#YuutoRuri

[the-evolving-falcon]

YutoRuri, RinRuri, and ShunYuto for the ship meme, please. :)

YuutoRuri

8.5 = I REALLY like this ship but it wouldn’t work out in canon.

I am perfectly aware of how shallow that makes me sound, but Iactually only started to consider this ship after Ruri’s design hadbeen revealed and I just love how gorgeous and classy these two looknext to one another. However, the more I was thinking aboutwell-written Yuuto and alternate Ruri, the more I began to take thisship seriously and even think of scenarios/AUs for it.

If there is one reason I could never bring myself to likeBraceletshipping, it’d be that the only reason for Yuuto beingprotective of Yuzu at the beginning was that he mistook her for Ruri,and that the conclusion of their only interaction that was trulypositive was Yuuto telling her that she had a lot in common withRuri, meaning all Braceletshipping scenes were never truly aboutYuzu, but about Yuuto’s bond with Ruri, and Yuuto really isn’tmentally weak enough to use any other bracelet girl to replace Ruri(I still have a slight weakness for onesided Braceletshipping withYuzu having an unrequited crush on Yuuto, though lol).

I mean… what we ultimately got for them in later canon iscomplete and utter garbage – you will never hear me deny that fact,but I can still dream of scenarios about them having shared a strongbond from their childhood, and about Dennis’ betrayal and Rurideveloping a crush on them actually having and impact on theirrelationship.

Other than that, I’ve always wanted Ruri to be a wordsmithfascinated with myths and tales, and Yuuto being fond of metaphorshimself and carrying the demeanor of a knight (minus theself-righteousness and the two-dimensional usually associated withthe archetype itself) would make interactions between these twopleasing on many different levels, and there are plenty ofpossibilities of playing around with their contrasting life/deaththemes and giving them an interesting spin.

Emeraldshipping/Cageshipping

Platonic:

9 = I REALLY like this ship and it should be/is canon!

Seriously, I was personally offended when it was revealed thatRuri and Rin had been locked up separately without making any kind ofescape attempt that nearly succeeded, but I wasn’t actually surprisedeither, given how they were both needed as token damsels.

However, since I have elected to disregard post season one canonalmost in its entirety, there’s absolutely nothing stopping me fromthinking about how Ruri should’ve manipulated Leo into imprisoningRin together with her as soon as she learns about her capture bytricking him into lowering his guard – and convinced her to joinher in her plan to escape.

These two would’ve made such a badass combo, with Ruri beingresponsible for designing the plan itself and for its psychologicalaspects of fooling Leo and their guards and Rin being the one tothink about how to actually implement it with their limited resourcesand to build the tools and devices necessary for their escape.

(My fave canon divergent HC about their escape attempt is thatthey only failed due to Serena attempting to escape mere minutesbefore and causing the guards stationed around the island to be onhigh alert)

Other than that, their personalities’d just mesh really well, andI could definitely see them forming a deep friendship and grow to careabout one another a lot- whether in canon divergent scenarios or inAUs.

And their character designs just look so incredibly gorgeous nextto one another

Romantic:

7 = I like it, would read a fanfic with them if it was well written.

It took me till last month or so to even consider it, as I tend toHC these two as mostly straight and already have three romantic shipsfor Ruri that I adore. However, I’ve been pondering the question ofwhich partner’d be worthy of Rin from the moment I began to like herand as a result dislike Appleshippingcause strongly belief that Rindeserves a better partner than dumb and childish Yuugo thinkingparticipating in the Friendship Cup is the Greatest Thing Ever andAbsolutely for Rin’s Sake while Rin is in captivity XX___XX

Well, the conclusion I’ve ultimately come to is that Ruri’dactually be an incredibly good partner for Rin and Rin for Ruri,making them one of my very rare platonic ships that I don’t mindpeople shipping romantically as well. Still, one of my biggest petpeeves surrounding romantic Emerald/Cageshipping is people portrayingRuri as physically and emotionally weaker, but as long as that tropeis avoided, I am totally fine with this ship :)

ShunYuuto

Platonic:

8.5 = I REALLY like this ship but it wouldn’twork out in canon. 

Oh gooosh TT__TT Platonic ShunYuuto is an incredibly strong bondbeautiful in the way their deep mutual respect and affection ismaking up for their relationship’s deep flaws in the way they don’tfully truly understand one another. Ep 24/25 in contrast to ep 21 isa wonderful example of this. In episode 21, Yuuto misinterprets Shunattacking LDS members as him not having understood that LDS doesn’thave any ties with Academia rather than seeing an ulterior motive tohis wreaking havoc, and temporarily blinded by the few remains of hisotherwise discarded ideals, Yuuto knocks him out as Shun, too,initially mistakes Yuzu for Ruri and momentarily lowers his guard.

However, shortly after, Yuuto shares what he knows about Yuzu notbeing Ruri with him and after the implied rest of their conversation,understands that Shun’s aiming to take Reiji hostage and use him as abargaining chip in exchange for Ruri – and as a result, he becomeshis accomplice as Shun goes after the the LDS trio, though it can beargued that he cares just as much (if not more) about not gettingmore “innocent” civilians involved. Still, it is a veryrealistic pursuit of his ideals that is ultimately beneficial toShun.

In addition to that, I just love Shun’s good grasp on the exactextent Yuuto’s abilities. While he did want to rush to Yuuto’s sidein his duel with Sora in ep 35 (after all, Shun’s pessimism does runvery deeply, and he always takes the worst case scenario intoconsideration), he relents rather quickly when Reiji doesn’t want himto, as he has fought Sora himself before and knows that Yuuto isperfectly capable of defeating someone like him and handling thesituation on his own. Even when Yuuya intrudes into their battle andturns the duel into a 2 on 1 duel, Shun doesn’t lose his calm – hehas seen Yuuya duel as well and is positive of Yuuto’s victory (andlets be real here, Yuuto’s strategy and tactics are far superior toYuuya’s).

However, as soon as the camera feeds are cut and the arrival ofmultiple Academia reinforcements turns into a possibility, Shun is onedge and desperate to come to Yuuto’s aid – even more so once itbecomes clear he is dueling Yuugo, an unpredictable duelist using asummoning method the Resistance isn’t used to fighting against andsomeone Yuuto has struggled against before. I don’t necessarilybelief Shun was positive of Yuuto losing, but his worst casescenarios have become far more tangible in this moment due to thechance of Yuuto winning having been reduced to a 50/50, and my heartalways shatters thinking about how Shun basically had to chose Ruri’slife over Yuuto’s as he was leaving the observation room, as to goagainst Reiji’s words and rush to the scene of Yuuto’s battle’d meanletting go of his only means of saving Ruri TT___TT (Seriously, thisis one of the three moments Reiji is in a dire need of a punch inthe face in season one)

If I start talking about Shun’s quest for the truth surroundingYuuto’s disappearance, my rambling’ll become even twice as long, so Iwon’t be doing that now but eh, watching him search for clues sodesperately should be enough to see just how much he truly caredabout Yuuto.

Unpopular opinion here, but I would’ve preferred a friendshipbetween Yuuto and Ruri ultimately turning into Shun + Yuuto + Ruriover than the nonsense we got in later canon and I actually likeimagining Shun and Yuuto officially meet after the invasion and onlybecome best friends after Ruri’s disappearance. It’d make for someinteresting meta surrounding Yuuto’s transition from someone Shun hasto protect (because Ruri cares about him) to someone he can rely on,and scenarios about the two of them gathering information on theirenemy and operation as a team are always A+++

Romantic:

5 = It’s alright, I ship it a little perhaps… 

Used to be my one and only OTP whileHostage was a NOTP (the irony), but once I’ve gained a deeperunderstanding of Shun’s character, I simply couldn’t see it anymore,as a romantic relationship wouldn’t add anything their friendshipdoesn’t already have. Most importantly, however, I no longer see themas equals in strength and intellect, and as people on the samematurity level, and for someone like Shun to truly be content in aromantic relationship (or to be willing to enter one in the firstplace), his partner’d have to fulfill these criteria.

However, as much as just about allromantic Shun ships that are not Hostage gross me out on a deeplypersonal level, ShunYuuto is the sole other ship I will at least acknowledge.

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I’m in SUCH a YuutoRuri mood today tbh....

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YuutoRuri thoughts past 3 am sure are a... thing lol

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I still find it funny how I associate both, YuutoRuri and Janushipping with Malice Mizer aesthetics - especially when it comes to stage!singer x stage!Mana (no real person shipping here outside that of their stage personae cause... yanno lol), with Janushipping representing the Gackt and YuutoRuri the Klaha era.

...And then, all three characters together makes me think of MdM cause that is basically a mix of both eras in a way even though first and foremost, MdM makes me think of just Ruri.

[the-evolving-falcon]

Ruri

[Aaaah, my daughter

SEND ME A CHARACTER AND I’LL DO THIS;

Sexuality Headcanon: Heterosexual/biromanticGender Headcanon: FemaleA ship I have with said character: I almost equally love egaoless!YuutoRuri, Janushipping, and Vassalshipping.A BROTP I have with said character: Amethystshipping TT___TT It was me who actually coined that ship name because there are so many adorable and interesting scenarios based on the premise of Shun being Reiji’s boyfriend, as well as AUs. As canon divergent Ruri is incredibly intelligent, they could have a lot of mentally stimulating conversations, with Reiji getting to experience genuine family bonds founded on more than simple blood ties that ultimately amount for nothing. On top of that, Ruri teasing and flustering Reiji over his relationship with Shun gives me life :DA NOTP I have with said character: Guiltshipping. Every interaction between these two is insulting to what Xyz used to stand for and Ruri losing to a child, who can’t even remember the effects of her own fucking cards, because egao is disgraceful, so please get ugly glasses girl far away from my daughter XX___XX (Haha, Sayaka doesn’t even exist in the backstory of my Ruri, nor do Kaito and Allen for that matter)A random headcanon: Ruri is a huge lover of tales and myths, creating stories and daydreams around them as a means of at least temporarily escaping the harsh reality of war, and she is able to recite her most favored ones from memory.General Opinion over said character: Canon Ruri is…. bad. A walking and talking plot device with the sole purpose of bullshitting a connection between the Xyz trio and Yuushou, but then again, what was I to expect after Konami decided to turn a war story into a kindergarten egao fest?

It is still funny, though, given how back before the degrading Xyz arc, my biggest fear for her was to become a Rio 2.0, which…. frankly put, would’ve been thrice as tolerable as the pathetic whining egao plot device we got, who was then revealed to be part of an even worse asspull plot device (no, the abomination that is Rayko Akaba doesn’t exist in any of my muses verses), but I digress.

As much as canon Ruri repulses me, a canon divergent version of this character based on Shun, Yuuto, and Dennis holds an immense amount of potential, and I just love to create scenarios based on her almost succeeding to escape her imprisonment through careful planning and subtly manipulating her guards, leading to her bond with Rin in the process, as well as the psychological effects of her captivity. 

It is just interesting to think of what kind of person she’d have to be for intelligent up-until-ep-45!Shun to care for her to such extent, and for the love of god giving her the mental strength and skills befitting a Resistance member based on season one.

And asfjhakaslkl, aaaah, her character design is just sooooooo beautiful TT___TT(I will never forgive Konami for not providing me with a single well-animated ep of a Ruri who isn’t making deranged faces because of brainwashing XX__XX)]

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theholylight

  theholylight  theholylight  ...

I guess it was unexpected? Not sure… Yeah, Dennis is the best imo ^_^ Well he is younger so I’m good either way? :D Ehm, I used to be really into YutoxRuri, YurixSerena… I never had any huge otps for Arc V, to be frank. As for favorite characters, season 1 Yuzu/Serena, Yuto/Yuri, Shun… would have been Ruri too if not for well everything :( I liked the thought of Ray too till the canon happened lol

Oh, these are many similarities to my own preferences :)

My OTP is Hostageshipping portrayed as a healthy relationship of two equals in intellect and strength, with their attraction being based on one another’s mind, but I do love YuutoRuri and YuuriSere a lot too, as well as Janushipping, TsukikageRuri (I started shipping it because of RP lol), Serenadeshipping, Lustershipping, and onesided (temporary) Prodigyshipping~

Arc-V actually gave me my first Brotp I am truly passionate about as well, namely Amethystshipping (= Reiji + Ruri) XD  As for my faves: Shun, Reiji, Yuuri, Yuuto, Serena, alternate!Ruri and Rin. As I mentioned before, I strongly disliked Ray from the very beginning, as her existence alone ruined the last bit that remained to my bracelet girl faves, Reiji, and Shun ^^’

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theholylight

  Non-sappy non-egao YuutoRuri is my lifeblood -...

I always though Predator was because of their archetypes but yeah o.o As for YutoRuri, I liked the other option better, what was it again…?

The other option for YuutoRuri was Gothicshipping, which I prefered myself, but wasn't fully content with either, just... siiiigh, something related to their life/death motifs would be nice, but then again, what can you expect from like 95% of their shippers loving the shallow and grossly sappy lovestruck egao couple nonsense canon ultimately reduced them to XX___XX

Partly, yes. But mostly, it was because of them both being "predators," which.... simply couldn't be more inaccurate, if we are taking Serena's pre-egao personality into consideration.

Serena isn't a Strong Independent Woman, but in fact, pretty damn delusional and easy to influence. Even as she claims to defy the Professor and Academia itself, she is still pursuing the idealized image of an honorable Academia soldier ingrained in her by the propaganda she must've been fed for a very long time - and without her even noticing.

This observation is by no means meant to bash her as a character, but just as there is a lot of potential in developing a genuinely intellect character and the workings of a beautiful mind, it is equally interesting to explore the particularly unique flawed perception Serena used to have of herself and her surroundings- and I'm applying this logic in both directions.

To see an Xyz or Standard character aid her in picking apart her delusions and truly become what she wishes to see herself as or to see a Fusion character (preferably Yuuri) shamelessly exploit her flawed thinking process to make her dance in their palm and return is of equal interest to me.

I've yet to see anything from her fanbase going beyond OMGGG, too gay to function (which is... on another level of bad) or an idealized portrayal of this complex character already appearing to be close to a self-insert at times.

As for myself, I've always regarded Serena as a weapon gone berserk, someone seeking to be "wielded" properly without her being fully aware of it - and I'd really love to actually RP her on a regular basis (she's the second of my three canon-divergent Arc-V muses lol)

But yeah, let’s go turn YuuriSere into this tough battle couple with Serena restraining Yuuri or redeeming him, when doing so does neither character justice.

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Non-sappy non-egao YuutoRuri is my lifeblood - especially when gray morality, war, and their contrasting life/death motifs are involved.

In other words, this still needs an alternate ship name cuz Fallenangel is just.... let’s say underwhelming.

Though tbh, it is not nearly as urgent as finding an alternate name for predatorshipping because that name is just grossly OOC in regard to Serena.

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ADshkjafslagklfakl, I just really love YuutoRuri <3 <3 <3

It’s such a good an wholesome ship with the most beautiful aesthetics <3

Also, Hostage + YuutoRuri solidarity ftw! I sometimes imagine these 4 visiting a shrine together at the beginning of the year and I just O.O <3 O.O

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Oh boy, but I really need to commission a small TsukiRuri thing one day because YuutoRuri being my fave Ruri ship aside, I’ll always have a super soft spot for that ship O.O

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Finished the Kagen no Tsuki rewatch I’d been planning on for like a month or so- and yup, it did give me the exact onesided Braceletshipping / mutual YuutoRuri vibes I thought I’d be giving me, should I ever watch it with these pairings in mind :D

Like, seriously, the premise is so goddamn perfect for these ships- and were it not for the fact that I’d kinda be forced to make Yuzu the protag, which I’m not actually all that enthusiastic about tbh, I’d be 110% serious about thinking of a plot for an AU like that lol 

I mean... this particular AU promise’d make it possible to include sooo many nice season one canon parallels too, so it’ll probably always be tempting me in one way or another :D

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Tbh one day, I really have to commission a YuutoRuri thing because I do super love that ship as well as both characters, but... this’ll always be a big dilemma because of there being no ‘cure’ whatsover for my constant unquenchable Hostage and Amethyst thirst O.O

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Kinda tempted to rewatch Bara no Konrei or Last Quarter now- just to honor the good old VK times and aggressively hunt for some more YuutoRuri aesthetics :D

Like, from what I remember of Last Quarter, the premise (or something similar to it) could easily be turned into a YuutoRuri-turned-onesided-Bracelet-mess, which could be pretty neato to play around with tbh. 

Bara no Konrei... yeah, since it’s the Klaha era of Malice Mizer we’re talking about, that one having lots and lots of YuutoRuri aesthetics in particular is kinda a given lol 

Who’d have thought that my past self’s VK obsession is actually proving to be useful years later :D

But yeah, I really wasn’t all that much into the super popular ‘pretty boy bands’, but rather into GACKT, Malice Mizer, Moi Dix Mois, Hyde, which was already considered to be somewhat ‘old school’ back when I got into these artists- at least among the German VK fanbase. 

Ohhhh booooy, but the real people shipping, though O.O Did I ever confess that I had such ships too? :D :D In my defense, though, I was never all that serious about it or actually believed that the ones in question were dating irl- instead, I was somewhat thinking of it like “If these people were actors, this is the kind of story I’d like them to play:” And yeah, I actually did cringe and facepalm a lot at a person (who had quite a bit of a following and ‘fandom authority status’) actually throwing around terms like IC and OOC in the context of constantly writing one of my fave artists in particular as “everyone’s favorite mentally feeble bottom slut” (all while literally stating in their profile that they themself were SUPER frustrated at people not realizing that the ones they were writing about and shipping around were men, and not some walking effeminate... idek how to describe that cringey stereotype, like, wow, that’s some amazing self-awareness right there :D :D :D) lol 

So yeah, I did see some really bad and cringeworthy stuff back then :D 

That being said, strong aversion against actual real people shipping aside (because tbh, I can still dig the aesthetics of ships between two artists’ stage personae, but... no, no step further than that), I still find jokes about GACKT being ‘Mana’s ex’ hilarious- same applies to the joke about ‘Mana’s exes’ always dying their hair blond after ‘breaking up’ with him and/or switching to the pop genre when going solo because GOD, that... really seems to be a pattern :D :D :D But again, nope, I do not actually believe that Mana used to date his singers lol

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I have this 90% cleaned up Ruri in my manip WIP folder, which has been sitting around in this state for like half a year (wtf???) because I wasn’t able to find a decent Reiji or Yuuto shot and turn it into the platonic Amethyst or the romantic YuutoRuri.

That and I had kinda lost my complete motivation to do anything Amethyst thanks to the hypocrites’ Reiji/bg nonsense and I didn’t want my Amethyst content to be associated with their garbage in any way, so there’s that as well.

So yeah, I may or may not turn it into something in the nearish future because cleaning up Ruri was a MASSIVE pain and letting that go to waste’d be a shame imo. 

The question is just... What to do with it? Should I keep trying for the Amethyst or YuutoRuri or go for a different Ruri ship I like?

I don’t think I’ll be going for Janu, though, but who knows...?

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AFSjkhasfkgajfsaklkl, I’m ‘happy’ there’s a post about what is literally part of the premise of one of my fave AUs (which I am now glad to have never wasted on my unworthy ex-friend)- just in that one, the auspice chickens are being starved, so they’d always scarve down offerings to the last crumb, which of course SUPER pisses off the gods- and guess who’s being sent to the front despite all this because his family’s political enemies want him dead anyways? LOL

I mean.... of course, this is by no means the only ‘nice’ thing I have thought of for this AU- and naturally, The OTP has a wonderfully disastrous first encounter too, to follow a tradition I’m way too amused by at this point and for the sake of canon parallels, just.... *cough* digging up the hair piece of the deceased little sister of a man who’d undergone apotheosis against his will and offering it to him as some kind of ‘private joke’ - AND in the presence of said sister’s grieving friend... *cough* that is always nice and a wonderful idea :D :D :D 

But yeah, I am finally regaining my inspiration for that AU, so hopefully, I’ll be able to get my two Ruri replies done soon because while thinking about how to explore ‘War God!Shun makes me go potentialpotentialpotential O.O’ (that and I’m way too weak for Hostage and platonic Blizzard), I’m way too enthusiastic about Ruri and Rin as Rome’s Shadiest Priestesses and Pluto-and-Proserpina-aesthetics!YuutoRuri too lol

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Another day, another evening of... Shun and Xyz trio feels?

(Like, OUCH! TT___TT This piece of fanart just REALLY hurts because of the dreamlike feel it has to it TT___TT Just... Shun TT___TT My precious one TT____TT) 

Also, what is this slight ShunYuuto nostalgia when those days are long over for me? O.O I suppose, a small part of me can still see it happen in a set of very specific circumstances and with a very specific characterization despite my firm belief that Reiji is the only one who could truly make Shun happy and actually make him believe in a future (also, Reiji, who has never experienced anything genuine in his life, really needs his intelligent rude soldier boyfriend) and despite me thinking that (egaoless) YuutoRuri is the better ship for Yuuto as well.

If I were that kind of person, I’d say that Yuuto should simply date both Kurosaki siblings because he is precious and deserves them, and once Shun encounters Reiji, he should just include him too, but naaaaaaah lol That’d be OOCness in its purest form, and Hostageshipping + YuutoRuri interactions are actually far more appealing than that, especially platonic Reiji + Yuuto interactions (apart from the obvious Amethyst ones) would be pretty damn interesting in this context~

One another note, can we please stop acting as though there’d be any reason for Yuuto and Ruri to keep their relationship secret from Shun because Shun is ooohmygoood, so overprotective and controlling? Because this particular trope has been getting on my last nerves from day one -.-