Everyone Can Enjoy All Ships That They Like - Tumblr Posts

I really like your theories! I shared a couple with a friend and we discussed them till 3 am. They were that good haha. Anyway, I would like to ask what is your opinion on the differents ships the fandom has (always in a platonic way, of course), and if you believe we ever going to get some sort of confirmation. Oh! And you think RayxEmma has any chance? I'm crossing fingers xD Thank you for your hard work!

Thank you very much! I am always really happy to hear that my theories and metas inspire others to think more deeply about TPN! I think that this is such an amazing series!

In terms of shipping, first and foremost I think:

Everyone should be allowed to enjoy the ships that they like

I am really against shipping wars, I don’t think there is any reason to attack anyone based on their shipping preferences. So in my opinion, all ships are valid.

In terms of likelihood of ships becoming canon, I think there are some analyses you can do to try to figure out what the authors may intend to do.

I think Shirai and Posuka are both very consistent and logical in their story writing, so if they intend to confirm any ships, they would lay hints in the story for them.

So in that sense I do want to point out the contrast we see between how they portray the relationship between Ray and Emma vs Norman and Emna.

Out of these three, we only have verbal confirmation about Norman’s romantic feelings towards Emma.

For Ray and Emma, we need to rely on body language and visual portrayal if we want try to infer the author’s intent on their feelings.

So let’s compare two iconic scenes that are parallel situations, but framed completely differently.

In both scenes, Emma is injured, and comforted by someone holding her hand at her bedside.

In the first scene, we see a private moment between Emma and Norman only. This looks like an intimate moment that a couple may share.

In the second scene, we see the whole family surrounding Emma and Ray. This looks like a family moment.

I think the difference in framing is very intentional. There is every reason for all the kids to worry as well about Emma in the first scene as well, but the authors still chose to show a private, rather than a family moment in that case.

There is also a distinct difference between the way Ray and Norman touches Emma in more recent scenes, once they are older.

Both of them are very close to her, and both care deeply about her, yet their body language is shown as very different.

We know that Norman has romantic feelings for Emma, so the way he touches Emma reflects that, and he touches her intimately by cupping her face tenderly, or holding her hands gingerly. These are not touches that would be done between people who viewed each other as siblings.

The way Ray touches Emma is also with familiarity, but all his touches would be acceptable between siblings who are close. Sibling love is also important, but it’s a different sort of love to a romantic one.

In terms of how Emma feels, we have other clues as well. When she talks about Norman, there are shojou bubbles around her, implying that she has some softer than usual feelings. We don’t see anything like that when she talks about anyone else.

Plus when Emma almost dies at Goldy Pond, she sees Norman in the depth of her subconscious, and he is shown again to touch her very tenderly even IN HER IMAGINATION. I think it’s very significant that her subconscious imagines Norman tenderly holding her hands, and I think it heavily implies that she has some special feelings for him that she is not aware of consciously.

The final nail in the coffin, so to speak, in my opinion is this image in chapter 128 that looks exsctly like a stock wedding art I grabbed off google.

Even if you don’t take it as a clever way to foreshadow a Noremma wedding in the future, the message is clear: Ray only holds the shoulders of Norman and Emma, like a sibling would, but Emma and Norman hold hands like couples would.

In terms of Ray ships, the one I find interesting is Ray x Anna. My reasoning is that if my Peter Pan reference theory is correct, they are both a reference to the same character, but just two sides of the same coin.

That seems very poetic to me, although I think atm Anna is still too young for a Ray x Anna to be developing, but it may be a ship that gets confirmed in an epilogue in my opinion. Plus both of them are very private people, so I doubt their pda would be shown onscreen unlike Norman and Emma who just keep being very obvious about it.

As a bonus point, I think Ray took notice of Anna in a different light for the first time when she sacrificed her hair for his sake. I think that’s a good basis to have things later develop from, as I doubt Ray would ever forget that. He seemed super shocked and touched she would do that for him.