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the surge of antis is probably why the fandom has went into this direction; most antis don't even understand what 'proship' *means* in the first place
proshippers: those who don't harass other people for their ships. if they find a place (say a fic, blog, art, etc) in which their OTP is not present, they simply *scroll past*, instead of going after the artist in question. it *does NOT* mean that you wish to see these contents in real life. being a proshipper implies that you either,
1. enjoy (FICTIONAL) sensitive topics (violence, incest, etc)
2. not particularly find the above topics good to watch/read, but apply the principle of 'don't like, don't read' (or view, watch, etc)
as a proshipper you can be on either end of the spectrum, or even the middle---some people are okay with one type of sensitive topic, while icky with another, and that's *okay*. but being a proshipper means that you let people have fun in their spaces and, as said before, don't harass them
antis are the complete opposite; they usually have a 'holier than thou' attitude, and oftentimes don't take kindly to topics they are sensitive about. in ace attorney, as you said, this shows in ships in which people can headcannon a sibling-esque relationship (narumayo, athena and simon, etc), or just be outwardly against incest relationships like kristoph and klavier.
it's *okay* not to ship, but to not allow those who enjoy this (fictionally) is just ridiculous. main reason I'm on tumblr instead of twitter; the latter is just infested with antis and don't let anyone have a fun time
thank you for reading my rant xD
It makes me sad when I look at Ace Attorney fandom stuff from 10-15 years ago and see how much more comparatively chill and accepting they were of different ships from the most popular ones back then. It wasn’t perfect or free of discourse, obviously, but at least fans could mostly get away with shipping that stuff without getting called horrible people, unlike today where the Ace Attorney fandom is determined to bully anyone who dare ship the Unacceptable Stuff™️ out of the fandom (ESPECIALLY on aatwt my goodness). I know this isn’t just me because I’ve seen even certain older fans note this and say stuff like “Wow I’ve been in the Ace Attorney fandom for years and back then there used to be so many Narumayos and ppl who shipped so-and-so in het I’m so glad these are no longer acceptable we’ve come so far” WRONG. The fandom has turned into a hivemind who think it’s acceptable to unperson others over ships and will sooner sympathize with one who harasses another over a Bad Ship than the one getting harassed because how dare they ship outside the sacred stuff. You really think it’s a good thing the AA fandom environment has gotten tyrannical about what you’re allowed to ship? Old Ace Attorney Shipping Fandom was FAR from perfect, but if your reasons for why it was bad or worse than now are “ships I dislike were allowed to exist” hoooooo boy.