#not even specific to mdzs but yes the xiyao antis did inspire this

[thatswhatsushesaid]

i cannot stress enough how little i care whether any particular relationship in any piece of media i enjoy is supported or confirmed by the creator of that media

they love it? cool, i may give them a single instagram like if they share fanart on their social media profile, and then i will not think about their POV again

they hate it? that’s fine, i shipped fitz/fool back while robin hobb was writing essays on her own blog about how terrible it was for her fans to interpret the fitz/fool relationship romantically. (a relationship where fitz devoted pages of introspective description to how his beloved friend looks limned in firelight, and also where they kiss at least four times and also twine their souls together in a joining described as being ‘more intimate than lovemaking’ like if you want us to not read this as a romance then maybe write it less romantically idk) it did not stop me in 2004 when i was a precocious teenager and it certainly won’t stop me now!

my point is if the dynamic can be supported through a reading of the text or a study of the film or the art or literally whatever is in front of us, then that material speaks for itself regardless of authorial intent

also even if there was zero support for it!!! zero zilch nada!!! even if these two characters have no interactions with each other at all but you as an individual fan just sense that they could have great chemistry under the right circumstances? that may not be the way i personally choose to engage with the material, but this is what fandom does and has always done

ship and let crackship for fuck’s sake, can’t believe the new thing in fandom is shrieking about a ship not aligning with authorial intent