My thoughts on climitri are that it’s inherently toxic via Clive’s deception and I can’t see a word where Clive sees him as anything more affectionately than a plaything/pet etc
I’m a little wary of it on account of the whole ‘Clive playing a future version of a child’ bit. It gets weird if you’re taking into account the dynamic that they’re trying to build when they’re in cosplay of future Layton and Luke. The only way it’s not weird is when it’s entirely removed from that, and most people tend not to remove it
If it makes you uncomfortable that's totally fine and you're absolutely entitled to feel that way about it (and any other ship!)
But I feel like your reasoning is really flawed and I'll explain why I think so under the cut
(this post is long btw, sorry in advance) (UF spoilers)
Clive and Dimitri worked on their plans in future London for 5 years, and out of those 5 years they only cosplayed Future Luke and Future Layton at the same time for one day, one single day out of the ~1825 days they knew each other
(Now I can't entirely remember if Dimitri, as Future Layton, went around scaring the scientists who were forced into helping him with the time machine, but even if he did there's no evidence he kept this act up around Clive (in moments where he was able to drop the facade), and there's also no evidence that Clive bothered to cosplay Future Luke every day, and engage with 'Future Layton' as Future Luke before the big day)
They didn't show up as a duo either, they were basically separated throughout almost all of Unwound Future (in the events of the game, not references to past happenings in the plot). Layton and Luke first meet Clive in chapter 2, then a whole seven chapters later (in chapter 9), they meet Future Layton, and in that chapter Dimitri drops his Layton cosplay pretty much as soon as they're faced with him
The point I'm trying to get at is that Future Luke and Future Layton are never really a true 'Layton and Luke' duo in the way that the real Layton and Luke are. I'd even go so far as to say that Clive and Dimitri themselves (not as their false personas) aren't depicted as a duo in the game either. Sure, it's mentioned that Clive asked Dimitri to work on the time machine, and that they both conducted their plans in future London, but we don't really know how they did so or if they even interacted much during that time. It could be entirely possible that they barely talked to each other. And like I said, they were separated for almost all of the game
If we boil Layton and Luke down to their most basic dynamic, they're mentor and apprentice, but Clive and Dimitri are employer and employee. In my opinion these are two totally different dynamics
I've talked a lot about canon here, but obviously there's so many things about Clive and Dimitri that are left up to interpretation. I don't think any interpretation of what happened in their 5 years of working together is necessarily wrong, but what I believe is that there's no canon basis for most of the Clive and Dimitri dynamic. You're free to think that they cosplayed future versions Luke and Layton for most of the time they knew each other (this doesn't even have to be viewed in a romantic ship lense either, they could've just done it because it was funny to them), you're free to think the opposite, but there's no canon basis for either of those things and because of this I think it's wrong to assume all climitri fans think the same way about their dynamic when, like I said, there's no one way the canon is pushing you to think about it
And I'm not saying you're not allowed to be wary of climitri based on your own experiences/disagreements with the shippers. I do however think it's a little weird to say in response to me asking how people feel about a fictional ship with fictional characters. I only really expected either likes on that post or simple responses like 'I don't mind it' or 'I really don't like it', so I could figure out if I should make a separate blog for my thoughts, I never expected the actual shippers to be brought up. Maybe I could've worded my question better. I just don't think we should be bringing the shippers up in this. But this could be an overreaction on my part
There is one thing we can both agree on, though: they're toxic for each other
+ In my opinion their dynamic is much more complicated than just being 'toxic', but I'll save those thoughts for future posts.
Personally, I like toxic dynamics in some ships. (This doesn't mean I agree with these dynamics in real life relationships)
(Also, I'm really sorry /gen but I'm not sure where layclive fits in your point, so I'm not really sure how to respond to that part, sorry!)
