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Nichaxel is the femslash ship between Nichelle Ladonna and Axel from the Total Drama fandom.
Canon[]
Nichelle and Axel don't interact much during the first season of Total Drama Island (2023), because they are both part of different teams: Axel on the Ferocious Trout team and Nichelle on the Frogs of Death team. In "Magma Cum Laude", they sit together in the audience seats. When Bowie broke the saw he was using in the challenge, he asked Chris if he could give him a new one. The host tells him that he has not another saw, so Axel jokingly asks Nichelle who travels without a saw, her partner is confused and doesn't answer. Later in the episode, they look at each other in horror at Scary Girl's comment that she was sorry no one fell into the lava. When Priya won, both Nichelle and Axel cheer for her.
In the second season, Nichelle and Axel don't have any relevant interaction. However, they are part of Team Rat Face and can be seen together in various challenges.
Although they rarely interact in the series, the two seem to be nice in their few interactions. They also have contrasting personalities, with Axel being athletic and Nichelle being weak (in season 1.) Axel is also stubborn, but Nichelle is social.
Fanon[]
Despite their few interactions, fans began pairing them off at the end of the first season. This happened because several of them thought they looked cute together and their personalities matched well. In addition, they were motivated by the consolidation of Rajbow as the first canon gay/slash couple of the series, which would allow the canonization of other same-sex couples: MKulia, Priya x Millie, Zee x Damien or Ripper x Chase. Nichaxel became relatively popular among fans of the series who wanted a lesbian/femslash couple in the series. A variety of fanfictions portray a possible relationship between them as one of mutual support where Axel helps her train and improve her physical condition for the next season while Nichelle helps her partner become more sociable and less temperamental.
The couple's popularity declined after Ripaxel's confirmation in the second season. Some fans idealized Axel's figure as a butch lesbian who doesn't like men like Ripper. Therefore, they found it shocking that Axel is not homosexual and formalizes a relationship with Ripper. On social networks like X (Twitter) #SaveAxel was created to protest against Ripaxel, lamenting that she isn't LGBT. Some people compare the Nichaxel vs. Ripaxel debate to the NoCo vs. Nemma debate because many people like one non-canon LGBT ship, but there is one canon straight ship that some people like as well.
A lot of people like this ship due to it being an "opposites attract" type of ship. Opposites attract ships are popular throughout the fandom, and this is shown in ships such as Duncney and Samkota. Some also just believe that they look good together, so they're considered a good ship. Before season 2 of the reboot came out, much of the fandom was hoping for FreshTV to make Nichaxel canon. As of January 15th, 2024, there are 25 works for Nichaxel on AO3.
Fandom[]
FAN FICTION
- Axel/Nichelle (Total Drama) tag on AO3
TUMBLR
WIKIS
