#cleril

What do you think?

This is an awesome question for me, I love it, thank you so much. I love Disney, I love WoF, I really love going 'this thing in fandom A is like that thing in fandom B', so I am a big fan of this ask, thank you.

Anyway:

Cleril: I agree with your assertion with Beauty and the Beast, I can't really say it better than you did. I will say that I think that the Disney pair that most closely fits their particular dynamic is actually Quasimodo and Esmeralda, because you get the whole 'falling for someone because they were the first to see me as a human being and not a monster, which also is the first step in starting to deconstruct the lies that my abuser tells me to keep me complicit', but Quasi and Esmeralda are only romantic in a one-sided way, so it's not quite right for Cleril.

Ripnami: Ripnami are absolutely the easiest to find couples for, because they are delightful and tropey in the same way princess movies are tropey, and the hard part is narrowing this down. Anyway, they are totally Jasmine and Aladdin. They've got all of the good Aladdin stuff--a sheltered, rebellious princess and an outcast with a heart of gold and a tendency to lie through omission (or straight-up just lie) about his identity; magic; arranged marriages; court intrigue; evil advisors with snake motifs--all of the good stuff (TLH is one of my top favourite WoF books, and Aladdin is one of my top favourite Disney movies, and I think it shows). I'd also say that Ripnami is very Flynn and Rapunzel--you've got your missing princess (who is really into the Thing that exists because she is a missing princess, and who likes to imagine it's about her without realizing it is actually about her) and your criminal outcast who has to help her deal with The Real World, and at least at the beginning he is absolutely there with ulterior motives, which eventually begin to clash with the fact he's fallen in love with her. Also, Rapunzel and Flynn and Riptide and Tsunami respectively have some of the most absurd, funny, and kind of violent meetcutes ever, so I'm connecting them on that basis too (only Tsunami is doing the frypan bit, I'm sorry).

Glorybringer: Now, I see the desire to make them Rapunzel and Flynn (after all Deathbringer is a lot like Flynn personality-wise), but I would argue in terms of situation within their story, they're a lot more Esmeralda and Phoebus. Because Glory simply is Esmeralda in a lot of ways (beautiful, very strong sense of justice, very self-defensive, racially discriminated against), and Deathbringer's arc is absolutely going from 'I'm just doing my job--> it is a honour to potentially be executed for doing the right thing and saving the girl'. All of their interactions read so perfectly for Phoebus and Esmeralda and that is my best pick here. My second pick is Tiana and Naveen (girl who has to work So Damn Hard to be taken seriously or get anywhere and it's still not enough x The Most Annoying Guy She's Ever Met)

Starspeaker: This one is tricky to me, because Starflight doesn't exactly fit your classic 'prince' mold, which means my instinct is to go 'Milo!' (and to be fair, Starflight is very Milo--gotta love history nerds who accidentally find themselves on the wrong side of an attempted colonisation and genocide and have to try and stop it), however Fatespeaker is not very Kida at all, and their dynamic and situation aren't exactly comparable. My closest comparison that I can make is going to be Kristoff and Anna--because sometimes you're just a guy, trying to survive, and then along comes a girl who is very brave, and very tenacious and very optimistic and clearly has No Clue what is going on, but she doesn't know that (and if she does, she's ignoring that fact), and she is instead set on doing The Most Dangerous Stuff, so you start out just trying to make sure she lives, and then you grow quite fond of her actually, even though one of you has...other romantic attachments. That's the best I can do here, although I know it's not perfect.

I am really struggling to think of things for the arc 2 ships, and if anyone has any ideas, I am Very open to hearing them, please let me know. I am also, as I ponder realizing that when it comes to ships, so many of them can be Ripnami if you think hard enough.

I feel like Sunny would come over and ask Starflight 'hey, how's it going with Fatespeaker?' and Starflight would respond with 'great! but I'm trying to work up the nerve to ask her out, and I'm terrified it's going to go wrong', and Sunny will be like 'wait, you're not dating? how are you not dating? of course you should ask her out, not least because you are practically already dating!'

This will lead to some very interesting arguments between them (Sunny: WHY ARE YOU SHIPPING THEM?? Qibli: WHY ARE YOU NOT, THEY'RE CLEARLY ENDGAME???)

They eventually start convincing dragons to pick sides, to the point where the entire academy is split over this very very important issue

(I should have submitted this on bad wings of fire ideas 😭)

peak

I had a feeling someone would raise this question, so here is part 2 of "The Arc One Couples And The 'Would You Still Love Me If I Was A Worm' Question: Girls Edition." (part one is here)

Peril would answer this question unprompted. There is no universe in which Clay decides 'hm, I should test Peril's affection for me by raising the hypothetical scenario of if I was a worm', however I definitely do think that there is a reality in which Peril, entirely unprompted, not only assures Clay that she would still love him if he was a worm, but she'd become very distraught at the thought that if he was a worm, he wouldn't be a fireproof worm, and then she wouldn't be able to touch him, and she might incinerate him by accident. Clay can only say 'there, there', and reassure her that he has no intention of becoming a worm and she doesn't have to worry.

Tsunami's response would probably be along the lines of 'I would find whoever is responsible for you being a worm, and I would kill them.' Her response definitely would lean more 'I love you so much that the idea of you being a worm is a terrible one to me', rather than 'I love you so much that you being a worm wouldn't change things'. She'd probably embark on a long rant about the things she would do to someone who dared turn her boyfriend into a worm, and Riptide would listen, thoroughly enjoying the increasingly detailed threats.

I think Deathbringer has asked Glory if she would love him if he was a worm. She would roll her eyes and say 'no', because she can tell when he's fishing for compliments and affection, but it would be a very affectionate 'no' that conveys that, yes, she would still love him if he was a worm--but maybe not if he keeps asking stupid questions.

Arc One Clay would not pass this test. TDP Clay is notoriously bad at figuring out the intentions and implications of people's words, especially when it comes to anything romantic in vibe. He'd be blindsided by the question, and have no clue what the expected response would be. By Arc 2, Clay would be way more prepared to answer this kind of question from Peril, and he'd probably say something super encouraging about how he cares about her, and that she doesn't need to worry about it.

Riptide would simply respond with 'yes, I would still love you if you were a worm', because he knows that the reality in which Tsunami is a worm is not real and is never going to be real, but the reality where she gets annoyed because he answered wrong is real. Also, Riptide is an incredibly unfazed dragon in general--I think he would take it in his stride if Tsunami was suddenly turned into a worm.

Deathbringer would go to great lengths to clarify that Of Course he would still love Glory if she was a worm. She'd be a beautiful worm. He would cherish that worm. He'd go to such great, dramatic, over-the-top lengths to reassure her of this that she'd roll her eyes so hard about it (note: I seriously doubt Glory would ever raise the 'would you still love me if I was a worm' question, but we imagine that she has for the purpose of discussion).

Starflight...I do not think Starflight has it in him to handle hypothetical questions very well, and I imagine it would go something like this:

"Would you still love me if I was a worm?"

"Fatespeaker, why would you ever be a worm?"

"I don't know. But would you still love me if I was one?"

"You're never going to be a worm. This is a very stressful hypothetical over a situation that will never happen!"

"You don't know that. An animus dragon might get so annoyed at me that they turn me into a worm. I'm told that I can be very annoying."

"If you somehow turned into a worm, well, I'd still care about you of course, but I can't accurately predict how I'd respond in the situation, especially with such limited information? Can you still talk as a worm? Is the worm state permanent and--"

"Most people would just say 'yes', you know."

"It's all about the NUANCE..."

Fatespeaker absolutely knows and loves that Starflight is such an overthinker though, and she accepts this as his way of demonstrating that he cares about her enough to take a nuanced approach to the possibility of her turning into a worm.