#still can't believe they're not a canon companion ship

[dragonologist-phd]

and i'm not supposed to believe they're in love? come on.

[janewayintersection]

the amount of people who are like "omg i ditched kaidan for garrus after he was mean to me on horizon!!" baffle me. shit on bioware's writing for making shep work with cerberus all you want, but kaidan calling shep out on this and not joining them is NOT the issue. in fact, him reacting like this is why i love him??

he specifically states he trusts shep, just not cerberus. which is the only rational response in that whole entire goddamn game!! like?? you spend all of me1 stopping cerberus operations. they kill several alliance soldiers and admiral kahoku, try to make a rachni army -- they are WELL known for cloning and ais... miranda even outright states she wanted to plant shep with a control chip. there is literally zero reason for kaidan to believe the shep in front of him isn't some cerberus sleeper agent. or an ai. or indoctrinated. or being manipulated (THIS ONE IS CANON BTW). even if he trusts shepard, he doesn't trust cerberus not to pull any of this. quite frankly, i'm baffled more companions don't have this exact, entirely justified concern.

loyalty is important, but blind loyalty is dangerous.

honestly, the crew in me2 is lucky that the illusive man was so weirdly and uncharacteristically insistent on shepard remaining untouched. things could have gotten very bad otherwise.

being best friends with someone, or more notably, being in love with someone, isn't the end all be all magic potion in this world. being in love with someone doesn't mean you should blindly trust their actions. if my significant other joined a terrorist group, you can bet my ass i wouldn't join them! sorry! if anything, it's healthy that kaidan has his own sense of morals and priorities he follows over shepard. he's his OWN person, love shouldn't be something that makes you suddenly give up who you are and what you believe in.

not to mention kaidan is entirely out of the loop for the whole game. his intel states that cerberus is behind the abductions (the horizon incident is partially a result of cerberus' fiddling btw), and that shep has been alive and never even reached out to anyone. he doesn't have the information we the players have. he doesn't know that the illusive man insisted on no control chip. he doesn't know about the lazarus project or its specifics.

and as for the "cheating" discourse if you romance someone new in me2, i do personally believe shep getting with one of the me2 love interests is cheating on their me1 love interest. to shep, they skipped those two years. they wake up as they did during the me2 prologue. no time has passed. and then they immediately get with someone else after one (1) argument with their love interest over them, may i remind you, joining a terrorist group. even if you don't think it's "technically" cheating, it's at the very least pretty trashy and flakey.

if anything, i'm gonna say it! kaidan is more forgiving than i'd be! the fact that he even sends an email saying he still cares and that they can see what happens after this is all resolved is WAY more than i would have done. the fact that kaidan will find out shep got with someone else, and STILL be willing to give shep a chance is like. man. it's saying a lot. i am just saying.

imagine losing someone. you see them literally die as your ship explodes and they burn up in the nearby planet's atmosphere. you grieve. you put yourself into your work. then suddenly, two years, later. they pop back up again. ALIVE. and with a terrorist group. and basically tell you the equivalent of "just trust me bro" despite the fact that while you trust them, you don't trust the terrorist group. so you're like hey, what the fuck. why are you with a terrorist group. and they're like i'm not with them, we just have common goals. and you're like. i'm gonna say it again. i trust you, not the terrorist group. okay?? i can't join you for this reason. please be careful out there, seriously.

and then they immediately jump into the pants of that one guy you knew back on a mission from two years ago.

what would you do?? would you not feel hurt? betrayed? upset? confused?? i'm sorry, i'm completely on kaidan's side. i'd go as far to say that he's far more understanding than he should be in me2.

me3 is all about regaining that complete and undying trust back, and that cerberus didn't fuck around w shep. or that being with cerberus didn't change them. his "loyalty" quest is just visiting him in the hospital and showing him shepard still cares. that they're still the same. that cerberus truly didn't alter them. that there was more going on. that shepard was forced to work with cerberus out of complete necessity and only did what they thought was right. and i think that's neat!!!!

[freckles-a-constellation]

The Doctor is a tragic character in the best Greek tragedy tradition.

So y'all know how the most common driving factor for intelligence to develop in species is if they're social? (Octopi aren't very social but let's ignore that real quick, the Doctor's a vertebrate anyway so invertebrate intelligence can probably be dismissed as irrelevant) Because after a point, more intelligence isn't really needed to avoid danger or gather food. But more intelligence does make it possible to communicate more efficiently, form more complex social bonds, eventually develop culture. Cue why social species tend to be more intelligent than solitary ones of otherwise comparable lifestyle. And cue why humanity is the way it is.

Now look at Gallifreyans. (I am purposefully ignoring the Timeless Child thing bc I don't rlly believe it and besides, even assuming it's true, The Doctor is similar enough to Gallifreyans to have flawlessly believed himself/themselves/herself to be one for 13+ regenerations, so anything that can be concluded to be true from analysis of Gallifreyans has good basis to be presumed true about the Doctor, whatever the fuck semantics you wanna use) So, Gallifreyans. A species much more advanced than according to DW canon humanity will ever be. More intelligent than humanity. High levels of education and not on the basis of private tutoring. Lives in cities. Has complex language and technology capable of instantly translating pretty much any language of any other species to be understandable to them. (Hell the TARDIS consistently still translates shit to English for the companions while they're outside it.) Complex social structure. That's one fucking social species.

And it gets better. The TARDIS is meant to be operated by a team of six. And even if River was joking about six, it's still clear that it should at least be more than one. Compare the Doctor steering the TARDIS alone to when he was with Susan. I mean, even those two looked like they could use an extra hand. Have you ever seen a human private use vehicle designed with 2+ pilots in mind? Definitely a species more social than humanity.

And the telepathy thing? Hello? Insanely, mind-boggingly social species.

Now take a being this fundamentally social and do something to them so that they see no recourse other than to take one (1) same-species (as far as he was aware disclaimer ig) companion, steal a ship they have little to no clue how to pilot, leave everything and everyone they've ever known and run without ever stopping for breath, no matter how much they miss home, no matter if it hurts. (And I do believe something must have happened to make him run like that, since the beggining, way before the Time War) Have them be scorned, judged, punished, mistreated and rejected by their species, again and again, for ages. Have them love, again and again, only to always lose everyone they've cared about, through abandonment or death. Have them essentially be forced to exterminate their whole species and believe themselves to be the last of their kind, only to be proven wrong by the whole Master situation, which alright is better, but also in some ways is worse. Have them, once again, form deep bonds with companions and once again lose all of them in various varyingly tragic ways until they have no hope left that anyone can ever truly stay for any amount of time even close to satisfactory, that love can for them end in anything but loss and pain. And they can't even avoid love altogether in an effort to spare themselves the inevitable agony of losing loved ones, because they're incapable of not growing to care for those around them. And they can't be without company either, because their sanity goes straight to hell in a handbasket within like,, 5 minutes of being alone.

Let me remind you this is not a human we're talking about. It's a member of a species much more inherently social than humanity. My point?

The Doctor is literally more lonely than the human brain can comprehend.

[darkkbluee]

Your Top 5 ships? :3

Hi there, so nice to see you in my inbox again <3

My top 5 ships, hmm? Let's start with the death note ones:

Lawlight: What can I say, enemies to lovers is my favorite. And these two are the best at it, so iconic that they could even be enemies and lovers.

Near/Sayu: Listen, I know these two don't ever meet in canon. But there is something so right about it. Sayu is Light's younger sister, Near can be considered the youngest of L's successors. They both have that younger sibling energy that fits so well together. They can even get together and bitch about their respective older sibling/guardian who are hopelessly stupid in love and then laugh about it too. I ship it.

L/Light/Misa: When two people obsessed with the same person take a look at their love rival and go "huh, I'm impressed at how you chase, we also have a lot in common, how about we get together and enlighten (heh) the one in denial?"

Remisa: Rem is Misa's constant companion and support and I believe if they had been given enough time together, Misa could have come to love and appreciate that too. This is, probably, the healthiest relationship in my ships, given that it's based on a solid foundation (of Gelus's sacrifice), and emotions over time.

A/B: I could have put mellodramatic here. The only reason A and B are here is because, well, they're a mystery with a lot of available fill-in-the-blanks-of-our-love-story. We know A died and B ran away soon after. It leads to conclusion that A mattered so much to B that B could drop everything Wammy's orphanage offered (the private education, the support structure, the connections, the money, a bright future, everything) just because A died. Imo, that takes a lot. A lot. The tragedy of their shrodinger's love story has me place them at fifth place over melodramatic.

Other ships:

I love death note but! I do have ships from other fandom that would be in the top 5 above if it weren't for the fact that most ppl expect to see a death note post on my blog. So, here's other ships below

Naruto and Sasuke (and Sakura): Using an 'and' instead of a slash or a ship name because apparently, the order of the slash is important? I think Naruto and Sasuke have a lot of chemistry and they should get together and elope together away from Konoha lmao. And and and, add Sakura in there. Sakura is determined, driven and obsessive enough to put even the biological Uchiha obsession and Uzumaki energy to shame. She wanted an Uchiha and she got herself an Uchiha, no matter a few literal Gods in her path. They all three deserve each other, to be together and have an happy ever after. Romantic or platonic, I ship them together as a Team <3

Tomarry: No, listen. In Chamber of Secrets, in the book, Harry calls Tom Riddle handsome three times. It's like he took one look at Diary Tom and forgot any word except 'handsome' existed. In Half Blood Prince, when Harry sees the pensive memories, his thoughts about Tom Riddle are all "he's going to grow up to be handsome", "even at this age, he was handsome", "his features were waxy and skin too pale but he was still a handsome man". You see? You get it? All Ginny gets is 'nice skin' and 'nice teeth', Cho Chang gets 'shiny hair'. Tom fucking Riddle gets "so handsome i forget any other word exists oh sorry you were saying Professor Dumbledore?" The movie has a lot of good scenes but it takes away Harry's internal narration that makes me me think he's so gay for Tom Riddle.

Sherliam: I don't know if you've seen Moriarty The Patriot. It's an anime adaptation of the Sherlock books with its own twist. I love it. And the Sherlock/Moriarty (William Moriarty, to be specific) is so blatant. They don't need an on-screen kiss, their chemistry is so good. Sherlock is determined to save William from himself and William is determined to martyr himself to save the world. It's so tender, I can't <3

Wangxian: wei wuxian and lan wanji have such character development, relationship development, such pining and longing and then such shamelessness, I love them. They're relationship goals, once they fix their communication misunderstanding.

[sorcerous-caress]

Semi-related to the bob debacle I really hate pepole that label the companions as ayersexual/tavsexual they are all queer individuals! That shouldn’t be erased and ignored but it especially egregiously for poor Bob who canonically has male love interest.

Especially when it's people who never paid attention to his dialogue or done his romance who claim that bobtarion isn't queer with a clear preference for men.

People can't deal with bi/pan characters fr. They either claim he never liked men bc they didn't see it, so it must have never happened! So he is straight in their views.

Or people who ignore the word "preference" and instead run to the hills with the rest of the sentence, claiming he is strickly gay and any bobtarion ships with women and non-men are homophobic.

I'm literally bi with clear preference for men, yet I've mostly dated women. Being bi with preference isn't hetro/gay with extra spice.

Like I genuinely believe that even in a world where playersexual wasn't the norm, bobtarion would still be queer and like all genders.

The playersexual thing started as a good thing in games, especially with their accidental inclusiveity by making everyone and their grandma bi or pan. But now people are using it as a cheap excuse to erease character's queerness?

Saying the company is just pandering to the audience and not actually being inclusive so you should definitely believe their headcanon when they tell you this character is straight/gay and ignore the canon.

Like fuck dude why are you walking backwards? Even if that theory was correct, why erease the accidental queer representation??? Why force this biphobia on something because the company may not have had the purest intentions.

Also just so we are clear, Larian doesn't do playersexual, not until Divinity 2 and Baldur's Gate 3. All their old games besides it had a romance restriction based on gender.

So I genuinely believe they actually meant it in a queer way when they made the characters attracted to all genders. Because they never did it before in any other Baldur's Gate game! They had no reason or expectation to do it now. They're not in it just for the money either because Baldur's Gate was a cult classic rather than a known title like Assassin's creed. The game in early access flew under the radar for so many years! And all characters were queer since day fucking one!

And each character expresses some of their queerness in their own way. The most vocal about it is bobtarion, so it's so fucking wild to me how people go "actually it's problematic of you to assume he is queer just bc he is flamboyant" my brother in christ what plane of existence do you live on? Did we play the same game?? When did him being flamboyant or feminine ever come up in this conversation of his queerness? I swear half these people didn't even bother playing the game, and the other half never did his romance.

No one is "headcanoning" bobtarion as bi and queer bc we saw a hint of eyeliner on his upperlid. We literally know he is queer bc he metaphorically is screaming it at the top of his lungs during all of the acts. He literally flirts with Wyll and Gale during Act 1 so many times.

Shadowheart hits on Karlach! Which is besides the point, but I felt like bringing it up because she too gets treated as "fanon lesbian but canon hetro" character when she is so fucking bi/pan in canon.

People are so used to companies never including queer characters that they are ereasing actual queer representation by lumping it as merely "playersexual pandering" and belitting their queerness by claiming it's just headcanons when it is in the fucking game in canon.

[galacticlamps]

If you don’t mind; shuffle the Two/Jamie playlist and say the first five (or however many songs) that play please!

lol not at all, since it's 5 I'll put my reasoning for adding each of them under the cut

1- What I Saw In You - the Proclaimers

2- My Lagan Love - the Chieftains & Lisa Hannigan

3- You Can't Hurry Love - the Supremes

4- Impossible - Nat King Cole

5- Tin Soldier - Small Faces

1- it's about falling in love all over again within a long-term established relationship! if you hc that they got together early on, I suppose it could fit in after/during Evil of the Daleks, but personally I think of it as much later on as 6b - either Jamie getting his memories back and remembering their relationship, or even him meeting future Doctors like Six and eventually managing to see them as the same person he fell in love with to begin with: "I couldn't see what I once saw in your lovely face, once your lovely face became common place. And the eyes that I liked seemed to lose their shine as they passed through time til they looked like mine. But then last night, I heard your voice, I rubbed my eyes and there and then, that fine baby with an arrow, stupid cupid, struck again. I'd forgotten, every reason why I said, "I do" but now I see what I saw in you."

2- an Irish folk song, so I've seen the pronouns & genders shift depending on who's performing it, but the speaker compares their love for their partner to the mythical leannan sidhe - a rare solitary and arguably benign fairy, who falls in love with a mortal. If the love isn't reciprocated, the fairy becomes the mortal's slave, but if it is, the mortal can never escape from them, and is destined to live a fulfilling but ultimately short life, usually one full of inspiration (some say the leannan sidhe acts as a muse, and the human they fall in love with must be some kind of artist or poet). There have been a few references in both canon & fanon to Jamie thinking the Doctor might be one of the fae, and from a shipping standpoint I think a leannan sidhe is probably the one of the ones Jamie's more likely to think of him as. "And like a love-sick leannan sidhe, she has my heart in thrall. No life I owe, nor liberty, for love is lord of all."

3- they probably could hurry love, but here's a song for when they're pining idiots waiting it out instead - the song is also from 1966, and in my head fits the vibe of their early travels with Ben & Polly, post-realizing they have feelings for each other but pre-acting on them, when they're probably embarrassing themselves a bit but not making a move yet in the hopes it'll work itself out

4- "If they had ever told me how sweet a kiss could be, I would have said 'impossible, impossible, for me'" - could go for either of them really, but I tend to think of it as the Doctor's POV, falling in love with a human for the first time and experiencing what I imagine to be a very different kind of love & relationship than he might've had on his home world. Plus, the ending "I would have said 'impossible,' but now at last I see that nothing is impossible, if you are here with me" reminds me very strongly of Two's era as a whole, how it begins with the format of the Doctor intentionally traveling with companions and aiming to help people and fight evils already established (at least by The Moonbase) and then ends with a number of failed attempts to run away from the Time Lords and continue that existence. I guess that casts it in a sadder light - some things are still impossible, even with his friends, and it's naivety to let the good times they've had together convince him they're unstoppable - but since we don't find out about Gallifrey & the threat of the Time Lords until the very end of season 6, I look at Two's whole era as one of traveling very hopefully, with the Doctor believing he can enjoy himself and be free to get as involved as he likes for the first time in his life, even if eventually that turns out to be too good to be true.

5- I actually think I've mentioned this one before, but I don't know that I ever explained it. It's another one from 1966, and the lyrics do feel very early days Jamie-y to me, with him being awed & excited by the things that he sees and sort of wanting to be whatever he needs to be to help his friends, deserve his place on the team, and I suppose, from a shipping perspective, probably catch the Doctor's eye a bit too: "I am a little tin soldier that wants to jump into your fire. You are a look in your eye, a dream passing by in the sky. I don't understand, all I need is treat me like a man 'cause I ain't no child, take me like I am. I got to know that I belong to you. Do anything that you want to do. Sing any song that you want me to sing to you."

[dapper-ships-herself]

I've mentioned before that I have a fairy tail oc, and I wanted to introduce him!

I will preface this with the why of his creation, it's the result of me getting kind of meta with my Erza ship, cause it's very doubtful that the creator of fairy tail would go in to the series intending to make a wlw ship canon, and all the main characters kind of have their boy/girl match ups, so I started thinking what would my s/i's intended love interest be like, before mine and Erza's romantic tension became too much to deny.

Lumen Judge

He has two versions, one for each version of my s/i, the first is admittedly currently a bit more thought out than the second.

(His tattoo is actually white ink.)

His first backstory ties him in to the library backstory of my s/i. In that backstory, she is from far back in the past and was trapped in an out of time library for ages because her whole village thought she was a demon. After casting her out though, the village leader, her grandfather, was overthrown by the patriarch of another high level family within the village, on the basis that the former chief's whole bloodline could now no longer be trusted after producing such a creature. This family that became the leaders of the village, was the Judge family. This patriarch was power hungry, and in addition to getting power over the village, he wanted the freedom to use the magical items locked away by the chief. But, the villagers were all still very much afraid of magic, so he needed an excuse.

He told everyone that he knew that the evil they had locked away within the library would not stay defeated, and that she would one day return to wreck havoc on the world, so he assembled a small team who would oh so humbly take the necessary sacrifice and allow themselves to come into contact with magic by wielding these magic items and they would dedicate their lives to the defeat of evil. Over the generations, even as the village eventually faded, the group remained, always lead by a member of the Judge family, it's members only allowed to be people who use holder type magic even after times changed and people weren't afraid of magic anymore. They think of themselves as a secret group who remains in the shadows for the sake of the light. Their core mission has never been forgotten, they must await the arrival of a great evil demoness who will one day awaken to destroy the whole world... The details were exaggerated a bit like a long game of telephone. By the time it gets to Lumen, the story is told as one day their village was attacked by Gillian and her horde of demons who lay waste to the land, and it was after his daughter Rimis was slain by her that Rimis's father, the first leader of their organization, bravely fought her and managed to weaken her enough to lock her away within the library, and he founded the group to prevent anyone from having to feel his loss ever again.

While the organization was, unknown to it's current members, founded on greed, they genuinely believe in their cause of riding the world of evil, and none buy into it more than Lumen himself.

He's an earnest young man who cares about his comrades deeply. He loves to laugh and be friendly. He has the demeanor of a true gentle man, and he's a bit of a romantic.

The device that locked her in the library has a glow from within the gemstone inlaid on it whenever it's able to be used again, and so it was known the minute she freed herself. Their group had been trying to track her ever since. Lumen's father is the leader at this time.

It takes so long to find her because there's no sort of tracking function, they only know the general area of where she popped back into the world, but she'd managed to wander a good distance from there before finding fairy tail.

This arc becomes about preventing them from relocking Gillian in the library, where she'd have to reread the vast collection in order to be free again, which would likely take another thousand years or so.

It's over the course of this arc that lumen and Gillian clash, her more reluctantly than him. He becomes more and more confused though, she seems like a regular, kind girl, not some great evil, but his father keeps telling him that she's trying to trick him the same as she's clearly tricked these "friends" of hers in to fighting by her side. Eventually, he does learn the truth, and the group is defeated. Actually, the arc's climax involves Gillian is actually locked away briefly, but she's freed with the help of her friends, and lumen who realizes in this moment that he can't allow this to happen, and it's the culmination of his growing confliction.

Lumen is shaken by finding out about the less than noble reasons behind the group's founding and feels very guilty for trying to further harm someone who has been deeply wronged, so he decides he needs to reevaluate himself and leaves the group, and he joins fairy tail. From there, he's super loyal to Gillian and sees her as an angel to combat his misguided view of her as a demon, and he's pretty flirty but only with her.

As I said, that backstory is much more dramatic than the second one.

(He ties his hair up in this reality ha)

In this backstory, paired with the Dreyar version of my s/i, his group is not an ancient organization, rather they're powerful mercenaries, with him as a one of it's generals, basically. These mercenaries have control over a mountain region as their base of operations. Each of their leaders controls an entrance to this region.

Team Natsu is on a job that requires them to go in to these mountains, but they need to gain permission from one of the leaders. They end up meeting Lumen and trying to convince him to help them, but he refuses and isn't budging. Until Gillian walks in, a little behind her companions after wrapping something up. He does a full turn around on his stance of not helping because he gets an immediate crush. (Self indulgent, you say? That's this whole blog, baby.)

I have less of an idea on the events that follow, but he becomes quite attached and after a few days of them returning home, he shows up at fairy tail's door looking to join to be closer to Gillian.

As for his magic, I'm still figuring out the details a little bit, and maybe this is already similar to someone else's magic in the show, maybe I might get a better idea for a different magic ability, so it could be changed but this is what it is right now.

Those circles attached to the ribbon on his waist are actually coins, and when they are flipped they summon a magical creature that's engraved on it's surface. The magical creature is assigned to a coin after it has been defeated by whoever holds the set. The more powerful the creature, the fewer times it can be summoned before the engraving fades and the creature would have to be defeated again to be able to be used again. The whole set us connected, so a type of creature can only be assigned to one coin at a time; so like, two coins couldn't both hold a dragon at the same time, or whatever.

In the library backstory, he has a very special coin, the one on his shoulder. This one had been altered to recreate the spirit of Rimis as an avenging angel and the instruction was to only use it when faced with Gillian. Rimis was Gillian's best friend, so the first time Lumen summons her shakes her really badly and actually causes her to get severely injured because she was too distracted to defend herself.

Anyway, please love my punk gentleman.

Picrew

[theangrypokemaniac]

I'll state from the beginning that the images below display the sort of sweet synchronicity to which only love can give life:

MaAndPaShipping is the best ship, and here are five reasons why:

1. It Made James

Like the boy do yer? Ever felt the slightest tingle of warmth at the mention of his name?

Well get down on yer knees and give thanks to his mother and father for gifting him to the world!

Where would we be without their remarkable commitment? Could James have grown into the dandified dream boat of your desires if deprived of the safety provided by his parents?

Had they not brought him up, he'd be dead, The Dog of Flanders fantasy made reality. If miraculously he survived, foraging in the wild is not conducive to a foppish personality.

Is that to yer fancy? No? Then let's have a little respect. The luxury Ma and Pa gave enabled his macaroni tendencies to reach such heights.

Their love created him! How can it not be celebrated?

You lot would ship Jessie's parents but you can't, because she has no dad, and I don't suppose you'll ever assent to his obvious identity of Windy Miller, although 'Jessie Miller' has a wonderful ring to it, so what can be done?

Should a Pa Jess be conjured for the purpose, he still buggered off, didn't he? Where's the allure in a faithless git?

I can't comprehend the obsession with Ma Jess. As soon as here she's stiff, and what is there to remember but coercing her daughter into eating snow?

Hey, I named her. What more do you want from me?

I'd rather have the living, visible ancestors, if you don't mind.

Yeah, says the history fanatic.

Why not make the most of the chances offered, and follow a devoted couple whose love made a difference to your existence?

2. Canon!

There are many ships which I find repulsive for involving depravity, or absurd as the subjects haven't met, or don't inhabit the same fictional universe.

Video et taceo: I see and I say nothing.

Neither does anyone. Forcing decent folk in to incest, bestiality etc. is quite alright.

Perverted ideas are left alone, but woe betide a Rocketshipper, because that's offensive.

It may be the only original ship left standing, with proper evidence and sanctioned by Nintendo, but no, it's fair game for undermining. People pick at your arguments, quibble constantly and NEED to register their objections NOW. You MUST be made aware of opposition. You're not to be permitted your views the way those with twisted tastes are indulged.

Why, out of tens of thousands of combinations, does making Jessie and James an item provoke hostility?

The strength of negativity actually serves as validation, for why be so concerned if it's an impossible relationship?

However sick they are, I'm not anti any ship. I can't muster sufficient interest to do it, and if I scroll on, I forget. I certainly don't attack those responsible.

Anti-Shipping is inherently nihilistic for promoting loneliness. They aren't against Rocketshipping through wanting Jessie and James to be with someone else, as an alternative is not readily available, so the outcome of it is neither finding a companion.

MaAndPaShipping attracts no sourpuss silliness, for 'tis canon beyond question. There's nothing about being 'just friends' when married with a son.

How's the state of your O.T.P.? Not looking too clever I expect, and what's your contribution: wishing, and hoping, and thinking, and praying?

Cast it off! None of that longing is necessary in these quarters, as MaAndPaShipping is a fait accompli.

Hallelujah! Wallow in that Love!

Don't you yearn for at least one ship that all of us accept by default, to the extent these aristocrats are spoken of as a single unit?

Across the internet, Ma and Pa are bracketed as 'James's parents', never 'he' and 'she', always 'they', barely counting as distinct characters. That's how undeniable the love is between them. Sheer indifference has awarded it a blessing from everyone.

MWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA!!!

Of course, now I've drawn attention to it the moaning will start, but we all know a spoilsport when we see one.

If they had any legitimate complaints they ought to have mentioned 'em before this piece highlighted the marriage!

Except it won't have occurred to 'em previously, proving the eternal, indissoluble quality of MaAndPaShipping.

You get good value with this one.

Find a post referring to Ma and Pa as individuals and I'll have written it, for that's what you call ironic.

3. It's a Fine Rocketshipping Proxy

I was at primary school when Pokémon hit the West like the bright, bearded meteor it is, atomizing all competition for a child's attention.

I have shipped Jessie and James before I knew anyone else did it, unaware shipping was even a thing.

There are other pairs where I think: 'That seems to fit', but it's incomparable to what I feel for them.

It is part of me. I bleed it.

I have shipped it longer than most Tumblerries have dwelt upon the earth.

I used to believe, what with the hints and manga finale, that this resolution was  inevitable, and all I had to do was wait.

Well I've been patient for two decades now, thus when I look at the modern incarnation, and realise it's no nearer to that goal, and instead is further away, waiting starts to wear a bit thin.

I resent the lack of appreciation shown to the fans by the cretins in charge, how any meagre shippy inclusion is done not with an interest in deepening bonds, but with the blatant cynicism of moulding us into performing monkeys dancing to their manipulative tune.

I dislike being treated like a sea lion, expected to clap me flippers at the wave of a fish, or as a panting dog begging at top table, where, because they're desperate to maintain the status quo, every scrap flung down from above now comes with an Anti-Ship kick in the teeth, just to be sure nothing progresses. Not whilst the franchise can still be milked for all it's worth.

I have lost faith Rocketshipping will happen. What passes for Pokémon today carries not the remotest indication of any intention on the so-called writers' part to finish it that way.

Even if it did, it's not my Team Rocket, it's those skeletal, gargoyle bastardisations. My Jessie and James never got the reward they deserved.

I'm somewhat in the market for a replacement. Beneath this loathsome carapace of acid and ice beats the tender heart of a true romantic, and it must have an outlet!

Shipping Ma and Pa provides a certain spurious relief, because it's as close as you can get to Jessie and James without it being them, both biologically as his parents, but they're so similar to the duo it counts as proof in itself.

Holy Matrimony! is prime Rocketshipping territory, not merely the balloon lift, but many slight additions are as important, like the haircuts matching.

Ma and Pa are therefore Jessie and James in the past, present and future:

The past for representing Jess 'n' Jamie gone Victorian, and we've all wondered how that'd turn out.

The present as it's there right now, absent of suffering the shameless whims of morons to get what you want. 'Tis yours to savour.

The future as a glimpse of Jessie and James once married with children, and they agree:

That's how they play it given the opportunity!

What, James in blue, for his and Pa's hair, and Jessie wearing purple, like Ma's, with a red shawl for her own, and Ma Jess's orange earrings to copy the beads?

• Money!

• Bun!

• 'Tache!

• Classy pad!

• Fancy gear!

• Pampered pet!

• Identical cups of Earl Grey!

4. Original Blend

Ma and Pa have only got two fans! We care more than the entire fandom has in twenty years!

Rocketshipping art is ten a penny, so why not display a pioneering spirit, sharpen up those pencils and be inspired?

Let your mind expand and marvel at the possibilities of these unchartered territories, and I'll reblog it if it's nice.

Pay attention to the condition of it being nice. I'm not putting up with any old toss.

Real Ma and Pa is what I want too, not those Sinnoh coffin-dodgers.

It's never been done! Every drawing breaks new ground!

I don't like fan fiction, but I wouldn't say 'no' to that either. Recall the 'nice' stipulation again.

Come on, be the first amongst your friends and get ship shape!

5. It Gives Us All Hope

Suppose your favourite amour one day became canon: you imagine that's the end of the matter?

Well it ain't.

Between Ash, Misty, Brock, Jessie, James, Gary and Tracey, there are three-and-a-half out of fourteen parents (Flint doesn't count as a complete man) and one out of twenty-eight grandparents, and that's not enough!

If the series drew to a close with your beloved couple apparently walking into the happily-ever-after, there's no guarantee it'll endure. In fact, the odds are they'll split up within a few years and leave another generation to fend for themselves or starve.

That's right, so don't presume the final episode is all you need to worry about. Can you rest easy knowing it'll go pear-shaped once the camera stops rolling?

It's futile soothing one's worries with:

Oh, but they know what it's like to be alone. They'd never inflict such stress on their children.

Oh really?

Look at that poor showing of grandparents. Either Pokémon has a system reminiscent of the sci-fi film Logan's Run, where everyone over thirty is vapourized, or these disappearing maters and paters were themselves victims of abandonment.

I bet when they settled down, they thought it'd be different for their kids, they'd make sure of it, but no, off they went down that same route of feckless self-indulgence, and that's being kind assuming they intended not to repeat history.

Depressing eh? What's the good in any of us surrendering to romance, real or otherwise, if love is but a mayfly of emotion, and all dreams are doomed to die?

Then Ma and Pa arrive, and suddenly the storm clouds part for a ray of heavenly light.

It's not only that they made the effort in what was probably an arranged marriage and have stayed together from youth, it's that they've stayed together when no one else has, which augments its value.

When separation is commonplace, sticking it out becomes rarer and rarer as any belief in the sanctity of wedlock erodes with every failure.

If they didn't bother, why should I? What's the use when it won't work?

Once that idea enters your head, it's over, and your gloom-laden attitude fulfils itself.

Society is collapsing about Ma and Pa's ears, but they persevere nevertheless, refusing to buckle under the turgid malaise engulfing the arrogant and weak.

It's bloody beautiful, man!

You may suggest an environment of supreme wealth erases normality, and to their class and time period divorce is still taboo, so they don't really have much of choice but to remain wedded.

Ah, but it's not as if they simply tolerate one another for appearances, or carried on for the sake of their son (which is more than anyone else did besides), not when he walked out on them.

They've been married longer than James has lived, so at least eighteen years (don't all squeal at once), and they're still blissfully contented!

They hold hands!

They use terms of endearment like 'dear' and 'my precious'!

They were made for one another!

They work as a team!

They want the same thing for James!

It could bring a stone angel to tears it's so beautiful!

See what success can be achieved when you try? When you endeavour to love the one you're with and make yourself worth loving in return?

Better that than chucking 'em at the first sign of trouble.

Ma and Pa is such an irrevocable union even the despair of losing their only child failed to tear 'em asunder, and that'd defeat many, but not this husband and wife.

Be grateful, for it means all is not in vain.

It doesn't have to be misery and pain: love can last despite the pressure of a wretched, hollow culture bent on self-destruction. Your ship might just succeed too.

God bless 'em for keeping the magic alive!

...

Why do I have the presentiment that I'm going to regret encouraging support?

[jedimasteramell]

My best guess puts Lana about Therons age, Koth a little younger than both of them, and Arcann in his young 30s before the Outlander is frozen.

I can't speak for all the companions but iirc only a few have direct timeline placements. Quinn and Andronikos both have to be old enough to have served during the war, so 10 years prior to the main game starting, so even if we assume that they were both super young and the Empire follows similar recruitment and training structures the US Military, at their youngest theyd both be 19 or 20 for the end of the war which puts them at the very least 30 by the time the game starts, though in actuality they're more closer to their mid-30s which according to Wookipedia is correct. There might be other characters that talk about experiences relating to the war or the end of the war but I cannot think of any off the top of my head.

Honestly I play a lot with the ages for the PCs mainly because I think were so used to teenagers doing things in books, film, and other media. I feel like we can use some context clues to place ages on some of the characters. The Trooper is obviously young enough to still be down chain of command, they start as a lieutenant, but its also implied that because they were able to join Havoc Squad they had some experience worth noting. The Bounty Hunter is a similar manner, because they have to be at least known enough to the right people to have gotten the attention of Braden enough that he believes they might be a good shot at winning the Great Hunt. The Smuggler is also old enough to have by some means gotten a ship and in some of their early dialogue on Ord Mantell, implies that they've flown harrowing missions beforeso even if they're meant to be more bragging along the lines of Han Solo they still have some experience. The Imperial Agent is probably the youngest of the bunch because the whole first mission on Hutta is treated as a graduation of sorts and proof that they are worthy of joining Imperial Intelligence.

The force sensitive classes are a little bit different, because particularly with the Jedi I believe that they would be more mature and have gone through more organized training than their Force-blind counterparts. When it comes to the Sith, I believe that they would be more apt to pick older apprentices because they don't have time to train and watch over teenagers. IMO a young-to-mid-twenties Apprentice would be the perfect age because they'd be young enough to still be impressed upon by their masters beliefs, while also being old enough to utilize better critical thinking and be more emotionally stable. As a side note, I like to canon that old family Sith typically raise and train their children until they have something of a quinceanera or a bar mitzvah when the Sith child is about 15 or 16, and it is at that point that they're sent off to be trained at an academy. The Academy seems to be more of a college/university then a high school or boarding school. The Sith Inquisitor is a little bit more variable because of their canon backstory of being a Slave we don't have a time frame of when they stopped being a slave or when they're for sensitivity was realized so that could go anyway anybody wanted. And then based on the Jedi and their practices and how they handle at least during the Old Republic latecomers to the order or converted Sith, the Jedi Knight and the Jedi Consular could be of any age.

Of course at the end of day I think it's most important that people frame the characters ages and the romance options ages to places that they feel comfortable with. I changed the age of my Sith Warrior and consequently it affected her whole back story because I was uncomfortable shipping her (initially aged) at 22 with Quinn who is 36. So in my canon I have her at 26 and Quinn at 32, still works for his backstory and my character and makes me feel a lot more comfortable.

And yeah lol Talos in no way looks like he's in his young 20s.

SWTOR Ages

You know, I always figure that the 8 classes are fairly young, since they’re only just beginning their careers (especially the force users, since that tends to get started pretty early). The exceptions I have being Aefre and Andswaru, which is hilarious for reasons I’ll get into.

And then I look at the ages for the guys you can romance…  Quinn was (apparently*) born in 3680 BBY/27 BTC which makes him 37 years old when the game starts. Andronikos was born 3678 BBY/25 BTC, making him 35. Most of my characters aren’t over 25 when they begin, it’s like BioWare is actively encouraging my age disparity kink :’’’’’D (help me).

Let’s see how many I can find the rest for!

 Aric Jorgan was born 3673 BBY/20 BTC, making him 30, same as Felix Iresso. Vector Hyllus was born 3669 BBY/16 BTC, so is 26. Doc was born 3670 BBY/17 BTC, making him 27 (seems about right… old enough to be a doctor, young enough to still be a hotshot horndog lmao).

And here comes the hilarious part: Corso Riggs and Torian Cadera, the youngest of the male romantic interests, the ones who are best suited (in a realistic sense) for the young toons… and in my main canon, they both get my two oldest toons. Corso was born in 3665 BBY/12 BTC, so he’s 22, and Torian was born in 3660 BBY/7 BTC, making him 17 (don’t worry, you meet him in 11 ATC, making him 18).

Aefre it’s not TOO bad, she’s 27 years old, so it’s only a five year difference. Andswaru, however, is 32 (33 in 11 ATC). That’s… that’s not… ideal… Like, it’s not exactly ideal for the dudes that are older than my female toons, but that has the benefit of those women being in a position of power over those guys so it’s not like they’re getting manipulated by older dudes plus the previously state age disparity kink (let’s just…casually ignore the unfortunate implications going the other way…). But Andswaru is both the older woman AND in a position of power over Torian.

HELP I AM TRAPPED IN A PROBLEM OF MY OWN MAKING. ;A;

I guess to complete the ages of the romanceable dudes: Theron was born in 3666 BBY/13 BTC making him 23 at the start of the game, 28 when you actually get to meet him. Arcann and Koth both got created way later so they don’t have any ages that I can find so IDK you can head canon WHATEVER MAKES YOU FEEL COMFORTABLE I GUESS.

“Hey Sol can you do the chicks, too?” ……………… oh fine then. Remember, all ages are as of 10 ATC (game start), not necessarily when you run into them.

Kira: 3663 BBY/10 BTC, 20 years old.

Nadia: 3664 BBY/11 BTC, 21 years old (… I honestly would have pegged her as younger than Kira. Huh).

Vette: 3664 BBY/11 BTC, 21 years old.

Jaesa: 3664 BBY/11 BTC, 21 years old.

Risha: 3664 BBY/11 BTC, 21 years old (is anyone else sensing a pattern here?).

Akaavi: 3670 BBY/17 BTC, 27 years old (c-c-c-c-combo breaker!).

Elara: 3669 BBY/16  BTC, 26 years old.

Kaliyo: 3672 BBY/19 BTC, 29 years old (I am so glad not everyone is super young you have no idea).

Raina: 3666 BBY/13 BTC, 23 years old.

Mako: 3662 BBY/9 BTC, 19 years old (honestly not surprised).

Ashara: 3662 BBY/9 BTC, 19 years old (again, not surprised).

Lana: Like Koth and Arcann, she’s a mystery~~ (according to a short story, she completed her final trial as an acolyte “at an unspecified point of time” before 3641BBY/12 ATC, so she’s probably younger than she comes across!).

*(All according to the SWTOR Encyclopedia, which is admittedly a bit sketchy since it was completed before everything was set in stone… like, it says Talos Drellik was born in 3669 BBY/16 BTC ffs, making him the same age as Vector, which is SOME BULLSHIT LET ME TELL YOU).