#I just haven't been deep in the IY fandom for awhile

[holydrakes]

Both Inukag and Soma got similar tropes I admit and those tropes are precisely why I like them. But something I like more in Soma is how Soul is ultimately the cool-headed one and the one primarily acting as the caretaker (could be because Maka is the MC though so she had to be the one doing the dangerous stuff while he acts as her support) The Inukag dynamic (especially in the anime) can come across like Kagome is taking care of a manchild, I mean I guess it works since Inuyasha's meant to be simple-minded like a dog and he's got a pretty difficult childhood, but I suppose that's why their relationship can feel a little imbalanced emotionally at times.

I mean when the pair is between a heavily traumatized, discriminated, emotionally-constipated half-demon with no social skills and a normal, priviledged modern girl it's to be expected, so I suppose that's why Soma feels like a more emotionally-balanced version of Inukag for me since both Maka and Soul are equally troubled children, but neither has trauma that's far greater than the other upbringing-wise; Maka is a child of divorce but at least one parent still looks out after her and loves showering her with affection, while Soul's parents never seem to care that much about him to the point he developed an avoidant attachment style and just like how Maka comes to resent the parent who actually sticks by her, Soul also resents the one family member who seems to care about him to some degree. Both kids technically need an equal amount of therapy but they are clearly capable to support each other emotionally if they try and neither is quite lacking in that skill.

The advantage of Inukag over Soma is of course how it's explicitly canon (and far more popular) so it comes with the benefits of shipping an actually canon ship; lots of official content and less fandom wars about canon or not/these two are like siblings/stop shipping this ship discourses. Yeah, there's still dumb ship wars even to this day in the IY fandom but at least people aren't throwing weird incest allegations just to try disapproving a non-canon ship or trying to make you look like a homophobe for shipping a straight ship.