#while i have a few romantic ships most of them are queerplatonic

[ix-c-999]

This poll requires an "only platonically" option.

This is a judgement free zone! Feel free to leave your labels in the notes, if you’re comfortable!

[s-exy-sapphillean]

Finally coming back to Runaways AU posting. If the original concept interests you but you don't like where i'm taking it, please consider what i said here.

(There's a lot so i included a cut here to not make it fill up your dash too much)

Quick disclaimer: queerplatonic jeaneil is very dear to me. I do not ship them romantically. Their dynamic in this AU is fairly complicated and codependent and the presence of strong emotions & physical affection doesn't mean their bond is romantic. I of course can't stop anyone from interpreting it whichever way they choose but i'd rather people don't insist that what i'm writing must be romantic because that's how they read it.

So. Neil & Jean + Elodie on the run together..

Neil of course is the one to teach Jean and Elodie english. He's an okay teacher, good enough that they get by and they improve fast enough. Neil however is simply not aware of a couple of accented words and anglicisms in his own vocabulary, so the moreau siblings have some random british words in their vocabulary

Physical affection is complicated for the boys. They both initially only know touch as something practical or to hurt. They are touch starved. But elodie is a child who gives and craves physical affection freely, so the boys gradually grow more used to giving and receiving affection through touch. Sleeping curled together becomes a necessity to keep warm wherever they're camping out but they eventually do it even when not necessary because it is comforting to have the other right there

After his mother got got, before joining up with jean, neil felt kinda directionless & defeated because without his mother there to push for it 15 year old neil doesn't really see the point of running forever if the only possible end is eventual death. Then he meets jean & elodie, starts bonding with them & keeping them safe becomes his entire world. Like a "i'll get caught and killed eventually but as long as i'm alive i can at least make sure they're okay & will be fine when i'm gone" mentality because he doesnt understand that jean is equally as fucked if the butcher finds them.

They bicker a LOT, getting into verbal fights over a lot of small things. They are constantly stressed with no outlet except eachother. Neil for a long time is also just not coping well with witnessing elodie receiving such genuine love and care because it makes something in him burn with ugly jealousy. Jean for a while absolutely despises having to rely on essentially a stranger for so much when his own english is way too lacking to get around by himself.

As much as he doesn't cope well at all with his own jealousy and yearning for being cared for, neil does also become fiercely protective of elodie pretty quickly. If she gets to have what he can't have then she needs to be able to keep that and not become like him. His "one of us has to make it" mantra we know from canon becomes entirely focused on her.

They have pretended to be a couple a few times, simply because it is the easiest cover for why a teenager as clearly french as jean would be so close to some very clearly not french teenager

They kissed once or twice as like a "for the sake of the cover" thing, trying out if that works but unanimously decided it wouldn't. It just made neil feel queasy and uncomfortable and bisexual disaster jean is self aware enough to know that risking developing a hopeless onesided crush would be the worst in their situation

Little head kisses have kinda become a thing though. It's something jean did a lot to comfort elodie & once when neil was having a breakdown he did it to him while holding him and it helped so it just stuck

In millport their story is that jean & elodie's father had moved to the US with them for work and had been colleagues with neil's parents. When father moreau turned out to be abusive, neil's parents helped jean emancipate himself and gain custody of elodie, and helped them move away, letting neil go with them.

When they get to palmetto, most of the foxes do assume they're dating and the boys don't directly correct anyone out of worry it will raise too many eyebrows, so neil doesn't get to explain that he doesn't swing any direction until much later

[pendwelling]

hi !!! I really like your content ☺️ it gave me a lot of information as someone who stopped reading twsb for a while . I actually have a few questions I wanna take your opinion on

1 / in the last chapter gain asked yuseo if they should have signet rings right ? So does that mean the rings she and ced were wearing were signet rings ? I mean the author wouldn't have mentioned them in the last ch for nothing right?

2/ I Know u said before that the heir problem is resolved with cerise and that she's basically like ced and yuseo daughter which really really excited me 😚😚 but it seems cerise is made an imperial granddaughter and ced sister 😭 so how can she be his daughter or his heir 😭😭?

3/ okay this is my last question which is merely asking for your opinion and me rambling on my own 😅😅so I know u think there's a huge possiblity of a political marriage between Cedric and gain ...do u still feel the same way? Cause honestly I'm not really fond of them getting married 😔

To make it clear I'm huge gain fan and I really really love ced gain dynamic and relationship.i find really refreshing ,funny and interesting. The reason I'm not fond of this marriage is well to be honest I don't want their relationship to turn romantic 😭😭I know it may sound stupid and irrational cause I don't have the right to decide but I can't help it 😞 I'm such a huge cedyseo shipper 😩😩

I read so many great bromance and bl bait stories that got destroyed by hetero endings that it made me uncomfortable thinking about this potential marriage 😭 I know it makes perfect sense considering their development so far but my fujo heart can't help but get broken 💔 cause u know them getting married will eventually lead them to getting much closer and develop feelings and yuseo will kinda feel left behind,like he no longer be the most important to both of them🥺🥺 I just really hate it when the bromance get destroyed by hetero endings.i got a really bad experience with them 😩😞

Thank u for reading through my useless ramblings 😘😘

Oh hi!! First off, I would like to appease some of your worries. To start, TWSB is not a romance-centered novel, thus does have any romance storylines between any of the three main characters, so the relationship build-up that we have while follow them through all their adventures has always been one of very strong platonic bonds.

HOWEVER!!

It should also be made clear that TWSB is not exactly BL Bait. I personally and very strongly would not describe it as "bait" whatsoever (or even "queer-baiting") because, at its core, TWSB is very implicitly and very integrally Queer-coded and Queerplatonic.

This is present and even supported by the worldbuilding alone, from the magic system, to the lore, and to the relationship between several of the characters (many of which are even influenced by these in-universe cultures and magic systems). So, while the relationship between Yeseo, Cédric, and Ga-in (Christelle) specifically is never portrayed in a way that is explicitly romantic/sexual, it is also very clear that "platonic" is not the full extent of the kind of relationship they have (hence why I like to call it queerplatonic!) The relationship between Cédric and Yeseo is undoubtedly the most popular and well-loved dynamic within the fandom (and understandably so, I am one of them LMAO and know this very well) and have many canon instances of bromance/"romantic-coded" interactions, but outside of fandom shipping lenses, when you read the novel and follow the relationship progression of these three characters (of which is very closely intertwined between all 3 of them), the same can be said between not just CedYes, but between Ga-in and Yeseo, and even Cédric and Ga-in to their own special begrudging degree as well (haha). Ultimately, these three are inseparable. They have a special relationship that no one could besides each other can truly understand, and are friends who have through thick and thin for and with each other. They share their souls (literally, between Cédric and Ga-in), and literally again (eventually) between Cédric and Yeseo (assuming they finally go through their Holy Pledge—which, by the end of the main story, is very very highly probable, as the only reason Yeseo has been putting it off this whole time has finally been resolved. Besides, Cédric explicitly affirms that he would NOT accept anyone but Jung Yeseo as his religious partner LMAO).

From the very start we have been introduced to the concept of Religious and Political Companions, and it is clear by the end of the novel that Yeseo and Ga-in are the most fitting candidates for each position. Not just because of Yeseo's eventual religious/etheric prowess and Ga-in's political/nationalistic status as a fellow war hero, but also because they are simply the people closest to Cédric—the only people, besides his mother and his godmother Aurélie, whom Cédric would ever allow himself to open his soul to and share himself with.

Politics in TWSB is very important haha. As the future Emperor, the choosing of his Religious and Political partners are both important, and he has the benefit of having two very close companions who could perfectly fill those symbolic roles for him. Besides, to further ease your worries about a possible marriage between Cédric and Ga-in haha, it is also not uncommon in TWSB's in-universe history for political and religious marriages to be purely platonic, and sometimes even just diplomatic. And as someone who has read the entire novel and followed through with the development of these characters, I still firmly stand by my belief that Cédric and Ga-in will probably end up marrying at some point down the line—and I don't even mean romantically. In the first place, these two hate each other so much hahaha, but at the same time, it is ALSO very clear and very true that deep down, they respect and acknowledge each other, and they both know they are good friends, rivals, and partners.

But even if they DO marry (politically), it does not and ABSOLUTELY WOULD NOT take anything away from Cédric and Ga-in's affections towards Yeseo.

In fact, it's pretty much a buy-one-get-2-free deal with these three. Cédric and Ga-in share a soul/plate, and when Cédric and Yeseo go through with their Covenant, they, too, will share a soul. In the end, it's impossible to have two of them without the third. They are quite literally a package deal hahaha.

Sookym is a good writer. A very good one, in fact, so much so that it is actually crazy (you grow to understand this the more you read, especially when it was still updating/being written in real-time). I do hope as you read this novel that you have faith in the author and how they develop CedYesChris' relationship, because it is truly special, well though out, and very heavily intertwined. A writer like Sookym, who puts so much effort into building their world and their characters, would also absolutely not take this unique relationship between three individuals and exclude one out. Assuming ChriCed get married, it is VERY UNLIKELY that they will grow closer and in consequence drift apart from Yeseo. It is actually impossible. In that scenario, Ham Ga-in Christelle would be more likely to hold onto Yeseo by the teeth and freeze Cédric to death, and similarly, Cédric would lock Yeseo up in his palace and burn Ga-in alive, should Yeseo ever stray. Yeseo is the glue that holds them together, their pole and axis, their gravitational pull and the center of their universe. ChriCed would both agree that there is no future where they do not ALSO have Yeseo by their side. They have fought against the will of the narrative TOOTH AND NAIL for that man to remain by their side. Please rest assured hahaha, they are a package deal.

"Hetero Ending" is impossible. TWSB is too queercoded for that. CYC are the most harmonious bi-disaster queerplatonic polycule you could ever imagine WKWKHJGJHK

As for the rings that future Cédric and Ga-in are wearing, I've shared my opinion before but I do think it could be either of two possibilities:

It's their Political Companions marriage rings

It's their signet rings (Cédric's for being Crown Prince of the Riester Imperial Family, and Ga-in as Marquis Hauteclere)

Either way, both are equally probable. I personally am more partial towards the first (again, think of me as a Riesterian courtier. Logically, the Emperor of Riester would need to follow tradition of having a Political and Religious Partner, and I, a humble Riesterian Court noble, having calculated and observed the best odds, have made my own conclusion that out of every noblewoman Cédric's age, Christelle Rambouillet is the only person who could put up with that guy WHILE ALSO having one of the most notable reputations and image that could support the future Emperor), BUT I also find the equally-likely possibility of the rings being their signet rings very funny. Like, as of now (when the side stories have not been released), the main story concludes with a nice amount of ambiguity regarding the future to allow each reader to envision whatever they wish. I think that is perfect. I don't even think we need to know more (though I would not oppose to it possibly being explored even further in the side stories hahaha).

And again, being Political Companions does not require love. So long as an heir is produced or is available, the relationship can merely be a partnership (take Romero and Joséphine, for example). Cédric has an advantage, however. He has Cerise Riester, whom Frédérique has adopted into the Imperial Family. While it is very much expected for the ruling Emperor/Empress to eventually sire an Heir, I truthfully Do Not Think you could ever force Cédric Riester to do the horizontal tango if he does not want to. That guy is responsible to a fault however and is always aware and conscious of the expectations surrounding someone of his position, but between marrying some random noble lady who would never fully comprehend the extent of his soul, and marrying Ga-in, someone who shares it and would understand him no matter what, it is clear the best choice is Ga-in—who would even readily agree with him if he chooses to not sire an Heir. He can always either adopt the child of a relative (like what Frédérique and Alexandre once nearly did with Cédric's sixth cousin, Jibril Diop, back when Ced had been prophecized to die young), OR he could eventually appoint either Cerise (who is now also technically a direct descendant of the Riester line) as his heir, or any possible future children she might have—and the same can be said for the Rambouillet Family, who have now adopted Lynn as Ga-in's sister! Cerise and Lynn are pretty much CYC's solution to the question of heirs and it's SOOOOO FUNNY but also REALLY SMARTLY PLAYED LMAO. TWSB is not a romance story haha, so the magical babies born in some way thanks to CYC are the answers! Congrats Yeseo...... you are a mother of two 🥹 Cédric and Ga-in are the fathers, and your kids will grow up as sisters 🫶 (Sookym has even conceived their designs as such actually, which is so so so touching bc it basically means they are and will be FAMILY, and you can really tell the author put so much thought into this. It's truly great to have an author who knows what they're doing and who's had a clear vision since conception 😭)

ANYWAY, sorry for the long response LMAO but I hope this was able to answer some questions and appease some worries! (oh and thanks for liking my content too haha!)

[talaofthevalley]

Another one for the Yu-Gi-Oh ask meme! I'm going to be super basic but consider it fair retribution, because I'm STILL NOT DONE answering your ask :') (What have you done, what monster have you unleashed.)

So, your turn for Yusaku/Playmaker!

Looking forward to the reckoning >: D

YUSAKU MY BOY YUSAKU!

Why I like them/why I don’t Yusaku is just.... great. He's so great. He's an awkward teenager in real life and a cyber vigilante at the same time. He's so emotionally mature compared to pretty much everyone around him. One of Yusaku's biggest safety nets for not being Playmaker is no one would believe Playmaker is a teenager. One of the few protagonists who didn't need the power of friendship to get through his show because he's strong enough on his owns, and in a way he is the power of friendship here. It's just that the people he's deemed important and is shown to be important to him all oppose him at some point. And because Yusaku is one of the strongest duelists in all of Yugioh it's like throwing themselves at a brick wall in hopes of breaking it. And he's just genuinely so damn cool? His comebacks in duels are so fun to watch, because the show is full of people who think they can outsmart him and be the one to defeat Playmaker. But they all fail, and realise Playmaker was thinking much further ahead than they were. And it's so satisfying. And he can be so extremely savage with his lines, it's so funny.

And like I dunno if this is a unpopular opinion (and honestly... don't care much if it is), but I relate to Yusaku's reluctance to make friends and get along with people. And I know that's in part because of his PTSD, but even after he starts moving forward post-S1, he's still not gungho about making friends. It reads to me like while he wants connections with people, he's not desperate for it, and won't buckle at the slightest hint of friendlyness from others. He's not so starved for connection he'll get attached to anyone who is nice to him. And that can absolutely be part of his trauma! Just saying I relate to it, as someone who has never been starved for friendship even when I had none near me.

What I like about their appearance I like his hair colours a ton, and how vivid his eyes are. I find it so funny but fitting his casual outfit is just a pair of jeans and a black hoodie. It's so teenage boy of him.

The Playmaker design is one I know people are split on, especially the hair, but personally I love it. The colours give him an almost retro feeling to me, with the dark green and black with splashes of yellow, then the bright colour of his hair. The styling of his hair looks So cool to me, almost like he's exploded from the inside out and letting his emotions out with them, since he's so emotive as Playmaker compared to real life. The yellow line over the suit and the four spaces on his hand that glows when he uses his skill is just perfect design.

Do I prefer their dub names or original names? No change! Yay.

OTP Datastorm my beloved-

NOTP Aiballshipping. And I mean specifically romantic, cause I do like them queerplatonic.

OT3 Again, polycule with Yusaku/Ryoken and queerplatonic Yusaku/Ai.

Favourite card they use Firewall Dragon, to be basic again. It's got such a kickass design, and I love the possible methaphors involved with one of Yusaku's ace monsters being themed around a firewall, something to keep harmful viruses and programs out to protect the system it's on. It's Neat. It's also got a funny beak mouth that looks so silly when open.

Favourite moment they were in Gosh I have so many-

Okay so I don't know if it's The Yusaku moment I love the most, but it's one that I think about a lot. During his second duel with Bohman, when Playmaker is accused of being an AI who stole Bohman's body and that he's not the real Fujiki Yusaku, what Playmaker uses as proof that he is the real one is-

his meeting with Ryoken when they were young.

Like- to put aside the shipping for a moment, because I won't deny that plays a part and that I'm biased, how interesting is it that this is what Yusaku deems important enough to justify his whole existence? To prove he's real? It speaks of a kind of personal understanding, but also of a great emotional part of himself despite how stoic and no-nonsense he appears. Yusaku is actually a very emotionally drive person, it just doesn't come off that way because he's so levelheaded and mature. He doesn't use logic here for why he's the real Fujiki Yusaku, or any holes in Bohman's memory. It's about the bond he shares with Ryoken. He sees this meeting and Ryoken leading him to the experiments as part of Ryoken's guilt, why he began talking to Yusaku while he was held captive.

It's this connection to Ryoken, the binding proof someone was affected by Yusaku's imprisonment, that makes him sure he's the real one even when he admits no one can tell for sure if their memories are real or not. Ryoken wouldn't have reacted and said the things he did in S1 if they didn't have this connection. It's an answer rooted staunchly in emotions coming from a character who on the outset does not appear to think that way, but it's proof he does. And it's kind of beautiful. Despite what people say, Yusaku is painfully, wonderfully human.

Least favourite moment My perfect boy has done nothing wrong ever in his life-

[lesbiansanemi]

Hello, I really like what you write🥰, I wanted to ask what you think of the relationship shown so far with Sabigiyuu? Do you think they felt romantic attraction or just a very close friendship? do you find differences between sanegiyuu?

Aaahhhhh, thank you so much <3 I'm glad you enjoy!

And I really liked the way the anime portrayed Giyuu and Sabito's relationship personally. I think it did a good job of showing how close they were and how much they meant to each other, even with such limited screen time, as well as why Sabito's death had such a lasting and profound effect on Giyuu (esp when compounded with his sister's death)

As far as romance or friendship, canonically, it was a very close friendship. Not that I am big on "um, they didn't have feelings in canon so it's not valid to ship them" (obviously haha), just that I definitely don't think there was any hinted or implied romantic feelings on purpose in canon. I'm only specifying that because based on your phrasing I assume you mean how I feel about them canonically? Unless I'm misinterpreting

That being said, I do "ship" them! My personal headcanon for them is them being queerplatonic, so not friendship or romance. So yeah, I ship them in a qpr, which I have a lot of thoughts on, but I won't get into too much detail here (always down to share more complex thoughts or headcanons about that though if anyone wants them). So I guess to answer your question, I don't see it as romantic, nor a very close friendship between them, but something else entirely

As far as the last part of your question, yeah, I do see a lot of difference between sabigyuu and sane//giyuu personally. I see Sabito get compared to Sanemi a lot which I... don't really get to be quite honest. We don't see a ton of Sabito, but imo he doesn't have a similar personality to Sanemi at all, nor really even similar convictions. I also see a lot of people compare them in looks, and while they both have purple eyes and Sabito does have a face scar, that's about... all the similarities I see? Which, to me, doesn't feel like nearly enough for all the "comparisons" I see at the volume I see, and how hard some people try to stress them. Tbh it honestly just feels like a fanon thing of people trying to shoehorn that Giyuu has a "type" that Sabito and Sanemi fall into, but to me that kinda just ends up as feeling like a shallow viewing of both Sabito and Sanemi's characters, as well as Giyuu's relationship to both of them. Feels like a case of sanding away the interesting aspects of characters to push a "ship dynamic" ppl want rather than what actually makes sense for the characters. Very much an aspect of fandom and shipping culture I'm not a super big fan of

Beyond that.... I'm just not really a sane//giyuu shipper in general. I get why people ship them, it's just not my thing. The dynamic between Giyuu and Sanemi just really isn't one I'm a fan of personally, so I like to avoid it. The whole "we're on the same side but are hostile towards one another and need to learn to get over" or "rivals" thing is just... ah... a bit boring to me, to put it lightly, and people tend to get so obsessive with that dynamic and the tropes surrounding it that most fan content is far too ooc for me to enjoy

That being said, I can find sane/giyuu kinda interesting in a canon compliant, post-canon sense, wherein with them being the two survivors with very little to live for in their eyes end up developing an almost unhealthy attachment to each other because of a "no one else will understand what we went through" mindset. However, even then I'm not quite too sure how I feel about that being in a romantic sense or not, and is rarely what I see explored in fics with them

Sorry, I don't really mean to slam the ship, and that's not my intention. I've just had a few interactions where people have assumed I really like the ship because I really like Sanemi and it's the most popular ship involving him, so I like to clearly explain why it's not to my taste. Obviously this isn't to say no one else can like it, I'm very much a ship and let ship person, but it's not one I enjoy interacting with, and quite honestly try to avoid

So yeah. I personally don't see a whole lot of similarities between sane//giyuu and sabigiyuu haha

Thanks for the ask! And I hope this answered your questions

[spy-flair-extraordinaire]

Hello everyone!

This March, I will be hosting a Spy Kids art prompt series! I'm calling it March of the Spy Kids, after the month the original movie was released in.

Click on the keep reading button to learn about the rules and the prompts. ⬇️

The rules to this are:

Use hashtag #March of the Spy Kids or #March of the Spy Kids 2024, either with or without spaces.

Make sure it is only related to Spy Kids.

No NSFW, in__st,

Do this in any medium you want! Digital art, traditional art, pixel art, writing or comic.

You don't have to do every single one of them. You can skip some if you want, especially if you don't have the time

There's no set order. You can do any of them in any order, except for the last two days.

Most importantly, have fun!

Never send an adult to do a kid's job!

How to do the prompts

Favourite character(s): Draw or write about one or more of your favourite characters

Favourite villain(s): Draw or write about one or more of your favourite villains

Favourite gadget(s)/vehicle(s): Draw one or more of your favourite gadgets or vehicles, or write an analysis about them

Favourite movie(s): Draw or write anything that represents one of your favourite movies in the series

Screencap redraw/Favourite scene(s): Either grab a screencap to redraw, or draw or write one or more of your favourite scenes in a new way,

Siblings: Draw or write about either one or both sibling protagonists. Choose either the Cortez siblings, the Wilson twins (and baby, if you like), or the Torrez-Tango siblings

Parents: Draw or write about either one or both spy parents. Choose either the Cortez parents, the Wilson parents, or the Torrez-Tango parents

Piblings: Draw or write about a spy uncle or aunt. Choose either Uncle Felix, Uncle Machete, or Aunt Marissa.

Grandparents: Draw or write about a spy grandparent. Choose either Grandpa Valentin or Grandma Helga.

OC: Draw or write about your Spy Kids OC

You have been activated: Draw yourself as a secret agent, Spy Kid or not

New Player: Draw yourself as a Game Over player/avatar

Fooglified: Draw yourself as a FoOglie

Ships: Draw or write a ship, romantically, platonically or queerplatonically (no NSFW or in__st)

Headcanons: Draw or write out any Spy Kids headcanons you might have

Chibis: Draw any character or more as small chibis

Family time: Draw or write about any family, birth or found, from the series, either in a group or just a few family members

Floop it up!: Draw or write about anyone from Floop's FoOglies. Either Floop, Minion, the Thumb Thumbs, or Carmenita and Junito.

Crossover: Draw or write Spy Kids in a crossover with another series (ie. Ben 10, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Kids Next Door etc.)

AU: Draw or write any character in an AU

Create a gadget: Got a new silly gadget idea fit for a Spy Kid? Draw it out and/or tell us what it does

Robot buddy: Either draw one or all of the Spy Kids' robot buddies (R.A.L.P.H., Argonaut, Bronson), or design your idea of a new robot buddy

Spy outfits: Either draw your favourite spy outfits, or design your idea of a new spy outfit

Strange creatures: Either draw one or all of the strange creatures throughout the franchise, mutant or otherwise, (FoOglies, Romero's mutant animals, Pogo Toads), or design your idea of your own strange creature.

Your assignment is...: Draw or write about the Spy Kids or Spy Families in any mission scenario anywhere in the world

Formal/undercover fashion: Draw any character who's a spy in formal wear, or clothes they're wearing while undercover.

Relaxing time: Draw or write about any character in their down time or on a holiday

Colurful: Draw any character in a colourful palette of your choosing

Memories: Draw or write a character flashing back to or recalling a memory (either canon, semi canon or headcanon)

Brithday/anniversary: Either draw or write a character celebrating a birthday, or draw an anniversary piece of SK1 (doesn't have to be big)

Free day!: Draw or write literally anything

[lotus-pear]

Hi! (Sorry this is long. I wasn’t sure how to shorten it)

I saw your most recent post involving your social experiment with your friend and I figured I can (maybe) contribute data to your social experiment!

Context: I started watching BSD somewhere around 2019 (I think I watched season 3 as it aired or it had just finished and it seemed like the anime ended). I accidentally found it, the description seemed interesting and the names looked familiar (i.e., I recognised some of them as authors right away)

So, I looked up the characters and while trying to minimise spoilers (and somehow mostly succeeded in that?) and was exposed and was exposed almost exclusively to knkdz (I didn’t realise Chuuya existed until I got to episode 9 and wasn’t aware of any other ships). It’s also worth noting that I didn’t really interact with fandoms that much back then (the most— for all the things I was a fan of/consumed— was accidentally discovering and seeing knkdz fan content. It seemed like an interesting ship)

Anyway, then I watched the show (and started the manga). The result? For me personally, I found knkdz to be the least interesting ship (romantic or queerplatonic)— don’t get me wrong/that being said, I *love* their canon relationship and whatnot

(We’ll see if that changes after I read the light novels since stuff like new manga scenes/arcs, Beast and Dazai, Chuuya, Age 15 have affected my opinions on characters, relationships and etc)

Most of the relationships I like to see when consuming content is actually platonic, with the few ships I do like being mostly queerplatonic (off the top of my head, I think the only actual romantic ship I have is Fitzgerald and his wife?), and all relationships being treated as roughly equally important

(And, if asked to list my favourite ships by order, it would have more to do with my favourite characters than actual ships lol)

Note: I’m on the romance-repulsed area/spectrum (for lack of a better word that I can think of at the moment) of AroAce so, like, that probably affects things lol

(That being said, it’s nice to see that BSD treats all relationships fairly equally and contributed me to liking the show so much!)

a response that i’ll make sure to factor in! i will say however that i have to disagree w you bc even as just friends or even going lower as just work acquaintances kunikida and dazai are written to have a lot deeper relationship than they actually let on. none of this is elaborated on in the anime or manga bc the series’s main focus is atsushi for the beginning but if you read dazai’s entrance exam you get kunikidas entire inner monologue abt dazai and it’s very interesting how quickly they latch onto each other. dazai’s reasons are more tragic than he lets on i believe, but until we get that directly from him we can only assume he gets so close to the ada and kunikida especially bc kuni reminds him of odasaku. that’s a whole tangent i can go on separately but suffice to say it’s the reason why he fell hard and followed him like a motherless duckling everywhere in the beginning, bc he saw oda’s unwavering resolve and firm ideals in that man. despite being in a conscienceless world that weighs survival against humanity, both oda and kunikida fight to ensure their personal beliefs are still held up. dazai finds that admirable in both men

[countlessrealities]

Ship bias Blitz

Ship bias meme || Accepting !

Blitz is pretty much the opposite of my Rick and Morty muses because, while I'm a little picky with the pairings I like (it's something that applies to me in general), I do ship him with quite a few canon characters!

Blitz & Stolas: they are my faves, but I don't want to see it in canon UNLESS done properly. Which means that those two dumbasses have to sit down and talk. My fave dynamic for them is fuck buddies to friends to lovers for this reason. They need to figure out how they feel about each other (Blitzo especially) and then build up a proper romantic relationship

Blitzo & Verosika: for them, I love first and foremost the whole bitter exes kind of relationship. It's something not explored enough in medias, at least in a serious way, and they would make a great pair for it. However, ngl, I'd also love seeing them making up, at some point. So maybe going from bitter exes to friends (with benefits). Vero knows Blitzo well and she doesn't take his bullshit, she could really help him get his head out of his ass, given the chance.

Blitzo & Millie & Moxxie: They are a fun throuple! I tend to see them more as found family, tbh, but I wouldn't mind seeing Blitzo getting his spot in the Ms' relationship (even if just as a friend with benefits). Ofc, as long as this doesn't ruin their friendship and work dynamics.

Blitzo & Fizzarolli: It's canon that Blitzo had a crush on Fizz when they were younger, and it honestly makes sense. Fizz was Blitzo's only real support system back then and perhaps the person who meant the most to him (together with Tilla and Barbie Wire). I'm loving their reconciliation arc (as much as it can be built in a 20min episodes cartoon) and I really want to see them being besties again. Tho, I think that my ideal dynamic for them, more than an actual romantic ship, is a queerplatonic relationship.

RP wise I currently don't have any well developed dynamic for my Blitzo, so I'm honestly open to anything. It all boils down to what kind of chemistry the muses will develop through threads!

[hyperfixation-or-death]

If you’re still doing the writers truth or dare ask game, how about 🍄 and 🧩?

oh, i absolutely am, let's do this. :)

🍄 ⇢ share a head canon for one of your favourite ships or pairings

ooh, okay, this one was kind of hard, because i'm mostly neutral on most romantic ships. like, they're fine, i just don't think as much about them? and i couldn't think of a headcanon for any platonic/queerplatonic ships i have.

however! there is a headcanon i have for Bilal Belkebirs and Romane Berthauds from Parallels. i technically already posted it, but i like it, so i'm posting it again (spoilers for Parallels, i guess):

Romane's mom still dies in the timeline without Sam and Victor, and she gets separated from her sister. She's grieving, she's basically had her entire sense of security yanked out from underneath her, and she doesn't know what to do with herself.

So she tries to focus on schoolwork, because she needs to keep her grades up, and she's missed enough school trying to deal with everything. But she ends up leaning too far into that focus, and she gets into the habit of studying late at night. And that leads to her getting very little sleep, which leads to her focusing worse during the day, which leads back to her having to study at night more.

It's a vicious cycle of stress and anxiety. And she does eventually break out of it, but while she's stuck in it, Bilal makes a habit of bringing energy drinks to school for her. Romane didn't realize that he was bringing them specifically for her until she remembered that Bilal didn't even drink caffeine, and connected the dots.

Once she realizes, she's really touched and grateful (and feels the slightest bit guilty for no real reason) but she's also still kind of sleep deprived, so basically it's a lot of emotions and they end up hugging. And the whole thing is just a pretty significant memory for Romane later in that timeline, because the situation she was in really sucked, but there were things like that that reminded her that she hadn't lost everything.

wow, that headcanon was longer than i thought. but yeah, they have a nice dynamic, i like it whether it's romantic or platonic. (although this takes place in the timeline where they end up married, so there's that.)

🧩 ⇢ what will make you click away from a fanfiction immediately?

Okay, I've only seen this a few times, but like. When a fic is written in almost a screenplay-like format? Except without the cues and stuff, just like:

Name: Dialogue.

Other Name: More dialogue.

First Name: Dialogue again.

And it goes on for the entire fic, not just a few quotes. To each their own, obviously; I actually used to write in that format a long time ago, but it's just really hard for me to read now. So, yeah, not my thing.

thanks for the ask!! have a great day! :)

[gender-snatched]

explain EXACTLY how clara is a horrible way for moffat to try to rip off rose but didnt manage to take any of the things that made rose a good character. Do it.

oh BABEY lets go. Under cut because you know how I get. Also because I’m tagging this and I have basic courtesy for Clara fans.

Okay, so this will be formatted in a very simple compare and contrast structure. Rose will come first in most examples.

Okay, so Rose and Clara have a lot of major similarities. First is that they are both romantic companions of the Doctor (where the Doctor has requited feelings, so not like Martha) who don't have an explicit kiss/confession/etc scene. They also both oversee the Doctor through a regeneration and have to adapt to a new Doctor.

That's not all that Clara and Rose have in common, but this is a good starting point to compare and contrast.

Rose and Clara both are in love with the Doctor and the Doctor loves them back. This is explicit, even if there isn't some sort of confession or kiss (prior to the beach scene/the end of Clara's run). I personally, as someone who didn't originally ship 9Rose/10Rose, think that Rose's was much better. Until I started romantically shipping Rose and the Doctor, I was able to injest their seasons as a queerplatonic relationship. I also didn't watch every episode and feel like there were distinctly romantic overtones that tainted it.

Clara is the exact opposite. Despite there not being any sort of confession or kiss, her run with the Doctor is completely saturated with the romantic tension in a sort of will-they-wont-they way. And it's almost unbearable if you don't ship them, which is so valid!

They also both have boyfriends at home, Mickey and Danny. Both Mickey and Danny are treated in similarly racist ways, but that's an essay for later. Mickey is Rose's boyfriend, and their relationship is cut short by her travelling with the Doctor. Still, we don't see Mickey try to actively stop her, and he does eventually even travel with them for a few episodes. Also, even though he loves Rose, we also see that he's had affairs while Rose is away, dampening any sort of sense of "hey should Rose have been having an emotional affair with the Doctor?"

Danny, on the other hand, is gained after Clara starts travelling on the TARDIS, meaning the relationship was never formed on a solid ground - Clara was in love with the Doctor. He's also deeply controlling of her trying to get on the TARDIS and travel, to the point that Clara lies about travelling with the Doctor. It's a deeply problematic relationship (and it ends weird jfc). It's a parallel to Mickey, except Mickey and Rose both remain at least likable in their relationship. This makes Clara and Danny both worse to me.

They also both see the Doctor through a regeneration (9 to 10 and 11 to 12). They are the only companions to do this - Donna didn't see 10 to 11 and Bill didn't see 12 to 13. It doesn't surprise me that it's tied in with their romantic feelings. It’s an easy romantic conflict, at least where Doctor Who is concerned. He changes his face and personality, is it still the same man?

Both react with a bit of concern at first, and surprisingly I actually really like Clara’s emotional conflict! Rose accepts it fast, which is good, but Clara’s little arc is fun. But still, not only is it almost unnecessary romantic drama, it makes this whole thing of “the doctor is so old now, is it weird I like him?” Personally, I did have that qualm about 12Clara. But I wouldn’t really have if it wasn’t for the show pushing it as a sort of moral thing. The way Moffat used it as this romantic roadblock made it seem like this terrible terrible thing (although I didn’t like 11 so I was vibing). In the end, it’s just another “too much to be a mistake” connection between Rose and Clara.

Okay, now that that’s out of the way. Bad Wolf vs the Impossible Girl. Quick summary first: Bad Wolf is a symbol that appears throughout season 1, only for it to be revealed at the end that Rose takes the heart of the TARDIS in and becomes Bad Wolf, spreading it through time to signal herself. Clara is the Impossible Girl because the Doctor meets her twice before actually meeting her (once as Oswin Oswald in a Dalek and again as Clara Oswin Oswald as a Victorian nanny), and she split herself into fragments to go through the Doctor’s history and save him from a guy who was doing the same thing to kill the Doctor.

So, the obvious parallels are that they both get that foreshadowing, it has to do with being spread through time, it involves saving the Doctor, and there’s a funky little name for it. Great! All of the companions up until Bill had a funky little name! (Seriously though where is Bill’s funky little name). But that’s not the thing about it. The thing is those other similarities.

The thing is, I’m insane about Bad Wolf. I love Bad Wolf. I think it’s a great romantic declaration as well as just so cool and interesting. But part of what makes Bad Wolf interesting is that it isn’t a mystery from Day One. I’ll admit that maybe it’s my personal preference, but the Impossible Girl is going “wow what’s up with Oswald” from the second time she ever shows up. Conversely, Bad Wolf is hard to notice and could just be a cool Easter Egg until the Doctor points it out in Boom Town. The need to finish this mystery keeps its hooks in more than the actual content of the episodes.

Also Clara’s stint as the Impossible Girl is to save the Doctor at the expense of herself. I don’t want to make this all about Moffat’s failures (although I could), but this is a common theme I’ve seen throughout Moffat’s era. The women seem to be completely there for the Doctor - even when they disagree with him. Clara is willing to die for the Doctor in this moment.

But that’s not what Bad Wolf is. Bad Wolf isn’t Rose going “I’m going to die for the Doctor”. It’s Rose going “hey, I’m going to save the Doctor (and Jack) and I won’t be left behind to a normal life I don’t want.” She didn’t know she was in danger! She just wanted to bring the TARDIS back to Station what’s it’s number!

And that’s what I don’t like about the companions in RTD’s ears vs Moffat’s era. RTD women certainly have their 2000s misogyny, but they pass the Bechdel test much more and seem to have far more agency in their relationship with the Doctor than any of Moffat’s women. All of Moffat’s women depend only on the Doctor while Rose was an entity separate from the Doctor - another reason her romance with 9 and 10 feels much more organic and palatable than Clara’s romance with 11 and 12.

Like. When Rose yelled at the Doctor it felt real and genuine and he worked to earn her forgiveness and Clara was like “that sucks dude!!!” and then remembered the Doctor was the Doctor and stopped.

Okay I’m done complaining about that. Onto the next!

I think I’ve run out of comparisons. I know I have more but I’ve forgotten them (hell mind) so now we’re going to go onto why Clara is just... less compelling than Rose.

I’ve already gone over the Moffat women vs RTD women thing, and I won’t revisit that. So I’m going to go over character differences that Rose had that made her more interesting and compelling that Clara is missing.

First, Rose is lower class! She’s got a lower class accent, lives in a flat with her mother, and works at a department store. She’s happy, but she’s lower class and that impacts her character! For example, like that one “what’re your pronouns and do you want to join a union” post about her and the Ood! She’s way more compassionate because of this, and care is taken to make her character from this (she wears Jackie’s hand me downs, even on the TARDIS).

On the other hand, Clara is middle class (? I don’t know how these things work in Britain). She lives in her own house, she’s got privileges, she’s a school teacher. And even though I’m middle class and want to be a teacher, it makes her harder to sympathize with because we see so little character of who she is here. Yes, she’s one of the most fully developed Moffat characters outside of her relationship with the Doctor, but it still isn’t that human, because it feels like it’s the standard of what you expect. Contrast this with Rose, who has a very real and well thought out life outside of the Doctor.

Rose also has more friends - or at least some sort of social life. She drops names - Shareen, a few more I can’t remember - and she knows people! Someone from the shop, or some guy’s daughter. When she comes back, Jackie fills the flat with people. Because Rose has friends! It makes her seem so human!

And then Clara has what? A few people, and Danny. That’s it. She’s totally dependent on the Doctor. It doesn’t make her any more human. And that’s the problem. Rose is human first, and a companion second. Clara is a companion (and female) first, and a human second.

Also, Clara is hard to concentrate on because we have seen this before. This sort of “will they won’t they” “they’re in love but they don’t say it” was done with Rose. We have a vague idea of how it’ll turn out, and surprise! It does turn out very similarly.

Plus, Clara has two fun things of “being the Doctor as a companion” and “being the Hybrid”. However, these are not written incredibly well, because of the obsession with keeping her a companion. Compare them to Yaz in Flux and PotD, where they pull off the “companion as the Doctor” trick without even having Yaz describe herself as the Doctor. In comparison, Clara is only the Doctor and the Hybrid if the Doctor is close by.

In the end, Clara is fun! There are aspects of her run I love! Time Heist is one if my favorite episode! The “do you really think I love you so little that betraying me would make a difference?” line is so compelling! Heaven Sent/Hell Bent are amazing episodes! But their potential completely outweighs what they were. So, when I compare Rose and Clara, I not only see Rose as a much more compelling character, I see Clara as an echo of Rose.

[phoenixkaptain]

If you don't mind me asking, who are your favorite romantic relationship's couples in books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series (can be canon or non-canon)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

This is a bit difficult for me because I am very particular about my romances. It took me a long time to come to terms with the fact that I myself don’t really want romance, so I’ve always gravitated to two types of couples. The type who are best friends / old married couples, ie: they’re comfortable with each other and know each other well, or the type who are almost immediately rabidly obsessed with each other. Hannibal Lecter and Will Graham come to mind.

I like couples where the woman plays the masculine role and the man plays the feminine one. (Mouri Ran and Kudou Shinichi are my primary example for this, because Ran is a Karate champion who can punch throw concrete and commonly acts more as a guard for other characters than a damsel and Shinichi is melodramatic and fixates on details and has a real talent for saying rude things in a cutesy voice. They’re each other’s hero a lot, rhey save one another a lot, and I like that dynamic of theirs)

I don’t really understand attraction based on sexual interest. Like, I don’t understand wanting to date someone just for sex. I get why people want to have sex, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t understand why people would ask someone out just for sex? Like, if you just want sex, just ask for sex straight out. Why’ve you gotta date for a while? I don’t really get it.

All that being said, my favourite couples are either very boring or extremely bizarre. I admit as much.

Like, I very much enjoy Marth / Caeda from Fire Emblem. They know each other and Marth got his little circlet from her and they have some very cute interactions! On the other hand, I also ship Marth / Michalis because Michalis made an offhand comment all of once about finding Marth terrible but begrudingly respecting him and all I could think of was “slowburn, enemies-to-lovers, 250k words)

I ship a lot of things and I ship characters with multiple other characters and I ship polycules. It’s pretty rare that I find a ship I actively dislike, actually. I’m just a bit too easygoing about it all. Even if I’m uninterested in a ship, I can be convinced if there’s cute art or something.

Ah, I miss the days when people wrote essays on why they shipped characters. I know it was mostly for queer romances, but those always helped me interpret what others saw as romantic. So many of those posts were so detailed and fun to read. Even if two characters barely interacted, I loved reading someone’s essay on why they ship them. Even if characters have never interacted, I enjoyed reading essays on why they would make an interesting couple.

I know this didn’t really answer the question, but I honestly struggle with listing what ships I enjoy. There are too many of them, quite frankly, and some of them are couples that I just ship in a queerplatonic way that toes the line between platonic and romantic.

That being said, here are some of my favourite queerplatonic ships:

Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn. My favourite dynamic for them was in the novel Cloak of Deception. It mentioned their size difference a lot, which I really enjoy (Obi-Wan is not tiny! They just kept putting Ewan Mcgregor next to giants! He is average height, honestly) But most importantly, it portrayed their relationship as Qui-Gon getting distracted by something for a few minutes only to whip around and look around for his Padawan wildly. This man has left Obi-Wan at a gas station before. They snark at each other and are just overall very comfortable with each other and the whole thing makes me very happy, I wish there were fics based on this dynamic (aside from my own)

Qui-Gon Jinn and Luke Skywalker. These two have never met. They do not know each other. Qui-Gon dies long before Luke was born and nobody ever mentions Qui-Gon to Luke. But, and I’ve said this before, they are oddly similar and I think it would be fun to watch them hang out. They are like two tuning forks ringing in perfect harmony. They are so similar, they are a mirror to each other, and I love the idea of them bonding over plants.

Furuya Rei and Kudou Shinichi. I don’t know how to describe their dynamic. They are suspicious of each other. They trust each other with their lives. Conan can tell that Amuro (Furuya) isn’t who he says he is. Furuya can tell that Conan isn’t who he says he is. They bond over stupid things. Furuya gets stalked for his ham sandwich recipe. Conan cannot believe that this man is this stupid. I don’t know, I like their dynamic. I like Furuya taking one look at Conan and saying “what a suspicious lil guy. I’m going to feed him in hopes that he returns like a stray cat.” It is very fun to read and to write.

I suppose you could say that my favourite ships, romantic or otherwise, are ones where they will sit across from each other in comfortable silence.

And I like ones that are mutually insane. Again, Hannibal and Will. Hannibal in the Red Dragon (novel) gets so upset that Will dared to not give him his phone number and home address that he figured out Will’s home address for the sole purpose to send a serial killer to his door out of petty revenge. When Will gets stabbed in the face at the end of the book and is in the hospital, Hannibal writes him a letter that ends with “I hope you aren’t ugly now.” In Silence of the Lambs, Hannibal Lecter meets the first woman he’s been able to have any contact with in literal years, and his first question is “Where’s Will Graham? If they’re going to send someone to pick my brain, they’re going to send Will Graham. Where is he?” (He is in Florida drinking beer and ignoring Crawford’s increasingly desperate phone calls)

Hope this is somewhat what you were looking for.

[secretagentspydetectiveninja]

Ship thing, phoenix and maya qpr. Also matt and lucía. OH AND GABRIEL AND NATHALIE, I MEANT TO ASK YOU ABOUT THEM !!

ahhhh thank you spin!!

phoenix and maya qpr:

I LOVE THEM SO MUCH, THEY MEAN EVERYTHING TO ME. the way they interact with each other and that adorable dynamic they have, the way they both helped each other through their grief over losing mia, and when maya had to go back to kurain for a while nick was so depressed he stopped taking cases... and when she got kidnapped and he was willing to go to such extremes to save her!! the fact that phoenix would willingly run across a burning bridge just to check if maya's okay!! they look after pearl together!! and i won't spoil the later games for you but over a decade has passed and their friendship is still going so so so strong for so many reasons. their love for each other hasn't diminshed through the years (and it also hasn't turned romantic, which is so fricking refreshing for a m/f main duo), they are like queerplatonically married to me. i can't describe how much i love them. they would do anything for each other and it makes me insane.

matt and lucía:

to be honest they have such little canon personality that most of it is just made up in my head. BUT!! they are CANONICALLY best friends!! they're also both champions, both have the same favourite colour, both hardest difficulty on wii party, they're both on fritz's basketball team... there's so many similarities that make their friendship really make sense! brotp or otp, i have no preference, it's perfect either way. i love these silly little miis

gabriel and nathalie:

(i haven't watched the recent few episodes so if anything happened between them in those, i don't know about it yet!) until about early season 5 i didn't actually think much of these two, but now... ohohoho. there's certainly SOMETHING going on there, i just have no idea what. some weird love-hate relationship or something? to tell the truth i feel like there's a bisexual love triangle going on with these two and emilie (or a square, if we add in harry clown). they're both in love with her but also have an affair going on with each other but are also divorced at the same time and nathalie wants to adopt gabriel's son because he's a terrible father. i haven't thought about them enough but whatever weird thing they have going on, it's definitely interesting and i sort of hope they make each other worse because it's fascinating to me. (i think i should definitely consider this ship more, since i'm way too into toxic relationships these days, romantic or platonic or sibling or whatever...)

[mikaharuka]

Edelgard for the character ask game please!

Heyo Iris! Thanks for the ask~

1: sexuality headcanon: Interestingly enough, my headcanons for JP and EN Edelgard differ.

For EN Edelgard, bisexual with a strong preference for women.

For JP Edelgard, however, pansexual. Did you know that JP Edelgard is the only major character in JP FE3H whose lines are exactly the same, no matter if you play as Bereto (m!Byleth) or Beresu (f!Byleth)? That's pretty much proof that her feelings are based on Byleth as a person and are independent of gender. Hence the pan headcanon.

2: otp: Oooh, Edelthea is my favorite! Though I also enjoy Edeleth as well~

3: brotp: Hubert, hands down. I mean... it's pretty blatantly clear how much they mean to each other. And in fact, their JP supports together with their paired ending seriously gives me strong queerplatonic vibes.

4: notp: Hubert - I mentioned it elsewhere, but my strongest brotps also tend to be my strongest notps. True, Ferdibert is my one FE3H monoship, making conflicting ships 'technically notp by default', but this specific pair draws a very strong reaction from me precisely *because* I see them as queerplatonic or an extremely close platonic pair.

I should note that this is all with JP conversations in mind. The JP supports mention 'strong feelings', but the charge and target of said feelings were left open ended. So while you could read the charge as romantic and the target as Edelgard, it is far from explicit or definitive. Meanwhile the EN localization took away all the nuance and ambiguity and explicitly declared a charge and target. I could go on forever about localization issues, but I'd be here all day >.>

5: first headcanon that pops into my head She's such a strong romantic, even if she hides it. Well... that part is canon, but small things like loving romance-driven media is my HC!

6: favorite line from this character Oh, I adore JP Edelgard - her softer personality (relative to EN Edelgard, at least) just shines in these subtle ways. A personal favorite is from the JP Edelthea A support. Here is the EN line, the JP line, the transliteration, and my translation of the JP line in italics:

Don’t you see? No story about me would be complete without the character of Dorothea. わからない？私の物語には、貴方ガ必要だもの。 [Wakaranai? Watashi no monogatari ni wa, anata ga hitsuyo da mono.] You don’t understand? In my story, you are irreplaceable.

Indirect, non-explicit confessions of love are extremely popular in Japanese. "The moon is beautiful, isn't it?" (tsuki ga kirei desu ne) is the most famous example of this. With the surrounding context and unspoken subtext, this is pretty much a confession of love.

There are a few details that help - 'hitsuyo' translates as 'essential', 'necessary', 'vital', or 'indispensable'. Also, while 'monogatari' means 'story', JP Edelgard is also talking about her life in this context - I settled on 'irreplaceable' because it fits 'hitsuyo' and the tone.

7: one way in which I relate to this character Being a secret romantic? Pfft totally me. Though my 'secret' nature is only the case IRL. To those who know me online? Super obvious lol

8: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character Tbh... I'm having a little difficulty thinking of an obvious answer here.

9: cinnamon roll or problematic fave? As much as I love Edelgard, I do have to say 'both' - I can't quite discount her actions, after all. But on her personality alone, she's absolutely a cinnamon roll - both versions of her, too~

[check out my other answers for this ask in this post]

[sormatumb]

"Romance", society, media, viewers and shipping

(or "hey, I forgot I can post my stuff and write my bullshit ramblings, let's do it for once")

Note: This is just personal ramblings to take it out of my chest, and despite being this long I actually tried to cut as much stuff as possible to not be long, so please don't come up with "what if" scenarios to try to gotcha me in bad faith, please. Thank you.

I've always felt conflicted about describing myself as "aromantic". I've never had any of those passionate crushes where your mind gets obsessed with one person to the point it consumes everything. However, there seems to be an assumption that just because of it I can't have anybody, and that I'm perfectly okay because if I don't feel that, it means I'm just fine with simple distant friendships. Yet I crave for physical and emotional intimacy (sexual very little, I'm heterosexual but don't really crave for it with a partner), and I see the tenderness of people who love each other and I want it too.

And to associate it with media, I love many romance series, though when they get super possessive and the series validates it I nope out really fast. But I also value strong and super intimate friendships, the kinds people make fun of for being corny or bait or if they like them they say it's romantic subtext, regardless of how heteronormative the series is and in a context of a mainstream publication where heteronormativity dominates all. Likewise, I've never been fond of shipping, even the ones who know it's just for fun and simple "what if"s that are outside what the author may intend or not (the ones who take it beyond that are obnoxious, we can all agree with tat), while of course to each their own there was always something about all of this that rubbed me the wrong way, combined with some guilt that I may just have latent homophobia or something.

But after giving it thought, searching, and reading a few books, now I see what was bugging me all this time. And the key is "romance": what the hell is this? We understand it's an innate feeling within us to be a couple with somebody and a whole lot of baggage, but when you see definitions about it, especially with our current understanding, things get murky. Now we distinguish between romantic and sexual feelings, even labeling as different identities depending of the gender preference or not at all, which means they're separate. Current neuroscience also seems to validate this, since the affective and sexual components in our brain are different parts that work with different substances, regardless of whether they can complement each other or not.

But then what's left of "arromantic" people who haven't had that common experience of "romance" yet still want that intimacy? The community has created whats called "queerplatonic" relationships, in theory to condense what is "beyond friendship but not romance", but when you see definitions, you often find "it's like romance in everything except physical and sexual intimacy and relationships", and then we find the contradictions: if sex and romance are separated, and physical intimacy is something you can have with everyone (your family for example), then what is the difference? In fact, since we are so fond of chosen families, if we consider them they also don't fit under the basic label of romance, and most of the feelings are also covered by it. So what has romance that the others don't to be considered a different thing?

Honestly, the answer is really simple: it's a social construct that tries to sell itself as the most important feeling to sell a particular box of partnerships that modern society is based on. It's a social contract.

When we see how love works in neuroscience with the current and most accepted paradigms (which could be off since the brain is still a mystery, but it's the most consistent thus far), we find two kinds of love: passionate love and companionate love. The first one is what we call a crush, squeesh, love at first sight, infatuation, etc. that state where your brain is in obsession mode over something for a short period of time (between weeks/months to a year usually). Then we have companionate love, which is the more gentle yet stronger and faithful love one has for the others, which can last decades or all one's life. It's usually understood that a romantic relationship starts with one and then slowly transitions to the other, but these kinds of love are not exclusive to "romance": they define every positive relationship we have, from friends to family to lovers; they all use the same mechanisms, and with no consistent levels. There exists what they call platonic crushes, and you can have companionate love for anybody. So when you think about it, romance has no specific definition in all of this aside of being an extremely heavy display of passionate love; and even this depends of the person, for many it's way more subdued. So if we want to still associate the word to a feeling, this is the only one that could have some basis. If we wanted to keep the term for the feelings, maybe we should talk about strictly "stronger than usual infatuation" (because we still have infatuations for people regardless of the gender, though it's likely that many people only have them way stronger for one gender, in that regard I don't know, but magnitude would be the key).

But with the feelings deconstructed, then what has of social contract? It's basically what we have been told how to process when we have these kinds of feelings in modern society: we should partner with that someone and only one, have a social contract of partnership that involves spending all time together and disregarding many other relationships, reserve an exclusivity contract of sex or intimacy for only them, spend time together all the time, scale up the relationship so you live together, share everything including bed, satisfy all your needs by yourselves, live independent from everyone else, remove any privacy between both of you, etc. (I'm skipping the stuff that are put more into question nowadays like compulsory sex or kids, the other stuff I describe is generally more accepted that all relationships should have). This is not an universal experience, it's a very specific one, it's a tightly constructed box that, yeah, some people may be more flexible with it, but at the end of the day it's really restrictive and because we have it so internalized, we see many incompatibility problems that surge between that box as unsolvable because the box's walls must be maintained.

What we tend to forget is that this is a very modern concept and terminology, born from 19th century and combined with the nuclear family model from the 20th century under the capitalist system which tends to individualize people so much they now are on their own and tough break surviving by themselves. But when you see on the past and other cultures (the least affected by western colonialism) you see a lot of other models, and for the most part, they tend to be waaaaaaay more colectivist and communal. And many studios have shown that this usually results in a better way to support each other because the responsibility doesn't fall on a few people against the rest of the world who at most will look apathetically at them, they tend to support each other. And of course, many have other systems of power and oppression that must be challenged, but they also found within it a way to enjoy their lives however they can, and even built relationships and love concepts in totally different ways.

I read the book "The Other Significant Others" by Rhaina Cohen, a book about the importance of relationships who don't fit under basic friendship or romance, and puts a lot of examples of people who have different ways: deeply intimate friends but with very different norms, contact, support, livelihoods, etc. and how they have improved their lives in a world that often forces them to love and partner in a specific way and then forces them to sustain like that despite the current capitalist system being made to make them miserable and vent they struggles on each other. To put some examples (they were recent and honest interviews with them, not assumptions):

A christian pastor conflicted about homosexuality that however sees the value in deep friendships and livelihoods with other men with no sex, lives with one who is a dear friend he sustains his life with, and even fighting against the christian church that considers their relation taboo when in fact that's something that has happened for most of history: deep friendships are described constantly in medieval texts from both religious and secular perspectives, from everybody to everybody, particularly in times where marriage was family arrangements and power unions instead of love-driven. And yes, some of them may have feelings that fall more in line with what we consider romantic or even sexual (though privately, since penetrative sex for fun was a horrible sin), but many actually enjoy their deepest friendship and celebrate it while being perfectly comfortable with the social system, not defining themselves as a romantic couple living together wasn't a problem for them (honestly, when they live in a communal town, they already kind of live together), the same way many here are happy with a system that is also full of holes. Obviously their society was also full of holes in many ways that are obvious to us, and even that contemporary pastor could be questioned about his rejection of explicit homosexual sex even from a biblical standpoint; but he understands that affection is a totally different thing and that can be just as much or more important, and so did many people centuries ago (it's kinda funny how much mileage people had when sex was only considered if there was penetration, everything else was fair game).

Women married with men but who have deep friendships between them and even live together. Because there are not established assumptions about how these relationships work, they force themselves to talk about what's their level of closeness and where are their limits to have room to breath, and not being forced to it; which allows them to enjoy and support each other, and avoid the hardest parts of being next to each others.

A child with different mothers, the biological one and a friend who got so involved in supporting them when they were alone that she didn't just become what we tend to say "an aunt" but someone with such a role the child also considered her another mother, and later another woman who lived with them who also helped. They were not polyamorous, the mothers where close friends but they didn't fit at all in that model, yet the co-parenting is still present, and that way of relegating responsiblities for the hardships of modern life (especially for single parents) that has allowed them to grow happy, and again, because they don't make assumptions about their relationships, can define the links and the barriers each one has to create the least amount of friction. Yet this also comes with limitations, because the law didn't allow legal co-parenting and therefore many were exempt of all the privileges that married couples do (hospital visits, tax-stuff, etc.).

Widowed women who live together instead of alone or in a residence that doesn't feel like home, in a way where they both take care of each other and enjoy their company on the lonely old age, and are there for each other if something happens to the other. This reminded me to my grandma, whose friend (a lesbian with three children who all abandoned her when she was left with nothing and lived with one of the most abusive daughters until the daughter kicked her mother out of home) appared with suitcases on my grandma's house because she had nowhere to go, and my grandma (widowed and lonely on a flat on a city she didn't know anybody because she lived in a town all the time beforehand and couldn't adapt), decided to take care of her. My grandma wasn't comfortable with gayness as a concept but she doesn't judge anybody and just prefer not to think about it, so with her human decency and long-established friendship she took care of her, and decades ago when people thought both were a couple (because they knew the friend was lesbian so you know, assumptions) my grandma just brushed it up without affecting their friendship and they remained close. Thanks to my grandma, the friend lived for a year and a half with her from being a husk of a human being to someone slowly gaining hope and happiness, in a comfortable space where each respected each other's boundaries, and felt less lonely. The friend died of a heart attack, and my grandma while rememoring those times she felt happier than ever since living there (and then sadder when she came back to her lonely life after that experience) and said she loved her as if she were her sister; the terminology is what she found with her vocabulary to explain the deep bond they have, but is still ever so important regardless.

An ancedote about Saudi Arabia: because their society splits more ofently relations between men and women, one thing they have is that people of one gender have deeply intimate friendships with other people of the same gender, both men and women, and gets reflected in the way they talk and touch. George Bush once walked with one of the top people in a diplomatic visit with both walking with their hands hold, and then people from USA had to be told that George Bush was responding in kind with how people interact there. So yes, even something like intimate touch like holding hands is not something reserved for romantic couples, while we may see it sometimes with women here, not even men are exempt from it. And this comes from a deeply homophobic society that won't accept certain limits, but even still we can learn of human experience and how we work by contrasting with each other.

Different concepts of love over history that encapsulate different stuff in different ways, the most known being the four loves on ancient Greek (eros, storge, philia and agape), which don't map one to one with our current ones, and that's reflected on how many society structure were on those times, and the same with many others.

etc. etc. It's a long book with many more relations and thoughts about different stuff and ways people deal with modern society, but just goes to show how many different ways are, how our modern assumptions and even what we call "common sense" can hurt us and make us miserable and lash out on each other instead of looking for ways to support one another or find ways that are not contained in that box we call "romantic couple/marriage", and how the system is wholy unprepared for them. The whole thing about romance being this exclusive superior thing that everybody should aspire to, the peak of human happiness, and only and ideal way of living, can be extremely toxic and is whats called "amatonormativity" (I know many people may be tired of new terms, but it's the word they use for this so let's keep it), and don't realize that this nuclear family model wrapped under this social contract disguised as "peak feeling" mostly serves the capitalist system than being the most ideal way of living (which isn't even true, you know how awful is to be a couple, maintain a house and educate kids nowadays), and limit us from enjoying many possibilities of relations because we are under many binding social contracts with each other and making hierarchies about which one is more important.

And this is something that the LGBTQA+ movement has also fallen to by trying to adapt to the current system, sadly. The movement on its earlier stages, while missing reflections in some areas, was also more radical in their structures and at signaling the problems, particularly when it comes to the society's faults and wanting to form communal chosen families; but since changing the whole family structure was not going to work very well (it's hard already for society to accept you without questioning their structure and just accept you to be there, imagine if you do), many tried to compromise and adapt to the current system, and two of these things are the most clear:

Marriage: gay marriage wasn't conceptualized a lot before the 90s aside of a few keys, mostly because they saw the marriage as an oppressive system that is part of the problem. However, because of wanting to validate many relationships that fall under the same values, and especially the legal recognition, it became a goal, and honestly may be a miscall. Don't get me wrong, I'll celebrate whenever any country legalizes gay marriage (I've even unfollowed activists who rage when that happens because it reinforces the institution of marriage, I know there are short-term priorities that people need now), but the institution of marriage itself is still the problem and is still monogamous, strict and strictly joining love with legal social union to survive, which should be separate things. Polyamory has the same problem: it's not monogamous, but everything else about the contract is the same, just with more than one people; so while it may become the next goal, honestly I'd try to propose (or at least promote for the far future) different union models that allow the flexibility people need when making different kinds of social contracts based on whatever.

Language: while queer terminology tries to add new terms to define most human experiences, we are basing it from what can be considered a flawed root, with the whole romance and such, and a over-reliance on labels as identifiers. In fact, when we combine this with our separation of everything with the hetero/homo/bi/pan/a stuff people can get out of hand and invent bullshit like heteroplatonic as I once read someone (so you can't be friends with people of your same gender??). And these labels often can create more conflict and turmoil than anything because instead of the labels describing you, they are used for you to adapt to those labels; probably you see a lot of people struggling with this on whether they can be considered gay, bi, trans, etc. In an ideal world, most of the labels would be pointless or we wouldn't think that much about them because we wouldn't have a very strict default by which to distinguish with all those labels because it would be common. Of course, that's in a more ideal world, not for the short-term journey to it where we need them because that's how society classifies it and there are many things to explore within them to detect problems and such (basically, never fall in a colorblind equivalent that perpetuates the same problems), and many people value their identities and the culture of joy and resistance against the system and that's something worth keeping around, but I think it's good to be aware of this so we don't assume as a matter of fact that we have the best terminology right now, given the origin with the shaky "romance" concept.

Many of the things I said happened to fall under what I found out was called "relationship anarchy", which is a concept recently developed (like, early 10s) in Sweden and slowly spread to other countries, most recently divulged thanks to the book "Relational Anarchy: Occupy Intimacy" by Juan Carlos Pérez Cortés (it's apparently the first book on the subject written 2-4 years ago, originally in spanish and then translated to english, so hey, Spain is ahead on the curve on something over english communities) which incorporates to the anarchism movement how to apply it to relationships with our current understanding of queer theory and many things I've mentioned. It's very tied to anarchy so not everybody will be on board, but I think it's good to know it as a toolkit viewpoint by which to examine the world and have a different perspective to not fall into the same assumptions. Basically what it does is allowing any kind of relation anybody wants with anybody as long as it's consensual, well debated and agreed the barriers and closeness, avoiding any kind of unequal power dynamic and constantly reexamine how it's going, and a colectivist approach to relationships that aren't restricted; and therefore, heavily critical of the capitalist and hetero and amatonormative society I described early. Of course, this is just a short definition, it's a whole book examining everything, including exceptions and short-term goals, and you don't have to subscribe to all of it or change your ways, but I think it's worth so at the very least you don't judge people with relationships outside the norm that are still perfectly consensual and positive.

Anyway, all that to say why I'm not fond of the romance concept that much anymore; even the books I've quoted kind of accept the term as inevitable but when you analyze everything I feel this is just a box that tries to pack human feelings into an ideal we have to pursue and the whole society and laws are based around it, and I think this has caused many problems: your typical incels who can't find happiness with their few like-minded friends because they are convinced they need a woman and sex that they are owed to and must dominate to be happy instead of crave affection they can give to each other and ultimately become so toxic; married couples that let everything become worse and worse because they can't conceptualize needs beyond those boxes when it turns out they weren't compatbile enough to live under that strict box; couples who break up because they can't live to one or two of the hundred of standards they say a romantic couple should have, and if there are kids in the middle it can break them; etc. But mostly, what bothers me is the fact that every other kind of relationship gets trivialized and regarded as "not important", and therefore when you see real intimacy between people who don't fit in the "normal friends" or "romantic lovers" that society usually expects to, many people can judge, despite within them actually knowing they are valid, because most of us already know and accept many who do in different ways. So that's why romance is not a pedestal for me anymore, and honestly I don't even feel like describing myself as arromantic, because I don't even want to give that term the importance to define myself by it (though maybe I'll have to if I want to explain myself with shorthands).

And now to talk about media, because that's why I wanted to talk about but I needed to establish all this beforehand ^^u.

Even in our oppressive society that affects our mentalities, we still crave for those stronger intimacies, particularly in dramatic and cathartic stories, which is why many have them; let's go with manga and anime for example. The authors may not be progressive, but they still want to represent these deeper friendships between characters that are also complex and with different ways to interact; without ever expecting to be thought as traditional romance, and they probably even would mock the idea if they were told, but still believe in their super deep friendship. And we see that a lot even in shows that are not doing it with bait intentions; my favorite example is episode 3 of "Tanaka-kun is always listless": an extroverted girl wanted the main character Tanaka to teach her how to be cool to have confidence to say a dear person to her that she loves them, which Tanaka thinks it's romantic to a guy. Then we found out that a female friend of that girl, concerned about her because they felt distant recently, is the one she wanted to say "I love you", in a super childish cutesy exaggerated way of saying "I super duper love you", and they just smile calmly and leave the scene together, while Tanaka and his friend just think "oh, so that's what she meant". When we all saw it we thought "oh, nice they just made a confession and romantic couple so casually, it's not common to see"... until we see the next episodes and these characters come back and while still close friends they don't act as a romantic couple ever and one is even having anxiety of whether she likes some of the male friends around her completely divorced from that, in a way that makes clear that scene wasn't a confession, it was an intimate kinda-cute-childish way of a friend saying to another how much they love her, and that is a copout of the author.

But that's my thing now: is it really a coupout? Why could she not say that? Is it not valid to reassure your friendships if you want? That's how I've been feeling a lot with many intimate friendships that many people say it's obvious bait or subtext. And sometimes it may be the intent to be bait or subtext. But a lot of times I just think I'm jealous and I'd want to do that, when you see a lot of female friends being super intimate in series both physically and emotionally, or in some instances men too. And we all know that a friendship can be serious business for our emotional state, for example if there's a heartbreaking breakup or something. So for me all these stories are not bait or fake or disregarding real homoromantic relationships: they are normal, they are constant, and we crave for them, and just as important as many others. If anything, sometimes it can feel like a collective subconscious human cry for help in current times, yearning to be free.

And that's why shipping isn't really for me; because instead of seeing the actual relation two characters have and how that is just as beautiful and heartwarming as a romantic couple, there seems to be an assumption that it is inferior to if they were romantically involved and usually dropping whatever made that relation interesting with all the pluses and minuses. And most of the time I end up just loving more strong friendships over romance: I prefer the friendship (not romance) of Naruto and Sakura over the romance of Naruto and Hinata; I love the friendship between Shizuo and Celty from DRRR; Yuji and Nobara's friendship from Jujutsu Kaisen is great and the little comedic twist where Nobara's heart skipping a beat over someone liking Yuji turns out she's annoyed that he could gain a partner before she gains another is perfect; and I think Sora and Riku or Roxas and Axel have a nice friendship despite some friends telling me it's badly written because they can't see them being intimate as anything other than romance and therefore it's bait. And I also love a lot of couples that are full-on traditional romances, because this is not basing my preferences on rejecting the current model, but on just enjoying any kind of relationship between the characters that I like, both more and less intimate, more traditional or less, or whatever.

(And honestly, a lot of times shipping is consumed in a way that it just feels like porn, if not sexual porn then emotional porn that people do just to liberate some catharsis, which is perfectly good of course and there's nothing wrong with it (it's pretty cool that one can have such an attachment to some fictional characters that these shippings can give you so much catharsis and happiness, I say this 100% honest and positive), but aside of maybe a few instance it's just not for me)

Anyway, the last point I wanted to bring is people who say that not accepting these deep friendships as romance removes the queerness out of them and dropping value out of the work. My response is (aside that I think the heteronormative angle in one's work can be very obvious to assume they're going to do anything explicitly homoromantic as society understands it), depends of your definition of queerness: if it's just each current individual letter on the LGBTQA+ and their textbook definition, then no, it's not queer. But if you go to the spirit of the word, which is accepting everything that current society has a hard time accepting or tolerating (society that includes even many branches of the current LGBTQA+ movement), and learning to appreciate every relation for what it is regardless of it being a friendship, romance, whatever inbetween them, some totally different way of classifying them or no labels at all; then yes, I think it's still queer, because people's common reaction to reject honest expressions of love outside of the boxes they know proves the point by itself. But still, it's not like being attached to the queer term, like the term itself is prestige, is the point; it's the defitinion, the fact of appreciating the whole of human positive experience and possibilites.

[sparklywaistcoat]

@celluloidbroomcloset tagged me. Whoever else on here wants to play, please do so, and tag me so that I can see your answers!

Three ships:

Steed/Emma - They're awesome and they're totes in a relationship. 'nuff said.

Aziraphale/Crowley - I ship them as romantic, but as ace/queerplatonic. I don't think they're in a sexual relationship because angels and demons aren't sexual beings. I'm not going to argue about this, so don't @ me. I'll just ignore you or block you, depending on how cranky I'm feeling.

Russell/Holmes - I love their dynamic, and Russell is just the most awesomesauce female character ever, alongside Emma Peel and Cathy Gale. Russell and Holmes got me through some really tough times. Also I wish Russell had been around when I was a kid. Strong badass GNC women characters FTW!

First ship:

Depends on what you mean by "ship." Historically I've never really been all that interested in character relationships (I'm ace, sue me). But I guess you could say Faramir/Eowyn and Taran/Eilonwy, since those actually grabbed my attention a bit when I was a kid.

Last Song:

Not technically a song, but it's what I was listening to while I was working yesterday.

Last movie:

The Stepford Wives (1975). I'm kinda obsessed with this one, tbh, and have blogged a bunch of blogs about it. You can find those here. Gonna write some more about this one when I have time, and will post both here and on my WordPress blog that I just linked above.

Currently reading:

Nothing at the moment, but I have plans to read Lantern's Dance by Laurie R. King soon. Gotta see what Russell and Holmes's latest shenanigans are all about!

Currently watching:

Mostly cheesy paranormal stuff on YouTube.

Currently eating:

Nothing at the moment; lunch was a while ago and dinner isn't for a few hours yet.

Current craving:

Sleep. I'm exhausted.

[oc-x-canon-chaos]

Finally making an intro post. Hi

Sup. I’m a cringey little weirdo and I like Vocaloid, as you can tell from my profile picture. I am autistic and rely on imagining fictional characters to help me handle tough stuff in my life. Keep that in mind if you talk to me.

I do not tolerate ship discourse. I don’t care if you’re pro or anti, if I don’t like the ship, I’m blocking you. Im curating my experience, and my experience says no to basically every popular ship. If you don’t like that, this isn’t the blog for you, the only ship stuff I’m reblogging is me x my F/O. I think “pro ship” people are childish and immature, so if you unironically call yourself that, leave me alone and touch grass, but I’ve also had people say I’m a bad person for self shipping with a video game villain, so like. Extremists on either side DNI. I will block you. Fyi, I WILL block and report adults who self ship with minors. ESPECIALLY if the character isn’t aged up. I know there’s nuance to aging up characters if they naturally sue over the course of their story or whatever, but if the character is a kid and your s/I is an adult it grosses me out and it’s creepy af.

I also block people whose self ships are purposefully abusive. It feels like you’re romanticizing abuse and idc if it’s a coping mechanism, it makes me uncomfortable and I’m controlling MY experience. I’m fine with “sharing” F/Os, as long as you aren’t shaming my headcannons while you do it. I’m not gatekeeping Megurine Luka from everyone ever, I just don’t want to get harassed because you don’t like the pet name I think she’d use for me. Im a polyselfshipper, so all the fictional characters I’m “dating” are with me at the same time. Right now, I only have two romantic F/Os, and they aren’t dating each other. Most of my F/Os are platonic or familial. If I’m posting about an underage character, assume they’re my imaginary adopted child. I’m not being gross about them, I promise. I love interacting in reblog games! I might make some of my own!

My F/Os include:

Megurine Luka. She’s a romantic/queerplatonic partner of mine, and she’s very sweet. I imagine she’s with me to help when I’m in a crowded situation or experiencing anxiety— she is an idol, after all, and she’s used to crowds!

Springtrap. Yes, that Springtrap. He’s a queerplatonic/romantic partner. He’s here to make me feel like I have someone strong and scary on my side, to defend me. On the other side, I show him how to be a person again, by taking care of my needs. It’s a real “I can fix him” situation.

Hatsune Miku. She’s a platonic/best friend F/O. She helps with my self esteem, and makes me feel a loved and appreciated. Also, she’s Miku. There are no cons of imaginary best friend Miku.

Elizabeth Afton. Before anyone gets concerned, she is a familial F/O. I see her as my adopted kid. She helps me feel like I can protect and care for someone, and that I’m not irresponsible enough to let her get Circus Baby’d.

Withered Chica! She’s like my daughter and I love her so much. I think the official lore is that me and Springtrap adopted her (in my self ship AU, he’s separate from William, he just has his soul, so he wasn’t technically responsible for that happening to her)

Kaai Yuki. She’s another fictional adopted child of mine. I want to keep her safe!

Lacey from Lacey’s games. She’s another adopted kid F/O, I just want her to have a happy life, and imagine I rescued her and am helping her grow up and move through her trauma.

Mr. Plant and Argos from the World of Mr. Plant! They’re platonic/friend F/Os. I just like to imagine that I’m hanging out with them in the Void.

Gumi. she’s Gumi.

Howl (from howl’s moving castle). we have chemistry but we aren’t, like, together or anything, I just like thinking about him. I guess he’s my celebrity crush F/O!

There are a few others, but these are my main F/Os!

Some images that remind me of them ⬇️