Bookworm Family SHIPS
In honor of the upcoming Valentine’s Day holiday, I decided that I would ask my family who their favorite ‘ships are in literature and fiction. (Ships are a couple that you believe should be together, AKA relationSHIPS.) Luckily for me, my sometimes obliging family decided to humor me.
Little Lion:
Legolas and Gimli from Lord of the Rings series by J.R.R. Tolkien. [Dr. Bookworm note: I think LL would ship Legolas with herself if she could. He’s her favorite character from LOTR in the films.]
Harry and Ginny: because they are cute together. And because they get married. [Do I even have to say from the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling?]
Turtle and Kinkajou from Wings of Fire series by Tui T. Sutherland because they’re sweet with each other in the epilogue of Darkness of Dragons. I also ship them because of the love spell and because of the way you know how Turtle feels about Kinkajou.
Blue and Jasmin from The Menagerie trilogy by Tui T. Sutherland and Kari H. Sutherland because Logan and Zoe both ship them too. And because they hang out with each other a lot and Jasmin obviously has a crush on Blue.
Mini Me:
In no particular order. . .
Rhy and Alucard from A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab, because A CANONICALLY BISEXUAL CHARACTER IN A FANTASY SERIES. YES. Also, they’re both charming, fascinating, enchanting people with interesting backstories, flaws, and very good character development. Also I love this series.
Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, because they. Are. Adorable. It’s also a plausible ship, although I’m not saying it’s canon, because we don’t know very much about the teenage Marauders, so they could have dated before Azkaban. Lupin could absolutely be bi or pan, and Sirius is clearly about as straight as Hermione trying to fly a broomstick. In my opinion, anyway. [HP series by J.K. Rowling]
Juliette and Warner from the Shatter Me trilogy by Tahereh Mafi, aka my one straight ship, which I love because they help each other. They heal each other. They make my cynical teenage mind believe that the impossible is possible. I love both their tragic backstories and the way they piece themselves back together. I love their devotion for each other and the small kindnesses that they show each other in their war-torn dystopian world. I love them, okay?
Mairon/Sauron and Melkor/Morgoth from The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien, which might just be the weirdest ship ever, but I SHIP IT, because the couple who slays together stays together, right? (Unless one of them goes insane because he stole three shiny magic jewels for NO GOOD REASON and then gets thrown into the void by his own brother, anyway. . . stop sinking my ships, Manwë!) It’s your classic love story of angel (sort of) meets god/incarnation of rebellion and evil, angel falls in love with god/incarnation of rebellion and evil, (fallen) angel kills a bunch of people after becoming lieutenant of Angband and turns into the dark lord Sauron. Yes, that’s the giant floating eye. Don’t judge.
(Also: in The Silmarillion, it declares that “Of old there was Sauron the Maia [. . .] Melkor seduced him to his allegiance [. . .]” (Tolkien 339), and while that doesn’t strictly make it canon, especially as this is Tolkien, I’m a preteen fangirl in the twenty-first century, and I interpret as I will.)
(Also also: come on, you can’t argue with MLA citation.)
(Also also also: if my dad is reading this. . . . I know, I know. Now STOP LAUGHING.)
Mr. Bookworm:
So when I told the girls that I was going to ask their dad about his ships, they claimed that he wouldn’t have any. I said he does, he just has to dig deep to think about them.
His response?
Initially SPACESHIPS. Literally that was his first thought. I love him.
Millenium Falcon from Star Wars
The TARDIS from Doctor Who
HMS Surprise from Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey/Maturin series [an actual ship, not a spaceship]
On further thought (this took him a REALLY long time to think about):
(I don’t do this much so these are a little random… And when she said “favorite ships” of course I was like “Millenium Falcon, duh”)
Stephen Maturin and Diana Villiers from the Aubrey/Maturin series. Go ahead and find a relationship in fiction that is so long, complicated, tortuous but satisfying, and tragic.
Leo Valdez and Calypso from the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan. Because he’s a short insecure class clown with magical engineering powers and she’s Calypso. From The Odyssey.
Magnus and Alex from the Magnus Chase series. Also Rick Riordan. They meet cute. Alex (a she at the time, but not always) cuts his head off so that he won’t explode.
Dr. Bookworm:
Darcy and Elizabeth. I have to ship these two because they are my original ‘ship way before that term existed. From Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.
Edward and Bella from The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer because I’m being honest about my ships.
Eleanor and Park plus Daniel and Natasha from Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell and The Sun Is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. They’re equivalent for me. Okay, also Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky from To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han.
Gale and Madge from The Hunger Games. You know I’ve been shipping these two ever since I stumbled upon “Gadge” fanficiton. Though it’s not in the original series by Suzanne Collins, I definitely see this ship as canon.
My picture book ship: Ox and Gazelle from XO, OX by Adam Rex because Ox is persistent and kind and Gazelle shifts from being narcissistic and judgmental to falling in love. All in the course of letter writing. Plus Scott Campbell’s watercolor illustrations are gorgeous.
[Mini Me is complaining that I have more than three. It’s because P&P is not YA or middle grade and XO, OX is picture book. So now she can add one more past The Silmarillion. :D]
There you have them—the Bookworm family’s series of OTP/ship just in time for Valentine’s Day. Check them out and fall in love.
Tell Dr. Bookworm!
Who is in your top OTP (one true pairing) or your favorite ship in books? Let us know in the comments!
