I almost left this as a reply to a recent comment on my fic, but I didn't want the commenter to think I was ranting to them or something lol, and I kinda want others to see my take on this, so here goes; Prepare for the incoherent rant, everybody!!
A lot of naysayers for this ship (and for ships in general) say they prefer to interpret things as "found family", which is totally fine! I can absolutely see and respect that, but here's where they often lose me;
I find the "found family" both a beautiful trope but also an unfortunate misnomer. People see the word "family" and feel the compulsory need to assign specific nuclear roles to each member within the family.
In this case, referring to Haunted Hotel, fans often make Ben, Esther, and Abaddon into "siblings" or "cousins", making Katherine the "mom" or "aunt" and Nathan the "dad" or "uncle" (though he is an uncle lol) but it can be so much more fluid than that.
Sure, you can call Nathan Abaddon's "dad" if you want, but what about the fact that he calls Abaddon a ward, and a brother, and speaks to him as an equal, not as a child? What about the fact that Abaddon is old enough to be Nathan's grandfather a hundred thousand times over and then some, but calls Nathan and Ben his "brothers"? What if they're just friends, and have a relationship based on mutual respect that isn't restricted by age or perception of their roles or duties within the friendship?
You can call Katherine the "mom" (cuz she is one), but what about her friendship with Nathan and the other characters? What about her relationship with Joel? Is she the "mom", the "aunt" the "sister" the "caretaker" the "girlfriend" or is she all of these and more? She can be romantic, she can be nurturing, flawed, protective, irrational, and more all at the same time.
Maybe these relationships shouldn't be put in a box or assigned a strict label and should be seen as more fluid and changeable. And yeah, maybe you see Esther and Abaddon as siblings or cousins, and that's fine. But also, what if they're just friends? What if a friendship changes into something romantic? Does that mean you're not friends anymore? No! Of course they're still friends!
A couple can gaze into each other's eyes lovingly one moment, then laugh at an awkwardly timed fart at the next. You can tell your platonic friend that you love them like a sibling at one point in your lives, and then get butterflies at the sight of them later down the road. It doesn't mean you've betrayed the relationship or something, it just means that your connection isn't static or rigidly locked into one specific set of rules for the entire time you know each other.
The Freelings and Abaddon, and even the other ghosts, can all be "found family" and also Esther and Abaddon can fall in love. These things don't need to be mutually exclusive. None of these relationships need a specific label put on them, or you can put many labels on them, it's all good!
Anyway, rant over, have fun with fiction y'all!
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