You know why this works so well? You see, the prof X student trope isn't bad just because of the minor X adult, or the age gap, but the power imbalance and the teacher's formative role over their student, that's why even if it's college/uni we still might get iffed by a student x teacher dynamic, while it hardly ever will happen if it's a piano teacher or Ceramics teacher. There's no formative aspect in it and the power this person has over their present and future is minimal, a course you take as a past time can be quit any second with no repercussions, usually. Here, they knew each other and had FEELINGS for each other before assuming the positions of teacjer/student. There's no large age gap or power imbalance, you know how in college you realize that hey, you are allowed to become friends with your teacher? That's also how they behave, there's no hierarchical play going on between them. And even though blondie lost years of his life, most of what they do when they hang out now is things late teenagers would also be able to do, so there's no difference in life experience (and this is a very important, very uncomfortable and very OVERLOOKED power imbalance between couples with small age gaps but in wildly different places in their life). It checks all the marks, it avoids all the problematic things of this topic, and as someone who was 17 with a classmate that was 21 and a teacher who was 23 in my last year of high-school, the dynamic of the classmates towards the student and towards the teacher is just right. When you are in high-school you don't see AGE, it's colleagues and teachers, that's the binary we work with. Also, it helps that they are both so very cute and soft and in love and living all the teenage dreams in the softest plot you could thing
You know why this works so well?
You see, the prof X student trope isn't bad just because of the minor X adult, or the age gap, but the power imbalance and the teacher's formative role over their student, that's why even if it's college/uni we still might get iffed by a student x teacher dynamic, while it hardly ever will happen if it's a piano teacher or Ceramics teacher. There's no formative aspect in it and the power this person has over their present and future is minimal, a course you take as a past time can be quit any second with no repercussions, usually.
Here, they knew each other and had FEELINGS for each other before assuming the positions of teacjer/student. There's no large age gap or power imbalance, you know how in college you realize that hey, you are allowed to become friends with your teacher? That's also how they behave, there's no hierarchical play going on between them. And even though blondie lost years of his life, most of what they do when they hang out now is things late teenagers would also be able to do, so there's no difference in life experience (and this is a very important, very uncomfortable and very OVERLOOKED power imbalance between couples with small age gaps but in wildly different places in their life).
It checks all the marks, it avoids all the problematic things of this topic, and as someone who was 17 with a classmate that was 21 and a teacher who was 23 in my last year of high-school, the dynamic of the classmates towards the student and towards the teacher is just right. When you are in high-school you don't see AGE, it's colleagues and teachers, that's the binary we work with.
Also, it helps that they are both so very cute and soft and in love and living all the teenage dreams in the softest plot you could thing