So as I lay in bed watching the third season of Rita, an excellent Danish television show about a badass teacher of the same name, it occurred to me that something was happening to me. There was a reason I was so eager to continue watching episode after episode, and while I do love Rita’s hijinks, it wasn’t her drunken philandering that lured me in….
I started shipping two of her students.
It started off with just “Hahahaha oh, what a delightful rivalry this is!” because the two characters, Niklas and Kareem, are running for class president. Kareem was entered reluctantly because Rita just wanted someone to run against Niklas, the son of the town mayor, in order to knock some humility into him and to legitimately have an election. Kareem came from the “inclusion school” or the “special needs facility” along with twenty seven other children with social and psychological issues, complete with a member that routinely shits in the janitor’s closet. This group of children are constantly reminded that they don’t belong there and that their peers think that they are losers. The inclusion school was taken away due to a lack of funding via the mayor, who wants to take her son Niklas out of the public school system anyway because she realizes it doesn’t have the ability to give him the best education (due largely in part to the fact that she won’t find the money to give to the school that she just dumped all of these special needs children in to run wild like dogs without horses) and because she has a general disdain for those of a lesser pedigree.
Of course, Niklas carries this attitude with him until Kareem wins the election after Rita deliberately rigged it, and starts to remove the stick from his ass while Kareem learns to be confident in himself and go for something he thought nearly impossible. Yadda yadda yadda, happy ending and all that.
As the series progressed, they hung out more. This was because Rita assigned them to do a project together, of course, but it became more and more apparent that even though Niklas didn’t want to participate initially he was so crippled with loneliness that he wanted Kareem over as much as possible, if only for Kareem to do all of the work on the project and then be fed pizza and play expensive games on the PlayStation 4.
This is where the begrudging shipping happened, you see. A soft glow radiated in my chest for the two teens laughing on the couch and forgetting their separate woes of the problems from separate sides of the tracks, free to just be themselves without worry.
But you know, every party needs a pooper and that pooper is the fucking mayor. She voiced her displeasure over their friendship to Niklas because he could apparently do better and find someone in his own class range, etc. To which Niklas let out a curt “ fuck you” and went about his day.
The last scene displaying the two youngins’ is of Kareem playing soccer with his friends and Niklas coming along to ask if he’d like to hang out. Kareem ultimately decides not to, leaving a melancholy Niklas to sulk in the wet weather of a Danish afternoon all the way home.
This show has nooooooooooo problems with gay characters at all, which is refreshing, and makes the possibility of this ship very real. And if one of the characters were changed into a girl, the storyline would have been seen a mile away: poor girl meets rich guy or vice versa, they start off as enemies but become friends, one of them has doubts/society doesn’t like it, drama happens, then they decide fuck it whatever and fall in love.
I don’t know guys, I can’t stop myself from believing that this is just the corny fluff I want and need in my life and Kareem and Niklas just happen to be the newest stars in my gay love dramas. Yet there’s barely. Anything. Out. There. “Not even on Tumblr?”
I have scoured hard for a niklas x kareem, kareem x niklas, but theres maybe like one or two brief mentions of it. No fan base. Which considering the fact that Tumblr can look at two side characters on a show that have never interacted and be in a twist about their undying love, I’m surprised that this ship isn’t bigger.
So I’m just going to steer this ship myself, I guess. Steer it straight into Hell. What will I name this ship, if it hasn’t somehow found a name? Nikreem? Karklas? Karnik? Personally I like Karklas but whatevs.
Is there anyone out there, patrolling the internet for a likeminded soul…?
jacobvanloon
prguitarman
gummygunk
areudirty
yousharknotpass
dailybridgerton
