okay. let's talk about shin, sabine, and whatever the hell is going on here:

i've been trying to figure out this moment, and why shin responds like this. because it feels like a change, right? the shin of episode 1 would be thrilled to have permission to hunt down and kill sabine. but here, she's clearly protesting the order (indirectly, because she can hardly outright say 'no' to thrawn).

on one level, this is definitely at least in part because the order is coming from thrawn. orders from baylan are fine for shin: baylan is her master, and by this point in the series it's obvious how much she respects him. but thrawn? baylan told her finding thrawn would bring them power, but instead both she and baylan are being treated like his underlings - this is not what shin thought they were signing up for.

but if this were solely about thrawn giving orders, i'd expect shin's reaction to seem irritated or offended - she's hardly a stranger to anger, after all. but i think it's fair to say that shin's response here can be best characterised as alarmed? she's clearly surprised that they aren't letting sabine go, and more than that: she's not happy about it.

so then, i thought maybe that this was about honour - that shin was so disturbed by this, because it is dishonourable for baylan (who has made a point of insisting on keeping his word to sabine) to break their agreement. (and i know it may seem counterintuitive to assume that shin cares about such a jedi-like concept as honour, but judging by the way baylan speaks of the jedi and shin's padawan braid, he probably instilled her with their values if not their morals.) but then i remembered where episode four left off (which is indicated by the show to be a most a day or two ago):

this takes place literally immediately after sabine has made a deal with baylan. if shin cares enough about honour for it to override her hatred of sabine in episode six, it doesn't make sense for her to disregard honour (even in the heat of the moment) to try and kill sabine in episode four.

so if this isn't about thrawn (not entirely), and it isn't about honour (probably not at all), what is this about? what has changed to make shin go from homicidal obsession to protesting seemingly on sabine's behalf?

sabine, of course.

(by which i actually mean: shin.)

let's talk about The Look!

shin staring at sabine is nothing remotely new. shin staring at sabine without a homicidal glare or a mocking smirk? that's extremely new. this scene makes me crazy (i'm trying so so hard to keep the shipping goggles off and to be objective guys). it may not seem like much at first glance, but this is a dramatic change of behaviour for shin. she's looking at - no, observing sabine in a completely neutral and open way. there's no hostility in this gaze, no judgement, not even fear or conflict. just: observing. and she's doing so openly as well - not just that she isn't disguising herself - she turns to face sabine, as if to give sabine a better look at her. as if to let sabine observe her right back.

why??? why is shin doing this??

um. well. i actually don't know.

i can't make any remotely certain assumptions about what has changed since they left seatos. maybe shin has done a lot of introspection. maybe she feels like she's seen a different side of sabine. maybe they fucked on that spaceship.

the only conclusion i do feel it might be safe to make is this:

i don't think shin sees sabine as an enemy anymore.

i don't know when exactly that changed, i don't know what exactly caused it. but it's true. and if shin and sabine aren't enemies anymore - what are they to each other? what will they become?

tl;dr - shin doesn't want to murder sabine in cold blood anymore. also i think they should hold hands.

5, 9 and 22?

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?*

i try pretty hard to not let fandom get to me. i think fandom can make it harder for me to get into a ship sometimes. like if people wrote blossom/ivy differently i might get into it.

also everyone who insists leafpool and mothwing don't have an age gap makes me emphasize it more. every. single. time. someone argues with me about it? i add a sentence about their age difference.

9. Most disliked character(s)? Why?

now HERE is a good question. no more "least favourite." most disliked. that's how u ask a good question! dislike is active. i can answer this one and have fun <3

i rly hate lionblaze bc i don't like how he's shaken out post-po3. even in oots i'm not a fan. i write him in ways i like sometimes. others i don't. also everyone forgets he trained in the dark forest & i think that's funny of him like duuuude :3

greystripe sucks and is a shitty father

i write onestar as an ass and onewhisker as a nice dude. that says enough i think XD

i think mapleshade's character is trite. i haven't read her book, but i'm not into it.

i dislike blossomfall. it's petty but idc i'm allowed to dislike characters for petty reasons.

canon tawnypelt sucks a lot more than fanon tawnypelt. canon tawnypelt has good moments, but also really bad ones? like i feel like. not enough people remember that she actively chose to go with tigerstar. like damn. while it's true that she was a child (abt 15), and not all of his crimes were known at the time, he was still pretty clearly a bad guy and she still chose that. so. like. damn girl.

i don't like crowfeather. also i hate. wait.

amended answer to question five: yeah fandom ruined crow/squirrel for me. i used to think it was a cute ship and now i am so fucking done! with people doing it but now crowfeather isn't the asshole he very much is. like crowfeather is a shitty guy, ok? he's allowed to be shitty he's like 20 in tnp (yes i said 20, he's not a kid in tnp. he's described to have almost be at his warrior assessment and with how long the quest takes, he's definitely an adult by that time. everyone who calls feather/crow gross for age reasons or says shit like "well if storm/squirrel is bad..." needs to shut up because squirrelpaw starts the journey at 12-15, crowpaw at like 18, and storm and feather are in their mid 20s. if i counted right, specifically, when the journey begins, squirrel is 15, crow is 18, and the other four are 25. everyone needs to stop because it's fucking annoying and no i'm not over that one guy who said feather/crow was pedophilia despite it not being pedophilia under any definition of pedophilia unless you want to start saying consenting adults being in a relationship is pedophilia in which case i need you to explain to me exactly how this isn't going to be used to restrict the rights of cognitively disabled people and if you didn't even think of that you really should because i promise when you start dictating what consenting adults are and aren't allowed to do under the crusade of protecting the innocent it's not going to work the way you think it is

uhm.

)

okay sorry that got under my skin whoops. this is why i'm not allowed to discourse on the internet ✌

where was i.

oh yeah i hate crow/squirrel now because people turn crow magically into some great guy despite the fact that in canon he treats everyone like shit and i think that's fine for a character but now i kinda hate the ship.

<3

Do you have any Detroit NOTPs?

I’m gonna use this as a chance to ramble, sorry not sorry. 

The short answer is: Not... really? As long as characters are capable of informed consent, who knows what’s possible?

Long ship-ramble under the cut

Idk, i’m open to the idea that a ship can be a lot of things, and yeah, some ships are inherently toxic in canon or commonly toxic in fanon, but that doesn’t mean it’ll be that way for every iteration, I guess? 

I’m very “is there chemistry? does it feel right? Sure why not?” about shipping. 

I am also the sort who is open to exploring toxic ships WITHOUT romanticizing them. Like, I’ll explore the impact of the ship and how it affects the characters, because sometimes we just have bad relationships. That’s a fact in real life as well. I won’t glorify or romanticize them, but i know that people can end up in toxic relationships in reality and not recognize it until it’s already toxic for them, so I am open to the idea that that could happen to my muses as well. I’m also always up for tormenting my muses and then fixing it (it’s cathartic okay?) and relationship fallout can be a great source of that. 

There ARE things I won’t write, and especially won’t write on a public forum without age-restrictions or privacy settings (aka tunglr). If you immediately thought of something then its probably on that list. Don’t ask me to write things on a website designed for 13+ that you wouldn’t want your 13 year old reading and taking as the ideal of human interaction. 

with alllll of that said, there are some ships I have trouble with. Markus and North is one. That’s entirely a personal preference sort of thing, though, because I really like North’s character, and obviously I adore Markus. 

It just, when I played my first playthrough, it felt like, (as someone who immediately shipped Markus with Simon), i was forced into a hetero-presenting relationship in a choice-based game, and i resented the ship a lot for that. I also disliked that North, as a strong, badass, take no shit female character, was reduced to a ship option for Markus and seemed doomed by the writers to endlessly follow Markus, regardless of his choices or the player’s opinion of their ship. I would’ve loved for her to be more capable of branching out and acting separately of him. But again, this could be personal bias of “i wanted markus to get with a guy if anyone and now he’s been forcibly attached to a woman.” It just felt icky all around. 

I think in the right scenario, with the right writing partner, it could be possible, as could any of the ships I’ve seen floating around. Including, and i’m saying this now because I’ve got some fanart queue’d, Hank and Connor. 

I will NOT ship Alice with anyone, don’t even be the gross person that tries to ask. she is a CHILD. And in my eyes, Kara and Luther are Family, though, again, i think if the situation was right and the leadup was different, it could work.

In conclusion, I will never EVER expect anyone to ship with me the things I ship, and will never ASSUME that my muse is in a relationship with another person’s. But, if you are open to the idea of our characters having a ship, be it romantic, familial, or purely sexual, never be afraid to come and talk to me about it. I might not ship it yet or might not see it working for them, but I won’t get upset or make fun of you for seeing how I feel on the matter. I’ll be GRATEFUL for the open communication.