I think the Fandom needs to stop treating Whirlpool like “that one guy we don’t talk about”
Moreover, I think we need to call him a groomer instead of a pedophile. He’s not a pedophile, and relates to none of the definition. Calling him a pedophile instead of a groomer only puts the wrong label to the wrong behaviour, which can make it confusing for any reader to differentiate the behaviour if they so need it in the future.
Whirlpool is not a pedophile. He is a groomer. He manipulated Anemone (and Coral) in order to weasel his way into high ranks. He expressed no romantic or otherwise intimate attraction to Anemone.
When explaining his attempt to kill Tsunami, he clearly says “I needed a more agreeable heir”. His motives were not led by any means of attraction. I derailed quite a bit. My original point is that it does no good to treat Whirlpool as a hush-hush character as that ultimately minimises / ignores his motives and actions.
(Throwing this in here because I don’t like him, Darkstalker also groomed both Moonwatcher and Anemone, yet I’ve seen plenty of fans say they can “fix him” or otherwise ignore his actions because he is “troubled” and “misunderstood”)
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