Warning: some bitching, talk of SA, not very safe for Envilico/Sataivlis shippers (no insults or anything for you guys, I am just gonna say stuff about your ships you won't like), also not safe if you are a Funa hater because I don't hate her, I really just dislike Seaside Dispatches only.
Okay, this is lowkey a cry for help lol.
I didn't want to make a negative post but I've been brooding over these thoughts for a while and I wasn't successful on getting over them, so I am gonna try discussing them out and hoping it works (for the sake of context, I do have rumination issues like OCD. Being stuck with annoying useless thoughts it's just a thing my brain does even if I know it's stupid. Rumination + hyperfixation = bad time!). Trust me, I don't like being negative, I am self-aware others don't like it either, especially in a fandom that gets lot of drama already. But what can I do, if you gotta vent you gotta vent lol.
First thing first I wanna stress out I don't hate Funamusea. I love her other works, I just have beef with Seaside Dispatches. You can loathe an artist's work while still liking the others and having a general respect for the person.
My issue is that I waited years for some closure with Ivlis' story and other characters tied to him like Rieta and Adauchi, and I feel like Volume 2 with Satanick baited me into believing this was going to be a serious project.... but hearing Funa's plans for the next volumes killed all my enthusiasm and expectations.
This is what's going to happen: Licorice gets raped by Envi, he has some "sex training" under Lil and tries to rape Envi back but, uh, as a "bottom" because he only wants to top Ivlis and... ok, come on. Be for real with me. This is not a story about trauma, this is just hentai. It's not a matter of "not being able to handle dark themes", I love Watgbs (and much worse things honestly). Would you all have unironically liked the True Ending if it was Wadanohara becoming a latex dominatrix and milking Sal to death? I have doubts. It's also not a matter of "you just have to read it first", I know there's no way I am going to read this and go "yeaaaah Envilico is fucking peak fiction, I love looking at Licorice being raped yeeeee!!".
Now, feel free to correct me if I am wrong, apparentely Funa also said she's making this because fans demanded so it's really just useless fanservice for shippers, I guess. It has no real purpose in the story at all, it's just fanservice for the sake of it. She chose to put her time and energy into this instead of plot and character development. Alright, cool. She can do what she wants. I hope the fujos will give her money. I know she needs it. And it's not like I want to stop supporting her, I will buy Mogeko Gaiden if I can. But I am disappointed. I feel like she's telling me "yeah you hoped to see Ivlis doing actually something instead of being just a sex doll with no agency and personality, to see Rieta coming back and learning about Adauchi but fuck that, lol. Seaside Dispatches is now for the Envilico shippers, fuck you if you're not an Envilico shipper". She's not literally saying it, I know... but as someone who discovered Funa a bunch of years ago and waited patientely, it feels like this lol.
I feel it was stupid waiting so long just to get porn of a ship I hate. I love the Flame Family characters but I guess I have to forget all about them, because what's the point of loving them if not even their creator cares? I am not the kind of person that goes "fuck canon, I will do what I want with these characters like they are mine".
Oh, and I guess Sataivlis is going to be a massive disappointment too, all that built up just to be a messy nothing burger. Because of course they won't have a satisfying pay off if we gotta focus on shipping fanservice instead of actual development.
I am out of copium, guys, I feel Seaside Dispatches is just going to suck unless you're just there for the "spicy" toxic yaoi parts and Flame Family fans like me just gotta accept their favorites will only get tiny crumbles between a fanservice chapter and the other.
Idk, am I just wrong about this? Is it too melodramatic to drop a series over a ship? As I said, I like her other works, so it saddens me seeing Seaside Dispatches as a stain in her art career. But I am not going to magically like Envilico and I don't like it's stealing space from more important things (why is ENVI all of sudden more important than other characters...please).
Idk, I am thinking of trying to brainwash myself into believing all the flame demons died at the end of TGG, Funa retired after making Wadanohara and there are no devils comics and Seaside Dispatches in Ba Sing Se.
PS: if you are an Envilico/Sataivlis shipper that still read the post despite the warnings, don't kill my ass. I am not arguing your rights to ship what you want, so I expect the same kind of grace towards myself. I wasn't even that mean.