clachnaben | favorite ship themes

eafay70 asked me what my favorite ships have in common for the posting meme. I have more space for prompts if you want to leave me one here

lol, they’re all poly

I guess more deeply, I love pairings that are fond about each other outside of the idea of romance, right, like there’s a strong bond of affection or understanding. Cassian/Jyn is the sad version of this, they see themselves in each other, the same painful pasts, the same hopes. (Cassian/Jyn ;__;) I like characters who are trying their best with what they’ve got (mr competitive sassy pants Nathan Mackinnon) and I like when those people come into contact with their favorite person in the world. I like pairings founded on fondness! This isn’t to say I don’t read other stuff, you know strangers to lovers, hatesex, whatever, but I like when the romance builds from that fondness.

Adding to that, I’ve never been a big Strict Shipper person, like maybe I’ll have a handful of favorite people, and they’ll get written with certain people more often because of who they know/the scenario, but like, I’ve never thought “oh this ship is the BEST one”? I like individuals, I guess, and I like writing them together with other people in different combinations. I like the different dynamics that come out in different pairings, like hos Cassian/K2 has super different dynamics than Cassian/Jyn. I read all kinds of stuff!

But pretty much all my favorite-est ships are all poly combinations. I loved the OT4 in Panic (and then the second iteration of it lol), I love Rogue One OT3/OT4, I love Star Wars poly parings. bangs fist on table make everything poly!

I guess I like other things too - I like fics where characters have a deep and genuine relationship, I like what I flippantly describe as “emotional bullshit” by which I mean “people feeling deep emotions intensely.” Stargate Atlantis was good for the deep connections between characters. Bandom was good at the emotional bullshit (as is hockey). Bucky/Steve has got the emotional bullshit and deep relationships in buckets. In the MCU I loved all the Natasha pairing options because she is really doing the best with what she has, and I like that in a character.