u/PuzzleheadedEvening2

I have what may be a controversial take to make, but this is something that has been bugging me for some time and I really can't keep quiet on the matter anymore.

Before I speak my peace, I'd like to say that I am actually a pretty big fan of Hazbin and Helluva. Like, a big fan. In the last few months, I've collected more fanart of my favorite characters from the Hellaverse than I have collected pictures and videos of my own nieces and nephew. So, understand that I am a big fan.

My issue concerns shipping. Not all shipping, obviously. Just certain ships. My favorite ship in the franchise is Huskerdust. And when I heard that Huskerdust was probably going to be canon by the end of season three, I will not pretend that I did not squee vigorously at this prospect.

But there is a problem in the fandom that has apparently gotten prevalent enough that Vivzie herself has had to post to social media to address. Namely, the problem of "ship-bullying". She wants to shut it down. And I love her for that. She doesn't want any of her fans to hold back creatively and I think that's amazing.

But here's my take. I personally prefer canonical ships. When I hear that a ship I like isn't going to be canon, instinctively, I don't put as much energy into that ship. But that's just me. If you want to ship characters without following canon, the thoughts of other people should not impede your creativity. Like, I ship Huskerdust hard, but if you want to ship Angel Dust with Stolas, go for it.

I've even heard that some people cross-ship. Like, I've seen people shipping Angel with Silver the Hedgehog from the Sonic franchise. I don't know what Silver's sexual orientation is, but if he's into that, then ship away.

And now we have come to the controversial part of my take. Because while I do truly believe that fans of a given work should be able to exercise their creativity to their hearts' content, I do believe that certain lines need to be drawn. And, whether they realize it or not, so do many fans. Like, for example, they probably agree that while it's cool to ship Angel with Stolas or Silver, they probably shouldn't ship him with ... a kid.

I haven't seen any instances of that happening--Thank God--but that's the unspoken rule that a lot of fans don't realize they already agree with. Go hog wild with your ships, but don't make anybody a PDF file.

That said, I have another line in the sand that I think needs to be drawn. I believe that a character's canonical sexual and romantic orientation and/or gender identity needs to be respected.

I'll give an example. Yesterday, I was on Reddit, and I saw a piece of fanart where a canonically lesbian character, Vaggi, is having sex with a canonically asexual male character, Alastor. I take issue with this. And confusingly, I'm in the minority here.

I don't understand why a lot of fans don't see how shipping Vaggi with Alastor is ... problematic.

Lesbians, rather famously, don't really enjoy sleeping with men, and asexual people ... Whether or not they want to have sex is completely up to the individual. If you know an ace person who likes to have sex, it doesn't change the fact that they're ace. It's just not what drives them romantically or emotionally. Having said that, Alastor is not interested in sex in any form with anyone whatsoever. He has other ways to get his rocks off that he's perfectly comfortable with. Like brutally slaughtering people.

So, taking an ace character like Alastor and a lesbian character like Vaggi and putting them in bed together, to me, is really gross. And lowkey queerphobic. You're taking queer characters in an environment like Hell and imagining situations where they are, either willingly or unwillingly, straight. Are you guys seeing the problem yet?

If you were to invent OCs for these people to interact with in that way, fine. Go ahead. I have no problem with that. But messing with a key aspect of what makes these characters who they are--Especially in situations where you're completely subverting that key aspect--I'm sorry, that's really fucked up and you need to unpack that.

And yes, I understand that these are fictional characters. And yes, I understand that there are bigger things going on in the world right now. But again, a line has to be drawn. There has to be a point where people say, "This is going too far."

Situations like this are no different to me than when racists saw the trailer for the live action remake of The Little Mermaid and saw a Black Ariel and responded by saying "Well, what if I remade The Princess and the Frog and cast a white person to play Tiana?"

That's pretty messed up, Cletus! And yes, random BlueSky user VaggiGrrl88887. You shipping Vaggi with Alastor is pretty messed up too.

Sorry, not sorry. That's just how I feel.

In all actuality though, I really do believe that the creativity of the human mind is a wonderful thing that should be explored. But just like with literal exploration--Like, Age of Discovery and shit--there are simply some places where you just don't go.