Long time mostly lurker but I need to say my piece on the fandom's general woobyfying of Noel Gallagher out of responsibility, because there comes a point and I think we've gotten to that point.
I want to talk and may talk elsewhere a lot about Noel's continued association, close friendship and employment of known sexual predators and rapists, but that is a far more serious matter and needs it's own post. In this post I want to talk about fandom conversations surrounding his relationship with Liam and the cognitive dissonance when it comes to how it's presented.
To make clear from the start, whilst I think their relationship is weird and who knows what happened privately, I have no strong opinion on it as I really don't know. I also have no strong opinions on what others choose to believe in terms of how far the relationship went and how they wish to portray it in fan-fictions (within reason). However, there is a problem when fans take some of these fictional fanfiction tropes and transplant them onto their understanding of the actual brothers. The one I see most common, and one of the most inaccurate ones, is people earnestly believe that the brothers have an incestuous dynamic that started out as Noel as the repressed ingenue and noble martyr who tried in vain to 'resist' Liam aggressive come ons.
This, I can't stress enough, has little basis in reality. In any other circumstance, if one saw a situation of sibling incest with a five year age gap and a clear power differential and then said that the younger of the two started it and the other was helpless to their advances, it would be seen as victim blaming and contrary to real life cases of grooming and incest.
I know there are some people that argue that in this scenario that Liam willingly gave up control and that it was a choice, but again this is forgetting that they are siblings with a significant age gap where one filled in at least some of the paternal roles. Look at any of the footage in the early period of Oasis where Liam is hanging on to Noel's every word. He idolised him. Listen as well to those that witnessed the dynamic and said the power Noel had over Liam bothered and worried them. Their dynamic was not remotely equal and hadn't been for Liam's entire life. Saying that in the early years this was control that he willingly relinquished forgets this entire context.
And again if this scenario happened and Noel feels guilty, then yeah he should! Noel may at times write lyrics about feeling like he doesn't have power and indecisive and helpless, but that's how he feels, not the reality. The reality is he had significant power over others and in this case, significant emotional power over Liam. Being guilty doesn't absolve him or excuse any of his actions. Feeling torn up about it makes it sympathetic to an extent, but again if this happened I would argue he should feel torn up about it because the implications are really dark on his part. His suffering in this scenario is not noble, it is a natural consequence of his own behaviour. Judging by some of his actions such as Loch Lomond and sexually charged comments to the press, if such a relationship did exist -- he clearly isn't that guilty, nor willing to try and shield Liam from scrutiny.
The other side of presenting Noel's role in this interpretation of their relationship as overly passive is that there is a strong tendency to present Liam as overly aggressive, dominant and essentially a violent abuser in their dynamic. Liam unquestionably has anger issues, but all recorded fights between the brothers have been mutual, with the most violent act committed being Noel breaking his brothers foot. By far the worst example of this I have seen is people acting like Liam being just like THEIR ABUSIVE FATHER to Noel is an accurate and fair assessment. Not only is their power dynamic completely different, but it throws the majority of the evidence regarding Liam's real personality and the brothers actual dynamic away to re-victimise Noel and transform their formerly(?) toxic but profoundly close bond and life defining love into a dynamic where Noel remains a downbeaten perpetual victim.
It's not like Liam is unique in sharing traits that could be linked back to Tommy if you felt so inclined to go there. The way that Noel and Tommy discuss Liam in interviews has multiple similarities in its infantalisation, condescension and myth making. The way Tommy skews the narrative to spin yarns also recalls Noel's, as does his trouble with empathy which Noel himself has discussed. There is a lot that could potentially be talked about Liam having a brother who fills a quasi-paternal role who also happens to look like the spit of their dad and who at his worst moments can talk to him in a similar way and be emotionally manipulative. Does this make Noel Tommy 2.0? NO, because it's doubtless that Noel loves his baby brother to his soul and and is known for his capacity being thoughtful, tender and sweet. The idea of connecting him with his abusive father is horrible. So why would we normalise such conversations and characterisation with another child that Tommy abused? I'm just asking people to really consider where the line between fanfiction ends and reality begins and be mindful and respectful about conversations surrounding victims of severe domestic abuse.
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