#madsu

And listen, just disliking or being apathetic to something thats popular doesnt make you a victim to see it a lot, thats not my point at all, but the hypocrisy of the types who flood any platform with their favorite pairing really shows when anything that conflicts or doesnt pander to it surfaces, because they'll usually be the first ones to cry that it's being "forced" on them, even when theyre still receiving the overwhelming majority of content. You know the people I'm talking about.

So outside of giving my two cents on a topic thats literally giving me whiplash like I'm back in 2009 to talk about, what really bugs me is when whatever they're shipping is not just baseless, (because canon is not law and the freedom to explore outside possibilities and "what ifs" is kind of a core element to enjoying and being creative with content you like) but also unhealthy and romanticized. Toxic relationships are horrible things. And even then, I'm not saying they are objectively bad! Sometimes the toxic pairings are even the CANON ones, but the romanticizing it and prettying it up (particularly common in mlm pairings and especially from fujoshis) to create something that's optimal for yaoi fangirls to squeal at and flick their bean to is just genuinely upsetting. I know I'm about the millionth person to point this out, I'm practically certain everyone and their grandma has said this by now, and believe me I'm not thinking that my typing this will suddenly give fujos a biblical revelation and end toxicity forever, no, no such luck. So, yeah. You know the drill. Portraying abusive/neglectful relationships as something healthy, let alone romantic, is bad. yadda yadda, someone comes back at me with the "it's just fiction" argument, blah blah, I remind them that throughout history and constantly to this day media has and will influence real life on both an individual scale as well as en masse, they tell me to leave the internet or kms or something bc this apparently warrants that in their eyes, yadda yadda, done. You've all heard it before and frankly I'm just waaay too tired to put myself and a million other people blessed with some sense, since it's apparently a commodity, on repeat. But even that's not all. This pertains more to me I guess since the kind of media I enjoy tends to focus on more dark topics and circumstances, so I guess fans of slice of life style stuff might not have this problem, at least not as much? But when I see such an unhealthy pairing praised like gospel, especially with a character I not only love but relate to, resonate with, whatever you want to call it, it's just depressing. You've probably had this feeling at least once before, when its like; As if it's not bad enough when a character gets the short end of the stick in canon, now those shitty circumstances and terrible treatment are being erased and prettied up because fujos would rather rework the material into something better suited for their fangirling. I dunno, when you like a character so much, when you sort of imprint on them in that way and kind of go like "yes. you." somewhere along the line, and start to root for them and relate to them and even see bits of yourself in them, if you're anything like me I guess, when something unfair, grisly or depressing happens to my favorite character in a series/game/etc, I hate it as much as the next person, it fuckin blows, man. But people acting like the character's mistreatment didnt happen, rework it into something they can use for ship fuel or anything less than what it was just feels worse somehow. Like on top of everything else even people looking at the story and events from an outside perspective either just dont or wont recognize and acknowledge what that character endured, even when its a critical moment and integral to who they are, or even to the story as a whole. Idk, call me lame, pathetic, immature, whatever, for having a piece of fiction become important to me, but it just stings every time I see them altered, manipulated, and reduced to something completely different from themselves for the sake of a pairing. Like the idea of the pairing, that concept, is more important to them than the integrity of what the character is, and from people who claim to be fans, no less. The idea of something beloved to you being dominated by people who simply want to shave it down to create a Person A and Person B for them to mash together and making kissing sounds is just kind of... completely exhausting.