question! why does funnybunny appeal to you? for me, i really enjoy how they balance each other out; jax gets pomni out of her comfort zone and encourages her to have fun, and pomni helps show him that being vulnerable, though scary, can be its own reward. she's also there to tug on his metaphorical (and sometimes literal Heh) leash when he goes too far, but it's important to me that this isn't an obligation for her and rather a deliberate choice she makes each time. she's Very patient but her patience isn't infinite. i like when jax is aware of this and eventually, when he finally admits to himself that he doesn't want to lose her, is kept in line by that fact alone.
this dynamic is why i find them so appealing from a dom/sub perspective as well. that's not a Requirement for me to enjoy a ship but it definitely helps :)
also love the new header LMAO
Firstly, everything you said. The whole thing.
Secondly, it just hits all my favorites. Tiny exhausted office worker meets profoundly messy, record-breakingly repressed nihilist and says "actually, fuck you, stuff matters" so hard that she calls out their self-image and gnaws on their leg? Confident and not worried about being cool meets trying way too hard to keep up an image? Small butch dom, tall femme sub? (Subject to interpretation ehehe) I'm there, I'm in the room, I'm sat.
I think what really rules about their dynamic in canon is that they're each other's catalysts for change in a world that engenders stagnancy. They're each the unstoppable force to the other's immovable object, and that's the kind of character-driven narrative writing I could just stick a straw in and slurp up. I loved Pomni from the beginning, and sat there feeling pretty neutral towards Jax for the first few episodes thinking, "okay, you're trying so hard to seem flat and one-note, when does the shoe drop?"
Episode 6 changed the game for me completely. When they're working together, they're so much fun to watch, and when they're butting heads, it brings out the coolest parts of each character. I distinctly remember going from episode 5 thinking "Oh, their dynamic is really growing on me. I like it platonically, but I see why people ship it." And then episode 6 dropped and I was surfing the funnybunny tag aaall night.
That being said, if I came for the canon, I stayed for the fanon. I got really attached to the ship because I fell in love with the way people connected with Jax's potential for vulnerability. There's also stuff that appeals to my personal lil preference--a ship that's F/M (well, so we thought :) ) where everyone almost unanimously reads the woman as not only the dom, but also masc and often unserious is just my flavor.
From a D/s or even romance perspective, it is that "deliberate choice" of it all that you mention that really made them something I want to write about. Jax isn't soft with Pomni because he's just "like that," he GETS to choose to be soft because she makes that softness feel safe, even if it takes a shitton of work. Pomni isn't patient with Jax out of obligation, she GETS to be patient because he decides to put in the work to receive patience and prove to her that her efforts will pay off. It just goes back to "fuck you, stuff matters." Intimacy in any shape requires work. The powerful force of choosing to let the bonds you hold dearly shape you and prove to you that something matters is the most compelling question TADC asks, in my opinion.
I dunno, man. They're just neat. Pomni's a flavor of emotionally mature that I feel leading women don't often get to be. Jax is so unapologetically messy in a way I have been LONGING to see in queer art especially. The depth and humanity of these two just kicks ass and I love gettin' to pick 'em up and make 'em kiss or bully each other do kinky shit or whatever. Yeehaw toxic yuri.
And thank you for noticing the header, it's my magnum opus and I fear I've peaked