i love your view of aaron and your blog v much but the reason a lot of people don’t ship aaron with kevin or any of the other /male/ foxes is because he’s homophobic. aaron is such a good character and i’d die for him but,, shipping him with a guy just isn’t the best tea yanno

Kevin’s “It’ll be easier if he remains heterosexual” basically ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ (or more like a warning ‘if you’re not straight then don’t act on it, don’t tell’) comment wasn’t great either, but no one’s passive-aggressiving at me not to ship Kevin with male characters. Kevin literally told Nicky to stop being a bad influence on Neil for suggesting Neil isn’t straight.

But Kevin is shipped with male characters all over the place. Kevin is shipped with Neil. People don’t say Kevin is unshippable with male characters over this comment and hold it permanently over his head like they do with Aaron.

I like Kevin. I like Aaron. I don’t like everything they say, but I don’t like everything any of the characters say or do. I have various ships that involve Kevin with male characters. I have a couple ships that involve Aaron with male characters. An anon coming in my inbox and telling me that I shouldn’t ship Aaron with any male characters because of things he said isn’t going to change that.

Nora literally describes Aaron’s comments as knee-jerk homophobia and learned behaviour and not a belief system. Which, yes, it is still shitty to make those comments and I’m not saying that it’s not. But Aaron doesn’t believe to his very core that homosexuality is disgusting. He just says shit that he picked up from his high-school teammates (and I repeat, this is confirmed by Nora). And if that’s a learned behaviour and not a full-blown belief system, then who is to say that he doesn’t learn and grow and realize the weight of his off-hand comments? Who is to say he doesn’t change or gain a better understanding of the consequences of the things he says?

Besides, the fact that the trilogy is from Neil’s perspective and Neil is biased and takes Andrew’s side in every disagreement or issue with the twins because he hates Aaron and loves Andrew.

Plus, Aaron sticks with Nicky. Aaron sticks with Andrew. Andrew and Nicky stick with Aaron. Aaron spends his holidays away from Katelyn and with Erik and Nicky. And, as has been pointed out by many people, Nicky had such a negative homophobic experience growing up in his family that it almost killed him and then he found himself free and happy with Erik. If Aaron really was vile and irreparably homophobic, do you really think Nicky would stay with the twins and go join a university exy team just to be close to them? Do you really think he would continue to live with Aaron for years while on a different continent than the love of his life?

And remember when Seth said “Fuck you, faggot” to Nicky and Andrew told him not to use that word and Aaron told Seth not to talk to them at all? People claim Aaron’s homophobic to Nicky for telling Nicky to shut up when Nicky makes the same rape-culture jokes (i.e. Neil just needs a push to swing, Nicky wants to get Kevin too drunk to be straight) that Andrew pulls a knife over. But no one ever mentions this interaction where Aaron took Nicky’s side and told Seth not to talk to them after Seth was homophobic to Nicky.

Anyways, I can and will ship Aaron with Kevin anyways and if I want to write Aaron being attracted to a male character and growing past the things he has said in the books and figuring things out, then I will and an anonymous ask isn’t going to make me change my mind about it.

What if instead of ‘Aaron said homophobic things and his character is forever trapped at that moment, defined exclusively by off-hand comments’ we considered letting his character grow? Maybe we don’t assume what Nora herself describes as knee-jerk homophobia that’s a learned behaviour from his high school team (and not his actual beliefs) makes him suddenly hate his brother and cousin when we have evidence otherwise? Maybe we don’t assume that it makes his character locked into exclusively being interested in women and being incapable of being written in a way where he could be attracted to a male character?

I’m LGBT+ and sure I cringe at a few things Aaron says. I also cringe at Wymack calling Andrew a psychotic midget. I also cringe at Wymack’s use of the term retard. I also cringe at Andrew lying about Neil’s drinks and forcibly getting him drunk. I also cringe at Nicky forcing his tongue into Neil’s mouth multiple times to cram drugs into Neil’s mouth while Neil is frantically trying to escape. I also cringe at Andrew trying to murder Allison in the parking lot. I also cringe at Andrew threatening Katelyn in the library and being super terrifying and possessive and unhealthy and toxic and becoming someone Katelyn has to fear being around and scaring the shit out of her. I sure as fuck cringe at Andrew’s line “Do not ignore me. Your life hinges on how well you can listen. Can you listen?” I also cringe at bystander Neil watching this whole thing unfold and not really thinking anything of it and then telling Katelyn she won and just walking off and leaving her to call Aaron crying and terrified. I certainly cringed at Seth’s casual homophobia and use of the word faggot.

There are a lot of cringe moments that get swept under the rug and characters don’t get burned at the stake and defined exclusively by these moments, yet so many people are so quick to burn Aaron at the stake and define him exclusively by a few comments. Which, whatever, if that’s the way you want to define him. But don’t go around pushing that onto other people and don’t go around telling people they shouldn’t ship things because of that.

Hi love your art so much and I was wondering maybe you could draw Kitty?

thank you so much 🥰

here are Kit and Ty for you!

(click for better quality)