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Do you remember when Akuroku was a thing?



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Beyond

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Please, don't take this thread as a serious one.
I was thinking: do you remember when - back in 2006-2010 - Akuroku was a thing? A really huge one?
Even back than I wondered why it was so popular, Lol.
So I want to ask YOU this question (why was so popular?) and a second one: why is totally dead these days?
Even RokuNami (is this the correct name?) was another huge ship and today a total dead one, but at least than one made sense back in the days.
It's weird if you think about it, but the only ones that have really survived are the oldest of them all: Sora/Kairi and Sora/Riku (this in particular is the only one I ever cared about since forever).

Now, as I said, this is not a serious thread: I was just taking a dip in the memories and I wanted to get you involve. Lol.
 

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Sephiroth0812

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I'm someone who's completely disinterested in the whole shipping stuff but the main answer to the question why "AkuRoku" is totally dead (well not totally, but certainly quite diminished) nowadays is because times have changed and many more people became aware of the great power imbalance between Axel and Roxas when it comes to life experience and capacity to properly consent to all the "stuff" the whole shipping issues often entail.

358/2 Days showing Axel in a mentor-role and practically teaching Roxas about everything (since he had no memories at all at first) made that power imbalance even more blatant as well as Axel constantly lying to Roxas leaving another sour note.

Another factor would probably be the age gap as Axel/Lea is around the age range 23 to 24 while Roxas is 14/15 physically and less than 1 chronologically.
A ten year age gap isn't necessarily a problem when the younger partner is in the early twenties and while in many countries the age of consent is around 14 to 16 it is still squicky and a big no for many people.

Then there's of course also the fact that many more age-appropriate options to ship Roxas with became available the longer the series went both for straight and other gay options.
 

Absent

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Oh boy. 2005 to 2009 was a dark age and a renaissance at the same time. Akuroku was THE flagship, you couldn't escape it. How quickly it all changed, but hey Rome did fall in one day.

Who else remembers Roxel?
 

Oracle Spockanort

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Oh boy. 2005 to 2009 was a dark age and a renaissance at the same time. Akuroku was THE flagship, you couldn't escape it. How quickly it all changed, but hey Rome did fall in one day.

Who else remembers Roxel?

ROXEL. Why did you have to mention that hahaha

Akuroku was huge prior to people finding out Axel was like 10 years older than Roxas (physically, we aren’t even going to talk about Roxas being like one or whatever lol)

It’s still popular in some circles, but they generally stay quiet now that it’s considered a problematic ship (it always was but it was negligible when Axel didn’t have a distinctive age assigned to him)
 

Picklepaige

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I think a lot of people (me, for starters) shipped it when they were younger. Now that we've grown up, it's pretty squicky, and I'm pretty sure Lea/Isa is what a lot of AkuRoku shippers moved onto.

It was a cute ship when we were Roxas's age. It's creepy now that we're Lea's age.
 
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I'm someone who's completely disinterested in the whole shipping stuff but the main answer to the question why "AkuRoku" is totally dead (well not totally, but certainly quite diminished) nowadays is because times have changed and many more people became aware of the great power imbalance between Axel and Roxas when it comes to life experience and capacity to properly consent to all the "stuff" the whole shipping issues often entail.

358/2 Days showing Axel in a mentor-role and practically teaching Roxas about everything (since he had no memories at all at first) made that power imbalance even more blatant as well as Axel constantly lying to Roxas leaving another sour note.

Another factor would probably be the age gap as Axel/Lea is around the age range 23 to 24 while Roxas is 14/15 physically and less than 1 chronologically.
A ten year age gap isn't necessarily a problem when the younger partner is in the early twenties and while in many countries the age of consent is around 14 to 16 it is still squicky and a big no for many people.

Then there's of course also the fact that many more age-appropriate options to ship Roxas with became available the longer the series went both for straight and other gay options.
Another factor to its diminishing popularity is that people gravitated more to seeing Axel as Roxas and Xion's adoptive dad instead of "Yeah totally Roxas's boyfriend"
 

Elysium

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The best answer is that most people didn't see Axel as being that old until Nomura needed to date him much older to justify his appearance in BbS. I'd have guessed he was around 21 back when KH2 was the latest game in the franchise.

Admittedly, he came across much older than Sora and Namine in CoM, but KH2's interpretation of the character always felt like a rewrite compared to the character we met in CoM and comes across more young in 2 (plus many of the fans never played GBA CoM back then anyway...).
 

rokudamia2

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As others have said it was big for about 5 years until Days and BBS revealed the huge age gap between the two. Its It's probably why TerraVen never really took off, Plus LeaIsa became popular right around the same time.
 

Sephiroth0812

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Its It's probably why TerraVen never really took off, Plus LeaIsa became popular right around the same time.

Which is somewhat ironic considering that the age gap between Terra and Ven is supposed to be "just" three years (16 to 19) compared to the 9/10 years between Axel and Roxas.
But we got the official ages of the BBs crew when? About two years ago or somethin' while BBS is already what? Eight years old?

From what I've seen on the net both TerraVen and AquaVen have their following, but these ships never gained notoriety like "AkuRoku" while their shippers do not tend to be very loud nor are they as widespread as TerraAqua, probably because most fans see Ven as a younger sibling of them instead of a possible "romantic" shipping candidate.

Lea/Isa became indeed a thing the moment BBS introduced them, not to mention that when it comes to Roxas there was always competition on the "shipping market".
First Naminé and to lesser extends Olette and Hayner, sometimes even Cifer, Riku or Sora, later of course Xion became another contender.
And with possibly the exception of Cifer all these characters tend to be closer to Roxas' age range.
 

rokudamia2

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Which is somewhat ironic considering that the age gap between Terra and Ven is supposed to be "just" three years (16 to 19) compared to the 9/10 years between Axel and Roxas.
But we got the official ages of the BBs crew when? About two years ago or somethin' while BBS is already what? Eight years old?

From what I've seen on the net both TerraVen and AquaVen have their following, but these ships never gained notoriety like "AkuRoku" while their shippers do not tend to be very loud nor are they as widespread as TerraAqua, probably because most fans see Ven as a younger sibling of them instead of a possible "romantic" shipping candidate.

Lea/Isa became indeed a thing the moment BBS introduced them, not to mention that when it comes to Roxas there was always competition on the "shipping market".
First Naminé and to lesser extends Olette and Hayner, sometimes even Cifer, Riku or Sora, later of course Xion became another contender.
And with possibly the exception of Cifer all these characters tend to be closer to Roxas' age range.
I was going to mention the fact that there is only a four year age gap between terra and ven but, decided against it mostly due to the fact it might have come off as me defending adult/teenage ships. It might have also not have taken off due to Aqua becoming incredibly popular and her most popular ship is with terra.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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TerraVen not taking off, besides the fact that people thought Terra was actually in his early 20s and not 19 (even then it’s still an adult/teen) was mainly due to the clear line the series drew with them. They are very brotherly. Ven was child-like and treated accordingly by Terra, Aqua, and Eraqus.

This is similar to the power imbalance that existed between Axel and Roxas in Days. Terra was a mentor and a brotherly figure that taught Ven how to be a person alongside Aqua, Ven’s sisterly figure.

(although BBS makes Aqua and Terra more like the feuding mom and dad type with Ven being the child stuck in the middle at times lol)

Also nobody cares about Terra (a god damn crime bc he’s great) so in general he isn’t shipped with anybody except Aqua because there are a lot of compelling themes and dynamics to work off of there.

In comparison to TerraVen, Akuroku didn’t have the clearest boundaries set until Days, almost four years after KH2’s initial release. That gave the fans time to build up all sorts of stories about their relationship prior to KH2. Then everybody found out Roxas was baby and not some instant badass like we were all led to believe by KH2’s flashbacks, and Axel was a mid/late 20s reluctant babysitter turned cool brother turned worrywart.
 

kirabook

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After KH3, Terra has a lot of new fans/appreciators, but yeah. There aren't too many BbS ships. TerraAqua sorta, but I don't see it around much. There's a handful of people on Tumblr that are REALLY into Aqua x Vanitas though. (which also makes me uncomfortable for multiple reasons)
 

Hedginka

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Akuroku's still a thing, it just isn't the unstoppable monster that spawned more fanfics than any other video game pairing at one point. While I've never shipped it, I do roll my eyes at the idea that it's now looked at by many as a pedophilia enabling ship, because somehow, despite how long shipping's been a thing for, people just haven't learned to accept peoples headcanons and fantasies.

Rokunami's kind of dropped off in a similar fashion. As someone who thinks 2006-2010 was the greatest time for the KH fanbase, I kind of pity shippers for both of those pairings. It's like watching something magnificent get slowly erased by time. It's saddening.

As for TerraVen, I don't care what Tetsuya says out of nowhere, Ventus is not 16. That means he's the same age as both Princess Aurora and KH2 Riku. No. Not a chance. As far as I'm concerned, Ventus is 15 at the very most.

Also, while neither are great, I still think Axel/Roxas is a 732 billion times better than Lea/Isa. Yeah.
 
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sephydark

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While I've never shipped it, I do roll my eyes at the idea that it's now looked at by many as a pedophilia enabling ship, because somehow, despite how long shipping's been a thing for, people just haven't learned to accept peoples headcanons and fantasies.
I'm not int the ship either, but this sort of thing really frustrates me about fandom these days. Shipping doesn't have to be based on whether the relationship would be good or moral in real life, people can like ships for all sorts of reasons.

That said, I think Akuroku would have died off a good bit after Days and BBS regardless, since a lot of new people would be taking those into account and not becoming interested in the ship, while old shippers moved on to other things.
 

AdrianXXII

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I'm not int the ship either, but this sort of thing really frustrates me about fandom these days. Shipping doesn't have to be based on whether the relationship would be good or moral in real life, people can like ships for all sorts of reasons.

That said, I think Akuroku would have died off a good bit after Days and BBS regardless, since a lot of new people would be taking those into account and not becoming interested in the ship, while old shippers moved on to other things.
In a perfect world I would agree, and just say people should just enjoy what they like, it's not hurting anyone.

But hearing people, who ship Harley Quinn and the Joker say they want a relationship just like that, has made it clear to me that it's important to at least point out that a relationship isn't a healthy one. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy them, but it's important that people know this isn't a type of relationship you should strive for.

Fantasy, fiction and fandom are great places to explore stuff not suited for real life, but it can also effect what some view as normal.
 

rokudamia2

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In a perfect world I would agree, and just say people should just enjoy what they like, it's not hurting anyone.

But hearing people, who ship Harley Quinn and the Joker say they want a relationship just like that, has made it clear to me that it's important to at least point out that a relationship isn't a healthy one. That doesn't mean you can't enjoy them, but it's important that people know this isn't a type of relationship you should strive for.

Fantasy, fiction and fandom are great places to explore stuff not suited for real life, but it can also effect what some view as normal.

It doesn't help DC/WB still puts out Joker/Harley merchandise despite most stories showing Joker to be verbally, emotionally, and physically abusive.

Say what you will about SoRiku and SoKai but at least there's not an age gap or a difference in power dynamics
 
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redcrown

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Is anyone ever going to explain why it was called Akuroku? Most ships have names that make sense, half of each characters names combined. What is Aku and Roku?

I was never into it personally since even in KH2 it was obvious Axel was quite a few years older, early to mid twenties. I didn't think it was a mentor older/younger brother type of relationship either, but I prefer not to think of Days as being canon in general.
 

Oracle Spockanort

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Is anyone ever going to explain why it was called Akuroku? Most ships have names that make sense, half of each characters names combined. What is Aku and Roku?

I was never into it personally since even in KH2 it was obvious Axel was quite a few years older, early to mid twenties. I didn't think it was a mentor older/younger brother type of relationship either, but I prefer not to think of Days as being canon in general.

アクセル akuseru is how you say Axel in Japanese
ロクサス rokusasu is how you say Roxas in Japanese

AkuRoku
 
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