Hobie Brown/Pavitr Prabhakar
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Pavitr Prabhakar/Hobie Brown |
| Alternative name(s): | Chaipunk, Punkchai, Goldenpunk |
| Gender category: | Slash |
| Fandom: | Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Verse |
| Canonical?: | No |
| Prevalence: | moderate |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Hobie Brown/Pavitr Prabhakar, also known by the portmanteau shipnames Goldenpunk and Chaipunk, is the slash pairing between Hobie Brown and Pavitr Prabhakar from Across the Spider-Verse. However, other versions of the pair are shipped together from other different media, such as the Spider-Verse comics and the concept art from the movie, with distinguisable dynamics between the versions.
The ship has a great amount of fans of different cultures, such Spanish speakers, Vietnamese[1], Filipino and Chinese.
Canon
The different media has different canons.
In the Across the Spider-Verse movie, it is stated that Hobie and Pavitr are good friends, with a lot of skinship of the little that was shown of them together. Meanwhile, in the Spider-Verse comics the status of friendship can be debatable, since Pavitr claimed that Hobie is "the worst Spider-Man" and they don't have many interactions compared with other characters and Pavitr being rather a minor character overall.
Fandom
Fans quickly became attached to the potential of the ship, the characters on their own and the concept art of them, and showed interest in the original source of the Spider-Verse, being the comics, which resulted on the different dynamics for every version of the ship.
Regarding the ATSV one, it's often depicted as a fluffy ship along the friends to lovers trope. When the concept art of the characters become avaible on the internet, fans speculated how the relationship of these original designs would be; with that, the fans started shipping what they call Emo!Pavitr with the various designs of Hobie made by the artist Christie Tseng.
With the raising popularty of the movie, the comics started being of interest for the fans again. Then, the fans started shipping Comic!Goldenpunk or Comic!Chaipunk. Its dynamic is speculation and mostly based on the "you're the worst Spider-Man" dialogue from Pavitr; with this, the dynamic is often depicted as mutual but complex, with Pavitr calling Hobie names and vice versa and Pavitr expressing contempt at Hobies' shenanigans.
Common Tropes & Storylines
One of the most common tropes for this ship, mostly portrayed with the original ATSV version, is Robbing the British Museum as A Date, where Hobie an Pavitr, usually in mutual agreement and the fanon idea of both of them hating the British, decide to enter and rob from British Museum all the Indian artifacts they can. The outcomes vary, sometimes it results in a perfect excuse for fluff tropes and the failure of the robbing and escaping together or sometimes resulting in steamy moments.
I absolutely adore how we as a fandom have collectively agreed on robbing the British Museum as chaipunks official date™ scenario[2]
Examples of the trope
Fanfiction
- Spiders' Night Out! by Chaos_and_Sparkles. Crackfic. (2023)
- It's Not Theft, It's a Repossession by 247FandomBrain. Fluff and Established Relationship. Part 1 of 2 for an AO3 series by the same author. (2023)
Fanart & Video
- hobie helped with the pics by izbubbles.
- its them by melspontaneus.
- yup by guilleartee.
Wank
There have been multiple wanks about the ship that converge with other ships such as Flowerpunk, such as stating that Hobie is an adult and Pavitr is a minor, thus making the ship a "pedoship".
if you try to argue that Pavitr isn’t 13 then I’m instantly gonna believe you’re weird cuz it just straight up says that he is younger than miles by a few years. It doesn’t refer to his beta design.[3]
You’re shipping a 19 - 20-year-old with a fucking 13-year-old, it doesn’t help your case that the official art book states that Pavitr Prabhakar is a few years younger than Miles.[4]
This claim as been proved false, since the canonical ages of any character hasn't been revealed, just vague mentions of characters being "older" or "younger" than others, but not how much. Another countered argument this claim has faced is that the stated ages of the characters by antis only apply to the concept designs of the characters and not the ones that are actually in the movie.
Another recurrent wank tends to be pointing out that Pavitr cannot be shipped with anyone because he has a canonical girlfriend. Claim that many other ships had faced over and over again.
I saw people on Twitter acting like it was “emasculating” and wrong to ship Punkchai (two male characters from Spiderverse) because one of them has a girlfriend in the movie and I’m just shocked by how many people agreed and were acting like having a canon het romance means characters shouldn’t be drawn or written gay because this is the shit loud and proud homophobes used to say in fandom spaces and now it’s the so called progressives?[5]
I just don't think age is the problem when he clearly talked about how good his GIRLFRIEND is... girlfriend... girl.... friend... he has one...[6]
Ladies and gentleman I give you the ship we all wanted but can’t happen. Why? Bc Pav has a g[7]
And that the name "chaipunk"/"punkchai" is racist and/or dehumanizing.[8]
Fanworks
Fanfiction
- Study Break by Asterlude. Friends to Lovers and Fluff. (2023)
- a message worth hearing by zelinkies. Meeting the Parents. (2023)
- imagine being loved by me by LiterallyThePresident. Angst with Happy Ending, Blood. (2023)
- Enervation by HydraNoMago. Comic!Goldenpunk, Angst, Major Character Death. (2023)
- El peor by Kaanbaltla. Comic!Goldenpunk, PWP. (2023)
Fanart
- i love it when spider people….. by irlplasticlamb, 2023
- title = HI HI HI HI CHAIPUNK NATION⚡️⚡️⚡️ {{{title}}} by yesssencia, 2023
- 上一张被压画质了吗，试试这个。by yuzhnbdn1, 2023.
Gallery
Digital art by Chic_LLL. A soft interpretation of the Comic!Goldenpunk dynamic. Included here with permission.
Digital art by yuzhnbdn1, displaying the three most common versions of the ship.
Links
- Tumblr: #hobie x pavitr, #chaipunk, #punkchai, #goldenpunk
- AO3: Hobie Brown/Pavitr Prabhakar works
References
- ^ https://www.facebook.com/ChaiPunk138.50101/posts/pfbid02fnePTxGtX9aZc1m7PcfikdfTvoqsYJK1WXRoFEDKtvvbVMAKS4BdpWfXJ3B9bCj1l
- ^ [1] by Tumblr user soplapinga, Jun 2023.
- ^ [2] by CASPIDERPUNK, 2023
- ^ [3] by lilpup1616
- ^ [4], anonymous Tumblr ask sent to OlderThanNetfic, 2023
- ^ [5] comment by hlink2148
- ^ [6] comment by margueritekingsley
- ^ https://olderthannetfic.tumblr.com/post/725932965905973248/i-saw-people-on-twitter-acting-like-it-was