#also his friendship with bodkin right now is so precious

[wickedcriminal]

Xar proudly taking all the credit for the witch king is so funny oh my gosh Wish exploded him right in front of you you beautiful idiot 😭

"He exploded!" Said Xar, who loves an explosion

OF COURSE YOU DO

[dragonsword]

My thoughts on the budding Bodkin-Wish-Xar love triangle

BOOK 2 SPOILERS BELOW!!!

Ok so I've been thinking about this bc as we all know, love triangles are risky. They're overdone, icky, and just generally unpleasant. Or at least, I've never seen a love triangle executed in a a way that was not gross, and I know a lot of people feel the same. And in this case, I lovelovelove Wish, Bodkin, and Xar as individuals and I LOVE their friendship.

HOWEVER

After reading the how to train your dragon series time and time again over the years, and after reading Wizards of Once and Twice Magic, I pretty much have learned to just trust that anything and everything Cressida Cowell hints at will turn out amazing. I also know that she has a way of insinuating something that ends up being completely different from what I imagined. Honestly I completely trust that she's not making a bad decision, and maybe this love triangle won't even be relevant later on (although it probably will; she likely wouldn't have brought it up at all if it was irrelevant, and the context in which it was mentioned makes it pretty clear that it'll play a significant role later on.) Regardless of how important this love triangle becomes to the plot, I firmly trust that Cressida Cowell will execute it wonderfully, exceeding all our expectations, just like she always does.

FURTHERMORE, (THESE NEXT THOUGHTS ARE MORE MY PERSONAL PREFERENCE, AND STRAY FROM THE LOVE TRIANGLE THING)

Although the WoO fandom is tiny right now, the accounts that I have seen are all against a Wish/Xar romance. Everyone says that their friendship is wonderful and a romance would ruin their platonic love for each other. Before reading the second book, I completely agreed, 100%. Also, a romance between them obviously wouldn't work if their parents ended up falling back in love and getting married, but that seems quite far-fetched, although we never know with Cressida Cowell lol. However, after reading Twice Magic, I was genuinely surprised that no one shipped Wish and Xar, regardless of how I felt about the pairing. I figured people would go CRAZY shipping them!!! And this is getting into my own bias now, but I honestly shipped them super hard after the second book. While I understand how precious and underrated good friendships are, I think Wish and Xar are adorable as friends AND as a couple, but NOT YET!!!!!!!! After all, these are 13-year-olds!!! Who've only known each other for a short amount of time!!!! While I would LOVE to see a Wish/Xar romance, I think that they need to first continue building up their friendship. But eventually if they did get together down the road, I think it would be adorable. They make each other feel happy, and they love being around each other. They're not afraid to argue or bicker because they're secure in their friendship, and when Xar and Wish are together, their belief in each other strengthens their belief in themselves. They both have self-esteem issues deriving from their perceived shortcomings (Xar's lack of Magic and Wish's inability to please her mother and conform to the "proper" Warrior personality), but when they team up they help each other see that they are enough. Wish helps Xar learn that he has behaviors he needs to work on but it's all part of who he is. She helps him see that his actions will have consequences but while he should try to do what's right, when he does make a mistake she'll be there (along with Caliburn, Bodkin and the other companions) to help him clean up whatever mess he makes. (Not to clean up his mess for him, but to help him learn accountability and to guide him when he needs help. He is still growing up and learning, after all.) Xar helps Wish see that she doesn't have to conform to who she's expected to be in order to be someone worth being proud of. For example, while at home she's belittled for her inability to spell*, when she's with Xar and his companions, she's immersed into this world of people who don't care about spelling. Xar also helps her see that she shouldn't have to conform because being true to herself is more important than meeting her mother's expectations for what she should be. (Insert that avengers quote about Thor being who he Is instead of who he's Meant To Be lol) Xar helps Wish see herself in a new light, and that new light highlights her "flaws" as the things that make her worth loving herself and worth being loved by others. Of course, there are other people in Xar's and Wish's respective lives that also have a positive impact. Xar has Caliburn, the sprites, snowcats, and others, who are always by his side when he needs them, despite the risk to themselves. They all go waaaay above and beyond for Xar. Wish has Spoon, who we all obviously love, and Bodkin, who started out as not that encouraging (in the first book when he told her she should try to be more normal) but now, as her close friend, is one of her biggest supporters. However, (and I'm not saying that these characters' support isn't worth as much, because it is) none of these companions impact Xar and Wish the way they impact one another. Something about the way Xar and Wish relate to each other so much despite coming from opposite worlds makes for an incredibly unique and special friendship.

Speaking of Bodkin, some people ship him and Wish or him and Xar. I don't really see him and Xar together or him and Wish together because they're just too different (I know "opposites attract" but there's a line, and they would cross it.) I think that while Xar's and Wish's never-sit-still attitude and stubborn tenacity would at first seem endearing to Bodkin, eventually Bodkin would just get worn down from the anxiety of it all. After all, we know that Bodkin's true passion is not actually bodyguarding but storytelling. While he would absolutely accompany Wish and Xar on any and all ridiculous adventures, I think a relationship with him and either Wish or Xar, realistically, just wouldn't make as much sense, and I say this with their futures in mind: as adults, would Bodkin tire of this stressful lifestyle? While his crush on Wish is adorable and I want him to have all the happiness in the world, I PERSONALLY just favor Wish/Xar over Wish/Bodkin or Bodkin/Xar.

With all of this being said, I trust that whatever path Cressida Cowell takes, it will turn out beautiful. If she chooses to have a Xar/Wish romance, a Xar/Bodkin romance, a Bodkin/Wish romance, a different romance, or no romance at all, I will be happy. I'm not against anything despite the preferences I've discussed.

Tl;dr I know we all think this love triangle is a bad idea but Cressida Cowell has never done us wrong so I trust her completely to flesh this out in a good way.

*Love love love the dyslexia rep! i am not dyslexic but i know that having this rep is an amazing thing and i'm so happy Cressida Cowell did this!!! i could make a whole other post about this but someone else (whos actually dyslexic!) already did lol. I forget their url (so sorry!!) but it's a great post