#my fanille post for 2k+ likes on twitter but at what cost lmao

[akimojo]

man it bothers me so much when people feel the need to reduce our perception of vanille and fang’s relationship as romantic to “just a headcanon” when there’s so much more to it than that 

obviously we’re all aware that they’ve never been confirmed as a canon couple, and NO we are NOT trying to devalue dion and terence’s relationship just because we don’t personally see them as the FIRST gay rep in final fantasy (every bit of representation matters ffs). when we talk about fanille being the “real” first gay couple we’re not trying to take away from the fact that ff FINALLY has confirmed queer rep, it’s just a half-joking way to point out that homoromantic SUBTEXT has been around in the franchise for longer than people think, and we believe fang and vanille are the most prominent example of that 

the reason why we see them as having a romantic relationship is because their actions can easily be interpreted as such solely from what we’ve seen in canon, without the need for headcanons or made-up scenarios to piece it together. square could’ve literally made them kiss at any moment in the games out of nowhere and we’d just be like “yeah, that seems about right” because the build-up is there

it’s not about whether the writers actually intended for them to be a couple. frankly, the fact that fang was originally going to be a man, but was changed into a woman just so their relationship wouldn’t be mistaken as romantic, says volumes about how difficult it must’ve been to try and write their bond WITHOUT romantic connotations. they had no problem making noel and yeul share a more sibling-like bond (you could see them as having romantic subtext as well, but nowhere near to the same extent, and with much less support from their canon interactions), and yet they struggled so much with fang and vanille that they had to take (heteronormative) measures in an attempt to stick to their original intentions? would a good writer not accept that that’s the natural direction of the relationship dynamic they themselves came up with? 

part of our reasons for thinking of fang and vanille as canon lesbians, even without confirmation from the creators, is essentially a big ol “fuck you” to heteronormativity.... but also, there’s nothing sisterly to us about clutching your homegirl’s hands, pulling them to her chest as you hug her from behind, and whispering in her ear about how not even death can take her from you, but i digress

using square enix’s description of them as having a sister-like bond to prove they’re not a couple rings hollow to a lot of us because homophobia and heteronormativity has muddled any potential queer rep in games for decades, even in this case where the writers themselves have essentially admitted that it was next to impossible for them to write their relationship without romantic undertones. whether that says more about their ability to write a platonic relationship than it does about fang and vanille is up to you, of course

it’s also worth pointing out some hypocrisy among the ff fanbase. take tifa and cloud, and aerith and cloud, for example. neither ship has been confirmed as canon in any of the games, but (despite the ship wars lmao) the vast majority of the fandom can agree that both of these relationships were written with romantic undertones, whether intentionally or not, and that viewing them as “canon” is perfectly valid because of that. and yet when we view fang and vanille as a couple it’s outrageous unless we specifically call it a headcanon and denounce any and all possibilities of it holding any weight in canon. i don’t want to make any accusations as for why, but it’s worth noting 

i also just want to clarify that the main theme of the final fantasy xiii trilogy IS family, and it makes perfect sense to see fang and vanille as sisters if you choose to interpret their relationship via more traditional family values, but it also includes found family (a group of people that are as close as family, but don’t adhere to conventional family roles and values, and usually consists of outcasts of some kind), which is not inherently romantic, but is also not strictly platonic, and is a trope that is especially important and relatable to the LGBTQ+ community, so of course we’re going to interpret these things in a different light compared to how people outside of the community would