(Reblogging mainly for the art)
Pertaining to the topic at hand:
I love the idea of Finn/HW having kids because both seem like family people to me. I always saw HW like a warhead candy--super sour/hardcore on the outside with a lot of sweetness in the middle--while Finn was just Finn. Together, they can both be themselves when no one else is looking so to speak.
Neither needs to have kids to be happy, but neither would be against the idea I think (which means if they are doing the do, they are not necessarily using protection). And that's mainly IF the two can have kids. It's AT, so easily handwavable as a "yes"; however, if they decided to go the route of "not possible," then the two could be adoptive parents easily because they were adopted. Indeed, they already have NEPTR.
Now, having said that, I agree that, in general, people immediately bringing children into the picture for ships along with the idea that having kids will bring happiness is...uncomfortable. It's like to prove that the relationship is good and happy, you have kids...
...because kids imply "love" via nsfw activities without showing the nsfw activities, and that's a whole lot of problematics all bundled into a seemingly harmless and wholesome concept.
Not to mention, it kind of paints a bad picture, in my opinion, of how we tend to view children as accessories of their parents' love and not a deliberate creation of life between two people looking to foster that life into the best little bundle of joy he/she/they can be in a world that will inevidably prove cruel to them, him, or her eventually...no matter how much a parent may try to shield the child. It turns having children into an obligation of approval, a game almost. And that's....there's alot to say about that.
People should have kids if they want kids, not because they are "supposed to" because it "proves" something. That's the truth.
However, we live in a world and society constantly pushing and pressuring the idea of having kids because it is, unfortunately, how we keep going as a species. We can't make children whenever and however we want (and I honestly don't want to live in such a world where we could because people can be downright horrible about perfection). Fiction, for better or for worst, reflects this pressure. Arguably, it perpetuates it even, and it is a rather sad example of that societal cycle...like a negative feedback loop if you will.
Also, a lot of people might also be projecting. If you had horrible parents, a bad childhood, or are a parent and struggling (potentially) or doing well at the job, it might be nice to imagine one's perfect couple being perfect parents to their kids as a form of healing, cope, desire, or reflection. And it is possibly why when favorite couples turn into horrible parents, fans get salty. It ruins the vision of perfection crafted in their hearts and heads and robs them of whatever healing they sought through it.
The point is, it is not necessarily the intended message of giving couples children that they HAVE to have kids to be or prove happiness. More often than not, it is just a reflection of "societally logical" expectations (whether there's logic to it or not) born of the messed up broken world we live in.
People have sex when they "love each other."
Sex means the love is happening and going strong, so more of it means more kids.
Yay nuclear family shenanigans!
Or something to that nature.
Who cares that pregnancy isn't always linear or even possible for even straight couples? No one wants that noise and darkness! People getting together means happiness, and we show happiness through loving one another, and that means kids happening! Yay! No one chooses to have kids. They are inevidable for two people in love....
It's a dumb concept. A dumb idea. A dumb game.
We should be encouraging the idea of having children because you want to and exploring the ups and downs of thay decision (like some works do actually). We shouldn't just make couples have kids because it proves something. Straight couples or no.
Unfortunately, because we currently live in such a messed up world, it is a problem in fiction that will be reflected until the day comes when we humans stop worrying about bloodlines, stop trying to live up to societal expectations or prove them correct (in the case of children=success/happiness), stop trying to pressure each other about these expectations in the first place, stop believing in eugenics and ideas of perfect offspring, and stop seeing children as objects instead of the people they are.
Ships leading to kids constantly, especially in cases where characters wouldn't want to have kids or emotionally shouldn't, ought to be something that makes you uncomfortable...because it is, more often than not, a dark reflection of society that rests beneath the vanear of "family".
But it isn't always that way, and in Finn and HW's case, it feels like it could go in either direction. They have one kid already if you think about it. (She even protected him in the finale).
