#tbh you don't need a deeper reason to ship a pair lol

[shslpunkartist99]

My ships in games/series has really devolved into "I really like this character. I also really like this character. They're now a couple, despite having any deep interactions with each other besides possible small talk. Time to imagine them sharing a milkshake while one sits on the other's lap."

[extorchic]

TOP 5 SK8 Episodes

So I got tagged by @akira-cr to make this list, it took some time but I think I've sorted out my mind, thank you for considering me 😊. Now here comes the list, sorry if it's supposd to be objective, but I'm gonna let my heart out over here (It's gonna be a long post and I'm not gonna cut it ):

NUMBER 5 - Episode 6 - Steamy Mystery Skating?! (A.K.A. The beach episode 🏊‍♂️)

Well this is supposed to be "breather" episode, and it's basically the one that sold the series to me. I like how fun and chill this episode is, although it does (further) foreshadow Reki's insecurity issues. The music is of course SUBLIME! "Seize the Moment" is probably my favorite insert song of all time! (it's been present in Reki's beefs as well, but here it really reflects the fun nature of his character and the show overall). And of coruse, FANSERVICE, not so much in how the boys were in swimsuits (though I gotta admit Reki does look good in them), but on the RENGA interactions!

That hug gave me life! How Langa was worried 24/7 about Reki being injured, at the end when they skated together to escape from the Bantu! I gotta admit that I have some mixed feelings about the implications of Reki being attracted to the faceless girl (I mean, Bi rep is very important too), but I guess my shipping side was just as jelaous as Langa was supposed to be (according to the fans LOL).

NUMBER 4 - Episode 11 - King vs. Nobody (A.K.A. Reki rising! ✨🌺🌞⚙️)

Reki is, without a doubt, my favorite character. He doesn't need to win, he doesn't need to be super flashy while skating, he just needs to be himself. He's been through a lot, many people (including me) have felt tremendously related to him, and seeing him in this episode is just satisfying. With his issues behind, with a promise to skate with Langa after he wins and no longer fearful, Reki rematches against Adam; and the way he does is fantastic! Taking advantage of his creativity, observative skills and mechanical knowledge on skateboarding, he faces up against the main boss and manages to not only endure his violent ways (which were gruelling to see, TBH), but also SOUNDLY HUMILIATE HIM in front of the whole S Community!

Yes, Adam, the "God of S", in the ground covered in mud by a boy almost everyone dissmissed! It was really sunshine through rainfall! I must also add how much I liked to see his renewed relationship with Langa, how much they treasure their company after patching up. I want to elaborate on this in its own post but I personally see that their interactions from this point on are more, I don't know, tender, caring, still playful but not in an entirely comedic way. The way they see each other is also deeper, anyway, it's just what I see.

NUMBER 3 - A DRAW: Episode 8 - The Fated Tournament! and Episode 9 - We Were Special Back Then (A.K.A. The month in which I was in an emotional crisis because of anime sk8t3r b0is 🍎🐍😭🛹❄🍵🌸 )

This is the point in which I got into the show, and the fandom (Yeah, haven't been around for too long). At this point the show wasn't the same, and I realized it when I caught up. Though there were some cool skating scenes in these episodes, the events that caught my attention were outside the road (Yeah, this was no longer just a skateboard anime, it's a whole lot more). Though I had been mainly focusing on Reki and Langa, I really liked having more backstory related to Joe, Cherry, Adam and Tadashi. Seeing how Adam went through a terrible childhood, convoluted teeange years to culminate in an adult with too much power for his own good and a twisted sense of "love", along with some extremely serious psychological issues was very interesting.

I acknowldge him as a complex villain, but that DOES NOT justify what he did to Cherry. This only proves that just because we know his backstory, we don't have to sympathize with him (Adam's just such a terrible person). On the RENGA side, we see Reki avoiding Langa after their rift, and how this affected both. We have Langa's sadness increase scene after scene, as well as his passion for skating dwindling as progressively. Reki on the other hand, just falls deeper and deeper in his depression, but also being unable to stop thinking about Langa, and he ends up going to S to see the latter's match against Joe. It's hard to see whether there's envy, jelaousness, frustration, admiration, pining or fear of being left behind in his mind. It must have been hard for a 17 y/o.

Reki also defends Langa from people speaking behind his back and shouting his name during the race boosts Langa's performance tremendously. This culminates on Reki realizing that the thing he actually wanted was to skate alongside Langa, not on the side, not as support, but together, he just couldn't. There's also the scene which may or may not confirm that Langa's feelings for Reki are more than just friendship! (Felt represented, for reals).

NUMBER 2 - Episode 7 - We Don't Balance Out (A.K.A. This was supposed to be a fun show!😭⛈️💔️)

I wrote a lot about the episodes in the previous spot, but this is the one that flipped the tables, the game-changer, and the one that hit closer home. It is a sad episode, no races there, it's just here for us to see how the circumstances affect the characters. It was hard to see how Reki, who at this point had been nothing but supportive and proud of Langa, starts to see him flying farther from him. Is it jealousness? Dissatisfaction? Is it fear of loneliness? Adbandoment issues? Is it feeling inferior? Frustration? Not being able to improve? Admiration? Care?

And on top of that a broken promise. I just can't imagine how hard is it for a 17 y/o to deal with all of those conflicting issues in his head, as well as the toxic competitive environment on the "S Community". This just came to show that he wasn't just the excitable, goofy sidekick character, he goes deeper than that, and makes him relatable. We also see a deconstruction of the cool, aloof prodigious character in Langa, as he just can't comprehend what's going on with Reki, and he's hurt by it, but still needs to figure out his own ambitions and desries. This leads to the emotional conclusion of the episode (which in turn left me in the aforementioned 4-week-long emotional crisis, thank you)

HONORABLE MENTIONS:

Episode 12 - Our Infinity! - The race was cool, the Renga hug gave me life and everyone had a happy ending

Episode 5 - Passionate Dancing Night! - Despite the beef between Langa and Adam being cool, we start to see Reki worrying about Langa and opening up to him, further deepening their bond.

Episode 2 - Awesome for the First Time! - There's just something special about sharing something you're passionate about with someone else. Watching Reki teaching Langa the basics of skateboarding was heartwarming

NUMBER 1 - Episode 10 - DAP Not Needing Words

After 4 weeks waiting, the anticipation for this episode was gargantuan. Reki's depression was hitting its lowest point, bordering in self-harm, and hurting others as well. Langa continues to look for Reki after seeing him briefly at the hospital while visiting Shadow and we get to see this loving scene where he watches videos of Reki learining how to skate. After confronting Tadashi and realizing that he loves skating because it's fun, he returns home to find out that Langa had been waiting for him but left shortly before he arrived.

This leads to a heartful reunion, where words can't express their feelings, so they resort to do their thing, to skate, and that's where the feelings flow. This is when Langa tells Reki how he admires him tremendously and Reki understands that Langa'll be there by his side, and leaves his fears behind. With a mutual desire to skate together infinetely and a new dap, they rekindle their bond. People watched this show for different reasons, and though I like the skateboarding aspect because it looks cool, my interest leans more on the relationship aspect, and Reki and Langa's is so deep and intimate, and I liked seeing it grow from zero through different hardships (in other words, in all of the years I've been in a fandom, I had never shipped any other pair like these two, I needed to say that).

So I guess it's time to tag some people:

@pico-sour, @sleebycryptid, @elizabethslee, @itsamole, @kaorucherry, @blueflame97, @trieizieme, @tardiskitten, @lady-pendragon-9

So, if you've read until this point, thank you very much (I know it's not supposed to, but this post is yet again a very long "I love Renga" one, but it's what my heart wanted me to write 😅). I'd love to see people other than the ones I tagged showing their lists 😃

[chelsanitys]

I don't think Scott cares either, but I do think there's a deeper, more thoughtful conversation to be had here about the commercialization of their personal relationship and how much actual performance goes into the branding of this pairing. And that's a discussion I think shippers don't want to have (or don't have the capacity to have) because they're too busy squeeing over every morsel Tessa occasionally sends them.

it’s something shippers resolutely refuse to think about tbh - the performativeness of vm’s relationship, the power of that performance, and the perlocutionary force of that performance on an audience. they want to believe that vm’s skating comes from a genuine, authentic place of love and appreciation for each other - that they’re not acting for the cameras and faking a love they’re going to discard as soon as their four minutes on the ice are up. which, depending on what mood i’m in, is a perspective i find alternately sweet, naive, and ANNOYING AS FUCK

tessa and scott absolutely, 100%, without a doubt, play up their relationship for the media. why do you think they do their hug in full view of dozens of cameras instead of doing it backstage? why does scott keep feeling her up in the middle of practice where anyone and everyone (including the judges who attend every practice session) can see? why do they sit so close and gaze at each other like two lovelorn does in a field of fuckin daisies? why does tessa keep posting instagram shots of them lookin straight up like they’re in a softcore porn? because they’re actually in love? maybe. because they’re trying to sell a narrative? definitely. meryl and charlie talked about this after they won gold in sochi - he hid his high-profile, longtime girlfriend from the media because the judges needed to see davis and white as a TEAM, and they couldn’t effectively sell that story if ppl were constantly being reminded of charlie’s girlfriend behind the scenes. all the way up to the sochi olympics, meryl and charlie hemmed and hawed about whether they were a real life couple - watch some interviews back, it is straight up the same ‘what a compliment!’ spiel we’ve been getting from vm. at the time, charlie had been dating tanith for four years, and meryl had been dating fedor for two - they are now married (or about to be) to those same people. which is all to say that in 2014 d/w were stringing everyone along for a ride. skaters are constantly performing, all the time, on social media, in interviews, in fluff pieces. they are trying to SELL you something - a story, an emotion, a feeling. charlie hid tanith from his social media, talked about how thrilling it was discovering his ‘new chemistry’ with meryl and sat on top of meryl looking lovingly at her in every interview. the act of performing in ice dance is not constrained to the ice rink. for all the top teams, it extends off the ice as well - the narrative doesn’t stop when your music stops. 

it goes without saying that vm were better at selling this story than dw. because they have chemistry, because they’re actually in love, because they’re more talented - pick whatever reason you want. as soon as they won their gold medal, the hemming and hawing from dw about whether or not they were dating stopped. meryl and charlie had nothing left to sell, so charlie paraded his girlfriend around and sold exclusive photos of him and tanith to magazines. they were retired so he was done selling this fake romance with meryl. so why aren’t vm done? because they are so much BETTER at this than davis/white were. no one really believed the romance angle even when dw were so desperately trying to play it up - as soon as was humanly possibly, the audience writ large decided to ship meryl with someone else. there was no breathless media coverage about dw’s relationship status, no legions of dw shippers, no hundreds of thinkpieces about whether or not dw were dating. vm sold their romance so well at the pyeongchang olympics that i think they themselves were taken aback by the media coverage around it. every time a journalist geared up to ask the dating question, you could see the pained smile and the exhaustion and the ‘oh god not this again’ starting to dawn in their eyes. they wanted people to talk about their skating, not their relationship status. or so they said.

a month ago, scott was complaining that the media was ‘cheapening’ their relationship and tessa was telling reporters that she’s so ‘protective’ of their relationship because it’s so important to her. cut to mid-april and tessa is using their relationship, and more importantly the implication of a romantic relationship, to pimp her personal sponsor and sell lotion. which is fuckin rich? all we heard for weeks was how sick of the dating question they were, and how much they wished people would talk about their skating. she is now exploiting something they pointedly said they did not want to exploit a month and a half ago. 

so what’s my hot take? it’s that tessa has realized that the two of them are nothing without each other. dw were a team, but they are not a brand like vm are a brand. vm and whatever they want to do in the future are now inexorably linked to each other - they sold their fake romance TOO well at the olympics and now no one cares about one without the other (unless one is getting drunk off his ass at a hockey game and yelling obscenities at the ref). the nivea thing is…..whatever. i don’t really care about that. its icky to me as a law student that she’s profiting off his image and likeness but i guess i’m just litigious by nature lmao - i accept that not everyone else feels the same way. i don’t think she was malicious about it…….but she was calculated. and it’s bizarre to me that shippers are trying to claim otherwise. the pair of them have spent the better part of the last month and a half simultaneously playing coy about their relationship status and then acted like it’s everyone else’s fault for talking about their relationship. they have played into every part of the intrigue that comes with the dating question, and then acted annoyed people were talking about whether they’re dating or not. they are constantly trying to have their cake and eat it too. unlike dw, they can’t just stop selling their story at the olympics - their lives and their relationship with each other have become the story, and they’re going to have to keep it up now that there are things to sell other than a figure skating program to the judges. 

do i think it’s all fake? no. i think they genuinely love and respect each other in ways that can’t be quantified by dollars. do i think it’s all real? no. they have spent their whole lives trying to sell a story to the judges…and have gotten so good at it, they are now selling it to the public where they (or she) can reap rewards far more valuable than a hunk of fake gold. 

but i dont expect people who are wilfully blind to the part performance plays in their relationship on the ice to be sharp enough to recognize the role it plays in their relationship off the ice…….so whatever lol