Panzeke

Panzeke is the ship between Ozychlyrus Brounev Tantal, better known as Zeke, and Pandoria, a Blade. The duo have been travelling the world of Alrest together for about ten years prior to the events of Xenoblade 2.

Canon
Zeke and Pandoria are a human driver and blade duo hailing from the frozen isolationist Kingdom of Tantal. Zeke, the Kingdom's crown prince, was banished from Tantal by his father Eulogimenos as a teen. Pandoria went with him, and the two have traveled all over Alrest ever since. Their adventures have been rough, as they regularly have little money and must fend off wild beasts and enemy drivers alike. Being blade and driver, the pair have an innate bond, and can channel ether energy between each other. Pandoria channels ether from the core crystal in her chest to Zeke so that he may use Arts in battle. They use lightning attacks.

The pair have a running gag where they will both do silly synchronized postures and poses together, usually while Zeke blabs out a pompous monologue at people in an attempt to sound cool and intimidating. They practically mirror each other during these moments. One of their idle animations consists of both of them doing stretching exercises in perfect sync with each other for several seconds. [The following contains Xenoblade Chronicles 2 spoilers] Not long before the events of Xenoblade 2, Zeke was mortally wounded in an attack by bandits who aimed to steal Pandoria. Despite his size, Pandoria carried him upon her back through the woods in search of help, until she collapsed from exhaustion. Luckily, the Praetor Amalthus happened upon them, and rescued them. He removed a third of Pandoria's core crystal and implanted it into Zeke's chest wound, which allowed him to quickly heal from the crystal's regenerative properties. It is unclear if Pandoria herself has lessened blade regeneration due to this, but throughout the game are many instances of Zeke being protective of her, so it is a possibility. Pandoria is also shown to be very protective of Zeke in tense moments, though in lighter moments she enjoys teasing him.

After waking from the surgical procedure, Zeke feels guilt for having taken a part of Pandoria and apologizes to her. She responds that she's glad of the situation, since a part of her will keep him alive, and thus keep them together. Zeke then makes a promise to her, though his words are not spoken out loud in the cutscene.

Upon entering the Spirit Crucible Elpys and learning that blades who venture within could have their energy sapped to the point that they revert back to core crystals and never reawaken, Zeke tells Pandoria to stay behind. She protests angrily, reminding him of the promise they made to stay together. Zeke begrudgingly gives in, and the two enter the Crucible with the rest of the party. Inside, they they both feel the ether-draining effect of the cave and recount the story of their shared core crystal to the others.

In several heart to hearts throughout the game, characters speaking to Pandoria bring up the subject of her feelings for Zeke, which she becomes embarrassed at and denies fervently. In a heart to heart with Dromarch and Brighid, the two call her out on pretending to not love him when she truly does. In the Japanese version, they even call here tsundere. In the game's final chapter, a short bit of dialogue has the pair admitting they want to remain together forever. Later, there are several instances of Zeke and Pandoria embracing each other when the World Tree and escape pod begin to shake violently, as well as while the pair begin to fall down toward the cloud sea together. When they are safely on the back of Azurda once more, Pandoria snuggles up against Zeke, hugging his arm. He is surprised when he realizes she's hugging him and, being the immature manchild he is, almost pulls away. However, he doesn't wish to refuse her affection and allows her to continue hugging him when she looks him in the eye. Though they had tried to ignore or outright deny their feelings until this point in the story, here at the ending seems to be where they finally accept that they love one other.

Fanon
Despite being basically canon, Panzeke is often overshadowed by other ships involving more popular characters such as Rex, Pyra, Mythra, Nia, Malos, Jin, etc. There are a few of us who are head-over-heels for this ship, however. Several fanfics have gone into real world AU territory, and several depict the characters in their own world.

WIP I'll be back to fix this and add stuff

Fandom
An example of the pairing in their own world is [https://archiveofourown.org/works/22244317 May I Have This Dance? by Kawaiiboushii], in which the two attend a charity ball. One example of the pairing in a modern AU setting would be TBat's Professor Von Genbu series, in which Zeke and Pandoria are eccentric teachers at Tantal University.

Trivia

 * Pandoria has a mysterious ability to communicate with the massive turtle titan Genbu, upon which the Kingdom of Tantal lies. She is able to tell Genbu to rise to the surface of the cloud sea, against the kingdom's orders to stay submerged. She and Zeke were likely banished for causing Genbu to surface multiple times just so they could leave on short adventures in the outside world.


 * Zeke and Pandoria have a tiny pet turtle named Turters. They adore him, but appear to be somewhat neglectful pet owners. He wanders away from them during their first encounter with the game's main party. Pandoria mentions in a heart-to-heart that she sometimes forgets to feed him.


 * Zeke's eyepatch has a turtle design on it.
 * Their sword, a hulking Big Bang Edge type weapon, is called the Purple Lightning Dreamsmasher. Pandoria seems fond of the color purple.
 * Pandoria's original name in Japanese is Saika, and Zeke's nickname is Jiku.