I usually find shipping characters from 'Cookie Run' pretty amusing, but this one always strikes me as an interesting choice because it's less about sweetness and more about a genuine clash of systems. Red Velvet is a stern, rule-abiding knight commander from the Red Velvet Kingdom, while Licorice is this chaotic, resentful necromancer obsessed with dark magic and overthrowing the order Red Velvet represents. Their dynamic isn't just 'opposites attract' in a cute way; it's about fundamental worldview conflict. Red Velvet stands for duty, honor, and protecting a certain structure, even if it's flawed. Licorice actively wants to burn that structure down because he feels it rejected and hurt him.
That tension creates a space where fanfiction can dig into some really compelling themes. I've seen fics explore the idea of Red Velvet trying to 'rehabilitate' Licorice, which becomes a messy power struggle about who's actually corrupting whom. Other stories flip it, with Licorice trying to tempt Red Velvet away from his rigid path, asking if his loyalty is truly virtue or just fear. The appeal isn't in them smoothing over their differences, but in the friction itself—the harsh debates, the moments of unexpected understanding amidst the hostility. It’s a ship built on ideological battlegrounds, not shared hobbies.
Honestly, the best fics I've read don't even end with them together in a romantic sense. They just leave them in this unresolved, charged stalemate, which feels truer to their characters than any forced reconciliation.