#.meg and than are both aware of zag romancing the both of them and are completely fine with it

[tired-fandom-ndn]

I feel like people thinking Than and Meg would be jealous of each other kind of ties in with those discussions of how fandom thinks only closed relationships can really be good or wholesome that you talked about in one of your Mechs posts. That and a general struggle to understand polyamory maybe

Yes, this exactly. Even fandoms that consider themselves inclusive of polyamory and poly ships fall into these sorts of close-minded stereotypes all the time.

A committed and happy relationship exists in canon? Obviously it's closed and monogamous even though canon has explicitly shown that it's not.

A canon poly relationship exists between multiple characters who are friends and care about each other? Gotta add in some nonsense jealousy issues because obviously no one can actually be happy in a poly relationship without a whole lot of drama first.

Adding a cut here because I went on a decently long rant about Hades canon and megthanzag lmao

And the thing that really gets me about the jealousy in megthanzag fan works is that people seem to fundamentally misunderstand why Thanatos and Meg struggle in their relationships with Zagreus in the first place? I've seen so many people say that they would be jealous of each other because they're insecure in their places in their places in Zag's life, which is. Such an oversimplification.

You could argue that that's true for Thanatos but it wasn't even really insecurity? He was upset and lashing out because he saw Zagreus leaving the Underworld as leaving him, regardless of their relationship. He wasn't insecure so much as scared and angry and struggling with feelings of betrayal and loneliness. The moment it's established that Zag is staying, whether their relationship is romantic or platonic, Thanatos settles down and stops pushing him away.

Meg on the other hand never shows any issues with Thanatos as far as I'm aware. They're even shown to be friends outside of their relationships with Zag, spending time together in the lounge without him and having conversations with each other off-screen. And she also doesn't seem to actually be insecure in their relationship at all, just worried that Zag isn't taking it seriously. Every problem she has with their relationship seems to have come from past issues where Zag, being less mature, lashed out at her and that's where their relationship starts in-canon. So she's not insecure about her place in his life, only worried that he's going to backslide back into old habits.

And if you romance them both together (I romanced Meg and then Than), it's shown multiple times that they support each other! They talk to each each about their relationships with Zag, openly tell him that they got encouragement from each other to reach out to him, and initiate contact with him as a triad. That's not the behavior of jealous lovers who are insecure in their relationship with their shared partner, it's the behavior of people who genuinely like and respect each other (and, depending on your interpretation, are also in a relationship) and support each other in their shared relationship.