once this page is added to my site on the 30th of september 2023, that officially marks 3 years that i've been a fan of sordward and shielbert! so i wanted to make a fun little page celebrating and rambling about my thoughts. sorry that it's a bit plain, i basically just reused the code from my page about my yumeship with nessa.

i first played pokemon sword and shield in early 2020, and honestly? i don't remember what i thought of the twins at the time. i didn't have this intense hatred most people seemed to have towards them, i just kinda didn't care...but that changed in september of 2020, when i thought to myself "hey you know what? these guys are actually kinda silly i like them a lot" and the rest is history! i class this as my anniversary with them since i was kind of insane about them from that point onwards.

my initial insanity about them was kinda short-lived, with it dying down sometime in early 2021, but it would eventually come back so much stronger in late 2021, when my friend brought them up in a conversation about one of my ocs, and i was reminded of just how much i loved them. funnily enough i've always been slightly biased towards sordward as much as i don't like to admit it, but for a period of around half a year after this i almost EXCLUSIVELY drew shielbert because i had gotten really invested in a ship involving him.

at this time, i did have a ship invovling sordward, but i was mostly too embarrassed to post about it. i'm a very open sordward x sonia shipper now, but that wasn't always the case, largely due to how personal the ship was to me. in a way as much as i love sordsoni as sordsoni i also like it in a way of viewing it as me x sordward. but don't get me wrong, i still loved and talked about sordward a lot, honestly arguably more than i did shielbert.

2022 was a really hard year from me from start to finish, and these two honestly helped me a lot. there were so many times during that period i just thought about giving up, and i found myself seeking comfort through these characters, and it helped far more than you'd think it would. honestly at one point i was in the habit of just saying "sordward wouldn't want this for me" to myself everytime something bad happened or i felt bad, and as dumb as it was it helped. they're really near and dear to my heart, and even if a lot of people are unnecessarily mean or cruel to them(or even in some cases cruel to me for liking them), i'm happy with them and that's all that matters. i'm someone who cares a lot about what people think of me, and it's something i've been trying for a long time to break out of, and above all i know that they woulnd't want me to take others opinions of me to heart too much.

and as for where we stand now...i'm still in a pretty bad place in life, but i know things will be okay as long as i have them by my side in my thoughts. i know at this point that whatever challenges come my way i'm going to manage to get through them, and that i'll be able to think about and talk about them for support. i'm very open and proud about my canonxcanon ships with them and also my own relationship with them now and i'm really happier than ever. i think i fall in love with these characters more everyday.

they may not have the biggest fanbase, but sordward and shielbert have some of the most dedicated and talented fans i've ever seen around any pokemon characters, and honestly i'm honoured to be able to consider myself a fan of them among such talented people, even if i'm in a stage in life where i highly doubt i'll ever be at an equal level. it makes me really happy to see people love them, and that people have loved them for so long. i'm happy to have loved them for so long, and i want to keep loving them next year and the year after that.

so happy anniversary to me and my two guys!