#tldr be nice and be open and dont be like the multiple weirdos who force in their asshole takes about irl non-blood family

[glubandeepspace]

psa you can dislike or like something without perpetuating misinformation about real people things like families and the nuances of other languages and cultures

this is about non-chinese speakers who are like "but gege means older brother" and fans who nod along frantically without their own basic research. gege is a term of endearment/respect that is often casually used for slightly older males in general. and even eventual love interests (go read tiān guān cì fú or something). im not chinese but it reminds me of how i am filipino which has several similar terms.

i dont know which terms caleb & mc use towards grandma josephine in the original language (which the game is still mainly written for and from) (cn fans pls tell me lol i cant make it out from the cn audio or read cn alphabet) and idk what it's like living in china but also i doubt it's coincidence that ive encountered multiple fans who do or know people from there who say it's not uncommon for explicitly nonfamilial non-blood-related friends there to grow up in the same house.

do correct me with actual evidence if im wrong. but even in the english translation, mc does only refer to caleb as "childhood friend"

(also why would such a popular and money-loving game intentionally casually incorporate a taboo)

i think this can be respected without dismissing that step- and adopted family is still real family, as many fans also wildly do.

i have step siblings ive never met who id still automatically (likely mutually) be unable to view in a nonfamilial sense because that's 'our' proper norm as americans. it makes it challenging to understand very different foreign mindsets but imo it's not too hard. to accept.

(people who commit incest can also defend themselves by claiming they dont view each other as siblings also btw so when i say "mc and caleb dont view each other as siblings" it isnt even all about romance—if he were an LI they won't even become romantic unless you choose that route—it's just about how they were always plain friends, raised to be that way. headcanons aside.)

and this is all without getting into the whole other can of worms that's how some fans simply enjoy media with incest kinks. that's just unchangeable and not my business, i never wanna see it, and i won't bc i'll simply block.

i'll also still have my own instinctual aversions to dwelling on caleb as a romantic possibility for all he's been associated with (by others & my own past misinformed assumptions, and how i personally still have remaining contrary 'vibes'/headcanons/preferences) and i dont know which fans are portraying him with the heavy fanon mindsets argued against above—but that is just me rn. and i never really get bias wrecked anyway.