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army-of-mai-lovers · 3 years

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Tell us about your current project(s) – what’s it about, how’s progress, what do you love most about it?

oh my gosh I have so many I’m literally incapable of sticking to one or two projects at once this list is going to be so long ahhh ok

keep the world at bay- Avatar Sokka au/nonbender Zuko au/Yue lives au/Jet lives au/Azula redemption au....she has layers (unsurprisingly, she’s projected to be 200k). basically, Aang didn’t go into the iceberg and grew up during the beginning of the Hundred Year War and spent most of his life trying to end it, but then he disappeared and there was a 40 year gap between his disappearance and the surfacing of the Water Tribe Avatar, Sokka. this fic frustrates me to no end sometimes but I really really love it. I am a bit of a nerd about writing, but there are some things that I’m really nerdy about within writing and alternate history stories is one of those things. I have a google doc with pages and pages and pages of text about what happened in between the first Sozin’s Comet and the start of the fic, and how this all ties in thematically, and this is all like, exactly the kind of stuff I live for. it’s self-indulgent as hell but I love it. I just posted earlier this week that the hiatus on the new chapter for this fic was going to be even longer and now I’m working on chapter 14 so...yeah I change my mind on a whim what about it?��

not ready to make nice- Jet lives au, one of my only fics in which Jet is not affiliated with a coffee/teashop in some way. basically, he wakes up in an apartment of Ba Sing Se after the events of Crossroads of Destiny, severely injured but alive, and finds out that Smellerbee and Longshot have been taken. even though there are three jail/prison break scenes in 9 chapters, it’s a very slow, very intense character study kind of fic exploring Jet’s many many traumas and how he learns to love himself enough to survive and thrive. fun fact: this fic was part of my six month plan to slowly convert people into jetru shippers, and right after I started it everybody started shippng jetru and the whole plan became moot (this is also why Haru doesn’t get introduced until ch 7)

like ripples, like love- wuko enemies to lovers coffeeshop au, featuring background korrasami, bopal, jetru, and zukka. also probably the weirdest experience I’ve ever had being inspired for a fic--I made a couple jokes about how the perfect wuko fic would be a 200k enemies to lovers coffeeshop au in which Mako is the employee and Wu is a Karen, and then some of my mutuals were like “yo I’d read that fic” and I was like “lmao ok I’m not doing it” and three months later I have a 75k wuko enemies to lovers coffeeshop au, so...joke’s on me I guess. I really love the opportunity to be funny in a fic, honestly. my canonverse stuff is kinda depressing, and considering both the world and the atla fandom are dumpster fires, it’s really nice to just make something fun and lighthearted. this fic is also set in Hong Kong, which initially was me trying to be more responsible as a member of a fandom for a show based on Asian and Indigenous cultures, but it has grown into me just being interested in Hong Kong culture. I’ve done a lot of research for this fic and I’ve enjoyed all of it. I never would have listened to Chet Lam or Leslie Cheung or AGA if it weren’t for this fic, and I never would have read about Jessica Park and the Transgender Equality and Acceptance Movement. All of this has really enriched my understanding of queer culture and queer organizing outside of the US and it makes me really happy that I’ve gotten the opportunity to learn about all of this stuff. just posted ch 2, will probably post ch 3 soon!

it’s only a paper moon- yueki fic in which Suki talks to Yue (the moon) while she’s at Boiling Rock, and falls in love with her through these conversations. this is one of the first straight up angst things I’m writing (read: angst w/o a happy ending) and as someone who adores yueki being able to write about them in a variety of situations is really fun. also, it’s Suki pov and ngl Suki pov is my favorite pov to write. I love her so much and I love deconstructing her and making her vulnerable (instead of the invincible queen that everybody stans but nobody takes the time to treat like a human being)

on my honor- probably the only straight up zukka fic I will ever write. It’s a donnaverse fic, set a few months after the events of bad girls and love will always find you, and Sokka and Zuko compete to be the biggest fans/supporters of their friends and sisters by having a Kyoshi merch arms race. I love donnaverse everything so I’m really excited about this, plus this fic has a lot of Sokka & Aang and Sokka & Haru and Sokka & Jet (and it features Jet and Haru’s first meeting). also, Zuko the Douchebag! so few zukka fics feature Zuko the Douchebag and I miss him I want him back. the whole point of Zuko is the character development so if I’m writing a zukka fic it’s got to have Zuko developing and becoming a better human.

and finally....

Super Secret Zone Collaboration fic- [REDACTED]

fanfic meta ask game!

#for blacklist:#zukka #wuko #ask games #anons #replies

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lokgifsandmusings · 7 years

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Definitive Ranking of Book 4 Episodes, #2/13

2. 4x13 The Last Stand

Kuvira tears off her arm. Mako makes a Heroic Sacrifice and no one will heal him. Korra and Kuvira fight, until Korra freakin’ bends pure energy, rips apart the city, and demonstrates her growth in one quick spirit world conversation. Hasook fulfills his clarinetist destiny. We get the most ambiguous ending everrrrr.

You know, after going back through this whole season, I’m realizing that there were a lot of flaws with Book 4. A lot. It’s not to the point where I feel this episode ranking as second highest is unearned, but it is making really wonder about “what would this have looked like had Bryke been given more time?”

The thing is, with this episode, the emotional beats are nearly perfect for Korra. And that’s really what matters, given that the show is...well...the legend of *her*. Even for most other characters, this conclusion was (dare I say it?) dramatically satisfying. Thematically satisfying, too.

But at the same time, what didn’t work is only more and more glaring with each revisit, and especially after thinking through it.

Kuvira is probably the hardest character to reconcile, because she’s the primary antagonist, and yet up until Korra dropped the “oh you’re an orphan” truth-bomb that explained ~~all~~ of Kuvira’s actions, there was every indication that her guiding motivation was much more about her perceived rejection by Suyin, or a desperation to prove her wrong, or a mentor’s fall from grace when an inherent hypocrisy was shown...

Honestly, from just the perspective of Kuvira’s arc, dismissing everything as “you were sad about your parents (who you never talked about once) leaving you with the creepy thought-policing matriarch and you didn’t want to ditch the EK in the same way” is almost insulting. Kuvira like...made compelling points in the Suyin-filtered flashback about why Su should accept Raiko and Tenzin’s offer, and it seemed to be coming from a place of pure pragmatism, not compensation for abandonment or a way of gaining control. Actually, she framed it about sharing prosperity:

Kuvira: Suyin, I know this isn't my place, but I think you should do this. Zaofu has always been a beacon of modern progress, and now you can share that with everyone.

Suyin: What would you have me do? March into Ba Sing Se with an army? We'd be seen as conquerors and greeted with nothing but war.

Kuvira: There are already wars. The Earth Queen nearly destroyed our nation. This is our opportunity to change things.

Also, fun fact: Suyin didn’t even tell Korra that Kuvira was an orphan; she barely even implied it.

Korra: How did things get so bad between you and Kuvira? I thought she was your protégé.

Suyin: She was more than that. She was like a daughter to me. I took her in when she was eight years old and nourished her talents. Kuvira was smart, a natural leader, and quickly rose through the ranks. I saw myself in her.

Like, this could have meant anything. Maybe she took her into her School of Metalbending Dancing and Narcissism. Maybe this is a nitpick, but it just amuses me if there was some version of this scene where Korra is like “it must have been so hard being an orphan,” and Kuvira goes, “...wtf my parents are FINE.”

Back the main point here, the difficulty in parsing out Kuvira’s guiding motivations and meaning of her own arc is not made better by the fact that her political position and military campaign were incredibly poorly defined. This is nothing new for Bryke, but with regard to this episode specifically, there’s still the question of why Kuvira was even interested in reclaiming UR land when she was supposedly just a technocrat that opposed the Earth Queen’s unjust rule, and had spent a painstaking amount of time laying down tracks to connect the two nations in what seemed like a cooperative measure and to truly bring the EK up to speed with the rest of the world. Was storming Republic City always her plan? Would she have been able to without the super laser that she didn’t know was being invented (Varrick was just looking for clean energy, remember)? After successfully taking Republic City, was she going to lock up every citizen there not of EK origin?

The general idea is that she was supposed to be earnestly committed to restoring stability in the Earth Kingdom, while also pushing forth innovation, and that when Korra pointed out how horrible and out-of-balance she was, it was a comeuppance and reality slap. I guess in this respect, the broader strokes make sense, but then there was so much that seemed so personally motivated, like...everything to do with Zaofu (she even made a point of saying “when I return I’ll be greeted with open arms), and then wrecking all of Republic City.

Even ignoring motivations, there’s logistics, because Kuvira’s disappearing army (and the disappearing United Forces) was still very much evident here, especially since mecha tank officers came clomping back into view at the end, and she needed to instruct them to stand-down. It kind of makes me giggle to think that Varrick powered down these suits, and the morons just lay on the ground helplessly until they were up and running again. But there were also all those ground troops and shit, so...

Oh yeah, and Raiko formally surrendered. There should have been an entire platoon sent to the island as soon as Kuvira realized Baatar had been captured while traveling there.

None of this is a specific issue to “The Last Stand,” but it does make the resolution feel a little...convenient. As though all these things were just dismissed and swept under the rug. This is best exemplified in Suyin’s line as a response to Kuvira’s apology, where she goes, “you’re going to answer for everything you’ve done!” Like, that didn’t even follow what Kuvira had said! Though there’s also a chance that this was a place-holder line they never bothered to change (or ran out of time to change). It’s not the only one with this vibe.

At the end of the day, Kuvira worked fine for Korra. But the way she had been scripted herself, there was really no telling how she’d react to a given situation until after the fact. I could have seen her, stirring from the rubble, having the same exact spirit world conversation with Korra, rather than running away to find Chekhov’s very literal gun. She trashed an entire fucking city and nearly died already just with Mega Maid’s explosion, after all.

Most of the other challenges of this episode have to do with the wrap party, because it was pretty clear that Bryke had a case of “we have X minutes to conclude all of this.” Enter bizarre conversation after bizarre conversation.

It’s not exactly a secret that I’m currently writing on a fic that tries to make sense of “why the hell does this wedding feel as though it is simultaneously the day after the fight, and two months down the road?” Word of God is that the wedding is 2 weeks later, which may or may not have been made up by Mike on the spot. But it’s just all so wonky. Korra is acting as though she hasn’t talked to anyone, Wu and Mako certainly haven’t seen each other since the evacuation, Tenzin only just talked to Raiko, and yet Zhurrick planned an entire wedding and somehow world leaders were able to travel to the still utterly destroyed city to enjoy it.

It’s WONKY, I’m telling you. The worst case offender?

This is a terrible fucking idea. I get that it’s a Y7 American show and we have to be pro ~~democracy~~ as a general concept, but the logistics behind it make no sense. I suppose in the context of Wu’s arc, him stepping aside because he doesn’t feel qualified is fitting. Granted, I thought the whole “you were calm during the evacuation and also badger moles like you” stuff was to show how he does have leadership potential, so long as he plays to his strengths and allows those more informed than him to take the lead on other matters. But I suppose we can say it was part of a bigger picture: Wu learning to be less of an entitled asshole. He pushed himself and stepped up when the world needed him to, but in the end “sometimes a good evacuation is its own reward.” Nice.

Now go and create a horrible panic by tossing the EK’s political and legal structures out the window!

The Mako/Korra conversation was a very nice endcap to Mako’s season-long arc, and the series long relationship between these two characters. They were incompatible as romantic partners, but Mako found meaning in their platonic friendship, looking to Korra as inspiration to be more selfless. It’s just nice. And it’s nice to see exes being nice and not jealous or still hurt or pining or whatnot. Nice.

That said, Wu’s role in Mako’s arc is a headscratcher. Mako definitely had an influence on him, but the other way around...I’ve got nothin’. Unless we consider Wuko a possibility, because IT IS THERE, DAMNIT. Except, I really don’t think Bryke meant for it to be there. Which means that Mako played a bit more of a supporting role for Wu than the other way around. Wu had diddly squat to do with Mako feeling inspired and self-sacrificial...that was a decision Mako reached inside Mega Maid as a result of watching a clip show about his relationship with Korra.

And yeah, let’s actually talk about that moment, because it was probably the second most emotional point of the episode. For those who don’t know, it’s also the point where I realized, at 5:50 in the morning, that I was going to start bawling in the middle of Planet Fitness if I stayed, so I cut that short and went home to finish out the episode.

It was touching, even if Bolin’s “This isn't the time to prove how awesome you are. I already know how awesome you are... you're awesome.” lines were incredibly odd. However... Looking back, this was probably the dumbest thing Mako could have done in this moment.

The weapon was disabled (he knew Su and Lin were taking care of that), and Korra was in the “head” having a fight to the death. There was no pressing need to power down Mega Maid at that point (Kuvira initiated lockdown as soon as they got in, actually), and the only thing he knew was that he could probably get it to explode. With everyone still inside. All things considered, how Mako didn’t just kill everyone inside the tank is beyond me. How Mako didn’t die is equally beyond me, cause dude got shot squarely in the chest. I mean yes, Bolin came back for him (where did he even dump the other bodies? The legs?), but Mako has a heart and stuff.

I don’t want to detract from the message of “Mako is an incredibly selfless hero,” but the logistics get in the way. It’s like Bryke wanted him to have this moment, but they didn’t take the time to figure out a realistic way it could unfold, so it just happened. Which is jarring, especially since this immediately followed Hiroshi’s sacrifice from the previous episode. Snaps for Mako, but 10 points from Brykendor for the contrivance.

Also as a side note: poor Bolin, this episode. I mean yes, he’s in a good place, and he got to marry Zhurrick (I can confirm: officiating a wedding is mad fun), but the dude didn’t even get a Conversation of Significance with anyone. Needless to say I’m going to be fixing that with my final chapter...

Let’s just round out the Krew then and discuss Asami. And I 👏👏don’t👏👏fucking👏👏know👏👏 what to do with her.

I mean, you know what Asami means to me as a character at this point. And Korrasami. But going back through and watching this season, there’s a few things that are blindingly clear.

1. The scripting is bizarre. Not just for Asami—across the board. There are lines that feel outright unedited. For instance:

“When the queen fell, and everyone was asking you to help keep the Earth Kingdom from falling apart, all you wanted to do was hide in Zaofu, and let others deal with the consequences.”

It’s not as though lines like that don’t work, but it’s the kind of thing where if that were in fic I was beta-reading, I’d highlight “fell” and “falling” so the author would know to take out one of the repetitive phrases.

For characters with a lot of lines, the lack of polish can be overlooked, for the most part. For Asami, who had an incredibly limited screen presence during Book 4, things stick out.

2. Seychelle Gabriel’s voice acting was...different. It wasn’t bad, but some of her lines had a certain stilted quality to them. I’ve actually noticed that with just about every character in Book 4 that wasn’t Varrick or Bolin (that’s just John Michael Higgins and PJ Byrne falling back on their comedic chops), with a big exception in Korra. I sort of think Janet Varney didn’t settle into a consistent voice for her *until* Book 4, but that’s a whole other story, and yes, deeply subjective.

The best example I can point to for Gabriel is the way she delivers, “Thank you. I'm just glad I was able to forgive him.” It just had this awkwardness about it, and a good thing too, since I’m 95% certain that’s what spawned @progmanx’s entire fic, as well as my own views on her characterization (oh hey, we’re of one mind with that).

3. There really could have been more to Korrasami. Even with Russian TV restrictions. But I already talked about in my “Reunion” piece, so I won’t rehash here.

4. Asami’s scripting was pure *convenience*. I touch on it here for “Enemy at the Gates” and here for “Day of Colossus.” But it’s not really hard to recap.

Asami needs to open the lines of communication to her dad, so she does, and it is wonderfully, realistically hard on her. Then in a ridiculous scene, she spots a happy father and daughter, and decides she wants to work to forgive the man who tried to fucking kill her. We can assume she’s feeling conflicted about it because she snaps at Korra over it, but really, we have to just assume, because this shit is never talked about on-screen. Then Hiroshi pops in to save the day with his oddly specific technical knowledge of stuff he wasn’t working on. Then Asami tells him that she loves him before they go into a flying mecha suit to battle potentially to the death, and then Hiroshi dies.

And yes, I’ve talked a lot about what an internal character Asami is, so it would have just been odd if she suddenly started expositing on why she was feeling the way she did, but at the same time... When *did* she decide to forgive him? Was it just because he was willing to save the city? Does she even know if he’s changed his opinion of benders, or if he just regrets not having her in her life? Does she regret not seeing him sooner? Did she ever READ THOSE DAMN LETTERS?

So for her to sit her ass down next to Korra and say that she’s super sad but glad she forgave him... Well yeah, of course she’s sad. But she’d probably also be confused and conflicted and angry and guilty and a million other things just by how inherently fucked up this situation is. The last time she and her dad were in a mecha suit at the same time, he TRIED TO KILL HER. This isn’t hyperbole. He also saved the city from being destroyed *this time*, despite being the man who bombed it before. You see what I’m saying???

I think this is coming at a bad time, because I am working over and beyond to make sense of Asami’s headspace during this specific point in the story right now with ‘Half the Pieces’. I even gave her and Hiroshi another pai sho match so they could talk this shit over, and am kind of getting at the idea of her forgiving him as more of like, she really wants to have forgiven him and to have that closure after three years of incredible pain relating to him. But for what we got on our screens, it feels rushed, there’s just no other way around it. Rushed and simplified.

The most frustrating thing about Asami’s character is her wasted potential—the way they could have been using her as a foil to Korra so much sooner, the way her unique position as an industrialist went largely untouched, the way there is so much packed into her and given a little space, she will come and wallop you with a bag of feels (“you tainted our past and destroyed our future together”).

Yes, she’s in a support role, and I’m not advocating her being foregrounded over anyone else on the Krew, and certainly not over Tenzin. But keep in mind, this was the season that gave a very complete and detailed arc to Varrick and Wu, while also pushing Kuvira & the Beifong Family Drama as the main tension. So excuse me for just a little annoyance with what could have been.

What *was* for Asami here was...fine. It’s not like I can’t remember what her conversation with Korra felt like the first time, or how could it felt that for once in her craptastic life, she was getting to be happy for a little. And for Korra too, realizing she had been disconnected for too long, realizing through her letters and the distance that she was in love, realizing she can take time for herself—it just all made for a beautiful moment, even if I do think that it felt a tad clipped. Given how much ground Bryke needed to cover here, it’s not shocking.

As a last note before I get to Korra and begin explaining why this episode is #2, I want to briefly touch on Tenzin. He was simply not a major player in this season, and I guess that’s fine. His relationship to Korra was in focus for Book 2, with her becoming *her own Avatar* at the end, and then his relationship to his daughter and the Air Nation at large was Book 3. I don’t feel like anything was incomplete with Tenzin here on a larger scale, though it was a notable decision. I wonder if Book 4 had been given another pass, would there have been a more imaginative way to utilize his character?

I think that may have detracted from the impact of his final conversation with Korra, too. Or maybe that’s why it almost felt like it had bizarrely romantic undertones for a second, because it was hard to have a handle on where *they* were at with how they related to each other. Also he said the phrase “big bumpy ride” so...

And that conversation was the most, “let’s wrap up this Y7 show yup yup” that fell victim to extremely unfortunate wording. The idea was to show that Korra had found meaning in what she had been through, harkening back to Katara’s remark that Aang “chose to find meaning in his suffering and eventually found peace.” What Katara did not say was that Aang NEEDED TO EXPERIENCE THE GENOCIDE TO FIND PEACE. Because who the hell would say something like that.

There are negative implications of Korra saying she “needed” to suffer to be more compassionate, especially since compassion was never a department she was lacking in before. However, as a result of what she went through her approaches to situations did change, and her “go-to” mode of operation, altered. We saw her trying to fight against the “old me” in Zaofu, and that was simply ineffective. In this final chapter, we saw her take action as she needed to, only to finally talk the antagonist down in the end. It wasn’t an increase in compassion, but it was a result of her empathizing over the fear of being vulnerable—a fear we’ve seen Korra struggle with since the start.

“I may not have been an orphan, but believe me, I understand what it feels like to be afraid. [Sits down so she is at eye level with Kuvira.] After I was poisoned, I would have done anything to feel in control.”

Look, there’s a wonderful narrative here, and it just...fell over itself on the way to our screens, and that’s unfortunate. Because it would have required so little to fix.

If you’ll allow myself and @progmanx to be hubristic here, we actually did rewrite this for my upcoming chapter (not finalized yet, but it will be something along these lines):

“I know I was in a pretty dark place after I was poisoned; all I wanted to do was feel like myself again. And I think it took seeing Kuvira being so angry and scared of letting everyone down, just like I used to be, for me to finally realize what I already knew: I can never just go back and to being that person again, and I don’t want to be. I’ve seen now what fear can do and what it can drive people to...what it drove me to do, even if it didn’t hurt as many people. That’s a part of me, and there’s no undoing it. I don’t think I want to undo it, either. Your mom told me that Aang found meaning in his suffering. I guess if I’ve found mine, that’s it. We’re all afraid sometimes, but that doesn’t make us weak. In fact, it’s what makes us stronger.”

It’s almost as if I like A Song of Ice and Fire, or something.

Would a more diverse writers’ room have resulted in a different end line? Who can say. But this at least demonstrates why a diversity of voices and a willingness to think through the implications (something Bryke aren’t incapable of) is helpful.

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll notice that #1 on this list is going to be “Korra Alone.” So I’m going to save fully gushing about Korra’s healing arc there.

But what I will say is that “The Last Stand” brought the series to a thematically apt, and rather uplifting conclusion. The season was about balance, but you could just as easily say that the series was too. This also tapped into “light in the dark,” only Book 4 took the time to explore that darkness rather than blow by it.

Seeing Korra so...at peace, was truly remarkable. We’ve seen her so insecure at many points in the series, and it really was just heartening to watch her be so decisive, so proactive, and also so *effective*, even if that meant switching approaches on the fly or, idk, leaping in front of a giant cannon and ripping open a hole in the universe and by doing so being so impressive that there was an instantly humbling effect on the megalomaniacal dictator to the point where Korra was able to talk her down with words alone.

It kind of makes me laugh, thinking of some of the Discourse™ as the finale ended: that Korra was “neutered” or “tamed.” Yeah those are great adjectives to attach to someone who threw themselves in front of a firing spirit cannon on an instinct. What we saw is a deeply matured and strategic Korra.

Remember, she was the over-eager hero who was told that the world didn’t need her. Her narrative was never going to be “I saved the day therefore I am,” but rather “Who am I when I’m not saving the day, and does that matter?”

Yes.

As for Korra, the world’s most powerful bender/spiritual leader of the masses/ with her ancient wisdom and sheltered upbringing ending up with the wealthy nonbending driver of modern innovation from the world’s biggest metropolis, well... that’s just the perfect endcap to the all-subtle balance theme. Nice.

Edit: 4/11/2017:

This entire piece wound up a little more focused on negatives than I wanted, so please read this reblog commentary for clarification/a few more notes on what was really great here.

#13: 4x08 “Remembrances”

#12: 4x11 “Kuvira’s Gambit”

#11: 4x09 “Beyond the Wilds”

#10: 4x07 “Reunion”

#9: 4x06 The “Battle of Zaofu”

#8. 4x12 “Day of Colossus”

#7 4x01 “After All These Years”

#6 4x03 “The Coronation”

#5 4x04 “The Calling”

#4 4x05 “Enemy at the Gates”

#3 4x10 “Operation Beifong”

Book 2 ranking/essays found here

#lok meta #korra #korra 4x13 #the last stand #book 4 ranking

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eloarei · 7 years

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Because I like shipping and statistics, I guess.

(Sort of prompted by this post. ...Or maybe it was this post.) So, here's me, looking at all my ships and deciding if they (and their canon relationship) count as the “emotional heart of the story”, OR if I were to reach in and rip them (primarily their relationship) out, would the story be torn apart? YES = they are necessary to the story! NO = the story would get on fine without their relationship UNCLEAR = their relationship has an uncertain importance to the plot Before you read the whole long list (and keep in mind, these are just my ships, and not even all of them, and just my opinions), have some statistics. TOTAL SHIPS = about 87 YES ships = 56 (m/m = 28, f/m = 28) NO ships = 15 (m/m = 9, f/m = 6) UNCLEAR ships = 16 (m/m = 8, f/m = 7, f/f = 1) and because the original intent of this post (as mentioned here) was to see if m/m ships tend to be the “emotional heart of the story” (aka do I mostly ship m/m and is that why?) : M/M ships = 45 (YES = 28, NO = 9, UNCLEAR = 8) F/M ships = 41 (YES = 28, NO = 6, UNCLEAR = 7) F/F ships = 1 ^^; (UNCLEAR = 1) And have one more set of stats, dealing with if these ships are canon or not. (“Mostly Canon” are ships whose canon status is debatable, like it was never explicitly stated, or it's an option, like in some games.) CANON = 27 (m/m = 5, f/m = 21, f/f = 1) Mostly CANON = 12 (m/m = 2, f/m = 10) Not Canon = 48 (m/m = 38, f/m = 10) So, I could probably stand to analyze these stats a little more, but the overall takeaways I'm getting are these: – My ships are fairly evenly SPLIT between m/m and f/m. – MOST of my ships are relevant to the overarching story of the series. --Most of my ships are NOT CANON, but not by a huge margin. --The “heart of the story” is SPLIT between m/m and f/m ships in my favorite series. Feel free to scroll through my 87 ships, if you want to see how I labeled them (“heart of the story”, versus not). Includes some reasoning, in most cases. Ships (or their series, in a few cases) listed under the cut: Killugon, Leopika, Oumugi, Cobymeppo, UsoNa, ZoLu, Hanna/Zombie, McHanzo, Reaper76, Roadrat, Promptis, Gladnis, DekuMight, Mammet, Genosai, Victuri, Destiel, Shakarian, Jaal/Ryder, Newmann, R/Julie, Kataang, Zukaang, Korrasami, Wuko, Gigolas, ZADR, Wolfstar, Fawkes/LW, Gob/LW, Nick/SS, Trying Human, Otasune, Bosselot, Torikoma, Noragami, Oremo, Gamako, JeanMarco, CLAMP, Taibani, Tiger/Bunny, Okabe/Kurisu, 93, 58, Otani/Koizumi, Doctor/Rose, Johnlock, Sterek, Hannigram, Rumbelle, Hopurai, Sorriku, Akuroku, Leo/Ezio, Haytham/Ziio, JakDax, Nate/Elena, Lutecest, GoldenHeart, Mitjo, Blackice, Felix/Calhoun, Om/Shanti, Grocket, Max/Furiosa, Capable/Nux, Seregil/Alec, Thom/Goran, Diana Wynne Jones, Robin McKinley, Jesse/Suze, Mabelmando, Muck, Vito/Wilhelm, Lewis/Vivi, Fry/Leela, Goliath/Elisa. Good lord I can't believe I typed those all out. Well, anyway. Now you don't have to bother clicking through just to satisfy your curiosity, if none of those piques your interest.

Hunter x Hunter: --Gon/ Killua : YES, Gon and Killua's relationship IS the heart of the story. Without their intense friendship, many of the plot points in the story would never have happened. While Gon may still have found his father, the whole story would be extremely different, perhaps to the point of unrecognizability. –Leorio/Kurapika : NO. Unfortunately, as much as I love them, their relationship is not strictly integral to the story. --Meruem/Komugi : (mostly canon) YES. While it's not the entire story, their relationship IS vital to the fate of both characters and that particular arc. One Piece: --Coby/Helmeppo : UNCLEAR. While Coby and Helmeppo are not main characters, Coby was a catalyst in the early part of the series, and will probably be important again towards the end. Also, while Coby could have gotten where he is without Helmeppo, Helmeppo would likely not be who he is now without Coby, making Coby integral to Helmeppo's story. --Usopp/Nami : NO. I love them a lot, and they're both important to the story in different ways, but their relationship is not strictly necessary. --Zoro/Luffy : UNCLEAR. Obviously, Luffy is the main character, and Zoro is also super important. The story probably could have gotten where it was going without Zoro's involvement, but there have definitely been several key points which would have been different without him. (Early one, especially, and the end of Thriller Bark.) This one might require more thought. Hanna Is Not A Boy's Name: Hanna/{Zombie} : YES. While the story may still have happened without {…} (Conrad still showing up that night), the entire story would have had a different tone, as {…} is the narrator, and certain key events would have played out differently. Overwatch: McCree/Hanzo : NO. Admittedly, they don't have a lot to do with each other in canon, no matter how much I like them. Soldier 76/Reaper : YES. Their story was vital to the formation of Overwatch as we know it. Roadhot/Junkrat : NO. Not exactly vital to the overall story, although they do seem fairly important to each other. Final Fantasy XV: Noctis/Prompto and Gladio/Ignis : NO. I mean, I love the ships, but technically neither of these ships are really super important to the overall story. I would be willing to listen to arguments for this one though, since obviously the relationship between the four of them actually is super important. Boku no Hero Academia: Izuku/All Might : YES. Nothing would have happened in this series if it weren't for the relationship between these two. Not only would Izuku be lacking the power to succeed, he'd have been lacking the training and also possibly the inspiration. Likewise, All Might would likely have stagnated, instead of grown as a character. Back to the Future: Marty/Doc : YES. There would be literally no point to the entire series without either character or their relationship exactly as it is. One Punch Man: Saitama/Genos : YES. Although it may be debatable, I believe that Genos' involvement with Saitama is critical to the story. Is it, at very least, critical to Genos' growth. Yuri on Ice!!: Viktor/Yuuri : (canon) YES. Canon-gay main characters; kind of the point of the story. Supernatural: Dean/Castiel : YES. Though Dean and Sam's relationship is probably still more important, I would definitely argue that most of the plot from season 4 on could not have happened without Castiel's involvement with Dean. Mass Effect: Shepard/Garrus : (mostly canon) UNCLEAR. Garrus was fairly important to the story, especially early on, but even if he had never come around at all, the story would have been about the same. However, since you get to determine the story to some degree, you could say their relationship is about as important as you make it. Ryder/Jaal : (mostly canon) UNCLEAR. About the same as above. Their relationship was important, but not significantly moreso than other characters'. Pacific Rim: Newton/Hermann : YES. Without them working together, the plot would not have been resolved. (One could even argue their arguing was critical to the story.) Warm Bodies: R/Julie : (canon) YES. Like most of my other book ships, these two were written with each other in mind. Avatar/Legend of Korra: Katara/Aang : (canon) YES. Though the story could have got along without their romantic involvement, their general relationship was absolutely vital to the plot. Zuko/Aang : YES. Their relationship provided most of the conflict from the early half, and much of the character development from the later half. Korra/Asami : (canon) UNCLEAR. If they had been only acquaintances, the plot would likely have carried on mostly the same, however the ending would have been different, of course. Mako/ Wu : NO. Their relationship made a couple of plot points in the last season, but the story would have got by okay without it. The Lord of the Rings: Gimli/Legolas : NO, although I'd be willing to hear arguments to this one. I don't recall that their relationship was particularly necessary to the plot's resolution. Invader Zim: Zim/Dib : YES. Literally the entirety of the story would be pointless without their relationship. Harry Potter: Sirius/Remus : YES. Primarily in the 3rd book/movie, but the story would have gone drastically differently if not for their past friendship. It would likely have had a huge butterfly effect. Fallout 3: Fawkes/Lone Wanderer : YES. Fawkes was key in helping get the GECK, and also having LW, y'know, not die in the DLC. If Fawkes didn't massively respect the LW, the LW would just be shit out of luck. And also dead. Gob/Lone Wanderer : NO. Poor Gob's just stuck slaving away as a bartender. Hell I don't think you even have to talk to him once to advance the story. =[ Fallout 4: Nick Valentine/Sole Survivor : YES. Nick is instrumental in helping SS find their son, and if it weren't for his respect for them, SS would have a very difficult time with several legs of the journey. And don't get me started on how their backstories are a mirror of each other! Trying Human: Rose/Hue, Longus/Don, Philena/EBE1, Quazky/Gracelis, FJ12/Pigment : (canon) YES. The charm of a good webcomic, eh? =D Metal Gear Solid: Snake/Otacon : YES. Moderately important in MGS1, Otacon and Snake's relationship becomes crucial in 2 and 4. Also, “Can love bloom on the battlefield?” Yes, Otacon. Yes it can. (I'd write a manifesto about these two if I had the energy.) Big Boss/Ocelot : YES. Quite a lot of the entire series would never have happened if it weren't for Ocelot's hero-worship crush on Big Boss. It's pretty important. Toriko: Toriko/Komatsu : YES. To be fair, I haven't read/watch this series in years, but the earlier parts of the series put a lot of focus on the budding partnership between these two characters. Ugh, talk to me about the part where they climb a giant beanstalk in order to eat a heart-shaped vegetable in tandem to commemorate their partnership. Geez. It's a little hard to say if their relationship was vital to the actual plot, because I'm still not sure what the plot was, but it was definitely vital to the story. Noragami: Yato/Hiyori : (mostly canon) YES. As the main characters, the story revolves mostly around them, and if they didn't care for each other, there would be no reason for half of the events to happen. Kazuma/Bishamon : (mostly canon) UNCLEAR. At least one key backstory event only occurred because of their relationship, but the story might have happened similarly without it. Kofuku/Daikoku : (mostly canon) NO. I love them, but the story could probably exist okay without them. Ore Monogatari: Takeo/Yamato : (canon) YES, but obviously, as it's a romantic comedy. The story is literally all about them. Kill la Kill: Gamagoori/Mako : NO. Although they featured together in a few important scenes, the story could have progressed without them ever being in the same frame. Attack on Titan: Jean/Marco : NO. The entire story would have probably been just fine without them, although Jean might be a different person without Marco's influence. CLAMP: (mostly canon) YES. I'm just gonna go ahead and say that all of my ships from CLAMP series are vital to both the story and the characters' growth. This might be an exaggeration, but only slightly. Tiger&Bunny: Kotetsu/Barnaby: YES. Because, obviously, what's Tiger&Bunny without Tiger and Bunny? The story would have gone nowhere without either of them, and the focus on their growing relationship was super important. Steins;Gate: Okabe/Kurisu : (mostly canon) YES. The plot forces the relationship between Okabe and Kurisu in an interesting way, so it is sort of super relevant. Saiyuki: Sanzo/Goku : YES. Gojyo/Hakkai : UNCLEAR. To be honest, I just haven't watched the series in a while, so I'm a little cloudy on the finer points of this ship. I'd say they're important, and from what I remember they are important to each other's story, but I don't recall how vital their relationship is to the overall plot. Lovely Complex: Otani/Koizumi : (canon) YES, because it's a romantic comedy and these are the two main characters. Doctor Who: Doctor/Rose : (canon) YES. In love with two different Doctors, and (as far as I know) the only one to end up with one permanently! Their relationship was so damn important that it came back even after Rose retired as a companion! Sherlock: Sherlock/John : YES. The series wouldn't even remotely exist without their relationship. Teen Wolf: Stiles/Derek : NO. The necessity of either character to the overall plot is debatable; they certainly didn't have to interact in order for the series to continue, even if those were some of the best scenes. Hannibal: Hannibal/Will : YES. Though I never caught up with the series, it was clear even from the very start of season 1 that the relationship between these two was the drive of the whole story. Once Upon a Time: Rumpelstiltskin/Belle : (canon) UNCLEAR. Though they're both important to each other and other characters at multiple points in the story, their relationship is probably not all that important to the other characters. (To be fair, this is based mostly off of seasons 1 and 2.) Final Fantasy XIII: Hope/Lightning : NO? It's been a while since I played the game, and while I love Hope, I seem to recall that he wasn't terribly important? (Was anybody important in that game? What even was the plot??) Kingdom Hearts: Sora/Riku : YES. I mean, Sora did spend pretty much forever searching for Riku, and Riku did spend basically the whole time being a pain. Axel/Roxas : UNCLEAR. Roxas' existence and story probably could have happened without Axel. But to be honest, it's Kingdom Hearts; I could never remember all the fine details. Assassin's Creed: Leonardo/Ezio : UNCLEAR. I mean, Ezio would have died or failed several times without Leo's inventions, but Leo himself wasn't strictly necessary. Haytham/Ziio : (canon) YES. Well, Conner wouldn't exists without them, so. Jak and Daxter: Jak/Daxter: YES. There would have been literally no point to the series if it weren't for their relationship. Uncharted: Nate/Elena : (canon) UNCLEAR. A rare female love interest, Elena was there from the very beginning and throughout the whole series, kicking ass and helping the plot along. Could the series have gone on without her and Nate's intricate relationship? Probably. But who would have wanted that? Bioshock Infinite: Robert/Rosalind : (mostly canon) YES. Only because of their fantastic weird obsession with science and themselves was the cross-dimensional travel that made the plot happen even possible. Nimona: Blackheart/Goldenloin : (mostly canon) YES. Their relationship is central to the backstory, and the later parts of the story. Long Exposure: Mitchel/Jonas : (canon) YES. Again, because it is a webcomic, and they're specifically written with each other in mind. Rise of the Guardians: Jack/Pitch : UNCLEAR. While both are critical to the story, it probably could have gone on fine without their interactions. However, Jack's personal arc wouldn't have had the same emotion without Pitch's involvement. Wreck-it Ralph: Felix/Calhoun : (canon) UNCLEAR. Their relationship was a key point in the story, but the overall plot could have probably happened without it. Om Shanti Om: Om/Shanti // Om/Sandy : (mostly canon) YES. Without Om's love for Shanti, the entire second half of the plot wouldn't have worked out. Sandy's love for Om was also critical. Guardians of the Galaxy: Rocket/Groot : YES. I think it's safe to say that the whole crew would have died if it weren't for Groot, and it's unlikely that he would have been there in such a capacity without his partnership with Rocket. Mad Max: Fury Road: Max/Furiosa : (canon) YES. Story couldn't go anywhere without them, and their relationship was important at certain points. Capable/Nux : (canon) YES. Though their relationship was not vital to the overall story, it played a huge part in the resolution. Nightrunner: Seregil/Alec : (canon) YES. Canon-gay main characters, obviously the story goes nowhere without them. HERO: Thom/Goran : (canon) UNCLEAR. Though the relationship between the characters is a key element in the story, it probably could have happened pretty similarly even if the two did not develop a romantic involvement. (Would've been a different story; still, Thom's other relationships are roughly as important.) Diana Wynne Jones' books: Howl/Sophie, Vierran/Mordian, Tom/Penny, etc : (canon) YES. All main characters, written with the intention of being involved with each other, they are vital to their stories. Robin McKinley's books: Narl/Rosie, Cecily/Little John, Beauty/Beast, etc : (canon) YES (mostly). Main characters written to revolve around each other, with the exception of Cecily and Little John, whose relationship was probably not strictly necessary for the overall story. The Mediator: Jesse/Suze: (canon) YES. Same deal with my other canon book ships: they were literally made for each other. Gravity Falls: Mabel/Mermando : (mostly canon) NO. Their relationship was only relevant for an episode, and had it not existed, most of the story would have been the same. Motorcity: Mike/Chuck : UNCLEAR. It probably ought to be a “no”, but the series didn't get that far, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. XD; The Reward: Vito/Wilhelm: (??? canon?) YES. I mean, the story was 100% about their bromance. Mystery Skulls Animated: Lewis/Vivi : (canon) YES. Poor ghost man just misses his nerdy girlfriend. Futurama: Fry/Leela : (canon) UNCLEAR, since Futurama didn't really have an overarching plot for their relationship to be relevant to. But GOD did you see the last episode? I mean, they were definitely a central plot point of the story, even if they weren't strictly 'necessary' to it. Gargoyles: Goliath/Elisa : (canon) YES, hella yes. Their relationship (both platonic and romantic) was greatly important to the overall story, many times. Though the gargoyle characters could have existed without Elisa, the story would have lacked most of its emotional component. (And that’s just about that! I left off a bunch of old ships, because there’s just no way I have the time and energy to list stuff I haven’t been into in years. Also I probably forgot some, but oops?)

#elo talks #shipping #long post #statistics #look a comprehensive list of most of my ships #please feel free to reblog or reply or message me with any comments you have #although this is of course all just my opinion

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ourimpavidheroine · 7 years

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I know it’s a standard thing in anime to give a character a particular look and then leave it; thus Ikki has all of her hair in pom-poms when she is eight and half of it up in them when she is eleven. It makes the characters easier to identify. I get it, I do.

But why on earth would you then draw an adult Ikki with pom-poms in her hair? I’ve just never understood that. After all, I remember the haircut I had when I was eleven; it was growing out from what I had hoped would be an adorably cute Dorothy Hamill cut (and which ended up being a horror show of poofy frizz since that kind of hairstyle was never meant to accommodate curly hair). I sure as hell don’t have that kind of hair now. An adult woman having pom-poms in her hair certainly has an entirely different take to it than an eleven year old! Is Ikki really that childish and precious as an adult? And maybe you see her that way; maybe your post-canon take on Ikki is that she’s a manic pixie dream girl that continues to wear pom-poms in her hair and who behaves in a twee way, that sort of dizzy, adorable child-woman that flits her delightful way through life. If that’s your actual take on her then that’s fine with me; it’s not how I see it, but I respect other people’s artistic vision of characters, for sure.

But is that really how you see her? Or is it just a way of freezing her in time even as you age her up?

One of the things that is important to me as a fanfic writer who writes in a post-canon/post-series world is to make a character, ten years on, believable. How have they changed? Stayed the same? What have they learned, what have they done that has impacted their lives in a significant way? Sometimes, with a canon character that has very little screen time, this is easy. Wing and Wei Beifong aren’t in the show much; we know they are jocks who aren’t afraid to show emotion, extremely talented benders who nevertheless are hesitant when it comes to attacking (or at least Wing is) another person. But it’s not like they got the character development that Mako and Bolin did, for example. So you have more freedom with canon characters like that. It’s why I could make Huan autistic even though I am about 99.9% sure that Bryke certainly never wrote him that way. He could be interpreted that way based on canon (as could both Zuko and Mako, in my not so humble opinion) but I am certainly taking artistic license with a minor (albeit memorable) canon character.

Taking characters that are well-defined in canon and writing them ten years on is far more difficult. (And it’s why, I suspect, that a lot of fanfic writers won’t do it.) Prince Wu, ten years on, being the same spoiled and thoughtless character would not be interesting, in my opinion. Or at least not as a main fanfic character. You have to keep parts of his character; my Wu is still imperious, still confident, still not quite in touch with how the real world works. He still adores Mako. Bryke was never clear about how Wu became the heir; was he always the heir? (Hou-Ting was never written as married, or at least we were never told she was.) Were there other heirs that were killed in the fall of Ba Sing Se along with Hou-Ting, thus meaning that Wu went from distant relative to sudden heir? Or was he always meant to be the heir, raised towards the throne? Canon doesn’t tell us, so I obviously chose the latter, since it made for a more compelling story to me. His slangy way of speaking never did make much sense to me; it would be like Prince William suddenly dropping into a London dialect. Royalty doesn’t sound like that unless they try to sound like that; thus why I wrote Wu as purposefully adopting that slang in order to fit in, and why I had him ease right back out of it. I never thought Wu was stupid; oblivious, yes, but that to me only made the choice of him being raised in the palace a stronger one. (Yes, I know that Bryke confirmed that Wu was attending either boarding school or University in Republic City when the Red Lotus brought down Ba Sing Se, but they said that after I wrote Please Excuse My Penmanship, and I like my version better, quite frankly.) This is why I write Wu as being clearly intelligent and extremely well-educated.

I don’t get into the political ramifications of Wu abdicating much; I write from his POV and he doesn’t like discussing it. But believe me, that will come into play with the Royalist story. His abdication did indeed have ramifications.

(In other words, Wu has always been an extremely unreliable narrator. He’s been written that way on purpose.)

The misogynistic comment about Ikki that I deleted from IDNAtNfE said something to the effect that Ikki was a bright and energetic and curious little girl and used that as a reason as to why my version of her as a sexually aware adult was wrong. (No comments were made with regards to other characters that I’ve written as being more promiscuous, but most of those characters were male...so. Yeaaaaaaaaaaah.) Going beyond that it is an incredibly odd thing to say about someone - so if you are a bright and energetic and curious little girl that automatically means you are going to adhere to a certain type of patriarchal morality as an adult? Huh? - what it says to me is that it was a reader who expected that a character was going to be the same as a twenty-two year old than she was as an eleven year old.

I certainly was not the same person at twenty-two as I was at eleven; I suspect most of us aren’t, and this is a good thing.

It’s safer, I think, to only write fanfic that takes place during the canon series. That’s not to say that kind of fanfic isn’t good fanfic! On the contrary! I love nothing more than fanfic that delves into parts of a show that weren’t fully explored. I’ve written a few Wuko pieces like that myself. But it has a different approach, for sure. The characters are who they are; set in stone, with clearly defined borders and boundaries, and the same goes for the story itself. We already know how the story is going to end when it is fanfic written within the canon run of the source material.

Eleven year old Ikki is who she is; for a writer to suddenly make eleven year old Ikki a studious and quiet bookworm, a girl who follows all of the rules and demurely does as she’s told would be to write an entirely different character. She wouldn’t be Ikki, and it’s this kind of character assassination that pulls readers right out of a fanfic. But to take that eleven year old and age her up eleven years, to speculate as to who she is then? That’s a risky proposition. For one thing, you really up your chances of pissing readers off. That’s not who Ikki is! For some people, it really is about expecting to see eleven year old Ikki instantly transformed into a twenty-two year old, staying exactly the same, complete with pom-poms in her hair. For some people, it’s that their own headcanon of where she’d be in eleven years is completely different, and they just aren’t going to enjoy mine. That’s what I mean about safer. (It’s the same sort of risk that AU writers take as well. How do you transfer this character into another time, another setting, and make them believable? Getting beyond the whole fluffy coffee shop AU kind of thing, I have read some breathtaking AU stories that are masterpieces, quite frankly, and I appreciate like hell the kind of writing skill and risk it takes to get there.)

So yes, I am very aware that the type of fic I write is not always going to be appreciated. It’s post-series and post-canon; that right there puts lots of readers off. They won’t even read it. And it’s okay with me; I’ve never understood people who continue reading something they don’t enjoy rather than just hitting the back button. I am aware that I am going to be making choices for characters that not everyone is going to like (boy, am I ever aware of that). I am aware that what I am doing, essentially, with my fic is writing my own book, really. If I took the characters and gave them different names, did some worldbuilding, changed bending into some other sort of magical power (so as not to get sued, thanks very much) I could totally get away with it. More so than Fifty Shades of Grey being poorly disguised AU Twilight fanfic, I’d like to hope. (I’d really like to hope!)

I’ve been thinking a lot about that lately, as I’m finally starting to make tentative steps forward through this new part of my life that is widowhood and single-mothering. I guess we’ll see.

#my fanfic #personal

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