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gwenfrankenstien(There was a tumblrmeme which was "give me a ship and I will tell you if I ship it and why/why not." A kind enabler of an anon asked, "OK, what's a ship you love more than anything else that no one has asked you about?" and um. Then this happened.)
Once And Future King (particularly the middle volumes, Ill-Made Knight and Candle in the Wind) is, as far as I’m concerned, an epic poly love story. The thing that makes it a tragedy is that all three of these people love each other so much but live in a society where that possibility wouldn’t even occur to them, or if it did it could wreck the kingdom. Even as-is it basically does destroy the kingdom. I’mma talk a little about each of the sub-relationships within the triad because I have All The Feelings.
White’s Lancelot is a bit younger than Arthur, enough that when he first meets the King there is a hero-worship thing going on. He becomes as good as he is partly because of his faith and what he believes to be his destiny, sure, but a huge part of it is trying to be good enough for Arthur. He is in love with the IDEA of Arthur-the-king before he even really gets to know Arthur-the-man. (Which ties into some stuff about Lancelot and Gareth, but that is another tl;dr essay right there.) And then he actually gets to know him and finds out that Arthur really genuinely believes in all the ideals he puts forth, that it’s not a front to win the people’s support or something, he actually does care that much about his people and fairness and justice and might-for-right and all that stuff. And so he loves Arthur as a king, but also as a trusted friend who shares some of his core beliefs in a world (initially) fundamentally opposed to that way of thinking. The idea— which originates from Arthur— that anger and violence can be channeled into good is very important to Lancelot, who is a very violent man who wants to do good but can’t escape the idea at the back of his head that he is actually a horrible person, no better than everyone else and worse than most. Arthur gives Lancelot a means by which he can feel good about himself for the first time. (There is a whole ramble about Lancelot and untreated mental illness here, but that also deserves its own post.)
So when Lancelot first meets Guenever, he is incredibly jealous of her. He’s worked his ass off to get to be Arthur’s best knight and best friend, which is really all he can do, and then out of nowhere comes this girl getting in the way and ruining everything. So he’s all set out to hate her forever, but then he actually spends time with her and it turns out that really isn’t going to work. She’s not the haughty queen he wants as his rival, she’s a real living human girl with thoughts and feelings. She can’t be categorised. And then, whoops, now he’s in love with her too. (Mists of Avalon does a lot of stuff around how their relationship is just a less-socially-inacceptible outlet for his feelings for Arthur, but that does Guin a disservice, so I’m gonna ignore that; I do think he wouldn’t have noticed her if she weren’t connected to Arthur but that’s more that. Lancelot doesn’t really notice ANYBODY.) Because she knows the truth of him, knows his sins as he sees them and loves him anyway, she is as important as Arthur to Lancelot’s self-esteem. She shows him that just because he has done some things that he views as bad doesn’t mean he is tarnished forever and nobody will ever love him and god has turned his back on him and all those things. (Whether or not he believes her when she says these things is another story, but she IS there to say them.)
Guenever is closer to Lancelot’s age than to Arthur’s. When she comes to court, she’s basically just a teenager, suddenly thrust into this world of court intrigue and finery which doesn’t quite suit her. She loves Arthur for the stability he provides. A major part of Guin’s characterisation is her desire for a family, so obviously her home is something very important to her… I wouldn’t say that she mothers him exactly, for one that would be creepy. He’s not a surrogate child so much as he represents the possibility of parenthood, the stable family structure. This is for all intents and purposes an arranged marriage; she doesn’t feel the same passion for Arthur as she does for Lancelot. But that’s absolutely not to say she doesn’t love Arthur and need him around. He is her rock, the person who will always be there for her even if they don’t always exactly understand one another. This is not Tristan And Isolde because Arthur is not Mark; if he were a controlling husband to whom she was attached without her will though she loved another, this would not be the tragedy it is. He has never been anything but kind to her even when he knows what’s going on.
Whereas Lancelot provides the opposite of stability. He is dangerous, not in a way that would ever hurt her physically but in that their affair is both adulterous and treasonous and if they are caught, well, we all know what happens. She’s got a temper, she’s got a fighting spirit, and as White tells us, she has no acceptable outlet for this energy. Sewing and the like are all very well, but if she wants to get out anger or to feel a sense of adventure, she has to do it vicariously. So she watches Lancelot in the tourneys— He doesn’t wear her colours, of course, but he is her lover and her champion and everybody knows he’s fighting on her behalf. When he sends back captives with stories, he sends them directly to her and she listens with rapture at their tales of What Lancelot Has Been Up To. As queen, she doesn’t have all that much in the way of actual power. She has no children she could spend her time with. All she really has by way of excitement is Lancelot. She gets incredibly jealous of Elaine and later of God, not because being with them means she doesn’t get laid, but because when he’s not thinking about her none of these adventures are being done in her name any more and she can’t live vicariously through his deeds.
Arthur I have less of a handle on, but I can try to figure out why he needs the two of them. Guin is, of course, his young wife who he loves, the daughter of an important ally. But that’s no reason why he doesn’t expose them, except that he must love her. He loves her enough to ignore Merlin’s warnings about her. But what is it about her that attracts him? White says that people are attracted to those most like them and that therefore she must have been good and generous and kind because Arthur and Lancelot both are, but I’m not sure I buy those as her central qualities. In AKOTAS she is the Bones to Arthur’s Kirk and Lancelot’s Spock, providing the passion to counter Lance’s reason. And I like that a lot, but, well, it has more to do with Star Trek than the Arthurian sources. So, really, I’m not sure what Guin provides that Arthur needs, except perhaps inner mental strength? She doesn’t let her reputation at court take all the joy from her life. She probably provides stability as much for him as he does for her. She can be an emotional outlet, for feelings that a king daren’t express to his subjects. (I’m thinking things like fear, here, not ~hidden secret feelings~, but really, probably those too.)
And then Lancelot he can go to with all his other problems. Any matters of chivalry and diplomacy, Lancelot knows what is the correct answer and what is the right one and that they aren’t always the same. He provides physical strength equal to Guinever’s mental strength. He is the personification of Arthur’s ideas and ideals, proving that they are possible in the real world. (The wisdom of holding anyone else to Lancelot’s example is questionable, but.) He’s been there at Arthur’s side from the beginning, and will be there again if he’s needed no matter what. Even when they’re nominally at war and everyone knows Lancelot had an affair with Arthur’s wife, Lancelot would be there like a shot if Arthur needed him.
Can you tell I understand Arthur’s headspace the least of the three? Anyway, my point here is: They all need each other. They all need things from each other that they could not get from the other one. In a world where Arthur and Guinever got married and never met Lancelot, I don’t think their marriage would be as long or as happy. If Lancelot and Guinevere had met each other independently of Arthur, I’m not sure they would even have noticed one another. Arthur and Lancelot would probably have a friendship bond if Arthur hadn’t married, but it wouldn’t be as strong as what the three of them have. I will never understand shipping any one pairing and not the triad, because. Well, because of everything I just said.
Once And Future King (particularly the middle volumes, Ill-Made Knight and Candle in the Wind) is, as far as I’m concerned, an epic poly love story. The thing that makes it a tragedy is that all three of these people love each other so much but live in a society where that possibility wouldn’t even occur to them, or if it did it could wreck the kingdom. Even as-is it basically does destroy the kingdom. I’mma talk a little about each of the sub-relationships within the triad because I have All The Feelings.
White’s Lancelot is a bit younger than Arthur, enough that when he first meets the King there is a hero-worship thing going on. He becomes as good as he is partly because of his faith and what he believes to be his destiny, sure, but a huge part of it is trying to be good enough for Arthur. He is in love with the IDEA of Arthur-the-king before he even really gets to know Arthur-the-man. (Which ties into some stuff about Lancelot and Gareth, but that is another tl;dr essay right there.) And then he actually gets to know him and finds out that Arthur really genuinely believes in all the ideals he puts forth, that it’s not a front to win the people’s support or something, he actually does care that much about his people and fairness and justice and might-for-right and all that stuff. And so he loves Arthur as a king, but also as a trusted friend who shares some of his core beliefs in a world (initially) fundamentally opposed to that way of thinking. The idea— which originates from Arthur— that anger and violence can be channeled into good is very important to Lancelot, who is a very violent man who wants to do good but can’t escape the idea at the back of his head that he is actually a horrible person, no better than everyone else and worse than most. Arthur gives Lancelot a means by which he can feel good about himself for the first time. (There is a whole ramble about Lancelot and untreated mental illness here, but that also deserves its own post.)
So when Lancelot first meets Guenever, he is incredibly jealous of her. He’s worked his ass off to get to be Arthur’s best knight and best friend, which is really all he can do, and then out of nowhere comes this girl getting in the way and ruining everything. So he’s all set out to hate her forever, but then he actually spends time with her and it turns out that really isn’t going to work. She’s not the haughty queen he wants as his rival, she’s a real living human girl with thoughts and feelings. She can’t be categorised. And then, whoops, now he’s in love with her too. (Mists of Avalon does a lot of stuff around how their relationship is just a less-socially-inacceptible outlet for his feelings for Arthur, but that does Guin a disservice, so I’m gonna ignore that; I do think he wouldn’t have noticed her if she weren’t connected to Arthur but that’s more that. Lancelot doesn’t really notice ANYBODY.) Because she knows the truth of him, knows his sins as he sees them and loves him anyway, she is as important as Arthur to Lancelot’s self-esteem. She shows him that just because he has done some things that he views as bad doesn’t mean he is tarnished forever and nobody will ever love him and god has turned his back on him and all those things. (Whether or not he believes her when she says these things is another story, but she IS there to say them.)
Guenever is closer to Lancelot’s age than to Arthur’s. When she comes to court, she’s basically just a teenager, suddenly thrust into this world of court intrigue and finery which doesn’t quite suit her. She loves Arthur for the stability he provides. A major part of Guin’s characterisation is her desire for a family, so obviously her home is something very important to her… I wouldn’t say that she mothers him exactly, for one that would be creepy. He’s not a surrogate child so much as he represents the possibility of parenthood, the stable family structure. This is for all intents and purposes an arranged marriage; she doesn’t feel the same passion for Arthur as she does for Lancelot. But that’s absolutely not to say she doesn’t love Arthur and need him around. He is her rock, the person who will always be there for her even if they don’t always exactly understand one another. This is not Tristan And Isolde because Arthur is not Mark; if he were a controlling husband to whom she was attached without her will though she loved another, this would not be the tragedy it is. He has never been anything but kind to her even when he knows what’s going on.
Whereas Lancelot provides the opposite of stability. He is dangerous, not in a way that would ever hurt her physically but in that their affair is both adulterous and treasonous and if they are caught, well, we all know what happens. She’s got a temper, she’s got a fighting spirit, and as White tells us, she has no acceptable outlet for this energy. Sewing and the like are all very well, but if she wants to get out anger or to feel a sense of adventure, she has to do it vicariously. So she watches Lancelot in the tourneys— He doesn’t wear her colours, of course, but he is her lover and her champion and everybody knows he’s fighting on her behalf. When he sends back captives with stories, he sends them directly to her and she listens with rapture at their tales of What Lancelot Has Been Up To. As queen, she doesn’t have all that much in the way of actual power. She has no children she could spend her time with. All she really has by way of excitement is Lancelot. She gets incredibly jealous of Elaine and later of God, not because being with them means she doesn’t get laid, but because when he’s not thinking about her none of these adventures are being done in her name any more and she can’t live vicariously through his deeds.
Arthur I have less of a handle on, but I can try to figure out why he needs the two of them. Guin is, of course, his young wife who he loves, the daughter of an important ally. But that’s no reason why he doesn’t expose them, except that he must love her. He loves her enough to ignore Merlin’s warnings about her. But what is it about her that attracts him? White says that people are attracted to those most like them and that therefore she must have been good and generous and kind because Arthur and Lancelot both are, but I’m not sure I buy those as her central qualities. In AKOTAS she is the Bones to Arthur’s Kirk and Lancelot’s Spock, providing the passion to counter Lance’s reason. And I like that a lot, but, well, it has more to do with Star Trek than the Arthurian sources. So, really, I’m not sure what Guin provides that Arthur needs, except perhaps inner mental strength? She doesn’t let her reputation at court take all the joy from her life. She probably provides stability as much for him as he does for her. She can be an emotional outlet, for feelings that a king daren’t express to his subjects. (I’m thinking things like fear, here, not ~hidden secret feelings~, but really, probably those too.)
And then Lancelot he can go to with all his other problems. Any matters of chivalry and diplomacy, Lancelot knows what is the correct answer and what is the right one and that they aren’t always the same. He provides physical strength equal to Guinever’s mental strength. He is the personification of Arthur’s ideas and ideals, proving that they are possible in the real world. (The wisdom of holding anyone else to Lancelot’s example is questionable, but.) He’s been there at Arthur’s side from the beginning, and will be there again if he’s needed no matter what. Even when they’re nominally at war and everyone knows Lancelot had an affair with Arthur’s wife, Lancelot would be there like a shot if Arthur needed him.
Can you tell I understand Arthur’s headspace the least of the three? Anyway, my point here is: They all need each other. They all need things from each other that they could not get from the other one. In a world where Arthur and Guinever got married and never met Lancelot, I don’t think their marriage would be as long or as happy. If Lancelot and Guinevere had met each other independently of Arthur, I’m not sure they would even have noticed one another. Arthur and Lancelot would probably have a friendship bond if Arthur hadn’t married, but it wouldn’t be as strong as what the three of them have. I will never understand shipping any one pairing and not the triad, because. Well, because of everything I just said.