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.

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 eventually fall in love. They happily co-parent, until Kevin suddenly decides he wants custody of Anthony.

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

 * FAN FICTION


 * TUMBLR


 * TWITTER

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)