MordeTwi

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About

MordeTwi is the portmanteau name given to a crossover ship between the characters Mordecai from Regular Show and Twilight Sparkle from My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. The couple was first shipped in 2011 from a fanfiction called Earthworm Zim.

"MordeTwi" may also refer to a fan art (see Airplanes) which is what the ship is mostly known for, or to the various remakes, parodies or references to said fan art.

Origin

On June 14th and June 20th, 2011, a two-part chapter of Earthworm Zim was published^[1]^[2] which involved a sub-subplot about Twilight's heartbreak, and how she subsequently befriends Mordecai after he helps her move on. Followers of the story teased the idea of Mordecai and Twilight having a relationship, some liked the idea enough that they were inspired to make fan art of them together, eventually including Cartuneslover16^[3] – the author of the story herself, and current founder of the "MordeTwi" fan group on DeviantArt.^[4]^[5] Over time, there were a number of fanfiction and art made about the ship between Twilight Sparkle and Mordecai.

On October 24th, 2011, the "MordeTwi" DeviantArt group was made. The original founder, MeriamFunLand1999, was inspired by Cartuneslover16, and by various fan works of the ship by other users, to establish the group. It had gained over 100 members one month later.^[6] By March 2012, merely four months later, the group gained over 1,000 members,^[7] and by August 2013, almost two years later, it had over 4,000 members.^[8]

On May 7th, 2012, YouTuber espeonghost posted a video^[9] showing some of the art for the ship at the time, featuring the Cascada song "Miracle" as the background music. It is one of the earliest tribute videos for the ship (shown below).

Airplanes

On August 5th, 2012, DeviantArt user bluedog444 posted an original drawing (shown above)^[10] of Twilight Sparkle and Mordecai crying, both sitting outside at night but not together, singing lyrics from the 2010 B.O.B song "Airplanes" (hence the title of the drawing). It was intended to be a contribution for the MordeTwi group, although it has nothing to do with any of the previously established fan works.^[23]^[26] The post gained over 55,000 views and 1,000 favorites in nine years.

The drawing seems to have quickly garnered much attention, and a remake was made as early as September 25th, 2013 (shown below).^[11]

On August 22nd, 2016, bluedog444 posted a remake^[12] stating in the description: "People have been cringing at Airplanes for a little over 4 years now".

On August 15th, 2018, a post was made on DeviantArt (shown above)^[13] with a description describing what was going on; apparently, Airplanes went viral on Google+ first, originally. There seemed to have been a trend that occured on G+, presumably as some sort of sendoff by resident artists of the site before its shutdown.^[24]^[25]

Spread

On July 17th, 2019, TikToker^[14] @applecrumbwill posted a video singing a section of "Airplanes" in an exaggerated "emo" singing voice, garnering over 1 million views in two years (shown below).

On May 13th, 2020, YouTuber^[15] kazen_ posted a video combining the DeviantArt image with a modified version of the above sound clip, garnering over 296,000 views in just over a year (shown below).

The image went significantly viral over the course of 2020.

MordeTwi Redraws (#redrawmordetwi)

In June 2020, the hashtag "#redrawmordetwi" trended on Twitter, used as a way to collect MordeTwi fan art and redraws. Two popular examples were posted to the hashtag on June 11th, 2020, by Twitter users @falliay and @MoozuaMary,^[16]^[17] garnering over 1,200 likes each in a year (shown below, left and right respectively).

The tag remained popular over a year later, seeing a boost in popularity in mid-2021. On July 18th, 2021, Twitter user @billieslang posted a new redraw^[18] of the scene featuring anthropomorphic versions of the characters, garnering over 9,400 likes and 2,000 retweets in three days (shown below).

2021 Revival

On April 25th, 2021, YouTuber Chikki posted a 3D-animated video depicting the scene, garnering over 45,000 views in three months (shown below).

The MordeTwi ship saw a significant increase in popularity in mid-2021, largely under the hashtag "#MordeTwi" and on TikTok. On July 15th, TikToker @asphodeii posted a video transforming the original piece of art into a realistic version of the art, garnering over 2 million views in six days (shown below).

On July 17th, Twitter^[19] user @zigguratz posted a new piece of art depicting the two, garnering over 1,600 likes in four days (shown below).

On July 19th, TikToker^[20] @ri.roman posted a video recreating bluedog's original piece of art with eery makeup, garnering over 2.4 million views in two days (shown below).

Hayley Williams' Response

On July 31st, 2021, Twitter^[21] user @mizphantasm posted a 3D animation of Mordecai and Twilight Sparkle singing to the Airplanes captioned, "actually maybe it’s good that hayley ain’t here to see this," referring to Hayley Williams of the band Paramore, who features on "Airplanes." The tweet gained over 27,800 likes and 4,100 retweets in four days. On August 3rd, Williams quote-retweeted^[22] the post, writing, "i dont get it guys," garnering over 105,000 likes and 17,000 retweets in a day (shown below).