;; I feel like friendships and platonic pairings are often overlooked in favor of romantic ships, and I guess I’ve never really understood that? Friendship is often treated as something lesser, as though platonic love is a step below romantic love, but friendship is great! It should be something that is celebrated and highlighted just as much as romantic love. I love working on and writing ships as much as the next person, and I’m just as guilty as the next person of liking to watch romance come up out of friendship while I write should it do so naturally, but relationships that never become romantic are just as awesome and fulfilling as relationships that do.
Friends sacrifice for each other. Friends give up their lives for each other. Friends will go to hell and back for each other. Friends mourn for each other when someone is lost and the other left behind. Friends go out of their way to be thoughtful. Friends laugh. Friends love.
I’ll say it again: friends love. Love doesn’t have to be romantic to mean something.
I feel like we need to keep dismantling this idea that really meaningful gestures must always somehow come with a romance tag, as if friendship isn’t capable of ‘reaching that’ level of devotion to another person. Friends can and will fight just as fiercely as lovers for each other.
There’s nothing wrong with looking at certain things and seeing ship potential, but also remember to be respectful of those who look at those same things (and possibly those same characters) and see instead a deep and abiding platonic love or love of another kind – and also vice versa. What you might code as romantic someone else might not, and the reverse holds just as true. I feel like in my experience I very often see those platonic relationships passed over in favor of romantic ones, as if sacrificing for someone and dying for someone and loving something are all reserved for romantic love and romantic love alone, and I think it’s good to step back and remember that nonromantic relationships should be just as celebrated as the romantic ones – and that they can be just as deep and meaningful, too.
Spirit of the Warlock 