if you don't like age gaps, i suggest not reading danmei novels. most danmei novels have some kind of age gap. most danmei novels have some kind of reversal of a power imbalance or a subversion of a power imbalance.

i get that these are topics that may make people feel uncomfortable, which is valid, but you can't decide that one age gap/power imbalance is fine (because it's a ship you like) but then think that another age gap/power imbalance is problematic.

for example, if you call bingqiu or changgu "pedophilia" but ship hualian and ranwan, you are a hypocrite, considering that all four ships have that age gap and power imbalance reversal in common.

you can't call chengxian "incest" and then be okay with shipping bingqiu or ranwan, considering that by the same logic that calls chengxian "incest", bingqiu and ranwan would also be "incest".

you can't claim that referring to someone as shixiong/shijie is a sign of "incest" and then not apply that to wangxian and hualian, given that wwx calls lwj 'lan er-gege' and hua cheng calls xie lian 'gege'. why stop there? why isn't nielan/nieyao/xiyao also incest?

since a-yao refers to nmj and lxc as 'dage' and 'erge' respectively? you see why this logic won't hold up? or age gaps. chu wanning falls in love with mo ran when cwn is an adult and mo ran is 15.

hua cheng falls in love with xie lian when he is 10 and xie lian is 17. hua cheng experiences his sexual awakening toward xie lian when xie lian is under the influence of the land of tenders aphrodisiac and hua cheng is 13. it's a dubcon scene for them both.

and obviously, there is a lot more that is controversial between mo ran and chu wanning (with yes, the reveal in book 3 included, since some of you cling to that reveal as a crutch for your cognitive dissonance).

these are all canon facts about these pairings. hualian and ranwan are my top two danmei ships, the are my biggest otp's. i've written countless meta for them, i've written and am still writing multiple fics for them. they consume my mind. and yet if you can accept all of this

about hualian and ranwan, it is hypocritical to not accept ships like bingqiu, changgu, chengxian, etc for having similarly "problematic" elements. hell, chengxian is actually the least problematic, given that it's not teacher/student, it doesn't have a significant age gap,

and it's not actually incest if you respect chinese cultural norms instead of forcefully applying western norms to it. i don't like chengxian, and i despise breaking up main couples, but to see this kind of cognitive dissonance and flinging around of big words is ludicrous.

i must reiterate that danmei is for ADULTS, which means ALL of these works, even the most seemingly "vanilla" couples (and honestly hualian is not actually as vanilla as you want them to be), have "problematic" tropes or elements.

it's perfectly fine to feel discomfort! and i'm saying that to adults. to teens, you shouldn't be reading ANY of these novels, and yes that includes tgcf. regardless, if you can't stomach these tropes that's okay, but you cannot pick and choose what is problematic and what isn't.

if bingqiu and changgu are problematic because of the age gap, then so are ranwan and hualian. if bingqiu, changgu, and ranwan are problematic, then so are wangxian and hualian. if changgu and chengxian are incest, then so are bingqiu and ranwan. and so on and so forth.

if you want morally comforting, easy to digest, neat pure works for the sake of "lgbt representation", no one asked you to read danmei. hell, you're going to the trouble of reading freely translated + uploaded works and yet hating on them. why?

no one asked you to read danmei novels. no one is forcing them down your throat. they are not internationally popular or well known. no one is telling you to fork over $50 to buy them or purchase a subscription. no one has said "danmei is the best lgbt representation in the world

and if you're lgbt you need to read danmei novels right now". danmei has existed long before twitter got a hold of it, and it will exist when all of you fandom puritans move on to some other thing that netflix makes popular. if you want nice, vanilla, easy, moral works,

go read "aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe", go read "red white and blue", go watch "sex education" on netflix, go bootleg "love, victor" from disney+, go watch "love, simon", go peruse lists of "pure, safe, vanilla" lgbt works.

go read "the song of achilles", go watch "the half of it" on netflix, etc. there is so much for you to choose from. no one is telling you or forcing you to read danmei, and if these works and pairings make you this angry and hurt and upset, simply block all mention of them.