#and one of those characters also have a cool dynamic with another character romantically! cool!

[thebestusernamepossible]

Fandom is so tiring sometimes. Like girl(gn) not everything you dislike has to be for some moral reason! And you trying to justify disliking/liking something harmless by basing it in morality is not good for your or anyones mental health. Please stop doing that. It gives reason for my intrusive thoughts to say I’m bad for disagreeing with you even if I know logically your point is fucking stupid. Like it’s FANDOM, it’s not that serious. Chill out. A person is not morally wrong for not having the same favorite book in a series as you.

[descendant-of-truth]

Y'know what maybe I'm not done talking about Journeys queercoding actually. maybe I do wanna work out my literary analysis muscles for the sake of Pokemon protagonists. why not

To clarify, this isn't about me personally enjoying the ship between Ash and Gou. I do enjoy it, but I'm making an argument for potentially deliberate queercoding in the writing, I'm not necessarily just here to gush (though that may be a side effect)

I'm also a firm believer that actions or behaviors that we typically think of as romantic are only made romantic if that's how the people involved feel about it. I don't think romance is the only possible way to interpret their relationship.

But when it comes to predicting where a story might be going next, or figuring out what the writers are intending to hint at us, I gotta pull out my textbook of Romantic Tropes first to see what fits the bill.

And I'm sorry, but even if it's not the intended interpretation, you can't include all of these scenes:

...and assume no one in your audience will think there's anything romantic happening here.

Of course, those are just the obvious visual interactions between them that can come off as romantic, to say nothing of the symbolic visual hints; the no less than four rainbows they've been under (one of which was reflected in Gou's eye), the two sets of heart-shaped pokemon that swam past them in a single episode which also had them falling under a rainbow, stuff like that.

But even all of that is pretty surface-level stuff. If the writing doesn't support a queer reading very strongly, then my argument for the queercoding being particularly intentional would fall flat.

Thankfully, the writing does support a queer interpretation, so I'm in the clear! Since breaking this part down will take a lot longer, I'm putting it under a cut.

So, right off the bat we've got the basic setup for the show. For the first time, the focus is primarily on Ash and one other person, as opposed to two or more people... despite having a third person in Chloe, who could easily make this into a trio dynamic, considering she's friends with Gou from the start. But they choose instead to make the core of the show about Ash and Gou.

This is even reflected in promotional material, where they'll often be placed closer to each other than Chloe:

Them being roommates is something I usually bring up as a joke, but it is worth noting anyway simply because it's another way the writers have decided they're going to spend almost all of their time together when they really didn't have to.

But now we gotta get into the real Writing Choices(TM) that are the meat and potatoes of this analysis, such as: making brief allusions to the idea that they might like other guys, too

One way to build up a character's orientation is to show them being attracted to people in shorter instances before giving them a main love interest. Think Luz from The Owl House; she had expressed attraction to both boys and girls before she got a girlfriend or started wearing a bi pin.

Likewise, this is Ash when he's thinking about Leon after seeing him battle for the first time:

I kid you not, he keeps up this blush and zoned-out expression for a solid minute, so caught up in thinking about how cool Leon is that he doesn't even think to eat the scones in front of him.

Now, Ash is a person frequently characterized by his love for food, and in previous episodes he had expressed a particular adoration for Galar scones, so this is pretty unusual behavior for him.

So unusual that it's. literally never happened before, to the best of my knowledge?? I don't think it takes much analyzing to realize that, even if it was brief, you could easily take this as Ash having a celebrity crush on Leon.

(There's even pink flowers in the background but that's probably less important)

Meanwhile with Gou, his "setup crush" in this scenario would be Horace. These two have a whole episode dedicated to their first meeting and the bond they forged, and how that turned bitter on Gou's end when he gets stood up right as he thought he was finally making a friend.

What sets this up for a romantic interpretation is largely the framing of things towards the end of the episode:

"Why do I keep thinking of him" is historically not the most platonic thing you could be bitterly thinking to yourself while you remember stargazing with someone, even if I do stand by my statement earlier of nothing being inherently romantic by itself

The end of the episode also implies that the feeling is mutual, if this shot is anything to go off of

(It's just a very shoujo manga-esque frame okay there's no way I wasn't going to point it out)

And the ending scene is two Celebies looking down happily at the two of them while the narrator talks about how pokemon form "many different kinds of bonds"

Many kinds of bonds, huh? Wonder what he could possibly be implying there

Okay so we've got orientation buildup, next in line is this. suspiciously consistent trend of characters who are close to Ash telling Gou to take care of him, or even going out of their way to test him to make sure he's good enough to be his rival or friend.

Gou himself even echoes the sentiment completely unprompted once, which says even more to me that they're trying to make a point out of this:

And here's the thing. None of the other companions have ever undergone this sort of treatment. Nobody questioned whether or not Ash's friends were good enough to hang out with him before, so why now? Why Gou? What makes him different?

Kiawe is relatively easy to explain because (from what I can tell) he's just Like That about rivalries, but why the addition of describing a rival as "the person closest to Ash"? Why does Gary suddenly care about the quality of Ash's buddies when that was never really a concern for him before?

Well gee I don't know about you guys but to me, this feels like the trope where someone's friends and family all start scouting out the guy they're interested in (or who is interested in them) to make sure they won't like, break their heart or something. And despite my best efforts, I'm struggling to see how this wasn't the writers' intention behind these plotlines.

Gou telling Ash's mom that he'll look after Ash on two separate occasions as opposed to the initial one also feels like an easy parallel to someone promising their love interest's parents that they'll be a good partner.

To my understanding, that isn't traditionally something friends also have to promise, even if there's more justification here as Ash and Gou are traveling around and getting into chaotic situations regularly.

So, with all this in mind, it kind of reframes the stuff I mentioned earlier, doesn't it? The blushing, the hand-holding, the spin hug that I'm never getting over, the frequent appearance of rainbows and the heart shaped Pokemon (Luvdisc if you were wondering)... it feels a lot more intentional once you take into account the bigger themes in the writing.

And once you start looking, it keeps piling up. The way Gou hurriedly says that he totally didn't want to help Ash out or anything after Scorbunny gives him a knowing look, like how most tsundere tropes tend to play out:

Or the specific way Gou is taken aback by one of Ash's compliments before trying to play it off by looking cool, only to be comically shocked when Ash gets distracted by something else:

I could go on but I'm running out of image space and I think you get the idea.

Ash's side of this whole thing is admittedly a lot more subtle than Gou's (*cough* because he's arospec) which is why I haven't gone over it much - my aim with this post was not to go too far into speculation territory - but we at least have marketing on our side for that

Gee Ash how come Animedia let you feed Gou two pastries

Anyway, in conclusion: I ran these two through the literary queerometer and the results were positive, thanks for coming to my TED talk

[moistvonlipwig]

can i do the same thing to you i did to sssammich and upend all the -corps on your desk or is that too greedy 🥴

looping in @yourlocalegotisticalqueerishere since it's easier to do these all in one post ! alphabetical order for funsies under the cut:

agentcorp - no...idk what to say really except the vibes are off for me. sorry chyler </3 i know you wanted to kiss katie so bad. i think alex and lena have similarities & differences (just like every character does with every other character lol) but i personally feel like their specific similarities & differences would cause them to either enable each other's worst aspects or to butt heads constantly. just my onion i know many people disagree and that's fine. also the triple hit of alex trying to nuke lena and justifying it by twisting all her previous good deeds to make them sound bad, lying about it to her face while asking for her help, and then not advocating for her to get her memories back and even encouraging kara to deceive her once again all in quick succession in s5 -- all of which got swept under the rug in s6 -- really soured me on the friendship s4 had built up between them. so i'm not even really a fan of their friendship. tragique :(

braincorp - they are my brotp <333 i don't ship them romantically at all but actually their relationship is probably my favorite relationship on the show period. it helps that they are my 2 fave characters lol but also they are so smart and so bitchy together and i love them <333 brainy is so ride or die for lena even when she gives him literally the worst advice anyone has ever given anyone else in the history of the world and lena feels safe with brainy to express how she really feels and they are kindred spirits. also the parallel to the comics dynamic between brainiac & lex luthor [which should've made it to the show!!! where was the original brainiac???] is poetic. braincorp 4 life !!!

dreamcorp - again i don't ship them at all but it's so bonkers that developing this relationship wasn't more of a priority for the writers. little sisters with asshole siblings who blame themselves for their mother's deaths (and also have magic powers i guess thanks s6 🥴)...the scenes write themselves! or so you would think. i liked that they had some rapport in s6 but also ngl it cracked me up in 6x07 when nia called lena "family" i was like girl this is your first onscreen conversation ever 😭 you are colleagues at best...oh well. i like the idea of them becoming found family though. i don't see the superfriends as a found family (they are actually this cool thing called 'friends' instead) but nia & lena specifically i think could come to lean on each other in a sisterly way.

guardiancorp - so as i've mentioned part of what really piqued my interest in guardiancorp was the reveal that james had 16 scars from lex yet he was able to look past that to see lena for who she was not just as lex's little sister. james as clark's best friend and lena as lex's sister are kind of inherently tied together by the superman/lex drama and i'm interested in how they can work through that to love each other anyway. one thing i find interesting about them is that they are deeply different in ways that could set them at odds -- lena is a luthor, james is team super; lena is a white woman, james is a black man; lena is morally flexible, james is much more morally steadfast/rigid -- yet they are able to find solidarity and common ground with each other despite those things and have each other's backs. a lot of people like to point to the scene where lena & james are completely out of sync at game night as evidence that they were never really right for each other, but the thing i always remember is that lena wanted to practice with him afterwards. she wanted to put in the work. that's actually very romantic to me. another thing i like is how protective they are of each other; morgan edge might call james lena's bodyguard and james might take a bullet for her and dangle morgan edge off a building for her but lena is also HIS bodyguard who would make deals with the DA for him and poison her mother for him. they're each other's guardians. also they are capable of being so powerful and bitchy together like when they went to confront morgan edge in 3x09 that was sooo funny and iconic. i do wish the show built them up better and let us see their friendship properly develop in 3a instead of having them flirt in a couple scenes and then not interact for 4 episodes and then have kara & sam hamfistedly tell us they have chemistry. if i were writing season 3 i would give them a slower build and probably not have them kiss until the balcony scene in 3x17. but oh well. if wishes were horses i would have lots of horses. i wouldn't even know what to do with all those horses. so it's a good thing wishes aren't horses, if you think about it.

kellycorp / goldencorp (that's the name i just came up with now that i am advocating for) - i quite like this idea because it's a kelly ship i can actually get invested in. hooray <3 i think kelly would be good for lena and, crucially, i think lena would be good for kelly. they both are more 'outsiders' to the superfriends than the other members are, as evinced by the two of them being the last to know supergirl's identity, and i think they could bond over that. i could see kelly feeling comfortable being displeased/angry with lena in a way she maybe doesn't with the other superfriends, while also holding space for lena's emotions in a way Certain Other People Who Shall Remain Nameless aren't always very good at. and i could also see lena really enjoying spoiling kelly with her wealth and kelly being kind of into it. also the fact that the showrunners seemed weirdly allergic to putting azie and katie into scenes together, meanwhile azie and katie were supposedly constantly flirting on set and working overtime to try and sneak goldencorp crumbs into the background, suggests to me that their chemistry was so palpable and powerful that TPTB were scared of letting them loose lest the fandom descend even further into ship wars. ...ok that last part is just a silly little conspiracy theory that i made up so please don't repeat it as fact or even as plausible speculation but also why Did the showrunners keep them apart so much 🤔 makes you think !

mirrorcorp [mirrorverse iris/lena aka a ship i invented] - so if you've never seen the flash you are probably thinking: who is mirrorverse iris??? i'm so glad you asked. mirrorverse iris is a clone of iris from the mirror realm which is NOT an 'evil universe' a la star trek, it is instead a world literally inside mirrors. mirrorverse iris was essentially created by mirror monarch (don't ask) for the purpose of infiltrating the normal world. she spends an arc impersonating the real iris and is similar in some ways but is also angrier, more ruthless, and more impulsive. in her last episode she figures out that she wants to be her own person and live life on her own terms not mirror monarch's and she defies mirror monarch during a fight with barry and then she dies. don't like that she died i wish she'd stuck around she was an epic character. but anyway this arc takes place in season 6b of the flash which you guessed it coincides with season 5b of supergirl. so my pitch is that instead of teaming up with lex to continue project nonsense lena goes on a sojourn to central city and meets mirrorverse iris who is impersonating real iris and undergoing an existential crisis/crisis of conscience. and the two bond and become friends. and then mirrorverse iris doesn't die and she and lena have to figure out who they want to be for themselves not just for the people who created them or tried to mold them in their image. and then they kiss about it idk just saying it could be good!

nationalcitydistrictattorneycorp - i mean. you've seen the scene. possibly the most sexually charged scene in the entire show. unclear to me why both actresses decided to play it that way but ok queens !

peggycorp - not my thing but i respect the warriors 👍

reigncorp - sam is imo the best & healthiest friend lena could ask for -- actually the best & healthiest friend anyone on this show could ask for -- but i don't really think their relationship is improved or made more interesting by them dating. i do think they have hooked up in the past and they decided they were better off as friends.

rojascorp - i'm not a rojascorp shipper actually but i believe in their beliefs...andrea and lena definitely dated, i see them as exes who still have affection for each other & sexual tension, i'm just not interested in the idea of them getting back together. if anything i actually worry that andrea might be too deferential to lena? i think she sees herself as deeply indebted to lena and -- whether you're looking at the pre-crisis more interesting timeline where she directly has blood on her hands or the post-crisis less interesting timeline where she tried to kill supergirl & accidentally put william in the line of fire -- i think she has a lot of guilt and she views lena as a moral authority in contrast to her morally 'tarnished' view of herself. which is interesting & juicy because most characters don't view lena that way. but i don't know that it's a great dynamic for a romance.

spheercorp - jack is sweet and rahul kohli is pretty. here endeth my thoughts on spheercorp. ...ok i guess i can say a little more which is that like rojascorp i prefer them as exes/bffs to them getting back together. i also will say that, while i think jack's death contributed to a disturbing trend on the show of killing off south asian characters, i do actually rather like it as a character beat for lena. i enjoy seeing him pop up in fics but in the show itself i think him dying is kind of a better story. sorry jacky :(

supercorp - i mean i think the premise alone is kind of epic and awesome. a super and a luthor but they're in love. like that's just plain cool. plus think of the awkward family dinners! i am always here for ships that will generate awkward family dinners. i also think they have a lot of great comedy scenes together which is always a plus to me shipping-wise, i like ships with a comedic bent. but there's also a lot of juicy drama/tragedy/gay divorce with them too which is also good of course. as a big fan of dramatic irony i like the secret/reveal as a storytelling device i just wish they handled it better post-5x01 (i think 4x22 and 5x01 actually kind of nailed it ngl). i like that they both used each other's kryptonite on the other person and yet they were able to forgive that and love the other person anyway. i mean the actual in-show process of forgiveness was wack but the idea is spicy. and i like that, as kara herself (clunkily) put it in the finale, they really do challenge each other and push each other to be better. as i've mentioned before theirs is a relationship where actions have consequences and where every scene they have matters and affects later scenes, which is unlike.....well, most relationships on the show, frankly. i also tend to think their scenes are just generally better-written and have more subtext (and i'm not just talking about the gay kind) and interesting things going on in them than most of the rest of the show's scenes. for all my many gripes about how s5 & s6 handled their fallout and then kind of just papered over it with platitudes, i still think their relationship is one of the best parts of the show and it's still the major thing that keeps me on the hook.

[confessmau]

I do not think “Laurence’s out of control shadow knight tendencies could lead to abusive actions” should be seen as demonizing mental illness. I mean Laurence canonically left because he didn’t want to harm and/or kill her, which he feared he may do because of being a shadow knight, because as far as I know very few shadow knights have ever resisted that urge. Aphmau is also his most credited tether to his humanity, and he has all the Jesson Love Interest problems of boundary crossing and jealousy (most poeple just take it more seriously as Laurence traits for some reason, maybe see them as actually fitting his personality or maybe his bouts felt more in character, just important to point out that they are generally seen as his traits and not just Jesson Writing)

People taking those facts and coming to the conclusion that if him and Aphmau were to form a romantic relationship, it would be unhealthy or even abusive is not them demonizing Laurence or his mental illness (honestly I don’t like calling being a shadow knight a mental illness at all, but it’s the closest real life thing and has symptoms that mirror real life mental illnesses so. I get it. It just doesn’t sit right with me personally) it’s just them having a different conclusion than you. I understand both sides, I love a good love conquers story but also with how centered around Aphmau Laurence’s shadow knight half is, I could absolutely see a relationship between them being unhealthy or even, dare I say, abusive.

And one last thing. Abuse≠Physical. I doubt anyone is saying Laurence would take part in domestic violence. I think it’s more that it could get very Emotionally unhealthy and unintentionally abusive. Think unhealthy one sided codependency, the jealousy, potentially protectiveness morphing into possessiveness. Things like that.

Again. Not saying a relationship between them Would And Should Turn Out Like That And If You Don’t Think So You’re WRONG I am saying it is just another interpretation of the characters and their dynamics, and automatically thinking anyone who has an interpretation that is not Her Love Does Save Him Actually, is just being ableist and demonizing is kinda not cool. It’s just people coming to different conclusions and potentially exploring them. Which is what is keeping this fandom alive.

~~

[fuutaprotectionsquad]

Yknow I feel like I should have a main post where I share my Milgram opinions/verdicts (thought of this bc i was writing my sister's opinion on the milgram characters). So I'll go character by character.

Will anyone read this? I don't know but its here

Haruka: I relate to him a bit (shitty mother, intrusive homicidal thoughts, neurodivergence). I def feel bad for him but hes still really guilty in my mind. I just think the whole killing for attention thing is a really dangerous mindset you can't just get out of, especially if you're being told you're not in the wrong. And it definitely seems like he doesn't actually feel bad for the girl he killed, just feels bad because people are mad at him for it. Idk. But I enjoy his dynamic with Muu a lot, even tho its toxic i just think its really interesting. But I wish him the best and he deserves a hug. His songs are mid tho (/hj i like them)

Yuno: I love her personality and I think shes so fun, but I honestly don't think about her a lot compared to the others. But I love her and specifically enjoy her dynamics with (obv mostly in fan content) Kazui, Mahiru and Fuuta. Her and Fuuta are such a good platonic ship (romantic is fun too). Innocent vote, obv. I like her songs, but Tear Drop moreso than Umbilical.

Fuuta: Oh my god I wonder what I think of him. In all seriousness he's a major hyperfixation of mine at like every given moment. I adore him and i think he deserves better and to be innocent. Like he feels so guilty for what he did and he didn't know any better, everyone around him was encouraging his behavior and praising him for it. But then it got too far and all his friends abandoned him and blamed him like. Poor fuuta :( and he's like 100% right when he says him and es are exactly the same. On another note, major fan of 0309 (romantically, but either way works), and also love his dynamic with Haruka, Yuno, Mahiru, Amane and Es. His songs are both in my top three (backdraft being #1)

Muu: Tied for my fav character(? Fuuta might beat her idk) I love her personality and vibe and everything just ❤️❤️ queen shit. And her queen bee design is gorgeous. Typically my favs are men but shes one of the first women ive hyperfixated on this much. Again, love her dynamic with Haruka, not from a like. healthy relationships could make the characters better standpoint, but from a story perspective its interesting. But yeah guilty. As for her songs, INMF is my #2 and i like After Pain

Shidou: Honestly I used to be kinda indifferent about him and just found him to be boring but then I rewatched his voice dramas and read some fics and I like him more now. I feel really bad for him bc he went through a really shitty situation which he felt he had the power to change and was stuck in a shitty moral dilemma bc of it. And in the end he did shitty things to save those he loved and it didn't even matter. He feels so guilty and doesn't deserve it. Innocent <3. Also romantic 0507 ftw (0506 is cool too). Him and Amane are silly too. As for his songs i like them, but they're not my fav

Mahiru: i like her, but im not too like. invested in her ig. But i feel bad for her :( she just wants to feel love and like. clearly she did something wrong but she didn't know she was. She never intended to hurt anyone. So innocent. Unless we find out she like. did something really fucking bad then maybe guilty. But in I Love You it implies it was a mutual toxicity so it probably wasn't something super terrible? But anyway. I love her with like all the characters cuz shes just so fun to see interact w others, but specifically with Yuno, Fuuta, Shidou, Amane and Mikoto.

Kazui: Hes so fun i love him. Like all he wants is to be honest and be himself but he feels pressured to lie and then finally he tells the truth and his wife fucking kills herself like- jeez- poor guy. Like following the gay theory, i get why she mightve done it (imagine being told the romance you built your entire life around for like 20 years was all a lie, and that your husband never actually loved you and just pretended to and every time you kissed or something he was just pretending like. that sucks poor hinako) but its so awful that he had to go thru that. But anyway innocent, kazui come out we accept you. And stan 0507. Song wise cat is easily #4 but. half is ok ig

Amane: Yknow i love amane but I also hate her and i think part of that might be the fandom? idk. I feel sorry for her bc she grew up in such a shitty situation but also i think shes beyond the point where we can uninstill those ideologies. Like shes 12, not 5. And amane says it herself that she has as much of a free will as everyone else and that her decision to kill/stay in this environment should be valued. Not that i think she should remain in this abusive situation, but she's not just some innocent kid whose being manipulated, she knows what she's doing. Hence, guilty. I don't think either vote will change her or anything so im voting with my honest opinion. As for dynamics, i love seeing her interact with all the other prisoners, but especially Shidou and Fuuta.

Mikoto: I love mikoto a lot but im so on the fence about his verdict. Ive been voting him innocent but theres still a part of me thats like. debating it. Bc he shouldn't have to be punished for John's actions, and it sucks that that's the situation hes in, but its that or more murders are left to occur. The main reason i say innocent is under the idea that John could go dormant or just stop fronting as much if we reduce mikoto's stress (like he says will happen i think). But hes so complex and fun i love mikoto. Specifically i love romantic 0309 but also his dynamic w the smoking group and mahiru. Also i love his songs.

Kotoko: I love her but also fuck her for hurting fuuta (and mahiru too but mainly fuuta). She annoys me bc she was so quick to almost murder several people based on a preliminary verdict that was made using little information. Like she knew this wasn't a concrete verdict, but attacked them anyway. I get her ideology of "kill people who evade justice to protect the weak" but only when they've actually done bad things (ie. the guy kidnapping the little girl). But when she doesn't know what they did and knows the person accusing them doesn't either???? Like bruh. But i like her character shes fun. I like seeing how she interacts with es and everyone she attacked. And songs, harrow is okay and i really like deep cover.

Whew im done.

[theflavorofmyautismisspicy]

i love to read people yap about this show lol so here's another ask: do u maybe wanna expand on why you like the other dynamics u mentioned? People on here talk a lot about Deon n toxic yuri queens Natascha + Vanessa (rightfully so!) but I haven't heard or read much about jojonessa or marlkong (the latter always kind of floats around but isn't discussed that much i feel)

Gladly !!

With Jojonessa, I just think their friendship is very sweet. Like Jojo being the one who immediately accepted and wanted Vanessa to be part of the team and clearly thought that she was so cool and was never afraid to defend her. On the other hand there’s Vanessa being always ready to break the law or go “fuck this dude” for Jojo’s sake. Gotta love how protective they can get over one another. And ofc there’s that scene of Vanessa referring to herself as Jojo’s sister, which I will never be normal about. Jojo has quite a traumatizing backstory with his father being dead and mother being treated at a clinic so Vanessa going “yea you have now something like a sister” really solidifies that he doesn’t have to deal with all of that alone and that his friends are like a family to him. But yeah all though I like them way more as friends or even with a big sister and little brother type of dynamic but I’m not opposed to romantic Jojonessa either. They do have a certain “me and my cool wife” charm to them. Jojo watching Vanessa with heart shaped eyes as she bites an energy drink open with her teeth

With Marlkong, I like the whole Kong’s redemption arc episode and how those two kinda became friends. That whole plot point kinda subverted my expectations, I know the whole “befriending the enemy” is a trope that exists but I still wasn’t expecting it on my first watch and I thought it was done in a nice way. It makes sense when thinking of the teams characteristics for Marlon to be the one to reach his hand out for Kong and give him a chance. Since he’s more calm and less of a hater when compared to his brother for example. I wouldn’t still necessarily say I ship them too much but they do have a lot of potential together, personally I like the idea of Marlon whose used to being the backbone of everything and always helping everyone being the one to actually receive help this time and it’s from Kong going “hey dude thanks for believing in me but you gotta stand up for yourself more sometimes, let me help you with that”. It would also offer some more development for Kong’s character if he’s now willing to help someone out just for the sake of it. But yeah if anyone in the fandom has a proper Marlkong essay please drop it, would love to read it, I know they’re constantly rotating in some peoples brains🙏

I’ll also yap a bit about Leonessa since I also mentioned them in the post you were referring to. I think the whole “characters who are always bitching at each others but also care about each other a lot” trope is really great. I like how their friendship kinda developed through the series all though I’m convinced they were like seconds away from starting to bite the other multiple times. In my heart they’re wlw/mlm hostility icons but I don’t mind romantic Leonessa either

[jojo-schmo]

Hey, can I see what your other Kirby ships look like?

Hahaha I'm going to be totally real, there really aren't a lot of other Kirby ships I actively think about other than metadede-!! -u-'

I don't know what it is, but that particular ship just happened to scratch an itch in my brain I didn't know I had lol. And I only really started shipping it around a year and a half ago! A King and a knight who have worked together through the ages and both have really interesting and different personalities and likes and dislikes... I have a lot of fun with them! I never thought I'd ever gain the confidence to regularly produce and share ship content on any platform. So I was happily surprised and grateful to find a little corner on the internet here to share my thoughts on them with willing readers haha.

Other than that.... I don't have a strict list of ships I stick to! I feel like I keep saying this kind of thing, but in most cases I get more enjoyment seeing other people's interpretations of ships more than producing them myself! The Kirby universe is rich with characters and a wonderful space to explore character interactions and relationships with each other (platonic or romantic or otherwise!)

I mean, I know everyone interprets Kirby character ages differently which is also cool and all! I just have my own set of established headcanons that I've been slowly cultivating since I got introduced to the series 15 or so years ago.

I personally see characters like Kirby, Bandee, the other Waddle Dees, Ribbon, Adeleine, Gooey, Prince Fluff, Elfilin, etc. as children. They're powerful and brave and very unique from each other, but still kids in my eyes.

And then there's the characters like Dedede, Meta Knight, Queen Ripple, Daroach, Hyness, etc. that are characterized definitively as adults. And other characters like Magolor, Taranza, Susie, the Mage Sisters, etc. that might be interpreted differently by different people, at least from what I have personally seen! (But I see them as adults, personally)

Again this is all my personal opinion haha. I quietly stay away from ships that mix characters from my personal child and adult categories above- (which are not exhaustive lists because this post would be ten million words if I tried to list every single Kirby character, and are my personal characterizations and not me trying to impose my views as the one, canon interpretation!).

OC x Canon is also enjoyable in my book as long as the ages and dynamics are appropriate and consensual for both parties :)

And I don't need or want to make a list of everything I stay away from or anything. I don't feel that strongly about it. I guess my biggest personal example is that if someone ships Metakirby or Dedekirby (or their respective mirror versions), I'm not going to enjoy or support that no matter what their creator's justifications/reasonings for shipping those are. I'm just going to stay away from that ardently.

Anyway, I'm not trying to be controversial or say my opinion is fact either! These are just my personal thoughts and feelings and I curate my internet experience accordingly. My interests change all the time, I just enjoy seeing character interactions and stories written with love and passion!

....If I had to pick another ship that I like thinking about, I guess I'd pick Magoranza. It's fun to think about how they'd interact with each other, and sometimes I like to think of Magolor and Taranza as Garak and Bashir from Star Trek hehehe.

TL;DR: At the time of writing this post I only like creating metadede content for Kirby ships but I quietly enjoy a variety of other people's ships.

[relaxxattack]

how come twitter hates knifetrick? i havent read it nor have i ever been involved in any mcyt or adjacent stuff btw

oh man. ok let me explain the story. it was around exactly a year ago the main bit of this shit happened actually

in 2020 minecraft roleplaying (mcrp) becomes super mainstream with the rise of dream smp. in these series, stories are scripted and then acted out live with some improv stuff

in the fandoms there is a LOT of drama over whether it's okay to ship the roleplay characters. there's lots of stances on this. in the beginning, most people say it's not okay to ever ship rp characters, because the youtubers usually just use their own persona as a base for an oc, so it's basically the same thing as shipping the youtubers together. shipping irl people is weird and gross, so nobody wants to do that.

in 2021 a couple of ships start getting confirmed as canon in the rp. characters date or get together or canonically have romantic scenes. this makes the fandom hurt itself in its confusion, because it doesnt understand if it's allowed to ship those characters together.

two guys have their characters literally get married and have a child. the fandom LOVED these characters, they were well written and cute and had a great dynamic. the fandom wanted to ship them and support their marriage so bad. BUT. they were played by real people. those real people (tubbo and ranboolive) were also minors at the time, who nobody wants to risk being weird about obviously.

the mainstream fandom decides that to solve this problem, they will pretend that the marriage is platonic, and ostracize and witch hunt anyone who claims it's not. they draw tons and tons of ship fanart of the two characters, all helpfully tagged as "platonic", sometimes tagging every single use of the word "husband" as platonic.

EVENTUALLY, people start realizing, hey wait, this is roleplay. it's fictional. the streamers are not actually traumatized war veterans who invented nukes, have amnesia, raised a child, are half hybrid alien etc etc etc.

in fact... it's actually really weird to try and make their roleplay relationship the same as their real life one. in the roleplay, they are married and have a kid and act lovey-dovey... why would you claim that's their real relationship? why would you conflate the two? can't we just understand that it's fictional?

most of the tumblr fandom, eventually, realizes that fictional characters and real human actors are not actually the same person. (it helps that the actors themselves state the same thing.)

the twitter fandom however... does not eventually realize this. they stay in their "platonic husband" hell, simultaneously being really weird about shipping and outwardly hating all shippers.

fastforward a bit, there's another mc roleplay series. it's a spinoff series of that first one we were talking about, and it's an athology series-- a whole bunch of oneshots with new characters each time. keep in mind, these characters are NOT EVEN RELATED TO THE STREAMER'S PERSONAS... they make up new ones each time!!

anyway they do one of the oneshots in a cool futuristic city and i was like "man it would be cool to write about this." one of the characters (ran) acts very weird and suspicious for the 5 lines he has total, which leads to a lot of silly theories about what he might be up to in this future city. i think, "man it would be fun to write about him." a different character (jackie) remarks on that character as well; jackie is also one of the only characters to live to the end of the oneshot.

ages after this oneshot was actually aired i thought to myself, what the hell, i'll write a story about ran and jackie. they have literally no existing personality and the futuristic city is not even remotely expanded on- i get to do all that myself!

so i write a comedy mystery action romance novel about an alien assassin (ran) assigned to kill the general of the city's army (jackie) while they try to find some kidnapped kids. keep in mind, i had basically nothing to work with for these characters-- they were side characters for a single episode from a spin-off series, they had around ten lines total. i got to make up basically everything about who they were and where they came from and what they would do myself. the story is also chock full of OCs, and all of the mechanics for the city itself were original and invented by me-- it was a huge labor of love and invention and original work.

the romance wasn't intended to be a whole thing, but honestly it felt very natural (and all the story's fans definitely wanted it), so it eventually happened.

surprising no one, the same twitter fans who believe that fictional characters are somehow LITERALLY the same as their actors started trying to tell me i was shipping real life people. (what? gross?). they told me i was being a bad fan by going against the wishes of irl people who didn't want to be shipped. they accused me of so much, of just trying to "hide" that i really shipped irl people, tons of things. but my story was not about irl people. the characters literally have different fucking names, appearances, personalities, dynamics... EVERYTHING.

twitter users eventually started a "cancellation" of me. i don't even use twitter. but anyway they dug up a bunch of weird innocuous comments or fanarts i had done before, and then pointed to knifetrick, and said i was secretly a gross person, that i was a guy who shipped gaming youtubers, etc. there was a thread about it, idk.

eventually the harassment in my inbox caused me to take a break from tumblr for several weeks. i actually wasn't sure if i would come back. HUNDREDS of people were talking about how terrible i was; people on twitter literally have me and my works in their goddamn dnis. it was such a surreal experience and it caused me so much anxiety.

eventually, several of my friends convinced me to finish the story, because really there was nothing all that wrong with it in the first place. i came back to tumblr.

i added the banner that is currently in my pinned to discourage gross shippers, or people who think *i* am a gross shipper, from coming near me anymore.

as far as i'm concerned, ran and jackie are my OCs. they were from a oneshot-- a oneshot that has not been MENTIONED by its creators for years now-- who i gave an entire story to. i don't want to associate with that fandom anymore, so i don't want the characters i worked so hard on associated either.

they still talk about me on twitter sometimes, kind of as an urban legend of drama. "holy shit you guys remember the knifetrick stuff? that was so gross, how did we let any of that happen. people kept defending it too 🤢". it doesn't bother me as much anymore, because i'm surrounded by people with the critical thinking skills to tell the difference between tom hanks and woody, but it's still sometimes surreal and hurtful.

don't take this as just me complaining though- making knifetrick was incredibly fun, and i still adore all the fans and memes and fanart to this day. you all were incredible and pretty much make those awful episodes worth it <3

in case you're wondering, the steamiest thing those characters did, that people were so upset about?

they shared a chaste peck of the lips for .2 seconds before one of them tried to kill the other.

[enteringdullsville]

A seasonally appropriate updated version of the old relationship chart.

EDIT: I just want to give advice for some other aspiring writers out there who want to write for pairings but aren’t necessarily writing romance stories.

If you want people to take your pairings seriously (and I don’t mean people who don’t ship them, but rather people with their high and mighty “this pairing shouldn’t be canon” perspectives), you need to be able to justify why they’re with someone and not somebody else. People have types; for example, Crimson (who isn’t pictured) is looking for someone who’s down to earth, sensible, mature, and dependable. That is to say, nobody in the core cast.

And on that note, if any of you are experimenting with bigger core casts, don’t feel compelled to pair everyone up with another member of said core cast. I don’t mean that in an aromantic way (although that certainly helps), but it certainly feels less forced and makes romantic plot lines come off as less suffocating. What you see here is 2/3 of my main cast. I’m also a firm believer in not changing orientations in characters that have set-in-stone canon ones, regardless of what they are, so I just make everyone who isn’t aro swing every way, no matter how camp or butch they seem. That should at least take the edge off of shipping wars.

Lastly, if you feel a pairing comes off as “boring”, congratulations on writing a healthy relationship! Much more to the point, just focus on what those characters have in common. There was a point in development where Rudy/Olive felt a little too generic, so I took a closer look at previous stuff I had done for them, as well as what their respective backstories, character flaws, and motivations were to build upon their dynamic. Olive especially benefits more from this process in the long run, since I was paranoid about people viewing her as a “Satellite Love Interest”.

Looking entirely within the core cast :

Violet X Gordon/Strong Suit

Both are giant nerds who love to write creatively

Best friends since they were 8. Began dating/got married when they were 23

Violet’s demiromantic; it took her a couple extra years to realize she wanted a romantic relationship with him

Gordon was in love with her since he was 13 and was fully prepared to let it go if it meant they could stay friends

Married for 5 years with a sweet little handful daughter

Mild mannered behemoth and his vicious scarecrow wife

They’re each other’s muses

He can carry her with one arm

Rudy X Olive/Scratch Paper

Dorks, the lot of them

Rudy has the right combination of being fun but not insane; perfect for someone introverted but silly like Olive

Initially tried to dismiss her feelings as an infatuation before settling for simply pining in secret. She completely forgot that the entire series is on the internet for people, Rudy included, to see

Rudy likes her in turn because she doesn’t view him as a menace or a child. He also sees her as the cool, mysterious loner girl and that’s a massive plus for him

He knows she has it bad but is waiting for her to build confidence

She’s teaching him how to draw. He loves her surrealist works

She’s not afraid to take shots at him or call him out on his idiocy

J. X Paige/Mystery Novel

Neither talk that much and have definite social anxiety, but they ironically are very comfortable around each other

Her interest in him started off as curiosity about J.’s generally mysterious behavior

They’re uncharacteristically cuddly with each other

J. very briefly used to have an unrequited crush on Peony. Paige is still a little salty if it gets brought up

Since Rudy and J. are brothers, Olive and Paige have gotten closer as friends in turn

Angie X Bryan/Sugar and Spice

Silly, flirty girl and soft, dorky guy

Angie hits on him constantly, but since she hits on a lot of people (and a lot of people hit on him) he initially doesn’t take her advances seriously

Angie wants to squeeze and hug him so badly

Bryan wishes he had her confidence; Angie wishes she had his sensibility

She can lift him over her head

Chloe X Geneva/Mad Science

Tsundere and Manic Pixie Dream Girl

Geneva thinks she’s just the cutest thing

She can easily pick Chloe up and it drives her crazy

Chloe catches feelings quickly; Geneva’s of course oblivious

No matter what Chloe invents, Geneva still thinks she’s cool

Chloe’d be more outwardly receptive to her if she weren’t so obsessed with looking mature

Lyman X Ingrid/Death Glare

A more low key “background romance”

Sprang from Ingrid’s “freaky is hot” mentality

Lyman has no fear of Ingrid, and that helps their relationship

It takes a bit for Ingrid to see beyond his cool empath powers

Ingrid is surprisingly huggy with him. Lyman’s cool with whatever

Noah X Whitney/Checkmate

Chill slacker and high-strung rule follower

They’ve been friends for years so Whitney’s not as tsundere as Chloe, but she still refuses to admit her increasingly obvious feelings

She gets insanely jealous whenever Noah flirts with someone else, which is often

Geneva calls him a “notorious cootie catcher”. He’ll flirt with any Drewman older than 20, but all Whitney has to do is raise an eyebrow and he becomes a stuttering dork

He keeps her balanced, she keeps him motivated

Tyler X Fuchsia/Tooth and Nail

You know what? Actually screw opposites attract. Let similar people be in love for once

In all seriousness, while Fuchsia’s less likely to antagonize people unprovoked, Ty’s got better people skills

Established relationship. Tyler’s the one who vouched for Fuchsia to join ICT

Fuchsia gets very easily embarrassed by PDA

Most people are terrified of her, but Tyler thinks she’s adorable

Sometimes Fuchsia comes in to work with massive marks from Tyler’s shark teeth. Don’t bring it up to her face

Amber X Aaron X Perry/Triple A

The old Archie, Betty, and Veronica schtick

Both fall for her early on and she thinks both of them are cute. It takes a long time before Amber gets tired of their rivalry and takes them both

Amber totally calls the shots in their ménage à trois. Aaron and Perry are completely whipped

Amber and Aaron are a classic cheerleader and jock matchup. Both are peppy, goofy sweethearts

Aaron and Perry are a great rivals to lovers story. Even after burying the hatchet, they still try to one up each other constantly

Perry and Amber are yet another tsundere and cinnamon roll pairing, although since Perry’s so excited for somebody to think he’s actually cool, he’s a lot more outwardly nice to her, even before getting together

Both Aaron and Amber agree Perry’s adorable. Any affection they give him leaves him a blushing mess

Aaron is the one who carries them over his shoulders to prove a point

Amber’s endgame is to expand the relationship until she achieves world domination. Her sights are on Tyler and Fuchsia next.

Landon X Alexandre/Gilded Lily

Semi-toxic yaoi. Like, not so toxic that you wouldn’t want them to get together, but enough to stop them from being glurgey

Al’s normally a pushover, but Landon’s great at pushing his buttons to tick him off

“I can fix him” vs “I can corrupt him”

Landon’s best friends with Veronica, who ping pongs between wanting him to become her brother in law and threatening Landon to get his talons out of her big brother

Landon’s very selective of his partners. Alex ticks all his boxes of being sweet, perky, and a little awkward

[ijustreallylikecaptainamericaok]

How about 1, 15, 23 for the air your grievances ask game?

Hi! :-)

What's your biggest __[insert fandom]__ pet peeve(s)?

Oof, okay... I think my biggest pet peeve with the M/C/U fandom is how greedy certain pockets of it can be. When 80-95% of either the canon or fandom is catered to you, I don't get complaining so hard about the slim percentage that doesn't. It's infuriating. But I've talked about that a bunch in the past.

Something I don't think ever talked about is how this fandom drives me up the damn wall as a music nerd. The biggest example is folks describing the Guardians soundtracks/"Qu*ll's taste in music" as "80s music." No. No, they're not. They're mainly the 70s. I know, I counted, after the fandom nearly gaslit me into doubting my own knowledge. In fact, out of the trilogy, IW, the Gro/ot shorts, and the Holiday special, only Vol 3 and the Holiday special contain any 80s songs. (And for record, this isn't me shitting on the 80s or anything. I'm an 80s baby and love tons of music from that era. This is just me being an insufferable know-it-all, lol.)

Another one is constantly framing Sam's recommendation of Tro/uble Man as some kind of come on. Like, first of all, that album is mainly a score and the few lyrics that do exist on it are not sexy. Second of all, oh my God, there's more to Marvin than just sex jams, holy shit. It's very obvious that some are only familiar with stuff like "Let's get it on" and "Sexual Healing" and that's it and... I can't help it, that makes me so sad.

15. Name an aspect of __[insert character]__ that you think gets frequently overlooked in fanfiction characterizations/deserves more attention/exploration

I think fandom's really dropped the ball with post-EG Steve. We could've had sprawling epics with Steve creating timeline after timeline where he had full lives with every Av*nger and Guardian and whoever else and having D*ctor Who style adventures across space and time. But, noooope. Nada.

I'll also never understand how I've only ever seen one fic where Professor H*lk and Steve raise Baby!Scott. That's comedy gold, right there. And how the hell did Sh*-H*lk not spawn a ton of St*ve/Jen? Not to mention all the cool concepts WI? has given the fandom on a silver platter only for them to be completely ignored.

23. Share an unpopular opinion you have RE: __[insert fandom]__

At the risk of being skinned alive, I know that even people who don't ship St*cky romantically will say that they still love them as friends instead. And I... don't. I can't get into that dynamic, even platonically. Most of their relationship is told rather than shown and what little we are shown doesn't endear it to me at all. Fandom can scream "till the end of the line" until it's blue in the face, but that doesn't make up for its problems in the slightest. (And frankly, I think that was the main purpose of the line to begin with, but that's a whole other rant.) I mean, B*cky spends most of T/F/A coming off (to me) like a condescending prick towards Steve and then spends the rest of Steve's time in the films deliberately staying as far away as humanly possible. It feels very one-sided to me, overall. And why should I revere that period, but especially so when dynamics like the ones Steve has with S*m, N*t, and P*ggy exist? Dynamics where the love and respect is quite clearly mutual and they actively want to be in his life? There's just no contest as far as I'm concerned.

Now, in fairness, theirs isn't the only dynamic in the films that's way more tell than show nor is it the worst offender in terms of the discrepancy between what's told and what's shown, but again, those are other rants.

Sorry about this getting kinda long. I'd been holding that first rant in for a loooong time, lol, so thank you for sending this in and giving me the chance to finally get that off my chest. XD

Air Your Grievances Ask Game

[rolling-in-guano]

31DOD Day 7

I've been reading fan fiction for so many years in so many different places that is hard to track down all the good stuff. Here is a sampling of fics I've enjoyed more recently:

1. "Got Stepped On All Over" by whaleofatime

Probably one of my favorites of all time at this point. This story feels like it could be a one shot that really exists within the DC universe. The story focuses on Dick and Bruce's relationship and is told from Bruce's perspective (also done really well). The story also has a tight plot that involves solving a mystery (more mysteries please!) that is wrapped up in a fun way. I also love a little bit of Carmen Sandiego in all of my stories in the way that I want characters to go to a place an learn something cool about it's culture/geography/history and then use that to save the day or make the story more interesting. This has that! GIVE THIS STORY MORE LOVE!!!!

2. "New year bets" by Fleur_de_Violette

I love this fic because it really shows off Dick's workaholic nature in a way that feels very true to the comics and his Bludhaven days. It also has a fun relationship between him and Jason. I felt it put the characters in a direction that could lead to character growth if this were a oneshot in an actual comic. Loved it!

3. "i was not born to drown" by daringyounggrayson

Dick Grayson's poor skull has been abused pretty badly. This fic takes a look into the aftermath of Dick getting shot in the head by Dr. Hurt (which really was glossed over) and how he deals with the healing process. The way daringyounggrayson depicts chronic pain and disability was really heart wrenching because the frustration coming from everyone was hitting home. Overall, the fic deals with accepting a new normal and I enjoyed it.

4. "Picture Me Better" by Led_Sneakers

This lovely work shows the friendship (and romantic/sexual tension) I have been missing between Dick and Roy. Their relationship was always incredibly interesting, especially in the Titans and Outsiders era. I love their old married couple vibe. Whether they end up lifelong friends or partners, their relationship is way interesting. The RHATO series really did him and Kory dirty. I think Rose Wilson and Jason should hang out. I also didn't hate the Dark Trinity but they put the kibosh on that too quickly for it to really go anywhere.

5. RedAlert98

For you Young Justice cartoon fans, this was one of my favorite authors when that show was coming out. All the fics are fun and are about friendship! RedAlert98 appears to be retired from the DC fandom, but their work is still pretty awesome so I encourage you to take a look.

6. "And Just For Tonight" by Mashpotatoe Queen

Another Young Justice cartoon fic that was my favorite back when it was first published. It's just a sweet little fic that gives Dick and Roy a more brotherly dynamic.

Well those are my top picks for this post :)

[sickknotdoom]

tho I couldn’t initially put it into words, I always felt a little bummed out by the aspec representation in Sparklecare with Uni and Hemera.

I don’t think it’s bad persay to have ace characters who are impartial to or want sex + aro people who are fine with having multiple (queerplatonic) partners and raising kids with them. I just wish there were more….idk, ace and/or aro characters who didn’t care about those things or even disliked them. Y’know, to show the complexity and variety of aspec experiences!

Especially with the clowns’ obsession with romantic shipping and how Cometcare has a LOT of focus on the romantic relationships between the parents and them having a family together. There’s other things too like whatever’s going on with their kids and their dynamics with one another, but it would be cool to see at least a few important characters from Sparklecare, not be into. those very allonormative things in Cometcare and still live normal, fulfilling lives. They don’t even have to be aspec at this point, i just think it would be neat :]

Idk, I’m just nitpicking but still… I don’t think Kneeby is arophobic + acephobic and that the inclusion of aspec people like Uni and Hemera doesn’t equate to kit being like bigoted or whatever, but I just wish we could’ve gotten MORE.

At the end of the day, I don’t mind aspec characters like Uni and Hemera existing. I like them even though their experiences may not be universal with all aspec experiences; many aspec people can still relate to them and I think that’s rad! However, I can definitely see where the complaints for them are coming from, as they’re the ONLY significant aspec representation in the series thus far.

^^^ THIS

also thanks for bringing in some positivity(?) so i dont get lynched by the fandom

[astorichan]

soooo like bug romance right?

I have literally never thought of bug game in romantic terms, especially not between the higher beings

It’s always been a lot of…familial bonds, and how they’re messed with/exploited

But

you seem to have bug romance on the brain

and I wanna know

I wanna know how that recontextualizes this game

please

I’m so sorry for bothering you so much your rambles are just so cool

bug romance hehehehe

i kind of went in with the same view: came for the sibling dynamics between Hollow & Ghost (mainly) + Hollow & PK family dynamics. Then I happened upon a single line in another fic that ripped my heart out and sent me into a recontextualisation night-long spiral. (misread the tags on it, oop) The line was "And it felt terribly alone without her." Hollow @ Radi.

So yeah, that was the first ship I got into. It resonated with me very hard due to some history, so I was able to really... care about it and the dynamics at play. (my aro ass needs to get very invested to ship characters lol)

BUT enough intro, let me actually ramble:

RadiHollow is the first of my two ships. It's based on several factors, first of them being that those two spent an indefinite (I personally headcanon 300-400 years) amount of time completely isolated from the world. Alone with only each other for company. We know that Radi is horrible at loneliness, her history/the entire thing with Higher Beings requiring worship to live alludes to it a lot: the whole reason the infection broke out was that she'd been forgotten by the moths. Left behind. Left alone. The next factors are my own view of their characters. Radi as I write her is an extremely self-centered person, incapable of ever admitting any fault, incapable of ever being wrong, incapable of ever not being in control. She's manipulative and very emotionally abusive in an... insidious, "you just can't appreciate my love", way. So not "hehe torture fun". Hollow is someone who never viewed themself as a real person. Their feelings, wants, thoughts are not important. They have not experienced kindness for who they were. They also tend to blame themself for anything bad that happens. Couple those two in complete isolation (which, isolation is one of the first steps an abuser will take to gain control over their victim), with Radi showing Hollow genuine kindness despite their failure, despite them being her enemy, despite everything. She has an "I will fix you" mentality; she sees them as a poor, downtrodden person who only needs to be loved enough to fall on her side. To see that she was right all along. They hate each other, of course. They want to watch each other burn. They want to burn together. Radi wants to enter the new dawn together with them. They want to go down in flames together with her. They hate her, but the kindness makes it hard to only hate her. She hates them, but their empathy and responsiveness, their presence and pushback make it hard to only hate them.

Grollow is the second one, and it has direct relation to all the stuff I've said up there. I headcanon Grimm and Radi as siblings (""? as much as beings of pure magic can be siblings. their relationship is definitely familial), which means that Grimm is very intimately familiar with all of Radi's antics: the gaslighting, the manipulation, the blame-everyone-around, the disregard for his feelings, the blindness to what her love does to him. He's someone that understands Hollow, post-Radi. He's someone that knows what they've gone through. He's someone who's had similar experiences and had time to heal from them. He's someone who hates watching them suffer at her hands. And he's someone who sees them for the absolute mess that they are, knows most of what Radi could've done to them mentally and is willing to stay by their side. And somewhere along the way, they fall for each other. Somewhere along the way, Hollow grows comfortable with showing themself, with being themself. They stop clinging to their history with Radi, they grow past their (frankly, awful) learned responses. They realise just how much he's done for them, and they want to be the best version of themself, to be his support - if he will let them. He draws out the best in them. They draw out the best in him. They're mirrors of each other. They're pillars of support for one another. They're both willing to do anything for each other. Even if that anything is growing past spiteful pride and unwillingness to admit to fault. Even if that anything is opening up your heart to a potential knife, dropping a mask of playfulness and detachment, showing the vulnerable skin underneath.

My two ships. Proudly waving them around. There's more stuff to Grollow, namely PVxGrimm pairing (so, pre-Temple). Moon expands on that a bit (I think it's in the already posted chapter, even) and Dreams has it because of shared interests, shared character traits and, again, Grimm's unwillingness to coddle them or evade them for any reason. Means a lot to them.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN SORRY don't you sorry me /lh I'm so glad for the opportunities to talk about my stuff. I love sharing my thoughts, headcanons, anything connected to the creative process honestly. It's a special kind of heartwarming. So no sorry, thank you for asking!

[tequiilasunriise]

Alright, so I just made a Wenclair post but imma make another one right now because oh my LORD I just saw the fandom breaking reviews, so sit down and grab a snack because it’s rambling time.

I see that many of you are discouraged from the prospect of Wenclair not being canon, this is understandable as I myself am really invested in these two. Hopefully this goes without saying, but NO ONE should hate on the show, the actors, etc etc. I refuse to let such toxicity run through this fandom. Like, this is just reviews for the first season. Please, I really, really don’t want a repeat of the Voltron fandom and cries of queerbaiting (and I wasn’t even remotely near being part of the Voltron fandom! It just got THAT bad that even I knew of its notorious reputation). Again, the show isn’t even out yet. Who’s to say Hunter going ‘fighting for Wenclair’ didn’t mean the course of their relationship in future seasons? We only have information on a first season that isn’t even out yet, so please, calm down on any hate and queerbaiting accusations.

That being said- y’all telling me you’re not buckled down for a slow burn? Wednesday is a character who needs a LOT of time and effort to build trust with on a romantic relationship level, so getting Wenclair all in one season would have been cool or whatever, but it also would’ve been pretty OOC since season one has confirmed only 8 episodes. On the flipside, the payoff of Wenclair’s growing friendship, that blooming trust, the eventual deep bond between them that not even Wednesday herself can deny? Is that not peak sapphic experience? Frenemies to begrudging allies to ‘I find your existence… not the worst’ ‘ppfft, thanks, Addams’ to friends to friends who would murder fer each other to ‘you are the sun that burns and enchants me, I hope this drought lasts a lifetime’. LIKE C’MON??? THE FLAVOR?? Don’t give up on Wenclair just yet y’all. (That being said, the line about droughts should be in a fanfic so imma mark that down fer later.)

And like, I think this next point is the most important thing to note. We all acknowledged our love for Wenclair as a delusion, ever since the beginning we knew we were pulling crumbs and making silly little headcanons. Yes, I would love if Wenclair became canon. Would I stop shipping it if it never does, though? Let’s see, I am a veteran Whiterose shipper of several years. Those two barely had a conversation in the entirety of Volume 8 and I am STILL willing to die on this hill fer them. I am a Lightcannon enjoyer despite the next to NOTHING crumbs in the entirety of their respective existences. Oh, you would not believe how many rarepairs I hold dear in the Pokémon world. The list goes on and on and on. Canon is cool and all but I hoard my random ships like a dragon of ye olde. Just look at what we, the OG Wenclair Warriors, made with just a few trailers and interviews and random instagram comments. The lovely art, the heart wrenching fanfics, the god tier headcanons. I dunno bout yall, but I’m not ready to give that all up just because canon said ‘mmmm no’. If no one got me, ao3 got me.

Trust me, I am well-aware the importance of good representation and I’m not saying you can’t be disappointed over this. What I am saying, however, is that you shouldn’t always let canon 100% dictate how you’re going to consume and enjoy a piece of media. So what if Wenclair isn’t canon? Their dynamic is AMAZING and nothing can take that away from me. There’s still potential and writing room for future seasons, and to that I say buckle down homies, we in it fer a long time and a good time.

[platinumgigi]

hey since in my last post i vaguely mentioned that i like Lunter, why don't i ramble about it a little bit because i really like Lunter

i've honestly really liked them as a pairing ever since Hunting Palismen, and my descent into absolute brain-rotting madness for them was very much assisted by the actual personal attack on me that was Hollow Mind because, wow, okay, just put some of my most favorite character dynamic/relationship tropes into an episode while simultaneously ripping my heart out and then kicking me while i'm down with the knowledge that Luz is in a relationship with someone else during almost the entire time of even knowing Hunter. yeah okay cool cool, i have totally chill and normal thoughts and feelings about them like a regular person. i'm good.

but one thing i absolutely adore about them, especially, is the parallels they have to Caleb & Evelyn. and while i would absolutely go on a 72-paragraph thesis of a tangent on why i'm so in love with ships that reference or directly parallel being like a previous romantic relationship and subtly or explicitly stating that they were fated or destined to be together, i will hold back on that for now to instead write a thesis of a tangent on another reason why i love that they parallel Caleb and Evelyn: they parallel them better than any other relationship in the show.

i have seen a fair bit of people try to argue for the potential parallels and symbolisms between other characters' relationships and Caleb & Evelyn's, such as with Luz and Amity or with Hunter and Willow (hell i think i saw one post somewhere trying to connect Caleb & Evelyn to Eda & Raine and honestly? i respect that tenacity) and i don't think that drawing some similarities between Caleb & Evelyn's relationship to the different ones Luz and Hunter have in their lives is bad or wrong in any way; i do think that the good ol' Owl House crew were deliberately trying to make some connections there, especially since they seem pretty adamant about Luz & Amity and Hunter & Willow being endgame. but the thing about it for me, though, is that none of those other ships parallel Caleb & Evelyn as thoroughly and believably as Luz and Hunter do.

like, let's take a step back and just look at the structures of both Caleb & Evelyn's lives and incentives and Luz and Hunter's:

For Caleb and Evelyn, they obviously were from two completely different walks of life, both figuratively and literally: Evelyn was a witch, likely born and bred from the Boiling Isles itself and possibly found herself stuck in the human realm (potentially on accident too), and was most definitely hated, feared, and utterly rebuked from human society for just being who and what she was. And then there was Caleb, a human who had assimilated to a lifestyle of murdering/supporting the murder of people like Evelyn in order to fit in with good ol' 1613 society, likely just to find a life where he and his younger brother could be safe, happy, healthy, and accepted.

When Caleb and Evelyn met, there was obviously some kind of spark or bond between them, regardless of however it may have initially presented itself, that was strong enough for Caleb to end up retreating with Evelyn into the demon realm and learning more about the world and its magic, over staying with and protecting his younger brother Philip, as he seemed to have done all his life up until meeting Evelyn.

For Hunter and Luz, they also come from very different walks of life: Hunter is a magically bio-engineered clone of Caleb made by Belos/Philip for the purpose of "rebirthing" his older brother as his loyal right hand man that would never leave or betray him ever again. Hunter was never able to truly be his own person even before he found out that he was a Grimwalker, and never got to gain any of the life experiences that a normal person could (i.e. biologically being able to perform magic, learning about the worlds and realms, uncovering and studying true history that Belos had banned or covered up). He knew nothing of socializing with people his age and rarely ever got to leave the Emperor's castle as it was, and his only reason for being alive was secretly just a sick and twisted way for Philip Wittebane to live out the fantasy life he'd always wanted; one without witches, and one where his brother would finally stay with him.

And then there's Luz, a human girl who, while having the full opportunity of learning new things and making friends, never got to do so, as she was a social outcast for all her life because her own interests and quirks didn't align with that of her peers, or most of anyone who knew her. Thus she was drawn to the many mediums of art, and the genres of fantasy and fiction, where she could immerse herself in a story and imagine herself as the hero who goes on epic quests and makes a bunch of friends along the way. And when she found herself in a world where all of that could become true, she discovered that despite being physically and biologically different from everyone around her, she was so much more at home with the people who were once, in human history, considered to be vile, evil monsters.

When Luz and Hunter met, there was obviously some kind of spark or bond between them, regardless of their initial tension and hostility towards each other, that was strong enough for Hunter to go against the orders of Emperor Belos for Luz, and then eventually betray and flee from Belos altogether with her, over staying with and defending the man who had (quite literally) given him life and a home, as he had done all his life up until meeting Luz.

Like, on this pretty basic story level, you can obviously see that these two pairings mirror each other almost perfectly. Of course there are some differences between them, and some places where one character might parallel the opposite one in the relationship (i.e. Luz and Caleb both being humans, Evelyn being a witch and Hunter technically being one too). But overall, just from this level, you can just see how well they all reflect and complement each other, how aspects of their characters beautifully contrast one another as well as the antagonists of the story, and how both their relationships, despite the adversity they face for being who and what they are and the type of lives they'd lived growing up, manage to find each other, and be the catalyst for one of them to finally take the plunge and go after what they truly wants rather than staying in their normal lives and continue doing what they were demanded of.

For a relationship that the fandom (and possibly even the show itself too) really try to push as only being that of siblings or familial love, Luz and Hunter sure do have a fuck ton of natural romantic coding, down to the parallels with Caleb & Evelyn (aka the true power couple of The Owl House as they're pretty much the entire reason for present-day story happening) to their witty yet childish banter and arguments, to their literal enemies-to-friends-to-something-more set up, and their overall organic chemistry and fun and intriguing ways they play off of each other and ALSO their relationship's narrative relevance that actively moves the plot forward and heavily impacts it—

Yeah, suffice it to say, while I definitely understand and respect those who just see Hunter and Luz as siblings or just good friends or just overall prefer them in different relationships, I just can't get over the gold mine of romantic potential these two have, regardless of what the Owl House crew were planning their relationship to be like from the very beginning.

And honestly, if they truly did always intend for Hunter and Luz to have something more akin to a sibling relationship than anything remotely romantic, all I can say to that is: LMAO. Cause like, bro, if you really wanted that to be the case, you kinda accidentally fucked up and gave them way too many parallels and similarities to the most romantic relationship in all of the show. Just sayin'. 🤣🤣

[dirtyoldmanhole]

your gunter brainrot is oddly inspiring, it is honestly nice to see someone so passionate about a character. i am curious, is there any other gunter ships you are interested in or want to explore? any dynamics that stick out to you?

awww shucks, thank you!!! I don't know if I'd call it passionate as it was a straight up possession lmao, but you're very kind. :> It's been fun!

Gunter/Corrin is still my ride or die OTP to end all OTP's buuut there are some other ideas through these playthroughs ~

Gunter/Flora is still nibbling at my mind, whether it's a platonic scene or if something romantic naturally develops out of those DLC holiday supports. contrary to the translator's comments i don't see Flora's offer to take care of him being familial-related at all. :p a lot of Flora's lines in general across the routes are dedicated to Jakob being somebody she pines for, so imagine the meat you'd get when she gets to know who trained Jakob and was essentially his dad (lol). delicious semi-sweet, semi-skeevy potential there! (doubly so if you take the more morbid interpretation and have flora projecting her jakob feelings on him and then gunter projecting his corrin feelings on her.) they're both quite shy about their feelings so I don't know if either one of them would actually work up the courage for anything more than an unusual amount of chemistry, but I could see low key not-really-serious flirting that they secretly enjoy.

For very complicated grief-related reasons (possibly a meta post after this fic?) I can't really see Gunter sticking around long post-game if he doesn't have a romantic anchor to be a reason for existence, but I can see Flora genuinely being a notable exception.

haven't even touched on the fact that both of them betray Corrin in at least one if not more routes (and still love and care for her anyways), so there's that emotional coldness/pragmatism to also play with.

Gunter&Azura - last playthrough of Rev really made me realize just how many parallels they have. :o both perceived as/are traitors, both keep really tragic secrets about their families for decades, both don't come anywhere to showing their whole "self" even if married or in just one route.

there's also that bit how Azura was stolen away from Nohr as a child and how Gunter blames himself a little bit for that. like. what's up with that, how would Azura take that? Would she forgive him for his particular betrayal against her post-Revelation?

also think a support conversation between Gunter&Silas would be super cool because I strongly headcanon he was the one to nearly execute the poor boy after getting in trouble for sneaking Corrin out. Silas keeps mentioning in all routes how the guards nearly had him killed, and Gunter's kind of the de-facto castle commander (or so the routes imply). Would Silas be nervy about meeting him again? Would Gunter be able to genuinely apologize (would he feel the need to?) Would they be able to move on and reminisce about Corrin?

In a similar way, Gunter&Jakob's got underutilized potential but I haven't quite cracked that nut there. there is one amazing as hell porn fic with them that i know about though :D

( also special shout out to @lululeighsworld and their summoner with him. :D from one selfshipper from another game to another, it is suchhhh a delight to see the kinds of exploration you can't get with base game stories. gotta shake those old man characters like a bag of marbles to get the juicy bits out!! )