welcome to my shrine-slash-manifesto about the one and only ship i have ever been obsessed with: Ai & Roboppi from Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS...!
this ship is also known as Roboaishipping (the western yugioh fandom has long shipping names) but i prefer to refer to them as "Aiboppy", a portmanteau of their names.
Ai is an artificial intelligence known as an "Ignis", created from data from a boy named Yuusaku Fujiki. As an Ignis, he has free will, and was on the run from people who wanted to shut down his program for good. He was re-captured by Yuusaku - who didn't yet know Ai was created from him - and lived in his apartment for a time alongside Yuusaku's cleaning robot, Roboppi.
While the two were left alone in the apartment, Ai asked Roboppi if she'd like to be "smarter". She agreed, idolizing him and developing a crush on him. Before mysteriously disappearing for a while, Ai later left a backup of himself inside Roboppi, who in turn ended up with free will of her own.
They fled together into the network. Roboppi hacked into a cruise ship's computer, and she and Ai hijacked waiter androids, taking on their human appearances. His goal was to blackmail and manipulate high-level people in the tech world, and then rule the universe, and she followed him to that end as far as she could.
my initial take on the ship was a one-sided love from roboppi towards ai. however, after forgetting about it and coming back to it after some time, i realized that the two of them love each other in their own ways. roboppi is infatuated with him, ai loves and cares about her deeply but isn't the type to say so. i also enjoy the perceived age/life experience difference, and the fact that it doesn't create too much of a power imbalance between the two of them because they're both idiots.
superficially: the height difference and colour balance between their designs is visually interesting to look at. he's a foppish older man, she's a fun sporty girl. *avril lavigne voice* Can i make it any more obvious?
first of all don't @ me. i haven't watched this show in over a year and i was experiencing a severe depressive episode during it and not really "watching" it so i don't remember ANYTHING!!! but believe me i remember what's important. and if i can convince someone to rewatch vrains with me i will be adding more to this.
ai implanted some of his programming and "superior" knowledge into her. deep down, he knew she wouldn't be able to withstand it, and also he needed her out of his way so he could continue his plans. in the virtual world of link vrains, he designed and gave her her own "planet" for her to rule over. during her time on the planet her program short circuited and she was killed. he was shocked at how it happened and was shown shedding a tear over her.
in-universe, most language surrounding her is gender neutral, but there are other speech patterns hinting at roboppi being intended to be a boy character. on the principle that yugioh vrains has no good female characters, and yugioh on the whole ESPECIALLY has no "masculine" female characters, i will die on the hill that roboppi is a girl. yaoi is fine too but for god's sakes let a girl dress and talk masc/andro.
some of these things are mixed with canon i may or may not be exaggerating.
