Wings of Love: Ship Opinions

Winterwatcher

"Sometimes, I'm only sure of one thing - that I hope I never hurt you."

⤜⤏

From the moment he threatened to slice her face off, Moonwatcher knew she was smitten. His flirting capabilites were indisputable: abandoning her, badmouthing her, hindering her own missions and very rarely displaying a dash of something that vaguely resembles affection. Yes, without a doubt, they were in love - because who needs development anyway?

... at least, that's how most of the fanfictions go.

I used to hate this pairing a lot more than I do now (people either love it or hate it, don't they?). Really, there's plenty of worse ships in the sea. And it's pretty obvious that it's going to become canon, too - I mean, throughout Moon's POV, Winter was presented as a love interest, while Qibli was more a doubt mechanism to add some stress to the thing and maybe keep the readers on their toes. You know, the classical love triangle sequence of "Protagonist meets lover. New lover interferes. Doesn't work out. Protagonist ends up with first lover." (the Twilight, Maze Runner and Hunger Games books all do this). The unique course of action would be to have Moon end up with Qibli, but it's incredibly unlikely that this would happen.

Okay, now that that's done, imagine you were an author. You set up two characters as a romantic pairing. Wouldn't you be pretty excited to hear what the readers had to say?

Now imagine hearing the readers hated it.

As an author myself, I can reassure you that finding out your readers dislike something in your story is a horrible feeling. Take the times you've had your work criticised; how did you feel? That's how the author would feel, and what a lot of supporters of the ship would feel too.

If Tui puts Winter and Moonwatcher together, it's very clear that she has a reason for doing so. Regardless of what we want, she is the author. Her word is final.

In reality, they're not that incompatible. They have a similar background - both sort of outcasts from their tribe (Winter having lost his brother, and Moon having been raised outside the volcano), both anxious in their own way. In addition to these similarities, they also have a few differences; Winter's more outgoing but less inclined to share his feelings, whereas Moon's more introverted but more likely to open up about things. If they got together, they would benefit each other; Winter could help Moon be more social and look after her when she gets overwhelmed, and Moon could help Winter understand and express his emotions rather than push them aside in anger. When it comes to the long run, they are compatible.

But - and this is the but a lot of people leave out - they aren't at this exact moment. Remember, for the past few books, Winter's been horrible to Moonwatcher. To put it simply, he's been a bully; threatened her, intimidated her, belittled her and her tribe and continually pushed her away. The fact that Moon is still nice to him is a courtesy in itself.

If a person who'd been repeatedly mean to me suddenly started holding my hands and acting all lovey (like Winter did to Moon), I wouldn't feel happy or start viewing them romantically; I'd be creeped out. Winter's sudden fleeting romantic attentions are not going to get Moon to like him immediately. If she's the consistent character Tui built her up to be, she shouldn't fall in love with him outright. Rather, it'd take time for them to get together. Lots and lots of time.

Which is why I don't care for all the fanfictions and AUs out there. In all of them, Winter and Moon follow the canon for a brief time and then immediately fall in love. I've seen stories where they fall in love in Possibility, or even at Jade Mountain Academy before the prophecy was even heard of. This is all too rushed for her to be reciprocating his feelings. I'd appreciate seeing their relationship drawn out over a longer period - perhaps after they fulfil the prophecy.

So, in short, Winterwatcher is not my favourite pairing, but they aren't my least favourite either. With a bit of development in the right places, they could very easily work.

5/10.