'Nother Tumblr Meme

[mark_asphodel]

Stolen from damoselcastel on tumblr and a bunch of other people besides.

Send me a 'ship and I will tell you:

• When or if I started shipping it.
• My thoughts:
• What makes me happy about them:
• What makes me sad about them:
• Things done in art/fic that annoys me:
• Things I look for in art/fic:
• Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not…

[The art/fic part is the draw of this one, as I don't think I've seen that asked before.]

Comments

[wolt]

I'd give you Finn/Raquesis in return, but I feel like maybe you've answered all of these things on them before? So either that, or

Sigurd/Quan/Elidigan. I'm going there.

[mark_asphodel]

Quan/Eldigan/Sigurd, heheh.

When or if I started shipping it: I think I kind of always took it as a given (three dudes who go so damn close in military school, yeah) and only really starting thinking about it seriously after playing FE4 and re-evaluating Eldigan as a character I genuinely liked instead of "Camus With Incest."

My thoughts: I see Quan/Eldigan as the main driving force of whatever it is they get up to and Sigurd as kind of the dorktacular third wheel. See, my assumption for all the FE-verses with the arguable exception of Tellius is that there's not really a conception of gay/lesbian identity as we currently see it, and that there's a tacit understanding (among upper classes especially) that people do a fair amount of experimentation, especically in sex-segregated situations like, say, military academies. As long as people then settle down into "proper" marriages and have kids to keep the family line going, everyone's cool with it, and the behavior of these three fits neatly into what's expected.

I suspect Quan has the most excessive behavior of the three outside of their little trio, though. Elidgan's main vice is clearly his sister. Sigurd's overall inexperience shows in his reaction to Deirdre IMO. Sigurd's kind of a buzzkill in general.

What makes me happy about them: It's nice they had a strong friendship going for as many years as it did.

What makes me sad about them: Um... well, there's just that whole "everyone ends up dead" FE4 plotline.

Things done in art/fic that annoys me: I've found and read some Quan/Eldigan and did not buy Elidgan's characterization for a second. There's good art and derpy art of these three, at least of the SFW kind. As an OT3 it doesn't seem to get a lot of love from anywhere.

Things I look for in art/fic: Not being crap. Because of FE4's unique aesthetics they often look far more handsome in fanart than in anything canon. 'Fic offers far less to the English-only reader and not THAT much that I've found elsewhere.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not… Well, they all up and got canon wives, didn't they? It's not like anyone had it remotely bad until, um, things got really bad.

[mark_asphodel]

Bonus Finn/Raquesis because I can:

When or if I started shipping it: My introduction to them both was some NSFW pix on DeviantArt that I found while looking for non-SSB Marth art. The insistence of many fans that it's TRUE CANON meant I always took it as kind of a given before I'd really even thought about it on its own merits. I remember being piqued when "Lenster's Fall" got translated and made it crystal-clear the dev team wasn't on-board with the pairing back then, so I definitely had feelings about it. Started shipping it hard, and I mean HARD, in... late 2011? Anyway, FE OTP, no apologies

My thoughts: LoveitIloveitIloveit. I don't know! Something about this terminally ambiguous cocktail of external and internal conflict just works for me like nothing else. They get handed to us as basically kids and, if Finn actually comes back from the desert with her[*], by that point they'd be in their early forties. There's just so much to DO within the (contradictory) framework of what we've been given, and it all has lasting repercussions that don't just magically vanish. Honestly the essential F/R scene for me, the one that kind of defines them to me, is that part at the end of Lenster's Fall wherein Finn tries to play the "decoy sacrifice" card and Raquesis looks right through the chivalrous bullshit and tells him he doesn't get to die and stick her with Leif.

• Which I very much doubt.

What makes me happy about them: Shipping them makes me happy, but there's precious little in the pairing itself to be happy about. That's one reason I like it. Every good moment is just another step down a road that's exceptionally bleak. I am glad to be dealing with adults and not just kids who barely know one another and that's IT.

What makes me sad about them: It'd be a very long list! I mean, the combined weight of sads in the backstory is horrible, but lots of FE characters have a sob-worthy backstory. I think the refusal of canon to come out and say or resolve so many things is part of the endless fascination for me. And, as you pointed out... the breakdown just seems genuinely inevitable.

Things done in art/fic that annoys me: Making her Generic Princess and him into Generic Noble Knight is bad. What's the point? A fair amount of the very small pool of English 'fic about them doesn't even seem to be about the actual characters... just random people with the same names. Superfluffy sweet stuff also turns me off. Like, so sorry, but steaming hot Silessian Farewell hijinks just lose a lot in context when you realize Delmud's coming along nine months later and aaaaall the stuff that spirals out of Delmud's existence is just not fluffy.

As for art... bad art of them makes me flinch, but otherwise I'm pretty forgiving. I am irked by the number of pieces that feature her with little to nothing on and him fully clothed. C'mon.

(And then one of those scantily-clad pieces actually turned out to feature Nanna rather than Raquesis ARGH MY EYES.)

Things I look for in art/fic: Something resembling the actual characters. Something not saccarhine. I mean, if it's about them I'll read it, but my opinions are strong enough that I'm picky. I like a lot of the cutesy art but I really dig the rare pieces that are genuinely gorgeous.

Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not…

Welp, I'm pretty comfortable believing that she got with Beowulf (or MAYBE Dew) before she ever thought about getting with Finn. As for Finn, while I'm fine with crack-pairing experimentation in the context of FE4, I do maintain a weakness for Finn/Briggid. In between the way they can fall in love sight unseen in FE4, the way he calls her beautiful twice in FE5, and the whole Eyvel business... heheh, it's an interesting trainwreck.

All that said, I don't think either of them have much of a romantic future, together or with anyone else. There's too damn much that's happened, whether Raquesis was gone for 15-odd years (games) or ten-odd (artbook), and even if everything else is the best-case scenario, she still effectively has to choose between Delmud, Ares, and Agustria and Nanna-Leif-and-Finn in Thracia. This time, I think she's going to opt to stay home.