Well, maybe they are. But that’s okay. It’s intentional. You see, I have a ‘hot’ take that’s quite hot, if you know what I mean. It’s okay for ships to be obvious. Sure, the payout might not be as strong as the ‘resolved love triangle’ (A trope I hate, by the way), but if you slow-burn it, the feeling is incredibly worth it. I want my readers to cheer a ship on and be incredibly excited when they finally get together. Blossoming love is a lot of fun to show, and I love both reading and writing it.
Life doesn’t always have to be so complicated. There doesn’t have to be cheating or constant abuse in relationships. That’s shown in stories on the regular, and honestly? I dealt with fighting parents as a kid due to them being divorced all the time. For once, I just want to see a happy couple that works out and is badass when FIGHTING together too! It’s really too uncommon, and it’s understandable why people write it. I’m not putting down folks who do it by any means at all.
Rather, I’d just love to see more stories that are wholesome when it comes to couples/ships. Sure, we see that with romance. But I’d love for it to bleed into other genre like fantasy with romance subplots. All too often with fantasy, there is some crazy complexity that either makes things not work out in the end, or has someone of the supposed ship dead in the end. Come on, I just want the main characters to be happy!
So, that’s why I write what I write. If you’re reading my works and guess a ship, you’re likely right. Though, I’ve tossed in a few teasers for other ships. Someday, I might write alternative universes for my works, where different ships are tried. There’s questions I always ask myself. What if Ash actually managed to capture Cecelia? Would she change his ways? How does Ares x Darcia sound? Smoke and Sam (okay this sounds like a roller coaster). Sam x Darcia also seem incredibly viable as a friends to lovers ship.
There would be uncommon ones to explore as well. Cecelia with anyone aside from Ares would be one of them. Ash having a character arc where he turns into an antihero (so we’ll say Smoke’s character arc) would be interesting. Then we get into Cobratongue characters, which is a whole different can of worms.
All of that said, my ships tend to be pretty straightforward, and I wouldn’t want it any other way. It’ll probably be that way in my future works, too. I just hope it is satisfying when they finally get together. Because it does take a while even if it does seem really obvious. That’s all about character and relationship building, though!
Des M. Astor 