as much as i ship payneland, it bothers me when people seem to make every interaction between edwin and charles romantic in a way that to me feels like completely erasing their friendship. they have such a rich shared history together, they already have so much love and affection and partnership between them, and all of that was built in the context of a friendship, and i think that's significant and important and should be valued as such.
even if their relationship eventually becomes romantic, that doesn't mean that all of their interactions up to that point were inherently romantic. romantic and platonic love are not mutually exclusive and they don't erase each other. viewing their relationship as romantic shouldn't make it more meaningful than viewing it as platonic.
no matter how their relationship evolves, they're best friends and they've been best friends for over 30 years, and that's important