#safik

idk if safi is going to end up with anyone at all, tbh, and at this point, i don't think i really want her to. maybe it ends with her and merik re-introducing themselves to each other, to see if there could be something there, after the events of the story? or maybe it ends with her and caden reaching out to each other now that the hell-bards are free? (i do believe that caden is either in love with safi or on his way to it, and i'm on the fence as to whether or not he'll survive the finale.) or just with safi finally free to choose her own fate, no longer someone else's pawn or ace up their sleeve.

i'm not of the opinion that safi and/or iseult will die -- i don't feel like this is the kind of story where one of them die, and i don't feel like aeduan will, either. i definitely think aeduan and iseult have suffered enough and it would be a betrayal of the narrative to kill either of them when they're finally starting to come to peace and find love. if one of the main four is going to die, i think it will be merik, in killing the fury -- he and kullen, thread-brothers to the end.

idk, truthwitch set up safi/merik but the rest of the series kinda dropped it, and i'm not sure that wasn't intentional. like, it's one of those almosts, you know? the guy you met over the summer, felt a connection to, had a few deep conversations with over a case of beer in front of a fire pit, imagined that he might be the one for you... but then the semester started up and you went back to college and lost contact with him, and... that was that.

i just don't see it actually happening anymore, at least before the end of the story. it's an almost. a could-have-been. at best, the ending may give them a chance to start again, but i just don't think they're the same people anymore. what they had was ended by circumstance and they've spent three books (well. two, for merik) changing and growing totally apart from one another. i don't think they're incompatible now, i still think they could connect with each other, but the connection that they had formed was between two people that they aren't anymore. they'd have to start over.

Oh it absolutely does--that was honestly one of the selling points of the series by the friend who got me into these books. "The author ships zutara and it shows!!!" and also "Enemies to lovers where they actually try to kill each other!!!" and I was like oh I have to get my hand on these lmfao

What I really love about the main relationships (I am not perceiving any possibility that my ships are not endgame here cough cough) is that there's this duality between them--Safi and Iseult are foils and in that same vein I think Merik and Aeduan are also foils, and their relationships also mirror each other. There's this duality that is a recurring thread (hah, thread) throughout these books, because there have at least been hints that Safi and Iseult are the Cahr Awen, and even if all is not as it seems -stares hard at susan dennard ma'am plEASE- they are still very much two halves of one whole, but they also fit with Merik and Aeduan respectively in very different ways. But what gets me is that I see elements of zutara's essence in both of their relationships.

Safi and Merik have their fire and their passion--they have this fantastic banter and instant connection (which may have been rather grudging at first, but Truthwitch only spanned a few weeks at most, their kiss stole my breath away and I've been aching for them to reunite through TWO BOOKS AND THEIR BRIEF MOMENT IN BLOODWITCH DETROYED ME PLEASE LET THEM MEET BACK UP AGAIN IN WITCHSHADOW I AM BEGGING) and an energy that just draws you in. On the other hand, Iseult and Aeduan have the full enemies to lovers dynamic and I think they are more on the deep intensity side. They get what is so delicious about zutara's potential for a slow burn, feelings buried deep down and growing against all odds when they are trapped together by circumstance and wind up seeing each other in an entirely new (and decidedly inconvenient) light, and Iseult being like from the moment I stabbed this man in the heart, his heart belonged to me and I'll be damned if it stops beating without my fucking permission when she saved his life and saw their heart-thread form like....

'Cause I don't know how it gets better than this

You take my hand and drag me head first

Fearless

And I don't know why

But with you I'd dance in a storm

In my best dress

Fearless

The entire nation of Nubrevna that thought Merik was dead:

Safik - a reunion

Baeseult - a sweet scene that doesn't come with really high stakes

Vix - a proper conversation about their feelings

Rylen - getting to see each other again and know they're safe

Saden - a moment for them to be honest with each other and sort out whatever confusion they may have

Safik: For their dates they terrorize the population. In a modern au they just hangout and throw rocks at cars. Merik didn't like it at first but then he watched Safi break Corlant's window and it awakened something in him.

Baesult: They got into a fight with a librarian and have been banned from their local library. They refuse to tell anyone what happened.

Merik: But you keep fighting me?