#shipping analysis
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The Shipping Corner: Voxman, A Balm for Capitalist-Induced Angst
Note: I'm sorry this took as long as it did. I've been in a pretty bad slump recently and am just now coming out of it.
Lord Boxman is the black sheep among his peers. This is first established with Professor Venomous' initial distaste towards him and the later reactions he gets when he unexpectedly shows up at Billiam Milliam's villain yacht party. The only kinds of relationships Boxman has with other villains amount to strictly business transactions to create their robot minions. The shareholders that directly fund Boxmore are especially skeptic of Boxman's destroy the Plaza side venture and see this as a misguided, Snidely Whiplash-esque escapade. He's just a Saturday morning cartoon villain and they're the respectable big leagues. When Boxman funnels so much time, effort, energy, and resources towards the Plaza attacks, it takes precious time away from robot production; the one thing he does they consider valuable or worthwhile. They threaten to cut off their support if Boxman's production doesn't increase and then gladly replace him with Darrell when the opportunity arises. Darrell fits the exact mold they need for a CEO: he focuses exclusively on production.
There's no respect. There's no interest in or concern for Lord Boxman as an individual. The dislike is mutual. Of course Boxman doesn't get along with other villains. Most of the known names and faces on screen hold the purse strings and by extension, the fate of Boxman's entire operation. He feels like he has to put on his best face and performance to keep his business afloat. Without Boxmore, he seemingly has nothing and loses everything material. After Boxman was fired by the shareholders, he becomes absolutely depressed and floats around for awhile until Venomous finds him in his trash can. As much as he hates answering to corporate interests, he's locked in as a "robot manufacturer" as much as an Average Joe is stuck at a 9-5 job because of bills, a mortgage; and most frustratingly, how easily someone can fall into the trappings of letting a job define their self-worth or sense of self.
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When Professor Venomous gets introduced, he's partly in Boxman's mental bucket of shareholder/necessary business relationships. Boxman goes to great lengths to hide K.O., Rad, and Enid after accidentally booking his business dinner on the same night as an antagonize the Plaza event. He's scared that his 'hobby' would dissuade Venomous from buying any more of his robots and break their already tenuous business deal. Instead, Venomous starts to see Boxman through literal rose-tinted glasses and becomes interested in Boxman's ongoing Plaza rivalry but uses the robots as a continued excuse to check in again on this weird, intriguing man.
Another interesting precedent is that Boxman is more fond of Venomous from the jump. When interacting with other business partners, Boxman is over-the-top and eager to please in video calls and plays the oblivious idiot in casual settings, but behind closed doors, he's bitter towards them. Boxman won't hug his own children and scoffs at open displays of affection. Yet he wants to touch or hug Venomous as often as he can reasonably get away with. Part of his behavior is the same eager to please facade he gives other interested business parties, but the bigger part is a legitimate interest in developing a more personal relationship with Venomous.
The pink shoujo sparkles and elevator eyes Boxman has for Venomous are a blatant indicator he finds him attractive. That's a surprisingly huge part of what kicks off his interest. Look at how he reacts to Dr. Blight in the Captain Planet crossover. Boxman initially shows skepticism and disinterest towards her crazy plans, but the second she flirts with him, the flip switches. The promise of romantic interest grants her access to the full power and force of Boxmore. When she leaves at the end of the episode, Boxman is disappointed. He wanted to continue their partnership, especially their potential interpersonal one.
In Venomous' case, he gets extra points for joining in the fight after the Plaza brats interrupt dinner. He asks about the design and Lego brick-esque connectivity of the Boxbots. He's not above participating in the Saturday morning cartoon skirmish. Rather, he misses that kind of fight and yearns to experience more exploits like it. Venomous is the only on-screen character outside of Boxman's kids that shows a willingness to listen to, try to understand, and engage with Boxman in a more personable, intimate way.
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Professor Venomous fell into villainy after he lost his powers and realized how overbearing he found the moral code heroes have. Being a villain comes naturally to him; he likes the fruits of his labor in the vast amounts of wealth, prestige, and material power that he could gain. Fast forward to present-day in the series and he's the picture of a successful villain. He figures out the easy button for amassing stupid amounts of money by threatening a Congresswoman with a death ray. He's sought out for deals involving his scientific prowess. He's respected and liked among other villains to the point he's invited to Billiam's parties. Though while he has a comfortable position, he's become jaded.
Enter Lord Boxman. Compared to the villains Venomous is used to, Boxman dances to the beat of his own drum. He's more interested in defeating the Plaza than an endless vie for prestige, wealth, or power. He says he doesn't care what the other villains think of him and how he does things. No matter what happens, he's going to carve out his own path as a villain and do what he wants to with his life. Somehow, Venomous got tied up in a new, different kind of bureaucratic process as a villain. As a hero, he felt like an outcast and a loser everybody looked down on without super powers. As a villain, he has everything he thought he wanted but it was more of a means to make up for what he lost. It was more compensating and filling in an existential hole vs actually taking meaningful control of his life. In stark contrast to that, Boxman knows exactly what he wants and puts his all into every pursuit, consequences and obstacles be damned.
Collaborating with Boxman is an epiphany. Dreaming up new schemes and plots to challenge the Plaza is fun. It's fulfilling and satisfying to Venomous in a way that heroics and solo villain ventures weren't. There's one scene in particular after Boxman and Venomous join forces for the first time and lose spectacularly. Both of them are smiling; it's joyous. Boxman was down and out without Boxmore, but building Fink's attack trike was a spark of hope that he can rebuild even if its from the ground-up. Venomous just lost his nice house and all of his current material possessions because Boxman blew everything up. But then Boxman turned around and presented the exact existential solution Venomous didn't know he needed by suggesting attacking the Plaza. It's the dinner party attack, but this time, Venomous was a full part of the planning phases. He gets to share in and fully experience the devil-may-care and more whimsical parts of being a villain he thought were long gone.
Venomous offers to buy out Boxmore and root out the shareholders. Finally, Boxman is free of one of the bigger obstacles between him and his all-time favorite venture. Not only does Boxman have free reign, but also the equal partner he so desperately desired; someone that's on his same wavelength and as invested in his kind of villainy as he is.
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Another important dimension to Venomous' character is his destructive spiral as Shadowy Venomous. Finding that 'missing piece' in Boxman and Boxmore respectively isn't a magic solution. There's significant baggage in how much emphasis Venomous placed on his need for power. This was such a huge quest and chunk of his life that its difficult to give up on the idea entirely. Its similar to how some people spend so much time chasing after a specific job title or promotion that this elusive thing becomes an important part of what defines them or contributes to their sense of self worth. Venomous left Carol because of a gross misunderstanding that she saw him as weak. He was missing the value he assigned to super powers for so long that every new solution was always a band-aid or a stop gap.
Someone can find a thing or circumstances that significantly improves their life, but they need to see and recognize this psychologically too for it to be completely effective. In other words, Venomous needed to recognize the real-time changes and results from joining Boxmore, then figure out how to weigh those continued changes with his own self-discovery or improvement.
Boxman started improving on being a more proactive parent. Unfortunately, Venomous started getting lost in his own head and pulling away from his other responsibilities or general life. A change as big as a new partner, surroundings, and blended family would be enough to kickstart depression; especially because Venomous hadn't appropriately addressed why he needed this abstract concept of what it meant to be the 'most powerful being.' Success and self-actualization weren't included with the previous accolades he achieved as a villain. It wasn't obvious and forthcoming with Boxman either. The lack of introspection and vulnerable talks with Boxman or anyone else is exactly what led to the wind-up and eventual "I'll destroy everything if it means getting rid of the years of resentment and frustration."
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Both Venomous and Boxman have some sort of adult trapped in the shitty corporate world element to their character writing. In a nutshell, Boxman struggles with the existential threat of losing who he is to one specific job he performs; Venomous finds villainy gratifying as more of a hobby or extracurricular activity vs a full-time job. He's successful at it but the version he's successful at is more of a distraction or a means to fill in a missing part of himself than true interest in his corporate role. Boxman's approach to villainy is considered juvenile and worthless. Venomous still loves villainy but he wants the freedom to have fun and go all-out without worrying about reputation or meeting the specific standards that comes with his current position.
In 2024, after the various rise of corporate buzzwords trying to guilt employees back to pre-pandemic work standards and inflation vs stagnant wages, there's new weight to the Boxman and Venomous character allegories respectively. These two are that success story of Boxman giving the middle finger to a crappy boss and Venomous making that leap of faith from an empty, soul-sucking job to the more wild, out of pocket thing. Venomous' ill-obtained funds becomes that treasured pile of "fuck you" money that so many people dream about having and using to take a risk on something personally, meaningfully valuable to them. Or just having a window of opportunity to enjoy life the way they want to without having to worry about bills and necessities.
More importantly though, while they describe themselves as business partners, it's two single, lonely men building a life and trying to healthfully blend their families together. Part of this life is making space for someone new that makes the other man want to work on becoming a better, more thoughtful person. Regardless of where a person sits in their job hunt or even at the height of personal achievement, the most important part is the support network they come home to or regularly interact with.
Thematically, Boxman and Venomous are the opposite side of the coin to the more straightforward found family K.O. builds and maintains. It's a reminder that no one has to be lonely. They can and will find someone that brings meaningful, valuable things to their life; someone that makes them want to change and grow. While this is about an explicitly romantic pair, the message applies whether that hypothetical person and relationship is romantic, platonic, or a new addition to a found family.
#voxman#ok ko voxman#ship analysis#ok ko let's be heroes#ok ko#ok ko professor venomous#ok ko lord boxman#character analysis#ship discussion#shipping analysis#shipping#the shipping corner#theromancescrooge#i'm back bitches
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[Analysis] Richette (Richter&Annette)
Sometimes a ship can sneak up on you unexpectedly and it ultimately ends up consuming you. That's exactly what happened to me with Richette (RichterxAnnette) from Castlevania: Nocturne. After pondering for a couple of weeks, I've decided to do an analysis of their relationship because not only do I enjoy them as characters individually, but there's so much nuance and complexity to their relationship and so much to discuss. So without further ado:
First of all, I need to talk about these two gorgeous character posters (pictured above) of Richter and Annette. Color theory time!
On Richter's poster, he's all serious, stern, and means business. The color blue is heavily utilized and in color theory blue is considered a cool color. The color blue typically has the following meanings: calmness, honesty, trust, stability, and responsibility. Furthermore, the color blue is also usually associated with the sea, trust, the sky, stability, tranquility, and depth.
Interestingly enough, Annette's poster is sort of the opposite of Richter's she's coquettish and looks slightly playful. The color yellow is greatly emphasized and in color theory yellow is considered a warm color. The color yellow typically has the following meanings: happiness, creativity, mental stimulation, impatience, and cowardice. Furthermore, the color yellow is also usually associated with energy, sunshine, brightness, cheerfulness, and joy.
Episode 1
Richter first meets Annette after she saves him from a Night Creature while he is suffering from his PTSD (childhood trauma witnessing his mother's horrific demise by Olrox). I love Annette's soft smile towards Richter.
Richter is impressed/amazed by Annette's magical abilities.
Annette not only demonstrates her magical abilities but she also showcases that she's knowledgeable about Night Creatures and the Vampire Messiah. Initially, Richter's hurling many questions at her and he's frustrated until she answers them. Richter becomes a little sheepish when it's revealed that Annette and Edouard are looking for "someone called Belmont" and he's the Belmont in question.
Episode 2
Richter's definitely intrigued by Annette as Edouard and Annette are discussing her lineage. Richter plays up his confidence and contentment with how he's perfectly fine with his knives and his family heirloom the Vampire Killer whip to kill vampires. But the mood changes once he brings up magic and his mother due to his childhood trauma.
Annette: Where's your mother?
Richter: She died. Some vampires do magic too.
As we will learn later, Richter's and Annette's respective mothers being killed by a vampire is something that they have in common. You can see the sympathy displayed in Annette's eyes.
When Edouard was being overtaken by the vampires and Night Creatures. Annette was distracted and frozen with despair, but she needed to regain her focus to finish creating the bridge for them to escape so that they could live to fight another day.
This is an all too familiar scene for Richter the grief, pain, and loss of a loved one. The heavy pouring rain adds to this somber moment.
Episode 3
The next day Richter comforts Annette stating that their only option was to retreat. They were surrounded and it wasn't her fault regarding what happened to Edouard. However, Annette feels like she abandoned him and that he wouldn't have abandoned her. Edouard was like family to her and all that she had left after her mother died.
Richter: I know what it's like to watch your mother die. I fled...but I guess you couldn't do that.
Here comes the nuance Richter acknowledges the similarities between Annette and him losing their mothers. However, he also realizes that he was able to flee get on a ship, and travel to a whole different country across the ocean putting distance between him and the vampire that haunted him. But Annette couldn't do that she was stuck on the island of Saint-Domingue having to pretty much almost every day confront her nightmare.
Annette as she's recounting the slave uprising in Saint-Domingue we get this commentary:
Richter: It sounds like an epic battle.
Annette: Freedom was sweeter than the sugar we harvested.
There's also this parallel last episode when Richter mentioned some vampires can do magic. This episode during the flashback:
Annette: Vaublanc changed into a bat. What other magic can they do?
Annette: He was so brave, so committed to our freedom.
Richter: We'll avenge him. I swear.
Their resolve to take down the vampires and the Vampire Messiah is even further strengthened.
During Annette's rousing speech in the town's square, Richter is mesmerized and captivated. He's actually listening and paying attention hanging on to her every word. He even cracks a smile.
This is a stark contrast to earlier in the season when during one of Maria's revolutionary gatherings he admitted he wasn't really listening and was basically nonchalant about the whole ordeal.
Episode 4
Annette's still shaken up from witnessing Edouard as a Night Creature in the last episode. I must say Richter's quite chivalrous towards Annette in this scene. He's checking up on her asking if she's all right. He also lays out the facts and reality of the situation as harsh and grim as it might be.
He stresses that they need a plan because he doesn't want a repeat of what happened at the chateau. However, Annette's impatience and impulsiveness are getting the best of her.
Annette: The Abbey's made of stone. I can bury them in their own church, bring it crashing down around their heads.
Richter: A proper plan, not walk in, make a few snap decisions about who deserves to live or die, and then turn everything to rubble.
The conversation takes a turn towards cowardice and being afraid.
Richter: I've only been afraid once in all my life, and I was 10.
Annette: You know what it's like to watch your mother die, you said. She was killed by a vampire, wasn't she?
Annette connects the dots and here's some more nuance. People are shaped by their upbringing and the type of environment that they grew up in. Annette states that Richter and Maria are not cowards it's more so that they are just children with no experience of the world, no experience of the hard choices that adults have to make.
There's great teamwork demonstrated here as Richter protects Annette while she's doing her incantation.
When Richter comes face to face with his nightmare (Olrox) years later he reverts into his scared 10-year-old self and flees. Annette's shocked, disappointed, and furious at how he just abandoned their plight.
Richter Belmont is the person that her mentor Cecile told her to seek out and that would be able to aid her in accomplishing her mission. Even though he couldn't use magic anymore, she said that they'd make do, but now he ghosts them this definitely does not go over well.
However, Annette will later come to understand his perspective and situation even though as of right now she comes across as insensitive towards him.
Episode 5
This episode showcases the aftermath of Richter's actions towards the end of the last episode. Annette can't sit still and wants to free Edouard from his chains instead of regrouping and waiting for Richter to return.
Tera tries to make Annette understand Richter's behavior and actions. Olrox is the vampire who killed his mother after all and the nightmare that still haunts him.
Annette: We all have nightmares. If I'd let my past terrify me, I'd never be free of it.
As I mentioned earlier, Annette, unlike Richter, has come face-to-face with her nightmare(which also includes slavery) just about every single day on the island. Richter hasn't physically confronted Olrox in almost a decade. Annette's able to face her nightmare(Vaublanc) head-on she isn't afraid of him anymore. We witness this later in the episode when she confronts him. She doesn't allow Vaublanc to get under her skin or break her. She conquers and defeats him.
Richter as of right now, doesn't have much fight left in him, but he'll eventually regain his resolve and turn things around.
Episode 6
Juste and Richter share many parallels they both experience a blockage to their magic after witnessing the traumatic loss of their loved one(s) due to a vampire before their eyes. They both blame themselves for it as well. Juste has such a defeatist attitude, and Richter could've ended up similar to Juste if he wasn't able to work through his blockage.
Annette calls upon her mentor Cecile for guidance. She expresses how Richter ran away but Cecile reminds her that everyone starts by running away. Annette ran away too at first but she eventually got to a point where she didn't cower in front of her tormentor, it's not something that's going to happen overnight it takes time. Cecile also advises Annette to learn to hear her ancestors. There's light in the darkness.
At his lowest point, before Richter regained his magical powers he thought of the people who he loved and wanted to protect. Annette was included alongside Tera and Maria. Now, not only has his magic returned but so has his resolve.
Episode 7
Richter has finally returned after being m.i.a for a few days and he has to clear the air between Annette and himself.
Immediately without wasting any time or putting it off, Richter goes to speak to Annette. He is nervous as hell and bracing for a storm, so he was surprised when Annette said that she knew he'd be back and that she was more concerned than she wanted to be.
Richter's like oh, really? And starts joking, "The muscles, huh?" The tension in the air diffuses between them and blushing ensues. Annette talking to her mentor really helped her ease up; she's not being driven by anger, and it's reflected in this moment between Richter and her. They've come to understand one another.
Richter reaffirms that they're going to get Edouard out of his cell. He shows Annette that his magic abilities have returned. Richter talks about remembering what makes him who he is and the type of person he wants to be...a Belmont. Living up to the legacy of his family's last name was also something that he was grappling with during the season as well.
When Richter mentioned the love in this house it stood out and resonated with Annette. Annette is overall dazzled by Richter during his speech it's adorable.
Richter: I won't let myself be afraid ever again.
Annette: But we are afraid. It's not always bad. It just means we have something to lose.
Being afraid and fear are natural human emotions but the reasons behind why we are afraid can differ. We can be afraid because we have something or someone that we want to protect and not lose.
The current atmosphere and mood are romantic during this moment. Richter and Annette are staring deeply at each other. Richter also sneaks glances at Annette when she breaks eye contact with him.
Can you feel the love?
Later on, they're calm, cool, and collected putting together a plan of action this time around. This is an improvement from Episode 4 where they also needed to formulate a plan of action.
Episode 8
Annette: Don't burn the place to the ground.
Richter: Good point. And try not to reduce it to rubble.
Would you look at that? Some fun light banter before a big battle. Their lines are also a callback to earlier episodes in the season. Remember in Episode 2 Annette talked about burning the chateau to the ground. Also in Episode 4, Richter said the turn everything into rubble line. The difference here is in the context, tone, and delivery.
You can really see the growth and development even further by this stage in their relationship.
Richter: We had no choice. Did we?
This scene is so heart-wrenching. Richter's tone and delivery of the line and his glance over to Annette for reassurance. Tera is now going to be a vampire. Our heroes just can't quite catch a break can they this season?
Congratulations! You've made it to the end. Even though this took many days to put together I had fun creating this. I may have missed a few things, but I feel like I touched on the main elements.
Thanks for taking the time to read my analysis.
#richette#annette x richter#richter x annette#shipping analysis#i'm excited to see how their relationship will develop in the future#there's so much potential#slow burn romance#relationship analysis#long post
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Why the Hell Do I Ship Royai???
(TW: brief mention of suicide and allusions to unhealthy relationships)
I know nobody asked but I find the fact that I ship Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye so interesting because, on paper, I shouldn’t ship them.
First of all, I don’t like straight ships with dynamics like the right hand man or ships that have the male character as the woman’s superior. It’s not the dynamic itself that bothers me, it’s the predictability of it. When it’s hetero, I immediately think “of course those two are gonna get together.” It feels like low hanging shipping fruit.
I also don’t like stoic badass x absolute clown (competent or otherwise) ships. I almost always end up wondering why either side likes/puts up with each other. Especially since the badass tends to be an asshole and/or emotionally unavailable while the clown (forcibly) takes on their baggage.
Lastly, I don’t like relationships where one or both sides are codependent on the other. “I’ll die without you”, “You can’t leave me”, “I refuse to go on without you”, “You’re mine/I’m yours”, “You’re my other half (seriously)”, etc. ships have never been appealing to me. I understand why people like them, but I just can’t get over how gross it makes me feel. Like, I promise the planet will continue spinning after they’re gone, get some self confidence, I’m begging you. Maybe it’s because I’m not a romantic, maybe I’m overthinking it, maybe I’ve heard too many stories of codependent relationships going south, who knows?
By all means, I should look at Royai and think that it’s an incredibly unbalanced and unlikeable relationship (at least in a romantic sense). But I don’t. And I think I know why: Royai took what should’ve been an incredibly one-sided/unbalanced relationship and balanced it.
First, it avoids coming across as predictable (because it technically isn’t canon) because the series goes out of its way to expand upon their relationship's. It doesn’t absolve the predictability, but it counters it. It avoids being forced by being taken seriously and being given serious time to develop.
Secondly, both characters are developed in ways that avoid their relationship coming across as overly cliche. Namely, they’re given reason to like each other and both are charismatic/likeable enough that they aren’t annoying (I know this isn’t much, but the bar is in hell for shounen romance. Especially background character romance). Hawkeye has her lighter and nicer moments and Mustang knows when to be serious. The problem of the stoic character having exponentially more baggage or the clown forcing that baggage onto themselves is also avoided by both of them having a lot of baggage and (something FMA nailed as a series) boundaries.
My last problem is avoided by both of them staying their own characters. They can both function without the other, the other doesn’t fill their every waking thought, they’re capable of and willing to call the other out on their screwups, and whatever pedestal they put the other on doesn’t impede their judgement (for the most part) or make them ignore others to a concerning/upsetting extent. Even after Hawkeye says she’ll take her own life if Mustang dies, it somehow avoids being ship-ruining/frustrating/ disturbing. It’s tragic, but it doesn’t make me want them to not get together (it makes me want them to work through that shit and then get together). I’m gonna add that this is probably helped by the fact that Mustang never takes advantage of her vulnerability and he doesn’t come across as the type who ever would. It would’ve been so easy to make Mustang the stoic badass in charge with enough baggage to fill an airport with Hawkeye as his softer/more lighthearted right hand woman with a concerning level of dependency on him, but the author didn’t go that route and I will be forever grateful.
#Maybe everyone already put this together and I’m just slow#But maybe I put words to someone’s thoughts#And if not#Then I spent too much time on this to delete it now#Maybe someone could get some writing ideas/advice out of this?#Romance writing advice?#For anyone attempting this same balancing act?#rambling#shipping analysis#royai#roy mustang#riza hawkeye#fullmetal alchemist#fullmetal alchimist brotherhood#fma#fmab#not about naruto#…surprise?#this was supposed to be short#my stooff
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I'm relatively new to ORV, I got into it a while back and then ran out of time to continue (the novel is long AF lol) but as I'm getting back into it, I've realized that ORV is one of the most main character centric fandoms I have ever encountered before.
And tbh I think that's why I've been having so many issues getting invested in ORV fanworks. Specifically shipping ones. It's super rare for me because usually I love reading fanfics.
Before I start talking about my thoughts I just wanna make a disclaimer that I'm not trying to attack anyone. You should interact with media and create stuff however you wish to! Lord knows that I'm not exactly unbiased about my blorbos (I would die for them and you can tell from my posts) but I just kinda wanna talk about this because it's such a unique experience. Never before have I encountered a fandom that is so centered on one character.
Like I hope y'all know what I'm talking about and that I'm not just talking out of my ass. Everything in the ORV fandom is super Kim Dokja centric. On one hand, I really do get it, he's a great character. He's not my favourite character but he's a lil rat bastard and I think he's so fucking neat. And how centred the storyline and moreover the people in the story are on Kim Dokja is to a certain extent, canon. He's their leader and also the person keeping them safe. He's the one who reached out in their darkest moments and pulled them to the light. And he's a traumatized little bitch. Oof. A certain amount of hero worship and protectiveness is valid.
What I can't really wrap my head around though, is the lack of development between other members of the group in a lot of fanworks. This is specifically fandom interpretations of the characters btw, I haven't finished the story fully, so I can't speak on how they are canonically but I have seen people's stories and thoughts. And this isn't always the case of course, I have read fics before where our protagonists all appear to have relations with each other outside of their care for Dokja but it... wasn't as much as I was expecting. Which is weird to me because ORV is super good at writing like. Well written and thought out characters that would be super fun to play with in writing. In developing connections and care for each other - creating a found family. At the beginning they're all tied in by the need for survival and circumstance, they don't even necessarily like each other, and so of course they all gravitate to Dokja, that's to be expected, that's who they're familiar with. But eventually I expect they would learn to care about each other too, y'know? It's difficult to not get to know each other when you're living together daily, fighting alongside each other to survive. I don't believe that they wouldn't develop care for the other members of the group, and people who care about each other don't tend to genuinely threaten each other anytime Dokja gets hurt, especially when it's not anyone's fault - like usually it's in response to one of them "not doing enough to protect him" which makes no sense to me. You don't guilt trip people you care about for things outside their control. Moreover, Dokja is his own person - he will do what he will do and you can try and prevent it because you care about him, sure, but it's also unreasonable for others to expect anyone to be his keeper enough that they get angry when Dokja gets hurt due to his own actions or to situations outside of their control. People in general also don't have their entire character and world centered on loving one person. There are fics I've read where all the characters don't even seem to have any hobbies outside of spending time with Dokja, and I say this because they all literally fight, tooth and nail, over Dokja's time. It feels out of character to me. And yet this characterization is also so common???
I don't usually mind fics that so clearly have a bias towards one character because it's valid to write what you wanna see, but I think it's how saturated the fandom is with those types of works that makes me feel weird. It makes me stop seeing all the characters as individuals in their own right. Having no wants or needs or hobbies outside of Dokja makes it seem like they're just accessories to the story of Dokja's life. The story itself becomes less compelling to me, because it becomes less of a narrative of how Dokja has helped these people and their responses, and more of a world that bends over backwards to worship this one character, using all the other characters as tools to do so. Because if this is meant to convey gratitude and love, its illogical to how it usually works. Specifically in that, you don't lose your own identity or your connections to other people because of it. And I find it hard to interact with this level of saturation of those tropes because at a certain point, I start losing sight of the canonical writing of these individual characters as their own people. I start losing the idea I have in my mind of their canonical personalities. And I don't like that feeling. And because Dokja also isn't my favourite character in this story - I still like him, don't get me wrong - I start feeling indignant on the behalf of all the other characters that are not getting development BC of the concentration on Dokja.
I also don't like it when the banter goes away. Like you can care about people and still enjoy messing with them, I'm not sure why caring about dokja translates to hero worship??? I annoy my friends all the time, and they do it back. It's fun. Like that thing the group does where they can't see Dokja's face and just unanimously decide to tell him he looks bad when he asks about it? That's peak friendship. Peak messing with your sibling energy. As far as I've seen Dokja isn't self conscious about that either (then again I haven't read the entire story yet), so like. What gives? It's canonical that they mess with Dokja - but a lot of fics just get rid of that element.
I also find it especially hard when it comes to shipping, specifically Joonghyuk and Dokja. The reason why I love Joonghyuk and Dokja's dynamic so much in the first place is because they view each other as equals. It would be very easy to place either Joonghyuk or Dokja onto a pedestal - but they don't do that to each other. They know each other pretty damn well and they care about each other even though they're so in denial about it. And you know that thing they do where they act like the other is the worst person in existence and then negates it all by repeatedly devoting themselves to saving them? That's my shit. That whole "you're so fucking annoying but if you died I would kill everything in this room and then myself." The whole "what was that?" "Affection." "Disgusting. Do it again." THAT SHIT. I love that about them. And like the platonic relationships, a lot of shipping works get rid of that type of banter when they shift to a romantic relationship. Like yeah, sweet talk and honesty is important. You should let your partner know you love them. But that's not gonna be all there is. I don't see a need to get rid of the banter because as the story goes on, it's clear that even in canon, eventually the harsh words they say to each other stop being genuine because their actions negate the words. They don't mean them in the first place, so why would that banter change once their care shifts from a platonic to a romantic one? And I could perhaps be okay with that shift from banter to sweet talk if it was MUTUAL, but too often I see a situation where Dokja continues to insult Joonghyuk but he doesn't return it in kind. Joonghyuk is very blunt about his love for Dokja - which is good - but Dokja doesn't do the same back, and for some reason that's fine, and then Joonghyuk also no longer has those very human moments of annoyance when Dokja does some stupid shit. Like I guess I could understand the characterization of Dokja being emotionally constipated cause he's kind of a traumatized control freak and I can see how getting him to talk about his feelings is like trying to get a cat into a bathtub, but it's not like Joonghyuk isn't also like that? It's not really as much of a compelling relationship if one person is telling the other everything, giving care in words of affection and the other person isn't returning it. And you could depict that returned care in other ways, absolutely, but again I don't see it in other ways either, because those stories are still so Dokja centric.
Another factor is that I find that I can't really like a ship in a work where one of the characters is elevated to a point where they can't do anything wrong. Where their own needs are always at the forefront and their partner is always catering to it. Like a relationship is a give and take. We focus a lot on Dokja's trauma - which I love, that man needs sO MUCH THERAPY and it's an interesting topic to explore - but we don't focus on the amount of shit Joonghyuk has had to go through. I very rarely see a shipping fic where Dokja tries to address Joonghyuk's trauma or his hurt. Physical hurt sure, maybe, but that other shit that Joonghyuk bottles up?? Never talked about. My man has had to keep living lives over and over again. Has had to see people he love die, make hard choices. There is no way he's not traumatized to shit, and I'd like that to be a focus some of the time, y'know? Moreover, of all people, Dokja would be the one to understand him the most? One, he's the only one who really knows the whole truth about Joonghyuk, or as much of it as you can, and two, they both have taken on very burdensome leadership roles in a situation where few would be able to understand their position - it makes sense for them to lean on each other mutually, and so far there's a very prominent skew, only an exploration on one side.
And I pretty much haven't seen a shipping fic with Dokja and Joonghyuk where Joonghyuk has recieved any form of platonic comfort from the other characters. I've seen plenty for Dokja. Where he gets comforted/helped by both Joonghyuk and all the other characters. But not for Joonghyuk. If y'all have any recs where Joonghyuk has that, PLEASE recommend it because I need. And sure, it can be argued that Joonghyuk is a hard man to know considering his prickliness but regardless, he DOES have canonical platonic relationships. People who care for him. Who would be protective over him if he were to get hurt. That is not something only Dokja has, and yet it's something I only ever see written for Dokja. Y'all need to remember that technically Dokja doesn't act like any less of an asshole sometimes than Joonghyuk. He's more outwardly approachable sure, but he's not necessarily sweet 100% of the time - he has grit and he's a rat bastard and that's my FAVOURITE FUCKING PART ABOUT HIM. The fact that he's a rat bastard and the fact that not everyone likes him. His interactions in a world where he does have to make hard choices or say things that put people at odds, or hurts others when he didn't mean to. I love that about Joonghyuk too. They suck and they both have so much capacity to be kind despite all the shit they've gone through, but they're not able to see that in themselves and they do bad things because they have to, and I think they're so fascinating.
Y'know out of all of this, I think what cracks me up is, knowing Dokja's character, he would be absolutely appalled at how centred all of it is on him only. Like. Like that's literally the opposite of what he wants 🤣🤣. Like I get that makes people want to do it more because he deserves it and whatnot which is valid but like. He would be quite disgruntled 🤣🤣🤣
#omniscient reader's viewpoint#omniscient reader#joongdok#dokjoong#kim dokja#yoo joonghyuk#shipping analysis#fandom analysis#minor spoilers for omniscient reader
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Digi Dynamic Shipping Game
Send me two names among the following 12 13 and I’ll write a short analysis post about them:
Taichi Yagami | Yamato Ishida | Sora Takenouchi | Koushirou Izumi | Mimi Tachikawa | Jyou Kidou | Takeru Takaishi | Hikari Yagami | Daisuke Motomiya | Miyako Inoue | Iori Hida | Ken Ichijouji | Meiko Mochizuki
Whether canon provides input on them or not:
When looking at Meiko's interaction partners in Tri, Koushirou is proooobably not the first person who comes to mind; after Jyou, he may share the least amount of screen time with her. And at pure face value, the interactions he does have with her are mostly indirect - and at first glance, not painted in the best light either. They have that kind of dynamic you definitely have to speculate about more to get to the bottom of it - and interestingly enough, once you do, you may discover that they actually have a few things in common. But we'll get to that.
First things first - as mentioned, they mostly are not seen talking to each other, but rather have a third party person to talk through: Mimi. From a shipping perspective, that is both, an interesting parallel and, at the same time, incredibly complicated. Why? On one hand, because you can see/interpret both Koushirou and Meiko as potential love interests for Mimi (with one of them canonically crushing on her and the other OBVIOUSLY opening up through her encouragement, care and emotional/physical affection). On the other hand... Things do not really get very far in text.
Their main interaction point throughout the first few movies consists of Koushirou trying to figure out what causes the distortions corrupting the Digimon - and by doing so, he ends up interrogating Meiko in a very uncomfortable and unfortunate moment, that causes Mimi to snap at him. She says that he's being insensitive, he says they don't have time to focus on "trivial things", completely overlooking her emotional distress in order to fix things as quickly as possible. As mentioned, not the best foundation for any kind of relationship, as Meiko is completely overwhelmed with her partner being corrupted - while Koushirou is desperately trying to stop the cause from spreading even further. And she is aware of his good intentions there - because Taichi explains to her that Koushirou means to investigate the whole thing "with his entire heart" and that that's "all he can do", indirectly asking her to not be mad at him for being "like that". This even leads to her contemplating to apologize to him. Mimi insists that she doesn't have to - and we actually never see the end of that conflict, just the glimpse of hope that Sora's words, "He'll figure it out", will eventually lead to good things...
The next notable interaction is by the very end of Tri - as seen above -, where he entrusts her with his beloved laptop to find out the key to locked-away data, a password only she is capable of knowing, to eventually and actually fix everything in the end.
So what does that tell the viewer? They may not have a lot of significant interpersonal interaction - but subtext indicates that Koushirou strongly believes in Meiko being able to be the key, to find the answers to their problems. He did so by interrogating her, he did so by handing her his laptop - and that is a very familiar pattern.
Not trying to go too much into detail here, but one of my personal favourite headcanons is that, Meiko is what Koushirou COULD have become if he hadn't been as lucky as he was; to be raised by loving parents and getting validated by them upon reconciling; to befriend seven (and eventual eleven) kids and their personal soulmates to figure himself out, friends that ALSO believed in him and his strengths; to be enabled by his best friend to come to Summer camp and come out of his shell in the first place - and to solve a card riddle that would solve a very significant issue. Meiko is incredibly insecure, she had been on her own for a very long time, her low self-esteem goes so far as to have her ask why she was even there in the first place - she visibly needs someone loud and vocal like Mimi to show her how capable she is, just like Koushirou needed Taichi and Tentomon in the same manner. And this may be a huge stretch, because other characters (such as Taichi, Mimi, Sora, Hikari and Takeru) have been WAY more direct and vocal about encouraging her verbally - but Koushirou (who absolutely CAN suffer from severe self-esteem issues as well once he doesn't consider himself "useful") may have passed his own personal torch here in a more subtle, non-verbal way.
Long story short - there is not exactly nothing, but y'all have a lot of guessing work and subtext interpretation to do here.
Whether I think why and how they’d work:
As mentioned above, there are some very subtle similarities that may or may not help them to bond with each other. First of all, it shall not be underestimated that they both have a significant connection with each Mimi and Taichi - and especially the former case may be very enthusiastic to MAKE them spend more time with each other. (Abridged!Mimi may even go so far as to say "I'll make my two nerds have a good time, ha!") I really do believe that Mimi herself could be a great starting point AND topic for them to bond over. "She really is like that, isn't she?", in a gentle, lighthearted way. Because they may have issues opening up fully for some time, due to their bad experiences with interpersonal interaction - but I would argue that they're both also the type that just has to get over that point with each other ONCE and then don't have any issues afterwards anymore. They just need a "starting point". Taichi may actually be a good starting point as well, because both of them may have anecdotes (and their mentioned similarities) to share with each other fondly. Again, there are a lot of self-worth issues they need to overcome first, but once they do, I could imagine them being very soft (and potentially rambly).
(I also have the headcanon that Koushirou likes cats - not only should he have grown up interacting with Hikari and Miko a lot, but his own partner, supposedly a ladybug, has very cat-like tendencies and THAT absolutely should be a bonding topic too!)
Whether I’d prefer them as platonic or romantic ship:
I may argue that, romantically, they MIGHT actually both be not straight-forward enough to get anywhere for a long time and due to the lack of canon interactions, I can only work off the formerly mentioned headcanons... So it may take Mimi and an OT3 setting for things to work out properly. Because hey, with Mimi being the driving force connecting and intertwining them, things could escalate very quickly (because, as mentioned, they're both enchanted by her and have panicked over her being physical with them, they share that fondness for her, so why not channel that energy into a mutual bond as well? And again, the same could apply to Taichi too, because he brought BOTH of them out of their shell to some degree and was VERY protective of them at some point, but I digress). Without that driving force, I'd rather see them as platonic. They're both very supportive (and nerdy) people in their own ways, but nothing too deep on the romantic end.
#my two cents#meta#meiko mochizuki#koushirou izumi#koushiro izumi#izzy izumi#digimon adventure tri#koumeiko#koumei#meikou#digimon shipping game#shipping analysis#relationship analysis#digimon#long post
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youtube
Reblogs are appreciated!!!
#pedanticat video#The legend of korra#TLOK#TLOK Korra#tlok mako#avatar the last airbender#ATLA#shipping analysis#avatar shipping#Youtube
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Man, if i knew people would be this salty on both sides about the fact there would be no endgame calamity ships, I probably would made more posts about it XD
Anyway, I've seen some posts about the interview that sunk any of the calamity ships ships, and them being pretty aggressive with the idea that there was no way that there was planned to be any romance in the story at all, and Disney DEFINITLY didn't slap it down during season 3's production. There was definitely not a romance at the end that was cut. In fact, there was NO suggestion of romance at all in the series.
Which got me thinking, is that really the case? Are fans just looking too hard with the usual shipping stuff? Or are people just mad about shipper having a point?
So let's actually dig into this idea, and analyze whether or not there might have been real plans for an endgame Calamity ship before something(Aka Disney giving marching orders to cut it) made them change it before the end.
Sashannarcy
Now, let's just get the big one out of the way first.
There was no way that Sashannarcy, the Fandoms most popular ship was EVER planned to be canon.
There is the obvious fact that Disney would NEVER have let the ship go through, and the writers would have known that from day one.
There is no way this crew would have been dumb enough to build up a story to a ship they knew from day one would never happen ever.
But there is also another reason why sashannarcy was not planned, and it relates to Marcy, as i'll cover with the next ship.
Marcanne
Marcanne Is the second most popular ship of the series, and i can definitely see why. And frankly speaking, i can definitely see it working as an endgame ship.
However, I do not for one second believe that it was planned from the start, and the reason for that is that unlike the vast, vast majority of Amphibia, Marcy's character was not planned from the start.
Unlike Anne and sasha, who remained pretty much the same characters they were from draft one to the finished product, Marcy's character was still up in the air, until season 2 began it's production.
She was originally envisioned as a sorceress, and vagrant, before her being settled on as a ranger.
More importantly for this discussion however, is that Marcy's personality was originally meant to be WAY different. With her being far more calm, cold and calculated. It wasn't before they had her voice actress actually read lines, that the marcy we know came to be.
So if you've ever thought that, "Man, Marcy looks really shifty and confident when Anne stole the box", that's the reason. While her motivation was already there, her personality and character was not. That's also why there was nothing of her as a character in season 1. Because they still hand't settled on it.
With all this in mind, i find it very, VERY unlikely that they were planning on making Marcanne a thing from the beginning, when they hadn't even fully settled on how her and Anne's relationship would have worked before season 2.
It is of course possible that the way they gelled so incredibly good in season 2 changed their plans and they wanted to make the ship happen at the end, but if so, then that wasn't planned from the start.
It would if so, qualify as a cut romance, but it would not have been the original plan for the series that everything had been leading up to.
For obvious reasons this also means that Marcy x Sasha was not planned either.
Which leaves us with...
Sashanne
Now, i have made it no secret that the way i read Sasha waybright's feelings on Anne, as someone deeply in love.
But let's look at this objectively, and break it down, and look at it both from their relationship, but also from a meta perspective, and some stuff we saw through the series that may or may read as hints.
Let's begin with Sasha picking up Anne.
Before heading to Wartwood, Sasha specifically had a special carriage prepared, and it was most certainly custom made, which means it's design was all chosen by her deliberately.
And for it, Sasha specifically chose to make sure that it had huge, obvious golden hearts. But not only that, but she also made sure to to find a spider that looked much, much cuter than the usual tarantulas toads usually use, give it a suave wig, sunhlasses, and trained it to drop them bad boy style.
I will be blunt. I honestly cannot interpret this thing, as anything but Sasha trying to be romantic and sweep anne off her feet.
And i felt that way ever since i first saw "Reunion", BEFORE i actually started to ship them following Sasha's followup development.
Then we got the cut/toned down scenes from Reunion, where Sasha was way, way more directly physically on with Anne, pushing her cheek directly up against hers, which in turn immediately cheered Anne up on the spot, shoeing that Sasha and Anne was originally planned to have a much more touchy feely relationship than what they ended up with(And it's not like they aren't touchy feely in the show itself).
Then there was the dance scene, which was originally gonna have them hold handa(Setting up their dance fight in "The beginning of the end" two seasons later), and that the game they were playing was about fusion, but originally only about the color of pink and blue, with green nowhere to be seen.
Now I'm not saying that these two are definite proof that the shoe was going to have these hook up, but keep in mind that they WERE told to tone it down from what they had originally planned, and there must have been a reason for that.
The creators had a vision, and as shown here, Disney were very much willing to meddle with it as they saw fit, in order to tone down the imagery.
Moving on to season 2, we have the famous joke from quarreler's pass, where Hop Pop says "Lets talk about Anne's Boyfriend again" and gets kicked off a cliff in response.
However, the show then immediately cuts to the next episode, and the the very first episode showcases Sasha running and is all about her reaction and how she deals with the aftermath of "Reunion", and the episode ends with her declaring that she and Anne aren't through yet. Not even close.
This could be coincidence, but on a meta level, it works really, really well as a hint/foreshadowing, if you assume that the story will end with these two hooking up.
Then, on the opposite end of these girls, when Anne designs the costumes for their band, she gives Marcy a butterfly(the symbol of metamorphosis), herself a Dragonfly(So she can make a pun on it and her name).
And what does she give Sasha?
A moth costume. The moth, who Anne would know very well from "Flight of the moth" is "one of nature's most seductive animals".
Out of countless insects to go with, Anne deliberately chooses an animal that she knows is known for "Being seductive". That... Probably speaks for itself.
As for season 3, it is full of moments that are very, very easy to read as romantic between the two of them, be it their very erotic dance, pretty much all of commander anne has strong romantic overtones(like her overcomponsating too hard against what broke them up in the first place, which is something couples who get back together after a breakup very often do), or Sasha flat out admit that she loves Anne in Turning point, and her big moral heel turn is built on the idea that Sasha wants to be someone worthy of Anne's love.
However, on the meta front there are a couple of things, like how Toady specifically refers to them as Madame Generals. For those who don't know, Madame is a term exclusive to women who are married. So he's basically saying they're a couple.
Then there is this scene where the Plantars are marveling at a love story from a tv series, and exclaiming:
"And it only took 3 seasons"
Which if Sasha and Anne and hooked up would have been a nice meta joke and nod, in that yep, it literally took 3 seasons for the ship to sail.
Now to my verdict.
If there was any ship that i realistically can think was indeed planned to happen from the start, only to be struck down by Diseny during production(Not wanting another confirmed gay romance between leads after they canceled Owl House for it), then it was Sashanne. Realistically speaking, of the calamity girls ships, it was the only one who had enough planning from the start, along with lots and lots of moments that could easily have lead into a romance, to have been the planned endgoal all along.
Mind you, I'm not saying this WAS definitely the case, but the people saying that the writers didn't include anything at all which suggested that romance would happen, are flat out wrong.
I can believe that Matt Braly did indeed plan this story out with no romance at all planned.
On the other hand, i can also fully believe that he wanted Sasha and Anne to hook up at the end of the series, built the idea up all through 3 seasons, only to get a solid NO from Disney, and told to keep his damn mouth shut about it if he ever wanted another chance at another series.
I'm not blaming him if that is the case mind you. He needs to eat like the rest of us. I'm just pointing out that the official reasons the owl house got the boot, which was touted by creators, was that it didn't fit in with what disney wanted out of their shows.
And it's bullshit. Disney knows it's bullshit. The people who said it knows it's bullshit. We know it's bullshit.
Owl house was canceled because it was a kids show that had a gay lead in a relationship with another girl, and disney got cold feet after it became a major part of the show. We know it, Disney knows it, everyone knows it.
And yet they forced the creators to claim otherwise so they wouldn't have to deal with the bad press.
I'm not saying that is DEFINITELY the case here. But it is very much a possibility.
#amphibia#anne boonchuy#sasha waybright#marcy wu#sashanarcy#marcanne#sasharcy#sashanne#shipping#meta#analysis#shipping analysis
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Headcanon Requests
Hello my little wraithlings.
I really want to start giving you content again but this semester is a nightmare already. So, we're gonna play an ask game. I will list several things with an emoji attached to each one. You send in the emoji and I'll write up 3 headcanons for the attached topic when I scramble up the time.
____
Character Analysis/Headcanons:
Ash Williams - 🎯
Herbert West - 🧪
Dan Cain - 🥼
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Ship (sfw headcanons):
Ashbert - 🩸
Danbert- 🩺
Danashbert (dan/ash/herbert) - 🧫
Jason Voorhees/Harry Warden - 💌
Jason Voorhees/Michael Myers - 🪦
Dave/Mike/Debbie (Killer Klowns) - 🤡
Evil Ash/Ash Williams - ⛓️
Ash Williams/Linda - 💝
Ash Willams/Amanda Fisher - ❤️🩹
Ash Williams/Chet Kaminski - 🍻
____
Ships (nsfw headcanons):
Ashbert - 🌌
Danbert- 🏩
Danashbert (dan/ash/herbert) - 🔥
Jason Voorhees/Harry Warden - ❣️
Jason Voorhees/Michael Myers - 🎃
Dave/Mike/Debbie (Killer Klowns) - 🎪
Evil Ash/Ash Williams - 🪞
Ash Williams/Linda - 🥰
Ash Willams/Amanda Fisher - 💘
Ash Williams/Chet Kaminski - 💗
#headcanons#evil dead headcanons#reanimator headcanons#killer klowns headcanons#evil dead#ash williams#herbert west#dan cain#ashbert#danbert#danashbert#shipping analysis#ash vs evil dead#friday the 13th#jason voorhees
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Idk if anyone's ever pointed it out before, but you were spot on your analysis about the amourshipping kiss back in 2016. It's like you predicted everything to a T. From them pretending the kiss never happened if Serena got a cameo to no ship ever becoming canon lol
Oh my gosh a Pokemon ask it's been so long!
Aww thank you anon! I deserve no credit though I just thought what would make the most sense in the narrative and hey they pulled a fast one on me too, she did appear but with another character and only met Ash for 5 seconds just so they didn't have to deal with the consequences of the kiss, brilliant really.
I also foolishly assumed Pokemon would never end and...well they got me there haha
For no ship being canon they are ten year olds, Ash isn't interested in romance at all and it would be ooc for him to ever have the interest. He'd have to grow up right? They'll never do that, he's an eternal 10 year old therefore the most they can do is hint at it. I will say I think Pokeshipping is dead in the water canonically just because MPM did absolutely nothing, but MPM also ripped Brock's goal right out from him and I'm mad about it.
But yeah no ship is canon, Amour is still the most implied because they never went back to Pokeshipping but it's a very small implication you can still ship what you want and you can pry Negaishipping from my cold dead hands.
People really need to stop fighting though, and Liko isn't Ash's daughter I hope the fanbase lets that go soon
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Shipping is fun and all but I swear every single time someone makes a comment, whether as a joke or in a legitimate analysis, about there being "no other explanation" for a pair's interactions, I lose just a bit more of my sanity
Like, no, you guys don't get it. Romance is not about the Amount of devotion, it's about the COLOR. the FLAVOR of it all. a character can be just as devoted to their platonic friend as they are to their romantic partner, and they don't love either of them more, just differently.
But because the majority of people still have it stuck in their minds that romance exists on the highest tier of love, I'm stuck seeing endless takes that boil down to "these two care about each other too much for it to NOT be romantic" as if that's the core determining factor to how literally any of this works
In conclusion: stop telling me that I don't understand the story if I don't interpret the leads as romantic, I am TIRED
#analysis#meta#miscellaneous#fandom#shipping#media discussion#amatonormativity#lgbtq#I feel like tagging any of the fandoms I was thinking of when writing this would be a little mean-spirited potentially#Disclaimer: no one has actually been telling me personally that I don't understand any story in particular#It's just that the way people tend to phrase their analyses feels unnecessarily targeted at the reader and that's just. not great#even if I agree with every other point they make
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2.12 Chimney Begins - 2.09 Hen Begins - 2.16 Bobby Begins Again - 7.04 Buck, Bothered and Bewildered
Tommy's family arc
#911#911edit#911 abc#911 show#911 spoilers#911 season 7#tommy kinard#evan buckley#evan 'buck' buckley#kinley#bucktommy#kinkley#tevan#pick a ship name you guys and thanks for picking tevan the most correct name#anyway analysis time!#looking back with Modern Knowledge tm about why tommy acts the way he does in the past... babygirl you were so closeted I'm so proud#babygirl was back there getting into narnia#he was so resistant to letting go of the pseudo-family he'd found at the 118 in chimney begins#even tho it was a good old boys club that he knew he really didn't fit into he was making himself fit because at least it was something#but then he let chimney in and then hen came around and he saw a very queer person being openly queer and not giving a fuck what they think#and I think his behavior in that episode was trying to support hen as much as he could without outing himself#because like. how do you give up years of relative safety with people who do care about you they just won't like you anymore if you're *you#then he meets buck in s7 which is like 10-20 years later timeline is fake and he's like oh. this is what unconditional family is#and he's like oh. maybe I can come back. maybe I can be part of this again somehow. maybe we've both grown enough#or at the very least he'll be close to something he never believed would really happen for him#rant over tevan my beloved tim minear pillow cold both sides god bless#my edits
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Wait a minute. Wait a minute. This line hits differently after S2.
You two?
The Antichrist KNOWS ALL ABOUT THEM?
What did he do for them that he told them so confidently not to worry about their future? What did he change while he was in God Mode editing reality? WHAT DID ADAM DO?
#the antichrist knows the angel and demon are in love#Adam Young ships AziraCrow#so what if I'm writing too many fics at once THERE IS ROOM FOR ONE MORE#good omens#good omens meta#good omens fandom#good omens analysis#ineffable husbands#ineffable partners#aziraphale#crowley#adam young#aziracrow
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The fact that Crowley grabs Aziraphale's lapels the same way in season 2 as he did in season 1 shows how that action was always meant as an intimate gesture by him. It meant intimacy to Crowley back then, and it means intimacy now.
We're talking about a deliberate acting choice from David, here. He chose to grab Michael that way in episode 6 for a reason. He's creating a connection to season 1, bridging two separate moments in the characters' relationship with a single gesture.
Crowley and Aziraphale have loved each other for a long, long time. They were never able to say or act on it before. But they both knew the meaning behind every little touch, every look, every lapel grab.
Yes, they both knew it. Aziraphale didn't feel threatened the first time it happened. Well, he certainly doesn't feel threatened now, either. Look at how he lets himself get dragged into the kiss. The amount of trust between these two! He's leaning in even before he realises where Crowley is dragging him (towards those gorgeous lips, of course).
It gets worse... Neil knows precisely how much we've treasured that scene from season 1 since it aired, so he decided to use it against us.
Absolute genius!
...Evil.
.......but still genius!
#good omens#ineffable divorce#analysis#aziracrow#crowly x aziraphale#crowley#david tennant#michael sheen#aziraphale#good omens s2#go s2e6#go season 2#go s2#good omens kiss#i will sink with this ship#ineffable husbands
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It’s Your Turn SNS
It’s been a while since I first talked about making this post and if I’m being honest, it’s because I couldn’t think of what I could say. For a while, I thought I was gonna have to throw in the towel and say I only don’t ship SNS because I choose not to ship it. But I also know that I don’t tend to simply “choose” not to ship something, at least not without reason. Especially since I shipped it in the past and had no reason to suddenly stop (it’s not like I stepped away from the series). So, I kept thinking about it until I’ve come to a conclusion:
SNS may not have anything I consider major issues, but it does have a lot of small problems that add up quickly.
Bring in the bullet list.
It’s very clear that they're meant to have a brotherly bond. I know this is beating a dead horse so I’ll keep this quick. They argue and compete like siblings, Naruto refers to Sasuke as his brother like he refers to Iruka like a father, they are reincarnations of brothers, and they are literally based on siblings. Reader interpretation is more important than authorial intent, but this is rather big elephant in the room for me. Especially since it’s easy to see their relationship as purely familial (easier than seeing it as romantic in many cases).
They have vastly different perspectives. Yes, the story is about them finding understanding, but that also means that most of their interactions show off all the ways they don’t understand each other. They may have both been lonely growing up, but they were lonely in very different ways. Naruto never had a family and was ostracized for no reason, Sasuke watched everything get taken away from him and self isolated. Sasuke had a point during VotE1 and the Pain arc doesn’t nullify their differences. Of course you can get with someone without having identical childhoods, I’m just bringing this up because it’s relevant to them having clashing views of the world. They both want to do good, but they believe in different ways of going about it. It’s not just that they look at the world differently, it’s that they’ve come to different conclusions about how the world works. While this can be a positive, it more often than not causes fights between them in canon and I don’t have enough evidence to believe it wouldn’t cause just as many fights in fanon.
Their fandom can be so annoying. This isn’t actually a point against the ship itself and it’s not fair to hold the fandom against it. But I'm only human and this happens to play a role. I’ve already talked a little about why I don’t like this particular branch of the fandom and I have too many more reasons to reasonably add here, so I’m gonna end this here.
It perpetuates the idea that male relationships can’t be affectionate. Again, this isn’t the ships fault but it plays a role in my opinion so I’m mentioning it. I promise to keep it brief. There’s this idea, at least in the west, that only relationships between two girls can simultaneously be affectionate and platonic. Any relationship that has a boy involved (boy-girl, boy-boy) can’t be because people insist that there has to be some romantic/sexual edge. Insisting that Naruto and Sasuke’s relationship has to be romantic/sexual just adds to this.
They share almost no meaningful conversation. I am a crackshipper so canon isn’t everything to me, but it’s not like I’m burning canon either. I still use it as a reference for characterization and dynamics between characters. Canon makes me question how good of friends these two are and tells me that they can’t work through conflict without throwing hands. They have two canonical, meaningful conversations and they only had one of them because they were too tired to start fighting again. This also isn’t because they as characters struggle to be civil. Naruto and Sasuke have plenty of nonviolent interactions with members of Konoha (+sand siblings) and team Taka respectively. Their relationship is more based on actions than words (which is fine), but can’t they at least share some more words? At times it gives off the impression that they don’t like talking to each other. This is in part due to the genre and Kishimoto skipping over team 7 bonding so I can let this slide, but I’m not gonna forget this.
Their dynamic is more symbolism than substance. This is an add on to my last point, but it’s different enough to separate. When you pull back and ask “what is the relationship between Naruto and Sasuke?”, there’s a slight trend in their relationship having more thematic and symbolic importance than character to character importance. Now, I’m not gonna pretend I don’t like when ships have a lot of symbolic meaning behind them, but I see that symbolism more like sprinkles. Sprinkles are nice to have on the cake and they certainly make it easier to sell the cake, but they aren’t a replacement for the cake. Sometimes when I’ve had a bad day I’ll take a handful of sprinkles, but I prefer a more cake to sprinkle ratio any other time. Granted, this might be due to me not having watched/read Naruto in a while, so maybe I’m forgetting some interactions or some details from certain interactions.
Naruto didn’t actually “save” Sasuke. I’m gonna say something controversial: Naruto and Sakura didn’t save Sasuke, he saved himself. Naruto and Sakura first set off to save Sasuke from Orochimaru, but he left Orochimaru himself. Then they wanted to help him against Itachi (their intentions were actually a little unclear), but Sasuke took out Itachi alone (with a little help from team hebi). Then Sakura went off to kill Sasuke to help Naruto and Naruto wanted to keep the Raikage from having Sasuke killed (though he was more interested in understanding Sasuke at this time), and both failed. Sasuke pulled himself out of his mental crisis and left Obito/Zetsu’s influence, Sasuke took steps to understand his brother, Sasuke asked the Hokage about the village (with the help of taka), Sasuke chose to help the Allies Shinobi Force against Madara/Obito/Kaguya, and Sasuke went on a redemption quest to better understand himself and the world. Naruto wasn’t irrelevant to Sasuke’s journey, but how much did he really help Sasuke? Naruto and Sasuke do influence each other, but it’s almost always passive rather than an active effort to help the other (at least in regards to the times they do have a positive influence on the other).
I’m not certain they could help each other with their problems. Moving outside of canon and into fanon, the question becomes “how could Naruto and Sasuke help each other grow?” The answer is: I’m not sure, actually. According to my interpretations of the characters, these are their greatest remaining flaws as of the end of the narrative: Naruto struggles with prioritizing (this includes prioritizing his perspective over others, the few over the many, and others over himself to the point of detriment) and Sasuke still needs to find a sense of peace. While it’s not impossible that they could help each other, I’m gonna press x to doubt. Sasuke isn’t the best at prioritizing either, but, more importantly, because of his different perspective, his solution would probably involve Naruto changing his values. Naruto doesn’t need his values to change, he needs to figure out what he wants and what’s most important to him. Also, Naruto is a good person to go to to make you question your life, but I don’t think he’d be the best at helping anyone find peace, especially someone as different as Sasuke. Yes, Naruto and Sasuke are capable of improving on their own (if they’re given a push in the right direction because neither are all that introspective), but is it so bad that I’d prefer them being in a relationship that helps them improve if they’re in a relationship at all?
So, yeah.
I’m sure I could come up with an additional point here or there, but those would probably edge even further into personal taste (I say as if this isn’t all according to my interpretation and opinion). In conclusion, the ship is fine, I guess, but it isn’t my cup of tea. It just has too many points going against it for me.
#holy hell#when was the last time I did a long post like this#naruto#naruto shippuden#anti sns#anti sasunarusasu#anti sasunaru#anti narusasu#the long awaited (not really) post is here#naruto uzumaki#sasuke uchiha#my stooff#shipping analysis
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The problem with thinking Hannibal loved any other character besides Will (and Mischa) is that he literally destroyed his whole life, his carefully crafted life and security and comfort and freedom and EVERYTHING, because he felt love for Will. He lost his mind. It's not something that would happen if he was used to the feeling of love. He might like, or even respect some people, but love? This doesn't really add up to his own behavior. He tried to REVERSE TIME. REVERSE TIME. This is a guy who never thinks he's wrong or tends to justify his wrong doings, and he regretted what he did just because he couldn't have Will. He never felt this for anyone else. He literally ATE his own SISTER because he loved her and that made him feel weak and vulnerable. I don't think he comes even close to loving anyone else. He might find them interesting and pleasant to be around some times, and even cares about them to some degree, like Abigail, but he only cared because he projected Mischa unto her and because she was a mediator between him and Will and his fantasies about having a family, but love?? LOVE??
#that cannibal heart beats only for one person yall#and its not a ship thing it's just logic i dont think it makes sense with how he behaves in general#he is PASSIONATE but i dont see how he could love someone else#nbc hannibal#hannigram#hannibal#will graham#murder husbands#hannibal lecter#hugh dancy#mads mikkelsen#analysis
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Digi Dynamic Shipping Game
Send me two names among the following 12 and I’ll write a short analysis post about them:
Taichi Yagami | Yamato Ishida | Sora Takenouchi | Koushirou Izumi | Mimi Tachikawa | Jyou Kidou | Takeru Takaishi | Hikari Yagami | Daisuke Motomiya | Miyako Inoue | Iori Hida | Ken Ichijouji
Whether canon provides input on them or not:
It’s been a while since I’ve written a whole relationship analysis, so before getting completely out of shape, I thought about digging up my old poll again to focus a little bit on Daisuke’s and Miyako’s relationship.
Even though my memories on 02 overall are very rusty, I do remember very vividly that these two share a very physical - if not one of THE most physical - relationship with each other from the very beginning. Which may actually be best described as: “Bickering siblings”.
As far as their “origins” go, they’re not as clearly stated as it is with Iori and Miyako being neighbors and Daisuke being classmates with Hikari, having known her through Taichi before the series; there's no indication that Daisuke and Miyako have even met face to face beforehand, let alone interacted properly, but they DO seem very comfortable talking to each other from the first moment on, mainly indicated by the fact that neither of them uses honorifics for each other. Along the lines of the series, it is strongly implied that their older siblings (Jun and Momoe) are actually good friends. And this may or may not have had an impact on whether they’ve actually met/spent time with each other before - and whether or not the impression they got about each other through their siblings’ (supposed) descriptions was a positive one.
Either way, in the way they do not idealize their own siblings and instead have to fight for their privileges and for getting respected, they already have a lot in common with each other - and can be seen as a mirror towards Takeru and Hikari, who clearly idealize their older siblings. And it makes sense to think that their upbringing is mirrored in their behaviour towards each other - they’re constantly teasing and taking jabs at each other, there are several occasions where they describe each other’s behaviour as “weird”, comparing them to others, basically putting each other down/disagreeing with each other. As if to prove their own superiority. They’re loud, they’re opinionated - and also ridden by underlying insecurities about it.
Speaking of which; another thing they have in common is how easily they are infatuated by others: Daisuke’s crush on Hikari and Miyako’s crush on Ken (at the beginning of the series) respectively are somewhat based on them putting them on a pedestal. (In Daisuke’s case, aside from Hikari being one of his earlier friends, I do believe that he's also idealizing her because she's Taichi's sister, whom he greatly looks up to after all.) And it basically takes until - ironically enough - Ken (for Daisuke) and Hikari (for Miyako) become active parts in their respective developments that they’re both starting to become “less shallow” and, more importantly, less aggressive and territorial about their “fights”.
Unfortunately, that also means that there is less of a (visible) development between them, aside from a few comic relief moments and so, a lot of this analysis is based on interpretation of subtext after all... However, despite the bickering - which continues to be a thing between them until Kizuna and even the few bits we saw about the 02 movie -, they’re also seen fighting for and being protective of each other when it matters, being happy when the other is safe. So if we get back to the insecurity part - since they clearly do have a lot of things in common, it should not be a surprise that they’d still be there for each other. And even if screentime may not prove it directly - they probably understand each other better than one might assume (even if it’s questionable whether or not they’re aware of it themselves). And to put it like Taichi and Yamato - sometimes, a good fight may be the best sign of a “good relationship”. (Sometimes, it may also take a slap...)
Whether I think why and how they’d work:
Since I’ve put so much emphasis on the “sibling angle”, I think there have to be very specific circumstances to happen for these two to see each other in a romantic light. It’s absolutely not impossible, but first of all - one would have to make sure that neither Ken nor Hikari are available for EITHER of them. Ken is not only the person Miyako canonically ends up marrying, but also basically Daisuke’s soulmate, whereas Hikari is basically Miyako’s and also Daisuke’s previous love interest... Thus, one scenario could involve Daisuke and Miyako consoling each other over not “getting the one” they initially desired. Because they’re actually familiar and close enough that it would actually work in my opinion.
This may sound sad and tragic at first glance, but the way I see it, them not focusing on Hikari and Ken is the only way for them to notice each other in a different light; actually looking at the things they share and have in common, realizing how much they may have idealized other people in their lives, how great they actually are - basically allowing themselves to be vulnerable around each other instead of getting defensive. Their walls have been built way too high and while Hikari and Ken were able to tear them down and they tore down theirs (with a slap respectively)... I do believe they could actually tear each other’s walls too IF they took the time to look at each other. They need to acknowledge that the other has soft and caring sides, but once they do, it may become a very (mutually) supportive and more open-minded bond than ever before. They’re both fun-loving, they’re competitive, so they could be challenging each other in more casual, more loving ways too!
Whether I’d prefer them as platonic or romantic ship:
I know people who are very fond of this ship in a romantic sense. And, as lined up above, there is a lot of unexplored potential in their relationship, based on their character dynamics and patterns alone - so I understand where y’all come from! On the other hand, it is also hard for me personally to not see them with the sibling angle, so for now, I’ll just enjoy them as such!
#daiyako#daisuke motomiya#miyako inoue#davis motomiya#yolei inoue#digimon adventure 02#my two cents#meta#shipping#shipping analysis
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