It's so curious to me the difference in people's minds between step brothers (who only knew each other briefly in childhood and were later thrust together as teenagers) being repulsively incestuous...
girl and boy who met as children (and were inseparable growing up, as close as siblings even, who then fall in love and begin a relationship) being definitely not incestuous. A cute love story actually.
Your parents marry each other and now it's weird and off-limits. But if you grow up together and (in every way but name) act like close siblings, it's totally fine because you're not technically related.
It makes me think of Lori calling out how close Ruben & Niall's bond is, of Celeste saying one needs a head and the other a body, of Alby saying they are part of each other... But if it were hetero childhood friends it wouldn't be seen as that strange. Everyone would be fawning over them saying how sweet it is and how they'll be married one day.
In Half Man, Ruben and Niall are toxic, sure. But let's not forget, that toxicity was bred by societal norms and taboos, and the people around them perpetuating those norms and taboos. This is not an advocacy for incest btw, this is pointing out that the taboos surrounding homosexuality and intimacy between men are the main source of toxicity at the time of their coming of age. AND that their mothers' relationship adds to the perceived unsavoriness of them being together.
These boys are simply reflecting back what has been impressed upon them. As adults they are trapped by these harmful expectations that they've internalized in their adolescence and young adulthood.
Social norms and the fear of backlash for transgressing these taboos are what keep Ruben and Niall from acting on their desires. It's what ultimately imprisons them.
It's no coincidence that the moment they come back into each other's lives they are compared to Romeo & Juliet.
LOVE, the thing that is supposed to overcome all things, is what leads to their undoing. Because love is the one thing they cannot allow themselves to have.
They are in an impossible situation. There lies the tragedy.
