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Regarding the whole Graven and Tenelle situation:

I can't really speak on it in any specific way. I'm not really super informed or aware of the situation involving Tenelle. I shared their Riku's Gay and Why It Matters video back when it first went up on Youtube, because it originally got flagged and taken down due to homophobia, which isn't cool, so I shared it and encouraged people to watch it. Then I actually got around to watching it...and it was filled with a lot of valid and good points, but also a lot of the Soriku theories that get floated around by the BNF (Big Name Fan) Soriku shippers out there. Basically, stuff like the aitsu theory (which was debunked ages ago in one of the Ultimanias) and the whole "In Japanese Sokai comes off as more obviously friendship based and Soriku as more romantic" (it really doesn't, Riku also doesn't seem to be viewed as "gay" by the Japanese fanbase either, Soriku is always presented as a non-canon BL pairing and never official like Sokai is and Japanese fans rarely seem to talk about Riku's sexual orientation). (Also, just for what it's worth, I'm also a Soriku fan and am not a huge fan of Sokai).

But, yeah, basically, I've had not so great vibes from a lot of the BNF Soriku shippers (content creators?) for a long while. I did a lot of translation stuff for KH3 things (like the Ultimanias and Character Files) and engaged a lot with the BNFs and whatnot. And I felt there was just a lot of disingenuous stuff and twisting going on to fit a Soriku narrative more than what was actually being implied sometimes. So, I stopped engaging with them (blocked them, etc.) and haven't engaged with Tenelle or anything made by them outside of the Riku's Gay based videos on Youtube.

I watched Graven's streams of KH1 on Youtube and really enjoyed them. Then, I found out that a lot of his mods were those BNF Soriku shippers and I was like..."Oh, no!" I had a feeling something like that might happen. It was around that time (around Part 10 of his KH1 playthrough on Youtube) that I paused watching his streams of the game and went on to catching up on other series, forms of media, etc.

Edit: Also, just to clarify, I love how open Graven is with the Soriku fan base in general and how open he has been to queer interpretations in general. Any stuff I brought up in mention or regards to BNF Soriku shippers is just coming from my personal experience with that group and my own personal vibes I got from interacting with them in the past, but that is more specifically to the mods themselves and not necessarily the fact that they ship Soriku. I find the whole "Graven is trying to pander to Soriku fans" argument to be both silly and also largely disconnected to the issue at hand. Okay, edit over!

But now I want to get to the actual meat of this post.

I think this whole situation is likely more complicated than a lot of Kingdom Hearts fans may realize especially younger fans. Graven used to also be on the show 7th Heaven:

The plot of 7th Heaven (according to Wikipedia) :

The series follows Reverend Eric Camden, a Protestant minister living in the fictional town of Glen Oak, California, and his wife Annie as they deal with the drama of raising 7 children (twins Sam and David come later in the series) ranging in age from babies to adults with families of their own.

David acted on this show for 10 seasons (he was recurring in Season 8, which aired from 2003 - 2004, so recording for KH2 probably played a part in why he went for a more recurring role in that season). I didn't really watch it that much, but I definitely remember watching some episodes here and there back in the day (my 90s WB show was Charmed). But basically, he spent a LONG time on that series and with those actors. He was on the show from a young age too, so that series was very formative to him.

Now, the actor, Stephen Collins, who played the father on 7th Heaven (Eric Camden) was a child predator. Here's an article about it from 2014, written by Peoples: 7th Heaven Star Admits He Sexually Abused Minors. In the article, it clarifies that the abuses happened before 7th Heaven and as far as I know none of the children on 7th Heaven were sexually abused by him. However, there was this really important quote by April Price, one of his child victims:

“I really have deep empathy for all of his cast mates to be truthful,” Price told The Post, “because they have to have the worst conflicting emotions about him ever. Because the person that they know and they work with would not be the same person, that he was behind closed doors.” “It’s got to be very hard for them,” she continued. “And I hate the fact that they’ve lost a lot of royalties, I’m sure, over the fact that he’s basically tarnished the reputation of the entire show by his actions. That bothers me. But anything that they feel – even if they still think that he’s the greatest person ever – that’s not their fault. That’s what he did, because he victimized them, too.”

The quote comes from this 2025 New York Post article.

I always go with believing the victims/survivors of a situation like this first but, especially in regard to Graven, I think we need to take into consideration that a topic like this one is likely very loaded and complicated for him in a way it may not be for many of us fans. There's the entertainment industry that he grew up in that (as we can see in both articles, tbh) tries to downplay the sexual predation of Stephen Collins, and then there is the degrees of separation and likely disconnect that Graven has with something like streaming and his mods, etc. I'm about 5 years younger than him (35 going on 36) and streaming and that whole space is a pretty foreign space to me and he might have a more "degrees of separation" type of mindset when it comes to Mods than younger people might.

That being said, I would personally prefer it if anyone accused of sexual predation of minors in any way wasn't connected to his Mod team and his streams, but I also think this is a far more personal and loaded kind of topic for Graven in ways some fans reaching out to him about this situation may not realize. I cannot speak for him, but it wouldn't surprise me if there may be some trauma from the whole 7th Heaven and Stephen Collins situation and that may be affecting his handling of this situation as well.

I don't really know the best way to actually approach him on this topic, but I do think having discussion on this topic is important, so please feel free to add any info to this post in reblogs or in the comments. I think this is something that is really important to discuss.

Edit: Just for proper clarification: this post is meant to be discussing how this overall work based experience David had with someone who turned out to be a child predator is just one factor in many that plays into Graven's response to the Tennelle situation. It is not meant to imply that David himself experienced any abuse at the hands of that man because, as I stated in the post, there has been no indications of that and the cast, including Graven himself, have denied this.

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