Long post ahead:
So its been a while since I've talked about them, here i go again.
Why do i ship Ragatha and Venom?
... for those of you with no context this sentence probably sounds like mad ravings. And yeah, it kinda is. It started out as a joke since they were just two characters i really liked, but it slowly started growing into something I unironically enjoy. So why is that?
I'm just gonna go over some reasons cause... I wanna.
1. Shared trauma.
These two have quite a bit of shared trauma AND trauma responses because of their upbringing. I know that sounds strange but hear me out.
Ragatha's past was incredibly traumatic for her. We don't know all the details, and i doubt we ever will, but we know her mother treated her VERY poorly.
So poorly that her trauma response is to be... kind of a mother. To constantly be there, to constantly be a shoulder for people to cry on, to CONSTANTLY be what her mother was not. Someone who cares. Her abusive past shaped her entire personality. She just wants everyone to be happy, because she never was.
Now, how does this tie to Venom/Eddie Brock? Because on the surface, its the polar opposite. But then you dig a little deeper.
Eddie ALSO had a SHIT parent. Carl Brock, while probably not as bad as Ragatha's mother, still wasn't all too good.
Carl was distant. Emotionally unavailable. Didn't consider Eddie his actual son, just a disappointment. Everything Eddie did, he did to earn his father's approval. So eventually, when Eddie got the suit and stopped being a villian, what did he become? A vigilante. A lethal protecter.
A guardian. Something his father wasn't.
This leads me to-
2. Misunderstandings
I've gone over a handful of similarities with their shared trauma, but it goes a little deeper than just that. Both from a meta and in-universe standpoint, both characters are misunderstood.
Ragatha has long been the source of a lot of debate in the Digital Circus fandom, and in the show itself, due to her attitude. The constant need to be supportive, the constant cheeriness, to some people both in and out of universe it can come across as... fake. Especially after episode 4 & 5
After those episodes a lot of what Ragatha says can come across to both the audience and the characters as... fake. "She's putting on a persona but in all reality she doesn't care about these people. She thinks hurtful things, she wishes harm, she's just as bad as Jax!"
That... that's not accurate. In the slightest.
While Ragatha does have a degree of "fakeness" to her, it's not done out of malice. She just genuinely does want what's best for these people and, due to how she was raised, overcompensates to the point where it can feel fake. But it's not, not at it's core. At her core, she just wants these people to be happy. Yet because she's human and incredibly emotionally traumatized, she can be seen as fake from both the fandom and the circus members. Behind the happy mask isn't an evil manipulator, behind the happy mask is a broken woman who wants what's best for everyone at the cost of herself.
As for Venom, it's once again both the audience and the world that misjudges him. Not for entirely unwarranted reasons, the man was a psycho for a while
And to a lot of people, this is what Venom is. A pyscho. A killer. A monster. Someone filled with so much hate and violence that he's considered the anti-Spider-Man, someone who purposely causes pain and misery for his own joy.
That's not what Venom's been. Not what Eddie's been. Not for a long time.
Venom has been the lethal protecter for much longer than he's been a villian at this point. He's been making up for his mistakes, he's been fighting on the side of good for a long time. Hell, in real life he has his own movie series where he is a hero!
But yet, ask a random person on the street both in and out of universe to say what Venom is and what do you get? He's a monster. Irredemable. Plain and simple. Even though thats not what he's been for a long time.
(Also on a more lighthearted note they're both often reduced to sex symbols by their fandoms ignoring their actual characters. And I mean... yeah they can both get it, but come on folks lol)
Which leads me to
3. Healing
One of the best parts about a bonkers ass cross/crackship like this is thinking about how they can interact, and i think one thing these two can do is counterbalance each other and heal each other in a way that I dont think a lot of other people could get. As I've hopefully made clear, I think these two would get each other on a deeper level, and help each other in the long run.
Venom/Eddie could help Ragatha love herself, since he's had trouble with that in the past but found his true self in being a lethal protecter, and Ragatha could help Venom learn that there's more to life than just his work, since Eddie's often been known to drown himself in work, weather that's his journalism or being a vigilante. And since both of them share so much trauma and similar coping methods, I truly think they'd help heal themselves as much as each other
... Yeah not much for this one. So let's move onto the most simple one.
4. An interesting dynamic
Relationships in fiction often fall into archetypes. Enemies to lovers, beauty and the beast, forbidden romance, etc. I like this relationship because it combines a lot of these. There's a beauty and the beast aspect to it, but there's also a broken people healing each other aspect (if I haven't made that clear enough), a different worlds aspect, opposites attract, theres a lot of potential for stories both comedic and dramatic storytelling for these guys.
I got more but I think I've kept you guys long enough. If ya'll wanna hear me ramble or write about this crackship more, let me know.
'Til next time
