What do you think of Marlon and Clementine as a ship, in an alternate universe or just as a concept? I'm kind of surprised that it doesn't have a lot of content even though a lot of people are opinionated on it, even to the pointof bashing people who ship it which isn't cool. I actually don't think they'd be as bad as people make it seem. Marlon was gentle with her before the whole EP 1 ending and I think they'd teach each other to face their fears. Unpopular opinion I know but still.
Before episode 1 dropped there was actually a fair amount of shippers for them, believe it or not.
I think the issue of the relationship stems more from the question of "how genuine was Marlon being when he interacted with Clem and AJ?". Because keep in mind that he was likely trying to butter them up with the intention of keeping them as trading fuel so he wouldn't need to sacrifice any more friends. Not saying that all of his interactions were disingenuous, but more that we don't entirely know for sure what his motives were at each point. Marlon was known for having quite a fuse, but there's times where you can tell he was holding back in order to not scare away Clem and AJ (such as when AJ accidentally punches him in the crotch and you can tell Marlon is trying to hold himself back).
He's quite charismatic, so it really wouldn't be a surprise if it turned out that most of the friendly interactions were just a manipulation tactic for his own means even if he liked Clem.
With that said, I actually think the 2 of them have potential if the plot had went a different direction and if Marlon's character was altered a little bit. I can see them working well together if they had met years before TFS when the apocalypse was still relatively fresh and Marlon didn't crack from all of the responsibility.
The issue is that Marlon's done horrific things and hurt a lot of the people around him, and it's a bit difficult to balance that kind of relationship with a character (that's actually healthy and not toxic) when they also show signs of deceit, cowardice and aggression. There's a LOT to unpack there and a lot of character development to go through before a relationship like that could flourish.
With that said, it's not right for people to attack others just because they don't agree with a ship. I don't think everything is as black and white as some people tend to view it in fandoms, and Tumblr in particular enjoys jumping the gun quickly before hearing people out.
