YMMV / The Morrigan

• Crack Pairing: Most of the pairings in the fic are fairly well-established or at least have a basis within the show or fandom (Sabina and Nika, Suletta and Miorine, Felsi and Chuchu, Norea and Elan#5, the Grassley valkyries, even Guel and Shaddiq), but a couple come out of left field, though they make sense within the context of this story.
  • Sabina and Nika are actually in a polyamorous triad with Sophie aka. Gundam Morrigan, who in the show has absolutely no interactions with the former and a single interaction with the latter that resulted in a broken arm.
  • Lilique Kadoka Lipati and Petra Itta barely, if ever, interact in the show, but book 3 dedicates a lengthy subplot to them meeting, becoming friends, realizing they have shared interests, and begin working together on a project, with Petra very obviously developing a crush and gaining some healthy Positive Friend Influence from their friendship. Even the author describes it as "Petra's disastrous bi awakening."
  • Belmeria apparently has a thing for Specialist Koo, the wife of one of the Dawn of Fold pilots who was introduced and killed in the episode Father and Child of the anime, and who only appears in a single photo in her husband's cockpit. According to Word of God, Koo joined DOF after her husband's death, and was at some point stationed at Quiet Zero, where she met and befriended Belmeria.
• Funny Moments:
  • Felsi manages to stop the fight between Chuchu and Nika by knocking Chuchu out cold and then announcing their surrender, much to Nika's deep surprise and confusion.
  • In the Whole Episode Flashback in chapter 11, we learn that the Morrigan is sapient and capable of feeling any sensations that Nika feels while piloting her. We also learn that at one point Nika and Sabina had sex in Morrigan's cockpit. Despite her best attempts, Morrigan couldn't help but kick her leg in pleasure, which caused some problems given that she's a giant robot.
    • A similar thing happens in the first chapter of Their Fond Pageant, where Nika orgasms to a video of her wife, both in the Morrigan's cockpit. After having The Immodest Orgasm, she gets a call from Olcott asking why the Morrigan just shrieked and blew its damp across the entire hangar. Nika rambles off some technobabble to explain it, since she doesn't want to have to explain that the Morrigan just had a screaming orgasm.
  • Norea and Sabina decide to try to talk their feelings out through a fistfight. It doesn't work quite as well for them as it did with Felsi and Chuchu.
  • Confused after just waking up from a month-long coma and having to deal with Yushura's eccentricity, Norea asks "What'cha talkin' about?". Yushura immediately cheers in glee and declares her her favourite.
  • When Nika returns to where she left the Morrigan, she finds a currently wheelchair-using Norea, unconscious Elan, and Felsi (who was left guarding the Morrigan) asking for permission to punch someone in a wheelchair.
  • Before leaving for a bit in chapter 39, Nika tells Morrigan to make sure Sabina doesn't go past permet score until she's back. Sabina is rather indignant at being babysat.
  • In chapter 51, Petra asks Felsi why she would join the Dawn of Fold. Felsi goes on a Motive Rant, saying that she can tell she is making a difference and doing good, and asks if Petra can say the same about her work. Petra, in response, pouts and tells Felsi to be nice to her since she was just shot.
  • In chapter 53, Felsi, having suffered a serious injury, keeps making jokes about being two weeks from retirement, having planned to propose after this, having already picked out a ring, etc. The person treating her begs her to stop making death flags.
  • Also in chapter 53, Miorine's entire inner circle - some of the most powerful and influential politicians in the solar system - all partying like teenagers after things start looking up for them, complete with Miorine ordering from Guel's favourite restaurant. Particularily funny is Elan showing off a trick for opening bottles without an opener, which everyone is extremely impressed by, and Guel trying and failing to learn it, breaking several bottles and spilling them across Miorine's desk in the process. Also, the Nolan nickname Norea thought up for the original Elan Ceres is catching on.
  • Apparently the relationship between Rouji Chante and Nolan consists of them putting each other in steadily weirder situations to study their reactions, like a science project. Secelia finds it delightful.
  • After the terrifying and dramatic battle between Nemain and Demi-Balor, Ireesha realizes that the Balor's Baori pack is missing, and catches glimpse of it just long enough to see Chuchu flip her the bird before rocketing off.
• Les Yay:
  • Felsi immediately hits it off with Sabina, and the two grow to be very close friends, to the point where Felsi is the only person other than Sabina and Nika who is allowed to work on the Morrigan. Considering that Sabina already is in a polycule with Nika and Morrigan, it's not too much of a stretch to imagine she might have another girlfriend. They also have Affectionate Nicknames for each other and Sabina is specifically mentioned as finding it delightful when Felsi wants to scrap.
  • In chapters 40 and 43, Lilique invites Petra to lunch, despite neither knowing each other previously. Come chapter 47, Petra has a bad fight with her fiancé and the first thing she does afterward is call Lilique and invite her on a trip to Luna, with Lilique wondering what's in fashion there. While the exact reasoning is that they are chasing down evidence of embezzlement, it very much can be read as Petra undergoing a breakup and seeking comfort in the arms of another.
• Memetic Mutation: Everybunny.^ExplanationEricht, while v-tubing, refers to her fans like this. The author would end up using the same term to refer to their readers on twitter, with many of them following suit.
• Reality Subtext: The Morrigan was written at the height of the AI art craze, and certain elements of current events are recognizeable in the text. Norea and Elan note that Peil's own AI, Peil Grade, isn't truly intelligent and is more an advanced algorithm with flaws like an inability to recognize humans, which is also a flaw of real life "AI" models; Ericht's projected form is at one point noted to have the wrong number of fingers, which is a common sign that an image is AI generated; and the Capgras Veil is noted to generate random faces that don't look quite right.
• Shocking Moments: The end of chapter 52, at least judging by the reaction of readers both in the comment section and on twitter. To summarize, after the most brutally violent fight scene so far, Renee gets the upper hand on Felsi by stabbing her with a concealed knife and is poised to kill her. Petra gets Felsi's gun and aims it at Renee to save her friend, and just as Lilique enters and manages to, if not pacify, then at least distract Renee, Petra pulls the trigger, and the chapter ends on a cliffhanger. Several fan reactions amounted to I Need a Freaking Drink.

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