Axel/Ripper

Axel/Ripper, known mostly as Ripaxel, is a semi-popular pairing within Total Drama fandom. The ship is between Axel and Ripper. It has been shipped since 2023, becoming canon later that year, and is the most common pairing for both characters, ahead of Axel/Nichelle and Chase/Ripper.
==Common Tropes==
* Enemies to Lovers - Canonically it happened that in TDI2023, Axel and Ripper were rivals in episode 2, in TDI2024, Ripper falls in love with Axel and thanks to a poem, she reciprocates his feelings and they become a couple.
*Height Difference - Ripper is slightly taller than Axel.
*Axel/Ripper and Caleb/Priya both became canonical in season two and may be seen as sister ships.
*Axel/Ripper is often a background pairing in fanworks which feature them or otherwise only there to keep with canon.
==Axel/Ripper Fandom==
At first, the fanbase was small and it was a niche ship, apart from being overshadowed by Axel/Nichelle and Chase/Ripper, when the ship was canon in Total Drama Island (2024) the fanbase began to increase enough to displace to the aforementioned ships as the most popular ship between both characters.
When it became canon, some fans felt it made Axel out of character (18 June 2024) and made a butch-adjacent character straightnot elaborated here because this deals with how Axel's characterized on the show, but there's many articles, research papers, and online discussion about this subject if you want to learn more. Many circles of the fandom were/are hostile to Axel/Ripper shippers (06 December 2023), while others were hostile to the other two ships because they weren't canon, especially on TikTok back when the season premiered (06 December 2023). The ship is also often compared to previous Total Drama pairings such as Emma/Noah (because they both involve a queercoded/headcanoned as queer character in a Het ship (04 December 2023) (06 December 2023)) and Courtney/Duncan (06 December 2023), both positively and negatively.
LylerLoverhttps://archiveofourown.org/users/LylerLover/pseuds/LylerLover has written many fanfics for the pairing.
==Example/Notable Fanac==
=== Fan Fic ===
* (2023), Axel feels like she needs to talk to Ripper about their relationship. She decides 1 AM would be a good time to do so.
* (2024), Wayne and Axel find out that Ripper cooks. From then on, many moments ensue. And hey, maybe a little growth along the way. :)
* (2024), Something’s wrong and Axel can’t figure out for the life of her what. When she finally learns what it is, she feels something she’s never really felt before: fear. Finding out was hard enough, but now she has to tell Ripper.
* (2023), Just a small telling of what I think happened after Axel and Ripper’s elimination, as well as a small dive into their insecurities, struggles, and emotions.
* (2023), MASSIVE SPOILERS FOR EPISODE 7!!!After Ripper nearly drowns after their elimination, Axel starts to let down her walls.
* (2024), Hiya! This is a little companion piece to Hanging Axe. It's a scene that I wanted to include but couldn't find the right place for. I highly recommend checking out Hanging Axe before reading this, otherwise you'll be a little lost. Enjoy!
* (2024), Axel hates all those fancy events where you have to dress up and have a date, but when Axel gets convinced to bring Ripper maybe it will be better. Hell it is her senior year, and they have been going strong for over half a year.
* (2023), Ripaxel Meet-Cute for my friend and I’s D&D AU.
=== Meta ===
* (2024)
== Notes ==
==References/Further Reading==
* on Shipping Wiki
* on Total Drama Wiki
Category:Total Drama Het Pairings
Category:Interracial Pairings
Category:Total Drama Relationships