#don't tag this as the canon ship please

[autumn-foxfire]

Ran watches Shinichi leave but makes no move to follow, even as her heart sinks into her stomach in trepidemption and a small, rebellious thought is begging her to follow.

'He told me not too.' Her mind also whispers whispers and it was as if the weight of societal expectation is laid heavy on her shoulders. 'The good girls listen and do as they're told' it whispers venom into her ear and paralyzes her to the core.

Ran was a good girl. She might be a little quick to violence at times, but she cooked and cleaned for her household and looked after the men in her life like she was taught to from a young age, always there to be the one to offer support when they needed a shoulder to lean on.

'Aren't you tired of being the good girl?' That traitorous thought whispers in her ears, the one she has ignored all her life. 'Aren't you tired of being left behind?'

Shinichi is almost gone from view, chasing the shadows in order to bring them into the light like he was born to do.

Yet what was Ran born to do.

'Be a good girl.'

Ran wants to follow. To stop Shinichi, or to help him, she is not sure. But she doesn't want to be left behind.

'That's not being a good girl'

She remembers in their childhood and all the scolding they would receive from her mother for exploring the world in a way they were told not too.

'Girls shouldn't behave like this, Ran' she remembers the scolding well, 'I expect better than you.'

Why? Why, why why?!

'Be a good girl'

She is! She cooks! She cleans! She's everything the world expects of her!

And yet all she feels is emptiness.

Ran watches Shinichi. She watches the boy she couldn't help but admire and who she couldn't help but envy. Shinichi didn't need to be a good girl. He didn't need to bow down to societies expectations and even when the world tries to force him to do so, he just stands up taller in defiance.

'I want to be like him.'

Yet Shinichi also wants her to be a good girl. He told her to stay. He left her behind.

'Then chase him.' The voice whispers back, in a voice that sounds so much like Shinichi when he is defiant. 'Show him you won't bend like that. Show him you refuse to be left behind.'

And yet she still stands in place. Fear turning her to stone.

'What if the world no longer wants me if I'm not a good girl?'

She feels a push knocking her forward. She turns to see a little girl in pink apologising before running away, away to chase after the two little boys just a little ahead of her with no hesitation. For a moment she sees herself, younger and still full of explosive life, following after Shinichi not because he wanted to do something, but because Ran wanted to see the world for herself too. Before she was told to be a good girl.

She takes a step foward. And then another. And another. And soon she is following the afterglow left behind by Shinichi.

What she encounters is brutal and terrifying. She witnesses both a death and a miracle. And as she cradles the unconscious body of her friend in her arms, too small, too light, and runs to find some help, she vows to herself she will never be the good girl the world wants her to be.

Being a good girl could have made her lose her friend, after all.

[s2pdoktopus]

Hehe

[sleepymim]

Ok so this is going to be my attempt to put all of my thoughts about Silco and Vander and their relationship and how they might achieve reconciliation into one coherent post because I cannot! stop! thinking about them!

As we see in s2e7, reconciliation between them is definitely possible. However, I think it definitely wasn't easy, and it wasn't motivated by a single event like Silco finding Vander's letter or Vi dying. I think a million little things needed to perfectly align for them to find back to one another. As others have already said, and I agree with this, I think the "happy" timeline is a statistical anomaly for them.

So what was needed for them to find back to each other? And like, disclaimer that this is obviously only my own interpretation of events.

First of all, I think one of the prerequisites for reconciliation is that Silco doesn't start working with Singed and doesn't get into Shimmer, which is supported by his eye having healed normally in the alternate timeline.

I also think that Vander's letter could only ever be a starting point for their reconciliation, something that would get them in the same room to talk again. After that, I think they'd still need a long, long time to get back to how things were.

Vi's death imo has absolutely nothing to do with whether they reconcile or not, because in the alternate timeline she dies during what would be Act 1. Silco is already past the point of no retunr here, he doesn't give a shit about Vi or the other kids, he's deep into his Shimmer business. He's literally planning to kill all the kids in episode 3. He would not give a fuck if Vi died in that explosion. If Silco and Vander are to reconcile, it needs to happen pretty soon after the betrayal.

But I think the most important aspects for their reconciliation are violence and ideology.

Obviously the actual betrayal is horrifically violent and traumatizing. Vander actively chose to drown Silco which is just like, such a brutal way to die. He does this because he puts the blame for the bridge fight escalating on Silco. This is unjustified, and the show wants us to know that Vander was in the wrong here. Vander himself admits in s1e3 that he has regretted what he did to Silco since it happened. In general episode 3 in my opinion very clearly communicates that Vander overreacted and that what Siclo did (throwing the first molotov) does not justify Vander's reaction (violent murder).

However! Vander also clearly still thinks Silco is dangerous and despite regretting how he reacted still puts some form of blame on Silco.

In the apology letter, he says the blood is on both their hands. The letter in general is shit considering the weight of what Vander did, and what it shows is that even though Vander feels bad about what he did, he does still put the blame for the bridge fight on Silco.

In act 1, Vander also says there are worse things than enforcers in the Undercity while looking at his brace that covers the scar Silco gave him while escaping. This is, presumably, before he knows Siloc has been funding Shimmer development and getting into human experimentation. He thinks Silco is worse than enforcers based on whatever happened between them in past. With s2, this is explicitly Silco's escalation on the bridge.

So obviously despite the time that has passed and the fact that Vander can admit what he did was unjustified, he does still believe Silco is dangerous based on their differing ideology. Benzo, too, obviously still holds a grudge against Silco for what happened.

So really the crux is that even though Vander feels sorry, he does not change his stance on non-violence being the right way forward for the people of Zaun, and thus he can never truly forgive Silco for what he did on the bridge - he still believes that Silco is responsible and that his own way is the right way.

I think as long as Vander keeps his ideological stance, reconciliation between them isn't possible. From both sides, because Vander thinks Silco's ideals are dangerous, and from Silco's side because he thinks Vander is a coward and a sellout.

Then let's look at Silco's side of things a little bit.

I think there's two aspects to his forgiveness/reconciliation with Vander: the violence and the ideology.

Canon pretty much tells us that Silco is willing and able to forgive the violence Vander inflicted on him. We see this not only in the alternate timeline, where they're obviously close again, but I think s1e3 tells us the same. Silco kidnaps Vander, but still offers him the chance to join him in the fight against Piltover again. I don't want to talk here about Silco's methods at this point in time, but he's obviously willing to put the murder attempt behind them IF Vander is willing to switch to his side again. He even says that his hatred for Vander passed with time. I think this implies that, somehow, eventually, with time, in a nicer timeline Silco could really forgive Vander for trying to kill him.

However, and I think this is the much bigger issue for them, there's still the matter of ideology. Vander betraying their shared goals, turning towards a pacifist, more passive approach to revolution and ultimately striking a deal with Grayson is what really drives the wedge between them.

This is what Silco despises Vander for: For turning his back on violence. Silco encourages Vander's violent tendencies, he wants him to become the person he used to be again, wants him to embrace that part of himself again. I think this supports the assumption that Silco would forgive the violence inflicted against him much easier than Vander abandoning their shared dream. Until the end, he wants Vander to embrace that violence again.

And a Vander who is committed to non-violence is a Vander who stands in the way of Silco's goal of a free Zaun. So as long as Vander stays firm on his ideological stance, Silco is always eventually going to get rid of him. There is no way for them to find back to one another if they remain on opposite sides of the struggle they used to fight together.

This is, I think, the crux of my interpretation of them:

Reconciliation doesn't only depend on Silco coming back to Vander and forgiving him for the violence Vander inflicted upon him. It also depends on Vander coming back to Silco, internalizing that the bridge figth was not Silco's fault, and being willing to compromise his non-violent ideology and take action again for their shared dream.

It's about the two of them coming back to each other.

[kg-day]

I genuinely want to know what show the people who say that Aang never respected Katara are watching. "Aang never let Katara feel anything other than what he wanted her to feel" "He idealized her" "He didn't care about her feelings" "He didn't support her the way she supported him". WHERE ARE YOU GETTING THIS FROM??? That's a rhetorical question because I already know what episodes/moments they're using to make those assertions (The Southern Raiders and the kiss in Ember Island Players), and even then, THEY'RE WRONG.

Let's start with TSR. This episode gets so misinterpreted it's not even funny. First off, Aang was never even upset with Katara in this episode, he's just warning her against killing someone??? He never gets mad at her or berates her. He just talks to her with a level head??? He openly acknowledges that he knows and understands how much rage and pain Katara is in, and he never tells her that she shouldn't feel it, he just advises her not to act rashly because of it??? Where is the lack of respect? Where is he ignoring her feelings or getting upset with her for not acting the way he wants her to? He lets her take Appa and even tells her that he understands that this is a journey she needs to take and supports her doing so, he just doesn't want her to kill someone. Honestly Aang shows more respect for Katara by knowing who she is as a person and not enabling her in her revenge than Zuko who is only going on this trip with her so that she'll forgive him, not because he actually cares that she's upset over the death of her mother (and this is not Zuko slander before people take it as such, I love Zuko, but it's not even subtext that his motivations in this episode are selfish and not about Katara).

As for the kiss in EIP, yes, it was not okay. Yes, it was a mistake. Yes, he shouldn't have done it after Katara laid a clear boundary, but he recognizes that immediately. After Katara- rightfully- gets upset with him, he gets upset with himself. We also see that he never repeats that mistake again and is fully okay with letting Katara lead after that. Which is why it's Katara who initiates the final kiss on the balcony. And if you still don't think he learned anything from it, he starts to ask for her consent in the comics before kissing her, showing that he absolutely DID grow from that mistake. So, we're really going to let one moment where a 12-year-old boy made a mistake dictate the entire show and negate everything that came before it??? That's coocoo banana's behavior.

I also think that those assertions are completely baseless because when does Aang idealize Katara? When does he hate her rage? When does he not support her? Is it when he laughed with her after she stole from pirates? Or in that same episode where he constantly reaffirms her skills as a waterbender- first by saying that he's able to pick it up so easily because she's a great teacher and then later when he refers to her as a waterbender which makes her so fucking happy? Is it when he gets so upset that Pakku refuses to teach Katara how to waterbend that he tries to walk away from his own waterbending training? Is it when he goes behind Pakku's back to teach her anyway? Or when he stands by actively cheering her on when she's raging against the patriarchy and fights Pakku? Is it when he calls her Sifu Katara because she expressed that he referred to Toph that way but not her? Is it when he helped her commit ecoterrorism and told her she was a hero for helping the people in that Fire Nation village? Is it when he holds her after she breaks down because she learned how to bloodbend? Is it when he comforts her after Jet's death? Is it... you get the point, don't you?

Aang recognizing Katara as someone who is strong and capable is not him idealizing her. Him not enabling her committing murder is not him hating when she feels rage. Aang actively supports Katara's rage on multiple occasions, he just doesn't enable her when he knows she's acting out of character. If you don't ship Kataang, that's fine, but please don't make up baseless accusations to try and tear them down just because you're mad that a ship that had no basis in canon (potential is not evidence) wasn't canon.

[microknifeyuri]

paper bag

[your-average-art-dealer]

Spoilers for sonic movie 3 post credits scene!!

(idk if I still have to do this cause it's been plastered everywhere with no warnings but I will anyway!)

so like... Amy right?

I keep seeing "sonamy" this "I think sonic should have a crush on her but Amy but be oblivious, like the 'other way around' to make it interesting and different from previous iterations" / "sonamy inverted!"

but hear me out... what if there wasn't a crush at all? what if they were besties? instantly hitting it off yes, but as best friends?

you could have the brothers and maybe even tom and maddie teasing him about his new "giiiirrrrlfrieeend~" but it's not that, they're just friends.

I want sonic hyping Amy up so much!- as a buddy! without her getting all giddy crushy over it. I want Him to see her bashing robots and to think she's so cool and want to hang out with her! maybe fanboy a bit! but I want them to be friends.

I want Amy trying to impress her new friend with her hammer skills! I want Amy trying on pretty outfits NOT with the idea of "maybe sonic will like this!" but because she wants to look her best for earth! and Sonic could show her all the cool earth stores and they could have a little fashion show! maybe they could get cool drinks together! like some cool pink and blue energy drinks or something! hang out!

I WANT THEM TO BE FRIENDS! I WANT THEM TO SAY "EWWW" WHEN PEOPLE SAY THEY'RE DATING! I WANT THEM TO BE TEENAGERS OF OPPOSITE GENDERS WHO ARE FRIENDS! BESTIES SONAMY! PLEASE!

can people still ship them, of course! I ship a lot of things where I think it shouldn't happen in canon. I like sonamy! (when it's not made horribly clear that sonic is NOT INTERESTED and people keep saying 'if only sonic would realize amy's feelings!') I like how it could work! but I don't WANT it here. I don't want the "boy of species finally meets girl version and they fall in love" I DON'T WANT THAT!!!!

pleeeeaseee... please just make them friends..... QPR if you must but don't make them romantic... please...

I want them to be one of the most important beings in each other's lives.. no strings attached... pleeeease...

[my-current-obsession]

Something I both love AND hate about FF7 (the original game and everything after, including the Remake trilogy) is that it is just ambiguous and/or player-driven enough that no matter which side of the love triangle you fall on (assuming you do in fact ship Cloud with one of the girls), the majority of fans for that ship are 100% CONVINCED it's the correct/canon option.

Like, certain scenes are definitely up to interpretation, and people are going to thus have varying reads on those scenes and the characters/relationships the scenes are about. It doesn't help that several scenes change depending on the player's choices, which acts as a confirmation bias as you naturally get more time and romantic moments with the girl of your preference. It really seems to me that MOST people who ship Cloud and Aerith have one solid interpretation (with a plethora of supporting evidence) of the series and the romance, while most people who ship Cloud and Tifa have their own solid interpretation with plenty of evidence that is VASTLY DIFFERENT from the Clerith reading of the game.

This is not a case of "one ship is clearly, explicitly canon and fans of the opposition just like their pick better and/or think it made more sense narratively and WISH it was canon" - for an example of that, look to the Avatar the Last Airbender shipping wars. This is a case where both sides literally interpret the story just differently enough that they come to entirely different conclusions about which girl is Cloud's true love. And if either side reaches out to try and explain their viewpoint to the other, they're just met with "uh, no. You're wrong." Try and explain what Cloud might be thinking in a given scene with one of the girls, why he acts a certain way... "That's not it at all, where are you getting this? Are you delusional?"

Like, I am a Clerith shipper. I have played all the games in the compilation and watched Advent Children. I tried to be as completionist as possible, even. And I came out on the other side of really digging into the story of this game loving Cloud and Aerith's dynamic and pretty firmly convinced they were canon. Or as canon as possible in the timeline where she died.

As any Clerith fan who participates in the fandom would know, if you try and explain your interpretation of these characters and the romance to a diehard Cloti supporter... you're met with a lot of "you're misinterpreting! Cloud and Aerith were just friends! She loved Zack to the end and Cloud loved Tifa since childhood and never stopped! Also Aerith is actually BAD for Cloud because she's too pushy/abrasive. She's not helping him open up, she's just forcing him to go along with her and making him uncomfortable!"

All of this is of course infuriating, but I'd like to think I'm self-aware enough to know we are kind of guilty of the same thing. The majority of Tifa fans are SO happy about the kiss in Rebirth, while we're over here dismissing it because, one it's optional, and two Cloud is "obviously" using Tifa as a rebound or settling for her since Aerith is seemingly unavailable. But that's not how Cloti fans see it at all.

We can talk until we're blue in the face about how TIFA deserves better than Cloud because she shouldn't be the second choice - the one he settles for. But I think most people who really love Cloti genuinely don't see it that way. In their eyes, she's NOT second-best. Cloud loved her all along and this kiss is finally confirming that. And nothing we say will dissuade them, just as nothing they say will actually change OUR minds about Clerith.

It is honestly really difficult for me to try and see the story and romance the way Cloti fans do, but I know the reverse is also true. Both groups of fans interpret the characters and relationships differently. The compilation ALLOWS us to interpret them differently. And this is why the ship war for a game from 1997 is still raging on.

Because both camps are certain they're right, they defend their position viciously. Sometimes that means invading the "other side" to tell them how wrong they are. This discussion/rant was prompted by a Cloti fan on a Clerith vid who wanted to debate MY comment about how wonderful the ship was and how good they were for each other. He was "confused" and "concerned" because Clerith fans were reading the story wrong or warping it to suit our ship.

I wanted to tell him, "buddy that's what YOU'RE doing". I wanted to write a goddamn essay explaining why Clerith is canon actually. But considering in my INITIAL comment that he first responded to I'd already brought up why I thought Clerith was great, and he was IGNORING that... I knew it would be pointless. There is nothing I could possibly say that would change his mind. There is nothing he could possibly say that would change my mind.

As long as both sides of this war are fully convinced they're right, this war is going to be endless and brutal. And that's why my absolute biggest fear for part 3 is an open, ambiguous ending regarding the ships. Maybe it will canonize nothing. Maybe it will canonize BOTH by having the actual ending change depending on which girl the player favors.

Either route will offer no relief to this eternal battle. I would honestly prefer for Cloti to explicitly and unambiguously win than an ending where neither girl does. Because I can accept a loss. I can accept being told that actually I WAS interpreting the story wrong, but I'll only accept it from the text itself. If anything, a Cloti ending might encourage me to go through the entire compilation again trying to view it with that canon couple in mind. I'm sure I'd see things differently, even if I'd always have a place in my heart for Clerith. And I sincerely hope that if Clerith were to win that Cloti fans could do the same.

All I know is that I'm sick and tired of this ship war. I personally have never gone after Cloti fans or engaged in Cloti content with the intent to debate or hate on the ship. But I don't speak for all Cleriths. I'm sure at least a few fans of my ship are guilty too. I have seen many obnoxious Cloti fans invading our spaces to disparage us - mostly on YouTube and Twitch, less here on Tumblr - but I KNOW there are plenty of kind Cloti fans who just happily enjoy their ship and leave us to ours as well.

At the end of the day, regardless of how part 3 ends things, I just wish we could live in peace. Please enjoy your ship. Your interpretation of the text and romance is valid. But so is mine. If neither side can agree, then the best thing to do is leave each other alone.

[flying-cat]

It was crazy watching bkdk go from the most hated ship to the most popular ship in the fandom

[smoshingatut]

I'm kinda tired of dungeon meshi fans blatantly misinterpreting Kabru's goals, motivations, and character so they can ship him with Laios...like obviously it's awesome if you enjoy Laikabu but can you nooot twist Kabru's intentions for involving himself with the guy who constantly triggers his monster trauma and pisses him off so bad he gets brain damage so that he turns into "the guy who wants to suck Laios's dick" as his entire character? I've even seen people cut off Kabru's words to make it seem like he is admiring Laios because it would disrupt that narrative

[isochan-draws]

[starcurtain]

I think my very least favorite type of mihoyo fan to interact with is the rabid "There's no ships implied or teased because in Hoyo games no ships are canon!! These characters are just friends!!"

Like, do you just enjoy being bland as untoasted bread? Do you not have a single romantic bone in your body? Are you completely incapable of just letting other people have fun?

Normally I am happy to let people cook, but actually, for this group? Please shut up. Literally no one who is shipping in these fandoms actually expects their ships to be 100% confirmed as canon in-game. We know there aren't many confirmed relationships in Hoyo games. We've got it, thanks!

But denying that there's any deliberate ship tease or fan bait, especially in Hoyo's marketing, just makes you look media illiterate. Of course there's ship tease in Hoyo marketing and games! That shit sells just as well as the waifu/husbando fantasy! Hoyo knows how to make money; they're not stupid!

Anyway, sorry for the rant. There just seems to be a particular breed of really intolerable fan in the Hoyo fandoms that is exhausting to have to see and respond to and that last video has brought them out in force... 😮‍💨

[reluctantbylerblog]

they really have the gall to say they aren’t biased against byler when these are their reactions to both of these posts:

like c’mon bffr

[queersekai]

Fun fact: I actually don't really care for Miz/uEn/a. Maf/uMiz/u and qpr Kan/aEn/a has been more of my thing (I see Ena as aroallo personally--romance-favorable though)

I'm not opposed to it or anything, just not really my thing

[otome-dissection]

it's actually fucking crazy because mizuki and ena's dynamic is literally everything i could ever want and have wanted in the majority of my ship dynamics ever and yet somehow it never really stuck to me. rattles the cage bars LET ME INNNNNN LET ME INNNNN IT'S LITERALLY ANYTHING I COULD EVER WANT WHY ISN'T IT CLICKING

[my-current-obsession]

every time i see bakudeku compared to k/ance (now specifically in terms of them getting shafted in the ending and/or accused of queerbaiting) i take psychic damage

[invinciblerodent]

.