#best friends/soulmates/lovers doomed by the narrative

[jinnyart06]

Make summer last forever

[leeknowlover99]

Skz as love tropes

found it in my drafts ;)

warnings: fluff, suggestive content

masterlist

Bang Chan - coworkers to lovers

you and Chan spent way too much time in a studio. working late nights, eating takeaway pizza, testing new ideas, leaving in the mornings when sun was already high up in the sky. you spent countless nights falling asleep on couch in small studio room. ever since you started working together something between you clicked, you understood and inspired each other. two lost souls trying to find peace in music, stressed overachievers trying to create something perfect. it should not come as a surprise that one day when nothing was working as it should in a heat of the moment you shared the most hungry passionate kiss you could imagine, changing your dynamic forever.

Lee Know/ Minho - neighbors to lovers

your relationship grew slowly. from passing each other on the corridor to saying shy hellos in the elevator to meeting in the coffee shop near by to taking care of his cat when he was on a business trip to going on long walks and talking about life together. Minho with tough and unreadable exterior turned into the softest person you knew. his kindness amazed you with each day. in a span of months from the total stranger he became your comfort person. the change in your relationship seemed so natural. you didn’t even realize when it turned from shy glances to getting railed in his sheets.

Changbin - exes to lovers

you tried to stay away from each other, you really did. it was not working out between you, work forced you to be separated more time than you would like. character differences caused loud arguments. but without each other you were even more doomed. stress piling up in your bodies, minds clouded with too many thoughts, sleepless nights when you missed each other way too much. so when one day you bumped into Changbin in a party next thing you knew you were pressed against him in someones bedroom, hungrily trying to make up for all the lost time. him whispering “i’m not gonna let you go ever again” against your lips.

Hyunjin - soulmates

nobody could replace Hyunjin. nobody could come even close. you have never met someone as passionate, gentle and unreal as him. the way you completed each other could only be described by word soulmates. you understood each other without any words, always knew what the other one needed, could sense emotions like you lived inside each others heads. one look at you two and everybody could see that. your eyes beamed with love when you were together, face glowed. lips curled into most gorgeous smiles. you just had that effect on each other.

Felix - fake dating

it started as an innocent lie but became so much more. the arrangement worked for both of you so you kept going with it. as time passed it was becoming more and more challenging to create that narrative. but neither of you wanted to end it. so you started going on dates, hanging out with your families, posting each other on social media, sleeping in the same bed. the line between the lie and reality was becoming blurry until one day of just vanished. you were no longer pretending, you were no longer keeping the act only when people were around. you were kissing in the loneliness of Felix’s room and although none of you said it you both knew that it became something more.

Han/ Jisung - fwb to lovers

Jisung was never the best when it came to any kind of relationships. one drunk night out with his pretty best friend and all he could think about is your perfect body and those plump lips. he needed you. you seemed to have the same idea. you also seemed to have the same problem with relationships. so after that one night neither of you talked about this. you just silently communicated when you needed each other. expressed your desires and feeling through gentle touches and passionate kisses. way too intimate for only friends. it took a long time for both of you to understand and admit that. but when you did you were two happiest people on this planet.

Seungmin - rivals to lovers

it was always the competition between you two. Y/N vs Kim Seungmin. you were both good, way better than everyone else. but neither of you liked sharing the spotlight. so you constantly tried to either beat the other one or mess with them. after all only one person could get the dreamt internship. this week has been particularly intense, electricity basically sparkling in the air when you were both in the same room. you needed to relax during weekend, that’s how you ended up at Chan’s party already drunk. what you did not expect was to find Seungmin here as well. the look he send your way when he saw you in the flimsy black dress made you weak. from that look only you knew the only competition you will be having tonight is who cums first.

Jeongin - childhood best friends to lovers

stolen glances, shy smiles, late night talks. you and your childhood best friend Jeongin were always more. but you were both too timid and unsure to act on it, so you loved each other in silence. spending all your precious days together, enjoying small moments, but deep down longing for more. and more did come. Jeongin gathered all his courage. “will you go to prom with me?” one day he appeared at your front door with a bouquet of tulips. “as friends?” you asked hoping for a negative answer. “as boyfriend and girlfriend” he responded quietly, cheeks blushed. you provided your response by connecting your lips in a shy kiss which quickly became more passionate when all your suppressed feelings could be finally released.

[punkeropercyjackson]

The fact that Across the Spiderverse actually exists and is completely canon is making me go off the walls loco.What do you MEAN Miles Morales is an afrolatino boy who's Spiderman and has his own personality instead of just being Peter Parker with melanin slapped on and has a realistic afrolatino lifestyle and home life and is allowed to be soft without being made fun of or told he's 'acting white'.What do you MEAN Gwen's a trans girl who genuinely looks and acts transfem and has the exact interests and fashion taste many irl trans women do that i also relate to like them way more than i do cisgirls as a femme bigender black woman and got a 'protect trans kids' banner in her room and is Spiderwoman without being sexualized or misogynistic remarks thrown at her and is an abuse victim with ugly symptoms and trauma responses that are played as not her fault and redeemable instead of 'becoming her father'

What do you MEAN Jessica is a black woman who's her mom figure but also a character in her own right instead of her m@mmy and Gwen treats her well back and Margo's a darkskin black girl their age who Miles started crushing on sight on and has a bad home like Gwen does and is a huge gamer that's shown as cool and smart instead of lame and standing no chance with him against her and is gonna get way more screentime in Beyond as confirmed by the creators in the official artbook.What do you MEAN Hobie's a young black punk who's rowdy and disruptive and talks shit and is a huge weirdo and gendernonconforming and has justified violent tendencies and no actual positive adult figures in his life or interest in being 'normal',that he's exactly like i used to be when i was a kid,and this is all played as making him the coolest dude ever instead of a problem child.What do you MEAN Miles G is a vigilante instead of a strawman 'bad black trauma' vs 'good black trauma' sitch to Miles

What do you MEAN being an Anomaly isn't an end-all and that you deserve to exist just like everyone else does even if you weren't 'meant' to and you can be a hero too if you want to and just try your best and fuck everybody who tells you otherwise.What do you MEAN this also extends to love be it romantic or platonic and that the concept of 'soulmates by fate' is creepy and being doomed by the narrative just like i've always thought it was instead of 'pure and comforting' and that the real kind of soulmates is choosing to love someone on purpose in every universe you meet eachother,be it as your lovers or your best friends or even as found family.What do you MEAN-

[scalproie]

subscorp for the ship meme?

teeheehee :)

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:

• When I started shipping them: hey did you guys know theres a chin tilt™ in the movie Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle Of The Realms (2021) that Ive seen this january of the year 2022

• My thoughts: I hate them so much. theyre perfect foils in almost every way you can think of. they have an extremely appealing enemies-to-friends arc. in fact they tick most of the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers dynamics in one way or another, in one incarnation or another. with the multiple timelines deal you can even sprinkle a little bit of soulmates trope in there. you cannot have one without the other in the general consciousness. theyre perfect opposites and so similar at the same time. their shared storyline is Romantic with a capital R, with its fair share of drama, revelations, guilt, duty, honor, and conflicted feelings, two assassin clans alike in dignity, in fair earthrealm where we lay our scene. theyre LITERALLY fire and ice and everything about them just bring you back to that point. AND theyre both stupid pretty on top of that.

• What makes me happy about them: they were grown in a lab for 30 years to appeal to me personally💙💛 literally tick every single boxes

• What makes me sad about them: if they werent two guys they wouldve been canon ages ago and you know it

• Things done in fanfic that annoys me: mischaracterization in favor of the author's personal fantasies, usually sexual. Sucks so much when a good fic or a good concept gets ruined by them being OOC during (sometimes uneeded) sexy times. I know thats like, 90% of the fics on AO3 but still, lemme mourn.

• Things I look for in fanfic: if we're going Legends or OG timeline, you can never go wrong with a good old devoted protector scorpion. If we're going current timeline, oooh babey gimme that grandmasters middle age mutual pining, sometimes keeping things simple is where its at.

• My wishlist: so fun fact, most of my wishlist already kinda happened, thanks snowblind but literally everything before it. So I guess I would really just like to see the two of them interact in a casual setting for once, see how theyd normally interact. Second would be cuddles and kisses ofc.

• Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Im a subsmoke enjoyer but ONLY in a tragic doomed teenage romance kinda way, two boy best friends in an extremely restrictive environment that forbid close bonds let alone intimate, come on. Other than that... kuai has stupid chemistry with a lot of characters but in the actual story i dont see a lot of potential candidates. As for hanzo, I like him with harumi ngl, if he manages to get his family back good for him, but just like kuai, the ninjas are pretty isolated otherwise and have the closest narrative bond with each other so if not with the other well I dont think Id see it :/

• My happily ever after for them: Legends/OG timelime wise, scorpy continues to play guardian angel with benefits while kuai gives him a purpose, current timeline is the two grandmasters accidentaly making their clans more and more alike due to them sharing a similar mindset, which could perhaps eventually end with them reuniting the clans as it once was, as joint grandmasters wink wink. but my personal favorite is the mk9 sub zero ending where both of them "disappear together into legends" and are just living together in a little house in the middle of nowhere when theyre not avenging the innocents. and disappear even more into legends when they both get to the netherrealm killing the shit out of everything in sight there.

[desertsquiet]

Album of the month - June 2022: Our Mother the Mountain - Townes Van Zandt

“My home is Colorado with her proud mountains tall

Where the rivers like gypsies down her black canyons fall

Well, I'm a long way from Denver with a long way to go

So lend an ear to my singin' 'cause I'll be back no more”

I have so many things to say about this month’s pick I don’t even know where to start. It opens with the playfully allusive Be Here To Love Me and never was the opening track to an album more misleading as far as the tone you’d expect it to set. It’s the last glimmer of light in an ocean of darkness that threatens to suck you in forever. Kathleen sets things straight right away: “it’s plain to see the sun won’t shine today, but I ain’t in the mood for sunshine anyway”. When Townes refers to some of his songs as hopeless, this one has to be at the very top of the list as far as I’m concerned. When pain is unbearable and darkness is the only answer. Among other things, “Kathleen” stands for addiction, definitely, though “Soon I’m gonna see my sweet Kathleen” sounds like longing for an even more definitive way to “stop the pain”. It’s a knife to the heart. The first time I heard it I was left with a feeling of uneasiness so strong I eventually had to stop the album about half way through. It took me about a month to pick up the courage to listen to another album of his in full (and I’m so glad I did). Death is a sinister presence all over this album, and unlike every other studio release, on Our Mother the Mountain there are almost no lighter tracks that can bring you relief from it. The only ones that come close to that, Like a Summer Thursday and Second Lover’s Song, are as beautifully touching and gentle as they are melanchonic and sad. Love is not a benevolent force, it’s deception and distruction, often expressed through fairytale like imagery. Like in the title track, where a woman “with hair black as midnight and a dress made of satin all shimmering blue” turns out to be a vengeful demon, or in She Came and She Touched Me, where through a whirl of beautifully constructed rethorical figures, you soon find yourself picking up on words like “nothingness”, “betrayed”, “illusions”. To end the trio of songs that more clearly seem to be elaborating on the end of his first marriage, Why She’s Acting This Way contains without a doubt the most cruel words he’s ever written: “Ah give your lover a call/If your legs start to fail/And he'll come break your fall/With a bed full of nails”. If death is still mostly metaphorical in the first half of the album, the suicidal undertones become explicit in the stretch of 4 narrative songs starting with St. John the Gambler and ending with My Proud Mountains. Caroline, from the new, somber version of Tecumseh Valley, is the only one who has a name, but they are all doomed characters, abbandoned by a cruel world that leaves them death as the only option. There’s a scary musical and lyrical cohesion to this album that very few people could ever achieve. It’s a songwriter completely laying his soul bare in front of us, showing us his gentle side, but also his vicious side. His worst instincts and fears and insecurities, his willingness to be drawn in by that darkness that is in all of us. And by doing that it challenges the listener to pay attention and suffer through the pain of confronting you with some of your own worst traits because it’s worth it. Getting to know all these songs better was a slow, difficult process but one I’m happy to have struggled through this month, as it’s been incredibly rewarding.

“And he’s gentle and wild, a child of the mountain” writes Susanna Clark in Black Haired Boy, a song that despite her protests is unmistakably about her best friend and soulmate and him alone. It’s not even the only lyric from it that seems to be in reference to Our Mother the Mountain specifically. Wether it was intentional or not, the line “I’ve seen him fall down to laugh and stand up to cry” perfectly echoes “Like silence she stands, like laughter she falls” from Why She’s Acting This Way. The mountain theme of this album becomes all the more meaningful when you’re aware of what the mountains of Colorado, his “proud mountains”, really meant to Townes Van Zandt. They were his second home growing up, and later they became a symbol of purity and peace. Every summer he would visit his mountains and for a couple of months he was forced to keep his addictions in check. Only for those couple of month he could really find his true self and finally be free. So I guess I find it beautiful that despite how hopeless this album feels, the mountains stand for something beautiful and hopeful we’re all longing for in our life. A place we always want to get back to.

[sometimesrosy]

Anonymous said:Why? Why would Bellarke diminish [Clxa]?! That's something I'll never understand. I just don't get it. Why on earth would it diminish [Clxa] ? Is Clarke forever doomed to mourn a past lover, and not be able to move on ?? Especially with her best friend, the man she cares deeply about, and always have.

Twice I tried to answer this and twice I ended up on long winded rants/analyses, and I don’t like to post rants. So let me try this again, in brief. (oh dear this isn’t going to be brief either.)

Short answer: CL is canon, and that cannot change. From midseason 2 to midseason 3. L as a character has an important place in the narrative and CL as a relationship has an important place in Clarke’s character development. 

When Bellarke becomes canon, it will be long after CL, and it will not erase CL. So you’d think that it wouldn’t diminish CL. As canon, CL CAN’T change. Their story arc started, developed, met obstacles, united, and then ended in tragedy. That was the story, more or less. Bellarke becoming canon won’t change it. Won’t change that Clarke loved L or that CL affected her greatly.

But that brings us to how our PERCEPTION of the events in canon can change based on context. 

Now we’re getting to the long answer and the complications.

Because here’s the thing. Fandom, oh not just fandom, culture, has a tendency to look at the facts of a situation, in this case canon, and relate to it in an entirely personal manner. Which means that the narrative is less important for the story it’s telling and how we FEEL about the story is more important. So if we LOVE CL then that becomes the center of the story and the rest of the story is erased or fades away into unimportance or is relegated to conflict. THUS we had many people focusing SOLELY on L and CL, thinking that was the main story, the grounders were the heroes, L was the main character and Clarke was the love interest while Bellamy was the villain. This was their EMOTIONAL truth. How they related to and loved the story.

And then canon came in and went the direction it was always going, away from that CL emotional truth, with Clarke and Bellamy the main characters, Lxa a love interest/antagonist, the 100 the heroes, and Lxa died. And the CL fandom was CRUSHED. First they’d gotten really attached to Lxa and CL and THEN they’d declared ownership over the story and claimed it for LXA and rewrote the story to fit her as hero, for their emotional truth. They followed their hearts and their hearts created a story out of canon that fit.

Until Lxa died, they were able to maintain their emotional interpretation of the story that kept L the main character, and all the missing pieces of her stories were filled in with fanon, and the real main story was tilted to be the supporting story for Lxa (Clarke the gf, Bellamy the villain, skycrew the oppressors etc,) and they erased or ignored anything that outright contradicted their emotional truth. They switched the POV of the show and told the story from L’s pov. It might seem that is just another way to interpret the story, but it changes the meaning of the story a great deal. Which...well... that’s their intention isn’t it? 

At this point, they have lost L, but are still retaining a L centered interpretation of the story, saying that CL is endgame, or even just L is the love of Clarke’s life and always will be. That is their last holdout for canon CL centered story. I mean it doesn’t really make sense, because even with occasional mentions, the story is not about L, or the grounders, but about Clarke, Bellamy and their families and struggles, and L has been relegated to a lesson and experience of the past.

But yes. They would rather see Clarke alone than with someone who she loves more than L. They would rather see her hooking up, lonely, sad, on the outside, than with Bellamy. I think it reflects their understanding on a deeper level that Bellamy IS the rival who endangers CL primacy. Even L knew it. They’d rather see her with someone she’s only meh about than with her soulmate partner. BECAUSE they don’t think someone should be more important to Clarke than L, despite the story that places many people above L in Clarke’s life.

But the story being told, now and before, doesn’t really matter, because the accepted interpretation is STILL L centered, it is still their emotional truth It doesn’t matter if the story is Clarke centered, her love for L makes it CL. It doesn’t matter if Bellamy is the second protagonist, they’ve accepted that finally, he’s a partner and more attached to spacekru than clarke. It doesn’t matter if Bellarke is the central relationship of the show, they’ve latched onto the “platonic” reading and won’t let it go. They clutch onto B/E as PROOF that Bellarke is not romantic and won’t ever be romantic, despite it not being the story being told, because it is a shield against the interpretation that Bellarke is romantic and THUS the romantic story at the heart of The 100 which makes Bellamy Clarke’s true love, not L. 

Now we’re getting to the point where Bellarke “diminishes” CL. It does not diminish CL in the story. In CANON. CL is part of Clarke’s life, and that is not changing. CL’s place remains what it has always been. However, Bellarke is, and always has been, more important to the story than L and CL. If CLs face that, then CL is reinterpreted as secondary, not primary.

In this interpretation Bellarke DOES diminish CL because if Bellarke is made the central, epic love story... then that means the whole the 100 was never about the epic love story of CL, but about Bellarke. That means that CL was not the center of the story, but Bellarke. It makes L a guest star in the story of Bellarke. Which... well... she was. ADC was literally a guest star. But that’s another thing that they ignore, with their confirmation bias that erases the evidence they don’t like.

If Bellarke kiss/confess/sex, that is the evidence that fandom uses in shipwars to say that their ship wins. As long as Bellarke doesn’t do that, then they can feel that CL wins the ship wars, and CL is canon and Bellarke is not. 

Despite the fact that Clarke has always been the hero and Bellamy has always been her partner and Bellarke has gotten closer and closer every season and even though they both have had other partners, their relationship remains central, and JR has stated they are the central ship, and it’s about the 100, and they are soulmates and they have told this story with ALL the romantic tropes showing that Bellarke is romantic and they love each other...all of those things can be ignored in fandom because they minimize the story on screen and clutch on to certain markers. Kiss. Confess. Sex. As long as they have that with CL, then they win.

Once Clarke and Bellamy have their kiss, confess their love for each other, then the CL fandom can no longer claim that they’ve won and feel superior to Bellarke. 

Because if Bellarke has those canon markers, then that means they are romantic, by their own rules, and when you interpret the whole story from the beginning, Clarke had romantic feelings for him from before meeting L.  It means that CL was an intermission in the Bellarke love story. It mean that L was not Clarke’s one true love. It might even mean that L was a rebound after Bellamy rejected her. 

They can handle a platonic life partner soulmates story... even though at this point they are twisting the characters, narrative, dialogue and filmmaking to fit that story. This is why everyone jumps on every suggestion from JR that Bellarke are not romantic, despite the obvious story. Because THEY CANT HAVE THAT. And bellarke fans are no better. They’re so afraid of romantic CL and platonic bellarke that it’s all they can see. 

It’s as if they can’t accept a love story for itself in canon. CL I mean. It happened. It was real. It won’t go away. That will not stop. The bellarke fandom gets mad at this, too, when they get insulted that there are continued mentions of L years after she died. This comes from the same emotional place of interpretation. The CL fandom is hungry for those mentions because it means CL is still “central.” The Bellarke fandom hates them because it means CL is still “relevant.” I think both interpretations are flawed, because the truth of it is, while CL WAS romantic, it is no longer. CL has become an incredibly affecting period in Clarke’s life, and L is a historical figure. The L mentions are now ALL about Clarke’s character development, her ability to love again, AND the heda system and the flame. They aren’t romantic CL at all. But both fandoms read them that way. 

There is a flaw with fandom interpretations, in general. And the flaw is that fandom has a tendency to be deeply biased in their interpretations, and whoever they stan or ship is placed at the center of their interpretations, whether or not they are placed at the center of the canon narrative, and anything that does not support fandom’s love of that character (like other love interests)  is either erased or turned into a villain. There are only a couple of things that fandom can’t erase or twist to their interpretation. Death and sex. 

L died, and that was the biggest wound to their fandom. When Bellarke have sex, they will see that as the second, and possibly final injury. Listen, the CLs are TRYING to erase L’s death. I’ve seen posts where they say anything can happen in sci fi (which is not really true) and to bring her back to life. Or reverse the trope. Or go back in time. Or they wanted her to be put into a host. Or endgame in the flame. (Those last two are off the table now because the flame with L in it is gone now.) How can they maintain that Bellarke is less than CL if Bellarke have all the markers of romance that CL have, but Bellamy is alive, and Bellarke is endgame, on TOP of being the central relationship of the show???

Fandom tries to retain their EMOTIONAL truth long past where the canon truth supports it. If you come into this process at the end, it seems patently ridiculous, but if you start at the beginning it’s a slow process of erasing small bits of canon evidence, inventing small bits of fanon that that the fandom accepts, and step by step creating a story out of the canon, that is NOT canon, but is accepted as an emotional truth in fandom. 

They’ve been fighting long and hard for that emotional truth to remain supported by canon. When Bellarke kiss/confess/sex, the strength of their emotional truth will be diminished, because they depend on CLs kiss/confess/sex as evidence that it is superior, one true love, and endgame. Bellarke will “win” the shipwar. And they have set up Bellarke as opposed to CL, so that will mean CL loses the shipwar, and thus they will consider it diminished.

If Bellarke kiss/confess/sex, a lot of them will no longer be able to ignore the narrative Bellarke love story being told without those things. CL endgame one true love supremacy will be jossed. It’s the fanon that is diminished, not the canon CL. You’d think that the diehard CL’s would be able to ignore that too, and I’m sure they will, but it’s gonna hurt. 

[escapekissed]

💕 cid/barret

HAVE WE DISCUSSED SHIPPING BEFORE?: yes || no

MY INTEREST LEVEL OVERALL: i’ve wanted this for so long || can’t wait || i think it’ll be fun || kinda feeling it || maybe with a lot of plotting || i need to think about it || not interested, sorry

HOW WE SHOULD DO THIS: jump right in || slow burn || pre-established || build up to it in a thread || anything goes

DYNAMICS I WANT TO TRY OUT WITH OUR SHIP: friends to lovers || rivals to lovers || enemies to lovers || mutual pining || battle couple || childhood friends || high school sweethearts || star crossed lovers || long time lovers || old married couple || newlyweds || sickeningly sweet couple || secret lovers || fake dating/marriage || best friends hiding their feelings || arranged marriage || soulmates || other

final thoughts: i think about how cyberpunk as we know it today was shaped a lot by black & poor & lgbt disabled people making tabletop rpgs, zines and romhacks, and how they thought of cybernetics in a completely different way than the tropes we see today in fandom interpretations of the two most famous black ‘cyberpunk heroes’---barret and vic stone. 

there are incredible things in their narratives for sure---cyborg’s episodes about his own limitations with his connection to technology in the original cartoon--and what makes him human in his episode where he meets a robot cult, both make me cry and made me obsessed with the character as a child. while doom patrol focuses too much on torturing cyborg and positioning him as privileged over the other disabled (white) characters, his narrative of trying to find out what part of him&his body&autonomy is his own and what part of his belongs to his ceo father’s corporation is Entirely Aligned With The Original Intentions of Cyberpunk tho muddled by the writing team’s lack of focus on him. meanwhile barret’s simple existence in the narrative as the heart of the game in a genre that often lacks men of color, let alone disabled black men revolutionary single fathers, stands out immensely. and what’s more in line with the original values of cyberpunk than revolutionaries with cybernetic enhancements going against evil capitalist corporations?

but these characters always get sidelined by fandom, who focuses on smaller, paler, characters they deem more ‘attractive’ or ‘relatable’---and characters that are surrounded by ‘ships.’ even tho they’re both the heart of the shows they’re involved with, the comedic relief, the one that can always give advice in fan work or in the media itself---they aren’t deemed ‘shippable’ and in fandom, that makes them less loveable. pair that with the fact that as disabled characters, they’re always forced to feel ‘burdened’ by their disability (which is a natural feeling---but often feels like the only thing able-bodied people focus on), to feel like ‘monsters’ or ‘more robot’ than people, and it puts a sour taste in my mouth with their overall representation both in fandom and in the side media itself. it feels like there’s so little love for them! they’re not even allowed to love themselves!

barret x cid could be revolutionary bc cid is an engineer that loves machinery, and could appreciate MORE THAN ANYONE a part of barret that barret canonically believes (in the novel that i refuse to read) makes him a monster. i want barret to love himself as much as he loves the world despite all his trauma and his failings. barret being viewed by cid as beautiful and handsome for his arm and his sacrifice... well i just think that’s neat, and i think any ship with barret is good if he’s getting the love and focus that he deserves to get. and i also think like. crass engineer old man getting feelings for this man with the dopest arm he’s ever seen. two scientists, a batlte couple, that can bicker like an old married couple but still trust each other implicitly with wisdom over any of these ‘kids’? it’s great. it’s just great all around. sorry for ranting LOL