Fopaz

Fopaz is the het ship between Toni and Fangs from the Riverdale fandom.

Canon
Toni and Fangs get to know each other when Fangs is being formally inducted into the Serpents, in their sophomore year of high school. They attend the dilapidated Southside High together, where they hang with the other young Serpents. Fangs first tries to prove his worth to the Serpents by suggesting they make a pipe bomb to retaliate against the Northside; violence which Toni is firmly against. None the less, she and Fangs are friends and hang out together a lot at the Whyte Wyrm. They are also the only two in their inner circle who are part of the LGBT+ community, both being bisexual. They grow closer as they move to Riverdale High when Southside is closed down, staying close together, along with Sweet Pea, to assess their new surroundings. When they are targeted by Reggie Mantle, the Serpents stick together to avoid any trouble as they're happy to be at school. When school uniforms are mandated to Southside students, Fangs refuses in protest and is suspended, but comes back when all the Serpents set up a surreptitious way to keep their community alive at the school. Toni leads Fangs, Sweet Pea and the rest of the serpents in a protest against Pickens Day, a racist holiday celebrating the white supremacist that stole the land Riverdale was 'founded' on from Toni's ancestors — the founders of the Southside Serpents. They are also fighting against the racist marginalisation by Northsiders, treating them like poor servants with regards to the community.

In the spring of their sophomore year, Midge Klump is murdered during the school musical. Toni soon learns that Fangs had an affair with her, and he fears retribution from the Northsiders despite his innocence. She and the other Serpents try to protect him but someone reveals the truth online and Fangs is taken into custody. An angry mob forms outside and Fangs is scared to leave. Toni, Fangs and the others huddle together saying their mantra and leave the building, walking in a box around Fangs trying to fend people off. They are mostly successful, until fighting breaks out and in the chaos a gun shot is heard. Fangs looks down to see he's hit and falls to the ground bleeding. While the Serpents frantically worry about Fangs at the hospital as he's in surgery, Toni is abducted by Penny Peabody and Sweet Pea goes on a rampage as he is told Fangs died. To their great relief, it turns out to be false, and Fangs does indeed survive his wounds.

Toni and Fangs start playing Gryphons & Gargoyles along with the other Serpents and eventually get sucked into a cult called The Farm, where they dress in white and try to recruit others to join them. While Toni almost has an organ forcibly removed and escapes, Fangs is brainwashed and stays with the cult, even after they scatter as they're found out. He isn't in contact with anyone for months, until Edgar Evernever is finally taken out as he tries to escape in a rocket while plotting to have the cult members driven off of a cliff in a bus, and Fangs is reluctantly saved. Fangs gets back to normal and later, Toni and Fangs join a titillation porn scheme, until they're caught by Principal Honey and barred from attending prom, but they later get to attend after all. They graduate from high school and Toni shows her Nana around school, along with Fangs.

Adulthood
Toni leaves for Highsmith College while Fangs travels down the coast to attend University of Pittsburgh. After college, they both return to live in Riverdale; Fangs starts work as a trucker while Toni, using her degree, gains employment as a social worker in Riverdale. The town rapidly falls apart at the hands of Mayor Hiram Lodge, who is aiming to destroy it. Toni manages to buy the property below Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe from Lodge and makes it into the new Whyte Wyrm, as she is also crowned the Serpent Queen. She and Fangs move in to an apartment together, with Kevin, whom Fangs is in a relationship with. Toni becomes pregnant and is not telling who the father of her child is.

The the three of them happily co-exist, with Toni and Fangs being best friends and Toni and Kevin working together at Riverdale High. After their friends have been back in town for a while, Toni, Fangs and Kevin announce that they're gonna raise Toni's baby together as a family. It is revealed that Toni discovered she would have difficulty conceiving as she got older and decided to have a child while she could, coinciding with Fangs and Kevin wanting to have a child. Fangs and Kevin have been together since high school, but in an open relationship which unfortunately made Kevin feel insecure despite his agreeing to it. His internalised homophobia leads him to break up with Fangs and move out of now Fangs and Toni's apartment. Fangs later dates Kevin's ex, Moose Mason, leading them to find closure with their relationship. Meanwhile, Toni and Fangs grow closer as Toni's due date and their impending parenthood nears. Toni's water breaks at the Wyrm during the Josie and the Pussycats reunion performance and Fangs is there to help Toni give birth to their baby in the kitchen of Pop's Chock'lit Shoppe. They name him Anthony, after Toni's grandfather.

Now that they're raising Anthony alone, without Kevin, they agree that they have to be a team and have each other's backs. When Toni meets a teen girl named Britta, whose parents don't approve of her sexuality, they both agree that they'll be happy with however way Anthony turns out. After Fangs encourages Toni to ask Cheryl to take in Britta, they come home from Polly's funeral and Toni tells Fangs she thinks she loves him, to which he says he thinks he does too. When a Ghoulie blows up Pop's at the behest of Hiram Lodge, Toni and Fangs torture one of them to get information, where he mocks them for going soft. Later, Toni asks Fangs to be Serpent King.

In the alternate reality Rivervale, where everything is the same as Riverdale was, but with supernatural elements, Toni and Fangs struggle through Anthony's constant crying. Fangs suggests they leave him in the woods to toughen him up, like his mother did to him, but Cheryl finds a cure when she runs into Toni there, and asks for their cooperation in the ritual she plans on performing later. La Llorona has been summoned by a woman with a vendetta against Toni, and she's after Anthony. When she attacks Fangs and the Serpents while they're trying to protect him, Toni ends up sacrificing herself to save Anthony, dooming herself to become La Llorona. She gives Anthony to Betty and asks her to take care of him. It's revealed that Fangs' ancestor, Fen Fogarty, was an evil warlock that killed Toni's ancestor Thomasina Topaz and cursed her lover Abigail Blossom, before he was killed by Abigail. Toni and everyone else who died in Rivervale come back to life, and after the universe resets itself, Toni and Fangs are no longer together, with Toni dating Cheryl and Fangs seemingly back with Kevin.

Back in Riverdale, Toni and Fangs tell Kevin they're together now, and he is confused but supportive. Twyla Twyst and the Ghoulies cause trouble with the Serpents, but just as they Toni and Fangs get it under control, Archie breaks their peace, causing Twyla to threaten Anthony's life. In order to keep him safe, they have Kevin take care of him for a while. New bad guy and police sheriff Percival turns his sights to Toni. Under his scrutiny, Toni expresses a desire to change the Serpents' image, rebrand to an activist group, an idea Fangs isn't on board with and doesn't think anyone else will be. Percival shows up with some cops and has their apartment searched, where they find illegal guns that Fangs was storing for a fight with the Ghoulies he organized behind Toni's back. While Fangs is in jail, he has Twyla and the Ghoulies to kidnap Anthony and trigger a search party, so that he can save him and make Toni and Fangs look like unfit parents. It works, as Kevin informs Toni that he's going to file for custody of Anthony. Still dealing with Percival's ploys, Toni finds herself performing the Serpent Dance at the Whyte Wyrm to draw in customers, much to Fangs' disapproval when he's finally let out of jail; he reminds her how bad that could look for their case.

Toni arranges for a meeting between her, Fangs and Kevin at their apartment, in the hopes that they can come to an agreement and settle the custody case amongst themselves instead of going through the expensive and stressful process of a custody case. When a mysterious fog rolls into town, Kevin opts to stay at the school with Moose, canceling their plans. Meanwhile, Toni and Fangs continue to disagree on what to do with the Serpents and what they hope for Anthony in the future. When they get the message from Kevin that he's not coming, Fangs gets extremely angry, ranting about how typical it is of Kevin and getting ready to go beat him up. Toni begs him not to, telling him how that won't help their case, and has to beg him to stay for Anthony. The next morning, after a healing talk with Moose, Kevin has had a change of heart and calls Fangs, telling him that he's up for discussing the case amongst themselves after all. But Fangs turns him down, telling him he wants Anthony raised by someone with moral, which Kevin doesn't have if he's working with Percival, that he doesn't want to be half a dad and he'll see him in court.

After deciding to drag the custody case out, Fangs realizes he needs a job other than at Toni's bar. He's feeling like he's not contributing, but Toni assures him he is. He gets a job with Archie's construction crew, but quickly leaves when Percival offers the crew better paying jobs on the railroad he's working on. Fangs informs Toni he used the money he got to buy a car and when Toni expresses doubts about him working for Percival after all he's done and the fact that he can control people, Fangs assures her that Archie has warned him how to stay in control; he just needs an anchor, and Anthony will be his. Later, Toni has a romantic dinner set up and apologies to Fangs for doubting him, explaining that she's used to being independent, but she's ready to be his partner and suggests they get married. When Fangs asks where this is coming from, it's revealed that Toni met with their social worker earlier, confiding in her about how much they're fighting and disagreeing on everything, and that she was advised that in order to win this case against Kevin, her and Fangs need to appear as a strong unit. But instead of telling Fangs this, Toni tells him that she just heard what he had to say.

A lawyer informs Toni and Fangs that being gang members does not look good for the case, nor does their previous arrests. After their meeting, Fangs expresses his doubts about getting married, explaining he wants to make sure it's for the right reasons, to which Toni says that giving Anthony a stable family is the right reason. Later, when Fangs is working on the railroad, he overhears Kevin gushing about Anthony to other workers, acting as if he's his father, and Fangs flips out, trying to fight him. Toni loses it when she finds out, calling him out for his ego and possibly damaging their case even further by getting violent. When Toni finds out from Britta that Kevin came over while she was babysitting and took Anthony's pacifier to get a DNA test, she storms over to Kevin's place and punches him with brass knuckles on, declaring he'll never be Anthony's real father. Fangs comes home to see her icing her hand and asks what happened. Toni declares that she's a Serpents and doesn't want to change after all, no matter how it looks for the case, and she wants to initiate Anthony into the gang as soon as possible. Hearing that, Fangs agrees to marry her. Elsewhere, Percival confirms to Kevin that Fangs is Anthony's biological father.

Percival gains control of the railroad crew when they make plans to strike, but Toni, Archie and Tabitha manage to get through to them through song. Toni informs Cheryl of her and Fangs' engagement, and invites her and new friend Heather to her bachelorette party. Cheryl approaches Kevin and they put a wedge curse on Toni and Fangs' relationship, letting the universe decide what the wedge should be. It ends up being Anthony, who suddenly develops colic, and they quickly end the spell and come to terms with their engagement. Percival brings plagues to Riverdale in time for the wedding, and the gang learns he's after Anthony. This causes a lot of chaos leading up to the ceremony, as does Veronica's performance at their rehearsal dinner. Kevin also has a change of heart and drops the custody case and gets an invite to the wedding that's still happening for no given reason. They manage to capture Percival so Toni and Fangs can get married at the Whyte Wyrm by Cheryl, at Toni's request, but he escapes in time for the reception, where he brings down the death of the first born plague, killing half the guests, including Toni and Fangs.

In the Sweet Hereafter, Anthony is grown up and in love with a fellow Ghoulie, who the Serpents have finally made peace with. He tells Toni and Fangs that he wants to marry his boyfriend, to which they're supportive. But the celebration is short lived when Cheryl barges in to inform them of what's happening: they're dead and the real Anthony is still a baby on earth and without them. Neither of them believe her at first, Fangs thinking it's a ploy by Cheryl to ruin their relationship, but she appeals to Toni and asks her to think of Anthony. Eventually, Toni investigates and finds their photo albums stop after their wedding, and that Cheryl is right, they aren't supposed to be there. Cheryl brings them and everyone else back to life, and Tabitha informs Toni and Fangs that Anthony didn't die from the first born curse because he's immortal.

While the gang brainstorm how to defeat Percival, Toni, Fangs, Kevin and Moose come up with the idea to age Anthony up, so he becomes the man he was in the Sweet Hereafter. The logic being that only an immortal and battle and immortal. Toni acknowledges that it would mean missing his entire childhood, but they're willing to make that sacrifice. So Tabitha ages Anthony up in a time bubble, and he goes from a baby to a teenager. But when he goes to fight Percival, Percival escapes.

Though the gang end up defeating Percival, he uses his a spell to divert Bailey's Comet off it's track and instead, have it head straight to Riverdale, where it will kill them all if it makes impact. Toni and Fangs report to the others that there's no way to leave Riverdale, and they discuss that Archie and Anthony might be the only ones to survive the comet. Once they all disperse to figure out plan, Toni, Fangs and Anthony go to the Whyte Wyrm to give Anthony his Serpent tattoo and they tell him he's Serpent King now. Cheryl comes up with a plan to melt the comet, but one of the people she resurrected could die as a result. She asks Toni to meet with her to help with the solution to undoing the spell that's keeping everyone in Riverdale, and in order to do that, Toni and Cheryl let their ancestors use their bodies to have sex, which Cheryl claims isn't technically cheating, because their souls won't be in their bodies. Later, Heather reveals that the ritual they did to switch their souls revealed that Cheryl and Toni are soulmates, and when Cheryl argues that Toni is with Fangs, Heather tells her that's only the case for now. As the comet draws closer, Toni, Fangs and Anthony hide out in the bunker, awaiting their fate.

Children

 * Anthony Topaz

When Kevin wants to start a family with Fangs, they ask Toni, who is looking to have children at a young age, if she wants to have a baby with them, and all three would raise the baby together as a family. Toni says yes, is inseminated and becomes pregnant. Things go well until Toni’s due date nears and Kevin abandons the family due to his own issues. After Anthony is born, Toni and Fangs grow closer and confess they think they love each other. They seem to happily co-parent, until Kevin suddenly decides he wants custody of Anthony. After that, they constantly clash over what they think is best for Anthony and how best to raise him. Eventually, they agree to age him up so that he can fight Percival, even though it would mean missing out on his entire childhood. They make him Serpent King on the day of the comet. He does come to the 50s with them and neither of them acknowledge his existence at all, even when they get their memory back. Fangs ends up having a baby with Midge, and Toni has a son with Cheryl.

Fanon
Since the characters were introduced, it has been a rare pair among the many others. Viewers have always enjoyed their friendship and familial like relationship, despite the characters' limited screen time. After the show was called out for is racist mistreatment of characters of colour on the show, the series went through several changes that attempts to balance the screen time for the first time and put actual effort into storylines. Toni and Fangs spend a lot more time together as a result and in Season 5 they live together. The pair were randomly turned into a romance near the end of Season 5. And while there were some that had welcomed this new ship the overall reception for Fopaz was generally met with negativity.

The ship was criticized for its randomness and the lack of prior establishment that ships typically build upon for fruition and foundation that is needed for a ship to expand and grow. Two common complaints often expressed by the fandom was how they came together as a means of convenience rather than genuine romantic affection for each other and constantly using their child as a means of justification for staying together despite the lack of obvious affection for each other.

The new pairing was met with backlash by the fandom and was typically seen as a means to an end for each character. Criticism for Fopaz has ranged from feeling forced  and random to having no chemistry with each other. Throughout the relationship in season six fans have noticed how out of character both Fangs and Toni have become. Fangs was portrayed as irrational, violent and a loose canon who constantly look down and shamed Toni and Toni as being pandering and complicit to anything that fangs wanted. In season six the writing for this ship took a turn for the worse by putting both Toni and Fangs in a negative light by having them make decisions that went against their character traits. Fangs as a loose irrational canon that shamed Toni and Toni as someone who allowed herself to get steamrolled by Fangs.

Fandom

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Media

 * 'Riverdale' star Vanessa Morgan says she wasn't surprised Toni and Fangs get together because she and Drew Ray Tanner are close in real life (INSIDER • NOVEMBER 2021)