#fyeah takes movies way too seriously

[fuckyeahisawthat]

why symbrock is the ship 2018 deserves

There were a couple of articles last week about Symbrock being the most-discussed ship on Tumblr, according to the site’s own Fandometrics analysis. And like...if you’ve been around here lately that shouldn’t come as any surprise. But none of the articles I’ve seen tried to take a real stab at talking about why the ship is popular.

(source)

Like...clearly a whole lot of us want to fuck the monster. That has been well-established. And all the psychosexual stuff behind that has been discussed elsewhere (particularly well, imo, in Gavia Baker-Whitelaw’s Daily Dot article). And creature-fuckability is more than enough good reason to like a pairing. But I think there are some other dimensions to this ship that make it appealing beyond the obvious teratophilic bits.

Let’s start with the fact that disaster human Eddie Brock is a painfully relatable character for huge swaths of millennial (and Gen X and Z) adults living in the year 2018. He’s not just an unemployed schmuck who needs to get his life together. He’s a walking avatar of the unforgiving nature of life under neoliberal capitalism. He makes one dumb mistake and his entire life is catastrophically ruined, sent into a depressing death spiral from which escape seems impossible, through a combination of his own bad behavior patterns and an enthusiastic fuck-you from a billionaire who felt like pissing on him that day. He’s humiliating himself calling old contacts for the tenth time begging for freelance work, while the guy who screwed him over is building rockets with pocket change and basking in praise like some techbro demigod. He lives in a shitty apartment, his fridge contains three beers, some Chinese takeout and bulk frozen tater tots, and he should’ve taken out the trash with that chicken carcass in it days ago but hasn’t, even though it’s not like he’s been working or anything. Boy howdy do I feel ya, my dude.

(Continued under the cut, because long post)

So we have this guy, about whose life we’re already like BIG MOOD. And then we have this pile of alien murder goo who not only sees Eddie at his worst, but meets him at his worst, and is like THAT ONE. THAT ONE IS MINE. I AM GOING TO BETRAY MY ENTIRE SPECIES AND RISK MY LIFE FOR THIS SWEATY DUMPSTER FIRE IN A HOODIE.

And I think there’s something intensely, deeply appealing about that, the idea that someone could value you even when you don’t value yourself--even when you don’t quite understand what there is to value about you at all.

(source)

It’s striking to me that for every ooey gooey tentacle porn fanart (and there is plenty of that) there are just as many fanworks of Eddie and Venom cuddling or doing mundane domestic things together. I think it speaks to the profound loneliness and alienation of the world we live in, that the idea of a companion who’s always with you because it is literally inside you seems not only not-gross but genuinely appealing to a wide swath of people.

(source)

I mean, if you’re going for intimacy, it doesn’t get much more up close and personal than having a relationship with something that’s in your body, that can manipulate it and move it around, but also heal and comfort it, that can read your thoughts and desires and fantasies without the awkwardness of having to verbalize them.

And then there’s the more familiar attraction of having a strong partner, something that’s violent and frightening to others but fiercely protective of you, that’s possessive and intensely focused on you in a way that would probably be a huge red flag in real life but can be appealing in a fantasy, and that can cut straight through the injustices of the world by chomping a few heads. In a world where there are a million things to make you feel scared and powerless, those qualities become very attractive.

And hey, it’s 2018. Look at this fucking timeline we’re in. Being in a non-traditional relationship with a goo monster that materializes out of your body now and then just doesn’t seem that weird anymore.

Hell, it beats Tinder.