When I entered into the Invader Zim fandom in 2015, I remember being absolutely cringe and annoying to ship ZaDr. People would complain when others would call out the romantic tension between the two and use the creator as some sort of weapon to defend their opinion. “Jhonen would be embarrassed by this” and “Good thing the creator isn’t seeing this” were things often said to discourage people from enjoying the ship, as if it was a crime to like a fictional pairing for a show that was already over. What would also happen is people would use the “they hate each other” card to try to force other people to stop enjoying their parings. That was one I had to see a lot.

At the same time, we had other shows and series with rivals who were canonically paired together romantically (Danny Phantom, Gravity Falls, Ben 10, Teen Titans, iCarly) not to mention all the movies that came out years before any of this shows who showed the same dynamic, essentially being: enemies to lovers.

So, what was it about these shows that made their pairings acceptable while ZaDr shippers were shamed for liking it? Everyone knows the answer by now. All the other pairings were straight pairings.

It was okay for you to ship enemies to lovers, as long as it was a female/male relationship. The second you make it a gay or lesbian relationship, “but they hate each other”, “the creator would be disgusted by this”, “people always make everything about ships” and so on and so forth.

This was something that plagued me and followed me for years, even after I left the Invader Zim fandom, and it annoys me to this day that there are people who feel like I should be ashamed for liking a pairing just because they’re a gay couple (not that they’ll ever say that’s the reason they’re shaming you). I remember being paranoid every time I opened a ZaDr fanfic on wattpad out of curiosity, and even backing up those hurtful comments in fear of being discovered and isolated for liking a fictional pairing.

I recently fell back into the iz fandom and, oh boy, am I glad to be able to enjoy my shit without dealing with those stupid comments. Although they’re still around, it’s nice to be able to write and read about ZaDr without seeing those same complaints every single time. Things changed a lot in recent years and I’m glad we don’t get those hateful comments as frequently anymore. It was really upsetting getting bashed for liking a pairing that had the same dynamic as thousands of other pairings like it was my fault for receiving hateful comments in the first place.

There’s still a voice in my mind that nags me sometimes, specially when I look at old iz content and make the mistake of reading the comments, but I’m glad to say it’s much better now. I finally feel like I can enjoy the ships I like without needing to be afraid of backlash.

I feel like killing the eco-terrorist and incinerated with HEAT VISION the plants kill that eco-terrorist, poison ivy ,pamela isley kill like injustice 2 and you harley x ivy stans like as a useful idiot ,communist ,dictatorship lesbians and pro-feminist and thank you and you ruin my childhood and patrick schumacker should go to hell communist bastards and how am I ashamed and disgusted by you?

Oh wow. I got fandom hate for something I don't even interact with all that often? Like, as in I sometimes will like a picture or something? Definitely not enough to call it something I stan. Wow, I'm just lost for words on why this was directed at me. Is it that I'm also into solarpunk? It is, isn't it? This ain't even zadr or shallura or insert 5 other ships I can come up with off the top of my head that I more actively support that have a fairly large anti community known for hunting even the lightest of shippers. This is a not uncommon ship in literally any circle I've ever run in or others in similar tropes. And I definitely have been mildly active in those other fandoms, and definitely not at all here. I've done some Jay/Tim pieces years ago at this point and that's it in pretty much all of the DC universe. So not sure why you are aghast from my trace amounts of PoisonQuinn which I didn’t even make.

But in no particular order: I'm a non-binary ace, and however much some of my fellow queers and other LGBT like to erase my identity, I'm not going to care if others identify as lesbian or bi (one of the most common interpretation for Harley I see normally). In fact I'll help them embrace it 95% of the time. I've had several of my D&D characters incidentally be LGBTQ (my favorite is bisexual because of a poor dice roll made into the roleplay for a better outcome), because exploring that is something at least mildly interesting. I'm generally considered some where on the socialist spectrum, as capitalism is good to an extent but everyone should be able to access basic needs first. But if you aren't big into understanding economic system differences I can see how you'd make that mistake, as I'm not even quite sure where I fall in it outside of not communism. I'm pretty against single leaders, even single groups being in charge, that results in minorities being destroyed one way or another, whether literal death or policies that kill their communities (or ability to form them). Don't even like the 2 party system the US uses for most purposes. And I am not going to deny being a feminist? I generally hope to be of the same vein as Liana Kerzner, not extremist but not not feminist. You know, keeping in mind there are things men can't do that they should be able to/biases against them, along with those against women. A lot of people who hold these beliefs have transitioned to other words as the extremists have changed some of the meaning. I'm called a demon/possessed by a devil because of my panic attacks so this isn't out of the ordinary for me. And in most forms of Christianity I'm bond for hell anyways since I don't believe in jesus/their singular Trinity God, so come up with something new. As for being a useful idiot, there is no good way to refute that, as we are all extremely influenced by the world around us, to the point we may not be conscious of. Am I unconsciously spreading those ideals? Maybe, but I hope talking (assuming we are talking and not yelling or whatever), like I love to do if given a chance, will let people see the nuance of the opinion, or make me think further on my opinions and change them. Because liking a single thing does not mean I agree with all the opinions that you've stereotyped into that. A single soundbyte does not a full person's opinion make. Even self-identified labels are a little murky if we aren't coming from the same understanding of what they mean.

I had to look up who that was just for context, because seriously I don't pay attention to the canon things unless I'm in a mood for it. I haven't watched a lick of the show that isn't just clips out of context. I wasn't aware they fully went this route in the show. This pairing has just been something in fandom for years, whether you knew it or not. But you probably should have been at least tangentially aware because I’m pretty sure they are married in Injustice 2 (maybe? When I said I don’t do much with canon shit I meant it. I only finished the first one, never played the second). In some sectors of the fandom sometimes form a triad with Selina (Catwoman) too, because the Gotham Sirens are a curious little band that have been around for decades.

Thanks for the opinion but I do not need to consider yours, except to tag appropriately, when we are talking about completely fictional adults. So you can be safer or keep out of things you don't enjoy. Also, indirect thanks for the suggestion on the next sketch I do. I'd been safely doing hybrid creatures and cryptids (read: Irkens, primarily Irkens) in the minimal free time I have but now the next will be PoisonQuinn just to spite you.