Fandom/Character Meme

[chocochipbiscuit]

 001 | Send me a fandom and I will tell you my:

• Favorite character:
• Least Favorite character:
• 5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon):
• Character I find most attractive:
• Character I would marry:
• Character I would be best friends with:
• a random thought:
• An unpopular opinion:
• My Canon OTP:
• My Non-canon OTP:
• Most Badass Character:
• Most Epic Villain:
• Pairing I am not a fan of:
• Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another):
• Favourite Friendship:
• Character I most identify with:
• Character I wish I could be:

002 | Send me a ship and I will tell you:

• When I started shipping them:
• My thoughts:
• What makes me happy about them:
• What makes me sad about them:
• Things done in fanfic that annoys me:
• Things I look for in fanfic:
• My wishlist:
• Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: 
• My happily ever after for them:

003 | Give me a character & I will tell you:

• How I feel about this character:
• Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: 
• My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: 
• My unpopular opinion about this character: 
• One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon:
• Favorite friendship for this character:
• My crossover ship:

Meme borrowed from celebrated-as-the-rebel-kind via wolffyluna / wolffyluna  !

Let's be real, I'm looking for something to distract me from Jathena revisions. ;)

Comments

[runicmagitek]

Oh I love these memes! Would love to see your thoughts on Dragon Age for 001 and whoever your fave character is from that, 003 for them :3c

[chocochipbiscuit]

001 | Dragon Age:
Favorite character: I love so many of them so on a different day I might give you a different answer...but today, that answer is Isabela!
Least Favorite character: Cullen. Now that AO3 lets us exclude characters, I generally exclude all fics he’s tagged in. (To be fair...I think there IS room to explore his character and to argue that guilt is not the same as a redemption arc, but unless he’s already being written by an author I trust? Nah, I’ll just skip.)
5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): Oh god oh god!!! I have so many!!! Leliana/Morrigan, Isabela/Merrill, Isabela/Aveline, Cassandra/Sera, and Josephine/Vivienne! Again, I have so many that if you ask on a different day I might give you different answers, but it will probably include at least a few of these!
Character I find most attractive: Isabela!!!!
Character I would marry: Ulp. Josephine? I love her and find her very attractive but also think that we’d be most suited for long-term compatibility!!!!
Character I would be best friends with: That I would actually be best friends with, or that I’d want to be best friends with??? Probably Isabela, Merrill, or Josephine!
a random thought: As much as I love Isabela and her fierce pantsless-ness, I think she’d be amazing with the most extravagant coat and jacket set, tight-fitting breeches, and gold glittering all over.
An unpopular opinion: Elves are, at best, an imperfect representation of the struggle of POC and I am very skeptical of the parts of fandom that embrace this narrative while ignoring the colorism and entirely-human racism that also exists in canon.
My Canon OTP: Um. Sera/Dagna or Aveline/Donnic??? I squeed for both of them.
My Non-canon OTP: Isabela/Merrill!!!
Most Badass Character: All the characters get great moments, but...nothing replaces the way my heart went ba-bump when we first meet Isabela during DA2, so I’m gonna go with her.
Most Epic Villain: The Arishok. He was really cool as an antagonist, I loved how the game ramped up the tension and events until we had to face the Qunari, and it just. I really enjoyed this character, even if I think his ‘villain’ status is debatable.
Pairing I am not a fan of: I’m not real keen on Anders/Fenris.
Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): I have so many gripes!!!! So a relatively minor one: I was really unhappy with King Alistair’s letters in DAI. I just. I know that Alistair’s a fan favorite so they wanted to include him, but it felt like they froze his character growth in order to show him as the players remembered him, rather than as a man who has been (hopefully) a competent ruler for ten years. Even if Alistair might speak this way in person, the letters should not be a verbatim transcript of whatever’s coming out of his mouth!
Favourite Friendship: I love Isabela and Merrill’s friendship.
Character I most identify with: Ulp. This goes into a lot of fanon and headcanons, but Dagna. I love Dagna.
Character I wish I could be: I’m pretty happy as myself tbh!!! Plus (and this is going to sound incredibly trivial) Thedas hasn’t really developed proper indoor plumbing in all places and BY GOLLY I’d miss having hot and cold running water, showers, and toilets. D:

003 | Isabela: I’m actually going to cheat and C&P an answer I gave on Tumblr because I have already squeed about her so much!!!!
How I feel about this character: I love her very much and she was my first love in DA2!!! The first time I played the game, I hadn’t maxed friendship/rivalry enough for her to come back after Act 2 so I cried a bunch and read online how to max out her approval so I could try again.
Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: So many ships??? Not including Hawke (because there are many fine Hawkes) I love her with Merrill, Aveline, and Josephine. Those are my top three ships for her!
My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: I love her with Merrill as best friends, even when they’re not romantic!
My unpopular opinion about this character: I don’t know how unpopular this actually is, but: I think she can be very happy in a long-term mostly-monogamous relationship, but don’t think she’d ever want to get married again.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: I wish she had a cameo in DAI, but at the same time I’ve been disappointed enough in the other cameos that I’m not really that bereft.
Favorite friendship for this character: Isabela and Merrill!!!
My crossover ship: I’ve been playing Sunless Skies, and I think that Isabela/The Incautious Driver could be exciting and terrifying!

[hibernate]

So a relatively minor one: I was really unhappy with King Alistair’s letters in DAI.

Ha! I've never in my life had a worldstate in which Alistair was king, so I didn't know about this! Every time someone mentions the idea of him being king I still do a double-take, because it's so weird to me. How is he written if he's Hawke's Warden? (Alistair doesn't usually... ah, how to put this... fair... well in my playthroughs)

P.S. Josie/Vivienne is SUCH an underrated ship!! By me too, I don't write it at all as often as I should.

[chocochipbiscuit]

honestly, I sort of mentally blocked most of the stuff with Alistair as Hawke's Warden because it just...ew. The choice between Alistair/Hawke for who lives or dies in that questline really bugged me because it felt so clearly written as a cheap grab for the player's emotions rather than something that would matter to the Inquisitor, and relied on what was ultimately a meaningless choice. So uh. I don't remember being angry about his writing, at least? More angry about the circumstances the game forces the player into.

PS: And HECK YEAH another Josie/Vivienne fan!!!!

[runicmagitek]

Oh man, I am here for all of this :D I also adore the hell out of Leliana/Morrigan and Isabela/Merrill along with glaring at how Cullen played out in the series. A+

[thewindysideofcare]

For 002: Morrigan/Leliana (and/or Aveline/Isabela) ;)

[chocochipbiscuit]

002 | Morrigan/Leliana:
When I started shipping them: If not my first DAO playthrough, then my second!
My thoughts: I just love how we get these glimpses of them from DAO to DAI, and I feel like there is just so much to their arc—you can’t go through saving the world without forging some kind of companionship, the DAO party all travels and sleeps together and lives practically in each other’s pockets, and I think there’s a lot of room for their prickly banters to progress into an unlikely romance, maybe one that both of them think is going to be something temporary but deepening into something that surprises both of them. Like. Basically all of breath (and all the ways of holding) was just me writing out several years worth of feels.
What makes me happy about them: They’ve been through so much together over the years, from all the events of Origins and growing in power and prestige until they meet in Inquisition again. I think there’s a lot for them to catch up on.
What makes me sad about them: How little Inquisition actually gives us of their dynamic!!! At least give me some goddamn friendship or banter!!!!
Things done in fanfic that annoy me: Hate-sex. (Tbh, I dislike hate-sex in general.) I also dislike pure fluff for this ship, because as much as I love them, there’s a lot of friction between them and that’s part of what I love about their dynamic.
Things I look for in fanfic: Banter! Magical hijinks! Morrigan shapeshifting into a raven to troll Leliana!
My wishlist: Pretty much the same as the things I look for in fanfic! I’ll also add magic being used during sex, dressing up, and light femdom with Morrigan topping.
Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Ooh. ‘Comfortable’ is a loaded word, because there are so many ships I think would be interesting if not always comfortable. Ignoring all possible permutations with the Warden or Inquisitor (because there are so many ways to write them that I think those can be fair arguments), I also enjoy Leliana/Josephine and Leliana/Sera. I’ve also seen Morrigan/Vivienne, and think that’s a ship with a lot of interesting potential.
My happily ever after for them: Leliana continues her spymaster duties post-DAI with Morrigan as an apostate pursuing her own studies, and they may never settle down into a typical domestic routine, but their paths intersect frequently enough that they never worry about the next time they’ll meet.

002 | Aveline/Isabela:
When I started shipping them: Honestly, I was so blinded by my own love of Isabela/Merrill that it took me a while to see this ship! I think I actually had to take a break from the games (because their in-game banter really bothers me) and read a few fics that softened their dynamic in the ways I like before I started shipping it.
My thoughts: I do love their banter but sometimes the way the game treats their dynamic is really, really gross and slut-shamey and honestly. Even though we see that despite it all, they are friends and by Act 3 they actually talk it out (“Imagine all the awkward questions you’d have to answer! ‘Mother, what’s a slattern?’” “I’ll just point at you and say, ‘That’s a slattern.’”), I prefer when it’s softened to more of a prickly, abrasive fondness rather than lines like “Shut up, whore.”
What makes me happy about them: Aveline’s there to guard Isabela’s back, because if anyone’s going to kick Isabela’s ass by golly it’s gonna be Aveline! Also let’s be real, half the reason Isabela teases Aveline is because Aveline turns red and stammers on the response.
What makes me sad about them: “Shut up, whore.”
Things done in fanfic that annoys me: I’ve read enough fic where it’s ‘just’ hate-sex or Isabela taking some kind of dare to sleep with Aveline that I just. Ew. I don’t like it.
Things I look for in fanfic: Prickly friends to lovers, polyamory, Isabela/Aveline/Donnic (with Aveline as the shared point, usually, but I think they’re cute as a triad as well), Aveline having had previous experience with women.
My wishlist: All the things I mentioned in the previous line, but I also love Isabela being fat and athletic and attractive!!! I also have a not-so-secret wish that at some point, Isabela gives Aveline a strap-on and teaches her how to use it.
Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: Aveline/Donnic is a delight, plus I love Aveline/Cassandra! Isabela/Merrill and Isabela/Josephine are also good.
My happily ever after for them: Isabela goes off to do pirate things, comes back to Kirkwall dripping in gold, and whirls Aveline away in a fantastic extravaganza of fancy dinners and parties before Aveline realizes that she’s actually being used as cover for Isabela to run some kind of con. Hilarity ensues. I mean—really I just love the idea of them growing old together, and even if they don’t live together Isabela has the comfortable certainty that she can drop in at Aveline’s anytime. Also, even though Aveline gives her the key, Isabela always picks the lock. Any lock that Isabela can pick in less than 5 minutes needs to be replaced.

[thewindysideofcare]

Thank you so much for the long reply! <3

re Morrigan/Leliana:
May their complicated paths cross frequently! (*is hit by a sudden wave of "breath" feels*)

re Aveline/Isabela:
You know, this has made me think for a while about something I have noticed encountering: English is not my first language and because of that derogatory terms (that mean the same thing) somehow weirdly do not have as much of a bite in English for me? If I imagine the term replaced with the translation it really makes me flinch - but the English term is likely to often fly by without eliciting the same response. I am not sure why this is but it is likely one reason why I ended up shipping these two very early on and examined the use of slurs belatedly.

Prickly friends to lovers is my preferred trope for them, with each of them caring more than they intended for the other very quickly and - them having fun and being badass and the push and pull of the lawful vs. chaotic. Plus women having each other's back when it comes down to it is always great.

(Also I may really need your suggestion of this con caper thing - it sounds perfect.)

[chocochipbiscuit]

I completely get that on the slurs! Using cuss words in a language that's not English (because English is my first/primary language) don't have the same emotional impact, even if I'm aware of the translation, and I think it's common for people who are multilingual.

Also, use the con caper idea with my full blessing!!! honestly I'd love to read this fic and am not at all invested being in the one to write it!

(plus let's be real; there are so many ways to take the story that I think it would be fun to see multiple takes on it anyway!)

[anneapocalypse]

002 for Aloy/Talanah!

[chocochipbiscuit]

002 | Aloy/Talanah
When I started shipping them: Ulp. How about from the very first time I met Talanah??? I love Talanah and adore Aloy and I was like “yes, you two should kiss.”
My thoughts: you assume I am coherent!!! Honestly I just. I love the idea of it being a slow courtship and Talanah taking her time to introduce Aloy to Carja customs. They've had enough whirlwind events in their lives, let them have the chance to take something slow for a change.
What makes me happy about them: I love how the initial mentorship quickly becomes equal footing, and love how Talanah joins us on that last hunt! And in the final battle! I was just so happy and full of squee.
What makes me sad about them: There are things that make me sad for them (the death of Talanah’s family, Aloy’s loss of her foster father) but those are also part of what bring them together, I think.
Things done in fanfic that annoys me: I haven't actually read any fanfic that does this, but I'll give a hard pass to any fic that tries to play up the student/mentor angle.
Things I look for in fanfic: Non-explicit fic, with focus on them changing the culture of the Lodge and/or Carja society. (I feel weird about smut with Aloy in a way I don't about the Lone Wanderer? I suspect because we spend more time seeing Aloy as a child, and because she is much less of a blank slate/OC insert than the LW. Which isn't knocking anyone who doesn't mind smut with Aloy, just my personal comfort zone.)
My wishlist: Post-game relaxation at the Lodge, or just having a quiet date night because dammit they deserve it! Bittersweet feelings are optional, if they talk about the people they've lost.
Who I’d be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other: I'll happily ship either of them with Vanasha!
My happily ever after for them: They grow old together in peace and comfort, adopting (literally or figuratively) an entire brood of young women who find their place in the Lodge.

[anneapocalypse]

I'm heart eyes at all of this. :)

[hibernate]

001: Mass Effect, Trilogy and/or Andromeda? I *think* you've mentioned playing them.

003: OK, I'm greedy here, but you mentioned liking Sloane once, so.... SLOANE PLEASE!!!!

[chocochipbiscuit]

001 | Mass Effect
Favorite character: Jack!!! I loved her as a ball of rage in ME2, learning that she can actually start trusting people (and I hc her as slowly, offscreen building up that trust and friendships with the rest of the crew, not just Shepard) and her touching vulnerability and just. God. Her loyalty mission guts me every time.
Least Favorite character: Ulp. There are so many characters I love, and others I love to hate, but in a fun way? And there are others who I like but think the writing team did them dirty. So uh. If I have to choose, I guess Ashley? I don't even dislike her, I just didn't emotionally latch on to her the way I did most of my other squadmates. Plus she had the disadvantage of being dead in my first ME2 playthrough, which is where I started playing.
5 Favorite ships (canon or non-canon): I have so many ships!!!! Jack/Miranda is one of my faves, but I’m also into Kasumi/Miranda and Drack/Lexi. With the right writer, I am also into Cora/Sarissa and Samara/Zaeed.
Character I find most attractive: Jack!!!
Character I would marry: Samantha Traynor!!!! I love her very much and adore her understanding of the important things in life. Like fancy toothbrushes! (I would also marry Kasumi, but I have other cherished ships for her and suspect I’m too much of a boring law-abiding homebody for the best thief in the galaxy.)
Character I would be best friends with: Oof, that’s a hard one. Samantha? If not, then maybe Tali or Kasumi.
a random thought: What does space food taste like??? Given time and all the other alien cultures mingling, what’s the new fast food??? What asari seasonings or snacks have become popular on Earth? What are the new trends and opinions on different racial/ethnic foods, and what about the eye-rolling that must inevitably occur when you get statements like “asari food is all X” and an asari rolls their eyes and goes “nah, that’s only true about this one region of Thessia, when you get more inland the flavor profiles all change”?
An unpopular opinion: I don’t know how unpopular this actually is, but: Andromeda’s a decent game. I fully admit that I was disappointed that it wasn’t like the trilogy, and there are many areas that I would have liked to have improved, but it was decent. I had fun running around shooting things, I loved my companions, and yes, I do criticize the general themes of space colonization, but it’s still a perfectly fun game to play.
My Canon OTP: Tali/Garrus is adorable.
My Non-canon OTP: Jack/Miranda!!!!
Most Badass Character: Oof. So many of them get such great moments throughout the game, but Samara? Ask me on a different day and I might pick someone else, but her utter commitment to the code and the way she completely changed the course of her life makes me ache. And then at the monastery in ME3, where she’s ready to kill herself to give Falere a chance to live free…? Oh god I cried so damn much.
Most Epic Villain: Honestly, the epic scope of the war against the Reapers meant that individual villains rarely felt ‘epic’ to me, just because the enemy itself was so often impersonal? ME1 was my least favorite of the games so I never replayed it, but I did find the fights against Saren and Benezia more touching specifically because they had those more personal connections to the characters.
Pairing I am not a fan of: There are enough interesting characters and interactions that as long as it’s not one of my hard no’s (incest or non-con) that I’m willing to give most of them a shot. So uh. I’m really having to think hard on this one. Maaaaaybe Wrex/Grunt? I think they could be fun to play off against one another, but I wouldn’t ship them.
Character I feel the writers screwed up (in one way or another): Why the hell did they give Ashley the makeover in ME3!!! Her whole thing was that she’s a soldier and just!!! In making these design choices we are also making statements about the character and I don’t think they really thought this through!!!! (Similarly: as much as I love Jack, uh. Her heavy makeup is AMAZING but where the hell does this hard-ass convict have the time to do her eyeliner! Where does she get it! I could buy it as part of her development in ME3 in a way that I don’t buy it in Ashley! Also what is with Samara’s outfit!!! Gotta be a space wizard samurai of a quasi-religious order but oops gotta put on heels and bare your tiddies!)
Favourite Friendship: There are so many great character dynamics it’s hard to choose!!!! Uh. Tali and Garrus, maybe? They’re one of the few pairs where we get to see them throughout the entire trilogy, and it’s lovely.
Character I most identify with: Oof, this is a hard one. And honestly, it’s changed over the years and at different points in the trilogy (or Andromeda). So I’m gonna go with the absolutely tongue-in-cheek answer about the quarian lady who has a vibrator built into her suit and is completely oblivious to her turian friend trying to flirt with her. Horny and oblivious? Yep, that’s me.
Character I wish I could be: I’m perfectly happy where I am, honestly. And while there are some things I’d love to have (the tight-knit friendships, the sense of place and belonging, some of the eventual happy endings they get) most of the characters suffer through enough to get there that I don’t really want to switch lives.


003 | Sloane Kelly:
How I feel about this character: Underrated fave!!!! Especially because goddammit but the game itself feels so explicitly designed and written so that they WANT the player to view her as an antagonist, especially because they don’t give her the same level of sympathetic interaction or in-game backstory that they do with other characters like Reyes or Akksul! And it’s really fucking hard for me to disentangle that from general misogynoir and the fact that her whole fucking design is so queer-coded that it’s like goddamn catnip!!!!
Any/all the people I ship romantically with this character: I AM SO DOWN FOR F!RYDER/SLOANE THAT THE ONLY REASON I HAVEN’T WRITTEN THIS IS BECAUSE IT TAKES ME A DISGUSTINGLY LONG TIME TO FEEL COMFORTABLE ENOUGH WITH A GAME TO WRITE FIC FOR IT!!!!
My favorite non-romantic relationship for this character: Kaetus is the only on-screen friendship I can recall for her, but gosh dang it.
My unpopular opinion about this character: I’m pretty sure this overlaps with the ‘how I feel about this character,’ but also: I can’t blame Sloane for joining the rebellion. The Nexus uprising was a mess, and from what I recall of the lore, people were hungry, panicking, and feeling betrayed by their leaders. Sloane was also explicitly against using the krogan to violently put down the rebels, and switched sides after the leadership went behind her back to make the deal with Clan Nakmor. (Also, after checking the wiki: I think Tann didn’t mind using the krogan as attack dogs, but the krogan ultimately left because Spender reneged on the deal that was that the krogan got to have a say in the leadership if they did their part in the rebellion? A lot of politics! Which aren’t really my thing! But again. Establishing herself as the de facto ruler of Kadara Port, even though it’s brutal, I don’t think is any worse than what Aria did in the original Trilogy but Aria gets portrayed in the games and fandom a heck of a lot more sympathetically!) ...and now that I’ve gotten this all off my chest, I also admit that I have no idea how unpopular this opinion actually is, just vague recollections of Bad Opinions that crossed my dash shortly after the game came out.
One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon: Give Ryder more opportunities to flirt or interact with Sloane, just as we get with Reyes!!!!
Favorite friendship for this character: Kaetus and Sloane!
My crossover ship: I don’t usually think in terms of crossovers, but I think she’d adapt well to the Fallout universe, so… Cait/Sloane, why not.

I’m sorry the reply took so long! Work was wild the past few days, but I had a lot of fun answering this! :D

[hibernate]

Thanks for answering!

I love Jack, but it's a shame you don't get as much of her story when you friendship her as when you romance her... which I won't do because I don't like playing as a dude. Obviously it's nice to get more material when you romance a character, but I felt pretty cheated at how little you got to know about her comparatively. (Thank god for youtube)


I don’t know how unpopular this actually is, but: Andromeda’s a decent game.

I think there are certainly problematic aspects about the game and there's a lot of things they could have done differently/better, but I LOVE playing it. Lovely battle mechanics and I clicked pretty hard with a lot of the characters. The side quests are terrible, though.


I AM SO DOWN FOR F!RYDER/SLOANE THAT THE ONLY REASON I HAVEN’T WRITTEN THIS IS BECAUSE IT TAKES ME A DISGUSTINGLY LONG TIME TO FEEL COMFORTABLE ENOUGH WITH A GAME TO WRITE FIC FOR IT!!!!

Oh my god, me too!!!! There's so much to take into account, it takes foreverrrr!
ALSO: Sloane/Ryder is such a delightful ship and I'd love to see more of it.


I can’t blame Sloane for joining the rebellion.

Yeah, what you describe is exactly how it goes down in the book, and her decisions are treated very sympathetically in it. I have a lot of issues with how she and her part in the uprising is regarded in the game-proper. It's so weirdly one-sided and simplified where the book gave you such a nuanced view of the whole thing. I know I keep harping on about that book, but it really informed my view of Sloane, Addison and Tann where the game kind of failed.

I've seen other people compare Sloane to Aria, and it seems likely Bioware intended it that way. There are some crucial differences, but there's enough similarities that it seems really baffling how one of them is hated and the other is a fan fave. But as you point out, the narrative of the game wants you to side with Reyes. Even if you ultimately choose to save Sloane, he's the one who still gets to ride off into the sunset with a smirk and a flirty wave. (Yes I'm bitter, but I cannot believe the way parts of the fandom glorify and gloat about letting Sloane die, and how the game literally gives you the option to make out with Reyes next to her dead body.)