Treebros | Blog Clique

content warnings: mentions of death and suicide

Treebros is the ship name for Evan and Connor, and the most shipped one as well. The name is a reference to how Evan and Connor would "talk about trees."

Most Treebros fans create works in an AU where Connor lives, which makes the most sense as Connor dies ten minutes into the show. There are some, though, that take place in canon, which don't make sense, as Canon Connor only exists for a short period of time, and the Connor throughout the rest of the show is Evan and Jared's imaginations of him.

Evan and Connor only interact twice in the show - once in the hallway and once in the computer lab. Both interactions ended with Evan getting hurt either physically or emotionally, showing a dynamic of a relationship that shouldn't happen. The first interaction was caused by Jared, and if Jared hadn't said anything to Connor, it would be unlikely that Evan would have spoken to him.

In fanon, Treebros is potrayed as Evan being an innocent and helpless person, while Connor is usually a satrical but sweet angel, both going against their canon personalities. Their relationship is shown as Evan being scared and Connor comforting him, while in reality, Connor most likely would have said, "Mood," and moved on.

Throughout the show, Connor is the character we know was abusive. He screamed and chased Zoe around, and threatened to kill her. His substance abuse doesn't justify his actions. In canon, Evan wouldn't want to be with a person like that, especially since he had a major crush on Zoe.

In fanon, Connor's abusive actions (and death) are ignored, turning him and Evan into "uwu smol beans" that are shippable twinks. While modifying a character to fit your AU is fine, but completley erasing the bad parts of a character to make him more shippable isn't.

Evan, on the other hand, made many mistakes, but none were meant to be abusive, and very few turned out abusive in the end. Evan's actions had good intentions, though not all turned out good in the end. Connor's actions were completley ruthless and wrong, especially the ones towards Zoe.

Evan and Connor most likely would not have ended up as a couple in canon, though if Connor had lived, a friendship may have been started. Overall, Treebros wouldn't work out, as their canon and fanon personalities are completley different, and Connor's death is widely ignored in fanon.

A huge reason Treebros is shipped is because "it's gay." Many people in fandoms tend to like mlm (men loving men) relationships over wlw (women loving women) or straight relationships. To some, this may feel like representation and diversity - and it would be if the ship is together canonically - but in fanon, it's simply fetishation. The amount of people who would choose to ship an uncanon ship between two males than a canon straight ship (or even a ship between two girls, canon or not) isn't good. It's not being progressive or "cute," it's fetishation.

Summed up, here's the thing: Connor killed himself, and Evan tried to. Connor was abusive. They are not "gay smol beans," and reducing them to just that is fetishation and removing their entire character.

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