Passionate Ambivalence

The question was raised on Twitter about ships for The Dragon Prince and I started to reply to but realized it was turning into a whole post, so...

I fell hard in the first freaking episode for the ships that have been dearest to me ever since, but also for like... all the characters, especially the adults... (Kinda vaguely in order of how much I care...)

Varrai (Sarai/Harrow/Viren) is best ship & form of government, my mind will not be changed.  Pls to bring me all the Everyone LIves AUs with a side of Happy Power OT3 Parents.  The show keeps underlining the importance of their relationship by showing how messed up and out of balance everything is with one gone, talking about the three tools of justice correlated with their problem-solving perspectives, etc. I'm ok with lots of variations... Like maybe they aren't all together all the time or exclusively or the actual romance and/or sex bit is more of King Harrow Timeshare Agreement, or the marriage is largely for formality /convenience / An Oracle Did It... But they have to all like & respect each other & be important.


Virrow (Harrow/Viren) = hot dads basically canon in most of the ways I really care about.  Definitively The Most Important People In Each Other's Lives WIth The Painting To Prove It.  We could have had husbands and that's sad.  We also could have had like, friends to lovers to friendly exes to frenemies who play chess & try to undermine each other's war strategies / struggles to control the fate of the human kingdoms. 

I was already in deep by the time it was clear just how much angst / heart sporking this ship canonically brings.  I like making fluffy AUs cuz they deserve to be happy.  There will always be tension, an edge, arguing... but that can be pretty fluffy when you're not dealing with stuff like assassination attempts. Some of my fav flavors include
- No significant hurt, just dad stuff and pancakes and sometimes breakups cuz Sarai Always Lives
- Hurt with lots & lots of comfort
- They hurt each other & enjoy it, with special subcategory Harrow Admits Dark Magic Is Useful & Also Hot


Viren/Mystery Parent - It seemed like forever til their was any information about the brodigies other parent(s), and I really wanted to fill that space with OCs.  And I wrote stuff and didn't post it, woe, but I guess I still will? If I'm fitting it with another main ship then I'm trying to minimize angst, and IMO Lord Pragmatism & Creative Solutions would totally be up for all kinds of arrangements / experiments / not listening to His Royal Boringness give advice about the proper way to make a family.  Then also there's the thing of, you can have an OC or Mystery Mom and go all in with the romance / smut / love story / etc., but that person is going to have to accept that they will never be first in his heart and life and reasons for sacrifice.  Maybe tied?  Maybe the king and the kids are tied and they're like, right next?

Sarai/Opeli - I Just Think They're Neat and I should really post some fic I guess.

Sarai/Lady Justice - It's canon and great

Sarai/any woman character - & also especially the one lady in the council who's maybe the head of the Crown Guard or not & hopefully didn't die & I'm calling her Panya

Sarai/domming the hell out of everyone

Sarai/Viren's ex - I'm realizing there's a lot of ways to do this & I've only really thought about like 1.5 of them...

Anyone/everyone/Viren - bring it plz thx, but I mostly prefer humans and formed my opinions in S1... have done Gren/Viren & prob will again...

Viren/Marcos - I might have gotten a lot out of the scout report scene & been encouraged...

Corvus/Gren - I was confused for a while & thought they were closer in age, but I still like this ship a lot.  Canonical reasons to think they have spent a bunch of time together & developed trust...

Corvus/anyone/everyone

Janaya - I really super like friends to lovers but enemies to lovers can be real good too I want to see them interact more and more Janai everything

Annika/Neha/doing stuff and not dying

Marcos/Soren - they can be cute sweet gay & possibly trans jocks together, shy in different ways & foolish in different ways

Raylium?  Raydium?  Whatever the Claudia/Rayla/Callum ship is called.  I like OT3s and Claudia should have everything and everyone she wants and I believe she can save the world.  

Tink/Runaan and also Tink/Runaan/Rayla's parents 

Lujanne/some husbands or spouses 
Lujanne/a bunch of the guests at your wedding where she is catering with versatile, creative protein sources
Lujanne/fun with with magic
Lujanne can freak my bean anytime, is what I'm getting at here...

Are there any ships I really don't like?  I don't really think of any.  They made everyone hot and mostly interesting and I feel like almost everyone who interacts has at least some chemistry.  I don't really think about shipping the kids, but yes if you write Future Ellis / Future Aanya I will read it. 

Viravos and to a certain extent Rayllum are things I try to avoid cuz I'm not interested and they. are. everywhere!!! and especially like so many Virrow & Viren fan persons sailed away with the sparkly elf and I just... I am happy for them but I just. don't. get it. and it's like it takes energy to deal with that?  IDK.  It's like Bagginshield or Thorki ealier in my fandom experience, but now I write fic sometimes, so in addition to sifting thru content to find stuff that's... not that... I'm also, like, berating myself for not making more and better content.

CN: Ableism, verbal abuse


 - The Dragon Prince, Virrow, Varrai, (maybe they're not canon exactly but they represent the three aspects of justice and that's almost good enough...), glowy lifeforce magic & ethics & politics thereof

- Queer rep & its intersections w/ parenting, neurodiversity, & maybe hot parents on animated TV shows

- Black Spec Fic!!!  (& queer rep in same & hope for future animated TV shows, etc.)

- Neurodivergence is a thing and maybe if you are an AFAB parent who has spent significant portions of your life hearing things like, "You're too smart to act this stupid," and "If you cared about it enough to cry this hard you'd keep track of it so you must be faking," etc., you might want to look into the neuropsych testing and the support groups and also medication and yeah it's expensive and paperwork but there are things that help and I've actually learned about a couple of them.  Medication isn't for everyone, but it can help you not just lie in bed all understanding you have 8 important things to do but constantly going in circles about which one to start with.  I just took mine, can you tell?!?

Give them a different chance
Where love and war do a different dance
Where death can wait
Where joy can grow
Where peace is strong
And anger slow

Give them a time to smile
To doubt, to laugh, to rest a while
To lose, and cry,
And fail, and fall,
But rise, and try
To save it all

Give them your own dear dream
Where hopeful futures brightly gleam
Where grief and fear
And harm and pain
Are minor strands
Within the skein

Give them your heart's desire
Your deepest wish, your secret fire
Weave them well
With words of art
Then give them to us
To hold in our hearts

- Sarai & Viren are friends or colleagues.

- Explicit consent! (Often verbal. Or reference to prior consent...)

- So. much. dialogue.

- Dialogue like: "Words, words words..." *kiss* "...words..." *kiss* "...words..."

- Viren
1. objects to his fancy clothes being messed with
2. carefully deals w/ fancy clothes in what other people might consider the heat of passion
3. goes with it but still has clothes feelings

- Possibly an OC or two

- 90% chance of reference to ancient Katolis OCs

- Kissing in general. Hand kissing. Hands.

- Napkins, pillows, stale bread, etc. exist so lovers and siblings can throw them at each other

...and they both involve writing once in a blue moon.

1. Applies to real life: Writing letter begging for funding for our Adults with ADHD and Learning Disabilities support group run by the state vocational rehab agency.

2. Writing fic, usually explicit, about ships I don't have a lot of feelings about but IDK I drank some espresso at work and it's 3 am and wow that's 9 pages and the castle has a bath complex now.


I guess we could also go for another kinda meta skill:

3. Putting in the effort to learn a new skill cuz it will help me please my friends with words and/or pictures of cartoon dads kissing.

The stream of Dark Magic energy Viren is channeling with her staff winds around her, draining some of her own life force as she focuses it with her right hand, charging Harrow's blade as the dragon draws closer. In the end, it's easier than Viren feared to strike down this patriarch of sky magic and storm fury. A thousand years of failure and death on the part of humans have made Thunder complacent enough to reject using most of his magic and try simply rending these pitiful adversaries with tooth and claw. By the time he changes his mind, it's too late.

Viren has triumphed where so many others faltered, with her staff, her many spells, her long years of practice, her magnificent queen, and her unwavering commitment. If she now feels as though her very soul were wrung dry, crumpled and cast-off, well... the price is worth it.

When Harrow turns from the wreck of the great dragon to her High Mage, she does not see the woman he knows. Viren's skin is the bleached grey of ancient stone, her eyes inhuman orbs of darkness sparked with violet flame. She has seen the darkened eyes before, and watched them return to normal shortly after the completion of a spell. This is different and shocking.

This particular event was pretty far out of Viren's comfort zone, but he was having fun. Still, even though almost everyone was topless, Viren felt excessively naked.

"Opeli, I need my shirt back."

"It's in the car. I only have this one. I guess it could be appropriate for you, my young apprentice... Put it on and let's dance!"

After a few songs the noise and crowd became overwhelming, so Viren retrieved his book and retreated to a corner filled with comfortable beanbags. The corner was already occupied by a shirtless person with deep brown skin and green eyes. They had glittery purple and gold makeup on, and their long hair was purple with blonde highlights. It looked amazing, but even more amazing was the fact they were making origami dragons.

Viren watched, fascinated, as nimble fingers shaped another dragon and placed it on the coffee table beside several friends. The maker had sparkly purple electrical tape over their nipples, and a sticker on the left side of their chest that read, "Hello, my name is Tink, my pronouns are they/them."

Viren asked, "Excuse me if this is a personal question, but... isn't that going to hurt when you take it off?"

Tink laughed. "Probably! At least I shaved first. But I probably should have oiled myself like a gladiator. It'll probably soak off in the shower..."

"Got any more stickers?"

"Yeah, here."

Viren filled out a sticker and carefully placed it on his recently acquired Baby Slut shirt. Tink smiled. "Nice to meet you, Viren. Love the beard, dude."

Viren grinned. "Thanks! I love it! I feel like every time I looked in the mirror my whole life it was missing and now it's not and I'm the real me. Maybe not in this shirt, though..."

Tink laughed again and shrugged. "It can be fun to cut loose sometimes! Do you mind if I call you pretty?"

"Hmmmm... no."

"You're a very pretty man. I'd like to kiss you. Would that be ok?"

"On the lips?"

"Yes, or whatever you want."

"Let me think about it."

"Great." Tink pulled out a phone and sent a text message, then went back to origami, pausing to read a reply message and glancing at Viren occasionally in companionable silence.

Viren tried to go back to reading but found it no longer held his interest, so he spoke up.

"Yes, I want to." Tink put the paper aside and leaned close. Viren hesitantly kissed their lips, Tink returned an obviously more experienced kiss, and they spent the next twenty minutes making out and snuggling.

Eventually Viren yawned, and Tink yawned too and asked, "You want to get out of here?"

"Are you asking me to come home with you?" The idea made Viren nervous and confused.

Tink shook their head. "No, I'm just getting ready to leave and offering you a ride. I'm going to go home to my boring husband."

"You're married?!?"

"Yes. He said it was fine to make out with pretty boys as long as I came home soon. If you were expecting something more serious, I'm sorry."

Viren shook his head, mostly relieved if a little disappointed. "No, that's fine. I just didn't want to be helping you cheat. I'd love a ride, thanks. Let me just go tell Opeli."

When he woke up the next morning, Opeli, who had obviously not been to sleep yet, handed him a cup of coffee and a muffin and informed him that he had gold lipstick all over his face.

Human characters with long hair: Harrow, Claudia, and Corvus.*

The best ones!

First two aren't soldiers, but Corvus is, so, maybe he's a special kind of soldier, or maybe the army doesn't care what you do with your hair? In which case we can probably assume all the characters have their preferred hairstyles, except possibly the kids.

Long hair on men/everyone fits at least as well with the historical periods that inspire this kind of fantasy, so why didn't they do that?**

And how do I figure out good hairstyles for genderswapped chars? Especially Viren, I just don't know where to start...




*Opeli too, I guess, but she's not a major char yet
**some/many of the elf dudes have long hair, so maybe that's why?

This started as a pile of tweets but that was getting out of hand...

I was responding to tweets saying we don't care if our ship is canon, and we know that's not something they could get away with on a kids' show.

I have been thinking about this and like, no, I don't care if my ship is canon, but ships that show that bi people exist, and have lives and kids and are complicated? I need that, and so does my family.

I was remembering how much Korrasami made me feel seen and validated but like, I'm not a teenager? My whole public queer life has been as a parent.

I need my life to be normal on kids' shows.

And if we lived in the world where "The king's ex-boyfriend is kind of a jackass" was just a thing that made sense and the notable, arguable thing in fandom was exactly how much of a jackass he is? That would be part of that good world.

You get there by having a lot of queer characters. Not just young ones. Not just ones involved in current romantic relationships. Not just couples where they're both the likable, heroic one.



And this reminds me of Gods and Monsters, and of growing up during the AIDS crisis with invisible lesbians. Perhaps that should be a different post?