What Do I Find In My Ships?

I feel I have to post this first. The current trends in fandom are not good, to say the least. I just have to let these words out before I explode.

I know fandom is not a good place to be in. For all the words that say community and love with genuine criticism, then there is a minority that can gain popular circulation (like the Shakespeare authorship 'question') who is all out attacking everyone or well...just look down below. 

I know not all fans are like this but this needed to be said. 

I have seen the current shipping fandom...rather trapped in a bubble. I've been observing fandoms for over a decade now (I'm 22 turning 23 in several months from now). Shipping has always been a part of fandom since its conception. Seriously, the Holmes/Watson and Spirk are one of the oldest slash pairings out there.

However, the current trend is that "as presented in canon, this couple is the epitome of a healthy relationship".

...While there are people who certainly ships in that direction, people ship in many different ways like possibly seeing the change in the character, just wanting to have sex, domestic, alternate universe, and all sorts of reasons.

Shipping is subjective and should never be used as some kind of weapon. I hate shipping wars and ship hate with a passion. Stay in your lane and don't care about what others think about. I'm pretty sure the Shaladin pairings are in no way interacting with the fandom to a substantial degree, given the hostility. Shipping wars and ship hate is bloody stupid. There is no shipping in peace in the current day of fandom. Instead, these guys seemed to think that other people shipping problematic and/or nonexistent shipping should never ship it to the point of ship-shaming. I...just...don't...get...this... I understand that you want people to be more aware of the problems in the said ship like abuse or any another fuck-up but to the point of refusing other people to ship is utterly ridiculous. I don't hate on Bella X Edward shippers just because they love it. If they love it, cool. Just be respectful.

And it doesn't hate that even simple age difference with measly two, three, four is now considered pedophile. Do you see how broad people seem to take it despite in previous years this is nothing? Do you know what a pedophile entailed? The Otayuri shippers seemed to live in shame along with most SU ships while the May X Steven shippers are out and free. Even Wishfulshipping, where people seemed to argue about the ages of Iris and Cilan, are free. It seemed that in most fandoms outside of Pokemon, everyone seemed to prioritize age over chemistry. Instead, ya know...letting other people ship freely and peacefully without stupid discourse about this and that. Shipping is different from the actual canon material; you don't need canon to ship. In the present day shipping fandom though, it seemed like canon is basically the need to be. *Snorts* When people can ship something like Lance and Matt who so far never met in the show yet, I can't see why canon is basically the stickler when shipping is basically subjective and you guys can do anything in shipping because shipping is supposed to be fun.

Not this toxic waste.

There is something different between canon (something that is shown almost all over the world in different forms of media) and fanon (something that is through the internet, whether or not people can find through piles and piles of posts, articles, meta, etc that includes many sub-fandoms and trash. Even now, I still can't find a post I wanted to reblog on my post since I first saw it in high school). Otayuri is fanon and people are allowed to ship it just as much as people are allowed to not ship Solangelo, a canon ship. I still shipped Tokka even though the ATLA regarded that as a fanon couple. People are allowed to like Zutara. People are allowed to ship Shallura regardless of what other people have to say. Age is utterly meaningless in the shipping domain.

Nobody can police what people can and cannot ship. I honestly don't care about Wincest or Hidashi or Elsanna because I see why people would ship them. I don't even read fanfiction about these ships and I think that people are going overboard just trying to destroy the ships. Look if it was something like showing incest in canon is one thing (hell, Code Geass has subtext and ship teasing between siblings like Lelouch and Euphemia for example) but in fanon, where fans create and interpret what they want (either taken too far because of shipping wars/ship hate/pressuring other people to ship it too/harassment/lots of other bad stuff or simply wanting to have fun like creating ships for people in canon who met briefly or never met before in canon), it's suddenly a blight on the fandom... Even Code Geass is pretty laid-back on shipping the siblings and I don't see them trying to destroy the shippers or anyone who dared to ship them.

There is something called crack ships, ya know. Or crossover ships. It's like people seem to think that they have the power over a fandom when most people won't be swayed. It's a waste of time, trying to dissuade people from not shipping something. Despite efforts from anti-shippers against the ships I mentioned before, the ships are still strong, just not vocal and it's not because the antis are winning because it seemed like the antis are fighting to get their word out when people just don't care about shipping or because they interpret it differently. Shipping is by and large subjective and meant to be fun. Not serious business to the point of being policed.

If you hate the ship, avoid it. You have an all-out vent on something that remained in your lane. You are allowed to criticize it. You, however, are not allowed to harm other people who shipped a pairing you don't enjoy.

Shipping is not activism. Shipping is a niche in fandom, a subsection. It doesn't hurt nobody because people interpret differently and doesn't have the power to make it so. Yes, TV/movies/etc have the power to create representation that the world desperately needed and does have the power to hurt when writing does not do it justice. Shipping is entirely fandom-based. And I won't start getting into diverse media where people with different experiences consumed diverse media differently. Shipping does not mean that the person supported pedophilia or any of those -isms that starting to lose meaning by the way the internet kept throwing them around. I even threw away the Mary Sue/Gary Stu trope because the internet have been throwing them so much those words lost meaning.

The current fandom of shipping is stupid and the trends are not positive. Instead, it would likely push people away from pairing the couple or associating with the fandom in any positive way.

If fandom is supposed an all-around community of similar interests, then some people take too far.

Don't get me started on those who hate on characters who get character development when the show had shown character development and development in general from other characters. The current trends in fandom are bloody stupid because most people can't seem to think unless their fave is in the spotlight. It's like the current generation is full of entitled assholes who think their opinion is the best and cannot look at something critically because their favorite or it became a series that focused on one character is not given the spotlight despite evidence to the contrary. It is utterly disingenuous to the other characters who have been given development and just as much screen-time devoted to them alone.

I have problems with fandoms for a long time; I could rant about it for hours or make another post altogether. If you wish to enter a fandom, please tread carefully. Not all fandoms will have niceties though because even Pokemon have their toxic fandom, however small.

The clip displays one of my favorite ships, Suzaku X Lelouch. I have a special fondness for best friends turned enemies trope as well as the royalty and knight dynamic, the latter of which I love extensively. Like really bad.

One of my top tropes for a favorite couple of mine is the surprise. Not the surprise that you think of like a couple that is total opposites in different ways. The surprise I'm talking about is that they surprise each other.

I always love that detail so much that if a couple shows this at some point, they are either immediately higher on my radar or would make me board a ship with provisions to last an eternity. The pairings below are self-explanatory.

• Viktor Nikiforov X Katsuki Yuuri
• Sherlock Holmes X John Watson - of any reiterations, especially that of Canon. I utterly refuse to have the Mary Russell for one (If there is one thing Sherlock is now good for, is that the show is better than that series, aside from the incredible acting and chemistry from Ben and Freeman...seriously I think that's why the show is so popular is because of their leads' acting chops in awful storytelling) and I corrected in my head at least the many problems of Sherlock and the many other adaptations.
• Suzaku Kururugi X Lelouch Lamperouge/vi Britannia 
• Miyuki Kazuya X Sawamura Eijun 
• Richard X Asbel 
• Barney X Robin 
• Kotetsu X Barnaby 
• Marinette X Adrien 
• Ash/Satoshi X Misty/Kasumi 
• May/Haruka X Drew/Shuu 
• Sakura X Syaoran 
• Stiles Stilinski X Derek Hale 
• Mogami Kyoko X Ren Tsuruga/Kuon Hizuri 
• Heiwajima Shizuo X Orihara Izaya 
• Yuuri Shibuya X Wolfram von Bielefeld - The surprising part would come from Wolfram, to be honest. I always liked how Wolfram, despite the odds against his favor of having a good marriage, 
• Yuzuru Shino X Seryou Youji of BL manga Seven Days 

And these are just the many couples I ship happily, very much so. Notably that Suzaku X Lelouch and Richard X Asbel are similar enough for me to ship it hard. I saw platonic Suzaku X Nunnally (I really don't get them as a couple at all; I saw more of their interactions as less love-interest and more brother-sister) and the romantic Suzaku X Euphie (which I do like just as much as I like Lelouch X Shirley which is good. I don't hate either couple though because I have a higher opinion on that two couple than say Asbel X Cheria...which I don't ship at all. I have a hard time seeing Cheribel nothing more as a one-sided 'romance' when I know that Tales have done better with their romantic subplots...like Veigue and Claire & Luke X Tear & hell even Asch X Natalia).

Admittedly, when I used to ship, I think it would be cute for them to get together. I still do but it's more domestic now.

Notably, the ships I love have chemistry. Cheribel has so little chemistry and doesn't help that the F arc forced them together in ways that make me uncomfortable. On the other hand, Wolfram X Yuuri has chemistry due to the screentime they have including Wolfie's tsundere-ness.

While chemistry is certainly a factor, what I do want is a perfectly good couple I can go on board with. Yes, even with the most problematic unhealthiest of couples.

Now that would go against how I would go about with Cheribel. People can ship what they like; they don't need canon for it. All they need is their interpretation and that would go along merrily. I saw ship-shaming for problematic pairings like Emma X Hook from Once Upon a Time or Wincest. I rarely ever ship now. Seriously, the only couple I shipped strongly in VLD is Klance while everything else like Shallura (though I do love it) is pretty much okay or just don't care. When I was in the Tales of Zestiria domain, I'm pretty sure I only shipped Mikleo X Sorey just as strong while everything else is okay. When I got back to the ATLA fandom, pretty sure that I shipped Tokka strongly while having a liking towards Zuki while okay in everything else, even Zutara which I deemed just okay. In the BNHA fandom, I'm pretty sure I shipped TodoDeku while having a liking for JiroMomo and everything else is just okay like BakuShima. I'm actually crossing into the Lego Elves: Secrets of Elvendale one day ago so who knows what I ship there.

I do ship Barney X Robin after all. The pair individually is a fuck-up but they understand each other. The two of them can be unhealthy together. Unlike Ted X Jeannette which is unhealthy for a whole different reason altogether, this pairing has so much potential rather than Ted X Robin which is an all-out Nice Guy syndrome.

This is just an observation but Tales have been changing up the dynamics of the stories. Vesperia has an older man as a protagonist (not the first, though; Veigue) and the main girl and boy didn't have a romance despite them meeting first. Graces would be the first unrequited love between the main protagonist and supposedly main girl but that failed spectacularly since they forced the two together anyway. Even then, the main heroine is Sophie rather than Cheria. Xillia has two POV to pick, one of which is a woman but there are no childhood romances between Leia and Jude. Milla fits more of the Hero of Tales series type rather than Jude. Jude uses his fists in battle rather than swords although SeneSene had already done that. Xillia 2 has a silent protagonist for the first time ever in a mothership title and the main girl would be the love interest...except that love interest died and the real main girl was the little girl. In fact, it might be the first time the hero of a Tales title died. Zestiria would have Alisha be the main girl but the main girl turned out to be Rose or Lailah. In fact, there is no set heroine in Zestiria at all but there is a childhood friend that hit the same notes or the first girl meets boy meeting through Mikleo and Sorey. Berseria has a female protagonist and no romances at all with a team full of antiheroes (usually Tales has a few antiheroes per game and per party...and yes that includes traitors ).

Mini-Review: Death Note 2017

So it came out. That thumbnail for this video seemed to show Light meet Ryuk for the first time...and it's hilarious. Just watch that scene in its context rather than the context you thought it would be...

Now the film is still whitewashing, not to the extent of Ghost in the Shell 2017. The film doesn't exactly justify the setting update and change to America. America has totally different ideals. It could potentially discuss the racism, social system, and much more that had become prevalent in the American society including white privilege. It could even discuss the American ideas of terrorism, domestic and international. Instead, well... style over substance.

Let's go into the good stuff first.

Aesthetically, it's macabre. While Death Note is a dark shounen and played with the common tropes, it is well-known for its over-the-top dark noir style. It has a lot of styles and I do appreciate that. I mean I still appreciate the style and cinematography of the anime...to the point, it's very funny. There is stuff in the anime that I found unintentionally funny. Yes, it has great cinematography and one of the few things I can praise.

I will give credit that it's ambitious and that the team behind this film are fans. They are trying so hard but failed to. While I don't consider myself a huge fan of DN, I am those who want to see the film for its goods and bads. I want to like this film; instead, I just considered it boring and tedious to sit through; the characters are dull and uninspired and the plot is all over the place and glossed over. When I said I was looking at my phone halfway in, I do mean I was already looking up Klance fan fiction. I want to call it good but it failed to entice me with its messy writing. The film genuinely does want to tell a good story but it failed as an adaptation and on its own merits. The Japanese films, where even the Light there can be either depicted as good (heck there is one that showed Light as a Misa fanboy...ironically, I didn't hate the show and just considered it fine and mediocre) or just plain horrible a person (the films). Why does those Japanese produced films and show managed to do what this film misses?

Design-wise, Ryuk looked utterly amazing. Think of the CGI Ryuk in the Japanese live-action and compared it to this. Ryuk looked so real. The acting for Ryuk is good enough and compared to the other actors and actresses, he's Meryl Streep. Both he and L's actor are freaking Meryl Streep in comparison to the other actors.

The unintentionally funny moments are the best parts honestly. They are trying so hard to make Light and Misa look and act badass without any kind of writing to back them up. Not when the first scene Light was so funny when he met Ryuk for the first time; it's hilarious when he screamed so loud that I thought anybody could hear him. Not to mention he certainly got detention... Just throw them in obviously evil clothing and try to make them as bad as they were in the original. It's funny because they aren't doing anything at all. These characters are sloppy to hell and back. The over-the-top gory deaths and the musical choices give me the tickles to think about because it didn't fit the tone of the darker and edgier; it's just more narmier.

Now for the negatives...

Look I understand the point of an adaptation but the film doesn't. The film was more like time-crunching as much as the mythos as possible rather than give the story and characters more time to flesh out. When they do flesh it out, it's either exposition without anything to back it up prior to that (like the bully thing but they pushed the bully archetype so hard that the fact that Light is now the outcast like in any high school dramas.). A bully is a bully and they don't seem to understand why people bully. The people in this universe really are stupid enough to take seriously.

The movie is just hilarious to watch. On the downside, it's dull for me to turn to my phone and keep barely half an ear and eye.

The writing did not seem to get Death Note's themes at all. The basic literary functions like foils are barely there (if they were there, then I would notice the contrast but these guys almost blended together) and movies move contrivances to contrivances like no tomorrow. It's like the director just made a checklist for the script. There's no unreliable narrator here to justify any of these. Seriously, the closest thing to foils in this film was Misa and Light. L was more of an irritation to Light than an actual threat. It doesn't feel like the cat-and-mouse chase that DN has at all. L is too good and Light is too stupid. The other characters are beyond help or stupid. I was laughing-crying when Light and Misa outright discussed the MacGuffin in the open. I would understand that you want to paint the world as apathetic but people with brains will worry when you want to kill people.

The setting update is less used, unfortunately. I thought from the trailer, they will go deep on the issues that America has from terrorism to the justice system to racism in that system. But not really... It didn't even go into that. It's like it's trying to reach a general audience that included kids but trying also to not make it too dark. Ironic when the original Death Note is unafraid to speak their minds about the then current issues and the human nature.

The setting is just a backdrop and just there. It's hey, we're America! We have nothing to do about this. They tried to explain Kira's nickname but it's glossed over and stupid. Why involve Japan? That meant that Light would have to know the Japanese high school system and the possible activities. And it implied that Light didn't even try to do that because the scene afterward pretty stated that the Japanese connection did not bother when there is the internet to worry about. How about letting the idea that the name Killer is going around but the Japanese Kira began to make way because it sounded cooler?

I thought they would use the internet to their advantage that the influence of Kira was far more extending. Fansites and discourse are galore on the Internet; barely even showing social media did not help the story one bit. Why would Misa's counterpart think to use a forum for more murders? Are you stupid? And as it turns out, these guys were, in fact, real criminals. I just...wow... Instead, the worship of Kira was glossed over in a montage. They could have developed it more. We see less of the Kira worship than even the character development.

Humor doesn't seem to mesh well. The original Death Note does have humorous scenes and integrated into the story like the infamous handcuffed scene. The film is trying so hard for humor than the unintentionally funny moments like I really can't take seriously the deaths or Watari's singing at all. Nolan did his humor well in his dialogue. Even the show I am currently watching, Voltron Legendary Defender, have transformed their childish humor into a much better-integrated one without lowering the values of the characters of those who got little to none development. This film's humor didn't establish as well as one would hope, especially since the tone tried so hard to be an adult and failing to be an adult.

The actors have so little to work with in terms of the script. Most of the time, I felt they were going through the motions and time-crunching out as much mythos as possible. Motivations aren't clear and jumbled. I find it hard to sympathize or understand the characters, no matter how I disagree with their method. Now Death Note, manga and anime and live action, are flawed and it isn't one of my top anime. I enjoyed the motivations and the deep characterization especially Light. Y'know that I found Light to be sympathetic because I can see his circumstances that led him to where he is.

This Light doesn't seem to know which direction he is going. The writing wants to make him sympathetic but the poor writing made him look like a sadist without any real thought of why he's a sadist (again gore over substance) or the pre-Light's sanity slippage or a whiny teen or the clever Light that I know of. Doing other people's homework doesn't exactly show that the guy is smart. You guys can make a genius, Y'all. They seemed to take Light's bending of the rules in the original from the very start rather than start out small like Light did. Why didn't they start with the heart attacks? It's simple and normal. The contrivances of his first victim, Kenny's death, was so hilarious I can't stop laughing; I just can't take it seriously at all. Hell, they don't seem to understand why Light jumped off the deep end. They want him sympathetic but he's so dull and clumsily written that the acting doesn't help matters at all.

Character development is something I strongly love in media. This is why I prefer the new formation in VLD because I want to see these characters embrace their full potential and grow as people. The character development in this film was so minimal and I could hardly see where any of these characters going because there are so predictable or unpredictable in Light's case. Normally, unpredictability is a thing I embraced but not so much here when it's clumsy writing.

Look, this Light was basically a dream come true for those who see Light as this martyr despite his piles of bodies. Never ever forget the bodies, buddy. Light was brought down by his perceived cleverness rather than the toxicity of the Death Note. The Death Note seemed to exacerbate the flaws of the holder and this movie does not do it justice. Every character is far too dull and uninspired. It's like the Death Note MacGuffin was dropped in a high school drama.

Misa is the one I have no freaking clue why she wants to do what she does. We know she's a bad girl but there's no motivation. She's just evil to prod Light in the direction. There's literally nothing to her character. There's no stalker or killer of her parents here, folks. Just evil. Forget her own cleverness in the original, just...evil without any rhyme or reason for her evilness. She's even duller than cardboard; she's not Lady Macbeth to no extent. I can sympathize with Lady Macbeth; I can't sympathize with Mia. I don't even feel an inkling of sympathy or why should I care about her? There is a difference when I can sympathize with a guy like Zarkon and Haggar who have the potential of tragedy and someone who is just evil for evil's sake.

The Misa and Light's relationship did not help. I can see why Light is interested in her but not so much Misa. Is Misa drawn to his bad boy look? Outcast? Why is she attracted to him before the Death Note mess?

The morality play doesn't play much. It's not the ideologies that clashed, just cargo lugging in the water. I don't feel any of the gray morality that Death Note is known for. Light is possibly the least evil...or stupid. Misa, as I mentioned before, was so evil that I don't bother her. She certainly has agency but I don't see the point of her relationship with Light at all. They're just together with no rhyme or reason. L was now suddenly so stupid and flying off the rails from the original L that I felt nothing for the guy but sympathy for the actor that he has to go through the motions.

The other characters didn't help at all. Sometimes these guys are just there just for the fact that they are from the original series and have any importance to the plot. Their motivations are just as clueless as the main protagonists. Soichirou seemed to be debating back and forth when the original series' Soichiro was the noblest of them all. His motivations are unclear? Look we get that in the original that Soichiro didn't believe Light is Kira and died believing that. But here? Sometimes, the acting of the Soichiro didn't get through and all I got was a debating father who knew his son is the murderer.

The film could use foils but it's awful to see they aren't even using the basic literarily techniques. They tried to do that with Light and L but failed miserably. I was laughing mad when I realized they aren't doing anything with the relationship. I'm not an L X Light shipper at all but I pretty much prefer whatever shipping that fans churned out than this mess of a relationship.

The relationship between L and Light is horribly wrecked. I always loved the mind games in the original series. This relationship is just awful overall. L is more of an irritation for Light than an equal. Instead of ideologies and foils, the diner mind battle seemed less like that and more a mess of miscommunication because L is too good and Light is too stupid. The two are foils and in this adaptation, they're not even foils. The potential of another layer of foil is right there but they don't even take it. Instead, they ignored it and just doing stupid stuff that I want to drink.

L... Ya think they would grasp the potential of having a black detective against a white son of a detective? Nope.

Overall, the film is dull. There is much potential if they could just see it. Instead, the prioritizing of style over substance is evident. Exposition over showing the events. If they were showing anything, it's not coherent. It's just stupid drama upon stupid drama.

So I heard that the creators of the original Death Note approved of the film? More power to you two! The Captain Underpants movie actually showed why the books are so memorable in the first place with the many things I recognize from the books. I recognize the spirit and themes of the books just as much I did with the HTTYD films. This film didn't have the spirit of the original series; the only spirit thing they got was the bare minimum of the plot in an American setting.

Personally, I don't see the point of the film at all with the lack of motivations and lack of development. It was all over the place.

It's better off as a live-action original series. I am still waiting to see the Percy Jackson and the Olympians as a Netflix original. If Lego Elves and Series of Unfortunate Events got it, then so can PJO!

Honestly, I have to indulge myself in VLD and PJO afterward because the storytelling there is coherent. Character development is always a thing for me, negative and positive.

Look at the character development and interactions! Fandom, let them develop to their fullest potential! We do not want stagnating characters; we need well-rounded and dynamic characters. Don't designate common traits just because people said so, just because it's easier! Allow character flaws!! Look at what is shown versus the telling. Show, don't tell is something you need to learn.

Now, look at this Pokeani news~!

Holy mother of Arceus!