#not aph

"Oh she slept with a random man in the woods." Or "She should have told them," but also, "she should have never done that." And "She had no right after to go after Aaron when she promised them."

Like come on

Firstly these are fictional characters but also who are you???

Firstly Aaron was not a random man. He saved her (and people important to her) on multiple occasions, and they were literally raising a child together. Also, how long have they been traveling together atp. He is literally helping her build a village from scratch.

But sure, he's a random

I saw a comment that she banged a man who's entire family died. Like, huh, what was this comment supposed to be? His family died so that means he can't build any meaningful connections ever, that she doesn't mean anything to him?

Now I am overexaggerating and I don't think they meant it maliciously. I do think they were just pointing out the humor in it-a little jokeie joke. But that's what a lot of people give when talking about Aaron.

(On a side tangent, I saw a post that said Aaron and Aphmau had a turma bond, and I completely agree - this still does NOT invalidate their relationship. I just wanted to acknowledge a theory that I enjoyed)

She should have picked Laurence or Garroth. She owed it to them!

WRONG!

She should have done exactly what she did, which was chose whoever she wanted cause she was a grown woman and could make her own choices. Mind you they weren't promising to get married or anything, they had sex (and a emotional connection but yeah). Like God forbid a girl get dicked down after years of absolute craziness.

Her chosing someone else was wrong. They did so much for her!

So? They were her guards, half of the stuff they did were their jobs, that doesn't mean she owes them a relationship. She at best owed them the favor returned.

"She should have told Garroth and Laurence!"

Yes!

I agree no notes on that point. I believe she owed them honesty and a verbalizeation of her feelings, both as her friends and people she was romantically interested in-but that's it.

She did not owe them a chance, she did not owe them a relationship nor did she owe them exclusivity. Even if she told Garroth she would wait, she's allowed to change her mind-again the only thing she did wrong in that situation was not talk about Aaron to them or anyone really.

If you take nothing else from this, read the last paragraph again.

That it thanks for coming to my Ted talk

But on a serious note. It's disappointing to see these talking point being recycled again and again over the last 9 years. Now I wasn't big into fandom when I was younger but I did see some post and comments and so much of it is the same.

And I am not any moral authority to tell anyone anything on how to feel- these are just my opinions but I will say

It is one thing to not like where a creator went with their story, and express that. It is an entirely different thing to tell them they wrote THEIR story wrong?

Some non Aph art I've done- left to right:

2 pics of my OC Pandora,

A draw this in your style for CJ arts on insta-

Two Instagram followers of mine ocs (@ in pic)