#yaoi/yuri march madness

[llycaons]

supergirl will be forgotten in 10 years meanwhile people are still writing meta and paying homage to utenanthy in other media 20+ years after rgu's release. these people do not know the meaning of the word iconic

[docholligay]

The Youths want to know what f/f couples you would put in a March Madness-esque bracket. It is specifically couples not individuals, there is a similar Yaoi bracket going on right now. Competitors do not have to be anime thats just what its called, and they do not need to be canon either. You can have multiple competitors from the same fandom but try to keep it balanced

Boy am I the wrong person to bring this question to ahaha. I am the MARIANAS TRENCH of yuri couples. I love VERY DEEPLY, but not broadly. I don’t skip around in my interests and my ships! There are only a handful of f/f couples, of couples at all, really, that I would say I care about in any meaningful way. Even properties I really enjoy, a lot of the time, it isn’t about the lesbian pairing for me. That’s why I often ask if people want me to watch a show because it is TRULY GOOD, or because lesbians appear. I’m an old married lesbian. I have a fair amount of married lesbian friends. I enjoy having them! I don’t need to go to fiction to find the reality that lesbians can exist and have relationships. 

BUT, if we are setting up this bracket. 

Harumichi will win every time. 

Because if I’m taking this as i understand it, it’s not about how I feel about any individual character in a couple, but how I feel about the couple as its own character, how their romantic relationship moves in its own way and affects them both and the people around them in its own way. For me, harumichi is the slam dunk for that. I am very very fond of Reinako, but I think of rei and Minako as two interesting and independent people hwo happen to end up together and if they didn’t, well, that would also be fine. I love them as a couple but it doesn’t feel like its own force of nature for me the way harumichi does. In the same way i adore Lena, she is one of favorite characters of all time, but she is essentially fully formed when she and emily get together and while they make each other happy and their relationship is lovely in the light of all that, and I enjoy writing it, it’s not the same. 

I would probably place Pharah/Mercy in my slot two, but it’s mostly being carried by the fact that I think of Fareeha as being a huge mess in her very own way before she meets Angela, and even then it’s not just Angela’s love that changes her and moves her, it’s the family and camaraderie and very real love she finds within the new OW she helps create. It’s her CHOOSING to be better, as well, and I won’t take that from her and give it all to Angela. (While I absolutely WILL take that from Ms. Michiru Kaioh.) 

Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, the best I could come up with would be an elite eight: 

harumichi

pharah/mercy

reinako

lena/emily

lena/amelie (mostly for the horrific potential) 

Okay i realize that is five, but as I sit here thinking about it…as far as relationships run this is the small handful that I really feel in my bones. There are relationships I really do like and often include, and very much consider my canon (Seiya/Usagi, Hana/Brigitte) and there are relatkionships I am fine with and am happy enough to include but its whatever (Makoami, Amelie/Sombra) but only a very small handful would I say belong on a greatest list in my heart at all. 

Also, I’m not an ANTI-romance writer by any stretch of the imagination, but I wouldn’t say it’s a focus of what I write, either. I love to write romantic relationships! I think they are great, this is not at all me going “why can’t anyone write about friendshiiiiiiip??” i just in fact, do that. Because I love how Mina and Mcihiru chip away at each other as much as I love how Michiru would die, or kill, whichever is fine, for Haruka. I love that Angela teaches Fareeha that there is safety in love but I also want to see that reflected in the ways she and Lena play off each other. I think Haruka’s death is a tragedy for Mina as much as it is for Michiru. I think Lena’s great love for Winston is as moving as hers for Emily. 

I’m more interested the art that people are in the reflections of all the people who love them. We are all kaleidoscopes, and one mirror can’t make that. 

So i’m just not the right person to ask about all this. 

But, you may say, Holligay you are way fucking overthinking this, all I meant was if you had any perspective as an old as to the couples you’d put on a fucking bracket for other people jesus Christ why is everything a fucking Annie Dillard essay with you. Okay, fair. 

For the sake of brevity let’s call it a sweet sixteen, knowing that this is colored by my age and my exposure. These aren’t listed in any kind of order and it should be noted that plenty of these are couples I don’t like particularly or don’t care about, just what I think might rightly BE on a best of list. 

Harumichi

Xena/Gabrielle

Willow/Whatever the name of her girlfriend is, I can’t remember

Utena/Anthy

Catra/Adora

Cagney/Lacey

Korra/the other one, you who know who I mean

Lena/Kara

Harley/Ivy 

Eve/Villanelle

Ruby/Sapphire

Did people ship Elphaba and Glinda? I feel like they MUST have. Though I just googled Elphaba slashfic and it was inconclusive. The kids today don’t say slashfic, do they? I’m old

Pharah/Mercy

Bette/Tina

Santana/Brittany

Me/A bowl of soup

I don’t know who would reign triumphant, it would depend on how we were voting. I mean if I put it on tumblr it would be one of the contemporary couples like Korra and whoever she is, but I don’t know that I think that’s fair to the sheer historical value of, say, Xena and Gabrielle, or even, though Glee became a joke, the way Santana and Brittany were at the time. It’s hard to evaluate things that bridge something like what, forty years on this list? But this is what I would put it out as, if I had to do it right now, gun to my head

[llycaons]

how could this have happened

[llycaons]

'what's your problem with supercorp' well first of all it's called 'supercorp'

[llycaons]

a sincere congratulations to the noble fighters and worthy competitors on each side of the brackets except for the ones I don’t like, but now it’s time to lay down our swords and come together to honor kaworu/shinji as the most iconic yaoi couple of all time as they take a shocking victory from sasunaru nation. a night never to be forgotten #yaoiwars #kaworusweep #hewasinoneepisodeandthendied #butatleasttheywerecanon

[llycaons]

watching the yaoi polls like my life depends on it. this is sports to me

[llycaons]

holy shit sns is losing iconic polling

[llycaons]

THE VOTES ARE IN!!!!!!

tight race but narusasu has emerged victorious from brutal battle with the esteemed spirk (over 110,000 votes!!)

in an incredible upset, kawoshin has somehow defeated the full force of gay mgs fans rooting for snotacon (almost 88,000 votes!!)

leaving us with the finale of!!! NARUSASU VS. KAWOSHIN!!!!!!

[llycaons]

two hours left in the better yuri poll 👀 bubbline, utenanthy, and catradora are still in the runnning

[llycaons]

kwoshin is not getting out of this one alive

[llycaons]

Literally do not care what the competition is. sasunaru was a phenomenon and has been for years and continues to inspire anguish and paragraphs of meta to this day. We just celebrated sasunaru Saturday. I've never seen that for any other couple in my life. There is nobody more iconic to place in the yaoi brackets.

[llycaons]

this is genuinely the most exciting result in this entire poll. good for kawoshin!!! idk how they beat sns nation but god damn they did it

[llycaons]

l/light put up a good showing but could not stand up to the might of sasunaru. I’m so glad that kawoshin beat hannigram. remember your roots. I don’t even know why leo/pika was on here...like I guess? kawoshin vs snotacon, idk the second one and - WHAT’S THIS

IT’S SPIRK VS. NARUSASU. SHOWDOWN OF THE CENTURY

[llycaons]

almost 76,000 votes, with .4% difference. damn

[llycaons]

kawoshin wasn’t onesided :( also sasuke and naruto ended up in hetero marriages I don’t think not dying saved them

[llycaons]

well folks it’s an emotional time in the tags tonight