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lunasarielI'm about to update my computer, which of course runs the risk of losing files in the transfer. As such, I'm uploading everything truly important to Dropbox, and prioritizing what I could stand to lose and what I can't. As such, I'd like to post the last of the memes I've done before it gets a chance to get erased.
Pairing meme!
Six Pairings I Like:
1. Apollo/Midnighter (The Authority)
2. Seregil/Alec (Nightrunner)
3. Kurogane/Fai (Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle)
4. James/Sirius (Harry Potter)
5. Maedhros/Fingon (The Silmarillion)
6. Jack/Ianto (Torchwood)
Three Ships I've Abandoned:
7. Daisuke/Rika (D.N.Angel)
8. Soubi/Ritsuka (Loveless)
9. Nathaniel/Asher (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter)
Three Ships I've Never Liked:
10. Bella/Edward (Twilight)
11. Ron/Hermione (Harry Potter)
12. Booth/Brennan (Bones)
Two Ships That Have Piqued My Interest:
13. Renly/Loras (A Song of Ice and Fire)
14. Doumeki/Watanuki (xxxHolic)
1. Why do you dislike #11 so much?
Meh, I just never really got it. I never really got the sense of “sizzle” from them that I get from other pairings that seem more realistic. In my head, they really do seem more like good friends than a couple. Also, in my experience, when three people are really good friends, and two of the three enter into a relationship, it throws the whole group dynamic off.
2. Who do you know that ships #13?
Um… some people on DeviantArt, I guess (because the ASoIaF presence on LJ is either unexpectedly tiny, or just really hard to find), and George R.R. Martin, the author, who confirmed them as a couple.
3. What would be your ideal scenario for couple #3?
Hmmm… I don’t really know. The first thing that sprang to mind is![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mikkeneko ’s absolutely amazing fanfic, The Wizards of Ceres, but I’d like to think up something for myself. Then I thought of a scenario somewhat in keeping with the end of the series, where they and Syaoran (and Mokona, of course) just keep traveling forever, eternally searching for Sakura’s feathers. But never settling down, never being able to end their journey would get disenheartening after a while. In the end, I don’t know. I really don’t.
4. What is your favorite moment for #1?
Midnighter: “You’ll die.”
Apollo: *smooch* “I wouldn’t dare.”
See, people? This is *my* Apollo and Midnighter, not the weepy damsel in distress and Mr. Scary McAngrypants from later volumes.
Oh, and also? Pretty much the entirety of World’s End, oddly enough, especially the scene with the balloons and the massive d’awww.
5. How long have you been following couple #6?
About a year and a half now, according to my LJ history.
6. What's the story with #8? What made you stop caring?
First, I just kinda drifted away from manga in general, and I came to realize that Loveless isn’t the epitome of the form that I thought it was. Second, which derives from the first, I realized that it’s supremely creepy. Both of them are extremely messed-up people, and while I was able to blind myself to the fact that the whole series is based on the glorification of child molestation, I kinda can’t do that anymore.
7. Which ship do you prefer--#2 or #4?
Ooh, tough one! When you get right down to it, I’d have to say #2. It’s canon, whereas #4 is fanon, and extremely tenuous fanon, at that. Also, #2 has its share of cheerful moments and hasn’t ended horribly so far, but #4 is just so depressing. Accepting the premise that James and Sirius A) were both in love with each other and B) had an actual, acknowledged relationship at some point, it ends with James dumping Sirius and/or denying his love for him so that he could marry some other girl, James dying an untimely and horrible death expressly because of this, and his death driving Sirius into insanity, causing the rest of his life to be one long nightmare in which he is unable to form new, meaningful human relationships and is only happy when he’s laying his life on the line for James’ nearly-identical son.
In addition, Seregil and Alec are the main characters of their series, while Sirius and James were secondary characters at best. We get to know S&A in a way that we just don’t for S&J. We get to crawl inside their heads and see through their eyes. We get to see them in all seasons, so to speak: at war and at peace, in happiness and in sadness. But with S&J, we get a very incomplete picture of their lives. The only things we know about James at all come from the memories of other characters, and are thus tinted by their perceptions of him, and we only see Sirius in varying degrees of extreme stress, and that only after more than a decade of mental torture and wrongful imprisonment, and *that* following the horrific death of his best friend and/or lover.
8. You have the power to make one ship non-existent. Choose from #10 or #12.
#10, OH GOD, #10. Both characters are two-dimensional placeholders for adolescent fantasies, as well as horrible people. The relationship devalues strong women and idolizes fragile flowers and misogyny. In this “perfect couple,” the woman is both physically and mentally helpless, causing her overbearing, controlling stalker/boyfriend to control every tiny aspect of her life, ordering her to stay away from her concerned friends and family who dislike the level of slavish control she gives him.
9. What interests you about #14?
xxxHolic is the sister series to Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, so I’ve been darting in and out of it for a while, now. CLAMP has a habit of teasing us with very, very strong subtext (which only occasionally spills over into regular text) in the form of their themes of “soulmates,” two people who are destined to be together for all time, and it seems that Doumeki and Watanuki are headed that way.
10. When did you stop liking #7?
Three or four years ago, I think, when I first started drifting away from manga in general. I really only ever liked it for its sentimental value, since D.N.Angel was the first manga I ever read.
11. Did your waning interest in #9 kill your interest in the series?
Nope. In fact, I kind of forced myself into the pairing in order to regenerate my interest for ABVH, since I was already growing disillusioned with the plot (which had degenerated into a series of paper-thin excuses for truly terrible porn) and characters (who had all been de-fanged, so to speak, and re-tooled into Anita’s harem of gorgeous, emotionally-damaged boy-toys who can only be redeemed through the healing power of her magical vagina). So I took two characters who used to be complex and fascinating, and tried to restore them to their old glory. However, it failed, and I am definitely no longer an ABVH fan.
12. What's a song that reminds you of #1?
“In Your Eyes,” by Jeffrey Gaines. Aside from the obvious symbolism of Apollo’s laser vision, to me, it’s all about Apollo and the Midnighter redeeming each other, keeping each other human. They go through amazing, fantastic, sometimes terrible things, but they always come back to each other. This is especially relevant to Mids: I subscribe to the fanon that it was Midnighter’s love for Apollo that allowed him to break free of his murderous programming, and not only did Bendix know that only a hologram of Apollo could convince Midnighter to leave the team, but when he came back, it was for Apollo and Jenny, not the team as a whole.
13. Which of these ships do you love the most right now?
As seen in question #15, probably #2 and #13. I’ve really been getting into Renly/Loras since I started A Song of Ice and Fire, and while they’ll always hold a certain tragic appeal for me, I occasionally need something a bit less soul-crushing. Thus, Seregil/Alec. They’ve been one of my favorite pairings almost from the day I “met” them, and I still re-read them on a yearly basis. Their world always seems so real to me, the characters so three-dimensional.
14. Which do you dislike the most?
#10, most definitely. The biggest portion of the Twilight fanbase is adolescent and post-adolescent girls, who definitely do *not* need to be told that stalking and/or verbal abuse equals love, nor do they need to idolize helpless women while demonizing strong ones.
15. If you could have any of these pairings double date, who would they be?
Probably #2 and #13. They come from similar (i.e. high fantasy) worlds, and so could relate to each other’s experiences a lot better. The double date would have to occur in the Nightrunner world, though, since Renly is officially married to Loras’ sister Margaery, and homosexuality is implicitly condemned in Westros. I’m sure that R&L would absolutely adore the Street of Lights (hedonism for the win!), and all four would have a chance to chill without all the masks and pretensions they so regularly employ.
In an alternate scenario, #1 and #3 would also get along great. I can just imagine the conversation:
Fai: “OMG YOU’RE SHINY!!!!!!”
Apollo: “You’re adorable! And magic! And bouncy!” *to Midnighter* “Can we keep him?”
Midnighter/Kurogane: “NO.”
Midnighter and Kurogane eye each other warily.
Midnighter: “Nice sword.”
Kurogane: “Nice…um…what do you fight with, anyway?”
Midnighter: “Stapler.” *grin* “So, I hear you’re not allowed to kill people.”
Kurogane: “You’re a cyborg. You’re not ‘people’.” *to himself* “A stapler?”
Fai and Apollo: “BFFS!”
I mean, think about it. Both couples started out as contractually obligated members of a combat team, but ended up in a relationship, although that relationship adds depth and flavor to their pre-existing friendship, not supercedes it. One has a possibly unhealthy perchance for killing things, while the other uses a genial, jokey exterior to cover all negative feelings. Both couples have issues with pre-existing loyalties to bad guys, as well as potentially destructive powers that they have a hard time controlling. I could totally see Apollo and Fai instantly becoming buddies and chattering away while the Midnighter and Kurogane strike a wary sort of peace, and eventually come to appreciate each other’s strength as warriors. Also, the Midnighter is secretly intrigued by a world where “demon hunter” is a full-time occupation.
16. Have #2 kissed yet? Elaborate if yes.
Oh, yes. ^.^ Their technical first kiss was more of a “thank the gods you’re not dead”/”holy shit what just happened” kiss than an “I luffs u for ebber and ebber” kiss, but over the years since then, they’ve had many kisses, of all different kinds.
17. Did #4 have a happy ending? Do you think one is likely?
Most definitely not. James died tragically young, after (maybe) leaving Sirius in order to marry Lily, who he (maybe) didn’t love. This caused Sirius to lose his mind and spend the rest of his life in a state that seems to be half waking nightmare, half arrested development. Either way, it’s clear that he stopped truly living when James died, and everything since then has just been an effort to keep his body active until it can follow his mind and his heart into death.
18. What would make you start shipping #14?
*shrug* I guess I would have to start reading xxxHolic a little more seriously, which I just don’t have time to do right now.
19. If only one could happen, which would you prefer--#4 or #5?
Hmmm…both are already non-canon, so this is all hypothetical anyway. If you get right down to it, I’d have to say #4. I have a pretty good feeling that Tolkien would strongly disapprove of shipping, especially slash, and *especially* an infamous Son of Fëanor with his (half-)cousin and apparent BFF, who also might or might not be the father of one of the most powerful Elven lords to have ever existed. On the other hand, Jo seems to be relatively okay with shipping, even if she almost certainly didn’t envision this particular pairing.
20. You have the power to decide the fate of #10. What happens to them?
Bella would grow some self-confidence and tell that abusive jackass Edward to get the hell out or she’d throw him out, headfirst. Of course, Edward displays quite a few textbook characteristics of a stalker/abuser, so once he realized he’d lost control of her, he’d probably kill her in a fit of rage.
Pairing meme!
Six Pairings I Like:
1. Apollo/Midnighter (The Authority)
2. Seregil/Alec (Nightrunner)
3. Kurogane/Fai (Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle)
4. James/Sirius (Harry Potter)
5. Maedhros/Fingon (The Silmarillion)
6. Jack/Ianto (Torchwood)
Three Ships I've Abandoned:
7. Daisuke/Rika (D.N.Angel)
8. Soubi/Ritsuka (Loveless)
9. Nathaniel/Asher (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter)
Three Ships I've Never Liked:
10. Bella/Edward (Twilight)
11. Ron/Hermione (Harry Potter)
12. Booth/Brennan (Bones)
Two Ships That Have Piqued My Interest:
13. Renly/Loras (A Song of Ice and Fire)
14. Doumeki/Watanuki (xxxHolic)
1. Why do you dislike #11 so much?
Meh, I just never really got it. I never really got the sense of “sizzle” from them that I get from other pairings that seem more realistic. In my head, they really do seem more like good friends than a couple. Also, in my experience, when three people are really good friends, and two of the three enter into a relationship, it throws the whole group dynamic off.
2. Who do you know that ships #13?
Um… some people on DeviantArt, I guess (because the ASoIaF presence on LJ is either unexpectedly tiny, or just really hard to find), and George R.R. Martin, the author, who confirmed them as a couple.
3. What would be your ideal scenario for couple #3?
Hmmm… I don’t really know. The first thing that sprang to mind is
mikkeneko ’s absolutely amazing fanfic, The Wizards of Ceres, but I’d like to think up something for myself. Then I thought of a scenario somewhat in keeping with the end of the series, where they and Syaoran (and Mokona, of course) just keep traveling forever, eternally searching for Sakura’s feathers. But never settling down, never being able to end their journey would get disenheartening after a while. In the end, I don’t know. I really don’t.4. What is your favorite moment for #1?
Midnighter: “You’ll die.”
Apollo: *smooch* “I wouldn’t dare.”
See, people? This is *my* Apollo and Midnighter, not the weepy damsel in distress and Mr. Scary McAngrypants from later volumes.
Oh, and also? Pretty much the entirety of World’s End, oddly enough, especially the scene with the balloons and the massive d’awww.
5. How long have you been following couple #6?
About a year and a half now, according to my LJ history.
6. What's the story with #8? What made you stop caring?
First, I just kinda drifted away from manga in general, and I came to realize that Loveless isn’t the epitome of the form that I thought it was. Second, which derives from the first, I realized that it’s supremely creepy. Both of them are extremely messed-up people, and while I was able to blind myself to the fact that the whole series is based on the glorification of child molestation, I kinda can’t do that anymore.
7. Which ship do you prefer--#2 or #4?
Ooh, tough one! When you get right down to it, I’d have to say #2. It’s canon, whereas #4 is fanon, and extremely tenuous fanon, at that. Also, #2 has its share of cheerful moments and hasn’t ended horribly so far, but #4 is just so depressing. Accepting the premise that James and Sirius A) were both in love with each other and B) had an actual, acknowledged relationship at some point, it ends with James dumping Sirius and/or denying his love for him so that he could marry some other girl, James dying an untimely and horrible death expressly because of this, and his death driving Sirius into insanity, causing the rest of his life to be one long nightmare in which he is unable to form new, meaningful human relationships and is only happy when he’s laying his life on the line for James’ nearly-identical son.
In addition, Seregil and Alec are the main characters of their series, while Sirius and James were secondary characters at best. We get to know S&A in a way that we just don’t for S&J. We get to crawl inside their heads and see through their eyes. We get to see them in all seasons, so to speak: at war and at peace, in happiness and in sadness. But with S&J, we get a very incomplete picture of their lives. The only things we know about James at all come from the memories of other characters, and are thus tinted by their perceptions of him, and we only see Sirius in varying degrees of extreme stress, and that only after more than a decade of mental torture and wrongful imprisonment, and *that* following the horrific death of his best friend and/or lover.
8. You have the power to make one ship non-existent. Choose from #10 or #12.
#10, OH GOD, #10. Both characters are two-dimensional placeholders for adolescent fantasies, as well as horrible people. The relationship devalues strong women and idolizes fragile flowers and misogyny. In this “perfect couple,” the woman is both physically and mentally helpless, causing her overbearing, controlling stalker/boyfriend to control every tiny aspect of her life, ordering her to stay away from her concerned friends and family who dislike the level of slavish control she gives him.
9. What interests you about #14?
xxxHolic is the sister series to Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle, so I’ve been darting in and out of it for a while, now. CLAMP has a habit of teasing us with very, very strong subtext (which only occasionally spills over into regular text) in the form of their themes of “soulmates,” two people who are destined to be together for all time, and it seems that Doumeki and Watanuki are headed that way.
10. When did you stop liking #7?
Three or four years ago, I think, when I first started drifting away from manga in general. I really only ever liked it for its sentimental value, since D.N.Angel was the first manga I ever read.
11. Did your waning interest in #9 kill your interest in the series?
Nope. In fact, I kind of forced myself into the pairing in order to regenerate my interest for ABVH, since I was already growing disillusioned with the plot (which had degenerated into a series of paper-thin excuses for truly terrible porn) and characters (who had all been de-fanged, so to speak, and re-tooled into Anita’s harem of gorgeous, emotionally-damaged boy-toys who can only be redeemed through the healing power of her magical vagina). So I took two characters who used to be complex and fascinating, and tried to restore them to their old glory. However, it failed, and I am definitely no longer an ABVH fan.
12. What's a song that reminds you of #1?
“In Your Eyes,” by Jeffrey Gaines. Aside from the obvious symbolism of Apollo’s laser vision, to me, it’s all about Apollo and the Midnighter redeeming each other, keeping each other human. They go through amazing, fantastic, sometimes terrible things, but they always come back to each other. This is especially relevant to Mids: I subscribe to the fanon that it was Midnighter’s love for Apollo that allowed him to break free of his murderous programming, and not only did Bendix know that only a hologram of Apollo could convince Midnighter to leave the team, but when he came back, it was for Apollo and Jenny, not the team as a whole.
13. Which of these ships do you love the most right now?
As seen in question #15, probably #2 and #13. I’ve really been getting into Renly/Loras since I started A Song of Ice and Fire, and while they’ll always hold a certain tragic appeal for me, I occasionally need something a bit less soul-crushing. Thus, Seregil/Alec. They’ve been one of my favorite pairings almost from the day I “met” them, and I still re-read them on a yearly basis. Their world always seems so real to me, the characters so three-dimensional.
14. Which do you dislike the most?
#10, most definitely. The biggest portion of the Twilight fanbase is adolescent and post-adolescent girls, who definitely do *not* need to be told that stalking and/or verbal abuse equals love, nor do they need to idolize helpless women while demonizing strong ones.
15. If you could have any of these pairings double date, who would they be?
Probably #2 and #13. They come from similar (i.e. high fantasy) worlds, and so could relate to each other’s experiences a lot better. The double date would have to occur in the Nightrunner world, though, since Renly is officially married to Loras’ sister Margaery, and homosexuality is implicitly condemned in Westros. I’m sure that R&L would absolutely adore the Street of Lights (hedonism for the win!), and all four would have a chance to chill without all the masks and pretensions they so regularly employ.
In an alternate scenario, #1 and #3 would also get along great. I can just imagine the conversation:
Fai: “OMG YOU’RE SHINY!!!!!!”
Apollo: “You’re adorable! And magic! And bouncy!” *to Midnighter* “Can we keep him?”
Midnighter/Kurogane: “NO.”
Midnighter and Kurogane eye each other warily.
Midnighter: “Nice sword.”
Kurogane: “Nice…um…what do you fight with, anyway?”
Midnighter: “Stapler.” *grin* “So, I hear you’re not allowed to kill people.”
Kurogane: “You’re a cyborg. You’re not ‘people’.” *to himself* “A stapler?”
Fai and Apollo: “BFFS!”
I mean, think about it. Both couples started out as contractually obligated members of a combat team, but ended up in a relationship, although that relationship adds depth and flavor to their pre-existing friendship, not supercedes it. One has a possibly unhealthy perchance for killing things, while the other uses a genial, jokey exterior to cover all negative feelings. Both couples have issues with pre-existing loyalties to bad guys, as well as potentially destructive powers that they have a hard time controlling. I could totally see Apollo and Fai instantly becoming buddies and chattering away while the Midnighter and Kurogane strike a wary sort of peace, and eventually come to appreciate each other’s strength as warriors. Also, the Midnighter is secretly intrigued by a world where “demon hunter” is a full-time occupation.
16. Have #2 kissed yet? Elaborate if yes.
Oh, yes. ^.^ Their technical first kiss was more of a “thank the gods you’re not dead”/”holy shit what just happened” kiss than an “I luffs u for ebber and ebber” kiss, but over the years since then, they’ve had many kisses, of all different kinds.
17. Did #4 have a happy ending? Do you think one is likely?
Most definitely not. James died tragically young, after (maybe) leaving Sirius in order to marry Lily, who he (maybe) didn’t love. This caused Sirius to lose his mind and spend the rest of his life in a state that seems to be half waking nightmare, half arrested development. Either way, it’s clear that he stopped truly living when James died, and everything since then has just been an effort to keep his body active until it can follow his mind and his heart into death.
18. What would make you start shipping #14?
*shrug* I guess I would have to start reading xxxHolic a little more seriously, which I just don’t have time to do right now.
19. If only one could happen, which would you prefer--#4 or #5?
Hmmm…both are already non-canon, so this is all hypothetical anyway. If you get right down to it, I’d have to say #4. I have a pretty good feeling that Tolkien would strongly disapprove of shipping, especially slash, and *especially* an infamous Son of Fëanor with his (half-)cousin and apparent BFF, who also might or might not be the father of one of the most powerful Elven lords to have ever existed. On the other hand, Jo seems to be relatively okay with shipping, even if she almost certainly didn’t envision this particular pairing.
20. You have the power to decide the fate of #10. What happens to them?
Bella would grow some self-confidence and tell that abusive jackass Edward to get the hell out or she’d throw him out, headfirst. Of course, Edward displays quite a few textbook characteristics of a stalker/abuser, so once he realized he’d lost control of her, he’d probably kill her in a fit of rage.
