Contains mild, vague spoilers for Into The Spiderverse
I mentioned one of my fav ship types:
Ruler/Leader and childhood/longtime Friend/Companion who's always by their side, will defend them to the death/pain/afterlife/etc.
A wonderful variation on that is where the Companion is some kind of monster, magical, alien, not constrained by things like "physics" or "ethical concerns"...
fichuntie wrote Virrow fic that, like, strokes this button for me:
https://archiveofourown.org/works/17126294Garak/Bashir can hit this nicely. I should dig up some of my fav fics. Julian wasn't particularly a leader in the show, but it's definitely something he could grow into.
Charles & Eric can do this, too...
Man, Roku & Sozin coulda had this!
Marvel!Thor and Loki can have it, too. I don't ship them, but you can do it with other kinds of love. Also ages ago on norsekink I prompted this and someone started writing it as Loki/Rhodey, which was AMAZING, but I don't think it got continued...
It's fine if they take turns being the monster.
Itempas/Nahadoth from Jemisin's Inheritence Trilogy hit this really well. You can do it in an OT3 too... I guess Shahar Arameri / Itempas works too? The whole series does amazing stuff with power and responsibility and love and lust and devotion and aaaaaaaaaaaaa like enslaved gods and tattoos with magical world-altering power and and and
OMFG I almost forgot the most amazing potential for this in The Killing Moon with Reapers, or even just devoted pet Gatherers. *Pours one out for Ehiru* *Vows to reread*
Riv and Isaac in the Mangoverse by Shira Glassman sort of fit, taking turns I guess? He's a literal monster with the dragon-shifting (and snakes? I should reread...), she's a mercenary in the first book and general hardcore warrior.
SG called Isaac a "snarky wizard DILF" in a tweet so of course that made me think of Viren...
Djinn can be all about this trope! Variations on coercion vs. partnership...
Must... find... American Gods... fic...
I want to think of more examples with woman characters. My shiny new ship from Into the Spiderverse might work... ("Oh great, it's my ex-girlfriend the evil genius with tentacles")
I was never really in VLD fandom, but if you shipped Allura with one (or several... or all...) of Lotor's generals you could have an amazing version of this!
I should go see what's in the Wonder Woman tag on AO3, Amazons got this...
I like it ok with het ships as long as the woman is in charge. A shadow side* AU Galadriel/Celeborn could be this. Hell, Melian/Thingol and Luthien/Beren kind of canonically are this? Arwen/Aragorn could be too...
Persephone & Hades got this going on sometimes. I should find that comic where he's like, "Kick his ass babe, I'll hold your flower."
I really, really, really wanted Ella & Frederick in the Hero's Guide series to grow into this. I also ship her with Rapunzel and that could have been such a nice OT3. If someone got with Briar Rose they could have this, too.
Shades of this in the...3rd book, was it? with the witch and the barbarian, non-romantic... Doing this while sharing a body is interesting... (frantic scribbling about soulfang serpents...)
*Is "shadow side" a better way of saying "dark" for AUs and stuff? It's a little awkward, but it's the best thing I can think of, reminds me of magic and shadow work but where does that come from? is it too close to "dark" to be ok? What are some alternatives that make sense?
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