Heh, well, I’m afraid you’re getting one of the rather unuanced takes here. I can understand that other people can still appreciate them but I don’t love ‘em and they add nothing for me.
The applicability of BYG is…a tough topic. I actually DO understand people who’re like, we’ve gotten enough bad ends to hold us over for another few generations at least and there are very few narrative reasons good enough to justify them when other choices would have sufficed. But one can’t realistically make hard and fast rules about that, like, some wlw are going to be into media that does have BYGs and literally what would be the point of seeking them out and making them unhappy when for once the media didn’t.
Maybe it’s easier to explain if I say I always try to be on the side of wlw fans in general. It is true that a bunch of fans, including me, don’t really like bad endings (or a lack of HEA) but it’s also undeniable that media like THOBM and Portrait made a lot of wlw fans happy so great, a win for at least someone. There can be room for both groups. It’s fine to disagree, that’s natural, but as long as it’s not done meanly, whatever, right? It’s also probably helpful to not take defense or even praise of media personally as an attack on our own…approach to things.
