LOVE IS POISON

Commentfic meme. Funfunfun. Blame it for this entry's shortness, I've been writing for that instead of finishing this meme. Oh well. I also think it's the first time in months I wrote het. Kinda sorta.



Day 29 - What ship had the best proposal?

Ed/Winry from Fullmetal Alchemist.

"I'll give you half my life, so give me half of yours!" Awwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
It helps that I've loved them from the get-go and I'd been praying for them to get together for about half the series. And Ed delivered an awesome proposal and they had epilogue babies and all was well with the world. ♥

Day 30 - Your favorite ship forever and ever and ever?

Merlin/Arthur. Three months isn't much to decide and I don't know if it'll be forever and ever because I don't see the future, but I do love those boys and given the extent to which they dragged me into the fandom I don't think I'm very likely to find another favourite ship any time soon. There isn't any other pairing I've written so much fic about, and soon there won't be any other pairing I've read so much fic about. There's just something about them. Ask me the same question next year and we'll see, but for now... I'm off writing more fic.

F-list, know that this is where I'll spend the rest of my day.
I hate you :|

I also want you to click this now.

the TV TROPES meme



( Day 25 & Day 26 of the meme here. )



Now excuse me, I have to Trope-ify myself.

Okay, now that my ehpeek literary endeavour is done, I can return to the usual memeage. I think I'll do two of these every day from now on, since they're long overdue and I'm getting bored. WTF short attention spam.
But before that let me tell you about this season's anime, or at least those I watched so far. Kind of spoilery, but it's just the first episode of each series anyway. But first some random linkage.



There's more behind-the-scenes videos from HBO and I think it's the first time I've been so interested in an elevator.

Plus Colin and Bradley are being ridiculously adorable, again. My favourite part is Colin saying "dragonfruit" and Bradley snorting with laughter. So much love.

And the 2 minutes trailer for the SPN anime. Engrish Carry On, some interesting action scenes, Dean looks like Tristan from Yu-Gi-Oh but I'll try to overlook that for the sake of more monster hunting.



Autumn 2010 anime
(or, having big-name seiyuu and sparkles won't redeem your crappy series)
((in some sort of order from awesum to crap))

( Cut because I'm verbose. )



Day 21 - A pairing you like and no one else understands why?

Ciel/Finny from Kuroshitsuji. Originally created because I was growing tired of Sebastian/Ciel, especially with creepy!pedo!stalking!abusive!Sebby, but the more I think about it the more I wish someone had written it. They seem like they'd be adorable together. Finny is fiercely attached to Ciel, I could totally see him going all protective if his master was in danger. Sebastian would have nothing on an enraged Finny.
The sad thing is, the Kuroshitsuji fandom is in a sad, sad state. Here's some stats from The Pit. About 3,000 Kuroshitsuji fics (all ratings), 2,300 in English. Out of those, how many with Finny? 36. Thirty-six. And this is Finny, someone who's been around since chapter 1, fairly relevant to the plot, has been to a greater or lesser degree in every story arc. TA grand-total of two of these fics (both one-shots) are Finny/Ciel. I be sad. Okay, I'm at fault too because the only Kuro fic I wrote was Ciel/Sebby too, but I'm still complaining.


Day 22 - A pairing you hate and no one else understands why?

Roy/Ed from FMA. First thing, it gets in the way of my OTPs. Second thing I don't really see the chemistry there. They're probably the most popular pairings in the fandom but I'd rather stay clear of them. And then the age difference really turns me off, there's like 15 years between them and Ed is in his teens. I don't really want to think of Roy as a child molester, plus there's the unfortunate implications that come with abuse of power since Roy is Ed's superior in the military.
So, uh, no. Part of why I love FMA but won't get into the fandom, I don't like most of their favourite pairings. Likewise with Ed/Al, at least they're of an age but ick. They're one couple where I love them together, I love their interaction, but as friends. Yep, sometimes my slash goggles fail me.

Day 19 - A pairing you've rooted for since the beginning?



A picture is worth a thousand words, blah blah blah. As a bonus, have the same scene in Italian, Russian, Spanish, French, German, Thai and Japanese. (Warning: don't watch the Thai version while drinking/eating. Actually, don't watch any of these while drinking/eating.)

ETA;
Looked up the Japanese seiyuu. Well, Merlin is pretty obvious... But Arthur is Tomoaki Maeno and Uther is Takayuki Sugou. Now I'm making weird mental associations.

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen books you've read that will always stick with you. List the first fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes. Do yours before you read anyone else's...

( Trying to save your f-list here. )



Day 16 - What is the absolute worst pairing?

I don't really like answering this. I have pairings I don't like, and I'm tempted to go 'WTF what's wrong with you?' every time I come across a shipper, but that's my personal opinion. There's those I've already mentioned, like Arthur/Gwen, or others I can't stand because they get in the way of my OTP like Ed/Al or Ed/Roy, and the absolutely crack ones that make no sense whatsoever like Percy/Draco.

But on the whole I think the only thing I can't stand is romantic parent/child incest. Because, urgh, I don't give a crap about everything else but there's some lines you can't cross!
It's the main reason I stay the hell away from every fic with John Winchester and his sons, because seriously. DNW.


Day 17 - A pairing you thought would never work out, but did?

Takumi/Nana from Nana. Because Takumi is a jerkass to start with, he used the fact that Nana was a fan to sleep with her, when he found out that she was pregnant he refused to break up with her, and even after they got married he cheated on her with a bandmate. And despite everything he'd done Nana managed not to stab him with a kitchen knife, he realized (better late than never) that he really cared for her, she forgave him, he got over his jerkassery and they had a second kid and lived relatively happily ever after. Or at least they would if Ai Yazawa got better and finished the story.

Day 14 - What is your favorite book pairing?

I have a ton of book pairings since I used to read a lot a few years back. Not so much any more, but I still have a huge amount of book fandoms. Shockingly enough all the HP shipping wars went over my head since I wasn't in that part of the fandom, as I said a few years back. Definitely not because I wasn't interested in the ships itself - I've got the firm belief that Harry/Hermione shippers are delusional and Harry/Draco makes me laugh. So yeah, definitely not conductive to a peaceful co-existence with other shippers. But I don't have any pairings that make me go OMGWANT from HP.

Right now, I'm really into Lawrence/Granby from the Temeraire novels by Naomi Novik. I don't really like Novik's style, but the stories itself are brilliant. It's the Napoleonic Wars, with dragons. Just the backcover summary hit all of my buttons. There's this Navy captain, Will Lawrence, who wins a dragon egg in battle and becomes the trainer of a battle dragon. They battle from the back of a dragon, with a crew and all! (I've always had a thing for naval battles, due to reading too many Salgari books when I was an impressionable youth.)

Granby is Lawrence's first lieutenant. He's very earnest and outspoken and his duties include saving Lawrence's arse every time he tries to do something brave and stupid. And they have all these adorably and gentlemanly conversations and call each other by their surname most of the time even though they're best friends. And Granby sewed up Lawrence's shirt and and and! They're adorable. Uhm, words fail me, so just take it for granted.

Obviously hooking up in canon will be impossible, sodomy laws in England being what they were and Lawrence and Granby being decent, old-fashioned fellows. Oh, and Lawrence already has a very badass love interest -- at least up to where I read, and I hope nothing bad happens to Jane in the next books because she's made of awesome too. But that never stopped the shippers, didn't it?
I haven't read much fic for those two since I want to avoid major spoilers, but I did find Uncharted which is my favourite fic forever and ever so that makes up for it. There's also this artist on DA who draws fanart of the series, not of Lawrence/Granby specifically but it's cute so who cares.

Oh yeah, I also have a bunch of pairings from ASOIAF but I'm thinking to make a separate post later about ASOIAF and the HBO series, since LJ lacks dedicated communities for those. I'll take the chance to do some picspam in preparation for 2011.

Day 11 - What is your dream pairing?

I just saw an "I ship Dean/me" icon... Does that count?

No, seriously, I have no constructive answer here because I don't understand the question. What does "dream pairing" mean anyway? Is it the same as my favourite pairing? Be specific.
And if it means "any couple that can't be together in canon but I'd like it to happen anyway" then it's Arthur/Merlin again. Or, well, any homosexual couple in any mainstream work, pretty much. Or any couple where one or both characters are already in another relationship. Or dead.

Yeah, I think I'll stick to my first answer. Though sometimes I have this feeling that Death The Kid and Chiri Kitsu were just meant to be.


Day 12 - Who had the best wedding?

Lane and Zach from Gilmore Girls.

Point the first, Mrs. Kim was around. And Mrs. Kim is inherently funny (though maybe not funny to live with) and around her happens the awesome.
Point the second, Lane's speshul wedding dress.

Point the third, their band plays at the wedding.

Though, okay, maybe Elizabeth and Will's wedding in PoTC was even better because they had pirates and sea monsters and a storm and Barbossa was leading the ceremony. But I don't really ship them to begin with.

Today it's a two-for-one meme special! Yay! This one's from hiza_chan too:

Ask me my Top Five Whatevers. Fannish or otherwise. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post (or in comments). Possibly with pictures.

And now we'll return to our usual schedule. Kind of. I'm in a bit of a hurry, need to marathon the last 3 episodes of SPN. Now.

Day 09 - The most believable relationship?

I really don't know, there's a bunch of believable relationships out there, both canon and non-canon. I've always liked Emily and Richard Gilmore's marriage in Gilmore Girls though. Maybe because my grandma is just like Emily (minus the money, more's the pity) and despite all of the show's shenanigans I never had any doubt that they were the most solid couple.

This meme is awesome - it makes me post every day and distracts me from things like having to post about RL, which is as crappy as you'd expect in the week before an exam. Crapcrapcrap.

Anyway, fandom is like always a life saver. Looks like I finished my Sherlock entry just in time for the bonus challenge which is... fanmixes. Oh noes. Good thing I'm in a fanmixing mood anyway, but now I have to finish my Robot Unicorn Attack mix first, because I might get confused and Sherlock doesn't go well with sparkly unicorns.

Day 07 - The most heartbreaking scene?

( Spoilers for Gundam SEED Destiny, Inu Yasha and CLANNAD. Oh, and SPN season 5. )

I just watched episode 3 of Secrets & Magic, and just how adorable is Bradley? I swear, he's trying to have Arthur steal Merlin's position as my favourite character. I need the DVDs. Need the video diaries and the commentaries and the stupid extras and everything. Soon, self, soon.

Day 05 - The pairing with the least chemistry?

There's a lot, but Arthur/Gwen pops into my mind. Especially given my answer to yesterday's question.

Usually I support canon ships, or at least tolerate them even though I have another favourite pairing, but in this case I can't bring myself to care.
It's just gimmicky, it feels as if the writers were following their own storyline and then someone said, "Uh-oh, guys! Looks like in the legends Arthur married Gwen so we need to get those two together ASAP!"
And they threw them together in one episode, "The Once and Future Queen", and while in S1 Arthur barely knew Gwen's name now he's suddenly in love, because it's destiny and there's cheesy music and ~*sparkles*~ and they kiss and spend the rest of the series pining for each other. Apart from when Lancelot comes along, of course.

I don't buy it. The way it's scripted, it's more like a teenage infatuation. Just look at how Arthur acts during "The Once and Future Queen". He's all nice to Gwen after she rages at him for being a jerk. The interviews would have me believe that Arthur is maturing and realizing the errors of his ways. Pity that when she's not looking Arthur's still bossing Merlin around. Come on writers, realize what's happening, he's just trying to impress the girl. He's totally not honest with her. At the end he says that they can't be together because his father wouldn't approve, and Gwen says "maybe when you're king". That should have been Arthur's line. He doesn't even reply. He doesn't care, and you can't persuade me that he does.

It doesn't help that both Arthur and Gwen have several canon and non-canon love interests that would be a better match. Yes I'm a raging Arthur/Merlin fangirl, no it's not just a case of Die For My Ship. There's Lancelot/Gwen, which is riddled with clichés as well, but it's romantic so who cares?
There's Morgana too. I loved Arthur/Morgana in S1, why didn't they get any scenes together in S2? And while Morgana/Gwen isn't my cup of tea, I'd pick it any time over Arthur/Gwen.
And let's not forget Merlin/Gwen, which was cute and adorably awkward and they'd kissed and all seemed to be going well and then everything was forgotten in 1x05. Wait what?