This was inevitable but I have to say this. This is a rant (and an explanation of sorts) directed at the vast amount of outrage by certain shippers over HBP.

Yes, I am talking about R/S shippers over the R/T relationship.

First off let's state for the record that R/S was the first ship I ever truly loved. I still do. This is not me getting bitchy at R/S shippers (or it might be) because they like R/S and are defending their ship. This is me getting slightly annoyed at my flist getting spammed again and again by the same thing. This is also not directed at anyone it particular but a response to the varied points that were raised.

To all those people valiantly claiming that they will continue to sail the good ship HMS Wolfstar in spite of the tremendous and horrible setbacks that HBP has posed I say this:

Dude, what setbacks?

How does Remus/Tonks sink our ship? Sirius is dead and I don't think he will be coming back and his body is gone so necrophilia is out of the question. There is such a thing as bisexuality and just because it seems that the is something between Remus and Tonks now does not mean that something between him and Sirius did not happen then.

So why are people saying that ship is sunk. People dying and already being married never stopped people shipping before so why are R/S shippers reacting so badly over something that doesn't actually reject anything. Why are people saying R/T is something they can work around? You don't need to work around it. Why are people telling each other to buck up and stay strong and don't worry because to me it just sounds so stupid because there is nothing to worry about.

And why am I making such a fuss over this?

Because I like Tonks. I liked her from the start. I liked her so much I chose to play her in a RPG. And I got sick and tired of seeing an R/S community being flooded with hate for her when she didn't destroy anything. I came there for the puppy love and Tonks hasn't destroyed that and I really don't want to see heaps of hate fic directed at Tonks turning up in a R/S comm when I don't think she deserves it.

Yes, the scene in the hospital seemed contrived and as they say PASTEDE ON YAY! Yes, Tonks' character seemed to have been OOC. But as a dedicated puppy shipper who reads fic extensively, who makes icons and graphics (even though none are actually up at the moment), who believes that there is much evidence for R/S I have to say that Remus/Tonks doesn't really bother me. I kinda like. I would have preferred there to be a little more backstory and for it to be a little more convincing but it appears most of the ships got the same treatment.

And I also hate it when canon is immediately disregarded just because some people didn't like it.

Random points about why R/S still lives, R/T isn't that bad and why Tonks isn't as screwed up as she could be:

• It has been said that there is no definite confirmation of a Remus/Tonks relationship. However, there is no definite confirmation of a Remus/Sirius relationship either. No, no there is not. They are not canon. No, you can't shoot me yet. The sad truth is that they are not canon. Despite subtext, despite staring at each other for four pages I think, despite Cuaron, they are not canon. That said, the appearance of Remus/Tonks does not make them NOT canon.
  
  
• Bringing Remus/Tonks together may not in fact be a big fuck you from JKR. For all we know she may have had them together in her mind from the start but due to the supposedly non romantic focus of HP we just never saw it. (Rampant shipping of HBP aside. Dude, I heard someone say Pince and Filch were together. I remember them standing side by side at the funeral but I didn't think they were together. Am I wrong?) JKR may never have intended Remus to be gay no matter which way he came out and she may never have intended the Remus/Sirius subtext to happen. I have written orginal characters in the past for school assignments, fun and what not where I have had set ideas for the way a character is. If by some long shot that story got published and fanfiction was written and said character was slashed when in my mind they was straight I think I would be horrified. Not because I have anything against homosexuality but because that character was changed from what they were in my head and I also wouldn't then change how I wrote that character to please what ideas or preconceptions fans may have come up with. Not because you would want to disappoint the fans but I don't think anyone would want to change a character they had created that was already planned out in their head.
  
  
• It has also been said that Remus was staring into the fire because of Sirius and not because of Tonks because she was supposedly in the room. She wasn't actually. I checked. She didn't turn up at the Weasley's at all for that Christmas so he could have been thinking about her. However, he was also probably thinking about Sirius and the werewolves and the war so he has a lot on his mind and couldn't afford to be distracted. So that's another reason why he would object to any romance.
  
  
• Tonks supposedly bringing up the idea of marriage in front of everyone at the hospital. I could be wrong but I don't think she did. When she said that Fleur still wanted to marry Remus I only got the impression that she was saying that Fleur still wanted to be with Bill despite the werewolf attack and she only mentioned marriage because Bill and Fleur were already engaged. True, shouting out your relationship problems to an entire room doesn't seem the best course of action, especially as I always considered Remus to be a private kind of guy. But this is Tonks, the fun loving, outspoken punk chick so isn't shouting out passionately kind of like her? For that matter, isn't Sirius like that? Outspoken and passionate. I have read a fic where Sirius was just like that. Ready to proclaim Remus and his love to the world (he didn't so that's one point to him) so you get my point. There is something to be said for opposites attracting.
  
  
• Tonks as a weepy, pathetic, infatuated thing because her love was unrequited. Also her being OOC. One, survivor's guilt. She is young for an Auror and her Metamorphmagus abilities probably played a large part in her becoming one. So she is probably doubting her own abilities (one reason why she could have lost her powers). Two, she probably is still grieving over Sirius and blames herself for his death. And three, Remus probably has been knocking her advances back. Sure, her behaviour doesn't seem the typical Tonks behaviour but the only behaviour we have seen from her is when things were going remarkably well. We haven't really seen her when things go really, really bad. For all we know, this could be entirely within Tonks' personality. Also being a Metamorphmagus and being able to change your appearance at whim could indicate no true sense of self and therefore low self esteem.
  
  
• Remus is gay, gay, gay, gay. Maybe. Maybe not. I don't feel we have seen enough of him as a character to make that assumption. As a werewolf, he's pretty private for obvious reasons so I think he would hide more of his feelings and such. That's not to say he couldn't be gay but there's nothing to say he isn't bisexual. We already know Remus has a weakness for anyone who likes him so I think he would go for anyone if there was love for him regardless of gender.
  
  
• Remus may have absolutely no feelings for Tonks at all. This is a tough one. When Tonks confronted him in the hospital he was defensive and unwilling to talk about anything to do with her. That is a rather strong point supporting the above statement. However, we do know he doesn't like to show his emotions and having that kind of talk in front of everyone probably didn't appeal to him. He probably does believe that he is too old, too poor and too dangerous and that he and Tonks getting together would be a bad idea. But that doesn't mean he doesn't have any feelings for her, they may not be as strong as the ones he may have had for Sirius but it doesn't mean there is nothing. He may believe that a relationship in the face of war is a bad idea, that in the face of him acting as a spy in the werewolf underground he is at more risk than ever and starting a relationship only for him to die would hurt her even more or he himself may just be scared of starting something and developing real feelings for someone only to lose them again.
  
  
• You can love more than one person in your life. Sirius may have been Remus's soul mate but that doesn't mean he can't be happy with Tonks. Grieving over Sirius probably brought them closer and from that additional feelings may have developed. In OOTP Tonks seemed outspoken, fun loving and generally just interesting and pleasant to have around (if you don't mind the breaking of things) and that is the type of person Remus probably needs. Someone who won't let him get depressed with lycanthropy or how the world seems to hate him. Remus, as a werewolf, also knows how it feels like to have your body change and be out of your control (admittingly lycanthropy and metamorphmagi are two very different things). Being a Metamorphmagus probably takes some time to control and when she was younger Tonks probably felt very insecure in her body and this is something they both can relate to. We also know that Remus is a very likeable man so it's no wonder Tonks felt something for him.
  
  
• And true, holding hands doesn't signify romance but it does signify that something important happened. Either they are together or that they just worked things out and are closer friends than ever.

I won't say that their supposed relationship was written badly but I think that JKR intended for something to happen between them in which case I don't intend to ignore it. Like it or loathe it, it appears to be canon, or appears it will become canon. This is JKR's story and she can't write it however she pleases, I may not agree but I am not going to say something didn't happen and disregard it from here on.

Again, this isn't really a rant but me justifying to myself their supposed relationship (something that I didn't object in the beginning) isn't as stupid or horrible as first seen. You may disagree, you have every right to disagree but 50+ posts of basically the same thing in remusxsirius was insane. Especially when everyone seemed to be acting like martyrs and they had been dealt this great, horrific blow and it just seemed to get out of hand. Plus, I object to the Tonks hate so I wrote this. And I needed to sort these things out for a fanfiction.

So if there is anything that I have left out or doesn't work please comment. I would cross post this but the R/S shippers can be rabid (I know, I'm one of them). And this has too much to do with validating Remus/Tonks to be posted in a R/S comm. But if you want to direct anyone here than feel free. I will be happy to calmly and reasonably discuss anything. Can be what you had for dinner last night, doesn't really matter.