#schwimmbadbuben

[cid-onia]

elzyzen: Welp, I thought I'd throw you Tales or Ace Attorney but not-that-surprisingly, both have been done already. :,D

Sorry, I'm a person of obvious tastes, apparently. xD I can, however, tell you how I found Free!, if you want me to.

When it was all the rage last summer, I thought it was just some silly pretty boy cheap drama series from all the fanart and gifsets. Even when friends told me how great it was (pencilsmudges and ni-si, respectively), I was just meh.

When I visited slothsoft's place a month ago we watched the first two episodes... and I was basically whining the whole time to keep watching. Then I forced him to go swimming with me.

I AM SO SORRY I DIDN'T TRUST MY FRIENDS' JUDGEMENT PLEASE FORGIVE ME.

It's just. So good. The boys are so precious. It's all so cute. Swimming is pretty awesome imo. I love that there are no badguys and still plenty of drama to go around. Also, best OT3, hands down. uwu

So yeah. Thanks for going out of your way to drop me an ask and hopefully you're mildly entertained. uvu

[mon-qi]

Who do you ship in free? :3

OH GOLLYyay for getting messages! Even though I have no clue how to answer this.Okay, short answer:FRIEND-SHIP

If I DID ship in what I think is the general way of doing this - probably everyone? My shipping charts would look like a mess of furious scribbly lines pointing everywhere.longer answer probably needs a disclaimer:I don’t think I ever understood the concept of shipping.The term and how it is treated in fandom seems very stretchy and confuses me, mostly because it seems to focus on romantic/sexual relationships (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong).While character interaction is the thing I usually enjoy the most in fictional works, I generally find myself more interested with the relationships that do NOT involve romance or sex. I don’t mind it, but it’s not my priority (unless I’m playing Fire Emblem) and I don’t actively seek possibilities for character romance.

tl;drI am not sure I ship anything in Free!I think Seijuuro’s crush on Gou is cute and I’d like to see what it would be like if she ever reciprocated it at one point. Same goes for Sasabe and Miho I guess but mostly because I kept wondering if they get paired up as they’re the only two adults “available” for that.These two pairs are the only ones I think have a small chance of ever becoming canon, because Free!’s premise is about the friendship of the main boys (and fangirl pandering). Officially pairing off one of these kids would likely get in the way of that premise.

Maybe telling you a few of my favourite relationship things is closer to answering your question:

- Haru’s and Makoto’s friendship (although it took me a while - but now I love to see how Haru shows how much he cares in his silent and someone awkward ways contrasting Makoto’s clingy mother hen mode)- Haru’s unexpected soft spot for Nagisa- Nagisas utter adoration of everyone and how he draws everyone together- Nagisa and Gou interactions!- Nagisa and Rei being foils for each other- Rei seemingly being more similar to Haru than Makoto and Nagisa are- Rei’s surprising similarities to Rin and possibilities for friendly rivalry in the future- as a result of the latter two, the possibilities of how Rei could function as a bridge between Haru and Rin- then again, Haru reluctantly warming up to and appreciating Rin’s presence in the end was nice too- I probably forgot a lot. BASICALLY EVERYTHING.

I think I rambled a lot but I still have no idea how to answer this, I hope this works for you, anon! I just enjoy the different friendships and relationships in this show immensely. :)

[mon-qi]

OH MY GOD I AM SO DUMB

I just realized why Free! probably has all those rockhopper penguin things and jokes. It's because rockhopper penguins in japanese are literally IWATOBI (iwa = rock / tobu = to jump/fly) penguins. When Nagisa does the penguin impression at the lighthouse, he even says he's doing a "Iwatobi Penguin" impression.

DUH Also (in not so recent news for me but for completeness' sake), have you ever seen a rockhopper penguin? They're the little guys with tufts of yellow "hair/eyebrows" on their heads and pinkish-red eyes. Seems familiar, right.

...but, does that make Iwatobi-Chan a rockhopper penguin? Or is this another play on words (I thought it was supposed to be a flying rock, hence the bird with the rock-head, but what do I know)

[mon-qi]

If there's one thing I love about the Free! finale, it's how the entire fandom exploded with love for Rei.

[mon-qi]

SEE YOU NEXT SUMMER

thanks that is everything I wanted out of the Finale

[mon-qi]

I want to watch Free! 12 so badly

but I am not ready for it to end with this

[mon-qi]

Wow Free 11 was actually really sweet!

actually this is true for all of the four boys! I can relate to each of them better with each episode.

Haru really hit it this time for me this time - maybe it was just good timing because today I brooded a lot about how I often must come across as an ungrateful grump because I am socially awkward and hav a hard time learning to express my feelings toward people, especially simple things like gratitude. And then along comes Haru and DOES ALL OF THIS. Haru, of all people. Definitely an after-effect of the WOW-FRIENDSHIP epiphany in episode 9, Seeing him genuinely happy (even without breaking into the pool) was just really heartwarming to watch, and how he expressed himself more, smiled,  THANKED Nagisa (bless you Haru I thought nobody would even remember that Nagisa was the one starting it all again) and of course Makoto. Especially that scene with Makoto hit home for me. I LIKE being shown appreciation and showing it in return but it is still not a concept I am very used to, and I am not nearly as introverted as Haru, if at all. Still, when I first consciously made an effort to expres heartfelt gratitude and apreciation even to my closest friends (or especially to them) it was exactly the same as this scene: Spit it out AND THEN RUN. ...it's just really embarassing when you're not used to it (I'm still not, only getting slowly more comfortable with it) and this was a PERFECT depiction.

oh and I loved that bit of when they showed that Makoto apparently doesn't deal well with stairs. Since the novel said he always charges into things with full power (I FEEL YOU BRO I'm just the same) and probably isn't good with stamina. No clue whether this translates to bearing out of breath easily after a few fligts of stairs but I laughed anyway.

And wow, really Rin? You expected to just be able to push your place into a relay like that? Mikoshiba is exactly right about this. I just wonder why he seemed so unusually serious in this episode (did Gou ditch him or what)...

WELL, ONLY ONE EPISODE LEFT.

What is going to happen

are the ships SeiGou and Macklemore/Amakata gonna sail? (don't even ask about the boys those sailed long ago)

WILL RIN'S TEETH BE EXPLAINED

and what will happen to the fandom once Free is over I don't even wanna think about it

[mon-qi]

Voting for Rei to start diving you know, in case he ever gets sick of swimming.