Putting aside Crystal’s abysmal handling of the ships and complaints of heteronormativity and forced “pair the spares” concept to begin with. I think the reason why Senshi/Shittenou seems to especially ring hollow for a lot of the fandom is because this shipping concept only exists in the Manga/Crystal - aka the version where the Shittenou are barely even characters in their own right and just exist to be Mamoru’s accessories.
Like it’d be one thing if those boys were well-developed characters like in the 90’s anime who you can imagine the many different ways they can bounce off the Inners but no… they’re literally just Mamoru’s accessory boyband.
Like only Manga Kunzite has any *semblance* of a personality (which I think is another reason I do ship Venus/Kunzite but not any of the others) and even then it’s still not as developed as either 90’s anime or PGSM Kunzite.
All those well-fleshed out Sen/Shi fics you see in fandom is relying on pure headcanon and is pairing the Inners with glorified OCs. You’re essentially shipping the girls with literal-who’s.
Like it’d be one thing if those boys were well-developed characters like in the 90’s anime who you can imagine the many different ways they can bounce off the Inners but no… they’re literally just Mamoru’s accessory boyband.
Like only Manga Kunzite has any *semblance* of a personality (which I think is another reason I do ship Venus/Kunzite but not any of the others) and even then it’s still not as developed as either 90’s anime or PGSM Kunzite.
All those well-fleshed out Sen/Shi fics you see in fandom is relying on pure headcanon and is pairing the Inners with glorified OCs. You’re essentially shipping the girls with literal-who’s.
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