#that would imply literally any level of healthy communication or functional romantic connection

[lakesbian]

16

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

have gone on hazmat-suited explorations into ao3 before. which was a mistake.

there is a bewilderingly large subset of the fandom that likes to take a look at the incredibly tragic & compelling dynamics btwn the undersiders--all of which are characterized by some form of imbalance or distance btwn the involved characters--and then go "actually, i think this nuanced and emotionally significant character writing would be better if everyone involved was flanderized and also all dating each other in the most boring way possible."

except for aisha, of course--she's brian's sister, so it'd be awkward if they had to account for her. the fix for this is to shove her offscreen with a bit of neat little character-lobotomy to make it so that nobody gives a shit about her. alec included. fuck that he straight up killed himself for her, fuck that taylor couldn't tell whether their relationship was platonic or romantic & estimated it could become solidly romantic in the future--just make him literally Wrinkle His Nose In Horror And Disgust at the idea of dating aisha so that we can bonk him together with op's taylor doll instead! and yes, that is an actual example from an actual fic.

oh, & aisha is apparently just, like, chill with being off doing her own thing while everyone else is going on insufferably twee dates & talking about how much they dislike her instead of inserting herself into the middle of everything in the most annoying way possible for attention. i recognize it's pointless of me to focus on aisha's out-of-character reaction to inane and implausible fandom tropewriting when the tropes themselves are inherently founded on 50 layers of They Would Not Fucking Say That, but there's just something particularly funny to me about how aisha's Entire Goddamn Problem is that everyone ignores/dismisses her and the fandom not only constantly perpetuates that but gets the one (1) character who did Not dismiss her in canon (alec) in on it.

(to be clear if i was in charge of making worm good (lgbt) i would immediately and without hesitation make both taylor & tattletale and taylor & rachel's dynamics gay. she wouldn't, like, date-date either but it'd be a thing. i would not remove brian/taylor. the undersiders are a team of people psychosexually obsessed with taylor and also alec and aisha are there. worm is about the tragedy of loving taylor hebert, and also alec and aisha are there.)

anyway tl;dr i think the twee-ass flanderizing "fuck the plot and themes everyone is going out for a pizza date and then collectively telling emma to kill herself when she randomly manifests to bully taylor in the middle of the pizza restaurant" (also a real example) shit this fandom does in their 5 million all-the-undersiders(-sans-aisha-who-doesn't-exist-)are-dating fanfictions sucks and is bad and furthermore i don't like it at all. surely there is other more tonally appropriate media people could make these fanfictions about instead of Tragic Relationships: The Book. [poking wormfic writers w/ a stick] you guys don't like tragic dysfunctional relationships :(?