#popchess

[saturn00l]

maturing is realizing sapphic ships are the end destination for all fandoms

[arcticwolf2023]

Yo people, I just noticed this recently. In the episode where Poppy O'Hair makes her official debut as a proper character in Ever After High, there's a scene where Duchess appears to be talking with Blondie, only to immediately get sidetracked when Poppy passes by. What's up with that? Surely if Duchess didn't care about Poppy that much, she wouldn't have looked on as she came in as the new girl.

[ellarain]

I just want to point out and give credit that any eah multi ship fanfic I read has all of my ships and I mean all. Popchess, wolfdancer, cedrise, bribelle, appling, clondie, kitzie. Even if most of these are these are background ships, they're in every single fanfic together (as well as some other straight ships but I don't care about those lol as I just ship the gays)

I'm genuinely so lucky that the tiny fandom ships what I ship (or most or us ship the same ships)

[moonrxee]

Yay Apple trend thingy

[jash-t]

Popchess popchess 😭😭😭 quick popchess doodles because suddenly my love for them came back

[caliburn-the-sword]

[arty-ranty]

Duchess Swan Headcanons:

o Her emotional language is ballet, she will dance when she’s angry, sad, annoyed, happy and everything in between. It’s her only release.

o Whilst Duchess specialises in ballet, she can dance all types but she chooses to focus on ballet.

o Whilst most people assume she’s homophobic and very straight, Duchess could care less what gender someone is (she’s more much concerned about class and royal/rebel) – I mean up to a quarter of swans are gay…

o When Faybelle accidently let it slip she liked Briar, the fairy was worried she’d lose her BFFA. Duchess’ response when Faybelle asked if she minded that she was gay was: “I could care less if it’s a girl but Briar? "

o Is terrified of her destiny, the thought of turning into a swan and losing all her memories makes her petrified. However, she would rather be a royal and strive for a destiny she understands than an unknown future.

o No contact with her father (never met him after he abandoned her mother) and she couldn’t care less.

o After giving birth to Duchess, her mother fell victim to her curse. However, for the first few years she recognised duchess but over time she became more swan than human. When Duchess was 6, her mother attacked her and flew away, she never came back. Duchess will watch the swans in the lake around her house and wonder where her mother is, a part of her understands she’s most likely dead but the bigger part of her remains hopeful.

o Duchess lives with her grandmother, she’s strict but loving and where Duchess got her personality from. Since she could walk, her grandmother has been teaching her ballet. She is the only person Duchess respects and will apologise to.

o Originally, her swan form was white but over time with her harsh and rude personality it transformed into black. She acts unbothered but the change scares her.

o When she’s stressed, nervous, shocked, embarrassed etc, feathers appear out of her hair, neck and occasionally her arms. She plucks them out unbothered (they scare her).

o Only real friends (and the only people she somewhat trusts): Sparrow, Faybelle, Lizzie and Justine.

o Childhood friends with Sparrow and whilst shed never admit it she loves the guy. They did try dating once but it only lasted a few months, now they live in wlw/mlm solidarity. He’s the person who knows the most about her, mostly due to the fact they grew up together but also because she will come to him when she’s very upset. He calls her ‘Duch’ or ‘Ducky’, she hates it (she loves it).

o Faybelle is her BFFA despite the fact the barely hang out, this does upset duchess yet she’d never tell her. They love to complain about princesses together and are fiercely competitive.

o Lizzie is her roommate and, at first, the pair just ignored each other but over a few months they warmed up to each other. They’re not best friends but Duchess does like trust her. They had a major rift over Daring which lasted over a month but, with Lizzie getting with Kitty, they made up and are now closer than before.

o Justine and Duchess have a complicated friendship, Justine would say they’re close friends and she really looks up to Duchess dancing skills whereas Duchess is conflicted – she likes Justine but the girls too nice and it makes her nervous. The pair do lots of dancing together, Justine will go to Duchess when she needs help or a partner and whilst Duchess will complain that’s its not ballet, she always enjoys herself.

o All of Duchess sleep wear are clothes she stole from Sparrow, neither talk about it and Lizzie doesn’t question the fact Duchess is wearing a rock band t-shirt that definitely isn’t hers. Duchess doesn’t know why she does it but it’s the only way she gets a peaceful sleep. As they get closer, Duchess does start to steal a few of Lizzie’s clothes, again neither bring it up but lizzie finds it adorable.

o During the months March to June (breeding season for swans), Duchess does ‘nest’ in her room. The nest is majority stolen clothing form her friends and a few things from her grandmother, it’s mostly Sparrow’s and a few from Faybelle and Lizzie – at some point she steals a scarf from Justine but she actually gives that back.

o Justine never questioned where her scarf went and was oblivious when Duchess gave it her back in July. When she was next using it, a black feather fell out, she now uses the feather as a bookmark (much to Duchess’ embarrassment).

o Duchess is afraid of falling in love, when she’s with Sparrow she never let herself love him like a lover. This is because swans only really mate (fall in love) once and she’s scared to have her heart broken or mess with her destiny (since she’s supposed to fall in love with her prince, only for him to break her heart and for her to be doomed as a swan forever).

o If she did fall in love, she would be very territorial over the person. Very clingy. But also very loving, almost too much so.

o Very into to journalling, documents everything that happened in the day. She does it for two reasons: in the hope she will remember when her curse takes her and for her family/friends so they have something to remember her by.

o Has a scar on her left arm from where her mother attacked her, Justine mentioned it once when they were dancing and Duchess fully shut down. Justine never brought it up again.

o PopChess (Poppy O’Hair x Duchess Swan): At first Duchess despises Poppy as she’s got the freedom Duchess can only dream of. She’s rude, snarky, competitive but Poppy just takes it and moves on. After the ice-skating incident, Poppy starts to talk to Duchess as if they were friends and Duchess, taken off guard, just goes along with it. Before long, she realises she’s falling for the hairdresser and it doesn’t scare it at all. Which only confuse her more but after a lot of inner turmoil (and I mean a lot the girl has a lot of emotions to confront), she asks Poppy out. Poppy says yes and whilst everyone around them is shocked by the new couple its obvious they love each other and they work perfectly. Duchess is territorial and slightly feral when it comes to Poppy, the girl is hers and hers alone. Poppy doesn’t mind (plus Duchess does back off when she asks) and finds it cute (and hot). Other people find it weird but eventually people learn to accept it. Holly takes the longest time to come around to Duchess, she believes Duchess is only using Poppy and she doesn’t want her twin to get hurt. After an incident where Duchess protects Poppy, risking her reputation, Holly realises she misjudged the swan and accepts their relationship.

[internetgiraffekid1673]

Giraffe's EAH Ship Tier List: Popchess

Requested by @caliburn-the-sword and @ellarain

As far as I remember, Duchess and Poppy ONLY have Fairest on Ice together in the webisodes. Poppy accidentally goes spinning out because she's never ice skated before, Duchess interprets it as a challenge to her figure skating skills and attempts to copy her, and they both go sliding down a massive hill of ice. Poppy makes a bold move and turns their uncontrolled descent into a graceful leap where they use their combined balance to also save Ashlynn from falling into a hole, and the two girls are mutually impressed with each other. Not a whole lot.

This one is also personally a bit difficult for me to tackle. I generally find both Poppy and Duchess' dynamics with SPARROW to be at least as interesting as their dynamic with each other. Consequently, I like them a lot better as a trio than just the girls in a pair. I also have to combat the fact that I read Poppy as aro, and Duchess as either ace or aroace, so I'm already biased against most ships for them.

Let's put all that aside though, and just see where this takes us. Popchess could get REALLY interesting because of their positions on destiny. Duchess is fully committed to following the system, forcing others into it, and trying to find some way to work it to her advantage even though her destiny is TERRIBLE and she DOES NOT WANT IT. Poppy, who is lucky enough to not have a destiny and is too worried about alienating herself from either group, refuses to take a position.

To me, that means Duchess would actually hate Poppy. She clearly doesn't in canon, but I'm arguing it's because she has very little reason to interact with Poppy outside visits to the Tower Hair Salon, so she doesn't get a chance to be deeply insulted by her destiny choices like with Ashlynn or Raven.

I think if the writers forced them to spend significant amounts of time together, Duchess would despise Poppy for being SO lucky. For having the freedom to do whatever she wants and the gall to not pick a side. For being born into a royal heritage and never seeming to acknowledge just how fortunate she is to have all the clout and comfort that comes with being a princess and NONE of the work and tragedy that everybody else (but especially Duchess) has to put into that.

Which, again, is really interesting because I don't think Poppy would share the vitriol. Poppy's whole shtick is that she wants to be in with both groups---She likes being liked and doesn't want to choose because it would lock her out of a lot of potential friendships. She's also rather difficult to ruffle. I actually lied earlier, Fairest on Ice may be the only time we see Duchess and Poppy talk directly, but there is a little more to the story in the books.

Truth or Hair by Suzanne Selfors does a really good job of showing the emotional fortitude and calm demeanor required to work as a hair dresser, and actually specifically notes that Duchess is a super difficult customer. While we don't see Duchess talk to Poppy on-page (just Holly disguised as Poppy), a point is made about how particular Duchess is with her hair (which makes sense, given Duchess' chronic perfectionism), and that she trusts Poppy to take care of it for her. So much in fact that she doesn't even tell Holly-Disguised-As-Poppy what the routine is, because she just expects Poppy to know it. And even after Holly screws it up so spectacularly that she's convinced Duchess will never come to the Tower Hair Salon ever again, Poppy's knows exactly what to do to calm her down and rebuild that trust without even telling her it was Holly's fault. (Bribery, she bribes Duchess). She doesn't even seem that worried about it.

So if you force them to spend more time together (which you will because you're shipping them), then you get this situation where Duchess suddenly has to think about Poppy and decides she hates her for having everything Duchess wants but would never admit to. And then Poppy, far from reciprocating that bitterness, just isn't bothered by it. She pretends it isn't happening. Most likely because she just doesn't want to make it worse and risk never befriending Duchess.

Poppy is someone who seems like she doesn't care about other people's opinions of her, but I personally think she cares a lot. She just chooses to manage it by treating everyone exactly the same and never letting her emotions run away from her. Which is honestly really important if you're going to deal with Duchess. And this kind of calm, unbotheredness opens the gateway for Duchess to, y'know, trust her. Exactly as she trusts Poppy with her hair. And I think, once Duchess actually opened her emotions to Poppy and let her know WHY Poppy's indecision is so infuriating to her, it might make Poppy rethink some things.

Which of course, ties back into the themes of the overall story. Poppy has the potential to create a safe space where Duchess can exist and BE bitter and toxic and in pain, but where she's also not hurting anybody the way she does in Next Top Villain and True Hearts Day. In turn, Duchess' dilemma forces Poppy to confront her inaction and understand her privilege, and think about how she can use her unique skills to actually HELP people who are in terrible situations like Duchess.

There's a whole little allegory in here: Duchess is someone who lashes out unhealthily because of systemic injustice. Poppy is someone who doesn't acknowledge that the system is unjust. Becoming closer forces them both to recognize why their behavior is unhelpful and change for the better. But it's also really awkward and weird and painful the whole time, and it primarily happens because both of them are outsiders who don't have many other friends so they choose to stick together instead. That's all really cool.

So thematically quite strong pairing, but I can't really put them too high since 1) this is all conjecture and 2) I really really really don't think this has to be romantic to be valuable. The only thing you'd get out of that is Duchess discovering she likes girls, which I think is better explored through the lens of Raven, Lizzie, and Faybelle. So high B-tier? Yeah, that sounds about right.

Verdict: I Can See It (B-Tier)