Another meme

[salinea]

Name your 10 absolutely favorite couples (het/slash/canon/fanon) and ask people to see what trends they notice about your couples. Try to pick different fandoms:

1. Seishirou/Subaru (TBX)
2. Snape/Lupin (HP)
3. Azula/Zuko (Avatar)
4. Touga/Saionji (SKU)
5. Sandor/Sansa (ASOIAF)
6. Gerald/Damien (Coldfire)
7. Hikaru/Akira (Hikago)
8. Baltar/Gaeta (BSG)
9. Suzaku/Lelouch (Code Geass)
10. D/Leon (Petshop of Horror)

(there is so much guys up there, I need more femslash and het ships)

(For those who I curious, I took up my user info and wrote the big ships I had in each of the fandoms I list there, then removed the fandoms I just wasn't that much into, that I got in mostly for one writer or that I shipped but didn't really read fics for until I got it down to 10. The long list included also Aziraphale/Crowley (GO), Charles/Erik (Xmen movie), Richard/Alec (Swordspoint), Tatsumi/Tsuzuki (YnM), Lust/Scar (FMA), Kyouya/Tamaki (Ouran), Anaki/Obi Wan (SW), Shigure/Akito (Furuba), Bartimaeus/Nathaniel, Fakir/Ahiru (Princess Tutu), Ivan/Byerly (Vorkosigan) - I didn't have any ship for PotC due to shipping everyone with everyone)

Comments

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

.... Power imbalance for the win? (I just had to say it. Hey, it's not bad, I share some of these that I know of.)

Also, fucked-upness. XP

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I do love the fucked up ness, and the powerplay, yeaaaah :)

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, definitely not the lovey-dovey type of ships. XP Conflict and... opposite sides? (As in, rivals sides in war, political conflicts, sports, XP etc.)

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I call myself an antagonistic shipper. If they argue, bicker, fight, mindfuck each others or try to (and succeed!) killing each others - I ship it :D

One of the reason I loved Atsuki/Michiko so much - finally two great female characters which have the kind of relationship I enjoy shipping!

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

XDDD Damn, I was just stating popular opinion then.

Ah Atsuko/Michiko. I love it too, maybe for different reasons. But yeah, they rivals interaction is amazing. How they made me cry.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Atsuko was really heartwrenching at the end, yeah.

Btw, are you still thinking of making a post about the series?

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

AH YES!. But you know I lost everything I had in my hard-drive, and I'm still kinda wary of rapidshare. Was watching it with my sister, and she wants to finish it badly. So I will wait a little for the re-watch and my sister's reactions. XP

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

oh shit. losing stuff from the HD can be so freaking annoying :( I'm sorry.

hehe, I love enjoying a show vicariously when watching it with someone else ^^ I hope your sister enjoys it muchly.

[la-vie-noire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know, thanks!

She isn't much of a fandom person, she knows some things because of me, but not so much, so it's more amusing. XD

[rebbe]

INCESTTTT

And definitely power imbalance, oh my

though the only ship on there I really know much of anything about is Zucest, so I might be off-base

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I only like a very specific kind of incest.

But, boy!, do I love it! ♥

[hamsterwoman]

Hmm, well, I don't know a lot of these, but "fucked-uppedness" definitely stands out as a trend. ;)

And maybe "unlikely duo" (in the "they fight crime!" sort of sense) for GO and Ivan/By.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I think I love characters who contrast and complete one another, so I guess it's what I like in unlikely duos ^^

And fucked uppedness! :D

[lefcadio.livejournal.com]

...yeah, not exactly happy couples! I concur on 1, 3 and 5 <3

And of all the ones I recognise, they're pretty twisted but do have some basis in canon.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

♥ I love those couples!
Actually i've just realised I didn't list Gankutsuou as a fandom on my userinfo, cuz there's also Franz/Albert, must rectify!

Yeah, I love crack pairings too, but they're not usually my prime pairing for a fandom, so what usually get me into a fandom is close to canon dynamics :)

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

Yeah, lots of power imbalances, but also lots of emotional give and take. I mean, where there isn't a major power imbalance there's that trading back and forth of emotional ground. Sometimes where there is a major power imbalance too, like D and Leon - D's far, far, far more powerful in pretty much any sense of the word than Leon, but he's also willing to give and take emotional ground with Leon.

...If that makes sense. I'm seeing that in the less intense stuff, more.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I think you're right on, I don't so much like power imbalance as pairings where power is an issue which is negotiated and traded in complicated way :) I think Seishirou/Subaru is the only pairing which is really about power imbalance and even that is a bit more complicated if you see it as a deconstruction of more classical BL pairings (which I'm starting to do more and more as I'm reading more BL manga...)

[tiamatschild.livejournal.com]

That makes sense! It's interesting, too, because the power imbalance is entirely an artifact of how Subaru sees himself, and to a lesser extent how Seishirou sees himself. I mean. Subaru is, in terms of magical power, Seishirou's equal. When he intially meets Seishirou, he's no where near as experienced, but that's just a matter of time. And he is capable of exerting great moral and emotional force as well - we see him do it constantly. So...

(I think the emotional give and take is why Hikaru and Akira argue with each other after every game, too. On the board they're brilliant. They can follow and chase and answer and respond without ever breaking the rythmn they've set up between them - but they're fifteen, and they can't make the friendship work that well in mundane communication yet. So they have stupid schoolyard fights and Hikaru stomps off, instead.)

[catiechu.livejournal.com]

Okay, I have to ask. Do you know of any good Leon/Count D fic? ;-;

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

Check rexluscus's fics, art and rec for fics. There's not a lot of them, but there are some good ones ^^

[sophiap.livejournal.com]

I'll echo a lot of other people and say that the power imbalance really jumps out. The other thing that jumps out is that your couples in many cases look less like romantic couples than they do lists of opponents or antagonists.

Note: I'm pleased to see that you like Tatsumi/Tsuzuki. I adore that pairing.

[etrangere.livejournal.com]

I love antagonistic pairings yes :)

always was my favourite YnM pairing, for some reason, I do adore both of them and their dynamics even in a one-sided way ♥

[alexthai.livejournal.com]

Your country very interesting and nice!!!