Stuff I Love: Top Ten Edition Challenge 4
Feb. 28th, 2026 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flo_neljaMake a Top Ten list for your favourite relationships in media and tell everyone what you love about them. This covers all kinds of relationships - romantic, sexual, platonic, professional, rivals, acrimonious, family, found family, something else not mentioned here. So, bring out your friends, lovers or enemies, whether canon or fanon. If it involves two or more people interacting in some way, it counts, so go wild!
You know, I love top 10s about ships so much. I have this old post about top 10 female friendships on tumblr, and also quite a few as answers for the "Give me a kink and I'll give you my top 10 ships for this kink" meme.
But also it's time to choose my own thematic for the list, and you'll have this weird kink I have, "underling with a crush on their superior". :D
I think it's the plausible deniability about the devotion. Is it a work thing? A kink think? Who can tell? Sometimes the characters themselves can't.
Warning for some power inbalance in the list, then :D
And also, it's too hard to sort, so have it by chronological order. It was already hard choosing only ten. This is my trope :D
1) Enjolras/Grantaire (Les Misérables)
I read it when I was 14 and didn't really know what shipping was, but I was deeply touched by Grantaire's emotional devotion outisde of any political fealty, and also by the very romantic dying-together scene (I think Victor Hugo might be the cause I'm both very invested in a good death scene and very picky about death scenes).
I reread it 10 years later when I was already in fandom, and looked for fics, and there was almost nothing. I duly commented on ffnet the three fanfics here. After all, are we expected to get fandom for the clasics.
And then! a bit less than 10 years again, there was the movie and there was fanfic everywhere. And you know what? I still loved the ship. I wrote so much. I read so much. It was a good time. (I've reread the book too. Really, every ten years, and I've never been disappointed)
2) Knives/Legato (Trigun)
This is from when I went deep in discovering anime fandom that wasn't specifically for children. At the time m/m subtext was quite common, if only for fanservice, though it was rarely canon.
I've decided that Legato had a crush on Knives very, very fast, and the rest of the anime, nad the manga, did nothing to change my mind. It was also clear it was really one-sided, but hey, I love angst (see most of the rest of the list).
Usually given my kinks I would decide a character with mind control powers is a dom, but. Not here. Characterization trumps opportunity for smut ^^
(This was a rare-ish ship, but in a big fandom! So finding fics was alright!)
3) Gin/Kira (Bleach)
I started this manga because I was advertised options for femslash (and for a while I was happy, I sure did ship femslash, including a girl with a crush on her (ex-)boss). And finally I fixated on some completely different characters (but not only, I was deep into this fandom to write everyone.
I think Kira with all his self-hatred reacting... not exactly negatively to Gin's cruelty, was kind of a kink awakening? It's the first time I was like "wait is the sado-masochism interpretation canon-compliant?" in a show (and it made easier to write kink later on many other fandoms where it was definitely not in the writer's mind. I was looking at this and being like, is it on purpose or not? ^^
This one had as many fics as I could dream of :D
4) Savant/Creote (DC Comics)
I was more in Marvel than in DC in my comics phase, but my big Marvel ships aren't in this trope.
So I was reading Birds of Prey for the femslash, and there was a super-genius mentally ill villain with a Russian bodyguard who's in love with him, do you have any idea of how many of my tropes it hits?
So I was following it like a melodrama, and I saw it become canon, I mean reciprocated because it had been canon before.
And the DC rebooted and they no longer existed, and this is one of the reasons why I ragequit DC Comics ^^
Also, it was so small fic-wise, so nothing to console myself with :D
5) Pearl/Rose (Steven Universe)
Would you guess? I started this show for the femslash. And I ended up shipping femslash, for once :D
So yeah, a full posthumous ship, with Pearl missing Rose, and their backstory revealed but by bit, and you could believe it was one-sided for the longest time. Except it was not! Except the power inbalance was still here! They're both fascinating characters, in their relation to each other but not only.
And the songs! So many incredible songs for this ship.
And another ship that had a lot of good fics, especially with all this past unexplored!
6) Jon/Martin (The Magnus Archives)
From episode 22 I was like "oooh Martin feels like he has a crush on Jon"
"it's probably wishful thinking"
"Oh damn Tim is queer i'm glad but I doubt any other character is gonna be queer"little did I know
"Wait there are actually big hints"
"wait it's canon one-sided OMG"
and it kept going, until it became canon, it was one of the most satisfying slow burns I had ever seen. Lots of people didn't share this opinion, but also, they don't have the same kink as I have :D
Ha ha, this ship was big. Not when I started shipping it, but by s3 it started being sizeable, and now it's huge.
7) Wei Wuxian/Wen Ning (Mo dao zu shi)
I saw first the animated Chinese series, where some flashbacks come far earlier.
When I told a friend "hey the cute Wen archer has a crush on Wei Wuxian, doesn't he?"
The funny thing is that, at this moment, I hadn't noticed that Lan Wangji had a crush on him, even of it was all in our faces
She was like "have you paid attention to the names? You know he's the Ghost General, right?"
I hadn't paid attention, but from this point, I really wanted to see how they got here! And it was, surprisingly, less dark than I had assumed seeing some of the canon things.
I still think Wen Ning had a crush on Wei Wuxian when he was alive, and I don't know if it's still the case, but I think the necromancy complicates it in a delightful way <3 (for me, not for the characters ^^)
Another "not the most popular ship by far, but the fandom is so big I have all what I want"
8) Izzy/Ed (Our Flag Means Death)
Izzy was such an asshole in season one, but I was among the people who were like "he's jealous because he wants Edward for himself", not "he's homophobic". And I was right. Well, there might be a little internalized homophobia too, but mostly, he's jealous as hell.
And in season 2 it was even more destructive than in season 1, and, not a surprise, I loved it even more.
One weird thing: I'm not fond of the "Izzy doesn't die" AUs, but I love fics where he's brought back from the dead. It might be related to the previous ship in this list being about necromancy, or not :D
Oh I found good writers in this one. I was in the fandom early, it's one of the cases where I actually looked at the tag all days at one point.
9) Nathalie/Gabriel (Miraculous Ladybug)
My sister was deep in this show, and actually sold it to me for the promise of this ship. I took time to see it; Nathalie is cold. I started to actually see it by the end of s2, and to actually ship it at the very end of s2.
But then I was really hooked. He sees her as... kind of his only friend, it's one-sided but also quite respectful for Gabriel's standards, and they have so many weird things, like shifting from formal you to informal you while in costume.
And then he becomes worse, starts doing worse things, and when it stops being efficient, she just stops. It made me so happy, her still loving him in a way, but being mad, and certainly no longer able to support his misguided quest. And it still worked for me and I was still deep into it! (and I also liked the very lightly implied triangle with Emilie at the center when they were young :D )
There's fic! So many fic! But the characterization doesn't always agree with me.
10) Dazai/Akutagawa (Bungou Stray Dogs)
At the beginning, Akutagawa does everything to convince himself and others he doesn't madly love Dazai, and it kind of worked on me, which gave we so many successive moments of "what he's got it that bad" until Dazai literally grabs him by the collar and put him on his knees and Akutagawa stays here looking very happy. It was hard to beat.
Well, it's not underling/boss by current time, it's all backstory, but the fact that Akutagawa won't renounce this relationship is. Quite central. It becomes more complex later (fave love triangle :D ) but we have finally quite few flashbacks from mafia time, and there are so many things to imagine.
Another "not the most popular ship by far, but the fandom is so big I have all what I want"
Once again, I will ask, if you have ships you love with this pattern, you can do recs :D
You know, I love top 10s about ships so much. I have this old post about top 10 female friendships on tumblr, and also quite a few as answers for the "Give me a kink and I'll give you my top 10 ships for this kink" meme.
But also it's time to choose my own thematic for the list, and you'll have this weird kink I have, "underling with a crush on their superior". :D
I think it's the plausible deniability about the devotion. Is it a work thing? A kink think? Who can tell? Sometimes the characters themselves can't.
Warning for some power inbalance in the list, then :D
And also, it's too hard to sort, so have it by chronological order. It was already hard choosing only ten. This is my trope :D
1) Enjolras/Grantaire (Les Misérables)
I read it when I was 14 and didn't really know what shipping was, but I was deeply touched by Grantaire's emotional devotion outisde of any political fealty, and also by the very romantic dying-together scene (I think Victor Hugo might be the cause I'm both very invested in a good death scene and very picky about death scenes).
I reread it 10 years later when I was already in fandom, and looked for fics, and there was almost nothing. I duly commented on ffnet the three fanfics here. After all, are we expected to get fandom for the clasics.
And then! a bit less than 10 years again, there was the movie and there was fanfic everywhere. And you know what? I still loved the ship. I wrote so much. I read so much. It was a good time. (I've reread the book too. Really, every ten years, and I've never been disappointed)
2) Knives/Legato (Trigun)
This is from when I went deep in discovering anime fandom that wasn't specifically for children. At the time m/m subtext was quite common, if only for fanservice, though it was rarely canon.
I've decided that Legato had a crush on Knives very, very fast, and the rest of the anime, nad the manga, did nothing to change my mind. It was also clear it was really one-sided, but hey, I love angst (see most of the rest of the list).
Usually given my kinks I would decide a character with mind control powers is a dom, but. Not here. Characterization trumps opportunity for smut ^^
(This was a rare-ish ship, but in a big fandom! So finding fics was alright!)
3) Gin/Kira (Bleach)
I started this manga because I was advertised options for femslash (and for a while I was happy, I sure did ship femslash, including a girl with a crush on her (ex-)boss). And finally I fixated on some completely different characters (but not only, I was deep into this fandom to write everyone.
I think Kira with all his self-hatred reacting... not exactly negatively to Gin's cruelty, was kind of a kink awakening? It's the first time I was like "wait is the sado-masochism interpretation canon-compliant?" in a show (and it made easier to write kink later on many other fandoms where it was definitely not in the writer's mind. I was looking at this and being like, is it on purpose or not? ^^
This one had as many fics as I could dream of :D
4) Savant/Creote (DC Comics)
I was more in Marvel than in DC in my comics phase, but my big Marvel ships aren't in this trope.
So I was reading Birds of Prey for the femslash, and there was a super-genius mentally ill villain with a Russian bodyguard who's in love with him, do you have any idea of how many of my tropes it hits?
So I was following it like a melodrama, and I saw it become canon, I mean reciprocated because it had been canon before.
And the DC rebooted and they no longer existed, and this is one of the reasons why I ragequit DC Comics ^^
Also, it was so small fic-wise, so nothing to console myself with :D
5) Pearl/Rose (Steven Universe)
Would you guess? I started this show for the femslash. And I ended up shipping femslash, for once :D
So yeah, a full posthumous ship, with Pearl missing Rose, and their backstory revealed but by bit, and you could believe it was one-sided for the longest time. Except it was not! Except the power inbalance was still here! They're both fascinating characters, in their relation to each other but not only.
And the songs! So many incredible songs for this ship.
And another ship that had a lot of good fics, especially with all this past unexplored!
6) Jon/Martin (The Magnus Archives)
From episode 22 I was like "oooh Martin feels like he has a crush on Jon"
"it's probably wishful thinking"
"Oh damn Tim is queer i'm glad but I doubt any other character is gonna be queer"
"Wait there are actually big hints"
"wait it's canon one-sided OMG"
and it kept going, until it became canon, it was one of the most satisfying slow burns I had ever seen. Lots of people didn't share this opinion, but also, they don't have the same kink as I have :D
Ha ha, this ship was big. Not when I started shipping it, but by s3 it started being sizeable, and now it's huge.
7) Wei Wuxian/Wen Ning (Mo dao zu shi)
I saw first the animated Chinese series, where some flashbacks come far earlier.
When I told a friend "hey the cute Wen archer has a crush on Wei Wuxian, doesn't he?"
She was like "have you paid attention to the names? You know he's the Ghost General, right?"
I hadn't paid attention, but from this point, I really wanted to see how they got here! And it was, surprisingly, less dark than I had assumed seeing some of the canon things.
I still think Wen Ning had a crush on Wei Wuxian when he was alive, and I don't know if it's still the case, but I think the necromancy complicates it in a delightful way <3 (for me, not for the characters ^^)
Another "not the most popular ship by far, but the fandom is so big I have all what I want"
8) Izzy/Ed (Our Flag Means Death)
Izzy was such an asshole in season one, but I was among the people who were like "he's jealous because he wants Edward for himself", not "he's homophobic". And I was right. Well, there might be a little internalized homophobia too, but mostly, he's jealous as hell.
And in season 2 it was even more destructive than in season 1, and, not a surprise, I loved it even more.
One weird thing: I'm not fond of the "Izzy doesn't die" AUs, but I love fics where he's brought back from the dead. It might be related to the previous ship in this list being about necromancy, or not :D
Oh I found good writers in this one. I was in the fandom early, it's one of the cases where I actually looked at the tag all days at one point.
9) Nathalie/Gabriel (Miraculous Ladybug)
My sister was deep in this show, and actually sold it to me for the promise of this ship. I took time to see it; Nathalie is cold. I started to actually see it by the end of s2, and to actually ship it at the very end of s2.
But then I was really hooked. He sees her as... kind of his only friend, it's one-sided but also quite respectful for Gabriel's standards, and they have so many weird things, like shifting from formal you to informal you while in costume.
And then he becomes worse, starts doing worse things, and when it stops being efficient, she just stops. It made me so happy, her still loving him in a way, but being mad, and certainly no longer able to support his misguided quest. And it still worked for me and I was still deep into it! (and I also liked the very lightly implied triangle with Emilie at the center when they were young :D )
There's fic! So many fic! But the characterization doesn't always agree with me.
10) Dazai/Akutagawa (Bungou Stray Dogs)
At the beginning, Akutagawa does everything to convince himself and others he doesn't madly love Dazai, and it kind of worked on me, which gave we so many successive moments of "what he's got it that bad" until Dazai literally grabs him by the collar and put him on his knees and Akutagawa stays here looking very happy. It was hard to beat.
Well, it's not underling/boss by current time, it's all backstory, but the fact that Akutagawa won't renounce this relationship is. Quite central. It becomes more complex later (fave love triangle :D ) but we have finally quite few flashbacks from mafia time, and there are so many things to imagine.
Another "not the most popular ship by far, but the fandom is so big I have all what I want"
Once again, I will ask, if you have ships you love with this pattern, you can do recs :D
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Date: 2026-02-28 11:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2026-03-01 06:38 am (UTC)