#i'm....genuinely impressed that all these ships were either canon or one sided canon

[hopefulobjectmiracle]

favorite wlw ships appreciation post 

[mostly-mundane-atla]

Well I got at least two people interested (@esmeralda-anistasia and @deathsmallcaps) so why not.

Quick disclaimer: I understand that some fans can be very sensitive to this topic and take general criticisms as personal attacks and jump to the defensive. Please don't justify your ships to me if you have that reaction to anything said in this post. It's not my business and if I'm honest I really don't care. Your experiences are not mine and will not change mine and nothing I'm about to say is meant to be read as an insult.

Okay onto the rarepairs in question!

I was ten years old when the episode Zuko Alone first aired and Ursa fascinated me. She was so elegant and sweet, and yet the implication was that she was also capable of assassination. Her disappearence and the fact everyone involved kept pretty hush-hush about her gave her character an air of mystery and Zuko's memories involving her made him a great deal more interesting and sympathetic (i still rolled my eyes every time he showed up and thought he didn't deserve all the cute moments with Mai until The Day of Black Sun, and even then still thought Jet was cooler in every way, but you can't please them all). She had quickly become a favorite character and I've held onto that adoration for about 15 years now.

I also really wanted her to kiss Hakoda.

They had compatible personalities and deserved some luck in love after all the heartbreak and trials, and they both loved their children despite having to leave. Ursa was never treated as dead, just gone. She could have been anywhere and there was nothing to say she couldn't have crossed paths with Hakoda and his men.

There was also something about it I didn't quite have the words or media exposure to explain. Often, in fandom or canon, if a relationship is biracial, the partner who is fairer-skinned and/or of the dominant or invading culture, who the audience sees themselves in, is the man and the one who is darker-skinned and/or marginalized or colonized is the woman (heteronormativity got a head start on this one). There's a lot of ugly "taming the savage" rhetoric in this, usually paired with blatant misogyny that's supposed to be in the woman's favor (like suggesting that a woman could only be complicit in this culture because it was what she was told and didn't know any better). The woman's family and friends who oppose this are depicted as unfairly prejudiced against this strange man as if their distaste for people who can be or have been responsible for things like genocide or subjugation is the same as the other side seeing these people as deserving of genocide or subjugation for the crime of not being like them. Sometimes it's the other way around, where the partner seen as "more civilized" is the woman and the one seen as "less civilized" is the man, in which case the woman is often abducted or otherwise the man's defining feature is his brutishness. This supposed brutishness is both intimidating and attractive to the oh so delicate if a bit repressed captive/wife (as well as the audience) and can manifest as being fiercely protective of her, which is how he shows his affection if there is a language barrier between them. And if you grow up Native, this is easy to pick up on and often in the back of your mind, because at least 90% of your media representation likely has some aspect mentioned above.

(Man that was a lot of academic style analysis)

But the dynamic between Hakoda and Ursa wouldn't leave room for any of that. Hakoda, as an absent parent backstory, is defined by having to leave despite how much he loved and would miss his children. Ursa, as an absent parent backstory, is defined by the crime she was willing to commit for her children (for Zuko specifically, but how long would it actually take for Azula to shoot her mouth off at the wrong place and time and also be targeted by Azulon?). Ursa was the one whose willingness to kill sent her fleeing into the night. The culture of her nation betrayed her and made her choose between her own safety and that of at least one of her children. Hakoda is charismatic and a good leader, but he is also soft spoken and understanding, and above all else, gentle. He isn't here to hurt innocents. He's here to see to it that the next generation of his people will not fear invaders or raids or even know that snow can be black from soot. And he's someone Ursa can finally feel safe around and confide in, and she could be the same for him. Someone he doesn't have to be the leader for, to whom he can admit that he just wants to be home and let the tears fall.

I'm honest enough to admit that one of the reasons I liked The Search was that Ikem wore his hair a lot like Hakoda did and that was close enough to it being canon for me.

Another one is Jin/Smellerbee. Something about their personalities strikes me as being so wonderfully harmonious and I like to imagine Jin, smooth-talking and streetwise but still the most genuine person, being the one to sit Smellerbee, who never really got a chance to think about these things, down and explain that anything she might be is okay. That it's okay to not be in love with a guy friend who gave her a purpose and loyal companionship. That it's okay to like girls. That she can have more than one partner. That it's okay to be different from what's considered normal and proper and not have an easy word to describe it. And eventually she'd realize it's true. And eventually she'd realize that she wasn't teasing when she called her beautiful in a wild sort of way.

I also like to think that Smellerbee clearly has more specialized fighting skills and is very good at what she does but Jin is strong enough to bench press her no problem. And Smellerbee acts all tough (because she is) but blushes whenever Jin calls her cute or pretty because she's not used to it.

Sometimes Longshot is involved too. Not as a third wheel or the exact same kind of partner, more like a ghibli style relationship with Smellerbee. Like is it a gentle romance? Is it an intimate friendship? It's love and they know that and don't have to define it by others' perception. And Jin gives Longshot kisses so he doesn't feel left out, which gets him a bit bashful because she really could have anyone, she already has Smellerbee of all people, and she still finds him deserving of a peck on the cheek. They probably all bunk together.

This actually started from a fic I wrote but don't intend on posting more than snippets of. Basically, i was tired of a lot of fanfic tropes, especially those having to do with friends to lovers and soulmates (this world is not kind to aromantics and the last thing I wanted in my escapism was romance being established as a level up for relationships), so I wrote something to actively subvert all of them. Jet and Smellerbee were each convinced they owed the other a romantic relationship after all they'd been through together, even though neither actually wanted it, because that's how all the stories go. So after he dies, she remembers all those times that would have been romantic if either was actually interested, but were instead just uncomfortable because it was entirely social convention and no feeling. But then she comes across Jin, who she's never met before, but who takes her in her arms and reassures her and sympathizes with her, and in this tiny apartment in this seedy side of town, she feels safe. She seeks permission for every touch and kiss and tells her this encounter doesn't have to be anything she isn't comfortable with. And when Smellerbee has to leave, Jin insists she take a candle to light her way, and winks when she says she can return it the day after. She gives her an excuse to visit again. And Smellerbee blushes and accepts it.

And then there's Teo/Haru and Teo/Ty Lee. No special reason I just think both would make a cute couple and want Teo to be happy. He's a good boy, more people should love him. Let him impress people with wheelchair tricks and get smooched.

[4ragon]

Hello there! Are you still open for asks? If yes, I was interested what are your thoughts on blackmadhi?

I mean I'm always down to write this stuff if someone feels like sending me an ask, sooooo sure!

Before I go any further, I will say: SoJ is the only AA game other than DGS2 that I have only completed once. I’m watching a playthrough on Twitch, but laquilasse is still only at 6-2 so I won’t finish for a while. This means that I have not really had that second chance to play through to get a feel for the characters the way I have with the other games. I enjoy the characters a lot, but I don’t quite have a feel for them yet, you know? Nahyuta in particular I feel like I struggle to get a grasp on his characterization.

Because of that, I don't have the strongest feelings on blackmadhi. I don’t strongly ship them with anyone else either, really, but I’m not completely taken with them as a couple. They’ve definitely been growing on me though, and I can absolutely see the appeal. I do 100% want them to interact more, and I think they have a lot in common to form the foundation of a strong relationship, platonic or otherwise.

Like, these two are very similar, despite being outwardly pretty different people. They both sacrifice themselves for a young girl who they care about more than they care about their own wellbeings, and in turn have developed very abrasive facades in order to cope. However, Blackquill’s actions and decisions are all pretty self-destructive, while Nahyuta becomes, err, destructive I guess is the best way to put it. A tool of the state? Yeah, that. They’re both warped, twisted versions of themselves because allowing themselves to be genuine would only serve to hurt the person they feel they have to protect, and I think really these two are the only ones who would ever be able to understand that aspect of each other.

I think that’s the part that interests me the most, and part of why I do really want them to interact more. Blackquill has had longer on the other side of this horrible stretch of his life, has had more time to start recovering from it than Nahyuta. Not that the writers would ever actually acknowledge anyone’s trauma beyond a surface level, but I really think once both of them Get Over Themselves, they’d both really get a lot out of the interactions.

Though when I say Get Over Themselves, I do mean it. I think my favorite kind of blackmadhi would require a lot of them really struggling to overcome those initial differences since, admittedly, they really seemed to HATE each other. Like their first impressions were REALLY bad. Particularly Nahyuta, no matter how much of his self-righteous bullshit was real and how much of it was the façade, he absolutely went HARD with it in that case. Like no matter how much of it he believed, and I feel like at least some of his smug self-assurance is real, he definitely came out the gate swinging, and I feel like Blackquill is not necessarily the forgiving type.

Admittedly, the enemies to lovers trope isn’t always my favorite. If there’s really not any affection between two characters who detest each other, begrudging or otherwise, it tends to be a pass for me, and at least in canon, there really isn’t that moment where they do get that begrudging like for each other. Or maybe there is? I’m not back at 6-4 yet, I might not have caught it the first time. But yeah, because of that, I definitely think I prefer the fanon blackmadhi stuff I’ve seen over the canon stuff they’ve given us. Have them work through those differences and both realize there’s so much more to the other than they thought. That’s interesting! That’s compelling! Dare I say, that’s good shit.

Plus I like how their designs compliment each other. That’s just a fun added bonus.

But yeah. TL;DR, a lot of really interesting stuff to build on and I think it could make for a very interesting ship. I do enjoy seeing it, just don’t really seek it out.

[zackmartin]

hii jaksjdkd @\deweyducks is my children's media sideblog but this is my main so i'll send my ask from here but like...god that's so weird??? i haven't gotten to that episode yet (i'm on international dateline and cringing) but. barbara and cody were so sweet (and!!! a good interracial couple!!! that's important actually!!! why the hell would they make them cheat on each other when it has been established that doing so would be horrifically out of character for both of them) if they really wanted to put him with bailey the whole guy waits for girl after she repeatedly says no trope was not the way to go. at all (and yeah!!!!!! zack and bailey could have been something actually but i want to see where things go with him and maya once she shows up) and i actually would love to read your essay :)

I’m sorry, I will turn anon back on soon 😅 (and I get it, this used to be a sideblog until I accidentally deleted and then I decided to just make two mains instead but).

(For real! Like, yeah they were super important and good!!!! but if you had to have them break up, Barbara was going to stay in Boston and Cody’s on a cruise where he’s going to be a literal continent away at any given time. They really could’ve just done something as simple as letting them have an amicable breakup because the distance was too much instead of decimating both of their characters like that)

Anyway, I love Maya and Zack a lot, for the most part, they’re cute and I adore Zoey Deutch and Zack’s good with her so my love for what Zack and Bailey could’ve been isn’t really an either/or thing, I like both ships but just,,,

Putting Cody’s terrible characterization and treatment of Bailey aside for a moment, they pretty much made Bailey and Cody almost exactly alike. There are some differences, but they’re kinda few and far between. And that’s not necessarily a bad thing, you have to have some things in common with your S/O in order for it to work, but in the case of Zack/Bailey I really believe they could've been the good kind of opposites attract. Like, it could’ve turned into a situation where their differences turned into making each other better.

Like, in the case of Zack, we’ve seen in the original that he can actually do well in school (like when he went to summer school and was able to analyze Shakespeare fairly easily), he just needs a reason to really apply himself. And I mean, we know he would definitely do it to impress a girl alsdkfj (technically we saw that in the original too, when he told Maddie he got an 85 on his vocab quiz and he revealed that he tried to do well because she said she likes smart guys). Ofc, it’d be ideal if he was doing it for himself, but him actually trying in school, even if it starts as him just trying to impress Bailey, is not going to really hurt him in the end alsdjkf On top of that, I’m not sure if it’s canon or if I’m just HC’ing this, but I’m positive Cody has probably tried over the years to help him in subjects that don’t come so easily, but I know Zack, and whether we’re talking the og version or On Deck, I know neither of them would listen nor pay attention if Cody’s the one trying to teach him alsdjf He’d be way more apt to listen to Bailey, and I know she’d be willing to tutor him. And I know Bailey would celebrate his accomplishments, even if it’s as small as getting a C on a geometry quiz or something, and I feel like having someone like that, someone that shows him they’re proud of him and isn't constantly comparing his grade to Cody’s, could be enough to make him want to keep trying. (even if he isn’t always operating at 100%).

And on Bailey’s side; I totally respect the fact that she finds enjoyment in school-related things, and she definitely doesn’t have to have fun a certain way in order for it to “count” but. I feel like filling your day with only school/educational-related activities with no space in-between to breathe can so quickly lead to burn-out (especially if she goes to an ivy league, and you add that in with her going from being top of her class to being in a space where everyone was top of their class. But, again I’m getting off track). And, finding mindless, fun things to do in order to blow off steam is Zack’s exact area of expertise. (Like, I’m gonna be vague so I don’t spoil anything, but there’s legit an episode of On Deck where he teaches someone to relax and not make one thing your whole life). And I know this is adult me projecting cause she wishes teenage me wasn’t so serious, but Zack convincing Bailey to stay out an hour past curfew or skip one class wouldn’t kill her asldfjk Like, she might be upset in the moment if they get detention or something but you get out of high school and look back and you realize it literally Didn’t Matter. (i’m not being a great influence here, please don’t listen to me lklsjkdf)

Like, long story short, I just think that Bailey could teach Zack how to take things like his education and his future a bit more seriously, but Zack could show Bailey that you don’t have to take everything seriously all the time

And while we're on the subject; i know he was partially willing to keep Bailey's secret in the first episode because he wanted to room with a girl, but even after everything was revealed and Tuttweiller and Moseby were saying they had no choice but to send her home, Zack stuck up for her! He listened to her when she talked about why she wanted to go to seven seas high and how she wanted to see the world and he didn't do it for the sole purpose of using that information later in order to "win" her 🙃 He genuinely just wanted her to be able to live out her dream, and he did what little he could in order to make sure she got to keep living that dream.

[cero-blast]

Your post about Gin "messing with people's heads" makes me think, doesn't this also apply to Ulquiorra? He also psychologically tortured Inoue, don't you think it's hypocritical to say Gin's actions don't nullify the bad things he did, but say that UH is good/not toxic? I'm not trying to hate on you, I don't ship anything in Bleach, I just wanted to know why Gin is considered a bad inexcusable guy but Ulquiorra's relationship with Inoue is glorified?

This will get… really long. I’m genuinely sorry it’s this long.

I never said Ulqiorra did nothing wrong (though it’s fair to say I didn’t happen to specifically point it out), or that UH is a ship with many positive feelings associated to it. That would be… an interesting take. I hope you don’t think I think that. But I also need you to understand that I don’t base my taste in ships on what I desire/consider healthy in real life. They exist in the context of the canon — not interchangeable with reality considering the existence of superpowers, ghosts, semi-human creatures and time warping — and that’s where it ends for me. Applying the dynamics in my ships to any situation other than the precise one of Bleach’s canon would make them fundamentally different.

I’ve wanted to mention this about Ulquiorra for a while now and I’ll take the occasion to do so. It’s a mistake to put him in the same framework as a human or shinigami. (The latter two also have their differences but based on observation shinigami seem to behave in a much more human-like manner compared to hollows/arrancars.) He’s practically incapable of understanding what empathy is or find any good reason not to hurt other people, which is why it’s surprising when he manages to grasp even a shred of the concept right before dying. Hollows are born from experiencing such severe pain that it distorts their whole ‘essence’, so something has gone terribly wrong with them emotionally by definition, whether they evolve to arrancar form or not. Ulquiorra’s aspect of death, his ‘theme’, is emptiness — characterized by complete neutrality towards everything. Since a person with a healthy mindset tends to focus on danger and negative events, neutrality often comes across as immoral for being equally conceding towards moral right and moral wrong. The point is, Ulquiorra’s motivations for provoking Inoue had nothing to do with him taking joy in causing pain to her. In fact, it’s hinted he’s not even fully aware he’s doing it, like the scene where he tells Inoue he’d laugh at her friends’ foolishness in her place. He’s unaffected by most things AND has difficulty placing himself in others’ perspective, which results in him assuming everyone around him would be unaffected. The only thing that factored into him doing just about anything was curiosity, the need to fill the void, however you want to put it. If a human or shinigami behaved the same way he did around Inoue, it would come across in a vastly different way and I’m not sure it would even interest me as a ship. Ulquiorra is not only a hollow, but a hollow with a particular impediment in understanding how others feel, and this is an integral part of him as a character, of his interactions, of UH, of anything regarding him. I know it’s funny as a fandom meme to act as if he were human, but he’s NOT and this needs to be kept in mind.

This applies to any arrancar or espada, really. It’s tempting to judge them on the same basis as enemies who are closer to humanity, mainly because of their appearance and intellect. But this is the trick itself the narrative plays, a progression that has been present in Bleach since the start: it created a human/monster (shinigami/hollow here) dichotomy, then spent the longest arc deconstructing it by blurring the lines between the two. It doesn’t matter how smart and eloquent the espada manage to get, the only productive way of interpreting them is as people who are missing a very core part of their personality, so someone severely psychologically ill. (I say this as someone who has their own problems, before it gets misinterpreted as condescension.) Should this absolve them from punishment? Bleach says a very clear no. They almost all get killed by shinigami, in Ulquiorra’s case Ichigo specifically — Ichigo, who, by his own admission, empathized with everyone he fought and even gets angry at Yammy for speaking ill of Ulquiorra after his death. (I don’t want to start arguing about how he was in hollow state when he defeated him. He would have killed Ulquiorra either way if he continued to stand in the way of protecting his friends.)

In summary, the espada aren’t human. Ulquiorra isn’t human. It’s unrealistic to expect him to behave like a human. You’re free to pick who you want to have compassion for among Bleach’s positive and negative characters and if you decide Ulquiorra is irredeemable in your opinion, that’s fine — many characters would agree. But at the very least it can be objectively said that Bleach spends a lot of time presenting ‘evil’ characters’ perspectives as nuanced and explicable instead of writing them off. It gives the audience a choice in the matter. A core message of the entire story is that we’re subjective and maybe we’ll never manage to see the world the same way as someone else, but that’s fine and it doesn’t make us all that different; hollows can become *almost* shinigami, shinigami can become *almost* hollows, and they both have ways to relate to one another while retaining the insurmountable differences and even fighting and killing each other.

Now, onto Gin. First off, you seem to be under the impression that I don’t like him as a character. That couldn’t be further from the truth; I only said it in the tags because I figured saying it in the post would have sounded like making excuses, which is not what the post was about. I don’t know if I would call him a ‘good’ or ‘bad’ person. All I know is that I really enjoyed him as a character and I could see how he evoked sympathy — in the tragic way antagonists do when they get some sort of redemption. I noticed it’s a common tool in fiction to make an impact on the audience, I suppose because we’re happier when we see ‘bad people getting fixed’ rather than someone already good doing more good things. It’s a Prodigal Son type of thing; can be argued about but it definitely makes an impact.

Gin is a quintessential ‘mysterious type’; he has a long-running plan that he executes throughout almost his entire life without ever consulting with anyone (an important detail). He had a hypothesis on what would be the most effective way to kill Aizen and constructed a convoluted plan based on it — a plan where the ends would have justified the means in many, many situations, and that required causing problems to a lot of people. He had, however, no certainty that what he was doing would lead to the desired results (which it then didn’t…). A lot of his provocation was a means to create a certain image of himself and there’s a big question of where to draw the line there, whether all of that was absolutely necessary. Leaving to Hueco Mundo and technical demonstrations of loyalty were, sure, but mocking Rukia on her way to being executed? He considered keeping everything a secret a prerequisite for things to work out — presumably because if he talked to anyone, Aizen could have noticed — but was it, really? Many of his actions were based on his personal judgement on what would and wouldn’t have ruined the façade, subjective and hunch-based since he didn’t know the outcome for sure.

Gin isn’t inexcusable, but I noticed a lack of emphasis on the damage his actions caused among fans, both because of the chronological order of the story and his affiliation with the protagonists’ side. Because the last thing he did was a good thing, that’s what he’s remembered by, without taking into account the sum total of his interactions with others. He posited himself as vicious until the last moment and did so consciously. Ulquiorra had a very, very gradual progression in the way he talked to Inoue, which doesn’t make it less rude and traumatic, but there’s a difference between him showing up and telling her she ‘has no rights’ and later taking an active interest in her views on the Heart. It would be equally reductive to interpret him by his last moment and nothing else, but all he did before led to that moment progressively, while Gin’s was a very abrupt twist.

My post was a comment on psychology on the most basic, technical level, not a moral judgement. The two are separate in the way we process trauma and that’s exactly what I find interesting. Having strong negative emotions associated to a memory (what I think Kira, Hinamori, Hitsugaya or Rangiku could have had with Gin’s betrayal) creates a very subconscious reaction that can hardly be fixed by suddenly finding out it was necessary for a positive cause, which is why healing from trauma requires years of therapy. Because *in that moment* you didn’t have that knowledge, the pain remains in your memory and it’s not a matter of logical reasoning. Now, I’m not saying Ulquiorra’s interactions with Inoue were numerous or productive enough to properly process the trauma he caused her — the canon info is ambivalent on how comfortable Inoue was around him towards the end of her captivity because there’s both scenes like the famous slapping one *and* her seeming more light-hearted towards Ulquiorra in Unmasked, plus no one has any idea of which came before which. All things considered, I think repeated discussion and an attempt at mutual understanding does a better job at elaborating something traumatic than one single piece of information on why what traumatized you was justified. And note that the *only reason* the understanding between Ulquiorra and Inoue could have been mutual is because Inoue was exceptionally patient, empathetic and willing to face discomfort, way beyond the base level or what should be expected from anyone. Even if it was a *small amount* of *not very productive* discussion, it’s better than one act in my opinion (which most of the people who had some sort of issue with Gin didn’t even directly witness). Which of them is *morally worse* depends on how you draw the lines and define morality and that’s not something I feel qualified to decide.

So, in the end;Ulquiorra:-working towards enemy goals overtly-motivated by curiosity, which can be considered self-oriented-gradual improvement-not fully conscious of the emotional impact of his actions-Inoue considers him an ambivalent presence but “Isn’t afraid”, in her words-half-succeeded, as in: failed the goal of killing Ichigo but sated his curiosity

Gin:-working towards enemy goals on the surface and soul society goals covertly-motivated by attachment to Rangiku and/or revenge, less self-oriented but still focused on close acquaintances -long-running façade of being a terrible person followed by a sudden twist towards the good side-completely aware of everything he’s doing, plan laid out hundreds of years in advance-Gotei 13 don’t interact with Gin throughout HM arc, consider the traitors a lost cause-failed to kill Aizen

Instead of this encyclopedia I could have just written “Gin isn’t irredeemable, I just said he did bad things before”, but I thought too much about it. And I might go through spelling mistakes once I wake up.

[tcfactory]

What do you think of crack ships like Fordola/Zenos? I have a soft spot for it for no reason at all and I'm paddling in this canoe all on my own.

[Well, give me enough motivation and the permission to bend canon and I can get most ships working, but we don’t love our crack ships because they make sense.

Generally speaking I don’t think they could work (past a random one night stand anyway) without something big and messy just turning their circumstances upside down.

So say if they were dropped into my AU - noob hunters A and B in the New World - I can imagine them striking up a friendship because they have their status sort of equalized and a lot of Zenos’ issues are lessened by the environment.

Otherwise I don’t think Fordola cares much about him as a person. He is a noble, he is her general and he has the whole “sport of kings” thing going on which is either a charade or genuine depending on how you spin it, but it really just hammers in that “I’m a garlean prince bored by all of these savages” impression. Even if they jokingly guessed in her unit what Zenos does in his own time, I think the guesses would have run the way of “some weird noble shit” or “SWORD”.

As for Zenos, well. He’s Zenos. He’s very much stuck in his way of “I’m a monster, a weapon to be wielded” and needs either a very strong willed, determined person like the WoL to move him from it or some otherwise extreme change in his life. He’s not looking for interpersonal connections because he’s rather convinced that he’s incapable of them so... yeah. There’s that.

Okay, all common sense aside, they could look fun together just from the visual side of things. I would read the hell out of smol angry and tol bored going on wacky adventures together and it goes where it goes. Do they bicker? Do they bond? Do they kiss? It’s all good. Monster hunting buddies, deserting together for any reason, you name it I’m all for it.

But yeah, that’s how I think it could work in a not necessarily toxic way: 1. move Zenos out of his current situation somehow 2. get Fordola to consider him as a person rather than a dangerous commanding officer 3. just lessen the status difference between them somehow.]