#nohoperai

I used to support the pairing due to friends/rp partners. I enjoyed RPing as Hope, the H/L fanart (I can obviously tolerate it even if I click the blacklisted tag), etc. But I still didn’t have the vibe to squeal over and because of my multi-ships with other pairings, there were bad experiences with that specific fanbase.

Any people who are against Hoperai, I don’t want to hear about pedophilia because age difference doesn’t matter. In LR, we’re already aware Hope’s an adult which means over a thousand years. That includes everyone and every pairing. This doesn’t mean fans are supporting pedophilia. Hope/Light is not part of reality, so please stop accusing falsely and stop stating an invalid reason to not ship it.

However, I’ve a different case to refuse the ship despite I ship the rest of Light’s pairings. Anyone who’s screaming how canon it is can say it whenever they want. If certain people shove everyone how canon it is, I will merely shake my head, so no matter what others say, I’m not offended. I’m simply neither convinced they’re potentially a couple nor will I ever interpret them romantically.

The reasons I don’t feel the romantic vibe from their actions/words are because:

A. “The hug between them during FFXIII is canon enough, the part where Light says ‘We’re partners,’ etc.” It’s a game that doesn’t revolve a romantic atmosphere within exception of Snow and Serah, so why would Lightning, an ex-soldier who has overfilled goals to find her Focus as well as thinking of a way to free her sister from crystal stasis—would ever think of her partner-in-crime she recently met would shift to a romantic interest from her eyes? Why would Hope, a 14 year old boy who recently lost his mother, branded as a l’Cie, doomed as a person if he either fails, he comes a monster, or if he passes the task, he’s trapped in crystal stasis—would advance romantic feelings for Lightning? Sure, he looks up to her, not the way “Light-san, I want to hold you forever,” but more like “She protected me before, and I want to do the same. I really look up to her; she’s one of the friends that helped me overcome my darkness.”

B. “In FFXIII-2, Hope was looking for Light! In LR, he said, ‘As long as you were with me Light, I didn’t have to fear anything.’ That’s romantic! How can they just be platonic? Snow also nudged him to go to Lightning’s open arms at the end of LR!’” Oh yes, what a way to devalue his relationships with others. //inserts sarcasm// For obvious reasons, he isn’t the type to engage in a romantic relationship because he neither showed it throughout the trilogy to the extent he prioritized his years of research to find everyone’s disappearance and to save citizens of both worlds, not just Lightning’s. Again, it’s a part of his character, not through romantic purposes of being with character A or B. This is also the time Light is too focused on Serah and her current battle. As to why she said, “This is not your battle.” You can interpret it as romantic for his quote, but I do not see why he'd actually be in love with her. His actions&words are as important as they are. It can also be interpreted as in “Because you were there, I’m not scared anymore. I can fight now, you’ve taught me so much, and it’s because of you. Thank you for raising me.” His nod wasn’t exactly starry-eyed, don’t you think? If he was in love, he would have embraced her by now, implying that he'd miss her. At the end of LR, if Lightning is copying Serah's pose to open up arms, then why is Sazh doing the same thing as well? I don't see how romantic it is. Everyone is doing their own job at a life/death situation, so I don’t understand why SE would squeeze in a romantic development unless Snow/Serah and potentially Noel/Yeul. No romance. Period. 

C. "But it can develop into romance!" The interviews between the directors. As said by Toriyama himself, he personally doesn’t want Light to belong to anyone. Not to mention, the two directors answered the interviewer about Hope/Light’s relationship before LR’s release: a brother/sister bond. Funny because some fans said that “Hope-kun” is the younger version of Hope, not the older Hope. Very biased, don’t you think? I asked my sister for a second opinion who never played FFXIII before. She said, “Same shit, Sherlock. It’s still the character you guys are talking about.” I had to agree because -kun is an honorific and we're still referring to the character, either the younger and older.

D. "Hope said he wouldn't know where he'd be without her! Being in a relationship doesn't mean she's going to stop being independent!!" Again, it's part of his character even though we have biased translators. If it was like that, he wouldn't have said she helped him raise him, just like a brother or son would say. It doesn't explicitly imply/say she's interested in romance, perhaps she is, but we've seen how focused she was to overcome obstacles as a l'Cie, a warrior goddess, and a savior. It doesn't make sense to me. Platonic love can be just as strong as romantic love. I don't understand why people think platonic is inferior to romantic whereas you see certain romantic relationships don't always last or don't always turn out the way you want to. Platonic terms is still love no matter how you argue.

If it does become canon, then I’ll reconsider, but I highly doubt it. A H/L wedding that I keep hearing about? Not gonna happen. After all, RiaxLight is a better ship. (That was a joke.) As a huge Lightning fan, Lightning is in need of no lover, in my objective opinion. It’s a game. Each has their own interpretation, and this is mine. A game doesn’t need to be developed any further for a romantic relationship UNLESS it is necessary for SE to have the development. SE didn’t do that, and if they did, they’d have made it in the beginning, no? It's not like it's a shoujo manga where they'll definitely put romance in it.

Do NOT twist my words, I don’t deny their strong partnership, but their character prioritize their family/friends before anything. People tend to forget this is an action, family oriented genre, not a dating sim. I don’t believe a game needs to be further developed for a wishy washy romantic relationship the majority of the fans fangirl for, since people keep forgetting Light is a fictional character who should only stick with the audience’s imagination of whoever is her love interest? More so, people’s choice to ship her with anyone or no one. I don’t need a toxic fandom. I don’t need anyone to dictate what I like. Certain people can’t accept the fact that there are other pairings other than major ones. That saddens me. The way CERTAIN fans twist everything to make their ship “canon” do not understand diversity of opinions. This had to be said.

"Am I saying you should stop shipping that ship?" No! Go ahead and think how implied or canon it is because I won't stop you. "You're referring to every shipper, aren't you?!" Nope, I'm just referring it in general and because I know this is a toxic fandom, I don't want to bother for an argument. I'm stating my opinion. "You hate Hoperai don't you?" No, hate is a strong word. I just dislike it in a romantic extent, but platonic? It's all good. But some fans? Er, sorry. I've seen some very offensive/rude comments on this site and other forums/sites. "God, why did you even bother to write all this?!" It's my rant, it's my blog, and I never asked for your opinion?