Official Shipping Discussion | ships ahoy | sharing is caring: fan creations (fic, art, etc.)

[Elysium]

My solution to AkuRoku is to age Roxas up or age Axel down in any stories where they are romantically involved, or strictly write Roxas as having a one-sided crush.

I think that's what most shippers do, though I don't know many who still follow that ship.

My point is that most people who wrote fics for that ship back in the day did not envision Axel that age and, no, they didn't write him as some 25 year old who was grooming his prey. To think somebody actually would write that kind of relationship into a fanfic where everything about the fanfic is fantasy is asinine. He isn't grooming him in the games either because there is no romance in the games, unless we think people randomly "groom" their friends.

And for the record—again, I do not ship Axel/Roxas. I don't even see myself as a shipper of Aqua/Riku for that matter, although I see the appeal in a passing sense. It’s just that kind of language shot out at shippers from the past f***ing pisses me off. Usually if you read a slash fic, there’s going to be secondary ships like Axel/Roxas in the background because some writers go overboard into an “Everybody Is Gay” universe. And the ship is never written the way people here like to mischaracterize.

This thread did not pass the vibe check. I do not claim this energy.

Sorry, I don't do this side-ways insinuation game. I'd rather be direct if we're going there.

 

[palizinhas]

Roxas/Axel fics these days are usually alternate universe (especially ones where they meet in high school or college). I think not many people still ship them within the canon universe.

Also we've been breaking the rules of the thread for like two pages now.

 

[Elysium]

I didn't see Aqua/Riku as breaking the rules when somebody tried to shame a poster for having mentioned them... That disagreement is where the discussion spiraled from.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

It’s okay if people are discussing things like what makes a ship appropriate vs not appropriate lol

 

[Zackarix]

The AkuRoku fandom seems to follow the same pattern I've seen with other "problematic" ships. A lot of people started shipping it when they were young enough to not realize the inappropriate parts of the ship, and by the time they were old enough to know better they had years of emotional investment in the ship. At that point it's hard to let go so they go into denial "If the objections people had to this ship were valid that would mean that I'm a creeper for shipping it, I'm not a creeper therefore the objections don't matter and there's nothing wrong with my ship." If an A/R fan didn't abandon ship after Days and BbS they might have been a fan for nearly a decade and a half at this point. That's a lot of emotional investment.

 

[pastel.goblin]

To think somebody actually would write that kind of relationship into a fanfic where everything about the fanfic is fantasy is asinine

But.. there's a decent chunk of people who absolutely do that. Maybe not so much in the KH fandom (I've never looked into it personally so can't say) but to say people don't enjoy unhealthy ships because of and not in spite of the problematic aspects is just untrue.

But like I said, at the end of the day it's fictional characters in fictional relationships. I find it ick but I'm not going to attack anyone who does ship it.

 

[Face My Fears]

Well, Roxas is 15-ish and Axel became 23-ish with BbS--we don't have to resort to the fake, histrionic arguments like "Roxas is only 1 year old!!" since the former age difference alone would've been enough to make it a problem. And, besides, what most forget when they go for the OTT reach of the latter argument in their base attempt to shame shippers of the past is that they forget that the same argument of age being removed when someone becomes a Nobody could also be applied to Axel. Is he, what, 3 or 4 years old in Nobody years in that case? If you think a Nobody's age begins from the moment they're "born" as a Nobody, the age difference between Axel and Roxas would actually be lower than if you went by their actual age (which is whatever age their somebodies were when the Nobodies were created onwards).

And Axel's taking Roxas under his wing could only be seen as grooming if the person writing the ship is deliberately reading the ship as some kind of predator-prey relationship...and why would any shipper do that? It's certainly not a canon interpretation since the idea of romantic subtext between any characters in this franchise is complete fantasy altogether on the part of all shippers, since SoKai is the only thing that is canon. Why would someone in the past who was writing Axel/Roxas fanfiction deliberately fantasize a relationship where Axel is "grooming" his "prey"? Maybe look at it logically instead of trying to fish out a way to demonize strangers you don't like in the worst light possible. I know there have been some here before who have done that to the Axel/Roxas ship mostly because it's obvious they don't like that there was once a popular pairing that challenged their own fantasy (usually Roxas/Namine). And you can see it in the borderline homophobic language they used to describe the challenging pairing; those types of toxic fans are just as sick as the smears they spew. If you don't think SoKai shippers would do the same thing to SoRiku shippers if Nomura retroactively aged Riku up 5 years, you'd have to be blind to the way the shipping world works. Or lying.

Well see... this is my whole point about shipping age issues in KH!

Because if people believe that the nobody's age is "newborn" when they're created, then Axel/Roxas is still kind of weird because "Axel" would be about 10 while Roxas is less than 1 year old. Then Lea/Roxas would be completely wrong because whether Roxas is 1 or 15, Lea is twenty-something years old.

Like Spock said before, I think Nomura should just release everyone's age to clean this up. But my mentality for shipping is that everyone in the trios and Namine are teens. Although, this discussion made me realize that Axel is 20-something so maybe not him lol. But I don't really care about shipping Axel anyway since the only person I kind of wanted to see him with was Larxene.

 

[Elysium]

^ I ship Lea with Isa.

 

[*TwilightNight*]

Riku/Namine - I have no idea why Nomura went out of his way to debunk this from the KH3 ending (and what Sora said in The Final World). Possibly because he has a love interest for Riku in Quadratum (watch it be the girl from Verum Rex).

Because the KHIII ending was about Riku Replica and Naminè, not Riku, even though he chose to portray it like some shoujo manga nonsense that had absolutely no purpose. And...no. Like, why does Riku need a love interest? He's fine single, he's happy single, and that's perfectly okay. I cannot comprehend the insistence to throw him some girl. Someone halp me understand.

Granted, the whole Riku Replica and Naminè thing is equally nonsensical and one-sided. The girl bears no mention of him for...games, and I mean, games, and suddenly he matters to her and wants to...see...him? Not to mention the brainwashing.

Ugh, whatever. Nomura just fucked up with Naminè in all types of ways. And people think Kairi has it bad.





-------


As for AkuRoku, I never personally liked it, I felt Axel was a bit of a creep with his behavior concerning a 14-15 year old, and it was in the era of immense yaoi fangirls who for the most part, liked male/male ships to fulfill their fetish and fantasy. Not that it applies to all. If people still ship it, whatever. That's their prerogative. And it isn't canon. But it was always sus to me, unlike the SoRiku ship where they are within proper age range and finding one another wasn't portrayed as so...needy. Sometimes you gotta let people be. A lot of fans jumped ship and I hardly see it anymore.

 

[Elysium]

and finding one another wasn't portrayed as so...needy.

It wasn't? 50% of Sora's dialogue in KH2 is "Riku?!" or "Riku!" I think it's one of those cases of superlaying what you want to believe on top of a subject.

 

[pastel.goblin]

and suddenly he matters to her and wants to...see...him?

See the thing that bothers me so much about this is that Naminé still never actually says any of this herself. Sora kinda just tells her? (and he would know this.. how exactly??) and Nomura says it in an interview. The only characters Naminé herself has expressed any interest in being with/around are Sora, Roxas and (kinda) Kairi. Repliku/Naminé has always come across incredibly one-sided to me (he has a more heartfelt farewell with Sora in CoM ffs, I don't even recall him having a proper conversation with Naminé let alone an emotional goodbye to her) yet so many people just accept that it (and by extension Rikunami) is canon.

 

[palizinhas]

Naminé's "SPECIAL CONNECTION" to Repliku: never mentioning him a single time after CoM.

Guy didn't even get to be part of the "people who are hurt and need to be saved" in coded despite apparently being adrift in the Realm of Darkness the whole time.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

Naminé's "SPECIAL CONNECTION" to Repliku: never mentioning him a single time after CoM.

Guy didn't even get to be part of the "people who are hurt and need to be saved" in coded despite apparently being adrift in the Realm of Darkness the whole time.

Nomura just didn’t want Dark Riku/Rikunort or Re:coded Riku theories to be correct. That’s the only reason why he made Replica Riku relevant again.

 

[Zackarix]

The worst thing about Repliku's story is that he's the sole exception to the "clone characters deserve their own lives" narrative Because apparently we can have multiple Soras and Kairis, but there's only room for one Riku.

I actually can see Repliku's feelings for Namine being way stronger than her feelings about him. He was brainwashed into it, after all. The story should have actually done something with it if they were going to bring him back instead of not having them interact at all.

Ironically, I think that the person who cares the most about Repliku is Riku.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

The worst thing about Repliku's story is that he's the sole exception to the "clone characters deserve their own lives" narrative Because apparently we can have multiple Soras and Kairis, but there's only room for one Riku.

I actually can see Repliku's feelings for Namine being way stronger than her feelings about him. He was brainwashed into it, after all. The story should have actually done something with it if they were going to bring him back instead of not having them interact at all.

Ironically, I think that the person who cares the most about Repliku is Riku.

If there is one thing I’ve learned this year thanks to Loki, it’s that the only person who can love you the most is yourself lololol

 

[palizinhas]

I wish Riku had cried when Repliku sacrificed himself. It was the perfect moment for it and Riku's the only one who didn't cry in kh3.

Really enjoyed their relationship in kh3 - it almost made them bringing Repliku back only to kill him off AGAIN worth it. That scene in the beach... Riku's so soft with him.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

I wish Riku had cried when Repliku sacrificed himself. It was the perfect moment for it and Riku's the only one who didn't cry in kh3.

Really enjoyed their relationship in kh3 - it almost made them bringing Repliku back only to kill him off AGAIN worth it. That scene in the beach... Riku's so soft with him.

I think they are saving Riku’s big crying moment for his big reunion with Mickey once he returns from the Unreality. (But probably for Sora and it’s gonna have us all shook)

 

[Willow A113]

If there is one thing I’ve learned this year thanks to Loki, it’s that the only person who can love you the most is yourself lololol

But I don’t love me
(This is just a joke btw)

 

[Elysium]

I feel like CoM created the potential for so many good-to-great ships. Riku/Namine, Riku/Repliku, Namine/Repliku. Not surprising considering it's one of the best-written in the series, it fosters your emotion for all those characters so well. I'll be honest that I was happier about Repliku and the other CoM characters being brought back over most of the other returning characters in 3, lol. I wouldn't be surprised if Repliku shows up again eventually in some way.

 

[palizinhas]

Riku/Naminé/Repliku ot3 é top.