My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic - Image #205,144

But I will respect it because I am required too.

What aggravates me and many others is that this ship could potentially turn into another Lyra/Bonbon situation, and frankly that is very unfair to the fans of both characters who do not want them to be shipped. The shippers can bombard the internet with fanfics and fanart of Octavia being shipped with Vinyl Scratch, then point at it and say “We are the ones generating the fanon for these two, so we own them. You can either accept them being a couple or GTFO.” There really is no equivalent action that people who don't like the ship can take though, other than shipping them with different characters.

That’s the attitude a lot of fans have taken with the Bonbon/Lyra ship, and if you suggest that the two of them are only friends you are basically asking to be flamed. That kind of attitude can be very alienating to the fans who aren’t into slash shipping, and that’s why you are starting to see backlash towards it. Backlash is really the only way non-shippers can have their opinion about it represented, because simply drawing pictures or writing stories about Octavia or Vinyl Scratch by themselves does nothing to counter the ones where they are shipped. Fanon is a democracy where the loudest voice is the one that counts, so is it really that perplexing that the fans who don’t want every pony in the show to be a lesbian are starting to speak up?