Hot take: Invalidating Lance and Ilana’s obvious sibling relationship and friendship to ship them because they “aren’t blood related” is a shit move and please block me if you think otherwise (rant under the cut)
Getting a bit personal here, as someone who was raised with only half siblings and stepsiblings (and is about to get more stepsiblings bc my mom got engaged and her fiance has adult kids), the notion that only fully biologically related people are family is incredibly invalidating to people who are adopted, have half/ stepfamily, or are in a foster system.
So when an Il*nca shipper made an excuse about “Those who REALLY know the show know they aren’t blood related, so shipping them is okay!”, it pissed me off alot more than I want to admit. Not only was it incredibly invalidating, but it hit home for me. The man I call my dad isn’t my real father, he’s my stepdad who raised me since I was a baby. Forgive me if this sounds harsh, by this persons logic he’s not my dad at all and it would be perfectly okay for us to date because we aren’t related; which I find incredibly disgusting and would never want to see him as anything other than my dad.
Admittedly, I might’ve been less offended if they said what they really meant instead of some halfassed excuse, “I don’t care that they’re referred to as siblings in the show, I’ll still ship them”.
Lance and Ilana, from what is mentioned in the show, are adoptive “fake” siblings. They disguise as siblings to blend in and also to excuse them always being with each other. Octus is like a mix of their brother/ dad in his Mr Lunis form (although the brother part isn’t stated in the show this is based off assumptions). Had Genndy wanted them to be portrayed as anything other than family, they would not be under the same roof with the same last name. He also officially stated that he wanted them to stay friends because putting them together would be “too easy”. He even introduced Jason and Kristin as love interests for them respectively.
Alot of shippers like to use the homecoming scene among others + Lance’s overprotective nature as an excuse that Genndy ships them. The homecoming scene has a direct parallel in the beginning of the episode, between Ilana and her father. I personally interpret the scene as Lance wanting to make her happy, homecoming for her was basically ruined due to the Mutraadi attack, and since the theme was the Harvest Moon festival, something that Ilana has fond memories of her father and home from. Also Lance is overprotective because that’s his literal job 😭 if Ilana dies, Modula wins and Lance and Octus have to do anything they can to keep her safe.
Characters in the show also constantly misinterpret their relationship (Barb asking if Lance is Ilana’s BF (Ilana immediately responding with “brother”) + Siefred calling Ilana “Lance’s girl” to which both of them deflect to Ilana saying brother while Lance says friend.) But at the same time, other characters DO acknowledge them being siblings (teacher referring to their quarrel as sibling drama and Kimmy asking Ilana about her brother). I think this is trope subversion tbh and shouldn’t be a clear indicator of Genndy shipping them)
Am I telling people to not ship them? No, although I’d prefer it if you block me if you ship them because the implications of it are kinda gross and tbh it’s bland asf 😭
TL;DR: Family doesn’t have to be blood to be family, invalidating it to make an excuse for inc*st/ psuedoinc*st is gross and insensitive asf.
