#I know that they're not that popular of a ship but I just adore them and their complicated relationship

[nothoughts-onlywomen]

Its so cool to have lumax as your main ship <3 what other st ships do u ship?

i do love them very much 😊 in my responses i have also linked to asks i've received on my other page about st ships and my (lengthy) answers!

canon st ships I enjoy other than lumax:

mileven

C'MON THEY'RE CUTE. don't crucify me over this, but I have always loved mileven as a ship. i want to make it clear that if byler becomes canon, i will support the narrative direction of the writers. but i do love mileven very much and i enjoy their arc. i think the evolution of mike loving el as she grows into her own independence is lovely.

rovickie

we haven't gotten to see them much yet, but i am absolutely chuffed at the prospect of more rovickie in s5. i have always wanted robin to finally kiss a girl and i'm so excited to see this become a reality. i think the biggest challenge for the duffers is going to be developing vickie as a separate character from robin. it will likely be tempting to make vickie a carbon copy of robin and she deserves better than that.

jancy

i think jonathan and nancy balance each other out very well. nancy is this tenacious, compassionate, bright flame that fights for what's right. jonathan is so much more mild-mannered and quiet but supportive and intelligent. i also love that they're best friends first.

jopper

i know not everyone likes hopper. i had a friend who hates him. but i think they're a good match because they're both tough and gritty, but vulnerable at the same time. also i think it's really positive that they're both divorcees, both had a rough time in life, and are finding love later in life. i think in popular media we're used to seeing romance with young and attractive people. not that they aren't attractive, but they aren't young or perfect. idk i just find their whole thing refreshing.

non-canon st ships i enjoy:

elmax

i don't think anything fruity will happen with elmax canonically since lumax seems to be the logical direction. but i ADORE their enemies-to-friends journey. they're so sweet together. max was really one of the first people to encourage el's independence and autonomy. max, who herself is less approachable, embraced el from day one and loved her wholly since. and it's clear by the end of s3 that el loves max too. i think s5 will see el and max reuniting and just hugging so hard.

ronance

since rovickie is in the chamber, i'm not sure ronance will happen canonically either. but i love the idea. before vickie came along, i kind of had my own little headcanon that if robin were to sacrifice herself for nancy, she would give her a single, meaningful kiss on the lips before doing so. i don't want robin to die or sacrifice her self, but in case it does happen, that's how i would want it to go.

thanks for the ask, message me again anytime! ❤️

[sbd-laytall]

Ships where one person always has the other's back instantly >>>

Amazing Spider-Man (1963) #372

[camellcat]

I keep writing these very short rosesimm ficlets cause I can't stop thinking about them, which makes me want to check the tag on ao3 cause, y'know, I'M writing so SURELY if I KEEP CLICKING then it'll update, but alas. the tag doesn't change and I'm just stuck with my own shitty writing to keep me fed </3

[budgieflitter]

i will be completely honest with you guys but the way the sims fandom has been ignoring stella's canonical crush doesn't sit right with me... i know dormies are not as popular but still like you may not like this pair or ship her with someone else but please acknowledge that her heart actually belongs to chandler wolosenko!! and even if it's one-sided i can really see a lot of potential in them as a couple. they're just so adorable honestly

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - We In A Slump, but help might be coming from a very strange source

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Sept 2024 Week 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

Jack & Joker (Thai Mon IQIYI) ep 3 of 12 - I don’t have a lot to say except that the plot is somewhat predictable but the show is still very engaging. War is fantastic. I’m enjoying it a hell of a lot.

Monster Next Door (Thai Thurs Gaga ) ep 10 of 12 - The second leads are getting better in this one. I understand where they are coming from, which makes their conflict so much more understandably painful, and honest to a friends2lovers trope. The main couple is kinda standard college relationship drama, but they are cuties.  

Kidnap (Fri YT) ep 4 of 12 - How is Ohm so damn gorgeous? Meanwhile, babies’ first argument. And it’s sponge bath time. Q has got to be wondering if Min is as meticulous with all kinds of care and attention to detail all......the......time. Somebody here in the hellhole said something about this being "the most BL to ever BL." And I think they’re right. At least right now. Although, watch out, we got us a new contender from the east.

I Saw You in My Dream (Weds Gaga) ep 11 of 12 - I do love the continuation of the perversion, in a good way, of the punishment trope from last week's episode. Oh, has the show finally remembered its title? NO SINGING. 

Addicted Heroin (Thai Tues WeTV) ep 7 of 10 - More kidnapping and an attack and now there’s a girl involved and somebody’s going to China and I don’t understand anything! And I don’t really care. Is this how the actual book originally went? Because it’s wild. Also TOO MANY of flashbacks. I guess they got a bit of a boyfriend era, and the claiming during the water fight was cute, but otherwise...... meh

Love Sick 2024 (Thai Sun iQIYI) ep 2 of 15 - One shouldn’t make comparisons, of course, but all I can think about is how amazing Captain was as Noh in the original series. Thus this show is mostly just making me want to rewatch the original. It’d be an interesting twist to have Aim be queer instead of a damaged cool girl slut. Was the helmet hand letting go a foreshadow of the iconic bookstore hands letting go? Also, I gotta say for the second episode of a series there are already too many flashbacks. Why are they using filler when they have so much content crammed into so few (comparable) episodes for a series? It’s annoying. Stop it.

Live in Love (Sun Gaga) ep 4 of 5 - This show has some interesting, if heavy handed, things to say about shipping and trolling, but also predatory/proprietary female behavior. It’s fascinating to see it tackled head on, if handled in a profoundly clumsy manner. I’m not sure how I feel about it. That said, most of this episode was actually an advertisement for a resort in Phuket. 

Bad Guy My Boss (Thai Sun Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - I'm getting What's Wrong with Secretary Kim? vibes from this show. Only this is WAY more bullying. It’s very old-fashioned 90’s billionaire romance novel only gay. It’s never a good sign when I’m watching two boys kiss and I really want one of them to just bite the other ones lip off instead.

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 9 of 12 - No ep this week. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Sugar Dog Life (Japan Sun grey) ep 8 of 10 - Gosh it’s so frikin adorable. Baby got sick. He has SUCH A CRUSH. And such a courageous little confession! Yay! Can’t wait for next week. 

Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YouTube) ep 1 - sure, yes this is, in fact, just Ba Vinh doing his thing with pretty boys again. And yet...... There is a REASON this leapt into the standings guns blazing. So it’s high school set but it's stepbrothers trope. (My, aren’t we popular this year?) I know, but I NEVER get tired of this trope. We got us Bach (BV's sullen tsundere) and Dat (babygirl meets bully). It’s GREAT how the brothers' dynamic is entirely different at school than when they're at home. My ear isn’t trained for Vietnamese, but I think Dat is using different pronouns depending on his location (his personality entirely shifts when he’s at school). I’m not sold on the Bach character, although I always trust BV to serve in the end (at least we know the kisses will be good), but Dat is utterly in love, a touch spicy, and reasonably complex. The surrounding cast is good too, my favorite pretty boy is there playing top dog (woof), and one of the besties is out gay (YAY!). The plot of the show is...... well...... absent. Nothing happened. But if we are aiming for Love Sick slice of life style BL, I'm game. Subs are appropriately terrible and confusing. But I like it A FUCK TON so far, so I’m gonna keep it in rotation. Nice to have Vietnam back in play. What a shocker.

2024 has been a year of upsets.

Love is Like a Poison AKA Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (Japan Tues Netflix?) 3 of 10 eps - I weirdly enjoyed the farcical music and the utter absurdity of the court case. I also liked how it highlighted what a good team these two are. Frankly I don’t mind a bit of an antihero sleazy lawyer + conman, it's engaging. I’m getting wholesome out of Thailand. I don’t really need it from Japan at the moment. Also I don’t believe for one second our conman actually is serious about the relationship. Conmen gonna con. I'm reminded of the scorpion and the frog fable.

First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) ep 8 of 12 - I love Orca so much. I do not love the autotuned version of Orca, but I knew what I was in for with this particular show, it's in the title after all. I did laugh a whole lot when Laing used kha. Hon, I don't think that word means what you think it means......

The On1y One (Taiwan Thurs Gaga) eps 11-12fin - I never thought I’d say this, but the pacing was off in the penultimate episode. Taiwan, and its chronic misuse of flashbacks strikes again. That said we eventually got a "lock in" trope and Wang being the biggest little flirt shit in the cafe OMG!!! Of course, you shouldn’t use a girl to torment your bf, but it was so well done, I can’t really complain. Meanwhile, teacher kisses. And now I understand exactly why they’re present in this narrative. Clever. Bummer of a burden on that ending though. I cannot see how they’ll manage to stick this landing. [That was ep 11]

AND NOW EP 12 - doomey doomey doom

Not the water bottle trope! Argh the teenage lust of it all. Just stop it. Wang is so smart he knows exactly how bad he has to be to leave the class. And his bf certainly knows that too. And......

......

So that was not an ending and I’m not happy about it and no one is surprised. Even I’m not surprised. I’m just disappointed. Even tho I suspected this was where we were headed I'm disappointed. That’s it. That’s all I got. How do I review something that was such a crushing let down?

Conclusion:

Based on a Mou Mou novel + the Your Name Engraved Herein team, this is old-school coming of age BL and it was bloody fantastic. Tsundere seme to beat all tsundere (smartest + tallest + bestest at everything but people) meets socially-ept cutie smart-ass uke. They're living together by end of ep 1 and start kissing by end of ep 2. A stellar tense slow burn stepbrothers trope that ate my life and than just belly-flopped the finale. What I'm left with is epic levels of disappointment and well...... at least nobody died? My standard "fatally flawed" rating for any BL is 4/10 so I guess that’s what I’m giving it. 

Before you ask me for the stats: Taiwan does not have a history of second seasons. I went ahead and ran the numbers and the odds are certainly not in our favor. I put the chances at 2%.

Yes, I contemplated a revenge rating of 2/10 but even I'm not that mean.

It's airing but...

The Hidden Moon (Sat WeTV) ep 1 of 10 - This is a supernatural romance (my ghost boyfriend trope) by Violet Rain (I Feel You Linger). A man is hired to write an article about an old mansion in Chiang Mai being converted into a café. He sees the ghosts of people who died at the mansion, falls in love with one of them. Was substantially recast. I loved IFYLITA except the ending so I think I'll let this one run it's course you can tell me if it's work tracking down... if they managed to land it. I have my doubts.

In Case You Missed It

Falling For My Boss is vertical format (nash) short from Korean BL about a happy-go-unlucky man who keeps losing his flower shop business because of romantically misbehaving employees (apparently it's a thing). When his best employee brings in a new boy he's worried she's falling for him, but it turns out it's his own heart on the line. He a clueless softy and The Boy is a lost broken sweetheart, making this a gentle little snippet of a show. There's a baby linguistic negotiation, some hung slinging, awkward handholds, and everyone is very pretty. For me the absence of kisses and the vertical format were more annoying than the length, which felt fine but many viewers will find too short. I enjoyed the 30 minutes of cute. All of which makes this a solid 7/10 from me. It was originally only available on this one ap in very short form with ads so I wasn't gonna bother. Then some kind soul cut it together without ads and stuck it up for download. Say thank you.

Oddball recommendation next: This podcast episode touches on some stuff we see in Thai BL so I think it's worth listening to. Journalist Dominic Faulder on the Complex History Between Thailand & Myanmar

Happy of the End (Japan Gaga) - Completed its run. A boy is disowned for being gay, dumped by his boyfriend, and ends up in a dysfunctional co-dependant relationship with his would-be kidnapper. We were due for another messy JBL and it's exactly as expected. I do not like it at all and DNFed. Gossip round the hellhole is that was a solid decision.

Marriage Equality Law has officially been enacted in Thailand...

Yes the actual law. Goes into effect Jan 22, 2025

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Coming Oct 2024:

10/3 Fourever You (Thai iQIYI?) 16 eps - New directs Earth (UWMA, 12%) + Pond (Century of Love, 180 Degrees), Bas (Gen Y, 2 Moons) + Maxky (Why You… Y Me?) and other familiar faces like Bever. Sampler pack university BL from Wabi Sabi that looks like it's trying to be a gay Boys Over Flowers (4 older med students hot boys) and I'm not mad about it. Trailer Not sure who's distributing this but my guess is iQIYI since they had the last few from this house.

10/7 Every You Every Me (Thai Gaga) 10 eps - Jade and Chin have lived over a thousand lifetimes. In each one they somehow manage to fall in love with each other. (This pair, TopMick was piloted in a My Universe ep, that was one of the only ones I liked.)

10/10 Eccentric Romance (Korea ????) 12 eps - Silkwood’s 2nd Thai/Korean colab, that has been in production since 2022 which is a LONG time in the BL world. I'm worried but I like the concept: friends of 10 years who’ve been hiding feelings for each other enter the same university. Plus MURDER.

10/10 Gangster and His Boyfriend (Korea ????) 8 eps? - Kim Dong Bin (famous trainee & idol reality competitor, yeah that happens) stars as a fallen idol who unexpectedly becomes entangled in a gangster family. Discovers that his friend’s father is responsible for the murder of his entire family years ago. I don't know much about this one, neither does anyone else and I'm not sure where I got that release date so……

10/21 Love in the Big City (Korea ????) 8 eps - Adaptation of Booker-nominated famous coming of age novel of the same title by Park Sang-Young. Cynical yet fun loving student writer Young pinballs from home, to class, to Tinder matches. He and Jaehee, his female besie and roommate, frequent nearby bars where they push away their worries about life, love, and money with soju. As time passes Jaehee settles down and leaves Young to face his problems on his own. Young finding comfort in the arms of the series of men, including one whose handsomeness is matched by his coldness and another who might be the great love of his life. Not really BL. Stars Kim Go-eun (The King: Eternal Monarch), Noh Sang-hyun, and Nam Yoon Su (The King’s Affection). This already released as a movie and isn't very well regarded, this date is supposedly an international release as a series. I'm wary of it being BL.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I got nothing, The On1y One drove me into a funk.

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in its infinite wisdom doesn't like too many at-ings.

[tobiasdrake]

Hi! Absolutely adore your DBZ analyses, thank you so much - just spent a delightful time reading them all. I was wondering, since you've commented on Chi-Chi and Goku's marriage, what do you have to say about Vegeta and Bulma's relationship? (I've always been entranced by it - mostly because as with all his romances, Toriyama had the wisdom not to show any of it onscreen. But I'd love to know your thoughts about it.)

Bulma and Vegeta are a match made in Hell, and they deserve each other. (Which is to say yes, I love this ship.)

Hooking Bulma up with Vegeta was a hell of a narrative swerve. Generally speaking, stories rarely do this; They rarely let characters break up once they're already invested in a romance, unless it's supposed to be like a love triangle thing.

And Bulma? Bulma was invested. At least, to a degree.

This was the birth of the original Bulma romance that ran through about half of the manga. Two teens interesting in the opposite sex suddenly realize the availability of the other and a relationship is born.

Toriyama says he's bad at writing romance but to be honest, this has always hit me as more believable than your typical drawn-out five-seasons-of-pining Will They/Won't They affair. I'm a girl. You're a boy. Wanna go out and see what clicks?

And these two... these two do not click. We only really see their relationship from Bulma's perspective but it's clear that these two are miserable together.

The manga sorta takes Bulma's side, in that we never really get to hear Yamcha's opinion about their relationship one way or another. When he's around, all he wants to do is talk shop about martial arts. Since Toriyama doesn't like to write romance, we simply don't see much of it from them. What little we do hear about it comes from Bulma complaining about how miserable she is.

Bulma is pretty much always pissed off whenever the relationship is in focus at all.

Anime filler tends to take Yamcha's side instead, portraying him as a put-upon victim of Bulma's jealousy and abuse. A nice guy who doesn't deserve the way she treats him.

It's not hard to buy into this interpretation of their relationship since, as noted, we rarely get anything from Yamcha with regard to his relationship to women or Bulma specifically but we know Bulma's a lot. It's easy to accept Bulma as the "bad guy" of this relationship because. Like. Remember that time she enslaved a sentient being? Good times.

Though one particular moment from Yamcha later on kinda stands out as a bit of a retroactive Yikes.

Yeah. Uh. Threatening violence against a woman for rejecting his bro is a bit of a Yikes. Is this who we were supposed to see Yamcha as all this time? Because, if so, it might have helped to let him opine about the relationship more. Just saiyan.

According to Toriyama in interview, Yamcha and Bulma ultimately broke up because she caught Yamcha cheating on her. I guess that's what him being "popular with girls" was supposed to mean: Once he got over his gynophobia and found confidence with the opposite sex, Yamcha became a player.

But that doesn't necessarily come across from the statement, "Bulma can't stand that Yamcha's popular with girls." A lot of fans took that to mean girls just like him for no reason, and Bulma's unreasonably jealous about it. The anime took that position too.

Note that the "Yamcha is popular with girls" thing isn't helped by the fact that we never see it on-panel because he's only ever talking shop when he's around. But we do see a wandering eye from Bulma often enough.

There's nothing wrong with enjoying the aesthetic appeal of another party even when you're in a monogamous relationship, but it doesn't really present the "Other party is a womanizer and cheater" case when you're the only one ever seen doing this.

So it feels like there's a lot about Yamcha and Bulma's relationship that never made it to print yet influenced later decisions. Those decisions ended up being controversial because the foundation for those decisions was never laid. Here, Toriyama's disdain for writing romance worked against him.

But ultimately, regardless of whose side you take, it doesn't really matter. It doesn't matter who the "bad guy" is. A healthy relationship does not have a "bad guy" in it.

Whether or not Yamcha cheated, whether or not Bulma's just an unreasonably jealous hell-beast, it doesn't actually matter. What matters is that once you reach the point where you're taking sides over which party is the most obnoxious asshole and I hate you and I wish we never met... this relationship is not working for anybody.

It doesn't matter who the bad guy is. It doesn't matter who deserves the blame for this relationship being a toxic shithole. That there is blame to throw around in the first place is the problem. Every relationship has its ups and downs but if one party is constantly miserable for years and has possibly been looking for an escape hatch since year 1, that's not a little tiff.

What matters is that these two are not working out. Any time we see their relationship in focus, they are miserable together. The anime tried to do some patchwork on that with audience reception by giving them some cute moments as well, but because those moments aren't canon the pair remained miserable.

And then this happened.

Despite everything, I think we all assumed that Bulma and Yamcha were going to work it out. Fictional relationships are often portrayed as tumultuous. To a writer, nothing says true love like being constantly miserable and despising every waking moment you spend with your awful, nagging ball-and-chain of a spouse. That's just. Like. What the straights think romance is. It's weird.

I think we all thought that was going to be the deal here too. And then Trunks came along and said, "Nope, actually, they finally severed the cord."

Again, Toriyama says he's bad at writing romance but holy shit, the toxic and miserable relationship actually ended. The two characters involved who only got together out of loneliness and desperation later found they were incompatible with each other. That's so real. Much moreso than a lot of fictional romances.

Instead, we got the absolute crack ship that is Vegeta and Bulma. What a wild-ass revelation for Trunks to drop.

Like. Until the end of the Namek arc, this was the only time these two characters even met.

She also saw Vegeta for like two seconds here.

That was it. That was their entire history together until Goku defeated Frieza while Kaio sent everyone to Earth. But that's when everything changed for Vegeta.

Stranded on Earth with no ship, no affiliations, no ability to leave the planet and nowhere to go or be and no obligations to anyone but himself, Vegeta's circumstances were wildly different than they'd ever been before. He had become one of the Namekian refugees.

And Bulma was offering refuge.

Hard to resist, indeed. That moment is absolutely hilarious in retrospect. Bulma rolled a Nat 20 on that charisma check. It's pretty clear who the instigator of this relationship was.

Like. It needs to be stated that at this point, the only thing Bulma knew about Vegeta was that he tried to kill them all multiple times, and also he's kinda hot. But. Like.

It's Bulma. Anyone who doesn't expect this from her by now either hasn't been paying attention or started watching the English dub of the anime when they did Z first.

So, naturally, Vegeta is a kind and loving man and became a phenomenal husband and fa--

Wait. No. I got my notes mixed up. It says here Vegeta's a rotten dirty bastard. Like. Chronically. He has Supreme Dickshit Syndrome. It's genetic.

Most of Bulma and Vegeta's developing relationship happens offscreen. From what snippets we get, Vegeta has a tendency to vanish during the day, but he still lives at Capsule Corp so Bulma sees him around.

By the end of the three-year timeskip, it's official. Or semi-official. Yamcha and Bulma broke up at some point during that timeskip and Bulma's given birth to Trunks.

As for Vegeta, he's evidently moved out of Capsule Corp and into his own place.

I guess he's still keeping contact with Bulma since she knows what his intentions are. Not to mention he found his tranquility during these three years, though it's somewhat ambiguous as to what exactly brought that peace to his heart.

But the relationship is off to a rocky start nonetheless. Clearly something went down between Vegeta and Bulma that drove Vegeta out of Capsule Corp. To. Uh. Somewhere.

I like to imagine Vegeta living in some shitty West City apartment he rents off a stipend Bulma's sending him that he refuses to openly acknowledge. Like, room 101 is a down-on-his-luck tax accountant, room 102 is a couple with a kid trying to make ends meet off two retail workers' salaries, and then room 103 is Vegeta, Prince of All Saiyans. Sometimes he goes to community events and pretends he isn't having fun.

No lie, I would absolutely watch that as a sitcom.

As for Vegeta himself, he's still a rotten dirty bastard.

Worth noting that Vegeta's saying this as a Super Saiyan which means he's drunk on the form's enhanced aggression. But. Still. Vegeta is an absolute monster being dragged kicking and screaming into a pleasant life that he'll one day resent himself for enjoying. This is his arc moving forward.

It's not so much a redemption arc as it is a domestication arc. The uniquely evil even by Saiyan standards Vegeta is gradually being changed by his new terrestrial life. He doesn't want to own up to how much he enjoys it here. Seven years later, he's still desperate to avoid owning up to it.

He doesn't want to be happy here. He doesn't want a loving wife and a son who looks up to him and the most lavish home wealth can afford him and easy, comfortable days spent with friends and loved ones by his side. He doesn't want a happy ending.

But it's like Bulma warned him: Dragon Ball's queen bee is hard to resist.

Welcome back to Capsule Corp, Vegeta. We hardly even noticed you were gone. Honestly, Future Trunks deserves a lot of the credit for this; Watching him die at the Cell Games was what flipped the switch in Vegeta's head that he wants the family he and Bulma have spawned together.

Sure is a good thing we have Dragon Balls because this is a hell of a time to suddenly decide you love your son. But we see the consequences of that seven years later, since Vegeta moved back into Capsule Corp from... I don't know, wherever he went. They're gonna miss him at the next community poolside summer BBQ event for all tenants.

Part of what makes Vegeta and Bulma work, I think, is that they're on the same page about one crucial point. For Bulma, there is one person who will always take precedent in her life above all others. Romance comes and romance goes, but this is the relationship that matters most to her.

Especially when it comes to martial arts and fighting. Bulma doesn't know a lot about the subject, but she knows that Son Goku is her #1. She has no reservations about saying that to her lover's face either.

When fists start flying, Bulma knows who she's rooting for. If Goku's involved, then it's not her guy. That's. Just. Something that anyone who wants to be with her has to be willing to understand. The single most important relationship in Bulma's life will always be her friendship with Goku.

And the thing about Vegeta is... He kind of agrees? Like. See above, re: I wanted Babidi to destroy my feelings for Bulma so that I could become the warrior that can fight with you, Kakarot.

As much as Goku will always be Bulma's #1, he'll also always be Vegeta's #1. He even gets included into Vegeta's fond farewell to the family he loves.

Goku is basically the platonic third in a two-person polycule. This is the second marriage that this poor ace plays a vital role in despite having no real interest in romance whatsoever.

Bulma is selfish, spiteful, petty, and vain. At one point, DBS: Broly directly compares her to Frieza; A comparison that manages to be unbelievably unflattering to both participants.

They're the same picture. A revelation that would probably be horrifying to both.

And Vegeta. Especially Vegeta. But. Like. She warned you she was irresistible. You didn't take her seriously and now look where you are. Married to the She-Frieza. Maybe you should think about your life choices.

This is just. So much fun. As I said at the outset, Bulma and Vegeta are a match made in Hell who make it work because they're both similar brands of awful.

As for Yamcha, it's a little known fact but Yamcha rebounded and moved on with his life. He stops having much story relevancy after he leaves Capsule Corporation so we see very little of his private life from there. After retiring from martial arts and splitting up with Bulma, Yamcha's left without any story hooks to keep him involved.

But there was this interesting moment, when he realized they had a Shenron wish to spare.

After Krillin comes up with something better to use the wish on, he takes it back and claims it was a joke.

This is, surprisingly, a point of contention in the fandom as some of Yamcha's fans prefer the idea that he died miserable and alone after Bulma ruined his life by leaving him. This takeback gets pointed to as proof that he made up his girlfriend entirely. However, in context, it's clear that a) he's trying to brush off his earlier attempt at making a petty wish and b) the thing he's transparently pretending was a joke is the necklace wish, not the existence of his new girlfriend.

Like Bulma, Yamcha moved on with his life after the break up of their miserable relationship. And that was the final word that was ever uttered on Yamcha's romantic prospects, because this was the last time he was ever meaningfully involved with anything at all.

[erinwantstowrite]

Hello!!!! Who is everyone dating in LoF (if they're dating anyone at all)?? :D

AHH good question!! I have a general idea for most characters, but for some I have plans :3

As for dating:

I honestly have no clue with Bruce, but that's just how it is all the time, isn't it?

Dick is dating Wally, because Birdflash for the win!! But he has dated Kori in the past, Babs, (and etc) and they're still good friends to this day :)

Jason I'm still debating on. I like him and Roy and I think it's a popular ship? I haven't looked too far into it. I also hear that Jay, Roy, AND Kori are a ship and that's so so so good

Tim and Kon are in their "will they won't they" where everyone else knows they're dating and they also know they're dating but they don't bring it up at all. Also might have a YJ polycule just for funsies, don't really know atp

I need to read more about Damian and Flatline (AKA Nika) but from what I've seen so far they are. ADORABLE. Like so freaking cute I can't stand it

Cass and Steph are also dating- if anyone is worried about a detail that was in a previous chapter that would make that WAY weird, I went back and edited that. My mistake, y'all, that's on me.

A lot of people asked about Lanky and Shoes and this is my formal announcement: Yes, they are in love!!

As for other characters, it's up in the air. It really depends on what I see everyone ask about the most (but final decision is left to me :3). If I see that people like a certain ship and it's good, I could go ahead and mention it in the background, etc.

And for Peter: Ned.

A lot of people have looked at me strange for this one, but I thought it would be fun to explore that dynamic. I know Ned isn't MJ, or Harry, or whatever other ship people like, but I think they're cute. Some people stopped reading because of it, but I don't want to go back on it... So I don't think I will. I understand where most come from, it's not their cup of tea, but others were just plain nasty and I had to delete their comments on the fic itself, tiktok, etc.

Right now, they're best friends!! Ned is definitely aware he has a crush and is ignoring it, but Peter has no idea. That's 'cause they're both younger in this fic and I think right now they have more important things to worry about than Love. It's more of a puppy crush thing right now, more subtext than plain text.

But later on in the story, it's going to be explored. I may or may not write them becoming a couple or putting a label on it, but it will be talked about. It really depends on where the story goes. But I am of the belief that romantic love isn't the only type of love that can be written about, and at the end of the day, LoF is about the various forms of love and grief.

I think a good way to term Peter is biromantic asexual? I'm not too sure about the terminology here, so take that with a grain of salt. I'm pretty sure bisexuality is on the ace spectrum? Like he's still 14 and he's got a lot of time to figure that out. In my head that's just how it is.

I hope to have a lot of representation in LoF! There's a lot to explore and being apart of the community, I know how important it is. And I hope I don't actually have to moderate my comments because of it, that would suck

[lesbianrobin]

Em i LOVE the idea of Buck and Eddie making a lil podcast (in my head it’s called someth like best buddies be prepared)

Can u imagine it having a following? Nothing huge or anything, they’re long ass episodes about niche topics it’s not exactly a top 10 listen, but like maybe they’re on a call and it’s someth from one of their episodes (earthquake maybe?) and they’re tryna get to a kid who’s stuck and he’s just spouting lil tidbits and factoids and buck is like “wow buddy you know a lot about this stuff” and the kid goes “it’s from my favourite podcast!” And buck is just SO excited and Eddie pretends to have forgotten that they did that but he’s so tickled for Buck and excited that other people like listening to him as much as Eddie does

Anyway I’m thinking about that

ok first of all that is adorable. and second of all honestly i Can see it having a following if they were able to tell stories from their calls and/or somebody with lots of followers happened to listen and spread it!!

like here's the thing okay. they live in los angeles and meet tons of people every day. they're bound to help out some influencer or b/c/d-list celebrities and all it would take is somebody casually mentioning the podcast in front of an influencer who then tweets like "hey guys some firefighters rescued me from a car accident last week and turns out they have a podcast!! here's their episode on safe driving!" and bam their stupid little podcast that they just started because they were bored and buck wanted to yap suddenly has a few thousand listeners. buck and eddie have a great rapport and people enjoy when they go off on tangents or tell funny work stories and of course if listeners look them up and See how beautiful they are bam that's another point in their favor.

and because it's educational maybe some teachers will assign students episodes for homework and maybe the lafd reaches out and is like heyyyy you guys want to maybe do this in a more official capacity 😳❓ and suddenly they have the opportunity to make a lil bit of money from their podcast not Much but eddie's never gonna say no to extra cash and he Likes having an excuse to just sit down and talk to his favorite guy in the world for like three hours about whatever the topic of the week/month is.

just for funsies i do like to imagine that the podcast becomes popular enough that a small but dedicated rpf shipping community crops up and there's discourse about it 🫶🏻

[lunamugetsu]

Why does this work so well?!

People of the Danny Phantom x DC Universe/anything Batman fandom!

Please explain to me HOW DO THESE TWO DIFFERENT FANDOMS WORK SO WELL TOGETHER?

These are two completely separate superhero properties. Sure superheroes properties in general can blend pretty well together, but I have not seen a crossover where they have blended as well as the dpxdc crossover fandom.

I don't really see as many Danny Phantom crossover fics with the Marvel Universe. And vice vera, I don't see any of the DC universe heroes really crossing over with any other superhero fandoms (besides Marvel) as well as they crossover with Danny Phantom. The only other fandom that is popular being crossed over to the DC universe is the Miraculous Ladybug fandom, and that's it's own analysis.

But Danny Phantom is a property from the early 2000s (it first aired in 2004, this show is 20 years old!) What are the chances, that these two go so well together? How did it even start?

I didn't even know this was a thing, I happened upon it when I happened upon a fic. (Bus to Nowhere, really well written story)

And this just opened up a ton of new things that the DPx DC fandom made. Especially batman!

Danny being a chaos gremlin across all of the DC universe.

Ectoplasm=Lazarus Water

Jason Todd is liminal

Lady Gotham! (a completely new character created by the crossover fandom!)

Danny being adoption bait for the serial adopter that is Bruce!

Why does it work so well?

Genuinely curious here, like why don't other fandoms mesh well as this one? And how does this crossover have such awesome fics and hilarious stories?

If I were to compare it to any other fandom that could potentially work with the DC universe, like Transformers or Ben 10. (there's aliens and supervillains in those shows, they could definitely crossover in the DC universe) But I don't really see crossover fics with them. Is it the fandom? fanbase just not interested? the ideas just don't mesh well?

But for DPxDC, the ideas are abundant! Everytime I come to tumblr, I see a new prompt or fic idea for the fandom and immediately just go "that's an amazing idea!"

Not to mention the ship names!

They're adorable !

Dead Tired/ Brain Dead= Tim x Danny

Anger Management= Jazz x Jason

Dead on Main/ Double Dead= Danny x Jason

Super Dead= Jon x Danny

Multi-level Marketing= Vlad x Lex Luthor (I did not know that I even had a pairing name!)

Dead Silent= Cass x Danny

Ghost Lights= Duke x Danny

Look at those beautiful names! And that's just a couple of them! Somebody please explain to me. How did this even happen?! How did this all start?! Is this like a lightning in a bottle situation? Where it's not likely we'll see a crossover that happens like this anytime soon?

[s-u-g-a-r-rush1997]

I told you I'd get revenge on Felix, for, uh...

Being taller than I assumed, I guess? Honestly, I'm not even sure. But I had a crush on this guy as a kid, and he's honestly adorable as hell.

I don't tend to ship Felix and Turbo, but I do like the dynamic. I feel like, if anything, they were at least familiar with each other. Felix was the first to recognize Turbo, after all.

And They Were Neighbors

Pairing: Felix x Turbo

Rating: Slightly suggestive

Warnings: None

It likely started out of courtesy. Polite small talk and a pie as a welcome to the arcade. It's something Felix might not have gotten when he was first plugged in.

My personal headcanon is that Fix-it Felix the arcade game was made in 1981, as it reminds me quite a lot of Donkey Kong, a game released in that year. Arcades were at their peak in the late 1970s and early 1980s. Felix might have been among the first to be plugged in, and as such, would have never gotten that warm welcome.

So it's significant to him. Especially if Turbo Time is either his first neighbor on that side, or possibly even a replacement for a game that had to get unplugged.

The Turbo Twins adore him. He's sweet, overall pleasant to talk to, and he brought them pie. They're just as loud and competitive as Turbo, just not nearly as aggressive about it, so I think they'd get along just fine.

Turbo, on the other hand, doesn't get along with Felix initially, at all.

Everything's a competition to him. It's baked into his code. So with Fix-it Felix Jr. being a particularly popular game, he can't help but see Felix as a rival.

Felix is a pretty passive man, though. I don't think he'd just sit there idly if Turbo decided to outright insult him, but he'd be the last person to pick a fight.

It pisses Turbo off. From his perspective, Felix isn't taking the whole rivalry thing seriously. In fact, he's actively brushing him aside.

The first time he curses in front of Felix, which likely wouldn't be too long into their first conversation, Felix scolds him for it. Tells him to watch his language.

Absolutely curses in front of Felix just to try and make him mad.

That's not to say Felix doesn't curse. I think he probably tries his hardest not too, but some of the Nicelanders - and Turbo of course - have some pretty foul mouths, and phrases and words tend to rub off on people if you hang around them long enough.

Turbo loses his shit laughing the first time Felix curses.

Teases Felix, of course. How could he not? Felix has likely censored and scolded him multiple times at this point for cursing.

This is likely the only time Turbo has actually managed to fluster the man so thoroughly.

Oh boy, once he learns Felix is susceptible to teasing, it's over.

Teasing turns to flirting real darn quick. Flirting turns to little touches. Red is very much Turbo's color, but he enjoys seeing it on Felix.

Felix will flirt back, once he gets a good enough hold on himself. It's probably something cheesy and sappy, but it's enough to take Turbo off guard.

The two of them kiss. Felix initiates, much to Turbo's - and his own - surprise.

Turbo absolutely bites during and/or after the kiss. He's absolutely a biter and I stand by that.

Regardless, this whirlwind romance - if you can even call it romance - likely doesn't last too long. It's 1982 when the two first meet, and 1987 at the time of the Roadblasters incident. It's only really five years that they have to get to know each other.

For video game characters who are essentially immortal barring any surprise power outages and unpluggings, who can spend years without any change in personality, doing the same thing every single day and still find joy in it, five years is pretty short.

Still, it hurts. He was starting to like Turbo.

To see him again after witnessing first hand what Turbo had done, to have believed him dead, would hurt like hell.

I think he'd be okay, though. He has Calhoun. She knows what its like to lose someone you love, and she knows how badly it hurts to have old wounds reopened.

[rory-multifandom-mess]

Fellow Thad kisser, thoughts on every Thad ship with every major plot relevant character?

OMG FELLOW THAD KISSER YAAAY. Ok

Thuzi - INCREDIBLY CUTE. I really really like how different their vibes are, but they work so well too. Popular Jock x Outcast Emo Girl. It's just so good and awesome and technically could've been canon too, which I think makes it better! Thad is such a genuine and nice guy too, so I think he'd help her come out of her shell too. He'd also def be protective over her in the way that like... If she was getting teased he'd so intervene, no matter if that made him "less cool" or whatever. And she would scold him for getting himself hurt during football games

Vhad - YES YES YES YE SYE YS. THIS SHIP IS EVERYTHING. I cannot put into words how much I adore this ship dude. She like picks him up and is like "You're cute. Mine now" And he's like "Oh! Okay!" Like he cannot fight back. And it provides good angst too because Thad and N are so alike right, what if Solver does what it did to N to Thad, just because V was getting distracted from her job y'know? DELICIOUSSSSS. Also it's just really cute. It's okay V he's into danger

Than/Nhad/Wheat Thins - This ship is actually super silly to me, because they're both golden retrievers at heart, N is just more excitable than Thad is, but I still think they would work well together. Thad would fluster N to hell and back by flirting and N would be especially cuddly. Also them playing with each other's hair. Thad teaching N football. And then also N protecting Thad from stuff and Thad is just :0 damn thats hot. Love it

Jhad - Not sure if this counts because it's J but I think it is considering how big of a role she played in Episode 8 but anyway. I JUST GOT INTO THIS SHIP AND IT IS EVERYTHING TO ME. JUST. The idea of this goofy fucking jock boy helping a very uptight, Worker Drone hating Disassembly Drone to relax and unwind is just everything to me. And the idea that like, maybe Thad reminds her of Tessa, and that hurts her for a while, but it helps her to mourn and grieve and learn to accept that she's gone. Like obviously I don't know if she'd get over Tessa but I'm WAILING !!!!!! DUDE THE SHIP COULD BE SO GOOD. We need more Jhadders man

Thank you for the ask this was fun to do. I love screaming about stuff. Let me know if you think I was missing anything

[trapped-in-the-valley]

My open letter to the Moomin fandom

cw: swearing. Not a lot of it, but it's there.

I don't know if I'll ever actually post this, but I need to get this written down because I just can't with this fandom anymore and I need to get my emotions out somehow.

Before I actually get into it, I want to make one thing clear. This is not a personal attack against anyone. You are allowed to have your own opinions, to ship who you like, to do whatever you want to, really (try to stay on the legal side tho), just like I have the right to the very same things.

You can disagree with me, you can even tell me just how much you disagree with me, as long as you stay kind and respectful about it. That's just how people work. We're not gonna agree on everything, and that's fine. Great even. Otherwise the world would be a very boring place.

Mostly, I love this fandom. The people are very open and welcoming and the vibes are absolutely top notch. There are a lot of very skilled and passionate people here who fill this fandom with joy and life and creativity.

But ever since I first joined this fandom, there has been a certain attitude on here concerning Snufmin, the most popular ship in this fandom (for understandable reasons), that has irked me every time I came accross it in any form.

"Well, obviously they're more than just friends, you have to be blind not to see that."

I hate that fucking phrase so much.

Now, before I start going into my biggest problem with this wide-spread attitude, I'm gonna look at that expression for a second. "more than just friends."

Usually I try not to get snagged on phrases like this, because it's really just a common expression (even I use it occasionally. probably.) and people probably don't mean it that way, but in this specific case it's actually relevant to the larger problem, so bear with me for a bit.

"More than just friends" explicitly implies a sort of ranking or hierachy. That romantic love is inherently more valuable than platonic love. It devalues platonic relationships despite the fact that they're actually equal to romantic relationships.

This is a very important point here. Equality. I am not trying to put either of them above the other. In my opinion, neither of them is more important than the other. They're just two of the many ways you can express your love for someone. Both of them can be equally deep and important.

Okay, it's time to finally take a look at the actualy contents of this phrase. The part of the attitude that has been chipping away at me for the past few years until the dam finally burst.

It's not a secret that, while they're incredibly close, Snufkin and Moomin are not canonically a romantic couple. Now, would Tove have made Moomintroll and Snufkin explicitly a couple if she had lived in a time where that would have been possible? Maybe. We'll never know, since we can't exactly ask her anymore.

But regardless of Tove's intentions, what we ended up with is this beautifully ambigous relationship, that could be anything, really.

The relationship is beautiful. It's close and trusting and endless and admiration and adoration and written in the fabric of the fucking universe. But it's not defined.

It's very fitting for a relationship that serves as an allegory for longing to be that way.

Longing isn't defined, it's complicated and deep, and everyone feels it differently and it can be felt regardless of what kind of relationship you have with the person or the place or the thing you're longing for, which is why the ambiguity of their feelings for each other and the deep love and complex emotions they feel is a perfect representations of a very complicated emotion.

Now, to make one thing clear: I'm not bashing anyone for shipping these two. Again, the relationship is ambigous, and a romantic reading of the source text is just as valid as a platonic one or everything in between.

There's a lot to like, and they make for a very compelling ship.

My problem is with the people who act like Snufmin is the foregone conclusion. The only valid interpretation.

The people who don't tag their fanfics as Snufmin because "It's basically cannon."

The people who post stuff about how you have to be stupid not to see that they're obviously a couple. How the people who prefer a platonic reading are willfully ignorant or blind to the elephant in the room.

Maybe it's the aromantic in me, the person who was told growing up again and again that that you had to find romantic love to be complete, that was made to feel like something was wrong with me because I didn't.

The kid who was told "they must be more than friends."

Who was made to feel like platonic love, the only kind of love I felt, was inherently less valuable, less cherishable than the romantic kind.

So yeah, maybe it's the aromantic in me, but I haven't been a huge shipper ever since when I was around 18. I'm not anti-shipping, but when I'm in a fandom most ships just end up on a scale from vaguely positive to vaguely negative for me, with most of them ending up in the neutral zone.

I'm not gonna seek out any content of the ship specifically, but a good piece of fanart is a good piece of fanart and a fanfic with an interesting storyline intrigues me, regardless of whether or not it has a ship in it.

Snufmin was on the upper end of this scale for me when I first joined the fandom. Not even neutral, but vaguely positive. They're really cute together, to the point where I'd actually seek out content specifically for it being Snufmin (There's some really cute animatics out there. 10/10. would recommend) and even came up with an entire AU based around the ship.

But as the years went on, and the comments and untagged fanfics and this fucking attitude in the entire fandom went on and on and on, it all started piling up. Chipping away at me. Discomfort started to settle in, and I felt more and more uncomfortable, less welcomed in a fandom that used to be a source of comfort for me.

I started to hate this fucking ship. Genuine hatred, which is a rare thing for me. I guess I blamed it for the loss of something dear to me.

It got to the point where I left this fandom almost entirely, only staying tethered to it through the fact that I still enjoyed and consumed the source material.

I've been getting better about it recently, slowly finding my way back through the things I originally found joy in while trying to avoid everything else best as I can, but that's my personaly journey and I'm not going to bore you with the details. Just know that the hatred is gone, with only occasional annoyance left.

The attitude that caused it though, isn't. It's still there, just as it was back then.

Again, I'm not telling you to stop shipping Snufmin. I get it. It's a great ship and I'm glad you find joy in it.

But the next time you post about it, try not to devalue the just as valid platonic love these two can feel for each other.

I'd appreciate it, and while it's probably not the most popular opinion, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one.

Thank you if you read this basically-a-breakdown until here. It genuinely means a lot to me.

All your best,

Trapped-in-the-valley

PS: Tag you fucking fanfics. Please.

[writing-in-sin]

THOUGHTS ON WIND BREAKER

I absolutely LOVE it 😭

I finished the anime more than a week ago and immediately caught up with the manga 2 days after that. I can honestly say that its one of my favourite anime/manga right now

I adore Sakura. I seriously do and I hope he'll continue to allow himself to heal as time goes on. I love the charas. They have their own flaws but they are so genuine that I just love them even if I don't exactly have a fave right now

Sakura is the closest I can say who could be my fave though

As for ships, this is one of the rare times that I don't mind not having a set ship for a series. I know that SuoSaku is the most popular though and I do think they're cute. But honestly, the 1st chara that got me thinking on a potential partner for Sakura was Togame. When he acknowledged Sakura by his name, there was a great weight and lovely significance to it that it made me smile

And then, there's Umemiya. I think him and Tsubaki would be cute and great together. I didn't think on shipping him and Sakura together at first even though I really like Umemiya and his character (partly also because he's voiced by Nakamura Yuichi who I've loved since high school). But when its revealed that Umemiya actually told Sakura about his past as well as how suicidal he once was as a kid and that it wasn't just flashback chapters for us readers as I initially thought it was? My brain went, huh. Okay, looks like I ship them now too

Nowadays, I'm leaning into UmeSaku

But its been a while since I'm more content to not write ships for a series I love and instead want to focus more on the MC's life. I just really wanna write Sakura as he heals and how much he's loved by these amazing charas. Not just by his Bofurin family but also by allies and the people of Makochi

Its especially wonderful to see how much Sakura learns that he loves them all back. That he finally has a family and a home that he can call his own, now and forever

Anyways, I'm thinking on making another twitter side account for all things Wind Breaker soon so this is where I'll stop for now. Thanks for reading this far!

[saintsenara]

asenora i will listen to anything you have to say about these characters ever. please tell us what the tea is with dron

as i rummage through the backlog of messages in my inbox the thing that i have discovered is that you girlies [gender neutral] are absolutely clamouring for citizenship of dron nation.

[thank you to @spectral-kitty, @thesilverstarling, and two mystery anons!]

to which i say, the borders are open, baby. you just have to read the following manifesto:

why fandom needs to stop sleeping on dron

something i am continually banging on about, as regular readers know, is the harry potter series' fondness for assigning [male] characters to narrative mirror pairings.

exploring these pairings is interesting in and of itself without a romantic dimension being involved - i could talk for hours about the mirrored approach to guilt and grief in snape and sirius' characterisation - but it's also true that several of the most interesting ships which can be drawn [however non-canonically] from the text are between the two halves of each mirror pairing.

tomarrymort is the obvious one, snack [or starprince or snirius or whatever we're calling it] is starting to get the attention it deserves, but people are still sleeping on draco malfoy/ron weasley [and also, may i say, on lucius malfoy/arthur weasley and narcissa malfoy/molly weasley], largely - i fear - due to the sheer popularity of drarry and dramione.

i'll be honest that i really don't like dramione, and i'm generally ambivalent towards drarry, but i do love dron. and the narrative mirror aspect is entirely the reason why.

ron and draco begin the series as mirror archetypes within the genre conventions of a children's boarding school romp. ron is the loyal, humble sidekick of the everyman protagonist, draco is the everyman protagonist's posh, stuck-up rival. both are insiders to the world of the story - whereas harry, the reader surrogate, is not - who introduce harry to the positive and negative aspects of the wizarding world respectively.

as a result, ron and draco are mirrors in terms of personality, and are much more similar to each other than either is to harry or hermione. this doesn't, of course, preclude ronarry [a ship i adore] or romione [which i've defended here] or drarry or dramione [if ya nasty], but it introduces a specific - and very interesting - tension into the pairing which is absent from these other ships.

both ron and draco have shared positive traits - they're both loyal [and their loyalty is very practical and pragmatic - ron is not hagrid, whose faith in e.g. dumbledore is totally unwavering; draco is not bellatrix, whose faith in voldemort is the same], they're both highly observant, they're both quick-witted, they're both capable of doing the right thing - if not always immediately [which is, in fact, more admirable than being preternaturally willing to suffer and sacrifice], and so on.

they also have shared negative traits. they're both attention-seeking [ron fucking loves nearly being knifed by sirius and you just know draco was seething], self-aggrandising, insecure, sulky, and predisposed to jealousy.

and this is a gift for authors, because it means that dron butt heads in a relationship in ways which allow for real character growth... or otherwise.

one issue that i have with drarry is that it often feels like the change either one goes through within a fic is kind of out of character. for example, you have a harry who feels insecure and haunted by his ill-treatment of draco [this is a man whose response to committing attempted murder is to be raging that it reduces the time he has free to hit on ginny], or a harry who is chasing after a cool and sophisticated draco who eventually learns to open up [whereas if there's two things draco isn't, it's someone who keeps his thoughts to himself and someone who isn't a distinctly unsophisticated flop].

dron, however, react to conflict in the same way - which means that the two of them finding themselves in conflict with each other absolutely slaps. they also have similar levels of emotional intelligence, and are likely - if they're inclined to - to be able to communicate with each other and work through issues surprisingly effectively. they can be a mess, or they can be a happy-ever-after, and i like that in a ship.

but, while ron and draco are mirror archetypes, they are specifically children's literature mirror archetypes. ron's role as harry's guide to the world diminishes in the later books, as the series' horizons move beyond hogwarts to think about wizarding society and voldemort's impact upon it more widely [he is replaced by characters such as dumbledore]; while harry becomes considerably less bothered by the pettiness of draco's rivalry with him [concerned as it is with things like being good at quidditch and getting away with misbehaviour at school] as the enemies he's focused on shift to being the resurrected voldemort and his death eaters.

which is to say that dron makes considerably more sense within a hogwarts setting than drarry.

as i've said elsewhere, an issue i have with drarry is that it's frequently written in a way which suggests that harry and draco have a mutual obsession with each other - while the actual evidence of canon is that, while draco is [as his archetype demands] preoccupied with what harry's doing, harry rarely gives the impression of caring what his rival is up to unless directly compelled to by draco's own attention-seeking.

ron, in contrast, spends a lot of time noticing things about draco unprompted - he can, for instance, recall overhearing him boasting offhand about what broom he owns in philosopher's stone - and retaining this information in order to deploy it at the opportune time to get a rise out of him. he delights constantly in his misfortune [him being hyped for days because draco's annoyed harry gets a firebolt is beautiful]. he's ready to throw hands with him at any given opportunity, often giving those of us who thrive on cheap innuendo plenty of material in the process [draco finds himself, for example 'on all fours, banging the ground with his fist' after having ron's wand pointed in his face... same, girl.] and he tends to consider draco much more integral to the various shenanigans which take place in the castle than harry does [ron is the main proponent of the 'draco malfoy is the heir of slytherin' theory in chamber of secrets - and he is shook when draco reveals that he's wrong].

and draco does the same. he comes into the trio's compartment on the train in goblet of fire and immediately starts telling ron how unfashionable his dress robes are. he obsesses over ron's position as gryffindor keeper for months - and, of course, makes up a song about it, which isn't exactly helping him pull off 'i don't think about you at all', is it? - and ron is profoundly affected by the taunts in way that harry, who doesn't really care what draco thinks of him, isn't. and he constantly goes out of his way to provoke ron into trying to punch him [him shoulder-barging ron in half-blood prince just after harry's essentially outed him as a death eater in madam malkins... exquisite pettiness].

all of which is to say, their interactions feel very teenage and petty and silly all the way through to the end of half-blood prince in a way that draco's interactions with harry and hermione don't, and - therefore - i sincerely think that dron can be made to work much more plausibly as a pairing in fics set while the characters are at school.

my final point in favour of dron is that they mirror each other in their approach to their other relationships, and the tension this causes is really interesting to explore.

both ron and draco have mirrored attitudes towards their place within their own families - something neither harry nor hermione can have with draco for obvious reasons. ron is one of many siblings and feels overlooked in the crowd; draco is an only child and feels overburdened by the visibility, especially once his father is sent to azkaban. they both conform to behaviours expected of them by family [they are both in the same hogwarts house as generations of their family, they share their families' political views etc.]. they are of the same social class and their families both have a reasonably similar level of political influence [despite what we're told about his insignificance, arthur weasley is known to everyone in the ministry and he's able to throw his weight around to influence policy even before the promotion he receives in half-blood prince], but their material circumstances are divergent. they both heavily resemble their fathers - to the extent that they are immediately recognisable as each man's son - and spend their schooldays defending family honour by playing out lucius and arthur's own petty feud [lucius and arthur - and, indeed, narcissa and molly - are also narrative mirrors, and we deserve many more enemies-to-lovers fics featuring them]. and the course their lives take during the war is dictated as much by their role within their families as it is by their relationship with harry - the scrambling post-dumbledore order operating out of the burrow is a mirror image of the ascendant voldemort operating out of malfoy manor.

they are also obviously defined by their mirrored relationship with harry - most interestingly by a major similarity in their attitude towards him: that both struggle with how jealous they are of harry.

this leads to lots of excellent tension which just isn't possible in drarry or dramione. how do both sets of parents react to the news their sons are in love? how do ron and draco's relationships with harry change as they find each other? how does draco cope with the hustle and bustle of life at the burrow? how does ron deal with having to have dinner at the manor [particularly interesting because the world in which draco lives is one that's familiar to him - he's not going to be shocked by any of the weird stuff in that house, he knows how it all works, so he can ruin christmas by deciding to have his dad arrest lucius for fun instead]?

it's messy, and fun, and it sustains me.

and some recs for the lads?

collateral damage by @danpuff-ao3, which starts out with both of the lads working out their... issues with harry and ends with declarations of going to lunch with each other's mothers.

dance the night away (aka it's true love, you bastards) by evandar, which has as its premise ron and draco ending up, largely by accident, going to the yule ball together.

this great stage of fools by @nanneramma, which correctly demonstrates how ron is charming enough that him being supremely annoying is actually loveable.

[rowanquinn19]

20 ships/relationships that heal my bisexual heart 🩷💜💙

Buddie (9-1-1)

there is literally no heterosexual explanation for this scene. manifesting buddie canon in season 8 🙏

Bathena (9-1-1)

LITERALLY. COUPLE. GOALS.

Madney (9-1-1)

i'm so glad they finally got married, after everything they've been through <3

Henren (9-1-1)

final 9-1-1 ship on the list... i love these two and this show is literally the best! but i am begging you tim minear give them a break!!!

Peraltiago (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

this is one of my favourite moments in the entire show. i love these two so much!

Holt and Kevin (Brooklyn Nine-Nine)

i'm so glad they got back together also, i have to include a cheddar gif:

Villaneve (Killing Eve)

my friend got me into this show after season 2 aired and i'm so glad he did because i absolutely adore these two!

Miranda and Gary (Miranda)

this is weirdly my most conflicted ship on this list but that's only because i love miranda hart and can't stand tom ellis, but this is still a lovely relationship (despite the ups and downs)

Rose and the Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who)

idc their relationship was just so fun to watch. they have just a great dynamic, whether it's platonic or romantic, although i think we know which is the popular option as bad wolf is literally scattered across the entirety of time and space...

Rogue & the Fifteenth Doctor (Doctor Who)

FIFTEEN FIND HIM!!!!!

Captain Jack Harkness & Ianto Jones (Torchwood)

"love the coat"

Gwen Cooper & Rhys Williams (Torchwood)

i just had to include these two!

Toshiko Sato & Owen Harper (Torchwood)

bear with me while i cry over these two once again... 😭

i'd love to see torchwood come back with all the main characters (yes i know they're both dead but crazier things have happened in the doctor who universe, like surely some wibbly wobbly timely wimely stuff can bring them and ianto back lol)

Nick & Charlie (Heartstopper)

this list would be incomplete without nick and charlie... i love them

Elle & Tao (Heartstopper)

i can't lie... i think this is the relationship i'm most invested in when it comes to heartstopper, i love these two so much

Tara & Darcy (Heartstopper)

these two are soulmates... i'm praying they get a happy ending

Mr Farouk x Mr Ajayi (Heartstopper)

final heartstopper ship on the list... we need more of them in season 4 because they are literally so cute. again i think i'm more invested in these two atm than nick and charlie...

Wilmon (Young Royals)

I AM SO HAPPY FOR THEM!!!!!!!!!!!! wilmon endgame THANK GOD!

Darren & Ca$h (Heartbreak High)

generally one of the most authentic relationships i've seen in a tv show. i absolutely adore their dynamic and can't wait to see their love for each other continue to grow

Henry & Alex (Red, White & Royal Blue)

i'm just waiting patiently for the second film... please universe

[chicken-wayng]

speak your truth! people that only like young rhaenicent are lame and boring, let people ship toxic yuri! tbh the most fascinating dynamic is the one that older rhaenicent have… real shippers know

What I find enthralling about Rhaenyra is none of her relationships are not toxic. She's a daddy's mean girl with a bleeding heart she vehemently denies because her first love scorned her and that echoes in all her relationships. That's so lesbian and relatable; she's an icon. And Alicent is a Catholic, Clueless type with mommy (and daddy but mostly mommy) issues that vehemently denies she's a dirty sub and wants her first love to eternally punish her because of how she hurt her. Like that's good in every font.

I feel like people that ship only young Rhaenicent belong to one of three categories:

1) young people. These are under 18-19 peeps who like ya. Which is okay but Rhaenicent isn't just YA, it's such a versatile ship (friends to lovers to enemies to even more enemies, red line of fate, melancholy love and more). I feel like these folks will ship older Rhaenicent as they get older but ATM they're more focused on the part of their relationship that is most relatable to them.

2) pedos. These are the people that believe all women must shave and be more child-like, that feminine means submissive, weak, dainty and china glass delicate. These are the folk that ship Daemyra as a 40+yr old man and a -15 girl "because she says for him to take her during her wedding". These are the folk that say Rhaenyra picking Daemon has nothing to do with her gender envy/crisis or outright deny it because "she wears dresses!" These are the ones that I will hate on any day, any time, they're nastyyyyy

3) peeps that don't like toxic relationships. These folks are not thriving in this fandom. They absolutely adore Corlys and Rhaenys and Baela and Jace because those are like the only two non toxic canon ships. They make their own too but they're not as popular (Helaena/Baela is a non toxic, non canon one I find oddly adorable). These folks I understand, because I do think media does normalize/romanticize toxic (especially m/f) relationships.