Ness/Lucas
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Ness/Lucas |
| Alternative name(s): | Nesscas |
| Gender category: | Slash |
| Fandom: | EarthBound |
| Canonical?: | No |
| Prevalence: | Used to be bigger, getting exceedingly rare with time |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
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Ness/Lucas, more commonly known as Nesscas, is a pairing within the EarthBound/Mother fandom. It is a slash pairing, created in large part due to the characters interaction within Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Because of this, it is often considered to be more of a Smash Bros ship rather than an EarthBound ship. Many fans of the EarthBound franchise have also been introduced to the series through Smash Bros, strengthening the ties even further[1]. Nesscas is one of the more popular non-canon ships within the fandom, only being surpassed by canon pairings such as Ness/Paula and Tony/Jeff.
History
Origin
The origin of Nesscas can largely be traced back to Super Smash Bros. Brawl, more specifically, the Subspace Emissary story mode. In it, Ness and Lucas' storylines are heavily intersected. Through their interactions, they develop what appears to be a friendship across the course of the game. Due to the lack of dialogue, a lot of the minute details of the relationship were up for interpretation. The main points of it being that, at the beginning, Lucas is more meek and scared, while Ness is more brave and courageous. Ness sacrifices himself for Lucas, and by the end of the story, Lucas appears to be motivated by Ness' sacrifice in order to save him. These interactions served as the basis for the ship, as for the two years between the release of Mother 3 and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, the ship was non-existent.
Common Depictions
Dynamics
The vast majority of Nesscas fanwork portrays Ness as the dominant one and Lucas as the submissive one. This is largely due in part to their portrayals in Subspace Emissary, where Lucas initially acts much more timid and scared, in contrast to Ness' braveness. As an extension of this, Lucas is often portrayed as the more traditional feminine one, while Ness is portrayed as traditionally masculine.
Despite this, their portrayals do vary. Their usual roles are often much more relaxed, resulting in Lucas being portrayed as more of a shy, timid, yet energetic person, and Ness being a brave and extroverted person.
Fanart
Depictions of Ness and Lucas within fanart are often congruent with their appearances in Smash. Both usually keep most of their attributes, not much being changed. Despite having pure black eyes in both their games, Ness is often depicted with purple eyes, and Lucas with blue eyes. This is likely due to the slight coloration both respectively have within their Smash Brawl renders.
Lucas' hair is also often toned down, being made made more like a traditional cow-lick, and less like his extravagant hair in Smash. This depiction is also more accurate to the source material, and based on Lucas' sprite, his hair is a lot more toned down than compared to Smash.
Fanfiction
Nesscas fanfiction is one of the most popular outlet for the ship, and where most of the finer details of the ship come from. Currently, the ship has 186 works on Archive of Our Own[2] and 152 works on Wattpad[3]. Despite having less fics in total, Nesscas work on Wattpad has consistently more views than AO3 Ness work has hits.
Nesscas fanfic can largely be separated into three main categories. Highschool/College/Modern AU, Oneshots, and Smash Bros based fics. Others do of course exist, but these are the three main categories under which most Nesscas fics fall under. Each one largely has similar portrayals of the characters, with a few extra details to add some uniqueness.
Highschool/College/Modern AU's
These fics often contain coming-out as an integral part of the storyline. Often times, Lucas has already come to terms with himself, while Ness is still in the closet and hasn't yet accepted it. As per their usual roles, Ness is often portrayed as the outgoing jock, usually playing baseball, while Lucas is often portrayed as the quiet nerd
Oneshots
Some of the largest Nesscas fics come in the form of oneshots (The largest Nesscas fic, on both Wattpad and AO3, is a oneshot collection that has over 1,000,000 words and 161 different oneshots[4]). The oneshots are often more condensed versions of other concepts for fics. A lot of concepts that wouldn't get full multi-chapter fics are done here, as per the nature of oneshots. Though the highschool AU is by far the most common, appearing in quite the number of Nesscas Oneshot collections
Smash Bros.
Smash Bros. based fics often feature Ness and Lucas meeting for the first time in Smash, under the context of some kind of tournament, usually taking place at the fanmade concept of the Smash Mansion. Sometimes, these fics will incorporate Lucas' absence from Smash 4 as a plot point, using it as a road for character development.
Effects of Pairing and General Reception
Clausten
Claus/Ninten, better known as Clausten, is a ship that largely owes its existence to Nesscas. It arose solely based on Nesscas, having the other two EarthBound protagonists be shipped together. Unlike Nesscas, Clausten has no basis in any form of canon, as the two characters never meet or interact in any medium. Clausten acts almost supplementary to Nesscas. If someone ships Clausten, they most likely ship Nesscas. Because of this role, fanwork specifically revolving around Clausten is much more scarce than that of Nesscas. Fanfiction, for example, will almost always have both Clausten and Nesscas as a featured ship, rather than just one. Out of the 39 tagged Clausten works on Wattpad, 24 also have an accompanying Nesscas tag.[5][6]
General Reception
While Nesscas is one of the most popular ships in the fandom, it is not without controversy. Many people dislike the ship, under the basis that the two never interact within canon. This belief also lends credence to the notion that Nesscas is more of a Smash Bros ship, rather than an EarthBound one. Many also dislike the depictions of the characters within fanworks, citing their stereotypical fanfiction-like depictions as reasons why, an example being the depiction of Lucas, who is often portrayed as more sensitive than he is in his home game. [7]
Due to the very nature of the ship feature characters who are underage (In canon, Ness being 12 and Lucas being 13), it has developed many detractors for that sole reason. However, many Nesscas fanwork ages up the characters to either their late teens or early adulthood. This is still the minority of work, however, as most Nesscas work keeps congruent with the two's appearances in Smash, which in terms of age, are the same as their home game. [8]
Example Fanworks
Fanfic
- Nesscas Oneshot Haven [1] by Breakdown003. The largest sole Nesscas fic. It consists of over 1,000,000 words and has an estimated read time of 87 hours according to Wattpad[9]
- The Nesscas Bible [2] by nesscaskilledme
- Not Young Anymore(Ness x Lucas) [3] by NerdloverDark. One of the most viewed Nesscas fanfics, with over 82k views on Wattpad
Fanvids
References
- ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/earthbound/comments/rkfmui/how_did_you_find_out_about_earthboundmother/
- ^ https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Lucas%20(Mother%203)*s*Ness%20(Mother%202)/works
- ^ https://www.wattpad.com/search/Nesscas%20%23nesscas
- ^ https://archiveofourown.org/works?work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=word_count&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&commit=Sort+and+Filter&tag_id=Lucas+%28Mother+3%29*s*Ness+%28Mother+2%29
- ^ https://www.wattpad.com/search/Clausten%20%23clausten
- ^ https://www.wattpad.com/search/Clausten%20%23clausten%20%23Nesscas
- ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/earthbound/comments/690b7q/since_we_all_unanimously_hate_nesscas/
- ^ https://www.reddit.com/r/earthbound/comments/690b7q/since_we_all_unanimously_hate_nesscas/
- ^ https://www.wattpad.com/story/205125454-nesscas-oneshot-haven