#I don't think anyone really reads kotlc expecting queer characters

[bookwyrminspiration]

Hey, what’s your take on Marella and Linh? I think out of all queer ships they have the most potential to be canon.

I think I agree with that assessment of their relationship, and I have no qualms with them that immediately come to mind. If any queer ships were to become canon, I'd assume it would be Marellinh

(I focused on their potential to be canon in this post, but if you'd like me to look more at their relationship and interactions, comparing and contrasting them, I can do that too!)

Of course, they have the classic fire/water theme going on, so I think that draws a lot of attention. It's a very obvious opposites attract but are also equals kind of situation, balancing each other out and understanding each other in a way no one else can. We've gotten so used to that kind of dynamic through various different medias that it only seems natural for it to happen in this story as well. There's also less risk of it being seen as just another overdone trope in kotlc because the target audience is younger and likely hasn't seen as many/any other stories do the fire and water thing. They might compare later fire/water pairings to keeper and be like "yea i've already seen that in kotlc"

there's also another key point: this queer ship doesn't contain any of the people from the love triangle. In terms of wlw pairings, a lot of the popular ones in the fandom include Sophie--sophiana, hekster, solinh--and I simply cannot see that happening. Sophie has very clearly been put into a het love triangle and her romance story is going to revolve around the boys also in that triangle. And I don't even think I want her to be in a queer relationship at this point. It's too far into the series and doing so would feel very forced, something done for the represenation points. I'd rather she stick to her love triangle situation. The same goes for Keefe and Fitz; they've both been wrapped up in this Sophie situation for long enough that giving either of them a queer relationship at this point would also feel forced. So if there is going to be a queer relationship in keeper, it's not going to be with the three of them, so Marellinh is a better option

and another thing: there's no past history between the two of them to work through like there is with other characters. Maruca got left behind by everyone in the group except for Linh, who wasn't part of said group at the time. There's nothing to hold against her. Where as a pairing between other characters like Stina and Biana would have a lot of fraught history and would take more time to work through, time Shannon doesn't have in the last two books. Linh and Marella have a clean foundation, so it would be significantly easier to give them a satisfying relationship.

I will say though that I have absolutely zero expectation of any queer ships becoming canon--or even hinted at--in kotlc. I love hearing about them in fandom spaces and seeing what people come up with, but the story itself has been very clearly focused on het ships and crushes, so I don't expect that to change in the last two books.

This doesn't mean I think it's impossible, as Shannon very well might surprise me. But! It does mean I'm not holding out hope and I anticipate that we will be seeing queer ships--even Marellinh with all it's potential--solely in fandom spaces.

I do love Marellinh and find them to be a few sweet queer couple when I do see art/read fic about them!! They have, in my opinion, the best chance of becoming canon out of all queer ships in the book, so we'll have to see what happens