#objective analysis

Ok I will start with a TW: This post talks about child grooming.

Sheith is the second most popular ship in Voltron: Legendary Defender and it's very disturbing because it is canonically confirmed that Shiro raised Keith from when he was a child.

Definition of grooming:

Grooming describes the preparatory (or ‘lead up’) stage of child sexual abuse that offenders use to gain the trust and compliance of the child or young person (and those around them) and to establish secrecy and silence to avoid disclosure. 

Now, I don't believe Shiro is like this. Canonically, he's not. However, shipping Shiro and Keith together is this exactly. Shiro gains Keith's trust as a child - he gains the trust of the adults around Keith at the Garrison, even fighting them for the child. If Shiro does develop sexual or romantic feelings for Keith growing up, that could be seen as his intention all along. He raised this child as a potential future partner. Perpetrators are often seen as upstanding, likeable and charming, taking the time to build the trust of the child and adults around the child. 

Tell me honestly - Shiro is a prodigy, he has a reputation, he is likeable and charming and according to Sheith shippers, he likes Keith romantically, the child he raised. So, is Shiro fanonically a child groomer then? Because him raising Keith from childhood is canon.

It can be difficult to detect sexual grooming because many grooming behaviours resemble normal adult-child interactions (Jeglic, Winters & Johnson, 2023).

Shiro-Keith feels like a normal parent child or older brother younger brother dynamic but according to our fanon shippers, is it if that's what Shiro wants from Keith?

These are just a few of the signs of it to be honest - there is more and for those who want some education on child grooming:

All Sam fans already know how amazing he is but I'm so glad he's getting rave review recognition for how incredible an actor he is.

Feeling Afraid is the perfect showcase of his abilities as a one-man play using his dynamic energy and super wide-range and it's great that everyone else gets a chance to see him being brilliant ^_^

Sam deserves the world because he's the loveliest human on the planet and his talent and skill deserve to be recognised.

Go and see this if you're in the UK/Europe (fly over you know you want to). If you're in Aus or US you might get lucky if it travels.. :) Just gonna leave these here...

Ok, so I see Audrey frequently labelled as dismissive, emotionally abusive, toxic, so many things honestly, I've lost count while Evie is a precious little wallflower to Mal. I asked some friends on their opinions on the meanest Audrey scenes so I could be objective and rewatched those scenes.

Scene 1 (the locker scene - Beast comment Ben/Audrey):

Ben: Come on Chad. Give them a chance.

Audrey: laughs a little and offers her hands to Ben who takes them No offence Bennybear. You’re just too trusting. Look I know your Mom fell in love with a big nasty Beast who turned out to be a prince but with my Mom? The evil fairy was just the evil fairy.

Ben: glances at Chad I think you’re wrong about them (glances at Audrey, smiles, then back at Chad) I’ll see you later. (walks away while Audrey also walks away)

Ok, fair assessment Audrey’s laugh could be considered a bit mocking or disbelieving because she does not trust the VKs at this point. But one - she offers her hands to Ben, giving him the choice to take them which he does before speaking. And yes her comment is not nice but she’s also literally stating facts. While it’s a mean comment, she’s literally talking about Ben’s parents being a story of redemption. Her parent’s story was not. But being objective I can accept that people might consider this bad because being like his father is Ben's biggest fear so I will accept that.

Scene 1 (Descendants 2 - Evie/Mal dorm room):

Mal: Ok, Evie, I cannot breathe.

Evie: Well, you can breathe after Cotillion.

Mal: I sincerely doubt that. I have twenty more events directly behind it and I can’t even remember what a single one of them is.

Evie: too busy admiring the dress she made Mal Impeccable.

Mal: Evie? Do you ever think of what we would be doing if we were back on the Isle right now?

Evie: laughs That’s funny. glances at the TV Oh! Look who’s on TV!

They watch TV with Mal making comments every now and then. Hearing about the Cotillion, she runs to grab her spell book as Evie is ignoring her again

Evie: death glares her seeing her use the spell book I know Mal’s secret to fitting in and Ben wouldn’t like it one bit. Haven’t you guys had enough secrets between the two of you already?

Mal: Evie you remember what I was like before I started using my spell book. I mean I was a complete disaster.

Evie: Well, personally as your best friend, I strongly believe that this spell book… grabs it

Mal: Ah!

Evie: It belongs in the museum along with my mirror. Don’t give me the face. Put the pout away. Mmm-hm. You know I’m right.

Mal: You don’t ever miss running wild and just breaking all the rules?

Evie: Like stealing and lying and fighting?

Mal: Yeah.

Evie: No!

Mal: What?

Evie: chuckles Why would we? M, come here. Look at where we are. We’re in Auradon. And we’re Auradon girls now. See, this is the land of opportunity. We can be whatever we want to be here. So, please let’s just leave the past in the past ok?

Mal: looks depressed still

Evie: Besides, I mean look at the shoes. Look at them.

Mal: forces a smile Severe.

Ok, now putting those scenes together - I can accept Audrey's comment was mean and harsh but I feel Evie is more dismissive of Mal here than Audrey was of Ben because Audrey accepted Ben's disagreement and didn't try to push him, also walking away when he did. She didn't even try to grab his arm, block his path, follow him or anything. Evie literally ignored Mal when she said she couldn't breathe and tried to share her concerns, too busy commenting on how amazing her dress was. Audrey listened to Ben even when she didn't agree and just walked away when he wanted to disengage. The scene isn't exactly the same I know and it's harder because Chad is in it too which I feel he caused the argument between Ben and Audrey on purpose by being the one to bring it up but still. I have more.

Scene 2 (Ben and Audrey by the locker by themselves):

Audrey: Do you think they actually paid for those? She did it to Jane’s hair too, and Fairy Godmother’s not happy about it.

Ben: smiles and laughs What’s the harm?

Audrey: It’s gateway magic! Sure, it starts with the hair. Next thing you know, it’s the lips and the legs and the clothes and then everybody looks good and then where will I be?

Ben: Listen Audrey…

Audrey: I will see you at the game after my dress fitting for the coronation, ok?

Ben: Okay.

Audrey: Bye, Bennyboo.

Ben: Bye.

Okay, I still find this scene much worse than the Beast comment but ok this scene I can understand why people would not like Audrey in, she’s being kind of vain and insecure and yes talking over Ben is not good at all so I can understand people’s complaints here.

Scene 2 (Evie and Mal):

Evie: Who else knows about the crown and the sceptre?

Mal: No one. I mean, think about it, people are scared enough as it is. We have to employ these entirely new security measures.

Evie: Will this delay our bringing over more VKs?

Mal: We’re talking about closing the barrier over for good.

Evie: But you said no. I mean, the four of us are living the dream here and we finally get to share that. I mean, what could be more important than that?

Mal: Yeah. I know. I mean, maybe security or maybe peace of mind for everyone in Auradon.

Evie: Is that what they’re thinking? And were they seriously thinking that no one will ever go in or out of the Isle ever again? What, we never get to go back and see our parents? And what about these kids? We promised them that they could go back and visit whenever they wanted.

Mal: Yeah I know.

Evie: M, I am so glad that you are going to be Queen. You will be a part of these conversations. You will stand up for the VKs. Thank you for telling me. hugs Mal.

Forensic techniques in paranormal investigation offer a rigorous approach to understanding unexplained phenomena. Indeed, applying crime scene investigation methods to alleged hauntings can elevate the credibility and objectivity of paranormal research. This approach emphasizes meticulous documentation, systematic evidence collection, and unbiased analysis, much like a criminal…

Beginning of the End: Dr M. briefly chases you with a cool flying machine. 6/10

An Opera of Fear: Octavio does not fly. But the Vincenetti gang (who Carmelita defeats) fly around in a bunch of machines, bringing this level’s score up to a 4/10. 

Rumble Down Under: The miners have a helicopter but it gets destroyed. The Mask of Dark Earth, meanwhile, is always floating several feet off the ground. Does floating count as flying??? Unclear, 2/10.

Flight of Fancy: WE GET THE BLACK BARON, A PILOT THEMED VILLAIN!!! FLYING  ALL AROUND THE LEVEL, BLIMPS AND BIPLANES AND RC HELICOPTERS!!!! And every single secondary villain (like Muggshot) flies planes too!!!!!!! 10000000000000000000000000/10 this level really delivers on flying villains.

A Cold Alliance: In Tsao’s ancient bamboo battleground he’s able to basically-fly after you. The final battle takes place on a flying dragon. 10/10.

Dead Men Tell No Tales: Lefwee is a bird and yet he never really flies. -1000/10.

Even though we’re called upon to use our critical and logical thinking skills all the time, most of us are not that good at it. This free online course aims to help you develop and improve these skills.

You’ll learn how to:

identify and avoid common thinking mistakes that lead to the formation of bad beliefs;

recognise, reconstruct and evaluate arguments;

use basic logical tools to analyse arguments;

and apply those tools in areas including science, moral theories and law.

Eight week course 

I want to preface this by saying I don’t support Emma and Neal’s early relationship. I have been friends with girls in my youth who dated guys in their 20s and no one batted an eyelash. It really depends on the parents in the situation too. Sometimes if parents gave consent for their child to be with the older person - that negates any statutory rape law as parents and legal guardians can consent for minors legally. This happened when an actor Doug Hutchison who married Courtney Stodden at 16 years of age after having a lengthy online romantic pen pal relationship that her parents monitored and approved of. Emma is a special case because she doesn’t have parents or legal guardians at the point she met Neal. The fact that her foster parents no longer had her under their custody or received cheques from the state removed their legal guardianship of her. Emma was a ward of the state - though that is dicey considering we are not shown that, the state authorities ever searched for her or enforced their stance as guardian.

I think the maybe math is slightly off but it would make more sense if we knew when Henry’s birthday is in relation to Emma’s. 

We aren’t told much about how long Neal and Emma were together, just that it wasn’t long at all. Emma is 28 years old in the pilot and Henry is 10 years old as established in episode 1 and the pilot I believe. We don’t know when his birthday. Thus, if Henry is 10 years old when Emma was just turning 28. Emma and Neal conceived possibly just after her 17th birthday, she could have been 16 but the timing is not clear in the established canon. In some states the legal age of consent is 16 years of age. We aren’t told much about how old Neal was. We know that he left Neverland sometime after the first curse was cast as he was 14 years old. The wanted poster states that he’s about 24 years old based on the birthdate listed, which we know is false information since he’s well over a century at that point and had to use fake documents because he’s from a magical realm where they do not give out Social security cards. 

Both of them were criminals. In some Southern US states it’s legal to marry at 16. In many states the legal age of consent is 18. Neither Neal nor Emma care at this point in their lives about what’s legal or not, they’re Bonnie and Clyde for crying out loud. Jerry Lee Lewis - a very famous American Musician in the Elvis/Cash era married a 14 year old girl and they lived rather happily together.

Some states require charges to be pressed usually by parents or guardians in cases of statutory rape. Statutory rape includes any sexual act with someone under the legal age of consent for a particular region. There is no requirement of force. You can be in a completely consensual and loving relationship as a 21 year old with a 17 year old and it would be illegal in some states if sexual acts occur regardless of consent and there is no requirement in the law that states force or coercion. Even on the cusp of an 18th birthday. Other countries around the world have lower legal ages of consent depending on where you go. Many states have legal age of consent between the ages of 16-18 years old (http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/statutory-rape.html). Thus if Neal and Emma happened to be in a state where 16 was the legal age - then there is no crime committed. 

However, if they were in a state where the legal age is 18, then yes a crime of statutory rape would be valid. We aren’t told they’re still in Oregon. They were in Oregon when they met and for part of their adventures. Oregon’s legal age is 18. However, there is one state to the north that has a legal age of consent as 16. That would be Washington (http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/washington-age-of-consent-lawyers.html)

Emma ran from her foster home as a teen. We aren’t told what state she was in when she ran only that she took off and somehow wound up in Oregon, moving around the country stealing to get by. She was a ward of the state in whatever state her last foster home was. However we are not told that said state authorities ever went looking for her. If a search was on-going that could constitute keeping her as a ward of the state. However, with most foster systems - many kids especially teens get lost in the shuffle and are lost through the system. The state may have lost track of her when she ran away and with how bogged down I know my state - Arizona’s foster system and CPS system is, most other states aren’t much better off and sometimes worse. If they didn’t search for her that could be argued in a court of law as a severance of her being a ward of the state, giving her legal autonomy of her own guardianship. Not saying this would happen or a judge would agree. But it could be argued that way. This would negate the “taking a minor across state lines” law in many states and Federally. That law is usually enforced when parents step in to press charges to stop a sexual relationship between a teen and their older companion. It also comes in handy during custody disputes. Unless the cops are made aware of the situation by parents or otherwise, most won’t do a thing to stop it. I asked my neighbor a Phoenix cop and he said that unless parents press charges for kidnapping in that instance they can’t really do much about it. If Emma had parents and they told her “no you cannot go with Neal to Washington” then the law would apply. It would also apply if Neal was forcing her to go with him against her will - as such with kidnapping. Kidnapping of someone of any age implies you are forcing someone to go with you when they have not consented to do so. Again it’s about consent.

We know that Emma and Neal meet in Oregon and go on a road trip of sorts robbing convenience stores and stealing hotel rooms to stay in and rob. At any point they could have during their criminal spree crossed into Washington. As long as that crossing of the state lines was not for the “sole purpose” of a sexual encounter, it does not violate Federal law. If they were traveling to visit Seattle as tourists, that’s as good as a reason that keeps it legal. 

Furthermore, many factors go into consideration if charges are filed. This includes the age of the minor. If Emma was much younger the charges would be felonies and such, but since Emma is close to the legal age of consent in Oregon at 16 or 17 years old, depending on the timing which is canonically unclear. This would have been a misdemeanor. 

(1) the age of the victim; and (2) the age difference between victim and perpetrator. Other factors, including any prior sex offenses committed by the offender, whether drugs or alcohol were involved, and whether pregnancy resulted, can also affect the level of charge imposed.

For example, in some states sexual relations with someone less than 12 or 14 years old constitutes a first degree felony, while sex with someone older but still below the age of consent, might be a misdemeanor or lower level felony. In other states, any act of statutory rape constitutes a felony, with serious and sometimes mandatory jail sentences resulting.

State laws vary widely on these factors, with almost each state using a different calculation method to classify the level of offense. The range of offenses within a single state can involve multiple factors and include a broad range of charges.

Some states impose harsher penalties when the offender is a certain number of years older than the victim. Other state have statutes in which the age of the perpetrator alone (over 21, for example), pushes the act into a higher level of offense.

Punishment for statutory rape can include mandatory prison or jail sentences, probation, fines, and mandated treatment services. Many states require those convicted of statutory rape to register as sex offenders.

- See more at: http://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-charges/statutory-rape.html#sthash.XWcgMgqL.dpuf

Neal would also have to be convicted through an actual trial as well. Which we know in the US court system that a person is innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. If he got acquitted then he would be exonerated.

Additionally Neal could have been physically 20 years of age - depending on when he came back to the Land Without Magic (which we are not told about at all). All we know is the fake age he gave to the employer of the jewelry shop that he stole the watches from. He could have gotten the fake papers that put him over the age of 21 to make him seem more trustworthy than just a kid. We know he had to have fake id’s and documentation because he was already centuries old having lived in Neverland for so long. He wouldn’t have had any papers anyways even if he’d been 14 and fresh from the EF. Unless the EF passed the New Deal and gave people social security cards like we do in the US he would have had to get falsified citizenship documents, a birth certificate and a social security card and number. In doing so he could have established any age he wanted that would allow him the best chance at anonymity. The wanted poster is going off of these fake documents and not his actual age which people would find impossible for him to be over a century or three and look so young let alone be alive.

Both he and Emma were living off the grid and under the radar. I don’t condone their relationship and understand that their relationship was to serve a purpose of plot and nothing more. He was meant to be used as a device to grow main characters and cause drama. He helped Rumple grow and Emma grow as well. She had to get over this idea of Neal in order to move on from him. Meeting him again now older and wiser and dealing with the fall out of their ill-fated relationship finally gave Emma closure that she needed. Furthermore Henry had to be created in a way that Emma would give him up. She had to go to jail heartbroken so that she would feel incompetent as a potential mother and give Henry up so that he could one day return her to Storybrooke. The writers chose to purposely make us question the validity of Emma and Neal’s first relationship by having the age difference be so stark with Neal well into his possibly mid to late 200s? With a person that technically should be dead by US Law and science standards - the law kinda doesn’t apply here. You could make the argument that since he went through the trouble of getting papers to assimilate into society that it does apply then sure, go right ahead. 

I won’t say I ever supported Emma and Neal’s relationship. Because I didn’t. I saw him as a sperm donor. He helped create Henry and that was it aside from the emotional baggage he left Emma with. I also saw his behavior in S2 as patronizing and pretty dickish. Did I ever hate him? No. I actually began to like him in S3 and wish we could have seen him grow and actually get a plot of his own that wasn’t so interwoven into the plots of other main characters. We saw bits of it with him and the Darlings as a boy - but that again was merely for plot to get him to Neverland and for him to meet Hook and give more depth to Hook’s story as well as establish that Neal was in Neverland at all.

I was 17 and went out on several dates with a 22 year old once and even contemplated having a full relationship with them. I would have fought anyone who tried to tell me it was wrong or illegal or immoral just because of my age. If I had wanted to, however, I would have waited until I was 18 anyways because I’m just paranoid like that.

We don’t know a lot of the variables involved so I am reluctant to label it as SR personally until we know specific timing. The wanted poster feels like a red herring, considering we know Neal is already centuries old at this point. I know others do want to label it and that’s their prerogative. I just will have to respectfully disagree that we just don’t know everything in order to make that judgment call. Are we supposed to root for Emma and Neal? Canonically no… If we were Emma would be mackin’ on him and not Killian. 

Lastly the writers never once have said that we should approve of Emma and Neal’s relationship in the past. We’re meant to see it in a light of Emma getting screwed over because she wanted to trust someone and love them. We’re supposed to wrinkle our noses and say “wow Neal, August that was a dick move to leave her in jail no matter how noble your intent”. We’re meant to see the doomed romance flashing neon sign above their heads when she tells him she loves him. We’re not meant to get invested in their love story because they had one episode of flashbacks, one flash back in the S3 finale. S2 where Emma told him over and over again that she was hurt by him and finally admitted that she hadn’t emotionally let him go when he fell through the portal. In S3 we saw him make a rather half-assed attempt to win her back. Emma didn’t show up to the diner. Her father was going to take her so she could talk to Neal and then that got interrupted by the shadow attacking Blue. She wasn’t going there to tell him she chose him. If anything she was going there to get closure. That was merely delayed until Quiet Minds where their talk in the hospital and the forest gave Emma that closure she needed in order to put that past behind her once and for all. Neal may have tried to win her back as a way to feel less guilty about what he did. He had real feelings for her, I won’t discount that. He just made a lot of mistakes consistently in the end that led him down a path that did not end in a HEA for him and Emma. 

Our characters are flawed. That’s what makes me like this show so much better than others like TVD or most cop shows out there. The heroes and the villains alike in that they all fuck up sometimes and their consequence is that things don’t go their way. I don’t find the writing problematic at all. We’re meant to see them as real people, as human and flawed and who get consequences when they screw up. And sometimes those consequences are small. Sometimes those consequences are huge. The characters fuck up and that’s a point canonically established that allows them to grow from it, or regress further into fucking up even more.