𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒕 𝒒𝒖𝒆𝒆𝒏.

i think it’s a complicated situation, because there are a lot of parts that contributed to this shit storm but lemme try & dissect this bad boy.

shippers.

we know ‘em, we are ‘em. mlm are given a raw fuckin’ deal in this fndm & a lot where they only really matter if it’s to get a dude away from a m / f relationship so the girl in it can usually be in a wlw relationship. rwby in particular is a majority female show & heavy with the wlw relationships in the fandom space, not so much in the show but it’s there more than it is for mlm.

shippers. are. rabid. they’re like cujo an hour into the movie with foam from the mouth & just nasty lmao. there are good ones but yeah. so people saw a potential ship in clover & qrow and ran with it but there was a hella sense of entitlement. like there is for a lot of ships in the show, and in fandom in general! viewers are hella entitled nowadays. however …

show / media engagement.

i will say straight up, rt is one of the most unprofessional companies i’ve ever seen in regards to social media & fan engagement. i have Never seen voice actors / actors in any regard or showrunners or official twitters act in such an unprofessional manner to the fans. they’re too close, they blur the lines because they want to be a family company and want to have that engagement with the audience. they want to be our friend. but in this day & age with fan entitlement at it’s highest ; that just can’t happen. it does more harm than good.

shippers feel entitled, toxic fans get emboldened, lines that were once drawn are now smudged & blurred.

rt’s official twitter is a fucking shit show. no one knows how to tell the va’s, especially the likes of arryn or barbara, how to shut the fuck up about things. episodes get overhyped and most pertinent to this ask ; validations are given that aren’t true.

just outside of this situation we’ve had people say nora is trans canon because a tweet was liked. toxic shippers are emboldened by tweets from their vas concerning the ships. neath promised a great v6 finale only to be hung out to dry when it was chopped up & fans felt gypped at the poor finale we did get. we have show runners endorsing abuse comics. people were mad that a dance didn’t happen because they thought they were promised it via a fucking emoji.

and now fairgame. the rt twitter teased it like they tease bumbleby and that for me is gross. that for me, is dangling hope of a prospective ship that the show seems to endorse, only to rip it away at the drop of a hat (or stab of a harbinger … )

seeing things that aren’t there, yet.

i have no strong thoughts either way with fairgame. i think it could’ve been cute, however if it didn’t happen, i wouldn’t of cared. i do think the way that shippers jumped right into shipping them from the moment they met ; even though the moment was an upsetting one for qrow as he was confronted with someone who was everything he isn’t, is very telling.

it’s no surprise that ships are a big part of fandom space. love is something that most people seek out, romance has been a theme of stories since storytelling existed. however i think it’s gone too far these days that for a lot of people ; it’s the only thing that matters. and it shouldn’t be that way. romance should support the story, not the other way round.

if there had been time, perhaps qrow & clover could’ve grown into something more. but as it was in canon, they were friends with paralleled flirting on clover’s part alone. nothing from qrow said it was reciprocal. there was nothing for an in canon basis of them being a legitimate romantic couple ; and i don’t think there’s anything wrong with that, if it existed in a vacuum on it’s own.

but it didn’t.

these moments, combined with shipper entitlement & social media engagement lead to a firestorm that could only blow up in the end. and it did. people were hurt emotionally & i will say here. it is okay for this to upset or disappoint you. however, if it’s getting to the point it has genuinely distressed or emotionally harmed you ; that’s not healthy. that’s not a good engagement with the show and at that point i would say switch off and walk away. you have gotten too emotionally invested to a point of it being damaging and that is unhealthy because it has now blurred the lines of fiction and reality.

in my own opinion, i think fairgame wasn’t going to happen. i think that it was slated as a friendship that qrow desperately needed, not a relationship but that also feeds into the disturbing mindset of a lot of shippers where they confuse growth in a relationship with one partner fixing another, like another major ship in this fndm. they are not the same.

so, what now?

fairgame had a tragic end and eddy has commented that he will discuss the issues taken with the ending for them & treatment of mlm in the show into consideration. however the official twitter is still stoking the flames and i’m afraid that will only hinder rather than help in the end.

however there is also an issue with us, the audience. the entitlement of shippers has got to fucking stop because at the end of the day, you are blurring your own lines of what you want and what could happen and think the two are the same. this is not your story to tell, it’s only yours to consume. if you don’t get what you want, don’t throw your toys out of the pram in a titty fit. don’t threaten the showrunners, don’t act like a child jesus christ. a majority of this fandom is adults and yet the behaviour that’s been seen is one someone would expect from toddlers.

have realistic expectations. it’s okay to ship things off the bat, i do that to. but don’t expect things to become canon just because you want them to. don’t use your ship being canon as a battering ram to put down other ships because guess what, canon = / = good. don’t cross lines that shouldn’t be crossed.