#in only this one tag tho I'm not touching the deescourse tag

[kaluawoo]

So. Fictional Romantic vs Platonic relationships.

I was not gonna post bc it had been a while since seeing Discours(TM) on the topic but then another post reminded me of it (like it wasn't a discourse post but it sparked the Memory) and I was about to put a long-ass string of tags and went. nah. I'll just do this.

For The Record this is not a bash against any interpretation. Wish I didn't have to state but this is Tumblr lmao.

Anyway most of the time I do see actual Discours(TM) on the topic has like, the people who want more platonic relationships be annoyed that fandom very very often goes for romance and say they feel unwelcome or at least un-represented in fandom, to which the ones who prefer romance say that no, there's Friendship everywhere, just look at all the buddy cop plots etc., you have enough.

Not to go "both sides" here but - Both are right.

Especially with two men, which is a lot of fandom main ships, there are a ton of stories that feature a Close Male Friendship. Greg House and Wilson from House MD, Riku and Sora from Kingdom Hearts, Dean and Cas from Supernatural, all four guys from Final Fantasy XV, the list goes on. "Two Boys/Men Who Are Best Friends" is a very, very common group of main characters.

In canon.

Because as soon as you leave canon and check out canon, well... At a quick glance at AO3 stats, there's about four to nine times as much ship content than platonic content (3,400 vs 600; 4,000 vs 950; 115,000 vs 12,500; 5800 vs 970 [Only checking Prompto x Noctis because I'm not gonna check all permutations of this and they're the most popular ship]).

Yes, canon is severely lacking in queer ships most of the time, while friendship is often a big focus. And also, fandom is somewhat lacking in platonic stories while ships are often a big focus.

So, yeah, it can be frustrating to join a fandom where you love a canon friendship and just get "Oh the way they're looking at each other here, they're so in love! Oh I bet they kissed after that scene! Oh I'm sure they'll marry after canon!". It is, of course, also frustrating how rarely we get to see any queer kisses on TV (or books etc pp). One side's not getting what they want out of fandom (which is so often hailed as The Great Spot To Be), the other's not getting what they want out of canon.

Both sucks, in different ways. Stop bashing each other's heads in, uplift stories that have canon queer romance and stop being jerks about people who'd like more platonic stuff in fandom.