Well, I seriously thought your post was very good (and it sounded like a serious discussion of the show, not a fluffy headcanon post of course), which is why I was so surprised you brought up that "Ronance should be canon if the writers weren't cowards pm just like Byler" implication out of the left field.
I really think Ronance canon would be horrible, not that they are not cute together and have fun scenes and chemistry - which is why it is a fine meme ship, but 1) I would seriously have to ask myself if Nancy can connect to a human being on any level without fucking them. Evidence of that would be zero. 2) Robin too has apparently never met a single girl she didn't want and has no platonic friendship with a female - but 3 love interests. I don't think her touching Nancy's hand for reassurance would be cute any longer in that context. At least, unlike Nance, she can have male friends, which brings me to 3) This would be ridiculous cruelty to Steve. I don't ship Stancy and think he should move on, but that storyline would be over the top humiliation and would need to be explored.
Now those issues could go away if there were endless new seasons. As it is, it's bad (time jump or no time jump) and would pretty much ruin the show and definitely ruin the impact of Byler. Everyone would justifiably say they just made everyone gay out of the blue for shits and giggles and you can't take it seriously. 4 seasons and they never bothered to hint that Nancy might be into girls, what was all the hard foreshadowing work with her brother for then? For nothing. All we need is two actors being cute together.
And for the comments under the post: That's the thing, you can't have it both ways: Are you peacefully shipping characters you think are cute together in your corner or are you discussing the show analytically? If it's the former, have fun, if it's the latter people might respond that no, this makes no sense in canon. No matter if it's about a gay ship, a straight ship, a villain arc or parallel universes.
Just to explain. I mean no pressure to respond if you're tired of it! Peace!
Ok thanks for the ask. I disagree with you and I'm going to explain it a little bit more if that's ok. I still maintain that I feel the same way about Byler as I do Ronance because I want them both to be canon but won't be surprised if the writers don't do that which is still how I feel. I doubt that Ronance is going to happen, your points on why it won't make perfect sense, but I think that it should happen. It's not me having a fluffy headcanon, it's me talking about what I want to happen in S5 and I still think I'm right about that and I'm going to break down some of your points. Your fine not to ship it and I think you make some alright points, but I don't think you can say it's objectively bad because I think it could work and I guarantee a lot of Ronance fans would back me up on that one.
So first of all, the point on Nancy. I get where you're coming from as Nancy got with both Johnathan and Steve but I don't think that's why people ship Ronance. First of all, I'd love Nancy to have more platonic relationships and not be so centred around romance. I'd really like platonic st*ncy to be honest with you, and Nancy and Barbara seemed to have a good relationship without me wanting them to bang. I also don't think she wanted to bang Fred. I don't think it's the fault of Ronance, I think the writers just need to writer her better platonic relationships in general. That being said, I don't view her relationship with Robin as platonic and personally, I don't think anyone would say that if she was a guy. I think it's intention from the writers was platonic, but that's not how I personally like to interpret it.
Secondly, Robin has never met a single girl she didn't want? What about Steve? Has he ever met a girl he didn't want? Is that an issue? I think people overly criticize queer representation and this is the perfect example. No, not every lesbian is attracted to every girl she sees and I'm not saying Robin is either. I just think she has a crush on Nancy, Tammy and Vickie, which is three girls out of the entire female population. If you've read/heard Rebel Robin, you'll know she has platonic relationships with other women. I get saying 'oh lesbians can have female friends too' but what about men? The only platonic male female friendship in the show has a lesbian in it and at first, it was a romantic thing on Steve's part. But I'm not saying it's bad writing that he's attracted to every girl he sees. Plus that's also really not why I ship it. It's not because I don't want friends to exist, it's because I think they have a really good dynamic and I want to see two characters I love get together.
And the final point, I don't care about what Steve thinks. Steve is not dating Nancy. Steve is her ex boyfriend. And I know getting with your friend's ex is a faux pas or whatever, but the whole thing with Steve is that he needs to move on from Nancy and her being with Robin would force him to do that. Not to mention this is way harder on Johnathan, her actual boyfriend. They're also characters and not real people so it's not hurting anyone. I get the point you're making but honestly, I think Steve would be supportive of their relationship and if they decided to make it canon, the writers can just write it that way? Like he's sad but he knows he has to move on and he wants Robin to be happy so if Nancy is what makes her happy, he'll accept her. And if I was writing it and it was canon, I'd also make them get together after the time skip with a J*ncy breakup just before it, meaning they have a two year cool down or so.
Now onto your next paragraph. It would ruin Byler? Look I'm a big Byler shipper and I'm really rooting for Byler canon, but you can have two queer relationships. Is Robin and Vickie going to ruin Byler? And yes there's no build up in terms of Nancy liking girls but sometimes you just meet a girl and you like her and that's it. Byler can be a slow burn childhood friends to lovers. Ronance can be faster and less angsty. You can want Byler to happen and also want Ronance to happen, it isn't mutually exclusive.
Do you wanna know another character who wasn't hinted to be gay pre coming out? Robin. And having a faster coming out with less build up doesn't diminish the values of a slow more painful journey to come to that realization. So having Nancy like a girl doesn't mean Mike coming to terms with liking guys is any less valuable. Queer representation isn't an equation, it's not like having more of it damages the existing stuff you already have. Byler and Ronance can coexist happily.
Also saying Ronance shippers like the ship because the characters are cute together is a bit dismissive. You don't know why I like their relationship and you can't tell me it's because I think it would be fun and lalala. I think it would be good for Nancy because of how male centric she often is. I think it would be good for queer representation. I think it would be nice to see a well loved, original character come out, just like you'd like to see Will and Mike come out. Do I think it's a cute relationship? Yes. But that's not why I'm rooting for it.
For the bit on the comments, we're not saying it's going to happen. We're just saying that we want it to happen and that we think it would work. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean it's "objectively shit writing". There are plenty of metamorphis shippers who could write an essay on why Byler is bad, would you stop shipping it? No. You can absolutely criticize it and I respect that, hence why I've replied. I don't tend to give rude anons the time of day but I genuinely don't think you have bad intentions. I also think it's a little blunt to say no this cannot work because again, that's a very objective view when stuff like this is ultimately down to personal opinion.
But also, you're creating this drama between Byler and Ronance shippers that does not need to exist, coming from someone who ships both. The commenters seem to be more talking about how you said me wanting Ronance to happen is insulting to Byler which is a weird ship war, which shouldn't exist, and how most people who want Ronance to be canon and think it could work don't think it's actually going to happen and that it'll probably just be fanon. But I'm not angry at you and I think you can definitely disagree with me as long as you're respectful, if that makes sense.
Sorry if this was a bit long! I hope I make sense to you anon and for now I'll just agree to disagree. If you send me a response, I'll read it but I can't guarantee I'll respond because I don't want this to be a bigger thing than it needs to be. Thanks for the ask and thanks for your thoughts (: