An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Shows how inspired I’ve gotten by the ship of Togachako, I went ahead and wrote a fanfic about them. I haven’t written a fanfic in over fifteen years.
Join Ochako Uraraka as she faces grief over Himiko, unwanted media exposure, and physical changes!
Everything’s probably fine!
So this story is getting larger, we're going past the initial six chapters! Join Ochako and Himiko as they attempt to navigate their new relationship and new way of living. There's totally no threats on the horizon, honest.
Everything continues to be fine!
It's my favorite dynamic too. Uh, obviously. 💕 Himiko deserves someone who can keep up with her. Someone who loves her for who she is to the point of, well, this.
I've always been a big fan of linkyychan's art since I got into MHA and specifically Togachako stuff, so seein' this puts me over the moon. Thank you very much.
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
So I wrote a follow-up to Blood and Gravity, because I had a few more things I wanted to add. This one’s less plot, and more scenes of Ochako and Himiko’s relationship as seen through the eyes of her friends!
Stay for possessive gremlin Ochako, oblivious Iida, and a group of slightly worried classmates!
Everything’s still probably fine!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Shows how inspired I’ve gotten by the ship of Togachako, I went ahead and wrote a fanfic about them. I haven’t written a fanfic in over fifteen years.
Join Ochako Uraraka as she faces grief over Himiko, unwanted media exposure, and physical changes!
Everything’s probably fine!
As someone who likes all the ships involved, I have to admit, I'm not a huge fan of BakuDeku stuff set after the epilogue where either the off-screen conversation between Ochako and Deku turns out to be her encouraging him to go for it, or them dating for a few weeks/months then breaking it off because it wasn't working, in both cases with the specter of Himiko being invoked both to explain why it Didn't Work, and why Ochako backs Deku going for Bakugo.
I honestly don't like it because it just all too often turns into Deku and Bakugo getting to have a happy ending, while Ochako gets to Suffer Nobly with her Forever Grief.
I find that's just blatantly unfair, and even goes against what Ghost Himiko tells her in the end scene, that most of all Himiko wants Ochako to be happy.
Like, if you're gonna do something like that, at least throw Ochako a fuckin' bone here. Make it a polycule between the three of them. Have her get together with Tsuyu. Hell, magically resurrect and age Himiko or reveal her to have been alive or something.
Something that's more than "Well, sorry you get to be miserable forever, Ochako. Thanks for takin' one for the team." The poor woman already has the saddest ending of anyone from Class 1-A, and it's not even particularly close.
I've seen a lot of Togachako fanart and fanfics that depict Himiko as the one who is super physically affectionate, and Ochako being the one who gets all overwhelmed and blushy and whatnot from physical affection.
I'm here to tell you today that that's a load of bullshit. Himiko is the one who hasn't truly had any amount of physical affection. Her parents sure weren't about to give it to her, and I doubt that the League of Villains offered her much in that department considering they were all adult males (or died too quickly) and also fucked up as well. Meanwhile Ochako is the one who had a loving family and an overall affectionate friend group.
Himiko has NO resistance built up. Ochako would do something as simple as hold her hand or kiss her cheek and Himiko would collapse like a house of cards.
Well, maybe because there ain't no drama to the canon ship.
No, not The Drama, drama. Did anyone else know about this movie?
You can talk about cast disparity, and you can talk about the demographics of the people who go through the efforts of creating and/or commissioning fanworks, and I do think that both of these are very true. They are big factors. Very big factors, I will not deny that!
But there's another factor, and this is especially true for shows that do not have a heavy focus on romance. Think less Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and more your average Shonen anime, Western action movie, and a lot of action-heavy genres. Many, many video games also fall under this category.
True Romance In Video Games?
In a lot of these works, the romance tends to be lacking in drama. It's often either treated as a reward for the protagonists after they Win The Day, motivation to keep going, or, honestly, in a lot of cases, the Love Interest is just kind of there without actually contributing to the plotm because the people creating media feels they need a love interest. So, the love interests tend to be safe. They're a bastion for the other partner, generally not causing conflict outside of things out of their control like kidnappings/assaults/etc, not pushing the other partner into uncomfortable thoughts, feelings, or opinions.
But a lot of people love drama, they love angst, they love tragedy, they love conflict. They want emotion and energy. That is, in fact, very important to a lot of people when it comes to their fictional romances. They might even want a relationship that in real life would be considered particularly toxic.
Remember, what people want in their real life partnerships, and what people want in their fictional romances are two VERY different things. So people turn to the other relationships that are presented in the series that DO offer what they desire.
For an example of this, I'm going to talk about the piece of media I recent finished, the shonen series My Hero Academia. There will be spoilers herein. (Also a little bit for She-Ra and the Princesses of Power at the very end.)
In MHA, the protagonist, Izuku "Deku" Midoriya, has a love interest in the form of Ochako "Uravity" Uraraka.
I won't lie, they ARE cute together.
Deku and Ochako are, very sadly, one of the better 'canon' relationships to be found in your average Shonen, because they actually get scenes together where they comfort and support one another. They both have scenes where they come to the emotional rescue of the other, which is good, because both these poor wannabe superheroes are absolutely put through the wringer by the narrative.
It's certainly better than, say, Naruto and Hinata manage.
It's never a good sign when a movie after the series ends has to be made to explain why the relationship happened.
But there's no drama, it's two good people who are good for each other, and help each other out. Which, actually good for a normal relationship! If this were real life, they would have a good relationship because they're compatible and very good at picking out when each other is suffering, which is good, because they're both very bad at admitting they're suffering. For a lot of people, that's what they want in a fictional relationship, and that's just fine, absolutely!
But in terms of fiction, there's no conflict, and conflict and drama drives character interaction. They never argue. There's no tension, nor are they ever put on the opposite ends of a conflict, nor do they question each other's values. Compounding that, there's very little passion in the relationship, outside of the stock "Boy, that other person is cute, maybe by the end of the series we'll be dating!" you see a lot in media that attempts romance without having a romantic theme.
So, many people look elsewhere for the conflict, drama, passion that's missing. Fortunately for them, both Izuku and Ochako have popular non-canon ships, both absolutely rife with drama. One that's been around from the start, and the other a more recent development thanks to the lead-up to and climax of the story.
Let's meet our competitors! This may be the only time they're on screen together.
For Deku, we've got his shonen rival Katsuki Bakugo, and already you can probably guess why because shonen rivals are the traditional alternative ship for your shonen protagonist. This is the one that's been around since the start, and is the most popular ship in the MHA fandom. Again, shonen rivals. This is why Goku and Vegeta have beards, why if you went to an anime con in the early aughts you saw a lot of Naurtos and Sasukes.
Bakugo's love language is explosions.
Bakugo is Midoriya's longtime bully, having grown up together before the start of the series. Bakugo's a bit (a lot!) of an asshole, but he does improve, going from just being a big ol' asshole to Deku, from being a more shonen rival, to regretting a lot of what he put Deku through. So, there's energy there. Not just your traditional shonen rivalry stuff, which is often enough to drive fandom attractions, there's stuff with with their past and Bakugo's bullying that can be mined. Anger and guilt, revenge or restitution, love/hate stuff, there's conflict. There's meat on the bone.
"Especially the spiders in your underwear drawer."
The thing about anger is that it's such a passionate emotion that it can easily be narratively shifted to more positive passionate emotions. Fandoms also like it when people have pasts together because that gives fandom space to work with.
Meanwhile, for Ochako, we've got the villain Himiko Toga.
Himiko's love language is blood. I'm not joking about this one.
For most of MHA's run time, this was a rarer pairing, propelled by a few hints and the occasional artwork from the mangaka in various states of affection.
I wonder what Ochako's Google search terms were after this.
Then the finale happens and all the drama happens all at once as a massively gay fight happens, which proceeded to really cause the relationship to explode in the eyes of a lot of people, in part because of all the drama and conflict that happens during the fight.
"Not in, like, a gay way, though!" - Blind People.
You've got the whole enemy-to-lover stuff that people love, you can have Himiko corrupt Ochako or Ochako redeem Himiko and all that entails, you've got everything surrounding blood and both their blood promises. (And if you're kinky there's everything surrounding blood, fangs, knives, that sorta thing.)
"I miss my wife, Tsuyu, I miss her a lot."
Finally, you've got the tragedy and angst of the ending, and even get the bonus of any angst you write or draw about can basically fit in canon because canonically Ochako basically ends the series still completely fucked up by what happens with Himiko.
This is a key point to always remember about a lot of what drives a lot of fandom creations: A lot of people fucking love angst, either to alleviate it or wallow in it.
Heck, a lot of IzuOcha (and other Ochako ships) stuff created past their encounter actively mines the Himiko Toga drama for their own purposes, because it's such a potent source of angst for THAT relationship. That includes, by the way, the postscript finale where Deku and Ochako get together.
"We can pursue a relationship because the ghost of my dead girlfriend says it's okay and wants me to be happy. Now give me a Predator handshake."
Would either pairing, in real life, be wise? No, probably not. It'd be a small miracle if either one were successful. It'd probably be a small miracle if no one died!
But, and this is key, what people look for in romance in terms of their real life, and what people look for in romance in fiction, are two completely different things. Some people look for comfort, but a lot of people, a looot of people, want conflict.
Or you can just be like me and like whatever based off of interest and not feel tethered to One Ship Only. Polycules go!
Postnote:
"We're going to be doing this for five seasons, aren't we?"
For an action based show that realized this, look at the She-Ra reboot, where Catradora both manages to be the official endpoint AND the most popular fandom ship, because the people writing the story realized that people crave drama.
One of the things I'm always fascinated about any fandom is when fan works become obsolete.
Like, I'm not talking "Oh, your ship got DECANONIZED." I'm talking about fandom works where later canon media alters the foundation that work relied on, or heavily alters it.
For a personal example, about twenty years ago I wrote a fanfiction in the first season of a popular series.
That series would go on to have nine seasons, a spinoff series, and at least one movie. Basically everything I wrote had become completely invalidated in some way, shape, or form. It's become an artifact of a different time in the fandom.
(Spoilers for: My Hero Academia, Space Runaway Ideon, Gundam SEED, and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power behind the cut. They're used as examples.)
To take a more modern example, the manga/anime My Hero Academia recently ended, and that ending included a timeskip. Characters are physically scarred in distinctive ways. One character has a new powerset. One is literally haunted.
So, like, for example, if you're reading a fanfiction or see a piece of fanart where, say, Deku still has One For All and doesn't have the scar on his face, the odds are pretty good it was created before the end of the series, unless the artist is trying to Do Something.
It almost becomes fandom archeology, especially if you're going through a social media platform like Pinterest where you cannot rely on upload dates, or if it's been posted to a proper website that might not have good dating practices.
It's an interesting dynamic. In many ways, fandom works that are produced early on have more of an open canvas to work with. Stories aren't complete. Relationships are starting. Characters aren't fully fleshed out. It gives the artist more of a blank slate to work with. But on the other hand, there's higher odds that you just end up being off the mark. You write a character in a way that will be unrecognizable to someone reading it a few years later. Maybe you're relying on character interactions that don't wind up being as significant as it looked at the time. Maybe you've written a fandom set in the future but uh-oh, you wound up actually missing half the cast that gets introduced later.
Conversely, however, later era fanworks, particularly after a piece of media has ended, have more to work with, and a stronger base to work on. Characters and relationships are better established. Plots have progressed, there are new ideas, sets and props you can work with, and you know what's actually going to happen in the story. Conversely, however, that also means your canvas diminishes. There's less room and more static ideas. This can be especially problematic if a story has a tightly closed ending that can make it hard to continue without heavy alterations to the core premise. A piece of media like MHA has a wide open ending that allows for plenty of new stories to be written past the finale. A piece like Space Runaway Ideon, where the ending is "Everyone Fucking Dies" doesn't.
Of course, I made a joke about it earlier, but this is *very* true when it comes to your shipping section of fandoms. Certain relationships that look viable either wither on the vine or die violent deaths when new information is revealed. Look at any ship that died due to familial revelations. For instance, in the early days of the Gundam SEED fandom, people were large fans of Kira and Cagalli as a romantic pairing. That swiftly died when it was revealed that it was a Star Wars situation and they turned out to be siblings. So pretty much any fanwork where there's a romantic relationship between the two, it's either obsolete, or the artist is into incest.
Meanwhile, look at the ship that's far and away the most popular ship for the She-Ra and the Princesses of Power fandom, Catradora. Catradora was always popular and in fact wound up canon by the end, but it's easy to forget that most of the forward progress in terms of the romance, and the most memorable moments between the two characters happened in the final season. There are a couple of middle seasons where the two barely interact! Most Catradora stuff heavily relied on the first season material. So the dynamic between the two in the fanworks from before season 5 take on a completely different tone and identity than the ones set after the series finale. Nothing is settled, most of the memorable scenes can't be referred to, and neither character has had their character development that led up to them getting together.
Then there are ships that essentially go from zero to one hundred thanks to essentially, maybe one or two events that just so happen to hit like a meteor. For an example of this, let's to back to my first example in this long-ass diatribe and talk again about My Hero Academia, specifically the main female character, Ochaco Uraraka.
For the vast majority of MHA's run, the main female ship for Ochaco was with Tsuyu Asui, her best friend. Not surprising, they're almost always paired with each other in the story. Now, this is the internet, and you can literally find fanmedia of any romantic pairing you like. It's why terms like rare pairs and crackships exist. One of those rarepairs was with antagonist Himiko Toga. There were a few, bolstered by natural "They are rivals" energym and Himiko using her ability to transform to become Ochaco a couple of times through the story. But it certainly wasn't the largest.
Then Issues 391-395 of the manga (Episodes 158/159 of the anime) hit, which details the final conflict between Ochaco and Himiko, and the "Togachako" ship absolutely skyrocketed in popularity, becoming Ochaco's far and away most popular female ship, and competing in popularity with her most popular ship with series protagonist Izuku Midoriya.
It's not hard to see why, the events that play out are extremely memorable (I'd seen the "Am I cute?" "The cutest girl in the world." scene redone in multiple fandoms before I watched MHA), and absolutely offers multiple in-roads for fans to build off of, either through artwork or fan-fiction.
(It's angst. Fans absolutely desire angst, either to wallow in it, or to alleviate it. They devour it whole. Togachako is FULL of angst.)
But this means that the people who were cruising this ship before those issues basically had to make up their own foundation. They essentially had almost nothing to work with.
I don't know, I just find this all very interesting. How things can evolve as a piece of media starts, continues, concludes. How ideas that one minute absolutely dominate fandom discourse may vanish the next. How one major story event can radically alter fandom trajectory out of seemingly nowhere.
I dunno. Fandom archeology gets interesting when you've been hanging around the internet as long as I have.
The honest truth is that there's a vast, vast amount of people who hold absolutely no political opinion nor have any sort of political knowledge. Who don't think of the world beyond their job, their family, and the place they live.
These people don't think of politics in terms that more politically minded folk do. They don't care about what's happening in other countries, or to other people. They literally do not care beyond what they can see with their eyes and feel with their wallets. They don't care about issues like 'LGBT+ rights' unless it directly impacts them. They are that fucking myopic.
It's more of a baseline "My life is ok/My life is bad." dynamic when it comes to politics. If they feel like things are okay, they'll stand pat politically. If they feel like things are bad, they'll "vote the bums out" and swap to another party without really any concern for what that political party actually believes.
You see this more in countries whose major leaders don't have term limits, like my country. The US is kind of unique because it's presidential term limits help mask this, and the president being such a major figurehead (and voted for separately, unlike many other countries) helps your Congresspeople/Senators hide from this impact.
But, like, look at what's happened in the past four years. A combination of COVID and corporate greed has caused inflation. And what these people feel the most is when gas gets more expensive and food gets more expensive. We've seen a lot of incumbent governments around the world, on all sides of the political divide, crumble recently, and that has accelerated this in the US as well.
This is why you saw the "What happened to Joe Biden??" graphs, and the demographics of who voted for Trump being so different than previous years, with higher amounts of non-whites voting for him. (Those demographics are actually closer to what it tends to look like in other countries.) Why undecided voters exist at all.
Because you've got a load of people with literally no political thought other than 'Things more expensive, let's try other guy.' No matter how garbage the politics of the person and party coming in are, or if they'll actually be able to do something, or if they'll actually make things worse. Who don't want to and will not think about things beyond what directly effects them economically, and who immediately forget the result of the last election, let alone the election before that, and how it shook out for them.
It also makes them much more susceptible to things like the anti-immigrant rhetoric you're seeing literally everywhere in the world, or the male bullshit being peddled by Tate and his ilk. It also doesn't matter reasoning like 'Hey, you know, the US actually got hit way less than the rest of the world did by inflation.' Which y'all did, by the by.
Nothing the incumbent can really say or do solves this issue. It certainly hasn't been solved anywhere else so far.
Unfortunately, this...political stupidity has constantly made things worse because malicious actors like Trump and the Republicans are happy to take advantage of it, and actively encourage it, and more centrist parties (like Canada's Liberals) know (or believe) they'll just be back in power in 8-12 years again anyway. Even as we descend further and further into authoritarianism, thanks in part to this cycle.
And, to be certain, this isn't a US only issue. Not even close. This has effected and continues to effect basically every country.
I cannot emphasize enough the number of places in this world that aren't the USA that you've screwed over by what you've done.
I am terrified for your vulnerable people, who are going to be so hurt by this, but I'm also terrifed because the USA has such outsized control over the world that we're in danger too.
We don't even get to vote, yet we have to live by your decision.
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