#folks this is not about shipping wars

[writing-for-life]

Ok, I’m not going to get involved in a certain thread because I don’t want any drama and the line of argumentation leans too much to one side already (the views of the vocal majority in this fandom) for it to make much sense to contribute, but I had a few thoughts today:

In a fandom where people write AUs full of cows and merpeople and other shenanigans that have nothing to do with canon (or the actual characters, to be frank), they can’t do that for Calliope (or any other female character, for that matter)?

She doesn’t get to play in the sandbox?

We don’t have the imagination to turn her into one of the two dolls that kiss?

We have to keep her in character while everyone else can be turned into… whatever person (certainly neither the one of the comics nor the show)?

We constantly have to remember her strife and trauma and can’t invent (!, that’s what writing is about!) a different or new side to her? Or a better future? One in which she gets to be happy?

Or we can’t turn her into someone she canonically isn’t?

While all of this always, always works for Dream? Or the hairy guy?

And speaking of said guy: Do we have any reason to think Dream would treat him better than Nada? We’re automatically assuming he’d do the same thing to Calliope, but not to him? Or: Why do we assume he would do what he did to Nada to any other love interest, because canonically, there’s no evidence for that (we wrote about this on here before)? So no, that line of argument just doesn’t fly in my view.

If Calliope and Dream have chemistry and people are able to acknowledge it (which most do), that on its own is enough to ship them. The chemistry argument works with every M/M ship. Why doesn’t it work with her?

Oh, she is allowed in gen fics (and I am a fan of those btw, but that’s past the point), or as a character with very little agency, or any personal or sexual desires. Even better if she serves the ship. That’s okay of course, I forgot. Reminds me of most of the women of the Sandman—I wonder why.

I just wish people would give the honest reason without going through all the mental gymnastics of why Dreamuse is not an interesting (or even bad or problematic) ship, and the other one is the best invention since sliced bread:

They want to see/imagine two guys together.

There, I said it, it wasn’t hard. It’s really as simple as that in fandom, it’s a predictable fantasy, and it’s the same in every fandom. The Sandman isn’t any different.

M/F ships are frowned upon because they’re “heteronormative”, and yet, (mostly) women proceed to project (mostly) heteronormative relationship dynamics on two guys of which they fancy at least one and use the other to project themselves on. Sometimes, they fancy both of them and get more of what they have the hots for. Good for them, there’s nothing wrong with it. We have oodles of research by now why some women prefer M/M porn; it’s not earth-shattering, groundbreaking or “queer-positive” (it sometimes fetishises homosexuality though, but that’s a different topic). It’s been like that since at least the times of Spirk, and probably longer. It’s actually a fairly (dare I utter the word on here?) straight female sexual fantasy. The queer-positivity everyone is so enamoured with is more than, and not singularly limited to, shipping M/M—as a bisexual woman, I personally can’t identify with that line of thinking at all, but other people’s mileage might vary…

If people are into smutty/explicit fanfic , that’s just how it works: Some women project on a female body while imagining to get railed by a guy, others prefer to imagine two guys because they fancy men. Again: Nothing wrong with it, but it’s also not as deep as people often pretend it is.

Yes, I wrote about that one before as well. That’s why I can do it again—“once your reputation is ruined” and all that 🤣

It’s ok to be horny for two guys without turning it into a brain-contorting statement every time.

It’s also okay to reflect on the wider implications of completely erasing women from EVERY fandom, especially if you identify as one.

Edited on May 27 since it’s obviously necessary:

If people’s main takeaway from this post is that it’s about criticising fetishising homosexuality, they clearly have a reading comprehension problem and should read it again. “Sometimes” doesn’t mean “always”, plus it wasn’t even a main point. I even said that fancying m/m is a fairly middle-of-the-road-fantasy, and that there’s nothing wrong with it. The internalised misogyny that shows in people who think they are “saving women from men” by completely erasing them from the narrative and only centering men is a different topic, but these two things aren’t the same.

If people’s main response to this post is, “Then write your own stuff,” they also have a reading comprehension problem and did not get at all what this is about. It’s also the slightly old getting standard response to anything that invites critical thinking, but that one isn’t all that surprising anymore. The assumption people aren’t writing their own stuff is also a bit… silly? But I imagine that misconception is down to the fact that those people never check any tags beyond one or two, and certainly never any that involve female characters. [And to say it quite frankly: That some people wrote verbatim, “If you want Dream and Calliope to fuck so badly, write it yourself,” just shows me that they’re incapable of viewing anything but through a sex/smut lens. Good for you, kids, your world sounds so exciting *slow clap*. But maybe don’t project your thirst on everyone else.]

Some people in the OP this was about even made good points, and I didn’t criticise any of those because they are true.

This post is about the double standards people apply when they say why one ship (m/m) is more successful than the other (m/f):

Trauma? Never a problem when it’s Dream.

Relationship that somehow “shouldn’t work”? Never a problem in tropes like enemies to lovers and many others that are totally used for thee ship. Or with two people (read: men) they really want to see together.

Bending a character beyond recognition or giving them a totally different backstory, because that would solve the “relationship has run its course”-issue? Never a problem with the two guys who can be anything from a cow to a mafia boss. But the women? Nope, we have to remember their trauma and strife, keep them exactly as in the source material and protect their sacredness by completely ignoring them.

Still don’t get that this is not about a ship per se but the erasure of all women from stories bar being cheerleaders for thee m/m ship in some way? Okay, then that one’s really beyond anything I can explain, although I think some people just like to consciously misrepresent stuff or really don’t do anything but skim-read. That’s not on me I guess…

[poisonousquinzel]

little me, we made it.

it took like 15 years, but we made it

[meldy-arts]

Sabezra fans, gentle reminder. There's nothing wrong with still shipping them.

Rebels started with Sabine seeing Ezra as nothing but a kid, eventually leaning toward a brother. We still shipped them.

Sabine and Ketsu called each other sisters - People still shipped them.

They're not blood-related. It was ONE line spoken by Ezra to Sabine, who he KNEW didn't like him back. Possibly just to make her feel better.

We all knew full well he had a massive crush...

My personal hope is we're going to see Ezra and Sabine have a kind of role swap. Sabine is the one pining for Ezra while Ezra is the dense idiot who can't catch on.

The way Sabine acted in these two episodes was full of subtle hints that there's something more going on underneath...

But either way. If Dave wants to go the route of Sabine and Ezra having a more best friends/siblings dynamic then sure. Idm, but I'm not going to stop shipping them.

[cmbdragon98]

Oh nooo... wlw are kinda eyerolling and sighing that a show got wrongfully marketed as "queerest Star Wars ever" and is now just, essentially, R/ylo 2.0... After a Lot of really potentially interesting women have been ganked over and over again, within the show.

And now a number of us wlw are a lil tongue and cheek about how we saw the objectification and hyper-sexualization going on with Yord within fandom, only for it to now morph over to Qimir... Oh, bro, what are we gonna Do?

[telesodalite]

I need to be weirder about the scavengers and cannibalism...

[bumblesimagines]

loved your interpretation of Travis 😍 could we get a bigger analysis 👀

Yes, I love to yap about things!

Travis is a very interesting character! He's not a main character because he's not a Yellowjacket but he's pretty important to the story.

We don't know a lot about Travis pre-crash since we don't see much of his backstory thus far. We see pre-crash that he rolls his eyes and scoffs when his parents have an awkward goodbye where they're both stiff and it feels like they're putting on a show of a happy couple. Based on that we can deduce that either A) his parents are heading toward divorce and trying to save face or were heading toward divorce and giving it another chance or B) they have a very tense and unhappy relationship that Travis has picked up on. His relationship with his father isn't touched upon but we can assume it was likely tense based on his character.

Travis was raised in the 90s and comes from a latin/hispanic household (based off their first and last names plus the latin actors). As someone from a hispanic household, you grow up watching traditional gender norms be enforced and we can assume Travis saw the same thing with his family. Plus, he's a teen boy attending public school with other teen boys. He's not gonna have feminist views right off the bat and if he does, he's going to hide them to avoid more bullying by other teen boys.

Travis swiftly changes his ways when he gets to learn Natalie and then the other girls though I partly think his sexist comments were A) a front because he thinks that's how men are expected to act B) part of his defense mechanism due to the fact the girls often use Flex to address or insult him.

We can assume Travis is a loner based off the bullying he endured that got him called Flex by others and because we don't really see him with anyone pre-crash. Even in the photos shown at the high school reunion, he's shown walking with Javi and looking awkwardly at the camera.

I don't think him being a loner is by choice. I think his mean streak is a defense mechanism after enduring bullying to protect himself and avoid interactions that can lead to harassment. After a few weeks in the wilderness, his mean streak softens over time and he's open to chatting with the others. He's not mean by heart, he just learned to act mean to protect himself.

We fairly quickly learn Travis is awkward, probably due to his loneliness and defensive nature that restricted his social interactions. We see that during the scene where Van finds the porn magazines and Travis makes a comment something along the lines of how you couldn't even tell the models favorite book or something like that. This is an attempt at socializing with the girls and getting in their good graces but the girls are visibly put off and confused which prompts him to shut down. He tries to be open to conversation, fails, and retreats back into his mean shell out of embarrassment. Your honor, I love him.

Travis is a lot like Natalie and people tend to forget or ignore it for whatever reason. Both of them are loners/outcasts with cruel nicknames attached to them (Travis having Flex, Natalie having Burnout), they're both guarded and defensive but prove to have hearts of gold when it comes to those they care about, Travis and Natalie both lost fathers they had tense/unstable relationships with. It's no wonder they became friends and eventually lovers; they're almost identical.

We fully see who Travis is during the winter where he's frantically looking for Javi and engaging in Lottie's rituals. There's an attraction to Lottie there, at least a sexual one, which I don't think he himself knows what to make of it. I believe he sees her as a comforting figure and, like the others, invests a lot of his hope into her. I think his faith stems largely from her (correct) belief that Javi was surviving out in the wilderness after he ran away. It gave him hope and a reason to keep fighting.

During the winter, Travis is incredibly soft and somber. He willingly engages in the ritual for Shauna and her baby and prays for Shauna not to die without being prompted to. This is a big deal because we know his biggest ally and girlfriend, Natalie, is a nonbeliever, and we know there's a gap between Travis and the rest of the girls. He could've easily sat back or been forced to chant along but he didn't. He cared about Shauna and her baby and I believe had it been any of the others, he would've done the same for them.

We learn Travis is protective and defensive of his loved ones, especially Javi even though he was often dismissive at first. I can't blame Travis. He's a teen boy who just lost his father and is trying to juggle both his emotions/trauma while being expected to juggle Javi's as well. He's lost on what to do with himself, nevermind would he know how to handle his little brother. He tries though with coaxing from Natalie. But it's a lot like his father.

By the time he's regretful of how things have played out, it's far too late. In this case, Javi has run off before Travis can be fully apologetic and showcase himself fully as an older brother. And when he finally gets the chance to, when he's finally able to be himself without fear of ridicule and be the big brother he never knew how to be, Javi dies.

We're still seeing how it's affecting Travis in season three but we can be fairly certain he's going to spend the entire season incredibly depressed and grieving.

Unlike Shauna's grief which manifests into uncontrollable anger, his grief is more like Lottie's grief over Laura Lee. He's somber, he's shut down and depressed. S1 Travis would've probably been a lot like Shauna without Natalie or his growth over time.

He's a shell of his former self and with Natalie being busy with her Antler Queen duties, he's virtually all alone or probably feels alone so he seeks comfort in the person he associates comfort and guidance in: Lottie. I'm curious to see if their relationship is explored because whatever it is (platonic, romantic, sexual, familial, etc), it's not healthy but he sought her out in the present day again years later.

Travis is at his most vulnerable right now and honestly if we didn't know that he survived the crash beforehand, I would expect him to get killed and eaten this season. I'm glad his character is finally breaking away from just being Natalie's love interest and that he's interacting with others but at what cost 💀

[frameconfessions]

What I love about Warframe as a newcomer is that there doesn't seem to be any sort of shipping wars or fandom discourse at all. I've been into a lot of shooters before (ie. Overwatch, Apex Legends, etc.) so Warframe is a huge breath of fresh, clean air.

💯

[armoralor]

people obsessed with cishet ships: You see this character that's a man? Well, every woman around him is secretly in love with him. Each and every one want to settle down with him, buy a house, and raise a nuclear family.

normal fandom enjoyers: Sure, I guess. But maybe some of them are just friends? Like, platonic non-romantic companionship? Not all of those women seem to be interested in that kind of thing. Plus, what if some of those women are queer and trans; surly not all of them want to marry and have kids either.

people obsessed with cishet ships: Why do you hate women!?? Why do you hate mothers? You're such a misogynist for saying women can't be soft and motherly. Why does every women have to be a lesbian???? Why are you pushing an agenda? I'm going to throw up, this is so gross. You pointing this out is bullying!!!! And YOU'RE transphobic for wanting a character to be a lesbian. People who like shipping straight characters need to come together in SOLIDARITY because of these MEAN gays.

[nenoname]

whats your most insane gravity falls take. you can go totally wild with this one im just curious

well ya can't put me on the spot like this and expect me to pick one off the top of my head especially when all my takes are definitely 100000% correct /jk

but uh.... i do have two dumb shipping takes (despite not being into these ships at all lmao) 1. b/fford or just "omg toxic yaoi" shippers in general who think that shipping bill with stan or fiddleford is odd/makes no sense are cowards they'll never survive the war i'm taking away your 'toxic yaoi enjoyer' license, and 2. folks who went ham with shipping stan with that blue square oc or pyramid steve are cowards too aksjhdkahdska

[rainswings]

Skizz lovers you're all so sexy and cool and right but his comment section is small enough reading through is feasible let's not have a conversation about r34 in there where it'd be a him problem. Please have it here and tag me instead

[k1rameki]

mwah

bombard this man w kisses aplenty

[chiefnooniensingh]

idk I think everybody would have a much better time in the fandom if they just ignored the haters and bitter people

[beastsovrevelation]

It's not funny. NOT funny.

Ever since I wrote this rant, I've been growing more and more obsessed with the Fem!Crowley x Michael pairing. It went from I like the concept to the ship has consumed my very being.

Hell, the ideas I burn with. The headcanons. The smut... Oh, the smut.

This is probably such a random pairing in the Good Omens universe. I don't care, I'm obsessed. But, I guess that's why I feel the need to actually portray their relationship developing in some way, before I do anything else (procastrinate by writing random oneshots).

The issue? I have one story, yes. But, instead of working on the plot leading to it, I crave the scenes of them already on fire for each other.

Especially the scene where Crowley's anxious she'll get killed, and Michael sternly (while lovingly clasping her hands) assures her no one's killing her.

Ladies...

What are you doing to me, huh?

(Don't mind me with the faceclaim from Constantine again, it's just the closest thing to my vision of fem!Crowley... What I'm doing with Michael first in my head is fixing the fashion. I'm putting her in a General-appropriate outfit, and hairstyle. Think Roman armour. Or, something white with golden epaulettes. Seriously, what have they done to you, o Most Glorious Prince.)

[icharchivist]

also sorry for insisting on the "do you BELIEVE people say the girls don't like each other" but every single time twitter understands i like ffvii it starts pushing LTD (Love Triangle Debate) content on my fucking TL and i swear to god i want to shred somethings sometimes.

Like yesterday it threw my way a video of Yuffie doing a silly dance, and Aerith following and trying to do like her, while Tifa walks off from the angle of the camera so you don't really see what she does, and the person posted it with a caption "omg Aerith you're so fucking embarassing, you're 21, act like it, no wonder our amazing Tifa had to walk out as she's the only mature person in here" and i started the day angry because are you out of your fucking mind.

Like why are you attacking Aerith on being silly omg, first of all there's no age cut off for that, second, she was definitely sharing something with Yuffie there, third of all, what the fuck is your problem. I'm sure people don't complain when Zack is being silly instead despite him being older than Aerith huh!!

And the dig on "even Tifa is embarassed" to show that TIFA instead is being the cool one and it's??? Tifa does all sort of silly things all the time, she's more on the shy side, but even so, you don't even see her in the video??? and even if it was because she was embarassed SHE WAS LOOKING AT YUFFIE NOT AERITH? And also being embarrassed by someone's behavior isn't a proof of them having a moral highground either.

Like it's mindboggling to me, those girls appreciate each other's presence, they've always been close friends, but people have rotten their mind to such a level into pitying the girls against one another for a fucking love triangle they just want every single moment to show their supperiority in some way.

like it's fucking pathetic, LTD folks have been singing the same tune for over twenty years, can it STOP now.

[bluinary]

Imo it's the desire to experience a fantasy that motivates these comments. In these people's eyes, The Nice Guy At Work should either be perfect and emotionally mature with no character development needed, or he should crash and burn and prove himself an incel for the audience's satisfaction, while Retsuko learns to be happy alone. But you're right; folks forget that Aggretsuko's main thesis is teaching us how to *accept reality*.

If you're looking for love in your 20s-- which Retsuko is-- no man within a healthy age range of you is going to be fully formed and as emotionally healthy as, say, Kristoff in Frozen II. You're supposed to grow together, which Retsuko and Haida do.

Also, examining the "nice guys" trope Retsuko and Haida may fall into, people fail to examine Retsuko's reasons for saying "no" to Haida, or Haida's reasons for "pursuing", which he never really did after he got what felt like a clear "no". He's not just some dude from work-- he was in Retsuko's inner circle for quite some time. Maybe she felt like she "didn't know him that well," which she said a lot, but in actuality, she spent more time with him than everyone except Fenneko. The context seemed more leaning toward the feeling that Haida was her work friend, and nothing more, which was a boundary Retsuko placed.....for what? (Bear with me here.)

Because she knew that giving someone from her department a try would maybe be more difficult and risky, yet simultaneously boring, than dating, say, a mysterious dude from her Driver's Ed class. It would also be less exciting, because she *already* knew a lot about Haida. And let's be real; Retsuko's big character arc, in addition to gaining her confidence and her voice without exploding, is mainly about her losing her taste for whirlwind hijinks. Remember that her plan in S1 was to "get cute", find a rich guy, get married ASAP, and then leave her boring, crappy accounting job for good. But she grew to realize that her boss, while an asshole, wasn't the Devil himself. Tsunoda wasn't the workplace Succubus she imagined her to be, just predictably shallow in some areas of her personality. Kabae was more than a nuisance; Tsubone held a lot of wisdom to offer. Even Anai had a chill button. A steady job wasn't a bad thing. And throughout her development, Retsuko had to also reasses her relationship with Haida. Because while her "no" meant "no", and Haida took it as such without cutting her off as a friend, Retsuko had to change how she saw him as she did with all of her coworkers (save Fenneko) in order to grow as a person. And, while frustrated with some of his flaws, she saw that Haida was fundamentally kind, mostly easy-going, and extremely dependable when she needed a friend. Maybe not as exciting as Tadano, or seemingly mysterious as the Space Cadet, but Haida was an ideal long-term partner. Retsuko just had to grow up a bit to see it.

And that message isn't for Nice Guys. Remember that the Aggretsuko brand was made specifically for us-- young, disillusioned women in our 20s who needed something a bit more relatable than, though just as cute as, Hello Kitty. And as someone who's been with a *lot* of dudes, the message rings true: compatibility doesn't lie in excitement. And while we should make our voices heard, the world will also feel like a much kinder place when we see everyone around us as human beings instead of caricatures or tropes. This also explains the lack of focus on Retsuko for the last few penultimate seasons; she had a HUGE arc accomplishment when she finally gave Haida a chance. Not for him, but for *her*. Being someone actively looking for a long-term partner, Retsuko's mental state and worldview was almost always reflected in one way or another by the man/ men she was dating in each season. Including the Otome men who made her broke. When she was finally able to cut through her own excuses for not giving a perfectly great potential partner an honest try, knowing that he could provide everything she truly wanted and needed, Retsuko broke through the last hang-up on her main character arc of the show: accepting reality. And these last few seasons, while she isn't perfect, she still maintains that development as she's slower to rage at little things, is still vocal about her wants and needs, and sees almost everyone around her as a necessary piece to the life she enjoys. She's found an amazing balance.

And as for Haida-- we're seeing a mostly static, already seemingly well-rounded character have his own arc. The important thing, I think, is that Retsuko isn't *responsible* for Haida's growth and development, even if she sometimes feels like she is bc she cares so much. Haida ultimately comes to his own conclusions, fosters his own growth, and works hard with the motivation of being a worthy partner for Retsuko. It's not the fantasy of him being the Perfect Man for their entire relationship, or somehow rescuing Retsuko from the issues she began the show with, but their relationship is mutually supportive and insanely healthy. And ykw...healthy is boring 😂 I saw someone saying "they don't do couple stuff", like what did they expect? Good relationships are boring and functional, and that is what Retsuko and Haida are. We can write fluffy, spicy, or angsty fanfic to fill in the gaps. But making their relationship more "interesting" would serve no purpose to the story. Though ofc, I wouldn't complain over a tag-team karaoke rage at Haida's dad, lol. (But even that didn't happen bc of great character development, bc being healthy and well-adjusted is.....say it with me.....boring 😂😂😂).

All of this to say: OP you're right and you should say it!!!

SO Ive seen several people say that Haida and Retsuko's relationship dident work this season due to their poor relationship skills and miscommunication. But I would argue that their relationship does work.

It works in that even after the two-way lying and miscomunication and tax fraud, their relationship still stands.

You guys have to remember that being in a relationship -- a true relationship -- is a big fucking hurdle to jump through. Yes, Retsuko had been in other relationships before, but this the first true relationship that has had any weight to it.

Throughout the 4 seasons we saw Retsuko's other relationships crumble to dust over the tiniest things.

Retsuke was a unmotivated wet napkin of a person and when he didn't commit to the relationship that Retsuko wanted, Retsuko told him and broke it off.

Tadano was a good egg, but Retsuko ultimately discovered that both Tadano and herself had conflicting future relationship goals --Retsuko wanted to get married and start a family, but Tadano wasn't interested in getting tied down (he said so himself, he though that marriage was a waste of time, and that hurt retsuko because one of her dreams through the entire series was to get married and settledown to have a family)

and the same thing happens with Haida and Inui. Like, they were a very cute couple and possibly would have gone somewhere, but Haida's feelings for Retsuko would have (for lack of a better word) stained the relationship. Inui saw how much he loved Retsuko, and very maturely, decided that she couldn't compete for his affections. So like, she cuts it off before it begins. Like, knowing that your relationship would have gone down hill due to uncontrolable outside influences and then cutting it off before it could get worse is a mature thing to do.

Also I've seen someone say that Retsuko was passive about the entire tax fraud and I'm like???? she wasn't???? She knew very well that her boyfriend was keeping secrets from her, and when those secrets were confirmed that her boyfriend was doing company-wide tax fraud for the CEO, instead of taking it to the Japanese national news, she formulated a mission impossible heist plan with all of her co-workers in order to get the information needed to confirm that they were infact commiting tax fraud in order to get the CEo fired and then had a talk with her boyfriend about how what he was doing was wrong. Like, she took the step and called him out and that untimely gave Haida the confidence to step up to the CEO and call him out on his bullshit????

Like how is that passivity????

And everyone needs to know that Haida in the thick of it as well. Like his paranoia and fear wasn't something that came out of no where. Hadia said so himself that anyone else in the company had a fair chance of getting fired due to budget cuts and low profits, and so the pressure to succeed was growing. People were getting pressured to quiet left and right thanks to the new CEO. Mr. Tone was demoted then forced to quiet a job he really loved; Kabai was forced to quit as well from a job she really liked because everyone was making her feel worthless for having a family to take care of instead of being at work.

and when Haida showed that he had a good chance with his new accounting software to succeed and NOT get fired, he took that chance to rub elbows with the new CEO. And not only that, but thanks to the new CEO, the company was falling behind and had to commit tax fraud in order to stay afloat, and again DUE TO NOT WANTING TO BE FIRED AND DEEMED WORTHLESS TO THOSE AROUND HIM, Haida took up tax fraud in order to survive. On top of wanting the praise that he so badly needed. There were multiple times where Haida laments that Retsuko is on a whole new other level than him, and that he feels like he just one of the fanboys in the crowd. In the season, when he sees that Retsuko has restarted her screaming channel and has started growing back her following, that feeling comes back. He really does love Retsuko so much and wants to be where Retsuko is so badly but he feels as if none of what he's done in life fits with Retsuko's life.

Like, for christ sake, Retsuko is the ex-girlfriend to the aggretsuko version of Mark Zuckerberg who also one-hit-wonder pop idle star who nearly got murdered by an incel and Haida is a wanna-be British rock band bass guitar player who does accounting by day who still lives in his parents' apartment complex rent free (lucky bastard)

and on top of all that, there was Retsuko's lies. Like, his suspicion and jealousy was not unjustified??? Like, wouldn't you feel the same way if you saw your significant other lied in front of your face about what you were doing, arrive home in the fancy-ass limo of their ex-boyfriend and then notice that said ex-boyfriend FLIRTED BACK AT HER????? on top of using the pet nickname that he gave her when they were dating???? Like him calling Tadano out on his not-really-flirting-but-kind-of-is-flirting-flirting was no unjustified????

AND EVEN AFTER ALL OF THAT MESS OF DRAMA, THE END OF SEASON 4 CONFIRMS (though some would argue that its very ambiguous) THAT THEY'RE STILL IN A RELATIONSHIP. EVEN AFTER THE TAX FRAUD AND MISCOMUNICATION AND NEARLY THROWING YOUR SIGNIFICANT OUT THE WINDOW, THEY'RE STILL GOING OUT.

this is what Gori's soulmate app said about Haida and Retsuko. Even after so much shit, they're able to keep going to work on each other.

Aggrettsuko has stated that multiple times that romance is not a fairy tale, and that it takes work and that you may not get it right on the first time or the third time, but its good to keep working at it.

And Haida and Retsuko are working on it 🥺

[armoralor]

my favourite irony of the current shipping discussion is the folks who allege WolfWren enjoyers sent “threats” to people who enjoy cishet ships (I have asked for ANY examples or usernames of anyone doing this multiple times), have also been calling for Filoni to suffer & die if he doesn’t make their ship canon. but don’t forget, it’s definitely the sapphics and queers who like WolfWren that are the problem