Fanlistings. Oh god why.
Beware all ye who enter here: I might complain about a pairing you like. Trust me, it's not the pairing I'm complaining about. It's the idiotic way it's being presented.
kay_willow and I agree that Juliet [LOST] needs a fanlisting, if she doesn't already have one. I head to TFL.Org to see, and find that she does indeed have a fanlisting reserved if not yet created. Disappointing! Lame!
Then I notice that there is no section for Characters: Videogame, and become confused. Because for some reason videogames and anime are often treated as one in the same, I head over to TAFL.Org, which, by the way, currently has one of the ugliest website layouts I have ever seen. Just. Ugh.
Anyway. Fanlistings in general are an exercise in futility; they make a pretty layout, copy-paste generic text from TFL.Org's website, and set up some Perl or PHP or whichever to keep track of their "fans". That's it -- the entirety of the website. I don't usually like them -- the only way they're even slightly worthwhile to my mind is if they are also shrines, and more often than not, they aren't. But now I had to make sure that TAFL.Org had videogame characters. (They do, by the way, helpfully not segregated from normal anime or marked in any way, shape, or form. Awesome.)
I looked under K, and found Kingdom Hearts.
Then the horror began.
Because I love my flist, here is the best of the best.
BEST USE OF AN INCOMPREHENSIBLY INAPPROPRIATE TITLE
Rokusasu, a Demyx-Sora fanlisting. (Yes, that's right. It's called Roxas. This is probably a reference to the fact that Demyx, like every other Org member, spends the whole game calling Sora by the wrong name -- but it still doesn't make a damned bit of sense as a title.)
1st Runner Up: Sacrifice, a Riku/Kairi fanlisting. (....I must have missed something. I thought the sacrifice Riku made was for Sora. Clearly I need to replay the game again.)
2nd Runner Up: In My Mind, a Axel/Demyx/Roxas fanlisting. (The only way this title could be any more appropriate would be if it began with "All".)
BEST USE OF OMGWTF VOMITED ON YOUR LAYOUT
Destiny Islands, a Kairi, Sora, & Riku fanlisting. (Just, look at it. My eyes are burning.)
1st Runner Up: Nobodies Keyblade, a Sora/Roxas fanlisting. (This one should also get an honorable mention up top for the grammatical error in the title, and the fact that the webmistress thinks her title requires detailed explanation. Like, omg, so deep, how could anyone possibly understand, I'll need hours to go over it carefully.)
2nd Runner Up: Sinister Sundown, a Sora/Roxas/Axel fanlisting. (Why are the colors blinding. Why are the images incompetently photoshopped together. Why does god hate me.)
BEST USE OF CANON? WHAT CANON?
Our Sky, an Olette/Roxas fanlisting. (Please, take a quick look at this link, and this link. This girl is full of delusion right up to her eyeballs, and enjoys ignoring things such as the fact that when Olette holds up the marble, she is a.) one of THREE PEOPLE DOING EXACTLY THE SAME THING, b.) not EVEN the first one to do it, and c.) causing Roxas tremendous pain because his marble is missing, not making him feel warm and fuzzy or like he has a home there. (Seriously, almost a direct quote.)
1st Runner Up: Sinister Sundown again. (This site wins another trophy for brilliantly forgetting that Axel didn't merely vanish for the final act of the game, he died. "I really do wish they'd kept Axel in for the end of the game, because maybe in the next game we'd be possibly guaranteed to see more of these three together. Who knows? Perhaps we haven't seen the end of them yet.....")
2nd Runner Up: Faded Memories, a Namine/Riku fanlisting. (She makes a layout from novel art, with a novel quote, and yet her "Why Do I Like This Pairing" section is basically, "Well, I wanted to ship Riku with someone, and Namine's there." You know of the novels, and you can't think of any reason why they might be a good couple?)
BEST USE OF "I'D HAVE CONTENT BUT I DON'T HAVE TIME"
[No order here on these ones; it's impossible to REALLY judge sites that won't tell me why they like a pairing against one another. Should I be comparing the font they used to write "COMING SOON"?]
Fragmented Memories, a Roxas/Riku shrine. (Why do you even have a site when the relationship section reads "Coming soon"?)
Covenant, a Sora/Namine fanlisting. (Bonus points for having a SHRINE for a pairing where your only information is on Sora and Namine, and both relationship sections are completely blank!)
BONUS ROUND: BEST USE OF SONGS WE VAGUELY REMEMBER FROM CHOIR PRACTICE
All For All, Sora, Donald, & Goofy fanlisting. (Winter Wonderland, the song about people making out in front of a fire and eventually getting married, is now associated with the relationship between Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Clearly the webmistress has never really thought about this song as anything other than a generic Christmasy jingle. At least, I really really hope she hasn't.)
AND FINALLY....
Next Life, an Axel/Roxas fanlisting. (Included here mainly because, compared to these others, it really is practically the Mona Lisa. But there's one particularly nerve-wracking sentence used to describe the purpose of the site -- "In this case, the subject of this fan listing is the manga relationship between Axel and Roxas. Be it friendship, family, or something more, all fans of these two characters are encouraged to join!" That's right -- having sex with someone is now "something more" than being family. Excellent. Also, there IS no fanlisting for the game version, so. wtf?)
As a side-note: What's up with het. fans thinking the pairings they like have no value if it isn't canon? Hayner/Olette is a perfectly reasonable pairing, but sites like this one admit that the two are only friends in this positively miserable tone. And, of course, Harry/Hermione fans all but committed mass suicide upon the release of the sixth book. The aforementioned Roxas/Olette shrine is overflowing with "BUT LOOK AT THE WAY THE CAMERA LINGERS ON OLETTE BEING CONCERNED FOR ROXAS, YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE". And Larxene/Axel people...boy the anger you'll hear if you mention that it's slightly not canon. The rationales they have for why Axel would've killed her border on psychotic.
And now it's three a.m., and there is much work to be done tomorrow.
kay_willow and I agree that Juliet [LOST] needs a fanlisting, if she doesn't already have one. I head to TFL.Org to see, and find that she does indeed have a fanlisting reserved if not yet created. Disappointing! Lame!
Then I notice that there is no section for Characters: Videogame, and become confused. Because for some reason videogames and anime are often treated as one in the same, I head over to TAFL.Org, which, by the way, currently has one of the ugliest website layouts I have ever seen. Just. Ugh.
Anyway. Fanlistings in general are an exercise in futility; they make a pretty layout, copy-paste generic text from TFL.Org's website, and set up some Perl or PHP or whichever to keep track of their "fans". That's it -- the entirety of the website. I don't usually like them -- the only way they're even slightly worthwhile to my mind is if they are also shrines, and more often than not, they aren't. But now I had to make sure that TAFL.Org had videogame characters. (They do, by the way, helpfully not segregated from normal anime or marked in any way, shape, or form. Awesome.)
I looked under K, and found Kingdom Hearts.
Then the horror began.
Because I love my flist, here is the best of the best.
BEST USE OF AN INCOMPREHENSIBLY INAPPROPRIATE TITLE
Rokusasu, a Demyx-Sora fanlisting. (Yes, that's right. It's called Roxas. This is probably a reference to the fact that Demyx, like every other Org member, spends the whole game calling Sora by the wrong name -- but it still doesn't make a damned bit of sense as a title.)
1st Runner Up: Sacrifice, a Riku/Kairi fanlisting. (....I must have missed something. I thought the sacrifice Riku made was for Sora. Clearly I need to replay the game again.)
2nd Runner Up: In My Mind, a Axel/Demyx/Roxas fanlisting. (The only way this title could be any more appropriate would be if it began with "All".)
BEST USE OF OMGWTF VOMITED ON YOUR LAYOUT
Destiny Islands, a Kairi, Sora, & Riku fanlisting. (Just, look at it. My eyes are burning.)
1st Runner Up: Nobodies Keyblade, a Sora/Roxas fanlisting. (This one should also get an honorable mention up top for the grammatical error in the title, and the fact that the webmistress thinks her title requires detailed explanation. Like, omg, so deep, how could anyone possibly understand, I'll need hours to go over it carefully.)
2nd Runner Up: Sinister Sundown, a Sora/Roxas/Axel fanlisting. (Why are the colors blinding. Why are the images incompetently photoshopped together. Why does god hate me.)
BEST USE OF CANON? WHAT CANON?
Our Sky, an Olette/Roxas fanlisting. (Please, take a quick look at this link, and this link. This girl is full of delusion right up to her eyeballs, and enjoys ignoring things such as the fact that when Olette holds up the marble, she is a.) one of THREE PEOPLE DOING EXACTLY THE SAME THING, b.) not EVEN the first one to do it, and c.) causing Roxas tremendous pain because his marble is missing, not making him feel warm and fuzzy or like he has a home there. (Seriously, almost a direct quote.)
1st Runner Up: Sinister Sundown again. (This site wins another trophy for brilliantly forgetting that Axel didn't merely vanish for the final act of the game, he died. "I really do wish they'd kept Axel in for the end of the game, because maybe in the next game we'd be possibly guaranteed to see more of these three together. Who knows? Perhaps we haven't seen the end of them yet.....")
2nd Runner Up: Faded Memories, a Namine/Riku fanlisting. (She makes a layout from novel art, with a novel quote, and yet her "Why Do I Like This Pairing" section is basically, "Well, I wanted to ship Riku with someone, and Namine's there." You know of the novels, and you can't think of any reason why they might be a good couple?)
BEST USE OF "I'D HAVE CONTENT BUT I DON'T HAVE TIME"
[No order here on these ones; it's impossible to REALLY judge sites that won't tell me why they like a pairing against one another. Should I be comparing the font they used to write "COMING SOON"?]
Fragmented Memories, a Roxas/Riku shrine. (Why do you even have a site when the relationship section reads "Coming soon"?)
Covenant, a Sora/Namine fanlisting. (Bonus points for having a SHRINE for a pairing where your only information is on Sora and Namine, and both relationship sections are completely blank!)
BONUS ROUND: BEST USE OF SONGS WE VAGUELY REMEMBER FROM CHOIR PRACTICE
All For All, Sora, Donald, & Goofy fanlisting. (Winter Wonderland, the song about people making out in front of a fire and eventually getting married, is now associated with the relationship between Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Clearly the webmistress has never really thought about this song as anything other than a generic Christmasy jingle. At least, I really really hope she hasn't.)
AND FINALLY....
Next Life, an Axel/Roxas fanlisting. (Included here mainly because, compared to these others, it really is practically the Mona Lisa. But there's one particularly nerve-wracking sentence used to describe the purpose of the site -- "In this case, the subject of this fan listing is the manga relationship between Axel and Roxas. Be it friendship, family, or something more, all fans of these two characters are encouraged to join!" That's right -- having sex with someone is now "something more" than being family. Excellent. Also, there IS no fanlisting for the game version, so. wtf?)
As a side-note: What's up with het. fans thinking the pairings they like have no value if it isn't canon? Hayner/Olette is a perfectly reasonable pairing, but sites like this one admit that the two are only friends in this positively miserable tone. And, of course, Harry/Hermione fans all but committed mass suicide upon the release of the sixth book. The aforementioned Roxas/Olette shrine is overflowing with "BUT LOOK AT THE WAY THE CAMERA LINGERS ON OLETTE BEING CONCERNED FOR ROXAS, YOU KNOW IT TO BE TRUE". And Larxene/Axel people...boy the anger you'll hear if you mention that it's slightly not canon. The rationales they have for why Axel would've killed her border on psychotic.
And now it's three a.m., and there is much work to be done tomorrow.