Salqueen - Blog Posts

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Shipping Cruz with Lightning feels very weird and gross to me.

1. There is a big enough age gap between them that she remembers watching his races when she was kid. She is at most in her early-twenties and Lightning had been racing for ten years by Cars 3 and is considered “old” by a bunch of twenty-something racers in 2017. While an age gap like that isn’t wrong per se, there is that power imbalance in terms of life experience that a romance wouldn’t work. While I image Sally is the older one between her and Lightning, they don’t seem that far apart in age where one of them is +10 years older.

2. Speaking of power imbalances, Lightning was also technically her employer. Technically it’s more of Sterling, but Lightning has some authority and influence over her job so long as he’s working for Rusteze. Yeah Cruz quits at the end, but they were still working together. In that way, him helping out Cruz getting a shot at racing feels like a sort of like a “casting couch” situation.

3. I never saw where people think Lightning or Cruz had or could have romantic feelings. I got always got the impression Lightning was acting more like a father to her. Luckily that seems to be the majority of Cars fans, but somehow tvtropes begs to differ.

So yeah, I’m not a fan of daddy issues in that regard. Yet somehow my mother thought that Lightning and Cruz were a couple and wondered if Sally would get jealous. Honestly, I rather Cruz just be Lightning’s sort of daughter figure and Sally his girlfriend.

Marriage is overrated and ten years on Sally and Lightning are a healthy, functional couple. Sally has little interaction with Cruz but she seems to like her fine. She was mad at Jackson talking to Cruz and making her uncomfortable (I would too, especially if Armie Hammer was talking to me) and was very complimentary of her Dinoco paint job at the end. Sally has no issue with Lightning spending time with a younger woman because she trusts him and their relationship. Healthy relationships.

However, that doesn’t stop me from shipping Cruz/Natalie Certain and Sally/Holley. I’m more of a yuri fan than yaoi, but it’s understandable why yaoi is more prominent in this fandom.

My OT3:

Lightning/Sally/Cruz- Cool One/Clever One/Cute One

Jackson/Cruz/Natalie- Cool One/Cute One/Clever One

Eugene/Rapunzel/Cassandra- Cool One/Cute One/Clever One

Imagine your OT3 arguing about who is “the clever one”, who is “the cool one”, and who is “the cute one”.

I’m not crying... I just got something in my.... Oh man this freaking sad and beautiful and sad and heartbreaking and sad.

I’ll write a fic of this someday... but first.

*Starts to cry*

how do you think Lightning will react about if Sally dies suddenly ? I'm feeling a little down right now

Oh…. oh. Wow. Okay. 

Well I hope you feel better soon, anon. I don’t know if this will help or make it worse, but I hope somehow it helps you out.

Everyone thought he took Doc’s death hard. That was nothing compared to this. When they heard the news, he started screaming and swearing, completely turning into someone else the townsfolk had never seen.

He just leaves town without saying a word. He can’t take seeing it without her. She was the one who really made him appreciate it to begin with.

No one sees him for three or four days, no one knows where he went. Turns out, he drove up into the mountains and just sat in isolation while he mourned her. He couldn’t bear being around anyone.

He makes it back for the funeral, but doesn’t speak. Everyone is trying to provide what comfort they can, but it’s like talking to a brick wall. She was his life. Nothing, not even his racing career, was as significant as her.

Afterwards, he spends a lot of time at her grave. They buried her near Doc. He tries to talk to her to ease his conscience, but he can’t say anything without breaking back into into sobs.

He tries to find someone to blame for his pain, but can’t. He can’t control his thoughts and goes back and forth between being vehemently angry and unbearably anguished.

He’s torn between leaving Radiator Springs for good and staying. It all reminds him of her, and it’s painful. But at the same time he knows she’d want him to take care of it now that both she and Doc were gone.

He never goes to visit Wheel Well again. He can’t even look at it. He still supports and manages the operation, but he’ll never go back. He makes a point not to look at it if he has to drive by it. That was sacred ground for them as a couple. It’ll never be the same.

He treats the Cozy Cone motel similarly, although he still stays there. He hires on an old friend to keep it running so he doesn’t have to do it himself. Going into the office was hard to take. All the decor was still as she’d left it.

A couple weeks later, Mater finally gets him to talk. He doesn’t respond much, but it’s an improvement. Mater doesn’t push him, but he does say something that strikes a chord with Lightning. “Forgetting her won’t make it [the pain] go away.”

Lightning was given similar advice when Doc died, and he knew that he needed to honor her in a similar manner. He decided that he wasn’t going to leave town. That town was her everything, and if that’s all he had left of her besides memories, he was going to do whatever he could to support it.

Later on, he tries to focus more on racing, but it’s not quite the same. He still does well, but he finds himself pushing himself to the limits a lot more and thinking a lot less. It’s not a good strategy, and his eager spirit is just gone. He misses seeing her there in the pits waiting for him.

It takes several months for things to return to any degree of normality. The town is still much quieter, as Sally’s bubbly, optimistic personality isn’t there to supplement it anymore, but everyone at least functions again. 

Lightning eventually remembers how to enjoy himself and have fun again. He spends more time with the other members of the town and even with his racing buddies. He’s gotten to a point where he can think about her and not feel overwhelmed by her absence. There’s still a void in his soul, but it’s one he intends to keep, in memory of her.

SALLY FROM CARS SINGS!

WHY IS IT ONLY NOW DO I FIND THIS OUT!

And I just had a slight mini freak out of happiness and excited all because of my weird curiosity.

SHHIIIIIPPPPPING! AWWWWWAAAAYYYYY!

Mommy Sal and Padre McQueen with their baby.

Man I wished Cruz had called Sally Mrs. McQueen so I could know if they are MARRIED OR NOT! Or Hell Mater calling her Mrs. Sally when he passed by.

Hmm… I’m starting to get into Chick and Natalie, but I’m kind of leaning towards Cruz and Natalie now since Jackson hit Cruz and Natalie did a rather gay look upon admiring Cruz.

Mommy Sal and Padre McQueen do not approve of Jackson,  not after hitting their girl.

Here are some good Cars 3 (het…ish) pairings

Oooo... this can help with my Cars couple anthology series. To the thinking of pairings, titles, and then sending it to a113Cowgirl!

The Fic I won’t write game

Send me a ship and a fic title, and I’ll post a summary of the fic with that title I won’t write.

(Original game started by the puckurt comm mods here)