#the fact that yassen's relationship with john is very much personal to him even though he would never admit it

[archerofunspeakablelove]

Russian Roulette update: Yassen's conversation with John towards the end of Командир (The Commander) genuinely made me tear up a bit. Y'all if I hadn't started shipping them at the start of Eagle Strike the first time I saw them interact this scene would've 100% convinced me because the way Yassen was so hesitant about working for Scopia at the start and had considered his other options, but now that John is tutoring him he desperately wants to prove his loyalty and competency. In the jungle John tells him he could leave if he wanted to, Scorpia had taught him enough about disguise - all this he had considered before himself, yet when John brings it up Yassen immediately shoots it down, becomes agitated. Why? Because he feels like John is questioning his competency. Remember what he said? "I can do this." John wants Yassen to not have to walk down the same path that he did, but ironically he is the reason Yassen even cares so much about succeeding in Scorpia in the first place. His cover worked a bit too well and now Yassen has a very fixed idea of who John is, and he will do anything to prove himself to his version of John.

You get it, right? The way they want completely different things out for each other, completely incompatible things, because they do not understand each other. These types of dynamics really just eat me up from the inside

#chaotic ramblings #alex rider #russian roulette #yassen gregorovich #john rider #man they really need a ship name i need SOMETHING to tag these posts with #the fact that yassen's relationship with john is very much personal to him even though he would never admit it #and it just so happens that to him john is basically an embodiment of scorpia #and he wants to impress john so by proxy he decides the best way to do that is to prove himself to scorpia #do you get it. do you get the dynamic #the tension in that scene was phenomenal i felt like i was reading fanfiction #which i suppose means that every fic author in this fandom does a wonderful job of capturing their relationship #just. the way yassen is so on edge whenever john says something about how he could still leave if he wanted to. before it's too late #the way he is so confused as to why john would bring this up because it doesnt fit with the very fixed idea he has in his mind about #who john is. the way he says “i killed some of them” as if to say see? i am like you. i can be like you. please give me a chance #his admiration for and attachment to john is so incredibly unhealthy which is unsurprising given that he has not had a normal #relationship of any sort since he was 14 and everyone he knew died #he wants so badly to be who he thinks john wants him to be. and that means that he will never be who he wants to be or who john wants him t #be or who he thinks john wants him to be. he is pursuing something that just doesn't exist #god i am so normal about these two

[arshipweek]

AR Ship Week - Popular Ships

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This is the second weekly post in the lead up to Alex Rider Ship Week. Only 3 weeks to go!

This week we’re going to look at the most popular ships in Alex Rider fandom (be warned: there are book spoilers upcoming).

[Graph depicting the top five Alex Rider Ships and the number of fics tagged with each pairing. Yassen Gregorovich/Alex Rider has 241, Tom Harris/Alex Rider has 26, Yassen Gregorovich/John Rider has 16, Helen Rider/John Rider has 15, and Alex Rider/Wolf has 14]

Looking at the stats on AO3, it's obvious that one pairing dominates the shipping fandom, with more than nine times the amount of fics than the second most popular ship.

So how has AR fandom ended up like this? 

Alex's world is full of adult villains that die quickly and supposed "allies" that often treat Alex worse than the villains. There isn't much scope for shipping Alex with a character of the same age either. A love interest, Sabina Pleasure, was introduced in book three but the uninspiring writing and Alex's denseness to her signals did not give much for fandom to be interested in. And in contrast to the TV show it wasn't until book five that one of Alex's school friends even showed up.

In this environment it's not surprising that the fandom latched on to a mysterious character with a complicated relationship with Alex...

Yassen/Alex

[Yassen and Alex from the 2006 movie Stormbreaker]

Yassen has only appeared in 3 out of 13 Alex Rider books but he's made a big impact, which the TV show and movie have capitalised on by putting him in a much bigger focus.

He's an assassin with a mysterious past, and an odd reluctance to kill Alex even when he's in the way. Their journeys parallel each other--both having their happy childhood destroyed at age 14 and being forced into a dangerous adult world, only on opposite sides. There's lots of juicy conflict to explore and many interactions between them to take in a shippy light, including the famous "love confession" from the 4th book ‘Eagle Strike’. There are also some big barriers in their way but the majority of fics get around the main one by setting the story in the future when Alex is all grown up.

Perhaps the most surprising shipper of this pairing is the director of the Alex Rider movie Stormbreaker, who decided to add smoke machines and romantic violins to their rooftop farewell. Enjoy the video of this!

Tom/Alex

[Tom and Alex from the 2020 Alex Rider TV series]

This ship has had a big revival in interest recently, with roughly half of their fics on AO3 being written since the TV show aired. The show overhauled Tom's character and made him a much bigger part in Alex's life from the very beginning. 

Unlike many other ships with Alex, Tom is someone who’s been there before Alex joined MI6. A link to Alex’s life from before where he can be a normal teenager, and not a super spy. They’re easy to ship together, with lots of hugs, banter, sleepovers (just where is Alex meant to sit on that tiny bed for a samurai movie marathon?) but also some deep caring between them. Tom is one of Alex’s strongest defenders, as shown when he cycles all the way out to deliver a pizza see Alex when he was worried about him. 

Yassen/John

We’ve seen snippets of Yassen and John’s relationship throughout the books, but it wasn’t until Russian Roulette that we saw the full picture. Alone and mistreated for years, John was the first person to show Yassen kindness and consideration, even though he was only there to train Yassen as an assassin. 

On one of their missions John saved Yassen’s life while giving him a scar to forever remember him by. Even after John’s betrayal, Yassen still saves the life of his son. Yassen’s line in Eagle Strike sums up their relationship beautifully:

“He saved my life. In a way, I loved him.”

John/Helen

This is the one canon ship represented in the top five, and like most adult canon pairings in YA books, John/Helen lives a quiet, unassuming existence in fandom (not infrequently joined by a John/Yassen pairing). 

It's not helped by the fact that we learn next to nothing about Helen in canon, and anything we hear about John is heavily biased. But as we learn in Russian Roulette, they're also the couple who met for a few, fleeting hours in Paris against the wishes and knowledge of both MI6 and SCORPIA, despite the risk to John, and Helen's visible pregnancy. They had the odds against them but made the best of what they got, showing signs of a deep and abiding love at the base of the series' plot.

Wolf/Alex

[Wolf and Alex from the 2020 Alex Rider TV series]

Wolf/Alex just sneaks in as the fifth most popular AR ship and comes in two distinct flavours. One is the book/movie version, where Wolf is an emotionally stunted bully, and the TV show version, where Wolf is given a welcome dose of protectiveness.

Just looking at the screenshot of Wolf bundling Alex up in a shock blanket shows a lot of the appeal. The ship is an exercise in contrasts--big gruff cuddly Wolf (doesn’t he look like he gives great hugs?) to small and slender Alex. Despite Alex’s age and lack of experience, he can hold his own and stand up as an equal to a fully trained adult SAS soldier. It’s a pairing where Wolf can both respect, and protect Alex.

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That’s it for this week! Do you ship any of the popular pairings? Thinking of writing any of them for the upcoming Ship Week? Let us know!

Disclaimer: All AR-specific data was current as of the writing of this post (February 28th, 2021).

#alex rider #ARshipweek #yalex #tomlex #..... #mod posts #meta