can you quit it with the br*ven/zaven posts. they make no sense. those ships are nothing alike and it feels forced when you try to make br*aven look canon
…. okay, there’s a lot to unpack here o.0
Sure, they’re different; I’m aware of that. I like them both, as I’m sure it’s become obvious by now. For similar motivations (I’m a Raven stan; as such, I like ships that uplift Raven’s narrative -albeit they do it differently), and in varying degrees (Braven is my OTP; if canon ever disappointed me with them, I’d quit the show. I don’t even see canon disappointing me with Zaven because that ship is in a different league for me tbh -what happens to them depends on other factors that I prioritize).
I find the idea of a rivalry between them quite absurd, because they aren’t in a competition IMO; Zaven wouldn’t exist without Braven’s pre-existent pull to give Raven status, and Zaven props Braven by mirroring it. There are people in the fandom hoping they’re mutually exclusive because they hate the idea of Raven “getting” Bellamy, but that’s another story. If anything, more Zaven could likely mean more Braven, and vice versa.
But frankly, the idea that Zaven comes up on top in the comparison is. Ludicrous? Braven is a ship that moves the narrative, that creates plots and subplots and new character dynamics (311, 412-3, the Space 7); Zaven is moved by the narrative. Raven is shown prioritizing S7 and Bellamy*, even sometimes explicitly over Shaw. She forgave Echo* in 0.2 seconds (and that’s even if she truly considered it something to forgive). There’s more than enough to go on on their scenes to interpret Raven’s attitude as at least partly performative (the way she said “you’re good, I see it in your eyes” as she lied to him to try to get in the controls room; how she reached out for comfort right after condemning him to death) vs how straightforward she’s always been in her interactions with Bellamy (and the one time she lied to him is in 503, which was about prioritizing Bellamy over herself, so…). So, yeah. I like Zaven, more and more each episode, but the idea that I’m “trying to make Braven canon” by somehow comparing it to them is nonsensical.
BTW “quit doing That” is a gr10 way to ensure that a person… keeps doing That, jsyk. So if this was a sneaky plot to get me to do more parallels with Zaven, congrats? I’ll keep making the gifsets I wanna make, and if more of their scenes keep echoing Braven, I will gif them (partially because, though I like them, the fandom is driving me up the wall, with all their performative posts about how RAVEN HAS NEVER BEEN SO APPRECIATED BEFORE, BY ANYONE, EVER, IN HER LIFE, BELLAMY WHO -sometimes they include Sinclair, RME-; giffing the scenes myself and doing so always in the context of paralleling them with Braven ensures that I deal with their convenience shippers as least as possible lol- There’s the occasional asshole that reblogs them to say how platonic Braven is tho. Like. Why are you here lol).
And wrt “they make no sense”/”braven isn’t canon”… you are aware that those gifsets are pulled straight out of the source material, right. Not editing, not cutting frames, not explicitly or implicitly putting words on a character’s mouth. Just as they are.
*I know some people have argued that it’d make no sense for Raven to put Shaw over Echo or the Space Seven because she’s “known them longer”, but frankly, time doesn’t mean shit. Not when the other person is The One. Finn had known Raven all his life and he still cheated on her after a few days, he still put Clarke above everyone and everything despite knowing her for two hot seconds. Clarke and Wells were childhood friends and she still used him as a punching bag, suicide baited him and got over his death in an episode. Lexa was ready to risk her political position and everyone under her protection for Clarke. Memori had just met and they were exchanging dark secrets, and despite the fact that she put a knife on her throat and knocked him out, he still trusted her to “not lie TO HIM” and give honest advice.
“Time” seems to only be a reason when we disagree with the hierarchy that’s presented (i.e., people seem to be neck deep in denial about the fact that the last episodes of s4 involved Bellamy explicitly prioritizing Raven over Octavia, by leaving his sister in the bunker to save Raven, despite the possibility of not seeing her again and knowing he couldn’t help her while she was without him for years. If you even try to point out that he put her above Clarke too, when he was willing to face the death wave for Raven but could take the necessary steps to leave Clarke behind to die, they directly drown in their denial).
