#shintak

Be prepped for my stream of consciousness styled rant. Feel free to discuss with me tho :P I love goblin for how it has made me think about these issues with representation and consumption.

On with the essay!

I want to vent my opinions on age-gap relationships and express why I don’t ship teenage ET (19) with anyone.

Poor bby has not had a family or supportive bg for so damned long, she deserves people who support her. It would be amazing if it was not romantic but familial concern, letting ET experience what she had no opportunity to. 

I’ve seen fans explain her being more mature than Shin to validate their relationship. But WHY should she have to take up the burden of adulthood so quickly? Just because she is more mature for her age, why should the opportunity for her to enjoy her youth be robbed by romantic ties? Let her be immature, let her thrive in her mistakes and all, despite being hardened slightly from her aunt and cousin’s treatment of her. Why does she have to take up the responsibility of being mature in her relationship with Shin or anyone for that matter? 

If ET had grown more, had not been under pressure to confess her feelings to Shin, had been allowed to live a life of support, I would be shipping her with Shin to the end of times. 

In sum, the reason why I’m not too happy with 19 y-old ET with Shin is because we’re validating an age gap relationship on the basis that she has already been forced to mature and can thus take up a responsibility (which she should not have to in the first place.)

It’s not the years between her and Shin that bother me, it’s when she’s beginning her relationship with him that does. 

Hell, Old man Shin and middle aged ET? Idc lmao. (tho tbh gy doesn’t age so he’d still look amazing haha)

Some of the arguments I’ve read as to why people don’t like shintak include these points which I really don’t agree with:

pedophilic: lol really? No. ET is not Shin’s lolita ugh.

she’s immature: yes and no. should she be allowed to be immature? yesss. should she not be thrust with the responsibility of being the mature one in her relationship with shin? yesss.

she’s unworthy of shin: where tf did this come from??? ET is smart, extremely perceptive of other people’s problems, understanding, patient and caring. She teaches Shin a few things in canon, she teaches everyone else a few things in fact.

So yeah, gimme an Eun Tak that has had the chance to live the way she was denied. (those 9 years on her own were without the support so no, she lost her family then)