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rionaleonhart) wrote2025-01-08 05:30 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2025-01-08 05:30 pm
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The Past Will Have Its Revenge On The Future.
I've seen a few of you post this shipping meme lately, and it looks like it could be fun! Let's have a crack at it.
1. List three shipping tropes you love
'I'm a cynic, and you're the idealist who makes me a little less cynical.' Ninth Doctor/Rose, Satoshi/Daisuke, Riku/Sora, Cox/JD, Jeff/Annie, Ikusaba/Naegi.
'You're weird and unsettling and I don't trust you, but I also reluctantly find you fascinating, and in these circumstances we're going to have to spend a lot of time together; there's no avoiding it.' Hinata/Komaeda, Neku/Joshua, Sara/Keiji, Laura/Travis, Battler/Beatrice.
'We'd probably never look at each other romantically under normal circumstances, but we've found ourselves isolated together, and maybe that's changed things.' Mike/Sam, Celes/Sabin, Hope/Serah, Mark/Helly.
BONUS FOURTH ANSWER: 'I'm quietly and intensely in love with you, but I don't ever expect my feelings to be returned, and I don't have any plans to pursue you romantically. I'm just in love with you; it's an inescapable fact of my life.' Riku/Sora, Satoshi/Daisuke, Gilbert/Oz, Goh/Ash.
2. List three shipping tropes you don't love
Omegaverse. I'm fine with e.g. sex pollen and other concepts where characters are pushed to have sex by some sort of biological imperative; I just don't have the patience for that much worldbuilding when I'm in the mood to read porn!
Arranged marriage. I just prefer the feelings to be there before the characters get together. The feelings don't have to be love, but there have to be feelings!
I think it's possible to do interesting things with the concept of soulmates, but it's something I'll usually avoid in fanfiction. I just find the whole idea of soulmates really hard to get my head around. What makes a soulmate; what does that mean?
3. One emotional aspect of a ship that always gets you
I mentioned before that I'm a fan of cynic/idealist ships. In particular, if the cynic ever glances at the idealist with a small, fond smile, that's it; I'll have a ship for life.
4. One physical aspect of a ship that always gets you
If one character slams the other into a wall, I'll probably sit up and take notice. Does that count?
5. Multiship or monoship?
Definitely multiship! It's rare for me to ship something to the exclusion of anything else.
6. Rare pairs or mainstream?
Both! I'll just ship whatever catches my eye, which sometimes means I'm aligned with fandom at large and sometimes means I'm really, really not.
7. Polyamory or monogamy?
There are some pairings I wouldn't want to introduce another character to, but I lean pretty heavily towards the polyamory side of things. I ship everything, frequently simultaneously.
8. If the ship is physical, reversible or not?
Is this asking how flexible I am about who tops? There are some characters who read more as a top or a bottom to me, but it's not something I typically give much thought to.
I suppose there are a few pairings for which a particular character taking the lead might throw me off. For example, I wouldn't expect dominant Noelle in a Kris/Noelle Deltarune fic, except in very specific circumstances (e.g. Kris wanting to give some sense of agency back to Noelle after a Snowgrave run (side note: this could be really interesting, actually!)). In most cases, though, I don't have firm opinions about which character should be in a particular sexual role.
9. Do you always have romantic ships for fandoms?
I don't, actually! I know I said I ship everything, but actually it turns out I lied. Sometimes I'll ship everyone with everyone else; sometimes I'll just have one or two pairings I like; sometimes I won't ship a thing.
Some canons I love but don't really ship anything in: Animorphs, Final Fantasy IX, Okami, Supernatural, Erased, Undertale, Night in the Woods, YOU, Omori. Some of these have pairings I could probably be sold on, or that I think have interesting potential, but there's nothing I'd say I actively ship.
(It's possible I do have ships in some of these and they've just slipped my mind. I originally included Pokémon in the list, having somehow forgotten about Ash/Goh and Ash/Gary.)
10. How important is the sexual part (if any) of your ship?
Depends on the ship! The sex is secondary to the weird complicated feelings, but sometimes adding sex is useful for eliciting more weird complicated feelings.
When reading fanfiction, I have two modes: 'I'm not in the mood for anything sexually explicit' and 'I'm only in the mood for something sexually explicit'. I find it slightly frustrating when I get into a plotty fic with good explicit scenes; I'll read up to an explicit scene and then go 'oh, goddammit, now I have to either delay reading or risk getting turned on at an inconvenient moment.'
11. Opinion on platonic ships?
I love plenty of platonic character dynamics, but I wouldn't call those ships. Shipping, to me, implies something romantic or sexual, or at least incorporating feelings that verge on romantic/sexual.
If I ship something, I'll also often enjoy their relationship as platonic. I tend to ship characters if I think they have chemistry and an interesting dynamic, and those aspects make for compelling platonic relationships as well as romantic ones. Adding romance or sex is just another way of exploring a character dynamic I like.
12. List 3 ships you currently love
I'm in a bit of a shipping lull at the moment, but I'm sure I can dig something up!
Andrew/Ashley, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley. Just a hideous, awful mess of a relationship in the best way, and also the worst way. They're absolutely obsessed with each other and trapped in a terrible spiral of making each other worse, and I can't get enough of it.
Hinata/Komaeda, Danganronpa 2. Tem and I have been replaying this game, and I still love the way Hinata is simultaneously drawn to and repelled by Komaeda. He can't stand this guy! But he still cares about this guy's safety, and a part of him really wants to understand what's going on in his head.
Beatrice/Battler, Umineko: When They Cry. I've also been replaying Umineko on and off, and the way these two bounce off each other is incredible and insane. What an intense, wild dynamic. It kicks off with 'hey, Battler, strip off and let me use you as a footstool while I murder your entire family' and ends with me crying over how beautiful this weird relationship is.
13. List 5 OTPs from past fandoms
I have no idea how to narrow these down, so I'm just going to grab whatever comes to mind.
Satoshi/Daisuke, DN Angel. Satoshi breaks my heart. He's so in love with Daisuke, but he has to keep his distance, or his love will unleash the sadistic entity that lives inside him! Watching DN Angel as a teenager, I was fascinated by the way Satoshi's feelings always lay just under the surface of canon - clearly canonically intended, but never spoken aloud - and by how he quietly accepted the fact that they could never be requited.
Arthur/Merlin, Merlin. The show was cheerfully, shamelessly baiting us, and I happily went straight for the bait. Merlin had a lot of faults, but I genuinely loved the dynamic between Arthur and Merlin that lay at the heart of it.
Sora/Riku, Kingdom Hearts. I started shipping these two when I was fourteen, playing Kingdom Hearts for the first time, and my fondness for them has only grown over the course of the series. Riku is in love with Sora; it's just a fact. It's the only way his character makes sense to me.
Kane/Abby, The 100. The canonical pairings in The 100 typically follow the format 'they share a couple of flirty glances and then kiss', so I was not braced for Kane/Abby, an incredible slow-build enemies-to-friends-to-lovers storyline between two characters with great chemistry and a lot of interesting history. Perhaps predictably, I first realised I shipped them when he was having her tortured.
Shay/Aveline, Assassin's Creed Rogue/Assassin's Creed Liberation. These two characters are from entirely different Assassin's Creed games and never meet in canon, although they do at least live in the same country in the same century, making them slightly more plausible than most Assassin's Creed crossover pairings. Shipping them was a real surprise for me! But I made them interact in Visitors, my Sense8-inspired Assassin's Creed fic, and went '...wait, these two kind of have some chemistry?', and then I plunged into insane levels of investment in this relationship between two characters who are never canonically within ten miles of each other.
14. Opinion on the importance of marriage?
I'm not big on marriage for my ships, in part because marriage doesn't really feel right for most of the pairings I'm drawn to. I'll occasionally get into a ship where marriage feels fitting, e.g. Nate/Elena and maybe Kane/Abby (or even a ship where marriage feels essential, e.g. James/Mary), but it's pretty rare for me to actually want a couple I ship to get married.
15. Opinion on OC kids?
Fankids aren't something I'm typically interested in reading about, personally. I'm usually just here for the canon characters, and, although I like kids in real life, I often don't find stories about very young children that engaging. (This is in part because I like it when characters suffer, but if the character is very young their suffering will just make me sad!)
I want to give honourable mentions to all the ships I didn't talk about in this meme, but we'll be here all day if I do!
1. List three shipping tropes you love
'I'm a cynic, and you're the idealist who makes me a little less cynical.' Ninth Doctor/Rose, Satoshi/Daisuke, Riku/Sora, Cox/JD, Jeff/Annie, Ikusaba/Naegi.
'You're weird and unsettling and I don't trust you, but I also reluctantly find you fascinating, and in these circumstances we're going to have to spend a lot of time together; there's no avoiding it.' Hinata/Komaeda, Neku/Joshua, Sara/Keiji, Laura/Travis, Battler/Beatrice.
'We'd probably never look at each other romantically under normal circumstances, but we've found ourselves isolated together, and maybe that's changed things.' Mike/Sam, Celes/Sabin, Hope/Serah, Mark/Helly.
BONUS FOURTH ANSWER: 'I'm quietly and intensely in love with you, but I don't ever expect my feelings to be returned, and I don't have any plans to pursue you romantically. I'm just in love with you; it's an inescapable fact of my life.' Riku/Sora, Satoshi/Daisuke, Gilbert/Oz, Goh/Ash.
2. List three shipping tropes you don't love
Omegaverse. I'm fine with e.g. sex pollen and other concepts where characters are pushed to have sex by some sort of biological imperative; I just don't have the patience for that much worldbuilding when I'm in the mood to read porn!
Arranged marriage. I just prefer the feelings to be there before the characters get together. The feelings don't have to be love, but there have to be feelings!
I think it's possible to do interesting things with the concept of soulmates, but it's something I'll usually avoid in fanfiction. I just find the whole idea of soulmates really hard to get my head around. What makes a soulmate; what does that mean?
3. One emotional aspect of a ship that always gets you
I mentioned before that I'm a fan of cynic/idealist ships. In particular, if the cynic ever glances at the idealist with a small, fond smile, that's it; I'll have a ship for life.
4. One physical aspect of a ship that always gets you
If one character slams the other into a wall, I'll probably sit up and take notice. Does that count?
5. Multiship or monoship?
Definitely multiship! It's rare for me to ship something to the exclusion of anything else.
6. Rare pairs or mainstream?
Both! I'll just ship whatever catches my eye, which sometimes means I'm aligned with fandom at large and sometimes means I'm really, really not.
7. Polyamory or monogamy?
There are some pairings I wouldn't want to introduce another character to, but I lean pretty heavily towards the polyamory side of things. I ship everything, frequently simultaneously.
8. If the ship is physical, reversible or not?
Is this asking how flexible I am about who tops? There are some characters who read more as a top or a bottom to me, but it's not something I typically give much thought to.
I suppose there are a few pairings for which a particular character taking the lead might throw me off. For example, I wouldn't expect dominant Noelle in a Kris/Noelle Deltarune fic, except in very specific circumstances (e.g. Kris wanting to give some sense of agency back to Noelle after a Snowgrave run (side note: this could be really interesting, actually!)). In most cases, though, I don't have firm opinions about which character should be in a particular sexual role.
9. Do you always have romantic ships for fandoms?
I don't, actually! I know I said I ship everything, but actually it turns out I lied. Sometimes I'll ship everyone with everyone else; sometimes I'll just have one or two pairings I like; sometimes I won't ship a thing.
Some canons I love but don't really ship anything in: Animorphs, Final Fantasy IX, Okami, Supernatural, Erased, Undertale, Night in the Woods, YOU, Omori. Some of these have pairings I could probably be sold on, or that I think have interesting potential, but there's nothing I'd say I actively ship.
(It's possible I do have ships in some of these and they've just slipped my mind. I originally included Pokémon in the list, having somehow forgotten about Ash/Goh and Ash/Gary.)
10. How important is the sexual part (if any) of your ship?
Depends on the ship! The sex is secondary to the weird complicated feelings, but sometimes adding sex is useful for eliciting more weird complicated feelings.
When reading fanfiction, I have two modes: 'I'm not in the mood for anything sexually explicit' and 'I'm only in the mood for something sexually explicit'. I find it slightly frustrating when I get into a plotty fic with good explicit scenes; I'll read up to an explicit scene and then go 'oh, goddammit, now I have to either delay reading or risk getting turned on at an inconvenient moment.'
11. Opinion on platonic ships?
I love plenty of platonic character dynamics, but I wouldn't call those ships. Shipping, to me, implies something romantic or sexual, or at least incorporating feelings that verge on romantic/sexual.
If I ship something, I'll also often enjoy their relationship as platonic. I tend to ship characters if I think they have chemistry and an interesting dynamic, and those aspects make for compelling platonic relationships as well as romantic ones. Adding romance or sex is just another way of exploring a character dynamic I like.
12. List 3 ships you currently love
I'm in a bit of a shipping lull at the moment, but I'm sure I can dig something up!
Andrew/Ashley, The Coffin of Andy and Leyley. Just a hideous, awful mess of a relationship in the best way, and also the worst way. They're absolutely obsessed with each other and trapped in a terrible spiral of making each other worse, and I can't get enough of it.
Hinata/Komaeda, Danganronpa 2. Tem and I have been replaying this game, and I still love the way Hinata is simultaneously drawn to and repelled by Komaeda. He can't stand this guy! But he still cares about this guy's safety, and a part of him really wants to understand what's going on in his head.
Beatrice/Battler, Umineko: When They Cry. I've also been replaying Umineko on and off, and the way these two bounce off each other is incredible and insane. What an intense, wild dynamic. It kicks off with 'hey, Battler, strip off and let me use you as a footstool while I murder your entire family' and ends with me crying over how beautiful this weird relationship is.
13. List 5 OTPs from past fandoms
I have no idea how to narrow these down, so I'm just going to grab whatever comes to mind.
Satoshi/Daisuke, DN Angel. Satoshi breaks my heart. He's so in love with Daisuke, but he has to keep his distance, or his love will unleash the sadistic entity that lives inside him! Watching DN Angel as a teenager, I was fascinated by the way Satoshi's feelings always lay just under the surface of canon - clearly canonically intended, but never spoken aloud - and by how he quietly accepted the fact that they could never be requited.
Arthur/Merlin, Merlin. The show was cheerfully, shamelessly baiting us, and I happily went straight for the bait. Merlin had a lot of faults, but I genuinely loved the dynamic between Arthur and Merlin that lay at the heart of it.
Sora/Riku, Kingdom Hearts. I started shipping these two when I was fourteen, playing Kingdom Hearts for the first time, and my fondness for them has only grown over the course of the series. Riku is in love with Sora; it's just a fact. It's the only way his character makes sense to me.
Kane/Abby, The 100. The canonical pairings in The 100 typically follow the format 'they share a couple of flirty glances and then kiss', so I was not braced for Kane/Abby, an incredible slow-build enemies-to-friends-to-lovers storyline between two characters with great chemistry and a lot of interesting history. Perhaps predictably, I first realised I shipped them when he was having her tortured.
Shay/Aveline, Assassin's Creed Rogue/Assassin's Creed Liberation. These two characters are from entirely different Assassin's Creed games and never meet in canon, although they do at least live in the same country in the same century, making them slightly more plausible than most Assassin's Creed crossover pairings. Shipping them was a real surprise for me! But I made them interact in Visitors, my Sense8-inspired Assassin's Creed fic, and went '...wait, these two kind of have some chemistry?', and then I plunged into insane levels of investment in this relationship between two characters who are never canonically within ten miles of each other.
14. Opinion on the importance of marriage?
I'm not big on marriage for my ships, in part because marriage doesn't really feel right for most of the pairings I'm drawn to. I'll occasionally get into a ship where marriage feels fitting, e.g. Nate/Elena and maybe Kane/Abby (or even a ship where marriage feels essential, e.g. James/Mary), but it's pretty rare for me to actually want a couple I ship to get married.
15. Opinion on OC kids?
Fankids aren't something I'm typically interested in reading about, personally. I'm usually just here for the canon characters, and, although I like kids in real life, I often don't find stories about very young children that engaging. (This is in part because I like it when characters suffer, but if the character is very young their suffering will just make me sad!)
I want to give honourable mentions to all the ships I didn't talk about in this meme, but we'll be here all day if I do!