#no one has to ship payneland or believe they were endgame

[necromancer-snail]

Okay just real quick, this isn't like a dig at you and I'm not trying to convince you to ship Payneland, plenty of people don't and that's fine. You can still want to keep Payneland platonic for plenty of valid reasons (romantic orientation headcanons like Charles is aro or straight, Charles just isn't into him, you ship something else and aren't a multishipper, etc etc)

You also don't have to agree with any of this I just think it opens an interesting conversation

"i just feel like it reenforces the idea of the gay and straight same sex friendships can’t happen!"

I think you're trying to reference a fandom issue here, which is generally pretty valid, but I feel like the way you word this implies you're criticizing the show for it. The show itself actually does a lot toward progress and acceptance just by making it canonically and overtly queer. If they showed a Charles x Edwin romance, it wouldn't reinforce anything because shows historically queerbait and/or bury their gays.

"edwin doesn’t actually have a crush on charles." + "he just loves him and has never ever had a friend who was a guy while simultaneously being aware of the gay thing happening inside him if it makes sense?"

Iirc it's implied that Edwin had a crush on Simon and knew about it (In Hell, Simon says he STARTED bullying Edwin because he was ignoring him, and Edwin tells him he ignored him because he was nervous around him). It's very obvious in the show that Monty & TCK play an important role in Edwin's internalized homophobia journey. I saw someone else make a post about this a while ago, and they said TCK is Edwin's sexual awakening, while Monty is Edwin's romantic awakening. I think TCK and Monty served to help him ACCEPT this part of himself - he always knew he was gay, he just repressed and ignored it. So to me it was sort of an "Edwin has been in love with Charles for a while and made excuses to ignore it" rather than an "Edwin is now discovering he's gay and thinks he's in love with Charles because of it." I do totally understand how you came to this conclusion though

"now, i feel like there’s no other person to ship him with i understand that but there’s no way in hell (or the afterlife) where charles and edwin could be together romantically."

There are other characters to ship him with! Personally, I'm a big fan of Edwin x Monty (Montwin) and Charles x Edwin x Monty (Ghostcrow). I don't like him with TCK but a lot of people ship them as well. There are probably a few Edwin x Simon shippers out there as well 🤷 A lot of people ship Payneland due to their dynamic and the fact that they've been best friends for over 30 years. This is also the same reason a lot of people prefer them platonic. Regardless of whether or not you ship them romantically, they are undeniably devoted to each other and that's part of what fuels a lot of people's love for the ship. It also is part of what fuels a lot of people's love for QPR Payneland. Either way, it's not totally out of the realm of possibility for them to end up romantically because of that, and even if it was, that's part of the point of fandom! You get to fuck with characters dynamics and it doesn't always have to make sense within canon. A ship doesn't necessarily have to mean you want it to become canon - a lot of people do, yes, but they're not mutually exclusive. You can like two characters together and recognize they would never work in canon or you can recognize they're perfect for each other in canon and not be invested in their relationship.

And then one last one cause I read your comment and thought I'd talk about that as well

"yeah, so give him an actual good and well written love interest!!! no evil crow or weirdo cat king. and also, pls he’s like 15 mentally and physically what 15 y/o actually knows when he’s in love vs having a crush on someone. and they don’t, trust."

I'm not gonna discourse about Monty and TCK cause I don't think it's relevant here, other than to reiterate that a lot of people do ship Edwin with Monty and/or TCK, and it doesn't always impact their opinion on Payneland. Edwin also died at 16, and it's important to note that he has existed for over 100 years and Charles has existed for 50. Also, a lot of people have their first heartbreak around that age, and others end up high school sweethearts. Ofc most high school relationships aren't serious and a lot of them don't last, but the feelings are real and they matter in the moment

Anyway, last point, I highly doubt the show was trying to say that Edwin was mistaking his feelings for Charles. If Payneland wasn't supposed to be endgame, I think it's very likely they would have had Edwin accepting his feelings for Charles and moving on. Having Edwin realize he never was in love with Charles in the first place sets a very different tone and sends a very different message that I don't think the show was going for.

FIRST OF ALL IM NOT HOMOPHOBIC, IM LITERALLY GAY.

anyone else hates when people ship edwin and charles?

i just feel like it reenforces the idea of the gay and straight same sex friendships can’t happen! i have way too many straight girl-friends and we coexist without us having a crush on each other.

NOW, talking about the crush edwin has on charles. of course we have to address it because everyone has had on the first same sex friend they were close to but you have to realize that edwin doesn’t actually have a crush on charles.

he just loves him and has never ever had a friend who was a guy while simultaneously being aware of the gay thing happening inside him if it makes sense?

now, i feel like there’s no other person to ship him with i understand that but there’s no way in hell (or the afterlife) where charles and edwin could be together romantically.

honestly i’m just speaking but i do hope someone understands where im coming from.