nakama shipping

I know I can be a batshit insane shipper sometimes. (Haha, sometimes.) And sometimes it helps me enjoy a show, and sometimes it makes it excruciating. It's a lottery. But as much as I'd like nothing more than to jump into a show just to force two fictional people to kiss, I try not to like that totally blind me to the other relationships between characters. Because not every relationship has to be romantic to be meaningful, and 'everybody needs somebody'. (Thanks TWGOK, I can't believe that quote comes from a series about dating sims.)


Hellboy, as I've mentioned in a previous rant is one example. The relationship between Hellboy and his father touched me from the first time I saw it. And it was one that allowed us to sympathize with this 'thing' that didn't look like us, but could also smile, and weep, and love. Not the fact that he keeps visiting a girl like he can't get a clue and irrationally follows her around.
Love triangles tend to draw most of the focus. Sometimes they're well done, and sometimes they feel forced (violentlycoughesKorra). For example, I was so focused on shipping Rose and the Doctor on Doctor Who that I missed some of the bravery, loyalty and pure awesome badassery that Martha Jones had. She wasn't just pretty good, she was one the best, and the Doctor only takes the best. It wasn't that it was forced or shallow, just like Sarah Jane and Rose weren't forced or shallow. It was just that it shouldn't take up everything.

There's one love triangle I love in particular, and that's the one in Final Fantasy VII, between Cloud and Aerith and Tifa. I love this one because I really got a sense of 'falling in love' with those characters. I felt like although both of the girls were interested in him for different reasons, Aerith looking for a shadow of Zack, and Tifa looking for a shadow of a imaginary hero, they got to know the real Cloud and that's the one they fell in love with the end. I love it because I don't think Aerith's love for Cloud cheapened her love with Zack, I just feel like she was blessed to have loved two great men before she died. Different in many ways, similar in some ways, but both so wonderful and both who treasured her. I love it because I feel like Aerith and Cloud were just starting to know each other and they had something that held a tentative hope for the future, something that had a promise of more tomorrow. I love it because that made it all the harder when Aerith's death came so suddenly. (And so suddenly like all of a sudden Sephiroth out of fucking nowhere like what the hell???) I love it because after Aerith's death, and Cloud's coma, it was Tifa who resolutely stood by him. I love it because Tifa broke open her wish and found the truth, and found what it was like to love the man and not the hope. I love it because she found the real Cloud, and in the process found herself. I love it because I think Cloud was lucky enough to have know both of them. I love it because I think Cloud really did love Aerith, tentatively and in his own way, and she was good for him, and I think with Tifa's help, he was able to look towards the future she believed in, and get go of some of his guilt and think. I love it because I like to think that they visit Aerith every year and she and Zack smile when they tell them about the family. I love the love. And while I'd like to continue for another 10 pages and a half on their stories, like I already did for an entire three pages on my FF7 rant document, I'd like to focus on Aerith and Tifa.
Of the many tropes in love triangles, and fan portrayls of them, the one I hate the most is 'Ron the Death Eater'. Where someone bashes one point of the triangle just so the others will get together. No! No no no no! Aerith and Tifa weren't simpering women who bitch fought all the time over a man. They were best friends! Tifa might have been jealous sometimes, but not because she was a bitch, but because she was human. And because she was human, she was also able to forget it and get along with Aerith. They fought together, that counts for something. When Aerith died, it wasn't just Cloud who was affected, wasn't just him who knew her and loved her. I think when she died everyone cried; Barrett missing her spunk and optimism, Yuffie missing a big sister, Cid missing her cheerful smile, Vincent missing her faith in the future, Red missing her affection and the glomping and petting she must have forced on him, and Tifa missing the sister she never had, missing a friend she could trust her back to, missing someone she could've shared secrets with.  For Tifa, who was insecure despite her strength and beauty, I think Aerith cheered her up. Aerith who always, always looked to the future, who believed in the success of their mission more than anyone, who smiled no matter what challenge they faced. That's why her death hit everyone so hard, us players included. Even for me, crying just thinking about it despite the fact that when I played it 'Aeris dies' was already a 'it was his sled' think of spoiler. And it's important not to forget that just for Aerith and Tifa fighting over who gets Cloud. Because to forget that is to forget that they're human, they've travelled together and fought together and I know it seems ordinary because of the medium but fighting together means trusting their lives to each other. Forgetting that they were a family above all else. It's dangerous because sometimes love triangles can make you forget that because you want to think that your ship is the best. But they were human, they had their faults and their merits. And not just Aerith and Tifa, but Cloud too. He's not a prize to be fought over, he's human too. To forget all that, is to forget the story that moved you in the first place.

Although I ranted for way longer than was necessary for FF7 (you try stopping yourself from talking about something you love from the bottom of your heart) there are also stuff I have to rant about. Oh what you thought this was going to be a semi-legi literary thing with proper examples? Fuck that I just want to rant. Okay so second thing I want to rant about, Avatar. The last airbender not blue Pocahontas. And not Korra I mean there's more than a few issues with the love triangles there. I'll start off by saying I'm a big Zutara shipper. I'm a big fan of the whole opposites attract thing, and there was so much ship tease and they could've had it alllll *adele plays in the distance* But that's not the main point. I was reading Zutara fanfics because hey I reject your canon and substitute my own, and I found out one of the things I loved most about fanfics isn't so much the shipping as it is the other characters. I mean of course if I find one with in character, well written shipping hell yes I'll read the shit out of that. (And subsequently claw at my screen in anguish when I find out it's incomplete and hasn't been updated in 6 years). But I love fanfics where Sokka is overly protective of his sister, where Azula shows tentative affection for her brother, where Ursa is there to give support, where Toph is ready to protect everyone, where Iroh gives out wise advice, where Mai and Suki aren't just put on a bus, where Aang actually shows his patience and understanding as well as his youthfulness.  Especially that last one in Zutara fics, because you know how I hate Ron the Death Eater. Aang is afforded anger and sadness and a little bit of irrationality because he's just a kid, but throughout the series he's also demonstrated wisdom and tolerance and understanding beyond his years by virtue of his being a monk and the Avatar. You can't just through out three years of beautiful character development by having him pitch a fit because his girlfriend, his sister, someone he treasures, genuinely falls in love with someone else. Just because I don't ship them doesn't mean I don't appreciate it. (And let's be honest, have you seen the Korra flashbacks? The future is looking good gurl) And one thing that I really miss in the original series is Toph and Katara interactions. I love their friendship, even their fights. It's just a really complex relationship and I wish they could've had more bonding moments together. I mean, Toph hates been mothered and thought of as weak but at the same time she's never really known the warmth of a proper mother/older sister and to be treated as a girl friend. Katara doesn't like Toph when she gets in the way of her carefully laid plans but ever loving mother she is, she knows Toph isn't always all metal and stone and she gives affection when she needs it most. And when it comes down to it, they're both fierce lionesses willing to kick ass to protect their little family. Ah, the love, I love it! I really wish their sisterly relationship could've been elaborated on. More than any Zutara fic, I'd love to see that. Or more Aang and Zuko bonding! I mean from mortal enemies, to brothers in arms, there's a lot to be explored there too. I was devastated when I found out only Katara was left in Legend of Korra. She's the character I loved the most, and to her their Gaang was all her children. And for a mother, to have her children leave first...Katara and her brother, the first two people we saw in the original series, Katara and Aang, the very first face he saw after a hundred years, Katara and Zuko, the first person to offer him trust and the person whose forgiveness meant the most, Katara and Toph, who became sisters in all but blood - and then for all of them to leave first. I just can't.

A lot of media romanticize this, this 'romance' thing. Katara and Toph, Harry and Ron, Aerith and Tifa, Martha and Rose, Orihime and Rukia, Sheryl and Ranka or oh god Kikyo and Kagome.

I've realized, even as I love shipping people, even as I continue to watch shows just for a ship, I realized what makes me really fall in love with a series is family. I wish there was a really good equivalent for the word 'nakama' because to me, the term seems to wrap up everything - comrades giving each other their lives, friends for life, family tied together by bonds stronger than blood. It's a word that seems to promise adventures together, obstacles to overcome together, living together side by side. It's a word that seems to bind people together through good times and bad, laughter and sorrow, loss and gain, sharing everything together. It seems to be tied together with love.