I usually make a point to avoid getting into this kind of drama.
If you’ve been following the kind of people I follow, or if you’re part of new fandoms that experience a sudden explosion in popularity and number of fans - Undertale. Steven Universe. RWBY. Fire Emblem. Overwatch. Disney. Gravity Falls. Star Wars. Marvel. Etc -, you will have seen something like this.
Every time, without exception, there’s a small group of people who think they are entitled to say what is right and what is wrong. Who erect themselves as judge and jury of what is GOOD and what is PUNISHABLE. And now, they may well have erected themselves into executioners.
There was a tumblr user by the name of tyrant-rex. Emphasis on WAS. If you go to his blog you’ll notice it’s deactivated. That’s because he did it, right after leaving a suicide note.
Rex shipped Pewey. That is Pearl/Mayor Dewey, both characters from Steven Universe. Pearl is a canonical lesbian character. Mayor Dewey is a guy. And that, it seems, was all the reason this toxic part of the fandom needed to want him dead. They showered him in hate and this is the result. Rex may well be DEAD because some people decided a fictional ship was worth more than a human life.
And the most sickening part? They’re not sorry. They revel in the pain they’ve caused. They try to justify it.
“But Pearl is a canonicaly lesbian!” Doesn’t justify killing a person over it.
“But it was lesbian erasure!” No it’s not, just as shipping two heterosexual characters in a gay relationship isn’t heterosexual erasure. And even if it were, it would still not justify killing a person over it.
“But seeing that ship hurts me!” If a non-canon drawing of a fictional ship is enough to cause you pain you should go to therapy because you are obviously not well off on the head. Oh, and it STILL DOES NOT JUSTIFY KILLING SOMEBODY OVER IT.
I mean, really, did these people even think about what they were doing? What they are celebrating? If he’s dead, that’s a whole person gone from the earth. Did he have friends? Family? Loved ones? Hopes and dreams? And now those people will never see him again. His goals will never come to be. And why? Because of a ship? Because people on the internet couldn’t stand others loving things they didn’t like? Can you think of any subject more STUPID to hate somebody? To drive somebody to death?
This is not the first time the SU fandom drove someone to the edge of suicide. And I tell you right now, it’s not going to be the last. This is gonna keep happening. And you might be reading this and thinking I’m overreacting. I wish I was. I wish I had no reason to make this post. But Rex, and those who came before, are the horrible proof that no, I am not exaggerating.
And just like they came for him, they will come for you. Because you drew Connie’s nose too small, or her skin too light. Because you drew Pearl with boobs, or Mei and Rose skinny. Because you made Frisk’s eyes too asian, or Hanzo’s eyes not asian enough. Because your humanization of Nick Wilde and Judy Hopps is not the color THEY want it to be. Because you dared to ship the “wrong” ship. Because your opinion is something they don’t like.
I honestly don’t know how to close this, so I’ll just say, if anybody’s shitting on you or trying to get you to hurt yourself, block them. Your mental health and your life matter so much more than all the fictional characters in the world.
