The World's Gone Crazy

Your favorite pairing forever and ever and ever!

And today, I’m even more predictable!

Yes, as expected, TamaHaru is the ship I am going to support forever and a day.  I’ve already explained in detail my love for this pairing, so I won’t retread old ground.  All I will say is that this has been my favorite pairing for close to a year now, and I imagine it will continue to be for a long time.  

Even if one day I leave fan fiction behind, or become a published writer and have no time for it anymore, or have to stop writing it for any reason at all, Tamaki and Haruhi will still have a special place in my heart as the sweetest and the funniest love story I have ever seen.  I will always remember it fondly now matter how old I get.  Really, I don’t think Ouran as a whole is something the fans could forget very easily.  :)

Tamaki/Haruhi, ladies and gentlemen!  My complete, absolute, honest-to-God ONE True Pairing.

What ship had the best proposal?

“I’ll give you half my life, so give me half of yours!”

“You can have all my life!”

Doesn’t get much better than that, my friends.

God, I am so predictable right now.

A pairing that you will never understand?

TIE

So here we have the second time I’ve been unable to make a decision. My problems with both these pairings refused to cancel one or the other out, and so I had no choice but to include them both:

Starting at the beginning, we have Kyoya/Haruhi.

I actually did sort of like this pairing when I first got into Ouran, but that was because I liked almost every Haruhi pairing at the time and didn‘t prefer one over the others.  One of my favorite Ouran fanfics to this day is one where Haruhi lives with all the members of the club in a polyandrous relationship.

I did eventually come to see Tamaki/Haruhi as the best pairing, and my curiosity with others faded away.  KyoHaru is the only one I have any real opinion on anymore, and it’s that I don’t have a clue where people are getting it from.

Over the course of the anime, Kyoya and Haruhi gain a good understanding of each other and form a friendship.  It’s very nice to watch them get to the point where they can converse so easily, especially on Haruhi’s end since Kyoya is a right bastard to her in the first few episodes.  The thing is, friendship is quite clearly the only thing they have between them.  

They are a textbook example of two friends who are at ease with each other in all the wrong ways for it to work romantically.  If they tried, things would putter out very quickly and I don’t even think Kyoya is interested in her that way.  Some people say he does have feelings for her that he keeps a secret out of loyalty to Tamaki, but that kind of irks me a little because I feel it unintentionally puts Tamaki in a negative light.

If Kyoya and Haruhi developed feelings for each other, Tamaki would be heartbroken, but he would not be so selfish as to try and come between them or use his own love for Haruhi to manipulate Kyoya into backing off.  Tamaki cares about Kyoya just as much as Kyoya cares about him.  If Kyoya and Haruhi got together, Tamaki would swallow his sadness and support them.  That’s the kind of person he is.

It doesn’t matter anyway, because this pairing was never going to happen.  Neither party ever showed even a hint of interest one other.  I don’t know where the shippers are seeing it, unless they just like the idea of ‘What if it was there?’  That I could understand perfectly, even if, in this case, I don’t support it.

As for Harry and Ginny?  I think that JK Rowling waited too long to put them together and by the time book six came around, she should have just scrapped that idea because it was far too late to make it happen believably.  

When Harry all of a sudden expressed interest in Ginny, I was confused.  I actually went back and re-read a few parts thinking I’d missed something because it came right out of left field.  Up until that point, there had been absolutely nothing to hint that Harry had any feelings for her beyond ‘best friend‘s little sister.’  Sure, she had a thing for him in book 2, but that was just a little girl crush, it didn’t mean anything.  Once the next books had absolutely no interaction between the two, I was sure that would be the last we’d hear of it. Ginny would grow up, get over her crush and find someone else to fall in love with for real.  At that point, I wasn’t sure who I wanted to be with Harry (realistically speaking), I just didn’t think it would be Ginny.

Then book six came along.  

What.

The.

Hell.

I have no idea what happened!  Harry never talks to her, never hangs around her, and yet suddenly she’s his greatest love?  No, just no.  While I don’t want to give the rabid Harmonians too much credit since they give H/HR shippers a bad name, their love potion theory doesn’t seem that far fetched when you think about it.  It’s obviously not true, but I can see where they are getting it from because his sudden interest in her is so fast and random.

You know what Harry and Ginny’s so-called romance looked like to me?  Like Rowling spent all her time carefully building up Ron and Hermione’s relationship and completely forgot she was supposed to be hooking Harry up with Ginny too.  Then she remembered half way through writing book six and hastily shoehorned the ‘chest monster’ thing in.  I know that’s not what happened, but that’s how it felt.

Then when they do hook up, we see them do absolutely nothing together except break up at the end of the book.  And am I the only one who felt that this was magically undone in Deathly Hallows?  They never had a reconciliation scene, they just sort of… stopped being broken up.  

I plain do not get it.  I really think Rowling did a horrible job writing it and should have just not included it at all.  It made no sense, it came out of nowhere, and it was a pain to read from start to finish.

You can argue with on it all you want that ‘oh, Rowling totally knew what she was doing and she dropped plenty of hints and you just didn’t get it etc. etc.’  Whatever.  Even if you’re right and I’m wrong, the awkwardness of the hookup and lack of depth to the relationship itself has left a bad taste in my mouth that I doubt will ever go away.

Jesus, all this negativity is getting to me.  Thank God tomorrow’s prompt is something happier…

A pairing you loved, but ended up hating.

Now this is just too easy.

I used to love C.C. when I first got into Code Geass.  I found her beautiful and endearing and I wanted to see her and Lelouch hook up forever.  I read fan fiction, I even planned on writing some.  I did like other Lelouch pairings at the time, but LuluCC was the winner in my mind for quite a while.

So what changed, you ask?

First of all, Lelouch and C.C. would really only work if Lelouch survived his ‘assassination’ and became immortal.  I am so against that idea that it isn’t even funny.  Immortality is a horrible thing.  A fate worse than death.  I don’t think the rabid Lelouch/C.C. shippers realize this, nor do they remember how C.C. spends the vast majority of the show WANTING TO DIE BECAUSE SHE CAN’T TAKE IT ANYMORE.  You really think that just because she has Lelouch around, she’ll completely get over it?  Or he won’t eventually go down the same route?  What would really happen is that they would be okay for the first couple of decades until they either get to their ‘bored’ period or the years start to take their toll again.

One way or another, the strain of immortality and watching everyone he ever loved die (even if it’s from a far away vantage point), will become too much for Lelouch to handle just as it did for C.C.  He might start to take his frustration and anger out on her, leading to fights, leading eventually to one of them leaving and the two of them being alone.  They may go back to each other at some point and be happy again… until one of them starts getting tired and the fights start back up.

It would be a never ending cycle of pain for the both of them.  Human beings are not meant to last forever.  

The other reason I started to hate this pairing is that as the show went on, I started to hate C.C. herself.  What used to be amusing about her quickly became grating and her insistence on acting like a smug bitch to everyone was a massive turn off.  Sure, a lot of it has to do with her bitterness over her inability to die and have eternal peace, but that doesn’t change the fact that all I really want her to get anymore is a good fist in the face.

Lelouch/C.C. fanfic used to be something I actively sought out, now I roll my eyes in annoyance every time I see one and move on.  Lelouch should be with either Shirley or Kallen (depending on where we are in the show’s timeline) as far as I’m concerned, and C.C. should just stay with her real true love: a big pile of delicious pizza.

She should be with her pizza somewhere far, far away from Lelouch.

A pairing you hated, but ended up loving.

This is one where I’m going to have to make a variation to the prompt.  Because there has never been a pairing that I hated before coming to love it.  I every pairing I’ve mentioned thus far in a positive light, I always loved.  Every one I spoke of in a negative light, I always hated.

So for Zuko/Mai, the more apt phrase would be ‘A pairing I hated but ended up accepting.’

Because I don’t love Maiko, I just don’t.  At the same time, I can no longer hate it because… well, because there’s really nothing wrong with it.

I love both of them individually.  They are well developed and seem real in their actions and reactions.  In fact, it was Mai’s declaration that she loved Zuko more than she feared Azula (to her face) that really made me come to respect her character.  We all know what Azula is like, so that’s a pretty ballsy move especially considering Mai was captured and defenseless at the time.  Azula could’ve roasted her ass right then and there if she wanted to, but Mai didn’t even flinch.

They do have some cute scenes together as well.  The little ‘don’t ever break up with me again’ thing always makes me smile.  They look nice together and I’m sure will be a good couple in the future.

Even so, my loyalty is to Zutara.  I like Maiko, but I love Zutara.  I can accept that Maiko is canon and that isn’t changing, but in my headcanon, Zutara reigns supreme.  

I have actually written a fanfic in the past that was an attempt to show Zutara and Maiko co-existing with each other.  The story wound up leaning heavily on the Maiko end (I actually found out it was put in a Maiko community on FF.net) because that’s just where the story went.  And I have no problem with that.  I don’t read other Maiko fan fiction because that takes time and effort and I don’t like Maiko enough to want to do that, but I do look at the fanart and have favorited some (check my deviantART page).  

It’s a nice relationship.  I don’t ship it, but I am totally, 100 percent, okay with it.

A pairing that was/would be adorable, but could never work out.

When I picture Azureshipping in my head, there are two mental images I get.  The first is Kaiba and Anzu arguing about something.  Whatever it is, Anzu is yelling and Kaiba is just standing there looking all pissed and ‘get away from me’ like he always does.

The second is of Anzu and Mokuba doing something that Kaiba finds horribly embarrassing, like sticking a pair of bunny ears on his head for Easter, and giggling over how silly he looks.  

I basically love this pairing because Anzu is exactly the kind of girl Kaiba would need should he ever get into the dating scene.  For one, she doesn’t take his bullshit.  Look at her speech to him after he ‘defeats’ Yugi at Duelist Kingdom.  She tells him right upfront what an asshole he is, and everything she says is right on the money.  

Kaiba is indeed a massive dick.  He’s not evil (ignoring Death-T of course), but he’s not all that good either.  Most of the time when he allies himself with Yugi and friends, it’s because he has a stake in their battle (I.e. Mokuba’s life) and not because he wants to do a good deed.  He’s rude and condescending to whoever he sees as beneath him.  He is smug and cocky when he wins and vengeful when he doesn’t.  The only person who ever gets a shred of kindness out of him is Mokuba.  If it wasn’t for his brother, Kaiba would be an irredeemable douche bag as far as I’m concerned.  

He’s also, admittedly, incredibly hot.  Without a doubt, this extends to the show itself and I wouldn’t be surprised if he has a legion of fangirls in Domino City.  Of course, those girls are only interested in his appearance and would sing his praises to the heavens if it would just get them in his good graces.  Kaiba really doesn’t need any of that, he gets enough from Mokuba as it is.

Even if it’s not Anzu he’s with, at the very least it should be someone like her.  Someone who will stand up to him and tell him to his face ‘you are being an asshole, stop it.’  I believe Anzu is that kind of girl.

In addition, she strikes me as the type who wouldn’t be content just sitting around.  She like things that are mysterious (hence her crush on Yami Yugi).  She’s also a hard worker.  I don’t know much about dancing, but I’m guessing it takes a lot of work to make it in that field.  Being with Kaiba would be a huge challenge, but if she really wanted to, I think she’d be up to it.  

I imagine this would be a relationship with a lot of conflict and fighting, but only because that’s just what works for them.  Some couples like to argue, they enjoy it.  I think Anzu would be good for Kaiba and vice versa.  We’ve seen how Kaiba is with Mokuba,  how protective he is.  It would take a lot for Kaiba to love someone else, but if it happened, you’d better believe he’d love and protect the hell out of that person.  

I’d like to believe it would be Anzu, but it won’t.  This pairing will never and would never happen, but it hardly matters.  That’s the whole point of this prompt after all. 

A crazy love triangle/quadrilateral that worked out badly.

Oh Severus.  Dear, sweet, snarky, asshole-ish Severus.  He loved Lily Evans so damn much, but his horrible mistake and falling into the wrong crowd completely ruined it.  The worst part is that if he hadn’t done those things, he could’ve won her over.  Seriously, JK Rowling has said that!

Instead, she married James Potter and appeared to live happily with him until Voldie-poo reared his ugly snake head and killed them both.  This left Severus to live unhappily alone for many years, eventually having to spend his days face to face with Lily’s son who looks just like his hated enemy and yet has her eyes.

He ends up dying for said son, his name tarnished even though Harry tries his best to put in a good word for him.

It’s like a Greek tragedy expect everyone’s British.

A crazy love triangle/quadrilateral that worked out great.

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE OURAN MANGA.  PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

So what happens in Ouran?  Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru all fall for Haruhi over the course of the series.  Haruhi remains utterly oblivious to all of it until near the end when she comes to terms with her feelings for Tamaki.

Kaoru eventually bows out so Hikaru can have her, and once it becomes clear that she’s in love with Tamaki, Hikaru does the same and both of them seem to get over it just fine.  Tamaki and Haruhi get together, and then all seven of them go to party it up in America just like the true companions they are.

Happy ending for all!

A pairing you hate and no one understands why.

A few weeks ago, I submitted a confession to a blog titled ‘allanimeconfessions.’  What I basically said was that this pairing bothers me, not because of the incest (though that’s part of it), but because I believe that to ship this is to completely ignore Hikaru and Kaoru’s character development.

You know how they have that twincest act they put on for their customers, who all absolutely adore the forbidden yaoi love?  I think it’s a pretty funny element of Ouran’s satirical nature.  When they are shown to sleep in the same bed and spent much of their childhood interacting only with each other and shutting everyone else out?  That’s not sexy.  That’s just plain unhealthy.

Of course, some fangirls think they have a beautiful bond and shouldn’t let anyone break it, but I have to wonder if those people are even paying attention to the show and not just drooling over the pretty bishonen boys.

It’s a wonderful thing to have a close relationship with your sibling, but there are limits.  No matter how much you love someone, they can not be the only person you are willing to interact with.  That creates co-dependency and it’s a damn good thing Tamaki and Haruhi came around when they did to bring them out of it.  

Intentionally or not, shipping these two together reinforces the idea that they should just live in their own little world and never let anyone in.  The entire point of their character development is that they need to be more independent of each other.  They are not one person in two bodies, they are two different people with different perspectives and desires and ideas.  They need time away from each other really, so they can grow as people and find their own identities.  That doesn’t mean they should never be together, just not all the time.  They need to have separate lives, and that includes separate relationships.

The only way this pairing would work is if you completely undo all their development.  It can‘t happen, nor should it.

And yet pretty much everyone on the internet wants to see these two getting it on.  

Sometimes, I just don’t get people.

A pairing you like and no one understands why.

This is one of those ships that I was into immediately.  Something about Discord’s taunting of Celestia (specifically, “Did you miss me, Celestia?  I’ve missed you”) set off alarms in my heads.  All of them were screaming, ‘FOE-YAY!  FOE-YAY!  FOE-YAY!’

I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to be the only one who feels this way, and everyone’s going to think I’m crazy.’

Three devientART groups with a combined several hundred members later, I can see that I had deeply underestimated the Brony community.  

It’s not so much that NO ONE understands why I love this, it’s more that I thought no one would.

The truth is, I just love all the ideas this presents about Celestia’s past.  Many fans have suggested that they were a couple in the past and later had a nasty split up (wonder why).  That’s a pretty cool idea and the most likely story the writers would go with on the off-chance Discord/Celestia is made canon.  While the romantic in me doesn’t want to see a pairing I love break apart, the realist in me knows that this is probably the best way to go about it.

Which isn’t to say I won’t read and enjoy fan fiction where they get (back) together, of course.  ;)