#really niche ship of really niche characters

[brattypagansub]

Soap MacTavish specific headcannons that really flesh out his character

Enjoys international tv with a soft spot for k dramas.. and Asian tv he loves Boys Over Flowers and was really upset when they took off two of his latest Thai finds.

Has a bad habit of either eating late late at night or at 2-4am there is no in between.

Has a bad habit of sleeping on the floor

Hummed the mission impossible theme while running through Los Almas

Watched Criminal Minds with Simon once and was subsequently banned from it. (Everyone became a suspect)

Follows a lot of pet accounts on social media

While he can’t draw Simon can and he likes to sit and watch him sketch

On stormy summer nights he likes to read by candlelight

While on leave went to Spain with Simon for a Trobar de Morte concert because their music is pleasing to his adhd brain

During the summer he watches Tuck Everlasting at least once per month

Is a Merlin fan and ships Arthur x Merlin

His hidden talent is he knows how to play the Hurdy Gurdy and once when he thought no one was at the base jammed out to Gurdy’s Green not realizing Simon was watching

Played hockey all throughout childhood and teens he gets to apply those skills and the stopper run whenever they go to a roller rink

Soap’s Roman Empire is the ‘I am ivar the boneless you can’t kill me scene.’

Often stands in the ruins of his temporary hyper fixation and wonders if he should finally get around to refilling his prescription

Was/still is a Power Rangers kid and was really upset to hear about JDF

Is a dancer and whenever he’s in LA will fuck off to the MDC studio for a few hours

The amazing Spider-man and its sequel is his comfort movie he lost it when Garfield’s spidey showed up in No Way Home.

His comfort marvel shows are Agent Carter, Inhumans and Agents of SHIELD

Will throw hands with anyone who disses marvel

Called William Riker a DILF once while not thinking about it and Gaz will never let him live it down

Unintentionally recreated Look at This! From Helluva Boss. Because he broke something and had to play distraction while Gaz fixed it.

Will sit and binge Little Bear if he’s not feeling good because it was a childhood thing

Unintentionally called Simon Fievel Mousekewitz because all he saw was the hat first and not who was wearing it.

Played Silent Hill 2 at 4am and wondered why he couldn’t sleep later on he’ll maintain that Pyramid Head is daddy and James is a bitch

Played the Last of Us and couldn’t eat grain for a month

His niche take is he likes The Apparition with Sebastian Stan

Hates opened ended endings

[wordswithkittywitch]

I was going to put out some of my fics that don't really have a ship, or the ship is way in the background, or the ship is only as shippy as it actually was on TV or audios, but to be honest, I don't trust myself to gauge whether or not my writing is actually good or simply very much to my own taste. Even if my writing is good, that doesn't mean what reads as one for one character interpretation from me will read as one for one character interpretation for you. And I write virtually no thirteenth Doctor fics. Even if all that is acceptable what we have left is extremely niche.

(For example: A Big Finish-flavoured novella with six and Peri that only gets as shippy as Big Finish does.)

So I would like to put it to my followers, can you help this person, because I don't think I can.

Y’all, I’m going to be vulnerable right now.

Do any of you happen to have Doctor Who fanfic recommendations not ship-focused & more so written like fan-episodes with good writing and character interpretation? Because I’m done giving official writers a chance (ㅠ‸ㅠ) Literally every single official book I have read has had stiff, robotic writing and a boring plot except for Scratchman by Tom Baker which was genuinely crazy (/pos). I’d love to see the thirteenth doctor with better writing but I otherwise have no preferences, I just want some good Doctor Who reads.

Thank you Doctor Who fans.

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

The squad of all time has arrived on scene.

[skunkes]

,

[skitskatdacat63]

super obsessed with your art, seb looks soooooooooooo stunning!!! I am now very curious however, only if you feel like going into it, as to which other historical figures you align with which drivers?👀👀

AAAAAA tysm Grace!!!! Though I am so so so sorry for how rambly and long this post is gonna be, but you just asked me abt one of my brainrots!! I will answer your question but also talk about my history alignments and AUs in general LOL

But if I'm making comparisons of F1 drivers and historical figures, my brain kinda forces me to make it an AU because I'm like "this needs to make absolute sense historically and contextually.)

So, tbh of the four historical AUs that float around my brain, only two of them are really specifically about certain historical figures. The four are: Nandopoleon(About how Fernando reminds me of Napoleon), War of Spanish Succession(mostly about that era, but Seb and Nando are supposed to be paralleling Charles VI and Philip V), Napoleonic Hussars(which is about how , in general, Hussars = F1 drivers), and Rennaissance Muse(this just happens to take place in a different era.)

Explaining my AUs and the historical contexts(proceed with caution, its a lot)

Nandopoleon:

Okay so I'm really really am so deranged about Napoleon = Fernando, but I’ve not posted about it too much because I wanna make a well thought out post about it. But basically I think they’re similar people with similar characteristics and motivations. There was this period of time over the summer where I was only brain rotting about how well any of Napoleon’s quotes fit Fernando(with my fellow nandopoleon confidant @/sweatyflytrap haha.) Here’s some quotes as example: 

“Victory belongs to the most persevering.”

“It is not necessary to bury the truth. It is sufficient merely to delay it until no one cares.”(Piasco era lol)

“Victory is not always winning the battle…but rising every time you fall.”

“From triumph to failure is only one step.”

"A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon."(trophies y'know)

"Always carry champagne! In victory you deserve it, and in defeat you need it!"

Tell me Fernando wouldn't use these as instagram captions! TELL ME!!! But the other thing that was driving me crazy is how well excerpts from the personality/image section of Napoleone's wiki line up with testimonials from Fernando's doc. Examples:

"He cheated at cards, but repaid the losses; he had to win at everything he attempted."(Napoleon) "Whatever activity I take part in, I have this compulsion to find the compeititon in it."(Fernando)

"He could rapidly dictate a series of complex commands to his subordinates, keeping in mind where major units were expected to be at each future point, and like a chess master, 'seeing' the best plays moves ahead"(Napoleon) "When you talk to him, his mental capacity is so strong. He's talking to you, but his brain is thinking ahead"(Fernando)

Like c'mon tell me they aren't at least a bit similar??? There's a lot else I find similar about them but I cannot list my whole manifesto here skdjlsd

Anyways this AU would be Fernando as Napoleon and would be Webbonso -> Strollonso. Basically, Napoleon had two wives: his first wife, who was older than him and who he was super in love with, but had to divorce because they couldn't have kids, but he still loved her deeply. And then his second wife , who was much younger thanhim and from the Austrian royal family, and this was a politically motivated marriage but they still got on pretty well!!(also it's funny, before she married him she didn't want to be with him because the public perception of him made him out to be not the best guy, but then she wrote to her father about how loving and kind he was. very Strollonso, no?)

War of Spanish Succession:

Mostly explained it here and here. I'm not too interested in either Philip V nor Charles VI themselevs as individuals, but rather the roles they fufill in the "story." Though I will say, I got hit with a brick while reading Charles VI's wiki when finding out that he apparently had several male lovers! So I guess my AU having an arranged m/m marriage isn't even that far off the mark hahaha. Why did they have a 13 year war, they should have just arranged a marriage between the two canidates sigh sigh. But yeah, mostly Austria vs. Spain, I think it fits well with the Vettonso rivalry!! They would end up being: Fernando I King of Spain and Sebastian I Holy Roman Emperor hehe. Also I sketched some more:

Napoleonic Hussars:

Explained here as well as with art, and more art here. I'm really still proud of the points I made, I just feel very ardently about it!!! Not about any specific figure, but rather a historical group that I think lines up extremely well with F1 drivers. But this one is fun cause I can kinda insert any driver into it and they'll work pretty well. It's fun to figure out what kingdom what driver would be, either based off their nationality or the nationality of their team. I remember vividly staring at a map from this era trying to figure out where Maranello would be....But like Renault = Kingdom of France and RBR = Kingdom of Austria, and stuff like that

Rennaisance Muse:

Mostly just this post, I've not thought about this one incredibly deeply. Mostly just brainrot about how I think Seb looks like The David with his curly hair

[gu6chan]

drakengard fanbase is truly insane because aside from the one time a dude called me classist bc i said watching a playthrough isn't the same as actually playing the game (crazy, but a one time thing, every fanbase has it) like. ive been in fanbases where ive been harassed over liking a ship but this is the first ive ever been in where ive been harassed over liking a character. what is up with that

[skrunksthatwunk]

very surprised when i learned multishipping was not the default way to be btw. still surprised by it actually

[fadefromthelight]

It’s that time of the year again! Mermay!

This year my Initial D boys get to be my subjects lol

[queer-book-character-tournament]

Hi! I was wondering- how big of a bracket do you plan on having for the queer ships competition? Like, how many ships will you be accepting?

Well I’m not doing a bracket I do want to clarify that. I think it limits a bit cause size of image vs visibility of names. I’m gonna run it the same way I did the character tournament just randomize the matchups from a big list (that I will publish before tournament goes live so you guys can tell me if something’s messed up). As for how many … idk I don’t have a specific number 🤔 I just kinda vibe checked it last time and ended up with 208 characters and that was a lot of work 😅 so probably not like more than that. Once the numbers start making me nervous for how much time it’ll take I’ll shut down the form is the current plan 😂. First round will be larger to cut down the numbers to something more manageable, but also should be easier to make round one since I remembered to make you guys tell me the authors this time and won’t spend half my poll making time looking them up

[fagoutboy]

sorry hold on. are people valorizing the past so strongly these days that now ppl think old fandoms were BETTER? like im sorry i really think the problem is just that you arent 12 anymore

[mister13eyond]

i love writing bc my brain is like "what, finish your multiple wips based around a ship you love and care for that you have clearly thought out continuations for? no. you're going to write about your oc being a surrogate parent to giorno giovanna"

[reraen]

slowly but surely letting myself interact with a work the way I want to and not what's safest for me in context of any given fandom as a whole

To explain: I'm trying to stop forcing myself to find a ship I tolerate enough to dive into transformative works for. And I mainly write ship fic or implied ship despite not actually caring about shipping as a whole. Sure, I have quite a few ships that break the rule, but for the most part? Yeah, I force myself. It's like when I was in the 1st grade and a girl told me to have a crush on someone and I went, "Okay, sure!"

It took me until my early 20s to realize and break the "must find a crush" habit. So I doubt this will resolve itself easily either. But at least I'm aware of it, so it's definitely a start! I'm going to focus on Gen work moving forward, too, as well as aspec stuff! Gonna slowly but surely work to break the bad habits heteronormativity instilled 😤

[a-taut-thread]

Having a boring ass night rn, forget me nots hurt/comfort save me forget me nots hurt/comfort...

[no1ryomafan]

I love how despite not rewatching kikaider ive rotated it in my head enough that i went to twitter-im to lazy to write reviews here and blue sky im strictly trying to keep as a art account now but also idgaf to use it much I just have it incase-so I threw out the sloppy thread but I’m laughing how I talked about two of my gripes were “idk if I like Jiro and Mitsukos relationship” and “I don’t like the flute mind control plot point at all” and not specify those two are connected for how the flute was USED to cause harm towards mitsuko three fucking times because I just know someone would get mad at me if I tried to say “um yeah women getting harmed for no reason other then drama is bad” 💀

[kou3218]

The History of Lightcannon

Warning, this is very long so buckle up. (Also spoilers for Arcane)

For those wondering where this ship came from and how it's bloomed from something that was pretty niche into something nearly mainstream. It's an interesting journey. So let's dive in.

(Note - Updated post with more information on the history. It's actually older than I realized.)

Let's start with some context, Lightcannon is the name of the ship between two characters from the MOBA game, League of Legends. Officially launched in October 27, 2009.

Luxanna Crownguard (though she prefers Lux) from the kingdom of Demacia. She's a mage whose skilled in light magic. She became a playable champion on October 19th, 2010. She is literally the Light...

...To the Cannon known as Jinx (formally known as powder.) from the slump of Zaun. A psychopathic loose cannon whose also a uncertified genius when it comes to tinkering. She became a playable champion on October 10th, 2013.

Both residing in the world known as Runeterra.

Now you might be wondering, "How in the hell does a pretty blonde noble mage girl from a kingdom of knights get shipped with a blue haired psycho steampunk Harley Quinn knock off that's a continent away?" (Don't pretend Jinx wasn't made to cash in on the hype of Quinn. Riot is known for cashing in on trends.)

(edit 12/3/2024)

Well originally, I thought it was due to the Cosmetic Skins that League is known for releasing for it's champions. They usually have some fun special interactions with characters and even some lore. Creating AU's of sorts. Some are one shots, and others get expanded up into full on spinoffs with stories and their own expanded narrative.

In 2015 RIOT launched the Star Guardian set. Basically a Magical girl set for the characters: Lux, Jinx, Janna, Poppy, and Lulu. And this set is what many thought kicked off lightcannon. Myself included.

In the Star Guardian lore, they are childhood friends. With Lux being described as, "Cheerful, courageous, and just a bit clumsy. Lux shines the brightest among her Star Guardian team as its captain."

While Jinx is described as, "The cynical teen rebelled, refusing to treat her powers as anything more than a plaything to serve her own interests. While Jinx scoffs at protecting a world she doesn’t trust, she does believe in her childhood friend Lux—and if someone could see into the depths of Jinx’s heart, they’d see a furious, burning need to keep those she holds dear out of harm’s way, at any cost."

If you are at all familiar with Magical Girl shows, you can see how this kicked it off. There is always an undercurrent of Yuri in ever MG series. For this, the classic, Good Girl x Bad Girl with a heart of gold. This even got it's own cinematic. With plenty of shots of Lux and Jinx Longing for each other.

With some rather fun interactions in game.

And a classic scene from one of the stories

However, it was pointed out to me by @questionablecuttlefish there were people before the star guardians that were already shipping them together as for back as 2014!

Barely 3 months after Jinx was released. The first lightcannon fanfictions started to appear. Which is kind of crazy!

This also pre-dates ekko - who became playable on May 29th, 2015!

Now at the time, Jinx didn't have much lore. She was just the crazy boom girl, and it was hinted at that she had a history with Vi and Warwick. (Too be fair, VI's lore was kind of all over the place and she was mainly "Police Brutality, LoL.) So she was kind of malleable.

Lux however had a lot of lore. She was born into a high standing Noble family that is sworn to protect the king. Hence the name Crownguard. She is depicted as a bright, cheerful, and optimistic character. She's also related to the champion Garen, her older brother. However, she is a mage and magic is hated in her country of Demacia. So, she has to hide who she really is. Garen does know and accepts her. There are also a number of stories where she has done very questionable things. One of her decisions led to her trusting the wrong man, Sylas. A criminal mage that tricked her into helping him escape. Which ended up triggering a mage rebellion, which led to a lot of people dying. (And her OG lore, she operated as a spy. Which some people have played with.)

Sounds familiar right?

So a big part of what drew these two together was the potential these two could have if they met. The idea that Lux finds someone who encourages her to be herself. To let her magic free and accept all of her. Which could also apply to Jinx as well. The idea that they could be who they truly are with each other. And still drawing a bit from the Star Guardians down the line with the whole Good Girl x Bad Girl.

Again, this was still pretty niche. Very much a crackship, but people were pretty creative in what they thought of.

Then came a big shot in the arm for the ship, the Cinematic trailer for Wildrift.

This trailer had jinx hoping around runeterra and grabbing people to join her team to fight. The first person she grabs in Lux, whose bored and wants something exciting to do. And here comes this manic pixie dream girl who pops out of nowhere, jumps in her laps, takes a selfie, and then pulls her into a portal to fight a giant monster like she wanted. Plus the fact that Lux can create pretty shiny lights and massive magical explosions doesn't hurt either. With a lot of the promo stuff having them act like friends helped to fuel it further.

And then, a year after this, Arcane launched!

This not only gave Vi more depth, but also Jinx (Originally named powder). She went from, "lol, random, psycho murder, boom girl." To an incredibly tragic character who who just want to hug and tell her everything is alright.

And it wasn't that we wanted Lux to fix Jinx, we wanted them to help each other. And with the ending of season 2, the viability of Lux and Jinx actually meeting skyrocketed even further. With Jinx faking her death and sneaking onto an airship that was seen over open water.

Possibly to Demacia to get a fresh start? Not impossible. Maybe even be her guiding light.

Additionally between season 1 and 2 or arcane. There was this fun little Chinese Animated web series called, Valoran Town. It didn't have too much an impact on the ship, but was still a bit more fuel for it.

Basically, a slice of life series about the champions living in a small town. The main story focusing on Lux as she runs away from home trying to live free and independently from her overbearing Brother Garen. Her best friend and now roommate in the series is Jinx! Since a lot of promo material for wildrift did have them acting like friends, this felt like they were kind of leaned into that angle. Which worked pretty well.

Each episode is about 5 minutes long, but it's just super cute and fun. Also a nice pallet cleanser from the heart ache of arcane.

This person was kind enough to upload and subtitle all 12 episodes.

Give it a watch, it's free. (Just turn on closed captions.)

So, yeah. That's the history of lightcannon. We love it for many reasons, but for me. It's the potential they could have. It's very much a crackship, but I will sail it everyday. Hope you learned something.

And some funny things to think about.

Lightcannon and Caitvi/Piltover's finest means that Jinx and Vi have the same taste in women. Upper class femme.

But it also means the Crownguard sibling also have the same taste in women. Or, at the very least, have a kink for criminals/killers.

Garen with the Noxian assassin Katarina.

Lux with Sylans and Jinx.

Which would also make Lux and Jinx Bisexual too, so represent.

Yes, I support timebomb too. Arcane Season 2 episode 7 is beautiful. I see why people ship Ekko and Jinx together. I'm a multi-shipper. You can do that. They both love Jinx, and she deserves all the love.

[yourpurpleguitarist]

You know what, I'm gonna say it. Experience fandom regression your way.

You found agere headcanons in a horror game? Wonderful!

You have an 18+ source you associate with sfw agere themes? Heck yeah.

Everyone and their mom says X is the little, Y is the caregiver, but you don't think so? Make blog posts about Y being a regressor, make a caregiver moodboard for X.

Don't like romantic themes in a ship everyone ships? Make it familial or platonic.

Niche fandom no one knows about or has absolutely no posts about when you look for agere content of it on Tumblr? Be a trailblazer! I'd love to see your post.

Pure self indulgence and OC shipping? Absolutely adore it.

You want to completely project yourself onto a character to make their regression/caregiving experience more like you? That's so cool.

Don't think you can write or draw that well but want to make fan work of your favorite characters? You'll do great, it's about fun, not perfection.

You have 10+ fictional CGs? A found family of characters you associate with regression? Tell me about them all. Show me the family you built.

The point is, fandom agere I feel like can be so gatekept sometimes. People feel like they need to follow rules to avoid being judged, but you don't. Regressing is all about having fun, and making new memories and experiences. I think it's great you have a fandom/character you love enough to go on that journey with. Some of us may not be so good at playing with toys or doing a lot of commonly talked about agere activities, like me. But my characters I love? My art, my writing? Absorbing myself into a fictional safe space I've built is how I play. How I express myself, and I want you to know you can do that in any way you want.

I spent far too long thinking things were wrong or right, that they were taboo or bad in this community when really, I was just disagreeing with the masses about an opinion in fiction. Everyone has different opinions, comfort levels, boundaries on their own works, etc, but as long as you aren't breaking those bounds and are keeping things SFW? Have a blast. This is your coping mechanism, your fandoms, your interests, your things that make you happy. Have the most fun, okay little one?