I didn't want to add anything to this topic, because I figured Morituri and the others who dislike it when people get invested in romantic relationships weren't gonna change their mind, but if there's genuine lack of understanding I'm gonna add a few bits.
No worries here... I already said, I realize my ideas of what the forum is for are no more important than anyone else's. Even if I roll my eyes, I'm not going to be angry or strident.
And, with things actually happening now, it's a lot more reasonable for people to be focused on it. It is no longer the utter nonsense of
(unresolved, unacknowledged, possibly sexual tension between guarded, scarred, and emotionally reserved characters that aren't likely to identify/acknowledge attraction nor overcome their relationship fear even if they do, whose gender preference/identity so far isn't even known to be compatible, and who are different species) --> (HAPPILY EVER AFTER! BECAUSE I SAID SO!)
that characterizes most shipping. We have a seismic shift here in the last couple of comics. Faye and Bubbles are now both aware of attraction. So that's one difficulty dealt with. I call that a plot point. It advances toward the possibility of a romantic relationship, which could be good (or horrible) for both of them. But that's not the whole damn story!
They are still guarded, scarred, emotionally reserved characters that haven't yet acknowledged attraction to each other and may decide not to, who may not overcome their relationship fear, who are different species, who now have a business and a mortgage that makes a romantic relationship TERRIFYING because a broken romance could ruin both of them (and Dora) financially. And who may, on BOTH sides, have to build an entirely new gender identity if they want to even try to make it work. The story is only getting started!
Ignoring all that seems like ignoring who the characters actually are. All these circumstances, if they were actual people, would put you on your guard against pushing them together or against making stupid assumptions, for fear that might wind up with both of them hurt, or financially ruined. But, because SHIPPING, people are ignoring all of that and yelling HAPPILY EVER AFTER! BECAUSE I SAID SO!
And that's the kind of petty disrespect that upsets me about the shipping discussions. I don't object to romance in storylines, or even romance as a topic of discussion; I object to the gleeful leaping-to-conclusions that ignores who the characters are. I object to the negation or deliberate defiance of the plot elements and character traits that the author has spent hard work building, so that he can tell the story of the characters struggling with these difficulties. Jumping to HAPPILY EVER AFTER! without paying attention to the story still in progress is ignoring the author's hard work.