stages of his Black Arms alien siblings. Deciphering what it would mean for Shadow to become "fully mature", or even what "age" in general means for him, would require solving the complex puzzle of his circumstances: the science of genetic engineering that splices Black Arms DNA with Mobian hedgehog DNA to design a being that is artificial and specifically exceptional in every way. We DO know that Shadow's Black Arms DNA gives his mind and body a connection to the species' Hive Mind (which is explored in the Archie comic books) and that Black Doom's DNA was one of the necessary ingredients to give Shadow immortality and disease immunity. But that's the extent of what we know about Shadow's Black Arms biology, its overall effects, its benefits, and its downsides. In addition to this, the "immortal artificial super soldier with alien DNA" context brings up questions regarding Shadow's mental processes, intelligence, and learning capabilities. He could have gone through rapid psychological development, or can learn and gain skills at an enhanced rate, have increased intelligence, or have alien mental capacities beyond his connection to the Black Arms' Hive Mind.

The limitless SCOPE of possibilities for Shadow's physical and mental reality is why I completely avoid any attempts at shoving this complex character into the same quantifiable boxes of human OR Mobian OR normal hedgehog maturity, development, intelligence, socialization, emotions, learning, and age. Which is why I do not judge people for their shipping preferences and don't assume the worst of the people that ship him with other characters. An integral part of the tragedy and isolation of Shadow the Hedgehog as a character surrounds him being the Ultimate Lifeform, a being that is so unique, advanced, artificial, medicalized, scientific, revolutionary, mystical and powerful that he cannot relate to most of the other Sonic characters and vice versa. TRYING to force Shadow to be 100% understandable, relatable, and quantifiable both by our real-life human standards and by the standards of the other Sonic characters can diminish his uniqueness and essence, and it hinders the broad Sonic Fandom from creatively exploring the magnitude of possibilities (both shipping and non-shipping) that his mysteriousness inspires.

(Thank you for reading and sticking with my train of thought! :) I expect constructive conversation in the comments if any are made at all, whether it's criticism or agreement.)

#sonadow #shipping #shipping culture #sonic fandom #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #sonic and shadow #shipping wars #debates #open discussion #fandom culture #antishipper #proshipper #LGBTQ+ community #LGBTQ+ activism #LGBTQ+

[beautifulpersonpeach]

Hello BPP,

One of the thoughts I have had over the last few days, and one I hope doesn't offend anyone, is that shipping sometimes is founded in selfishness.

The reason I have come to this conclusion is the behaviour of a certain community that is quite vocal online in their displeasure over the content that gets produced. They have turned to focusing solely on the members they ship instead of grasping the emotional weight of the moments we get to observe. They immediately jump to the conclusion of a conspiracy against their ship, despite how non-sensical repressing said ship would be from a purely capitalistic viewpoint, and then use footage that was taken without the consent of the members and after their express wish for fans to not appear at the send-off to support their theory. I have heard of them furthering the narrative that their ship is real due to private moments yet these moments are either (a) debunked by those who are not sucked into the narrative or (b) obtained by sharing videos once again without the consent of their shippées.

But it isn't about the bond between JK and Tae for them but rather being right, about being the ones to see the truth - going against the grain - and whatever rhetoric they like to employ.

It's about the fetishisation of two attractive men being together, a comforting thought for what I imagine to be girls and women that would like to be in a relationship with these two themselves. Why else would they mostly focus on bashing a company and real human beings because they're not being catered to?

It is quite disturbing to consider how there's this willingness to cross boundaries of every type, including tweeting at an actual government branch and then accusing said branch of furthering fanservice. All of it is, as I stated at the beginning, selfish. There is no consideration for the feelings of the people they claim to protect, no media literacy, no acceptance of Occam's Razor, no interest in factual depictions.

I hope they grow tired soon, because it is tiring to even witness in the periphery.

---

Sorry for the quite stilted English, I've been watching too many video essays the past few days and I physically cannot turn off that filter.

***

It’s sad, amusing and concerning all at the same time, isn’t it? You’ve hit the nail on the head and yeah it applies to most shippers: taekookers especially but also many jikookers, and even solo stans, who resort to the same mental leaps when their expectations aren’t met. I agree with you and have said much the same several times in the last few years.

I don’t share your hope that they grow tired soon though. In fact what tends to happen is that they become even more unhinged. The more they invest into their theories and worldview, the more they take increasingly invasive steps to validate those theories. It’s sad and one of the worst expressions of sunk cost fallacy I’ve seen in fandom. The most we can do as fans is to check that behaviour when we see it in the fandom, and deplatform people building a following set on those ideas. And hope to god that the military does a decent job of ensuring their security while in service.

#Stitled English is the norm for me so sorry to everyone else loool #someone sent me an ask the other day saying they believe I’m Korean because of how my English sentences start with the object #similar to how sentence construction is in Korean #I’ve accepted my English is just hard to read and that I’m only semi-literate in English #Kudos to all my followers who put up with my ramblings lol #BTS #jikook #jimin #jungkook #BTS shipping #fandom shipping #shipping culture #bts army #bts fandom #fandom behaviour

[bloggingboutburgers]

Sure it’s not like there’s like a bagillion other multilayered types of human relationships that could make a person act in a certain way, right

#no one can know i don't like sex #aromantic memes #asexual memes #aro #aromantic #ace #shipping culture #my art #nonburger

[reallyneedsalife]

"there's no platonic explanation for this" is coward talk

let people love each other in new ways, let characters love each other in news ways.

putting your life on the line for someone doesn't mean you're romantically in love with them, that's feeble at best. sure, maybe they're locking lips, but until it's canon and happens on screen they're best friends in my heart.

#maggie bell #oa zidan #yes this is about them #idc if you ship them #but #there are always platonic explanations for things if youre willing to look past basic assumptions about relationships #sometimes shipping culture is a scam #shipping culture #fanfic #fandom #also #uhhh #fbi #spiderverse #miles morales #gwen stacy #criminal minds #doctor who #unconventional relationships #relationship anarchy #aromantic #asexual

[squaloropera]

When Daniel Howell started opening up about how much he hates shipping culture surrounding his relationship with Phil, but I never did that shit even as a kid so I get to watch people getting shamed for their fucked up behaviour

#daniel howell #dan and phil #danisnotonfire #phan #phandom #amazingphil #phil lester #shipping #ship discourse #shipping culture #hahahhahaa get nae naed bozos