#anapris

Priscilla is, as we all know, a very prickly character. She does not mince her words and will only take an interest in things she finds entertaining. It's why she doesn't remember Subaru after arc 3, and why she brings Heinkel to the arc 5 meeting she was never invited to. The world exists in her favour, and that includes entertaining her, be it watching people dance in her palms or struggling against their own fate.

But Anastasia doesn't do either of those. She's in a different league entirely - a candidate for the election, but someone who acts outside of Priscilla's expectations. Anastasia is one of the rare people who Priscilla takes an active interest in, outside of her camp and perhaps Crusch.

To Pris, Ana is her biggest enemy in the Royal election. She says so directly in Lugunican Papers 2:

She's somebody Pris cannot afford to underestimate because she's so capable at turning the tides in her favour. It's a sentiment that goes both ways, as we see later:

Their first meeting really hammers that sentiment home. Going over her Camp Formation Story, we get to see Priscilla's first meeting with Anastasia, told from Schult's POV. After contacting the Hoshin company for some assistance regarding Priscilla's husband (at the time) we get to see them bicker about their true natures.

Schult observes instantly how different Pris acts with Anastasia, down to the "equal footing" and "corresponding value." Neither of them are pretending to be on good terms, but they're clearly enjoying each other's company.

Later, in the same SS, Anastasia rejects taking financial compensation for helping Priscilla out.

Both Pris and Ana are noted, multiple times through canon, to be intelligent women. They're equally capable of getting under somebody's skin, and one-upping most conversational partners. But with each other, there's that sense of unpredictability. Ana does something Pris couldn't have anticipated, and it delights her.

Pris and Ana also have that one commonality - being the two "outsiders" to the election. When Ana's heritage is brought up, Pris even defends her selection to Al, calling her "worthy."

A very common theme in most side content focusing on the pair is the presence of others observing them interact. Usually Al or Julius gets saddled with watching them bicker, largely in parts due to how neither of them necessarily reveal their intentions. Anastasia and Priscilla both speak in ways designed to rile or get at people's weak points, which makes it incredibly funny to observe as an outsider.

Just look at their interactions from Vainglory IF:

They're so fun to read, even if their back and forths seem to exhaust Subaru every time he sees them fight. It's very reminiscent of the bickering between Julius and Subaru, the way they won't admit they respect each other just a little.

Julius even says as much, directly to Subaru:

And he's right, in more ways than one. Sure, they bicker and insult each other while acknowledging their strengths, but there's more to both dynamics. One big example of that: the way both pairings tend to agree with each other the most, even with all the fighting they do.

In arc 5, Julius goes against Ana's proposal for minimal casualties, choosing to side with Subaru. Almost every occasion he disagrees with Ana is due to him actually agreeing with Subaru, something that I don't think either of them are necessarily aware of.

The same happens with Ana and Pris. Even though they're constantly at each other's throats, they're the candidates that agree the most with each other. Lugunican Papers has them share pretty much identical opinions on the other candidates, praising Crusch while dismissing Felt and Emilia:

And in Arc 3, Pris is the one to back up Anastasia's refusal to intervene in the Julius-Subaru duel:

A lot of what Priscilla says is incindiary to the rest of the cast, something that Subaru regularly clashes with. It even happens a few times in Prophecy of the Throne, where Pris will state something heartless (i.e. not caring about helping Melty) and everyone else will react negatively to her.

But Anastasia 9/10 times agrees with her and faces less blowback for it. In that Prophecy of the Throne example, she outright explains Pris' opinion and translates it in a way that's more agreeable - it's not that they want Melty dead, but they need incentive to help her. Pris gets annoyed with her, but doesn't disagree with anything she explained to the rest of the cast.

In my opinion, the reason Anapris works so well as a pairing (platonic or romantic) is due to the strong mutual understanding they have of each other. There's no hiding each other's natures, or playing to a crowd. They only want to get the upper hand on the other, but can only gain small victories moment to moment. They acknowledge and understand each other more than anyone else, and that's why they clash so much.

I think this short interaction in arc 5 summarises it best: