#comship bracket 3

Brujay Propaganda (Pseudo-Incest, Age Gap, Toxic Dynamic)

"This ship has everything a comshipper could want. Adopted father/son pseudo-incest. Age gap. They quite often hate each others guts. Bruce hates Jason because he uses guns and kills people. Jay hates Bruce for letting the Joker kill him and not avenging him. Jay tried to kill Bruce on more than one occasion. Bruce beat the hell out of Jay on even more occasions and did even try to kill him once. Jay has Masssssive daddy issues. Bruce has a delicious guilt complex about Jay's death. There's so much you can do with this ship. Maybe Bruce picked Jason to adopt because Jay was (canonically) a teenage hooker. Maybe Bruce saw teenage Jay running around in those booty shorts of his Robin suit and just couldn't not go after him.

ZADR Propaganda (Toxic Dynamic, Species Difference - Dib is human while Zim is an Irken alien, Age Gap, AdultxMinor - Sort Of)

Arthorin Propaganda (Toxic Dynamic)

"For anyone who hasn’t seen Little Shop of Horrors, Orin is a sadistic and abusive dentist who gets off on causing others pain and Arthur Denton (otherwise known as Bill Murray to those who don’t know Little Shop well enough to know the character’s name) is a masochistic patient of his who makes him extremely uncomfortable with his enjoyment of his dental torture. If comfortable with scenes like this, I would recommend watching the fairly short scene that showcases their dynamic if you haven’t seen it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XB7R0ZxNgC4) because it’s hilarious and one of the more iconic scenes in the movie. Plus the explicit queer rep (in the form of Arthur at the very least) in an 80s movie is cool, and the narrative presents him as being weird because of his masochism and not because of his queerness. There’s already some subtextual evidence of Orin not being straight with how he physically dominates Seymour and clearly gets very excited about this and the idea of hurting him, and the contrast of how he interacts with another man who is clearly uncomfortable with this and a man who clearly loves it is interesting.

This difference can be read as a joke about sadists and masochists being surprisingly incompatible and/or as an insight into some interesting aspects of Orin’s character. With Orin being so incredibly hypermasculine, I like the idea of him essentially worshiping at the altar of masculinity and having some very thoroughly shoved down insecurities about needing to be as masculine as possible due to a combination of his naturally enthusiastic and aggressive personality and growing up/living in a society that heavily prioritizes masculinity and sees masculinity ‘tainted’ by anything resembling femininity as not real masculinity (1930s-60s America), and his extreme discomfort with providing sexual pleasure even when the actions that are providing it can also benefit him can be read as a demonstration of this, since the conceptualization of women as being of the gender that is ‘for’ sexual pleasure and men as being of the gender that should receive it exclusively that he would’ve picked up as a significant part of his worldview in this reading would naturally cause him to be viscerally uncomfortable with providing sexual pleasure.

The fact that Arthur is a man compounds this, since gayness and gay sex acts were often seen as feminine at the time. With Seymour, he can pretend to himself that he’s just defending his ‘property’ of his girlfriend who Seymour has a crush on ‘as any man has a right to,’ and Seymour’s reaction of fear helps with this, but Arthur in contrast inadvertently forces him to come face to face with his deeply rooted fear of not being masculine enough instead of being able to mostly shove it down like he normally does by causing him to want to ‘outcompete’ him ‘as a man should’ by torturing him until he no longer derives sexual gratification from it, thus temporarily trapping him in the actions that are bringing up this insecurity for him. Arthur, of course, ‘wins’ by deriving even more sexual gratification from what Orin is doing, thereby eventually forcing him to ‘surrender’ by kicking him out, which he responds to by attempting to frame this ‘surrender’ as him kicking a man who is failing to follow his rules out of ‘his territory’ ‘as a man should’ and then taking his anger out on Seymour/attempting to reestablish his masculinity by conquering another man, which is a great setup for a very tense confrontation between one of the villains and the main protagonist and is very ironic considering that Orin is acting pretty gay as a way of trying to make up for doing something gay.

Plus with Seymour arguably kind of wanting to be Orin in a way in order to be properly masculine for Audrey/so that she’ll want him (as shown by him stating through a metaphor of wanting his Harley machine, a symbol of masculinity, to be like James Dean, a symbol of masculinity, in order to make other men jealous, which again ties into the behavior of outcompeting other men that men were/are expected to do, after seeing him drive off with Audrey on said Harley machine/metaphorically take possession of her due to him being ‘properly masculine’), Orin himself essentially being whipped into a frenzy by those same notions of what is ‘proper’ masculinity and then attempting to torture and maybe even kill him is an excellent metaphor for how destructive that desire of his could end up being and really goes to show that no one wins when it comes to restrictive gender norms, even those who are good at performing them and like them."

Stuilly Propaganda (Abusive Dynamic)

0104 Propaganda (Power Dynamic)

"They're these traumatized kids who are clinging to each other for comfort, but it's not all that healthy. Haruka's looking for a mother figure because his mother neglected him and hated him, Muu's looking for a new friend because her old ones turned on her and bullied her. Haruka does whatever Muu wants him to, he compliments her, he defends her. Muu makes all the decisions for Haruka, she let's him be comfortable and not have to face harsh things, she stays with him always. They give each other themselves for comfort. Now that they've both been given Guilty verdicts (guilty verdicts break the person down mentally and restrain their movements), they're most likely going to have a more turbulent relationship. Milgram fans want to break them up more than anything, but it's the only sense of comfort they have rn."

0909 Propaganda (Selfcest, Questionable Dynamic)

TenRose Propaganda (Age Gap - 10th Doctor is 903 and Rose Tyler is 19, Species Difference - 10th Doctor is a Gallifreyan Time Lord and Rose Tyler is Human)

"Tumblr Classic, if people don't recognise this as big as the Wincest in Round 1 then they're doing Tumblr a disservice"

Thoschei Propaganda (Abusive Dynamic, Obsessive Dynamic)

Tridentariicest Propaganda (Incest, Toxic Dynamic, Body Modification, Codependant)

"Canonically, Coronabeth and Ianthe did not sleep in separate rooms until their early 20s, when one of them was presumed killed and the other drafted into intergalactic genocide on behalf of God.

Ianthe's necromantic specialties in subcutaneous fat and soft tissue suggest that she sculpted her sister's body with magic. Coronabeth is just about the only person from a thanergetic world who looks particularly healthy.

Ianthe spent 20something years keeping up the lie that Coronabeth is also a necromancer.

When Ianthe then kills and eats her cavalier to ascend to Lyctorhold and the sisters' lifelong companion, Naberius, Coronabeth says nobody cares about him and is outraged that Ianthe didn't eat her.

They kiss when they see each other again.

These two need to be with each other as a matter of quarantine."

Stuilly Propaganda (Abusive Dynamic)

Finncest Propaganda (Incest - Technically(?), Selfcest, Toxic Dynamic, Arguably Age Gap - Grass demon is of indeterminate age)

"Finn loves all of his selves, and Fern just wants to be Finn. They should've kissed instead.

Fern's existence as an alternate Finn is tragic to start. He's a time paradox Finn who got trapped in a sword. He was created because Finn took his alternate self for granted and was tricked into stabbing him with a cursed grass sword.

Fern has a body only because of a grass demon. He struggles with finding an identity, because he's supposed to be this big hero just like Finn, but he's a violent little guy who has no qualms about cutting tendons and killing.

Finn says `we're like brothers… Maybe even closer` and almost confesses he has feelings for his frustrated alternate self, but by the time he starts showing it more clearly, Fern has already decided to trap Finn in a dungeon and take over his life.

That's the first time Finn kills Fern.

Fern becomes Finn's evil counterpart and pulls a Green Knight. Finn tried to redeem Fern and succeeds, but then Fern just loses his body until all that's left is a seed.

The seed grows into a replacement of the home they briefly shared — literally, Fern becomes a home for Finn."

"Finn loves every version of himself he meets, but Fern is special. He's a paradox who spent over a year trapped in a sword which got broken traumatically, and was then given a body by a demon who used to be the other Finn's right arm. Fern is constantly measured against Finn and can never measure up, to his ceaseless frustration. But Finn loves him unconditionally. Finn Mertens basically confesses that he loves Fern as something closer than a brother, only to be rejected and betrayed by Fern, who wants to take over Finn's life. This leads to the first time that Finn kills Fern. In the end, though, they face their demons together."

ZADR Propaganda (Toxic Dynamic, Species Difference - Dib is human while Zim is an Irken alien, Age Gap, AdultxMinor - Sort Of)

Zackray Propaganda (MinorxAdult, Toxic Dynamic)

"Ray is a 13-year-old girl who wakes up in a weird building without memories. Oh, there are some weird killers in the building with her too. Zack is one of them and the first time they meet he runs after her with a scythe. Love at first sight <3 (/joke)

At first, her memories return and she remembers why she was in that building in the first place. With her memories back, she becomes apathetic and almost indifferent to everything.

After Zack saves her from a very creepy doctor, she turns to him and asks one thing: `Could you kill me?`. Zack is very confused, but after he realizes that he would never be able to leave the building alone, he offers her a deal. He would only kill her after she helped him leave the building. This is the beginning of their connection.

I can't give too many spoilers, but seriously, they are a duo that subverts all expectations. Although Zack is a cold serial killer and blah blah blah, Rachel can be more cursed and scarier than him. It's really funny that she spends the entire anime begging him to kill her, and his reaction every time is `Wtf is wrong with you`. And yes, Zack may be an adult, but Ray can be more rational than him and is very good at understanding things quickly. She is the one who always finds a way for them to escape the traps of the other killers in the building.

He spends the entire anime asking her to smile, because then he would be more excited about killing her, but every time she tries to smile, he laughs at her and says that her smile is lifeless (and it really is, my poor girl).

At one point in the anime she says that he is her god. It's serious. She even hugs a knife he gave to her very intimately.

He compares her to a doll a few times in the anime. It's so weird and cute <3

They're not canon, but I would argue that the romantic subtext is there. Anyway, they are weird, traumatized people who end up getting very attached to each other."

Family Rentarou Propaganda (Pseudo-Incest - Hakari and Hahari are related, Rentarou dates both. Kusuri and Yaku are related, Rentarou dates them both, Pseudo-Age Gap/Pseudo-Teen x Minor - Kusuri and Yaku both use an immortality potion making them LOOK 8, Rentarou is 16, Incest, MotherxDaughter - Hahari french kissed her daughter Hakari, Age Gap, AdultsxMinor, AdultsxTeen - Yaku is 89 and Hahari is 29 while Rentarou is 16, Nonconsensual Drugging/Nonconsensual Love Potion - Kusuri keeps doing this to Rentarou)

"The God of love in Rentarou's world has legitimately declared these are Rentarou's official soulmates. He is required to date all 100 of these girls. When he even considered cheating as an option, he beat himself up for an entire night before settling on making this a proper polycule circumstance. Even when Hakari's mom enters the polycule, the polycule still keeps going strong! He's the first harem protagonist I've ever seen who says `You know what? Let's try polyamory! That's a way better idea!` and manages it healthily

With the polycule growing strong, with this many girlfriends, you might think that Rentarou would run out of energy or time to care for all of them. He doesn't! When it comes to Hakari and Karane, he manages to please them both despite their clashing deredere and tsundere personalities and jealous attitudes. He gets them to fall in love with not only him, but it's heavily implied also with each other!

When Shizuka - a mute girl - enters the picture, he spends entire days staying up all night to transcribe every word in the book she uses as a talking tool into a proper text to speech app, despite the book not having an App Reader version yet. He even downloaded the app he made to his own phone to show it was safe to her!

He's able to understand Nano's lack of emotions and need to do everything logically, but also able to see the subtleties in her mostly neutral expression and notice when she's enjoying herself. With Kusuri, he tries to both support her endeavour of making weird and new drugs, but ALSO to keep her safe. He does everything he can to keep these girls safe.