Meme: Rate-A-Ship

[extrapenguin]

I have descended upon family, and will spend the rest of December descending upon other branches of family. Expect radio silence on posting until maybe the 7th of January, save for the traditional Yuletide rec post. I'll try to comment on others' posts, and reply to comments on mine, but I don't have the brainspace to formulate a post topic by myself. In the meanwhile, waiting for Yuletide reveals, I'm drinking tea and reading armadda's Coraline AU for Guardian. It's very nice to be in the same fandom as one's best beta, again; I look forward to chatting with her about my outlines. (I have two, for Ye Zun being redeemed, though one is more AU premise with a Zhao Yunlan/Shen Wei get-together that segues into a Ye Zun redemption than straightforward fic about Ye Zun being redeemed. Perhaps I'll write the praise kink sex pollen Ye Zun redemption first, that one seems shorter.)

Let's do a meme I can reply to! From journalmemes, slightly modified. Feel free to drop in crossover ships and utter and complete crackships, in addition to the "expected" ones.

Comment with a ship and I will rate it on the following scale:

absolute squick / no way / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / ship forever

And then I will explain why.

Meme provided by journalmemes.

(Fandoms include: A:tLA, A:LoK, Guardian (镇魂), Honor Harrington, Imperial Radch, Modao Zushi, Nirvana in Fire, Revelation Space, Rivers of London, KOTOR, KOTOR II, Vorkosigan)

Comments

[naye]

Have a great holiday~! <3

And ooh, a meme! Going to throw a couple of ships in here - feel free to pick and choose or answer all of them (and these aren't necessarily my own ships, so no need to worry about offended feelings - I am just curious about your take)

Peter/Beverley
Guo Changcheng/Chu Shuzhi
Mu Nihuang/Xia Dong
Mei Changsu/Xiao Jingyan

[extrapenguin]

For once, I have a relevant icon! I shall offend all of your nonexistent feelings. :)

Peter/Beverley
absolute squick / no way / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / ship forever
I just ... never really felt it, ever. Every scene of theirs, I was headtilting bemusedly and noncomprehendingly. It's just There, but I don't get it, and don't find any of the canon evidence to be actual evidence. Worse/less working ships exist, too, and it's not a super squick, but I have never felt a shippy feel.

Guo Changcheng/Chu Shuzhi
absolute squick / no way / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / ship forever
Oh hey, another ship I don't get! Chu Shuzhi hated waste of space Guo Changcheng, then a switch was magically flipped and he started tolerating him/saw him as a replacement little brother or something? Anyway, nothing about the development pinged me in a shippy way. Debating between "don't ship" and "no way", but it's more bafflement, so I'll stick it here for now. I just don't see it, and don't want it as a side ship in anything, because baffling.

Mu Nihuang/Xia Dong
absolute squick / no way / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / ship forever
OKAY SO it seems I should've edited the descriptor choices further, since none of these are really accurate. I loved the way we were presented to them and their dynamic, with a complex antagonistic loyalty I rarely see between women in media – and then they essentially never interacted anymore, and the rest of their plots were about their male love interests, and Xia Dong ended up married to a yeti. SIGH. My dreams, they were dashed. I should probably rewatch that very ship-selling episode and see if my creative juices get flowing. Rating it "perfect" because that episode and the potential it held was perfect.

Mei Changsu/Xiao Jingyan
absolute squick / no way / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / ship forever
And again, a scale that doesn't quite fit! It seems I should've edited it a bit more; my ships aren't really tailored to the Tumblr "aww, cute" one-note fluff thrust. I decree it sexy, because power dynamics and identity porn are sexy, but it's more fraught than anything. It seems I ship things for the edges and rough spots, more than the smooth perfection, despite my tastes changing a bit towards the sweetness lately. Hm, maybe that's why I'm more of an OT3 shipper for Guardian than a pure ZYL/SW shipper. Hmm.

[naye]

Ahh, I actually have the same feelings about Peter/Bev? Which is weird, because they're canon and it's A Thing, but I just. Don't get it? (I discussed it a while back in sholio's journal, and I think while some people liked it the general consensus is that Ben Aaronovitch isn't great at writing romance.) But again, it's canon, so it's extra weird to get the Don't Ship vibes from it!

The rest of these are so interesting to read, too - I wanted some Mu Nihuang/Xiao Dong so badly! And then like you said, it's not a thing that canon does. But it could have been so perfect...

I still don't know what I feel about Xiao Guo/Lao Chu? Just. It's weird? But cute? But weird?? And I am too invested in the gen relationships in NiF (as in many other things) to want to ship Mei Changsu with anyone, really, but it's fascinating to hear why you like it!

[extrapenguin]

Aaronovitch isn't great at writing romance, 'tis true. I've heard a lot discussed (eg via sixthlight) that it's "a romance in which they have obviously had the large relationship discussions offpage". I recognize some might like the fact that the romance isn't a source of conflict, but I'm unconvinced. I don't even get any NOPE reaction, like for a bunch of other canon het.

I understand Mu Nihuang was part of the "uhh let's sort of add a female lead and make it more het" adaptation choice, and there are people who enjoy Nie Feng returning and Xia Dong being rewarded for her patience, but I am not one of those people. I'd rather Xia Dong have remained a widow – let Xie Yu's one kindness of bringing back Nie Feng's ashes be a real kindness – and rided out to war with Mu Nihuang. Ah well, it seems ficwriters will have to deal.

[oanja]

Breq/Seivarden for the meme

[extrapenguin]

absolute squick / no way / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / ship forever
Breq/Seivarden is currently firmly in the "cute" category: it's nice and all, but in the sequels, they didn't really interact much. The loyalty kink on Seivarden's end elevates it to "cute".

[oanja]

I think they sort of came back together at the end (unless I remember that totally wrong...) but yeah, I don't particularly ship them either. Do you have ships you like in the books?

[extrapenguin]

I don't recall any get-together, but it's been a while since I read them. I don't really ship-ship anything, but I would be pleased with Justice of Toren One Esk/Lieutenant Awn loyalty kink thingies, and in general ship stuff with ancillaries. Maybe Mercy of Kalr/Breq? But it's not a book series I'm into for the ships.

[trobadora]

Lin Jing/Sha Ya?

[extrapenguin]

absolute squick / no way / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / ship forever
Lin Jing might be a bit too persistent for comfort, and Sha Ya only getting close to him for nefarious purposes, but as far as canon het goes, this is actually pretty good! He really digs her for who and what she is, music included, and doesn't balk at her being Dixingian. She doesn't love him, but I'd buy an epilogue/fixit where she decides to reboot their dating and they later get together.

[trobadora]

Yeah - he does come on very strongly, and there's the whole "plant a bug on her" thing, but then she tries to kill him and he's weirdly sweet about it, and I end up actually finding it cute.

[extrapenguin]

It definitely improved as they went along! I think I started actually finding it cute around the stinky tofu scene, and then he gave her a ring that'd project stars, and the cuteness was cemented. "Weirdly sweet about her trying to kill him" does sum it up quite well!

[china_shop]

Peter Grant/Ye Zun

Zhao Yunlan/Shen Wei/Nightingale

[extrapenguin]

Okay, so, I must first worldbuild this crossover! Dixingians are obviously ... some part of the demi-monde. (This might work better with novel worldbuilding, but I've never read it, so oops.) The SID is the Chinese equivalent of the Folly, and the Black-Robed Envoy is the demi-monde side of magical law enforcement. Shen Wei masquerades as a mage who masquerades as a university professor for added identity porn. Zhao Yunlan can do the calligraphy-based magic, but outside of magic, his handwriting is deliberately terrible. Nightingale and Peter get called to China to help deal with Ye Zun as part of idk Magic Interpol.

Peter Grant/Ye Zun
absolute squick / no way / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / ship forever
Peter Grant applies community policing to Ye Zun, and tries to talk him down, despite not sharing a common language. Ye Zun is intrigued by this thing called Google Translate, and the fact that someone is actually interested in what he has to say, despite the language gap. The end result is a Ye Zun who renounces what he did and mends his relationship with his brother, at Peter's prodding (effective because Peter is the only person who actually displayed interest in who he was), and clings to Peter like a burr. Peter ... idk, he has a thing for immortals? Ye Zun has lived through a bunch of history, so Peter would enjoy questioning him, and maybe adding another person to the Folly. I am rating this "adorable" because it ends in a Ye Zun redemption and they might enjoy each other's company.


Zhao Yunlan/Shen Wei/Nightingale
absolute squick / no way / don’t ship / ok / cute / adorable / sexy / perfect / ship forever
...while all of that is happening, Nightingale is talking to the adults. IDK. I don't think they'd have much in common? Shen Wei's long nap isn't quite like Nightingale aging backwards to see all his friends die, and all three people here are quite reticient. Unless it's a sex pollen threesome, they'd just keep their hands off each other.

[china_shop]

Ahh, I love your world-building. And your answers! \o/