#this is so clunky and i didn't string my thoughts together very well sorry

[lannisterdaddyissues]

I thought I was the only one who was a little annoyed about folks being hostile towards Ethan in regards to Benji's trauma!!!

I'm an active Benthan fan and I can kinda see how as a fic writer it could be interesting to explore that idea-- that since we didn't see Ethan comfort Benji onscreen at the end of RN after he was kidnapped and almost killed by Lane, that maybe Ethan didn't comfort him and maybe Benji has feelings about that-- but to act like Benji's trauma in the M:I series is a result of Ethan being a bad friend or a bad person is a huge stretch.

It takes away Benji's agency as a character. He chose this really dangerous job that frequently goes off the rails, and honestly Benji's trauma in RN is more directly from Lane's actions than anyone else's. Sure, Ethan's not perfect, he makes mistakes and those close to him get hurt, but Benji specifically knows the risks. We know he knows this because he shouted this at Ethan (and all of us) in the movie. At that moment he actively opted in to the danger of being an intelligence agent. I think Benji in particular is the only character in the film franchise that moved into active field agent work from an office/desk job position-- he put himself in that situation.

(If anything Ethan would blame himself and Benji would tell him it's not his fault. Because that's kind of the argument they had after the opera house. "I can't protect you" meaning, "if something does happen it'll be my fault because I know I can't stop it" vs "that's not your decision to make" meaning, "It's my choice. I choose what I do and what happens to me, not you.")

Far be it from me to yuk someone's yum-- We all have our pet head canons-- but there is a lot of woobie Benji in the fandom, and I think fanfic readers and writers can forget that their interpretation is just one interpretation of many possible fan interpretations and is not in fact canon.

ahhhh so true anon!! sorry it took me a hot minute to get to this, and i DO have so much more to say on this but alas i am Very busy at the moment with school and i don't have the time to be writing up long rant posts LOL (but i wanted to say this now in case i waited too long and you never saw it asgasdfashgs)

but i fully agree about taking away benji's agency as a character... it's really the whole reason why i stopped reading benthan, i just got tired of the same trope over and over again where he's a blushing virgin and the damsel in distress ... i also don't want to yuck someone's yum but surely benji has more character than that...

and aside from that the post just felt so... entitled? idk? like they were saying that they thought ethan should've comforted benji on-screen instead of ilsa being there with him at the end of fallout, and look i get that these people love their ship but they sound just like spn stans when they call benthan queerbait. it is not queerbait. they aren't canon! (and just because the scene doesn't happen on-screen doesn't mean it didn't happen off-screen! that's what fanfiction is for: write it yourself! ethan isn't such a terrible friend that he wouldn't check on benji after two near-death experiences. if they think that he's neglecting benji then that's a massive character assassination on their part.)