And while I was typing up the response below, this came in:
Juliatina is certainly a great lesbian ship but they’re not yet at the level of Flozmen, they went from friends, to lovers, to wives, to mothers, and literally dealt with every real life situation relationships go through. So I’d say Juliatina has the potential to be one of the great lesbian love stories, but they have a lot to live up to for that title. Btw if anyone hasn’t seen Florencia and Jazmin’s relationship I’d suggest watching it, hands down the best f/f ship in recent years.
And if I said sure, would I get someone else in here about Vanity or Luisita/Amelia (you know what you did, Kana and Berena >_>)? 😛
To get serious for a moment, what’re we talking about here, screentime? Central characters? Main plot involvement?
You might notice that when I talk about things I like, I usually frame them as how they affect me personally (”I loved this!” “this was so great to see”) and even when I do veer into stronger statements, I’ll go with something like “one of the best” or “among the most romantic that I’ve seen”. Because ultimately, how these stories affect us is far more important than any kind of arbitrary rating scale. And a whoooole bunch of things go into that.
I can’t judge how other people will react to things I like. In fact, how often do I actually make recommendations? Almost never, right, I just gif things and people can decide if they want to watch (the lawyers say it’s better that way). Part of that is definitely the risk that comes with f/f ships but I really just don’t want to make assumptions on other people’s tastes.
What if I were to say, the best f/f ship in recent times was…Killjoys’ Aneela/Delle Seyah? It doesn’t hit almost any of the qualities we’d list for The Best Ship but god, I love them and they hit my feelings in a way a lot of highly regarded ships don’t. In that list above of what makes a good ship, like screentime and central focus, I deliberately didn’t include qualities like realism, the level of relationship progression, or how healthy it is. Are those all absolutely needed? Would Villanelle/Eve or Catradora never be allowed in these discussions even if they went canon?
Basically, let’s not focus on what is the best, which can only be one, and just on what we really like. The anon who sent the ask about Juliantina was of course making a sweeping statement but let her have it. Isn’t it better to have so many ships we all like so passionately?