#at some point we need flashback art posts bc frankly it was a transitional time for both him and Hikari
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punk vlad punk vlad puNK VLAD PUNK VLAD-
#We will DIE on the alt!vlad hill#the text in the last image says#'jack is howling in the bg'#when he wasn't being a football nerd he rocking the punk aes#at some point we need flashback art posts bc frankly it was a transitional time for both him and Hikari#punk boy and goth gf#danny phantom#danny phantom au#dp vlad#vlad masters#vlad plasmius#blog art.#after the hospital saga he chopped his hair off in hopes that his hair would grow back to its natural color#hikari mourned all day.#dp time police
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unpopular opinion: i donât like rowan/rowaelin. iâm not here to convince u to unstan lol ppl are allowed to like/dislike things w/o feeling bad about it omg but i hate that some rowan stans are so insensitive when it comes to those who donât like him! theyâre so thirsty for him that they condemn anyone who doesnât stan him & then excuse his problematic/lowkey triggering actions bc heâs hot and itâs gross. AGAIN not saying ppl canât like rowan itâs ok lol but itâs more about some stanâs behavior
Thatâs totally fair my angel. I dislike the vibe that some people are locked out of the fandom for not being a cheerleader for every aspect of the series, and I hope that my followers/mutuals know that if they dislike stuff I like, or like stuff I dislike, expressing their opinions regarding that wonât ever cause me to cut them off (unless itâs like, some truly gross shit, which disliking rowaelin isnât).Â
Also I have to say, even tho I do like rowaelin, I understand where youâre coming from about people excusing his actions because heâs hot. Iâve toooooootally seen that. And Iâll just be 100% honest - no shade to anyone, but some of the rowaelin content on this website disturbs me a little bit, in terms whatâs considered hot/romantic/acceptable when writing or depicting them in art. Iâve seen some weird stuff defended as hot or even just ânot that bad.â Which isnât necessarily a problem with canon, but your ask was more about stans anyway, so yeah.Â
A while ago I actually wrote rowaelin meta in response to some other peeps (which was more about Aelin in relation to Rowaelin and how sheâs included or not included in discussions of the ship, but it has some thoughts relevant to this ask) so Iâm gonna just copy and paste what I wrote below and feel free to read if u want. (Itâs like very overdramatic and fiery lmao but anyway).Â
I agree with a lot of this, but (at risk of derailing ms aelinapologistâs amazing post) I do have a few things to say, which are
1. OP took two whole paragraphs at the beginning of her post to say that the point wasnât to discourse about rowaelin being abuse or not abuse, it was to talk about how the conversations centering around said abuse consistently display a disturbing lack of empathy for the character who should be the main concern of the debate. So I just find it a bit funny/odd that the replies (including a portion of the one Iâm about to make, I admit that) have been like âYeah great post! And now to discourse about Rowaelin-â but I digress.
2. I have consistently loved reading about Rowan and Aelin and theyâre one of my favorite fictional couples. So nothing Iâm about to say is intended to be like âGOTCHA they suck and you suck for liking them!!!â Because I like them as well. A lot. And in addition, nothing about this reblog is intended to be shady or confrontational in any way shape or form. I just think this is a great and very needed discussion Iâd like to contribute to, so here goes.
3. Even if we look at HoF alone and ignore how things play out later: yes, they are both mean to one another, yes, they are both in a dark place and end up having a mutually positive effect on one another (so I definitely agree that, at least for HoF alone, itâs not a âdouchey guy changes for the heroine storyâ) but. There IS still a power imbalance. I donât think itâs entirely accurate to say âthey were both bad The Endâ without also bringing up the fact that Rowan is 300 years old and Aelin is 18, and that Rowan is training Aelin and is in a position that gives him a massive amount of control over her, and that he is stronger and more powerful than her physically, magically, and socially (he is a prince and legendary warrior, she is a AWOL teenage princess currently working as a scullery maid).
Maybe Iâm reading into it too much, but I really just donât think that Aelin, a 17 y/o girl going through an unimaginably shitty time, being like âfuck you!!â to this 300 y/o jerk who doesnât know shit about her is on the same level as aforementioned 300 y/o jerk hitting her, biting her, and telling her she would have been of more use to the world if sheâd died when she was eight.
And in addition to that, we see that his behavior effects her a lot more than it effects him. When he verbally tears her down, we see her experience genuine and devastating despair and shame, whereas everything she does and says to him, no matter how snarky or outright cruel, is not having that same effect on him. People always seem to think theyâre giving Aelin credit for being a Strong Womanâą by saying âsheâs tough! she can handle it!â when in reality⊠we have evidence for the fact that she kinda canât handle it. That the way he treats her in the beginning is slowly wearing her down and sending her deeper into a depressive state. And I donât understand how it somehow reflects poorly on Aelin (or is even misogynist) to acknowledge this. Women, especially literal teenage girls, should not be measured by their tolerance for mistreatment.
All I really wish is that somewhere along the line weâd gotten a genuine apology from Rowan for this besides a throwaway line in KoA about regretting their âbrawling.â And again, none of this is to say âsee!! it IS abuse!!â itâs just to suggest that, even as an enemies to friends to lovers story, the âenemiesâ part was not exactly on a level playing field.
4. But with that being said, I could probably forgive the imbalance in their early relationship, mostly because their later relationship, as both friends and lovers, is so amazing and supportive in pretty much every way. And the great thing about enemies to FRIENDS to lovers, like you said, is that 1) none of the assholery occurred during any kind of romantic or sexual relationship or a transition into one, so it was sort of âfair and squareâ in that way, and 2) they had the opportunity form a solid, platonic foundation of trust and caring before they crossed into the lover territory.
Aaaaaaaaaand then Sarah did a retcon job on HoF which negated⊠pretty much all of that. I can totally be down with âgood old fashioned mutual hatred thaws into caring which grows into loveâ but once we start hearing shit like ââSometimes, youâd be sleeping beside me at Mistward, and itâd take all my concentration not to lean over and bite them. Bite you all overââ and ââThat was the first time I really lost control around you, you know. I wanted to chuck you off a cliff, yet I bit you before I knew what I was doing. I think my body knew, my magic knew. And you tasted⊠So good. I hated you for itâââŠâŠ. hhhhhhhhhhh.
I canât think of many arguments for this NOT contributing at least a little to the âheâs mean because he loves you (and stick it out because someday heâll figure it out)â trope. And while it might be a bit different because Aelin was quite mean as well, her behavior was just⊠meanness. Not some sort of weird outlet for repressed sexual attraction/love. I guess I just get flashbacks of âNo sweetie, that boy in your class kicks your desk, pulls your hair, and calls you names because he likes you and doesnât know how to express it.â
And I think this decision on Sarahâs part to go back and say he was into her all along is 1) a result of the mating bond thing sheâs so fond of and 2) kind of a panicked backpedalling to the backlash she might have gotten over Rowanâs behavior in HoF? Which isâŠ. so ironic because she made it SO much worse. In my humble opinion, she should have just doubled down on what she originally wrote as enemies-friends-lovers (and had Rowan bring up his early behavior and apologize in some way), and the problem would have been solved. And while I personally feel that I can recognize this for what it is - a shitty retcon - and enjoy the relationship despite it, I donât think we should talk over people for whom this is a deal-breaker for the ship.
5. I donât think about all of this and have the reaction that so many âanti togâ people seem to have of âFUCK Rowan heâs ABUSIVE and PREDATORY and I wish he was DEAD!!!â I think there are things to criticize about his behavior and about the way Sarah decided to spin their relationship, but they have had many great moments, especially in the later books, and I donât think I or anyone else is âshipping abuseâ by enjoying that. All of this is just to emphasize how, in OPâs very succinct words, âyour inalienable right to enjoy two charactersâ dynamic does not outweigh the right to criticise it.â Because there ARE valid things to criticize, and we as Rowaelin shippers (lol.) need to be careful not to conflate ugly hatred with valid criticism when we speak over it.
And because there IS so much ugly hatred for Aelin and her relationship with Rowan on this website, I completely understand why thereâs a kind of knee-jerk reaction of jumping to defense of this ship we love. But that impulse, quite frankly, means nothing to me if defense of Rowaelin includes the erasure of Aelinâs canonical experiences. And maybe this is wacky and controversial, but Iâm pretty sure we can express our enjoyment of Rowaelin AND keep Aelin as an individual from being swept under the rug. Â
6. More than saying any of that what I really really want to do (and have been trying to do in the previous paragraphs, but maybe unsuccessfully) is bring the conversation back to OPâs original point which was not âabuse!â or ânot abuse!â but about how the ways in which we discuss âabuse or not abuseâ often includes a stomach-turning lack of concern for Aelin and some frustratingly reductive arguments. And somehow I have the sneaking suspicion that Rowaelin shippers are reading this post and missing the point, which that this is happening on BOTH sides of the argument.
Everyone is perfectly entitled to ship Rowaelin and argue their opinion about its merits or lack thereof, but when we cover our ears and say âshe was mean too she was mean too she was mean too she was mean too la la la la la la laâ thatâs completely ignoring the genuine pain that she did experience in HoF and the power imbalance that she was subjected to, no matter whether or not we personally feel that it was sufficiently rectified in later books.
And I see this ALL THE TIME, in both the fandom and âanti-fandomâ, and Iâm honest to god quite sick of it. Iâm sick of the willful ignorance of a teenage girlâs pain in order to further an agenda. Yes, itâs more stomach-turning when the agenda is to prove what an evil bitch she is or whatever, but itâs not excusable if your agenda is to prove Rowaelin is great, either! And I donât understand why we have to throw all nuance out the window and ignore how Dorian hurt her, ignore how Chaol hurt her, ignore how Rowan hurt her, fucking hell, ignore how SAM hurt her, just so we can make our arguments! Because as much as the antis love to scream about âWHAT MESSAGE IS THIS TERRIBLE SHIP SENDING THE TINY GIRL-CHILDREN WHO READ THE BOOKS???â itâs also like, what kind of message is our ongoing discussion of it sending by sweeping a teenage girlâs experiences under the rug when we argue about her relationships?
And like OP said, what have we even got to show for it? No conclusion has been reached, nothing has been achieved besides valuing a romance (or the hatred of that romance and preference for a different romance) over individual characters, namely an individual character who happens to be a teenage girl that has suffered an ungoldy amount - suffered, sometimes, at the hands of male characters we like.
In conclusion, the mass allergy everyone seems to have to giving a shit about Aelin unless its to further their agenda is sickening. If I had a dollar for every time Iâve had to hear about how poor Manonâs character was âruinedâ by Manorian (although not directly by DORIAN, of course, because apparently Saint Haviliard can do no wrong) Iâd have enough money to buy a lamborghini and drive it off a cliff like I wish I could every time I hear someoneâs terrible hot take about how Aelin is complicit in her own alleged abuse. Yet somehow Iâve never heard anyone complain about the damage done to Aelinâs character by any of the male characters, including Rowan. Itâs never âRowan ruined Aelinâs character!!â itâs âRowaelin sucks and so does Aelin.â In fact, one of the REASONS Aelin sucks in the first place IS Rowan/Rowaelin! What a great implicit message to send to people reading your âcritiquesâ: if you are annoying and #problematic enough, your suffering will be used against you and you will receive no sympathy for it. Cool!
And for other ships, too: itâs never âChaol and Dorian, while at points a very good for Aelin, also caused her a lot of painâ itâs either âChaol was right about Aelin in QoS and both he and Dorian are ruined because of her #chaorianâ OR, from the fans, who, again, are not off the hook, âChaol and Dorian and Aelin are BFFs forever #originaltrio.â And as a teenage girl myself, who loves and identifies with Aelin, who is more invested in her story than anyone elseâs⊠Iâm just tired. And more than a little appalled. And I wish we could do better.
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