#problematic pairings

[problematic-faves-appreciation]

Problematic Relationships (Non-Platonic) Competition List — Canonical

TWs: The Holocaust, genocide, Nazis, pedophilia, incest, grooming, sexual assault, rape, child sexual assault, sexual slavery, confinement, torture, abuse, physical assault, pregnancy, gang rape mention, starvation, miscarriage, slavery, abusive marriage, stalking, suicide, date rape drug mention, trauma, human trafficking, cancer diagnosis mention, gaslighting, financial abuse, and much, much, more.

• I'm going to compare problematic relationships with one another and rate them from least to most problematic.

This list will focus on the ways that the couples have wronged each other — dysfunctionally or abuse-wise — whilst together (sexually or romantically) in an unequal, official/long-term or long-enough relationship; a week or two (minimum), several weeks, or months. Therefore, actions committed during a couple's enemy era won't bolster their problematic ranking if it's just your run-of-the-mill, enemy vs. enemy/hero vs. villain fare —unless their enemy–enemy relationship became abusive; e.g., the villain turned his defeated nemesis into a sex slave and mistreated them for months.

Enemies-to-lovers pairings won't be considered more problematic by default.

Proximity required, so the characters must be close at hand. Examples: workplace, neighbors, visiting each other's homes, living together, imprisoned at the abuser's place, etc.

Defining what an abusive relationship is: Let's look at Kilgrave and Jessica Jones' forced coupling! Non-consensual as it was, their time together still counted as a formal/long-term sexual relationship (only Kilgrave considered it "romantic"). The relationship was marked by an ongoing pattern of one-sided power and control over the victim, and repeated mistreatment.

FYI: This isn't me downplaying rape and murder.

Rape and murder/attempted-murder aren't always going to make a pairing more problematic than one that lacks those things. The non-SA relationships can be absolutely horrible in other ways: isolation, torture (mental and/or physical), graphic physical abuse, dehumanization, decades-long mistreatment, an inescapable relationship, slavery, lobotomization, mind-control, etc.

Murder attempted during the enemies phase of an enemies-to-lovers pairing will not count as problematic points against these pairings by itself, unless the attempted-murder took place in an abusive relationship.

Age gaps won't bolster a couple's problematic factor, unless the older party took advantage of said age difference for self-serving and/or abusive purposes.

A properly handled or good enough "grovel" scene/redemption will reduce a pairing's problematic ranking. A shoddy one will not change anything.

• At least one person in the relationship must have sexual and/or romantic feelings towards the other half. Thus, forced relationships like Jessica Jones/Kilgrave can be included here. Unrequited relationships, too. These will be pointed out.

What if the people involved weren't together (an unrequited dynamic), but the offending character kept engaging in a pattern of creepy behavior towards their crush — such as taking no for an answer, stalking them, forcing them into unwanted situations, and so on — with the intention of obtaining the person however they can, their protests be dammed? The offending person's end goal here is a serious relationship or sex, and their misbehavior is ongoing, so this unrequited dynamic can be considered a toxic relationship.

A friend-to-lovers situation counts as a relationship.

While attraction did exist between Rey and Kylo Ren, they weren't canonically in a committed relationship, nor were friends. They were strangers. However, I've included them on this list to show everyone how tame the pairing is.

• Character on Left (offending partner/Character on Right (wronged partner).

If these characters aren't in an abusive relationship, the former is the most problematic one. Not going to list down every single thing the offending partner did.

Mutually dysfunctional, unrequited, and abusive relationships will be pointed out.

• I will be using the term "trauma bonding" instead of Stockholm syndrome.

• Redeemed offending partners get a star. ☆ But not if their redemption was handled shoddily.

• Suggestions are welcome!

Spoilers ahead!

Where do I start? From the very bottom of the Lower-Tier towards the Top-Tier.

CTRL+F a character's name to find the pairing you're looking for.

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Sections:

△ 1. Top-Tier/Heavyweights/Red

⇧ 2. Medium-Tier/Orange

⇧ 3. Lower-Tier/Yellow

The Green Zone (Not part of the list)

Undecided (Not part of the list)

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Top-Tier/Heavyweights/Red

1st Place

▲ Aric von Schmidt/Hadassah Benjamin | For Such a Time by Kate Breslin | A Nazi Concentration Camp Conmandant

—Dubiously-consensual relationship —Imprisonment —Trauma/PTSD —Schmidt was a Nazi concentration camp commandant. —Saved Hadassah's life, but threatened to send her back to a worse camp if he caught her deceiving him. —Dubious-consent —Tricked her into kissing him (this was their first kiss). —Pressured her to marry him. —Got angry with her when he found out she'd been hiding her true identity as a Jewish person from him. —Arrested Hadassah and had her sent to the ghetto. —I believe he would have gone along with the Wolkenbrand directive (annihilation of all remaining prisoners at the concentration camp), if he hadn't been pushed into action. He would have kept abiding by his sense of duty. —Don't care if Schmidt did not abuse nor rape her, and Breslin redeemed him: this Nazi was the head of a concentration camp. Schmidt contributed to the extermination of Hadassah's people by being there. It doesn't matter if he "wasn't as bad those other Nazis," he participated in the Final Solution, and I'm going to hold that VERY much against him. Lastly, his character plays into the "Clean Wehrmacht" myth. —You know what else really sucks about this guy? His excuses: "I must perform my duty–" Stow it, Schmidt. You're not going to "lesser evil" your way out of this one, Mr. Camp Commandant.

2nd Place

▲ Humbert Humbert/Dolores Haze | Lolita | Unreliable Narrator Predator

—Forced relationship —Age gap exploited —Grooming —He was Dolores' stepfather —Dehumanization —Treated Dolores as an object for his pleasure. —Obsessed —Manipulative —Controlling —Possessive —Kidnapping —Abuse —Rape —Sex prisoner —Trauma/PTSD —Desired a future in which he could impregnate Dolores and obtain a daughter; Dolores' replacement for when she became 15 years old and he lost interest in her. Then, he would repeat the process with his granddaughter. —Probably murdered Dolores' mother. —Ruined Dolores' life and took away her childhood. —Unredeemed

3rd Place

▲ Richard Payne/Elizabeth | The Dark Obsession Series by Zoe Blake | The Gaslighting King

—Possessive —Ruined the lives of people who touched "his property". —Lizzie ended things between in the prequel over Richard's control freak nature; he wanted her to no longer need a mobile phone, school, friends, or a job. Just him. For her life to revolve completely around him. Unfortunately, "no" isn't a word in the duke's vocabulary. —Stalking —Kidnapping —Rape —Dehumanization (treats Lizzie as a possession.) —Started treating her like his sex slave because she had "failed at being treated like a girlfriend." —Sex prisoner —Forced relationship —Abuse —Richard will never stop playing mind games with her. Easing his boredom is what matters most to him. —Trauma bonding —Used EXPERIMENTAL, memory-erasing pills to make Lizzie forget their initial relationship AND continued feeding her these pills. As a result, her memories are unreliable – making her more prone to gaslighting. —Obsessed (both of them, but Lizzie's obsession is self-destructive.) —"When she auditioned for the play I specifically produced to ensnare her, she had no idea she was really auditioning for me. For her new lifetime role as my ward, my possession." —Controlling —Richard is a fan of the 1800s. You see, women back then didn't have rights. They couldn't simply leave their husbands; "It was a time where a woman knew her place and accepted a man’s rightful dominance over her. That was what I found the most appealing. The vulnerability and dependence of a woman on a man’s benevolence. In the Victorian era, a woman was still regarded as a beautiful possession, to be petted and spoiled but also kept docile with a firm hand." —MANIPULATIVE (this guy makes Slade [Teen Titans (2003)] look like an amateur.) —"It was a false assumption that only those of low intelligence could be manipulated. Everyone assumed that a person of intelligence would think through the issue and see right through the lie, but that wasn’t the case. An intelligent person was far more likely to overthink, turning it over and over in their head, and second guess the issue, thereby falling into the hands of the manipulator." —Gaslit Lizzie into thinking she was "actually" a crazy woman from the Victorian era. Then, in the third book, Richard staged his own shooting and took a bullet as part of a scheme to gaslight her some more. There are never any half-measures with this guy and his messed up mind games. —Made his victim think SHE was the cruel puppet master. —Trapped —The man is a filthy, stinking rich, billionaire duke (a modern one!). Lizzie could not get away from him even if she hadn't been hopelessly brainwashed into believing that she "wants" the abuse. —He paid a bunch of actors 1 million pounds (for a year of performance) to participate in his abuse towards Lizzie without them realizing it. —Torture (e.g., waterboarding.) —Dubiously-consensual relationship —Isolation (kept her away from friends, and worst of all, this couple's story ended with him putting her on a remote island.) —Unredeemed (Richard won.)

[Continued under the cut!]

4th Place

▲ Kilgrave/Jessica Jones | Jessica Jones | The MCU's Nightmare Fuel Villain

—Forced relationship —Kidnapping —CONTROLLING —Slavery: Kilgrave mind-controlled Jessica with his super power. —"Jesus, you're a vision. Hair and the skin… appalling sense of fashion, but that can be remedied." —Abuse —Dehumanization —Sex prisoner —Rape —Torture —Forced her to kill someone and blamed her for it. —Trauma/PTSD —Entitled —Ordered Jessica to cut off her ears with a knife, but stopped her as she started slicing at one of them. She would have followed through with his command if he hadn't changed his mind, regardless of the pain. —Obsessed —Stalking —Possessive —Kilgrave denied that he was a rapist. —"Come on, it wasn’t all bad." —Unredeemed

5th Place

▲ Darren Davis/Jaden Wilder | The Stronger Series by J. Marie | A Predator of Girlbosses

—Forced relationship —Her body can't resist Darren. Her heart, however, has not given in to him. I don't think it ever will. —Kidnapping —Jaden, a mixed martial artist, was sold into sexual slavery via a human trafficking ring owned by Darren, a billionaire crime lord. —Rape —Sex Prisoner —Slavery (complete with a shock collar that can also measures her pulse, and contains a GPS tracking chip.) —Obsessed (what he feels for her is not love: she is like a drug to him.) —Dehumanization She's a pet to him. A possession he tattooed his name onto. —POSSESSIVE —Threatened to kill other men if she stared at them at for too long. It's not an idle threat. —CONTROLLING —Forces Jaden (a tomboy) to wear dresses, heels, the color pink, and other girly clothing she hates. No pants allowed. —Abuse (one of punishments involved breaking her wrist, and fracturing her ribs and jaw with his bare hands/arms.) —Trauma/PTSD —Manipulative (exploitation of trauma bonding and intermittent conditioning tactics.) —Isolation —Targeted/threatened to kill Jaden's entire family so she'd have nothing left if she tried to escape. And because she "belonged with him". —Darren got an uncle and he showed her a recording of how the uncle died: slowly and painfully. —She despises him. Unfortunately, her hatred turns him on. —Trapped —Darren is a billionaire. A crime lord. Way stronger than her (physically and martial-arts-wise). He has cops in his pocket, powerful allies on his side, and so on. —Torture —Life with Darren is a hurt/"comfort" rollercoaster – the "comfort" half part of the abuse. —He enjoys hurting her. —Tortured Jaden so hard that he broke this hardy, girlboss character. She only recovered because he wanted her to. Darren wants a toy he can tame over and over again, not a fully broken one. —"Between his belt, fists, and cock, by the time he was done, my body was one giant bruise." —Forced marriage —Made Jaden attend a sex trafficking auction with him to mitigate her PTSD symptoms through "exposure therapy". It didn't help her. —Unredeemed: This is a man who has broken many female slaves: he can't be fixed. Darren may care about Jaden – in his own twisted, messed up way – but he will always prioritize his wants over her happiness, and keep her enslaved. She'll never be his equal. Book five hasn't been released yet, but the other four have reinforced how much of a sadistic, unrepentant, and sick bastard he is. I hope Jaden kills this guy in book five.

6th Place

▲ Anthony Rawlings/Claire Nichols | The Consequences Series [and the companion books] by Aleatha Romig | A Woman's Worst Nightmare

[Tony's worst misdeeds took place in book one.] —Took full advantage of the massive wealth and power at his disposal. As one of the top wealthiest men in the United States, Claire could not escape him, nor hide. —OBSESSED —Paid off 215 thousand dollars of debt she owed, indebting her to him; "I currently own you, until your debt is paid." —STALKING (Before Tony kidnapped her: Six months of secretly recorded footage?!) —Wait a minute, he kept track of her for six years, actually?! What's that...? The true answer is ten years?! —Dehumanization: In the beginning, he used her as an object for his pleasure. Felt that she "deserved" it for revenge reasons. —Manipulative —Influenced the course of Claire's life without even meeting her face-to-face. For example, he ended the young woman's relationship with a college boyfriend, Simon, by contriving a situation where the boyfriend ended up moving to another state for an internship. —Kidnapping (a date rape drug, GHB, was a part of his abduction plan.) —Forced relationship —CONTROLLING (one of the worst control freaks on this list, and that's saying something!) —Controlled every aspect of Claire's new life: what she could or could not do, her schedule, how she dressed, what she wore, who she could talk to, and so on. And she wasn't allowed to drive. —He even micromanaged her body language down to the smallest detail. —Rape —Sex prisoner —Abuse (he called it "operant conditioning": positive consequences for positive behavior — negative consequences for negative behavior.) —Torture —Isolation (used as a manipulation tool.) —Trauma/PTSD —She was always under surveillance by cameras in his mansion. —Made her watch traumatizing recordings of him abusing her. As punishment. —Enraged at a perceived betrayal, he beat Claire within an inch of her life. She nearly died, and ended up with chronic headaches moving forward. —Tony "promised" Claire he would try his best to never physically hurt her again, but only if she never gave him cause to hit her again. How do you think that went? —Trauma bonding: To such a brainwashing-esque degree, it was as if Tony had Claire under a kind of "mental thrall". The trauma bonding... was used against Claire in court. —Dubiously-consensual marriage (Book 1) —"Do you have any idea of the consequences if you did decide to leave me?" —She was completely financially dependent on him. —Kept her isolated from her sister and other people who weren't him or his staff. —POSSESSIVE: Tony ordered the assassination of Claire's former boyfriend, just because they had a friendly conversation and he got jealous about it! It turns out Simon died at someone else's hands, but I'm not letting Tony of the hook here. Intent! —A jealous Tony talking about himself and Claire: "At present I believe you need to concentrate on showing me my wife is first and foremost concerned with pleasing her husband." —After failing a secret test of his, Tony framed Claire for attempted murder against him by having her hand him a poisoned coffee on camera and then intentionally drinking it during a web conference. Making her look guilty. At court, the prosecutor (in Tony's pocket) successfully painted her as a lying, scheming gold-digger. —Once again, Claire could not escape nor hide from him. (Book 2) —The effects of Tony's "lessons" (molding her into a perfectly obedient companion) and "operant conditioning" (abuse) lingered on past book one, making Claire more inclined towards being compliant with him despite herself. This didn't get fully dealt with until far into book three. ☆ Redeemed: A pretty solid redemption arc! Tony's remorse and apologies were followed by actions. The CEO put genuine effort into changing his toxic, controlling ways; this involved modifying old behavior for the better, doing some prison time, getting therapy, admitting his faults and misdeeds, treating Claire as an equal, and standing by his promise to never take her agency away from her ever again. In short, Tony went from being a woman's-worst-nightmare type of control freak to a good husband.

--

Due to Tony's redemption arc, this pairing would rank lower than one containing an asshole CEO or billionaire character with the same exact misdeeds as him, but unredeemed.

However, as for John the Doctor/His Wife, they got bumped down because John (while also a controlling POS) wasn't amongst the top wealthiest men in the country. What's more, Tony, the extent of his power, and the control he had over Claire, beat John in the problematic and nightmare fuel departments.

7th Place

▲ John the Doctor/The Yellow Wallpaper's Narrator | The Yellow Wallpaper | Medical Misogyny Personified

—Controlling —Manipulative —Confinement —Trapped —Isolation —Abuse —Torture (mental) —Trauma bonding —Infantilized his wife. —She went insane because of her dismissive, doctor husband. —John is 19th century patriarchy personified. —Unredeemed

8th Place

▲ Christopher Davenport/Anna Champion | Lemonade by Nina Pennachi | Silent Suffering

—Rape —Manipulative — Obsessed (with Anna and revenge; she suffered because of said two things.) —Possessive —Controlling —Forced marriage —Trapped (used her taken virginity and apparent pregnancy so he could coerce her into marrying him.) —Turns out she wasn't pregnant, but he threatened to make that happen if she didn't marry him. —Abuse —Trauma/PTSD —Chris used the 19th patriarchy against Anna. —Wanted to control Anna and put the poor young woman "in her place," forcing her into the role of a doormat. —Threatened her family repeatedly to make her comply. —Got his victim's family to like him. She couldn't tell them about the rape; given Chris' threats, and her father's poor health. They thought he was a "good guy". An abuse victim's worst nightmare. —Her spirit took a severe blow when Chris destroyed her porcelain doll. —Trauma bonding —Unredeemed (at least he admitted that out of everyone, he hurt her the most.) —Why did he start treating Anna terribly? Rude behavior on her part. Nothing major. Unfortunately for her, his damaged ego can't abide small insults either. He was alluding to this when he told her she had "provoked him to do the unthinkable." Petty

9th

▲ Valentino/Angel Dust | Hazbin Hotel | An Eternal Pimp

—Forced relationship —Slavery (owns Angel's soul) —Abuse —Rape —Trauma/PTSD —Possessive —Coerced Angel into doing sex work/being a sex slave —Physically assaults him —Takes a large cut of Angel's money.

10th Place

▲ Oh Sangwoo/Yoon Bum | Killing Stalking | No One’s Safe From This Straight Dude

—Forced relationship —Codependent —Stalking —Kidnapping —Dehumanization —Used him as a replacement for his mother. —Broke both of Bum's legs with a sledgehammer. —Rape —Sex prisoner —Abuse —Torture (physical and mental) —Trauma/PTSD —Coerced Bum into being his accomplice. —Trauma bonding —Murder attempt —Unredeemed

▲ Sean Culhane/Catherine Enderly | Stormfire by Christine Monson

—Kidnapping —Dehumanization (to him, she was a symbol of English oppression towards the Irish.) —Abuse —Rape —Sex prisoner —Jealous —Trauma bonding —Dubiously-consensual relationship —Trauma/PTSD —Gave her to his men to treat her however they pleased. He even encouraged their lust by fondling Catherine's bare breasts in their presence before leaving her with them. She wasn't raped and he took her back, but this makes up for nothing. I don't care if he did this in the heat of the moment: she would have been gang-raped if the five men hadn't stopped themselves. —Left her "to rot" in a dark cell for three months. —She was starved by his mistress. I'm blaming him too, seeing as he left the mistress in charge of feeding Catherine. —Sean and Catherine's unborn child starved to death. —Not that long after releasing Catherine from the cell and transferring her to a barred bedroom, he broke her ribs. When she was still recovering from her starved state. —Forced Catherine to go horse riding (her ribs were still broken, by the way) and she nearly died because of that. —She became catatonic-like over the death of her unborn child. —Shoddy redemption: Feeling guilt alone just won't cut it, especially when the abusive behavior keeps happening. Well, at least he also got whumped by the story.

▲ Derek Hawke/Marietta Danver | The Marietta Danver Trilogy by Jennifer Wilde

—Slavery —Dubiously-consensual relationship —Controlling —Abuse —Hawke would have given the woman he liked a "very sound beating" (his words), if a random copperhead had not bitten him just in the nick of time. Sadly, he survived. —Rape —I'm not going to rank Hawke's relationship with Marietta lower on this list simply because he only raped her once and wasn't rape-happy. Marietta and book 1 downplayed his douchebaggery plenty by pointing out how "less awful" he was compared to the other asshole dudes in this story. Hell, even Hawke himself did it some time after he forced himself on her (paraphrasing what he said): "Stop complaining, Marietta. You've had it easy these past months: I could have treated you so much worse — could have raped you from day one, for example — but I didn't. Do you see what a damn good master I've been?" Oh, btw, he only had 30 slaves instead of 100 like the other planters! Isn't he swell? Also, also, he didn't punish his slaves very often, but when he did, he gave them a beating they wouldn't soon forget. You see: Derek Hawke isn't so bad! /s Like with Aric von Schmidt, I won't let Hawke "lesser evil" his way out of this one. —Sold his lover, thinking she was going to end up in a brothel. Out of spite. —Trauma bonding. —Shoddy redemption: Feeling bad about your misdeeds isn't enough, Derek. You have to change as a person too. He didn't apologize, either. —Kept being a jerk in the sequel. —Their relationship made her deeply unhappy. —Was never going to marry her on account of her lower social status. —Thought she would have been content as his mistress. —Did not bother looking for her after she got abducted by pirates. She looked for him. —And after finding him, Marietta finally admitted that she'd always come fourth place to his ambitions.

▲ Nikolas Constantinos/Jessica Stanton | All That Glitters by Linda Howard

—The story's main conflict stems from Nilkolas mistreating Jessica over her "gold-digging whore" status. Unbeknost to everyone, she was secret virgin, but this man and others deemed her a gold-digger because she married an elderly man at the age of 18. Not for his money, and she didn't have sex with him; theirs was a platonic relationship. However, people were judgemental jerks, so she got a bad rap. —Obsessed (Nikolas wanted to bed her very badly.) —Stalking —Trespassed into her home. —Forced relationship —Manipulative —Abuse (lasted for most of the book and he didn't grovel whatsoever.) —Nikolas emotionally abused, intimidated, and non-consensually touched Jessica. —She was generally afraid of provoking Nikolas' temper. —Trauma bonding (it would explain why she fell in love with a man who treated her poorly more often than not.) —He didn't want to marry Jessica, and felt she was only "worthy" of becoming his mistress. But he ended up begrudgingly marrying her. However... —Nikolas made her sign a cruel prenup that, to name one example, wouldn't have let her keep custody of their children if she had divorced him. —Dubiously-consensual marriage —Trapped —About an escape attempt: "I would have had you back within two days at the most." —PTSD/Trauma —Rape (he bullied into having sex with him.) —Told her she had to fulfill her "marital duties". —Their first time having sex made Jessica fear him even more. —Blamed her for how roughly he treated her during their coupling. —Claimed he pursued her "out of love," yet kept making it about sex. I can totally buy that he fell "in lust" with Jessica, but love? I don't buy it at all. —The stupid, peach-colored wedding dress: She wanted a white one (her way of conveying her virginity) for their wedding. What did Nikolas do instead? He didn't respect Jessica's wishes and made her wear the peach one (a color he thinks a non-virgin should wear) anyway. Worse still, he never give her a proper apology for going against her wishes so cruelly. —Unredeemed: He continued to be a prick, even after discovering the truth about Jessica's virginity. Didn't grovel or change for the better. Thus, I won't give him props for doing the bare minimum and telling her he was going to tear up the messed up prenup agreement. He shouldn't have made her sign it in the first place. What's more, an actual gold-digger wouldn't deserved that kind of treatment either, period.

▲ Anthony Welles/Cassie Brougham | Devil's Embrace by Catherine Coulter

—Forced relationship —Dubiously-consensual relationship —Obsessed —Manipulative —Stalking —Dehumanization —Welles couldn't get Cassie's mother, so he become obsessed with her as well. Didn't see Cassie as her own person until she turned 17. —Age gap exploited —Grooming —"I’ve never known a man to raise his own wife." —Kidnapping —Rape —Trauma bonding —Welles had his cousin (Cassie's governess) raise Cassie to his liking. She helped him kidnap her. —Unredeemed (he got everything he wanted.)

▲ Fire Lord Ozai/Ursa | Avatar: the Last Airbender

—Forced marriage —Isolation —Rape: Technically, yes. She never wanted to marry him in the first place. —Controlling —Abuse —Trauma/PTSD —Ozai also abused their children. —Jealous —He mistreated Zuko in particular as a way of punishing Ursa. —Unredeemed

▲ Heathcliff/Isabella Linton | Wuthering Heights

—Forced marriage (Isabella wanted to marry Heathcliff at first, but changed her mind when she found herself trapped in her horrible marriage.) —Married her as part of his revenge scheme, not because he liked her. The guy hated Isabella so much, he wished he could "beat her black and blue." However, Heathcliff couldn't go all out on her (physically speaking). Practical reasons. —Imprisonment —Controlling —Manipulative —Abuse —Rape —Murder attempt (Heathcliff throwing a knife at her, hitting her in the neck, definitely counts.) —He would have certainly given her quite the beating, if Hindley hadn't tackled him. She escaped Wuthering Heights at last. —Abused their son, Linton —Linton died, mostly because of Healthcliff's neglect. His father didn't want to spend money on a doctor for him. To Heathcliff, Linton's life was "not worth a farthing." —Unredeemed

▲ Apollo/Persephone | Lore Olympus

—Unrequited —Rape —Trauma/PTSD —Entitled —Obsessed —Manipulative —Stalking —Took advantage of his higher position. —He blackmailed Persephone to keep quiet about her sexual assault, or else he would spread the photos he took of that moment. —Kept trying to force marriage upon her. —Tried using a True Love arrow (forced love) on the goddess —Unredeemed, and I stand by this: the arrow (it pierced him instead of Persephone) forced Apollo into feeling terrible regarding his actions towards Persephone. That's not true redemption: the key thing about a redemption arc is the desire to change as a person on the villain's part. Willingly. Apollo wouldn't have ever done that on his own, period. He didn't regret any of his misdeeds.

▲ Christian Grey/Anastasia Steele | Fifty Shades

—Controlling —Wanted Ana not to work. He even bought the company she worked for to have more control. —Manipulative —The goddamn BDSM contact, and the NDA (non-disclosure agreement). >:c —Stalking (purchased Ana's place of work and tracked her cell phone.) —Abuse —Rape —Possessive —At an art gallery show, Christian bought a whole set of photographs of Ana so no one else could look at them. —Isolation —Did not want Ana to have a child. He was afraid she would chose it over him. —Shoddy redemption

▲ Mr. B/Pamela Andrews | Pamela, or Virtue Rewarded by Samuel Richardson | Proto-Romance Novel | Proto-Fandom; Pamelists vs. Anti-Pamelists | People Wrote Pamela Fanfiction

—Unrequited (until it wasn't) —Dubiously-consensual relationship —Treated Pamela as his property. —Mr. B certainly took advantage of his position as Pamela's employer and master. —Would NOT take no for an answer. —Forcefully kissed her many times. —Attempted rape (was interrupted every time by Pamela fainting.) —Kidnapping —Jealous —Abuse —Trauma/PTSD —Obsessed —Manipulative —Trauma bonding —Pamela contemplated drowning herself in the garden pond after her failed escape attempt. —Read her diary entries against her wishes. >:c —His offers were so underhanded. He would have gotten sex out of them if she'd said yes. —Disguised himself as a maid and got into bed with her. Tried taking her by force, once again. She fainted. —Watched her undress whilst disguised. —Changed his approach and started acting nicer towards Pamela to change her mind. Not out of remorse, at first. Underwent a genuine heel-face turn later. —Convinced her to marry him, getting what he wanted at last. —Shoddy redemption: At least Pamela became financially secure for the rest of her life. Mr. B secured an independence for her in case he died.

▲ The Joker/Harley Quinn | Batman

—Manipulative —Controlling —Abuse —Joker treats Harley like a punching bag. —Murder attempts —Trauma bonding —Codependent —They are the Cycle of Abuse couple! Check out Mad Love, the Batman Adventures comic written by Paul Dini and Bruce Timm. —Unredeemed

▲ Ahmed Ben Hassan/Diana Mayo | The Sheik by E. M. Hull | Proto-Bodice Ripper

—Kidnapping —Rape —Sex prisoner —Abuse —Dehumanization —Trauma/PTSD —Ahmed starting mistreating Diana in the first place because he was taking his hatred of the English out on her. —Dubiously-consensual relationship ☆ Redeemed: Good enough

▲ Daemon Targaryen/Rhaenyra Targaryen | House of the Dragon

—Age gap exploited —Manipulative —Grooming —Brought her to a brothel in an attempt to ruin her reputation and sully her in the eyes of other suitors. That way, no one else but him would marry her. —Did not take her virginity there when he realized she was enjoying their outercourse. Couldn't handle not being in control that much, dude? He would have gone through with it if she hadn't been willing? —Left her alone at the brothel. —Murder attempt (choked his wife) —You bet I'm counting it as a murder attempt.

▲ Coriolanus Snow/Lucy Gray Baird | The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes

—Dubiously-consensual relationship (due to the mentor–tribute dynamic.) —Manipulative —Thought Lucy "was an exception to the rule". Hell, she "wasn't really district," even. This was Snow convincing himself that the district girl was "one of the good ones" so he could deem her worthy of him. —Possessive —Obsessed —Murder attempt/successful murder? —Unredeemed

▲ Erik, the Phantom of the Opera/Christine Daaé

—Unrequited —Obsessed —Stalking —Kidnapping —Entitled —Controlling —Abuse —Murder attempt —Threatened to blow up the Opera and kill everyone inside (his object of obsession among them), if Christine didn't marry him. ☆ Redeemed: Let Christine go and never bothered her again.

▲ Sebastian Everett/Isabelle Walsh | Virtue & Vanity by Astrid Jane Ray

—Forced marriage (their respective, crappy parents forced them. It wasn't Isabelle's fault.) —Trapped —Isabelle's godawful mother tricked (didn't let her read the contract) and blackmailed her daughter into marrying Sebastian. Unfortunately, the man mistook Isabelle for a gold-digger because he believed she wanted divorce money in exchange for providing him with an heir. Needless to say, she was in the dark about what the contract entailed. And Sebastian, feeling trapped... —Also blamed Isabelle, who he saw as her mother's "accomplice". Used this as a justification to mistreat her. —Made his wife drink alcohol and enjoyed her distress. He thought Isabelle's aversion to alcohol had been some purity act. No, it was the result of trauma. —Rape (happened the same day they got married; he made Isabella consummate their marriage, despite her frightened protests.) —“You can and you will. What did you think? That you could play wife to me? This is what you signed up for, baby girl.” (this is Sebastian treating her like a scheming gold-digger. A gold-digger would NOT have deserved it either. Marital rape is still rape.) —Trauma/PTSD —Abuse —Controlling —Terrorized her for a while, rape threats amongst his verbal abuse. I don't care if they were mostly empty (not entirely – he'd already resorted to rape once, and did not respect Isabelle's wishes); Sebastian knew she found his behavior distressing, yet he kept making them anyway. —"You won’t let me? Do you really think I need your permission?" —He slapped Isabelle so hard, her face got bruised. This was his response to the terrified woman locking herself in a bathroom. —Removed the locks on all the bathroom doors. —Made her sleep in the same bed as him. —Non-consensual touching: it doesn't matter if his touches had better intentions behind them now; she still wasn't willing at the time. —Trauma bonding —Dubiously-consensual relationship (did she have a choice?) —Intending to marry his lover again, Sebastian had Isabelle sign a divorce agreement without letting her read it. “Sebastian, I’m sorry but I won’t sign something I haven’t read.” (let her make choices, man.) —Shoddy redemption: Sebastian apologized many times and made amends. Changed for the better in significant ways before he married Isabelle a second time. However, he never really stopped imposing his will on her from start to finish. A significant strike against him, when you factor in his rape of her and the central issue at hand: Isabelle not having a choice. For that reason, Sebastian's redemption arc is flawed.

△ Top-Tier starts here! △

Medium-Tier/Orange

🔶️ King Shahryar/Shahrazad | The Arabian Nights

—Trapped —Shahrazad offered herself to the misogynist Sultan to save more women from getting beheaded. You see, he would "marry " a new one every night, then had her killed the next morning. Shahrazad kept herself alive by telling him stories with cliff-hangers every night, until she ran out of material on the 1,001th night. Instead of killing Shahryar, he married her. —Would have had her executed, if she hadn't been such a brilliant storyteller. —Heel-face turn: The Sultan became a better person as those nights went by. The tales' moral lessons sunk in, apparently. However... —Shoddy redemption: This guy didn't face any consequences for killing thousands of women.

🔶️ The Darkling/Alina Starkov | The Shadow and Bone Trilogy by Leigh Bardugo

[Before they became enemies.] —Manipulative —Darkling wanted Alina for her power. —Treated her as an object. —Had been manipulating and lying to her all along. —Her letters didn't reach Mal because of his orders. —Planned on enslaving her. —Unredeemed

🔶️ Queenie Goldstein/Jacob Kowalski | Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

—Enchanted (mind-control) Jacob to make him marry her. He he was afraid of getting Queenie in trouble with the Wizarding law, thus didn't want marriage. She didn't respect his wishes and made him do what she wanted. —Joined the muggle-hating, wizard supremacists. Said she did it "for Jacob", despite him begging her not to, but again: she didn't listen. Queenie regretted her decision in the third movie, but still... —Shoddy redemption

🔶️ Misa Amane/Light Yagami | Death Note

—Unrequited, but Light used her obsession with him to his advantage. —Mutually dysfunctional relationship —Stalking —Obsessed —Forced herself into Light's life. —Possessive —Blackmailed him into becoming her boyfriend. —Told him she'd kill any girl he attempted to date. —Light wanted to kill her. —Abuse (Light) —Manipulative (Light) —Light only saw Misa as a puppet and never cared about her.

—Unredeemed

🔶️ Hal Stewart/Roxanne Ritchi | Megamind

—Unrequited —Obsessed —Stalking —Would not take no for an answer. —Possessive —"This is for stealing my girlfriend!" —Self-centered —Entitled —"You're supposed to be with me!" —Left Roxanne stranded on top of a building after she told him they would never be a thing. —Murder attempt —Unredeemed

🔶️ Scott Blackstone/Sydney Evans | You Can Have Manhattan by P. Dangelico

—Forced marriage (marriage of convenience.) —Scott's father, Frank, blackmailed him into marrying Sydney for the sake of his land. Sydney agreed to marry Scott so she could become the new CEO of Frank's company. —Mutually dysfunctional relationship (they both disliked each other initially.) —Was taking his anger at Frank out on Sydney. It's not her fault your asshole father resorted to blackmail, Scott. —Possessive —Had Sydney stay in a crappy, unheated cabin with no hot water. In the dead of winter. And made her think it was his actual home, but no: he was sneaking off to his super comfortable mansion, where he took hot showers, whilst she froze her butt off. Sydney lived in the cabin for three weeks and slept on an inflatable mattress there. Worse still, he never even apologized for any of it. >:c —She kept Frank's cancer diagnosis secret from her husband at the old man's behest. Scott's reaction went too far. —Scott purported to love his wife, yet he publicly humiliated Sydney (at her place of work) before the board of directors and fired her from her position as CEO of the Blackstone company, singlehandedly destroying this work-oriented businesswoman's career and her reputation in a matter of days. Plus, announced that he planned on divorcing her while he was at it. —"I'd known exactly how to hurt her––take away what she held most dear, the only thing she had left: her career. And I’d gone after it with everything I had, hadn’t I? It was a maneuver straight out of the art of war by Frank Blackstone." [Very calculated of you. It wasn't done in the heat of the moment.] —Shoddy redemption: I don't care if Scott gave Sidney the company at the end; his retaliation towards her was very much out of proportion to her supposed misdeed, and he didn't try to fix her ruined reputation. This guy did not atone enough for worst offenses.

🔶️ Andre Grandier/Oscar François de Jarjayes | The Rose of Versailles

 —Jealous  —Possessive  —Sexual assault  —Forcefully kissed Oscar, held her down, and started to tear at her shirt. He stopped there.  —Murder attempt  —Nearly poisoned Oscar because he couldn't have her. Fortunately, he changed his mind just in the nick of  time, and stopped her from drinking the poisoned drink.  —Never told Oscar that he tried to kill her.

🔶️ Kuvira/Bataar Jr. Beifong | The Legend of Korra

—Murder attempt —Kuvira tried to kill her enemies (who were all gathered in one spot) by blasting them with spirit energy, even if that meant killing Baatar alongside them. For the sake of conquest. —She kept excusing what she did to him: "it broke my heart when I had to choose the Earth Empire over a life with you." No, she didn't. If their positions had been reserved, Baatar wouldn't have done it. ☆ Redeemed: Flawed and rushed redemption arc, but I can live with it. Regarding Baatar... I disliked that she didn't properly apologize to him.

🔶️ Anakin Skywalker/Padme Amidala | Star Wars

—Obsessed —Controlling (in the Clovis episodes, unfortunately) —Possessive (Clovis arc, once again) —Force-choked his pregnant wife out of anger. —Murder attempt (he force-choked her until she lost consciousness!) —Murder (indirectly) —Padme would have hated how Anakin treated their children whilst he served the Empire. ☆ Redeemed

🔶️ Jacob Black/Bella Swan | Twilight

—Unrequited —Obsessed —Wouldn't stop coming onto her. —Jealous —Manipulative —Forced himself on Bella. —Threated to kill himself if she didn't kiss him. —Was going to kill her child. —Imprinted on the baby instead, and did not stay the fuck away from Renesmee.

🔶️ Fitzwilliam Darcy/Elizabeth Bennet | Reverie & Rancour: A Pride & Prejudice Vagary 

—Forced marriage —Trapped (this story takes place in the 19th century: she couldn't simply divorce her cold, resentful husband.) —In this retelling, Elizabeth and Darcy ended up getting married on account of Mrs. Bennet's interference. He thought Elizabeth plotted with her mother to trap him into marriage. Elizabeth did no such thing, but he wouldn't believe her. —Abuse (of the emotional, financial, and neglectful kind.) —Financial: "Elizabeth would have nothing from him. No pin money. No settlement in the case of Darcy's death, beyond her own meagre dowry and lifetime rights to Pemberley Grange, a miserable cottage buried in the woods north of the great house. Elizabeth would not benefit a jot, and her husband's disdain would be visible to all the world. With no pin money, she would be required to beg him for the very clothes on her back. She would know his disapprobation and feel his generosity in even providing the shelter of marriage. Perhaps one day, she would be properly humbled, would beg his forgiveness and set out to win his favour. He would extend his largesse to her, of course, with proper evidence of contrition. Perhaps she would weep in gratitude, kiss his hands, fall to her knees..." —Worst of all, she got sick and nearly died because of her inadequate winterwear – which was his fault. Darcy didn't allot her enough pin money for the clothing she NEEDED. He said her "basic needs would be supplied", but nope!  —Dehumanization —Didn't really look at his wife for months, hence the reason why her declining health went unnoticed by him She was a "siren" (threat) in eyes, someone he did not want to develop warmer feelings towards. —Took no action whilst his family members and servants disrespected her.

—Forbade Elizabeth from writing to her family. There was no contact at all for months. "You are fair to your tenants, and your staff think well of you. I cannot but wish that you had at any time in our acquaintance shown to me the same generosity." —Trauma/PTSD  —Shoddy redemption: I'm not giving him a redemption star for being a fair and generous man to his wife at last, which was the bare minimum.

🔶️ Shigure Sohma/Akito Sohma | Fruits Basket

—The Sohma curse bound Shigure to Akito. This made the Zodiacs obey her. —Mutually dysfunctional relationship —Obsessed (Both) —Jealous (Both) —Manipulative —Possessive (Both) —Shigure wanted Akito all to himself. —Withheld affection from her on account of his possessive nature. —Cheating (Both) —Self-centered (Both) —Controlling —Akito clawed his face when she thought he was going to leave her. —Shigure got what he wanted. —Slept with Akito's arch-nemesis mother to get back at her.

🔶️ Alessandro De Lucci/Theresa Noble De Lucci | The Unwanted Wife by Natasha Anders

—Forced marriage (on his end first, then hers.) —Theresa's father made Sandro wed his daughter and remain married to her until they gave him a grandson, or he wouldn't sell Sandro's father's vineyard back to the De Luccis. As a consequence, Sandro ended up resenting Theresa. He thought she had been aware of her father's plan, but no. She wasn't guilty of anything. —Abuse (emotional; unapologetic, cold demeanor, lack of affection, no direct eye-contact, put-downs, didn't bother learning anything about her, nor introduced her to his friends and family. :c) —This abuse went on for almost two years. —Domineering —Prevented Theresa from divorcing him, using a loan he gave her cousin as leverage. He wanted that son first. If she left him, the cousin would lose her business. —"I have no respect for you, Theresa. . . not even as the potential mother of my child because, quite frankly, you can't even do that right." (he apologized, but still: terrible thing to say to someone who miscarried.) —Persistent (for good and for ill.) ☆ Redeemed: Sandro spent most of the book groveling and making amends. A very satisfying redemption arc!

🔶️ Gilbert Truman/Rose Davenport | Unforgivable by Joanna Chambers

—Unrequited (how it started.) —Forced marriage —Surviving her near-death experience with the chickenpox left Rose looking "plain". —Self-centered (Gil) —It wasn't Rose's fault she and Gil ended up married. —He only remained with her for about one month following their wedding. —Dumped Rose at a faraway estate and did not visit her at all for five years. —Spent those years sleeping with many other women in London. —He never accepted her invitations back to the estate for Christmas during said five years. >:c —Didn't start giving a damn about her until she was pretty. —Jealous (Gil) —Would not let go of the resentment he still felt for Rose. —He finally felt entirely sorry about his poor behavior towards her after she had a miscarriage. —Shoddy redemption —I'm 100% certain Gil would have never, ever changed his mind about Rose if she'd remained an "ugly duckling". The man is a shallow bastard.

🔶️ Minthe/Hades | Lore Olympus

—Mutually dysfunctional relationship —Cheating (Both) —Abuse —Minthe was the abuser, period. —Slapped Hades and told him he looks like his abusive father, triggering him. —Used the "nobody else would want you" abuse tactic. —Obsessed (She wouldn't accept that their relationship was over. Not until her...) ☆ Heel-face turn: Not a redemption arc, but she stopped bothering her ex.

🔶️ Velma Dinkley/Shaggy Rogers | Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated

—Obsessed —Controlling —Velma criticized Shaggy excessively. —She tried to change his personality. —Shaggy was afraid of her. —Told him he had to choose between her and Scooby. —Her behavior was emotionally abusive. ☆ Redeemed: She improved as a person after breaking up with Shaggy.

⇧ Medium-Tier starts here! ⇧

Lower-Tier/Yellow

🟡 Rose Quartz/Pearl | Steven Universe

—Dubiously consensual relationship (the way it began...) —Slavery —Rose's owned Pearl: this (and the reason below) is why Pealrose ranked this high in this tier. For all of the other yellow-tier couples' flaws and dysfunctions, they didn't start off in a master/slave relationship. —Rose's final order to Pearl as Pink Diamond: Pearl couldn't physically disobey it. Rose exploited her lover's built-in slave programming to prevent her from revealing Rose's true identity.

—Codependent —Obsessed (Pearl) —Jealous (Pearl)

🟡 Severus Snape/Lily Evans | Harry Potter

—Unrequited —Was friends with Slytherins who were bigoted towards Lily. —Called her a slur in his anger. —Joined a hate group that went after people like Lily. —I can't stress enough the part about him joining the hate group whose activities led to Lily's murder at Voldemort's hands. Snape should have known it would have come to this eventually, one of his people targeting and killing her. —Bullied her son. ☆ Redeemed

🟡 Sissi Delmas/Ulrich Stern | Code Lyoko

—Unrequited —Obsessed —Manipulative —Stalking —Stole his diary. —Used said diary to blackmail Ulrich and make him go on a date with her. —Used her position as the principal's daughter to her advantage. —Exploited Ulrich's amnesia and told him she was his "sweetheart". Borderline non-consent territory right there! —Continued to pester him, even though he kept rebuffing her. —Did not apologize for her insistent advances on Ulrich. That said, she gradually improved as a person throughout the seasons.

🟡 Heathcliff/Catherine Earnshaw | Wuthering Heights

—Mutually dysfunctional relationship —Codependent —Jealous —Possessive —Obsessed —Stalking — "May she wake in torment!" —I don't think she would've been happy about him abusing her daughter and nephew, if she had lived.

🟡 Edward Cullen/Bella Swan | Twilight

—Controlling —Possessive —Stalking —Watched Bella sleep at night —Sabotaged Bella's car so she wouldn't go see Jacob. —Dumped Bella in the woods (he could have driven her home, at the very least) after breaking up with her.

🟡 Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Adrien Agreste | Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug and Cat Noir

—Unrequited (and not!) This whole "love square" thing is silly. XD —Obsessed —Stalking —Possessive —Jealous — "What is she doing with MY Adrien?” —She memorized his entire schedule! Knew it by heart. —Has broken into his home. —She's tried keeping other girls from getting close to Adrien, romantically. —Adrien kept flirting with "Ladybug" and asking her out on a date despite her not being interested.

🟡 Maylen Ortesev/Alina Starkov | The Shadow and Bone Trilogy

—Mutually dysfunctional relationship —Jealous (Mal) —Possessive —Controlling —Self-centered (Mal) —Didn't want to see her wearing black ever again. —Did not accept Alina for who she was for the longest time. He wanted the powerless girl from their childhood back. —Got what he wanted anyway: she lost her powers at the end. —No apology

🟡 Catra/Adora | She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Before Adora and Catra both became enemies (they were fully on opposing sides following "The Sword Part 2"):

—Codependent —Possessive —Resentment (on Catra's part) towards Adora existed even before they became enemies. —Catra tased Adora when she turned her back to the cat girl, and then again when she was down. —Was not going to let Adora defect from the Horde without hurting her. ☆ Redeemed

--

I used to deem Catradora abusive, simply because they're a friends-to-enemies-to-lovers couple. Their shared history changed the usual ETL dynamic, where these kinds of couples usually start out just a strangers/enemies, not people who were friends initially — was my reasoning behind that thought process. But you know what? I was wrong. The stuff Catra put Adora through happened during the enemies phase of their relationship, when they were on opposing sides as combatants who could hold their own against each other. It wasn't an unequal relationship wherein one partner was dominating and controlling the other.

Therefore, calling this ship "abusive" isn't accurate.

🟡 Daphne Blake/Fred Jones | Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated

—Mutually dysfunctional —Obsessed (Daphe) —Self-centered (Both) —Daphne needed to tone down the intensity of her love (and she did!) -Jealous (both) —In one episode, Fred made a ridiculously long/detailed schedule for Daphne. He had her follow to know her location, and what she was doing 24/7 (out of fear of losing her). Thankfully, he apologized and his sudden controlling behavior didn't rear its ugly head again. Well, aside for one line in The Night the Clown Cried II: Tears of Doom. —Speaking of that Crybaby Clown three-parter, he also had problematic moments in those eps.

🟡 Rio Pacheco/Jerrica Benton | Jem

—Mutually dysfunctional relationship —Rio cheated on Jerrica with... herself (Jem). Lol —Jealous (both) —Jerrica never told Rio that she's Jem. He "hates deception, and hates liars." It's part of the reason why she kept her alter ego a secret from him.

🟡 Ulrich Stern/Yumi Ishiyama | Code Lyoko

—Will-they-won't-they rollercoaster! Much drama arose from this. —Jealous (Both) —Ulrich was so jealous of an 11-year-old having a crush on Yumi, he told the kid to follow her around (something she dislikes). So she would get upset with the kid. —So much miscommunication.

🟡 Kylo Ren/Rey | Star Wars

The "join me" moment between them in Snoke's throne room, as they stood before each other at the tail end of their alliance:

Kylo was coming from an earnest place when he made his appeal for Rey to join him; "You come from nothing. You're nothing. But not to me." This line wasn't some Machiavellian attempt at isolating Rey, making her dependent on him, or whatever other abuse accusations people have lobbed at him. Kylo meant it earnestly: Rey's nobody background (she wasn't part of any major bloodline — pre-TRoF retcon) didn't make her lesser in his eyes. He wanted to rule the Galaxy with her as his equal With that said, he did capitalize on Rey's emotional vulnerability to nudge her in the direction he wanted. What's more, "letting the past die" entailed betraying her friends and killing them. Not an isolation tactic, but misguided/callous advice from Kylo nonetheless. -- Kylo and Rey are Star Wars arch-enemies. They weren't in a committed relationship, where there was a power imbalance and a pattern of abusive behavior. They stood on opposite sides of a war. Furthermore, his actions towards her are your typical Star Wars fare between two arch-enemies, and run-of-the-mill, hero vs. villain happenings; fighting, violence, kidnappings, murder attempts, trying to kill the hero's friends, going after the hero, attempting to get said hero to join Team Bad Guy, and so on. Kylo didn't even do any of that stuff to Rey out of sadism towards her. Like I said, standard hero vs. villain stuff.

⇧ Lower-Tier starts here! ⇧

Bottom of the list

The Green Zone (Not part of the list)

If someone comes here, telling me that, say, Aang/Katara is "significantly problematic" (or abusive) due to the time he hid the rendezvous map from Katara and Sokka, this is where it will end up: the non-contenders section, where the inoffensive pairings belong.

Aang came clean, apologized, and learned his lesson. He was a scared kid, not an abuser.

Hunter/Willow Park (The Owl House) is also incredibly inoffensive.

Undecided (Not part of the list)

▲ Hannibal Lecter/Will Graham | Hannibal

Definitely heavyweight-material, but I haven't watched the show. As a consequence, I don't know where to place them exactly. And their dynamic appears... not so clear-cut?

• Adam Taurus/Blake Belladonna | RWBY

Was Adam shown abusing Blake in the episodes? When they were still on the same side? As enemies, they were no longer in a relationship.

[queenoftsage]

as an addendum to the previous [reblog/post]...

I do support all PAIRINGS [in fiction and in rl], except for the ones where the power imbalance is OBVIOUS. And the ones where it's illegal for one individual or the other to be with each other.

That in mind and here goes the controversy take...

What business does a full grown adult have, trying to see a child as a sex object? Like, seriously? Why would you do that? Why do you do that? It's not ok. A child should be protected, not used by you.

All in all, these types of adults really do need therapy, as well as the children they traumatized because they couldn't keep their desires to themselves.

Seriously, you should let a child be a child. Don't force your sexual desires on them, please. It's not that hard to understand. I don't see how it's hard to understand.

Anyway... yes, GET SOME THERAPY.

[empress-of-snark]

Beetlejuice in the first movie: I want to get back to the land of the living to terrorize humanity in any way that I can, this weird goth girl is just a means to an end

Beetlejuice in the sequel, who keeps a framed picture of Lydia on his desk: It has been thirty years since I've seen my wife Lydia Deetz, the love of my life, my one and only, my other half, the only woman I’ve ever truly loved, my—

[nostalgia-tblr]

[834k]

I'm so glad they have social media in the tsbt world because I know there's so much online discourse about how problematic Auristela is because of that mlm sponsorship

[clearancecreedwatersurvival]

Look people can discourse about how problematic a ship is and how terrible people are for shipping it all they want, but the reasons they try and assign for shipping something are usually pretty ridiculous. The only actual point of discrimination on whether or not I’m gonna ship a pairing is just how narratively compelling the character dynamic is. Do they play off each in an interesting way? Is there some good narrative symbolism involved?? I’m there.

Yes that does mean I’m often a basic bitch and end up enjoying whichever slash and femslash ships are popular BUT there’s usually a reason why a bunch of writers have gotten into something! Tbh! Shit being popular doesn’t mean it’s bad, stuff usually pops off for A reason, regardless of it’s a reason you personally agree with.

[chocolate-floof]

Since when is thinking ppl should be allowed to enjoy their problematic FICTIONAL characters and pairings without facing death threats and harassment means someone is a pedo and should die? Like you antis are terrifying

"problematic pairings"? Huh, you mean like,

Deku x eri? 16 x 6 yrs

Elizabeth Afton x William Afton? 40s+ x 11 yrs

Bakugou x aizawa? 39 x 16 yrs

Disgusting.

If you ship an adult with a child which is often among proshippers, you should die :)

No more questions asked. If your attracted to fictional small children, then you are also attracted to real children and should be put in a wood chipper while hanging from your toes. it says a lot that you made this ask anonymously. Stupid bitch.

[akilahia]

One thing about Resident Evil, they sure do know how to write straight couples.

[xdevilrushx]

It's just one clown take after another.

This might be the single dumbest and most hypocritical fandom I've ever wasted my time on.

[theongp]

So now I have a thing with "falling in love with your best friend" trope I guess

These duos, one goes down hill, one goes up and only getting better

[yeah-thats-probably-it]

thinking about what if data were aromantic. even after he gets the emotion chip put in, he still just doesn’t feel romantic love, and doesn’t understand what other people are feeling when they talk about it. and he’s really upset at first because he feels like after everything he’s been through to get here he still isn’t fully human. there’s still a piece missing. he’s tapped into every work of art humans have ever created and romance seems so ubiquitous that he thinks you can’t be human without it

i’m imagining this as like a b or c plot of an episode. maybe he’s been working with a crew member who turns out to be aromantic and they commiserate about how alienating it can be to hear everyone talk about romance all the time. everyone comes together at the end to help him realize that he feels so many different kinds of love, and no human’s experience with emotions is exactly the same and your humanity doesn’t depend on what emotions you do or don’t feel anyway

i think this would be a good episode. i would enjoy it

[inkedberries]

trying not to be a hater over here but man ppl should just stop pitting character pairings against each other in a battle poll like what is the point

[lizardkingeliot]

whyyyy do i feel like i would be ~cheating~ on quentin and eliot if i decided i wanted to write fic for another pairing from another fandom... someone plsssss tell my brain to stop being so silly 💀

[syruubithethird]

Mallelili sketches and such ranging from uh... 3/15/2023 to 6/12/2023

[rwby-confess]

Aight you want Rare Pairs? Death's WhiteRose. My ot3. Ruby/Weiss/Young Maria Calavera. I have people refuse to draw art of them because it's 'problematic' ignoring that it's almost always a Maria was born later au.

Maria gets two people who don't care about her name she can trust to watch her back (cause clearly silver eye warriors have to worry about salem trying to kill them so in that they can be united).

Ruby gets a slightly older S.eves mentor, Weiss gets people who care about her for her, and Whiterose get a more battle hardened battle bae who will teach them how to fight to survive.

Ruby and Maria are gremlins off the field and help Weiss relax as Weiss helps keep the two of them on track.

Weiss supports, and fights at range. Ruby can do either, but Maria is the close combat master between them.

Their songs are all counterpoints of each other (using Grimm Reaper as Maria's songs), they have complimentary colors, and Maria is absolutely the type to make them talk things out when the going gets tough.

Each of them is missing a parent, at least one rather, and they're all very very lonely people, and the idea of them finding companionship in each other is great.

If maria was young in canon I do have to admit I don't know if I'd ship Ruby with Weiss, or Maria more, but thankfully with fanfic I don't have to make such a choice.

#2 jailbirds

I feel like this gets slept on because it's a m/f ship. I have no honest idea why people ship Robyn with winter instead because Qrow outside of Ruby and Yang is the only person to show interest in who Qrow is as a person.

Clover usually just ignored Qrow's semblance or feelings because he didn't HAVE to deal with the side effects of Qrow's semblance, but Robyn, did, and does.

She stays regardless. On the plane when Clover got up and was about to arrest Qrow, Robyn literally goes straight to the nuclear option of 'i will murder you if you try to arrest this man'.

She, and Qrow are both headstrong people, but Qrow has shown he's willing to listen to her, and she to him. She talked him down from wanting to murder Ironwood, he clearly values and listens to her.

She built him a monument to his niece, and they have complimentary fighting styles (she can fight out of range of his semblance ala Ruby in the Tyrian fight). They're both the sort of fighter who learns the same way.

When the chance to escape happens the first thing they do is make sure the other is alright.

Time, and time again she has had to deal with his semblance (hey plane crash, tyrian escaping, getting arrested and so on), and the bad luck it brings, and time and time again she has consistently chosen to be there for Qrow, and treat him like a person and not his semblance.

Imagine Qrow having a bad day, and then Robyn just gently takes his hand, and tells him he is more than his semblance, and he's a great person worth getting to know, and she's not leaving, and then her hands glow green.

Just god man, but not let's ship Robyn and Winter because it's two women who never interact but are both from Atlas. Gag me.

I have more, but eh flooding your ask enough as is.

Confession #110

[spending-life-pretending]

i love insane gay people