#me @ my 16 year old self: Nobara Sumiyoshi is not gay she just has short hair

[tofixtheshadows]

As someone who ships Falin and Marcille it really fucking sucks to see people say that the only way the story makes sense is if Marcille is in love with Falin or that a romance is driving the plot. It absolutely flattens the complexity of their characters and the themes of their respective arcs to attribute any of the motivations as romantic. I'm not talking about shipping in general, we are all entitled to play with our toys, but insisting, in particular, that the actions Marcille takes could obviously only happen because of romantic devotion is borderline insulting to the complete story we're presented because it refuses to engage with it. And what is Falin in that framing? Chopped liver? I like both of their characters too much to take those shortcuts and I'm too old now to be swayed by a recommendation for anything that amounts to "It's gay!"