I’ve never once had to deal with antis when I first got into fandoms, hell, I’m pretty sure that they didn’t exist. There were no rules- fandoms seldom have rules besides the obvious {don’t suicide bait etc} and ships? It was literally ship whatever the hell you want.
They’re brothers? Go for it. Age gap? We don’t care, you do you.
Antis though, in their toxicity, have ruined fandoms. They use loaded words as buzzwords and when they call “pedophile”, “abuse apologist”, “incest apologist”, I’m more than likely going to see the blog of a 13 year old who ships two fictional characters together.
I can guarantee, as this is something I’ve already tested, that if I take Max and David, and explain the ship to a friend, they’ll just shrug and get on with their life. Now, if I explain that someone was harassed to the point of suicide because of the ship, she’s not going to go, “Well it’s a bad ship,” she’s going to ask, “What the fuck is wrong with people,” and it’s a legitimate question.
Do you know what hate makes people do? It makes them hold things closer, maybe it’s out of spite, maybe it’s a defense mechanism, but really? We’ll keep repeating the same things over and over because the only ones harming anyone here is you, antis, really. It’s disgusting really, because as a writer who someday hopes to get my work out there, I don’t want ship wars, I don’t want people policing fun because if I have to, as a creator, support every wild ship my fandom could possibly come up with, I will.
I’d support every ship, the fanart, every kin, every theory they come up with because fandoms shouldn’t be such dangerous places, they’re supposed to be safe.