>>1959Thank you, to be frank I think I wouldn't have feelings that lasted this long if his series was well known and still updated. I think over time the rarity of seeing him heightened the special feeling I associate with him. I characterfag for new characters/ships and lose the spark after a year or two, but he's always remained important to me. So I'm not sure if it's true loyalty or some silly grail hunting motivation I've given myself. You know how you can keep checking auctions and secondhand sites for one unusual piece of merch for years but when a few of it turn up at once you hesitate and wonder whether you really needed it? It's harder to deflate like that if it's still the only one you've found.
My foremost priority is that the ship is kind to him. In his series there's a few villains who get pretty close to him and even do kinky shit in his vicinity, most of them die by the end of their arc, but the recurring final boss sort of guy is just the go-to ship of the last ten years or more. The Japanese fanbase will go months only ever speaking of my husbando in context of that ship. It's frustrating to me, and I've read western fics that did far more interesting things with it, that were more in line with how the villain treats people in canon (ie. he'd set up some kind of psychological torture, nestle himself in with some gullible side characters to manipulate into committing crimes, kill a few women in the bedroom, get spooked by husbando coming to punch his ass, ghost everyone and evade the law). The art and AUs they're making are really static feeling compared to those and rely on changing my husbando's personality/backstory to fit, but without mindbreaking him in the ways that happen in canon because that'd be too active and dangerous. I don't want him to suffer and be made to do evil things he doesn't want to do, but I also feel like this content isn't doing justice to what his series would pull! I want him to at least have agency and power instead of being used as some poor little uke!
As mentioned in previous posts there's some ships I don't mind. The author went and made arcs addressing why they wouldn't work out and had the characters describe each other as family, but if someone is treating him well and nobody gets hurt then it's more than my 3D ass could do! I'd like for his friends to be happy too, so if they could have romantic fluff that's not a bad deal. I don't feel strongly about shipping them though, my brain doesn't run wild with ideas and scenarios like I get with other ships, and I've always thought it was strange even before learning about waifu nonsense that I just couldn't generate interest in his ships. For that reason I do feel like I'm settling for yumejoing. A blank POV where he's happy removes all the doubts I have about other characters resolving their conflicts with him. It's him > everyone else in my head.