i wasn't once known as "a piece of shipping trash" for nothing!

here's a list of ships i like in genshin impact! i'm not usually too picky about dynamics, so the ship names listed are either the most common variant, or just the version i like the sound of better

some of these will link to essays, bc it has just now dawned on me that i can FINALLY archive those here!

for non-shippy essays, click here!

(and for the hater vault, click here!)

i'm aware that ao3 allows for essays and meta as long as they are fannish in nature, but sometimes i bash rival ships in these bc these are mostly being archived from private messages with friends— who obviously have similar opinions to mine (plus, it's healthy to be a little hater sometimes!! as long as it's kept in private)— and if i'm to archive my shipping essays and manifestos to ao3, i'd want to be courteous to my rivals, because shipping is supposed to be something that's fun.
although i know that ao3 is an archive, not a social space, and archives are not places of judgement upon the pieces archived there, i'm also a very active longtime user of the site myself, so publishing a meta essay abt a ship that has ship bashing, even bashing that i agree with, just isn't something that fits into my idea of what kind of place ao3 should be as the major fandom hub it is today.

of course, since this is a personal website, i can be as much of a little hater as i want here >:3c

anyway, these are more or less in order of favor, but if you'd like to know my actual weighted rankings for my fave genshin ships, check out this page about a triangle i invented to more or less evaluate that!

~ *:･ﾟ✧ Xiaoven | 魈溫 ✧･ﾟ:*~

:XiaoDaydream::VentiFlowers:

see overview

aka the otp! :D i honestly kind of haven't stopped thinking abt them since i first fell into genshin hell in june 2021 c': it's about the tensions btwn DUTY and FREEDOM. Brought together by loneliness, for in each other they find home and an equal etc etc. ALSO it's abt the SINNER and the SAVIOR shit, and the way they come to realize they're more similar than they first realized (fuckin MOON/MOON dynamic,,,). It's abt the perception of the self as someone flawed and unworthy of this other person who of course has made mistakes in the past, but underneath is inherently good (yet why can't the other person just see that??)

.｡. :*☆ Ganqing | 刻甘 ☆*: .｡.

:KeqingFlowers:GanyuPlease:

see overview

it is my goal as a fic writer to spread xv propaganda to the gq shippers, and gq propaganda to the xv shippers, because it is honestly a Crime at this point how little fic there exists that doesn't explore their potential parallels. it started off as smth i picked up from a mutual, but then just smth abt the inherent romanticism of the pious servant and the skeptical dissident, united by their mutual love of/loyalty to their home, just suckered me in.

Yantao | 桃緋

:HuTaoPoetry::YanfeiPleased:

see overview

honestly, this mostly started off as just a sort of like "ooo is that the typical ship? okay, seems neat~", n while i do have at least one fic focused Around them (exploring the relationship btwn grief n love, maturity n childishness) in me, i've noticed i like to use them more to contrast w/ships like gq n xv than write them on their own.

Chilumi | タル蛍

:ChildeHehe::LumiMora:

see overview

through a series of Wacky Hijinks™, these guys are actually at direct, traceable fault for all this genshin business! they basically get squatter's rights as a result, but soooo much chlm fic is just not to my tastes at all, and… you know what, i'll just elaborate on this on a page for them

Thomaya | トマ綾

:ThomaHehe::AyakaFan:

see overview

thomaya started off as smth picked up from a mutual, but then through a combination of mixed-race empathy for thoma + "accidental ayaka" copium, they ended up as surprisingly dear to me c': emotional support (bi4bi!!!) m/f couple…

Beiguang | 北光

:BeidouLaugh::NingguangPlan:

see overview

tbh, no matter how much i ~study~ the beiguangs (aka, read beiguang fic + somehow achieve having Cool Beiguang Mutual on tumblr), i never feel like i know them well enough to do them justice in writing ahaha.

other ships that i like and enjoy, but don't typically seek out fic for, in no particular order, include!!

  • clorivia!!
  • zhongchi [now with a guest essay by artemis!]
  • xingyun
  • cynonari
  • bennefischl
  • kazuhei
  • albether
  • eimiko
  • jeanlisa
  • …and probably more that escape my brain at the moment!! :D