: Re: How can I indicate that a particular relationship between two male characters is purely brotherly (Philia) rather than romantic (Eros)? One of the four forms of love Greek philosophy recognised,

@Berumen699

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It's interesting that you identified Kirk and Spock as phillia as a lot of fan fiction terms are traced to Star Trek fandom having a Kirk Spok eros relationship as a core theme of Fan fiction. In fact in fan fiction the term "slash" fiction denotes that the work will deal with two characters in a romantic relationship (often homosexual) that isn't supported by canon derives from the format Star Trek fan fics uses to denote that there would be a romantic relationship between Kirk and Spock (Kirk/Spock, pronounced "Kirk Slash Spock" when spoken).

Suffice to say, it's difficult and the two big aversions I have seen have some way of steering close into the issue rather than avoiding it.

My first example is that of Cory, Shawn, and Topanga in "Boy Meets World". Cory has a phillia relationship with Shawn and a Eros relationship with Topanga and it's generally accepted that as close as Cory and Shawn are portrayed, they aren't in a homosexual relationship with each other. Shawn was often portrayed as a womanizer and Cory and Topanga are middle school sweethearts (and Cory didn't like her initially) with Cory seeking Shawn's advise with relationships. As the series progressed, their friendship avoided the homosexual implication by steering into the skid. Later seasons would show Cory and Shawn acting like a romantic couple without either party thinking it was weird and Topanga (who was Cory's wife in some instances) expressing faux-jealousy of Shawn and reminding Cory that she is his girlfriend/fiance/wife. In the few times she was outright jealous, Cory's lesson was normally his closeness with Shawn does come off as weird to people who don't get that they're practically brothers, not buddies, while Topanga's lesson was that she has to accept that Cory and Shawn have an extremely close bond, but Cory is oblivious about the optics and isn't trying to hurt their marriage.

The other example is Frozen, where the fandom is usually more likely to think Elsa is gay, they would much perfer a female love interest to appear in the as of writing unreleased sequel than to pair Elsa with the other female lead, her younger sister Anna. Part of the reason for this is that Frozen's plot is resolved by Anna's discovery that "True Love" can be a phillia relationship rather than an eros relationship. In fact, this twist was set up so that the audience would assume the moral was a lesson about moving too fast in a romantic relationship as the audience was already critical of Anna's first assumption of a kiss from Hans being a "True Love". When played out, the first punch of Hans having no love for Anna, but feigning it well (the audience was prepared for him to just not be the one for Anna, as the film highlighted Anna moving too fast with a guy she just met... they weren't prepared for Han's response) was also perfect to set up the Red Herring Love interest of Christian (red herring being that Anna still believes the lead guy kissing her will break the curse... Christian and Anna's relationship is moving much slower) and both the audience and Anna aren't considering that the use of Love can describe non-romantic relationships. It's also helped that while Anna's curse breaking action is definately an act of love, it is a very aromantic action, and the curse is broken by her performing this action, rather than someone else showing they love her (compared to other Disney characters aflicted with curses that require true love to break, Snow White, Aura (Sleeping Beauty), Ariel (Little Mermaid), and the Beast (Beauty and the Beast) all have the curse lifted by showing someone else is capable of loving them, where as Elsa lifts the curse by showing she is capable of loving someone against despite her own self-interests).

These titles work because in both cases, the narrative addresses the issue of the existence of more forms of love than romantic love, rather than try to excise love from the non-romantics relationships.

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