#i think im uncleposting again

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

I feel like TMFU is one of the few pieces of media I’ve seen recently where like... I don’t prefer one ship over the other.

Like, in other things I’ve watched, even if I liked two pairings involving the same person very much, I’d still think, “Yeah, I still like this one more, though.” But that really isn’t the case with the movie.

Gaby/Illya is wonderful because it plays into the classic “fake dating/engagement” trope, which is always fun to watch, and seeing Illya become soft for Gaby, even though he’s about as far from soft at the start of the movie as night is from day, is VERY enjoyable. Illya honestly loves Gaby so much that even after she apparently betrayed them, he doesn’t want to believe it. At the end of the movie, he forgives her, knowing it wasn’t her choice to tell on him and Napoleon, and tells her that he would’ve done the same thing in her position. Throughout the movie, it’s clear that feelings start developing between the two, but there’s enough tension (and InTeRuPtIoNs) that keep us thinking “DAMN IT THEY WERE SO CLOSE”. Also, I’m always a sucker for a height difference, and... Illya tol. Gaby smol. Their dynamic is wonderful, and the scene where he just carries her to bed and says, “Goodnight, little chop shop girl.” is absolutely adorable.

Napoleon/Illya is good because..... Enemies to Lovers. But seriously, they start out as adversaries on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain, but they start to have an understanding and respect for one another that grows until finally, at the end of the movie, it culminates in Napoleon - knowing fully well that Illya has been ordered to kill him to get the disc - returning his father’s watch to him because he’s grown to respect Illya so much, and Illya forsaking the objective of his mission - and risking the possibility of facing the same shame his father did, a shame that haunted him ever since childhood - for the same reason; he’s gained a deep respect for the spy he spent the entire beginning of the movie trying to kill.

Like, even if I set aside the idea of an ot3 (which is ALSO wonderful. Illya has Two Hands), these relationships & their dynamics are so enjoyable & interesting to watch that no matter what ship ended up happening, I’d be more happy about that ship being canon than I would be about the other one not being canon. Both Are Good.