>>111038>>111038I have to agree, this whole conflict is stupid.
While it is still morally dubious to create and distribute sexual content of (exclusively) fictional, adolescent characters, most artists just age up those characters anyway.
So long as a character in a piece of media is both plausibly depicted as having the appearance of a physically mature adult, and is either implied or stated to be physically mature, then the character's canonical age from the original source material is irrelevant to the moral argument. If a fictional character in a piece of art is depicted as an adult, and is labeled as being an adult, then there really isn't any problem with sexualizing them in that particular piece of media, even if the character originally is an adolescent.
Then there are highly abstract characters where their age is either arbitrary or not applicable. Ralsei (and other darkners) from Deltarune for example, (given what is known about them in canon) is the corporeal manifestation of some particular object that enters the Dark World. It is implied that either Kris or some other entity created Ralsei's Dark World form from their imagination. In this case, age is not really applicable to Ralsei. If a piece of art that depicts Ralsei as having what is plausibly a physically mature body, and having appropriate mental maturity, but in a sexual matter, then the moral conflict of sexualizing underage characters does not really apply to that piece of art. If the fictional character looks like an adult, and their age is abstract, then there really isn't a problem.
Then there are freaky characters such as Perfect Cell from Dragon Ball Z. Perfect Cell is predatory, his physique resembles that of a man, and his voice is very masculine, but he is physically androgynous (despite using male pronouns), and can asexual reproduce. And yet, Cell is canonically only 6 years old (thanks Team Four Star for sharing that). So while Perfect Cell is underage, he is clearly physically mature, and I highly doubt that most people would have a problem with someone else making freaky, sexually explicit art of the character.
And for artist who still has a problem with just aging up a character, they can just create an alternate fictional character that is of proper age and majority. For anyone who read through the previous Deltarune/Undertale thread, they might remember the stupid drama about an artist named Fawxen who has an original character named Lynn who closely resembles Noelle.
In summary, the whole argument is stupid for the majority of cases. This counter argument obviously doesn't cover cases of art where a sexualized character's physical maturity is questionable (which I find to be gross), but that's only a minority of cases anyway. And while there are other moral conflicts in far art involving bestiality and incest, those issues are separate to this one.
Is there anything wrong with all that?