To be clear, I don’t dislike the Uncle Barney headcanon. It’s fun! It’s nice! It’s got a lot of potential for emotional depth and meaning! I’ve written 1.5 fics featuring it, one of which is like 65k words long, and I’m actively working on another one!
As with many things in art and media, it’s often fine on an individual level, but it sucks when (as was the case very recently) a large chunk of the fandom genuinely thinks or acts as if it's canon and uses that as an excuse to:
Sideline Alyx’s actual, very cool parental figure and her actual, canon-confirmed “Uncle Izzy”
Infantilize Alyx, often in service of freehoun (as making her Barney’s pseudo-niece is a great way to sideline her in favor of your favorite tertiary character white boy ship)
Infantilize Alyx, period
Shit on valhoun and people who ship it
Live your Uncle Barney dreams, folks. Just, like, be normal about it.
