Is this is a safe space to say that sometimes the blurring of paternal and romantic only makes a ship better?
Like, sometimes (in fact, often) fandoms will accuse any two characters who are very close but have an age gap of being "parent and child" either just because the ship grosses them out because of the age gap or because they fully cannot comprehend of ordinary platonic close intergenerational friendships, and that's possibly the most annoying thing in all of fandom.
But sometimes. Sometimes they're right. Sometimes there is kind of a paternal/maternal/caretaker vibe. And sometimes there's a romantic or sexual vibe as well, at the same time. And that's the really juicy stuff.
