How Does Viren X Aaravos Fanfiction Explore Trust And Rivalry?

For me, what sticks out is the mentor-student thing flipped completely on its head. Viren starts off thinking he's the one in control, the human mage using this ancient, trapped elf for power. But the fics that really dig in show how Aaravos is the ultimate puppet master. It's not even subtle sometimes; he's just waiting, dropping hints, letting Viren think every terrible idea is his own. The power shift is slow, almost invisible until Viren's sacrificing his own kids and Aaravos hasn't even left his mirror. A lot of writers play with the intimacy of that, which ties into the power thing. Aaravos is literally the only one Viren can talk to without pretense. That creates a weird dependency. Who holds power when you're the only person someone can be vulnerable with? The best stories don't make it a simple 'who's stronger' question. It's about who needs whom less, and Aaravos clearly doesn't need Viren at all. He's just passing time. It makes you wonder if Viren ever really had any power in that dynamic, or if he was just a convenient tool from the start.

Viren and Aaravos are such a complicated mess, and that's exactly why they're so fun to write about. It’ s not just power dynamics, though that’s a huge part—it’s the sheer intellectual arrogance they share, that feeling of being the smartest person in any room, finally meeting someone who might actually understand them. The conflict comes from that initial recognition curdling into resentment. How do you handle a partnership where you’re equals in cunning but never in vulnerability? Viren’s got all this human pettiness and ambition, and Aaravos has seen empires rise and fall. The stories I’ve read often hinge on that imbalance: Viren wants Aaravos’s power and approval but hates needing it, and Aaravos finds Viren fascinatingly flawed but disposable. You see a lot of plots where Viren tries to assert control, to prove he’s not just a puppet, and Aaravos either indulges him like a child or coldly reminds him of the terms of their deal. The emotional core is that sick, co-dependent need. Viren’s humanity—his love for his children, his twisted loyalty to Katolis—clashes with the amoral, ancient perspective Aaravos offers. Does Aaravos even have emotions in a way Viren can comprehend, or is it all a performance? That uncertainty drives a ton of the tension. Is there genuine connection, or just mutual use? I’m always more interested in the fics that lean into the horror of it, the slow realization that you’ve tied your soul to something profoundly alien. It often ends with Viren broken by the weight of what he’s embraced, while Aaravos remains utterly, chillingly unchanged. That’s the real tragedy the good fics capture.

Yeah, Viren and Aaravos stories? They've got a really specific flavor. The classic is the 'Dark Apprentice' trope, but flipped—Viren's already a dark mage, so it's more about Aaravos elevating him, teaching him real power beyond just primal stones. It feels less like training and more like a very intimate, terrifying corruption. A lot of writers lean into the 'deal with the devil' dynamic, but Aaravos is already inside the mirror, so the initial contract is a given. The tension comes from Viren realizing the cost is his sanity and free will, not just some abstract soul. The best fics I've seen play with Viren's deteriorating grip, showing him trying to justify each step deeper while Aaravos just watches, amused. You also get a surprising amount of body-sharing fics after Aaravos gets that caterpillar into Viren's ear. The psychological horror of two minds in one skull, with Aaravos slowly overwriting Viren's personality, is a niche but really effective angle. It's less about romance and more about a horrific merger.

Man, you can just feel the writers’ need for any scrap of chemistry those two had in ‘The Dragon Prince’ and crank it up to eleven. The top theme, hands down, is ‘Enemies to Lovers’—but it’s never just that. It’s specifically Viren’s slow, terrifying realization that he’s not manipulating Aaravos, he’s being manipulated right back, and that twist into genuine obsession is everything. You get a lot of ‘Dark Mentor/Apprentice’ but flipped, where Aaravos is the ancient, bored star-touch teaching Viren forbidden magic and watching him unravel. A huge chunk of stories are just pure ‘Corruption Arc’ studies. They explore how Aaravos doesn’t just give Viren power; he methodically dismantles his morals, his loyalty to Katolis, his relationship with his kids. It’s about Viren losing his humanity piece by piece, and whether there’s anything left to salvage by the end. I’ve seen a few that frame it as a gothic horror romance, which is a mood. Then there’s the ‘Deal with the Devil’ trope played straight, but with extra layers of political scheming. The fics that focus on the two of them ruling together, a dark king and his imprisoned god, planning conquests from that creepy mirror chamber, are a particular niche I love. It always circles back to that terrifying intimacy of being the only person who truly sees the other’s ambition.

Okay, so I've seen a ton of 'The Dragon Prince' fanfic with these two, and the core conflict is almost never about them being enemies. It's what happens after they start working together. A huge one is power imbalance and the question of who's really manipulating whom. Viren starts out thinking he's in control, using Aaravos's knowledge for human survival or his own ambitions, but you get this slow-burn realization that he's the puppet. The conflict becomes internal for Viren—his pride versus his growing dependence, his original goals getting twisted by Aaravos's whispers. Does he lean into the darkness because it's easier now, or try to pull back? That tension drives a lot of fics. Then you have the logistical conflicts from the canon: Claudia trying to 'save' her dad from his influence, Soren's disgust, the other kingdoms hunting them. But the best stories use those external pressures to force Viren and Aaravos closer together, making their weird symbiotic partnership the only shelter they have left.

Honestly, I've had some luck on Archive of Our Own using the specific relationship tag. But filtering by 'slow burn' alone doesn't always work because some writers don't tag it. I usually search for longer fics tagged 'Viren/Aaravos' or 'Dark Magic Student & Startouch Elf', then sort by word count. Anything over 80k tends to develop the tension more. There's one called 'A Study in Patience' that's basically all subtext and shared glances across a century, which is exactly the vibe. Tumblr's a decent secondary source if you follow the right blogs. People recc fics there that sometimes slip under the AO3 tagging radar. The key is looking for posts discussing their dynamic rather than just 'fic rec' lists. I found a fantastic, unfinished one through a screenshot post analyzing Aaravos's dialogue in s3.

The archives for that pairing are pretty scattered, honestly. I mostly hunt through Archive of Our Own—the tagging is reliable, and you can filter out crossovers or AUs if you want something canon-adjacent. I found a couple of writers there who really nail Aaravos's voice, that unsettling mix of charm and menace. Tumblr used to have a lot of snippets and headcanons, but it's harder to track down full stories now. For a more curated feel, sometimes I check specific Discord servers dedicated to 'The Dragon Prince'. People share Google Docs links or upload to smaller sites like Quotev. The quality can be hit-or-miss, but the community discussions around those stories are half the reason I'm there.

Everybody wants to talk about Shinji's guilt over Ken's mom or Akihiko's fight-first mentality, but the foundation of that dynamic hits different in fanfic. They're former foster siblings, right? That shared history creates a built-in level of intimacy nobody else in SEES gets. But it's all twisted up in rivalry because they're also these two guys who express everything through fists. The trust isn't built on talking it out; it's built on knowing the other won't break under pressure. I've read this one story where after Shinji wakes up from his coma, he can't speak for a while. Akihiko just sits with him, cleaning his boxing gloves, not saying a word either. The trust was in the silence, the routine. The rivalry shifted from who was stronger to who could bear the weight of what happened without collapsing. It's less about proving superiority and more about this unspoken pact to be each other's anchor, even if that means pushing each other into the ring to bleed out the bad memories. That's the core most writers latch onto – trust as a violent, quiet thing.

Never been huge on a lot of the popular 'MHA' ships, but Shinsou x Bakugou snuck up on me. It’s less about romance off the bat and more about two people who feel fundamentally misunderstood by the system, but in opposite ways. Bakugou’s aggression is loud and praised, Shinsou’s quirk is quiet and feared. The rivalry starts there—Bakugou would initially see Shinsou’s brainwashing as cheating, a coward’s move, while Shinsou would see Bakugou’s brute force as simplistic arrogance. The trust, when it comes, has to be painfully earned. I’ve read fics where it hinges on Shinsou proving he can go toe-to-toe physically, not just mentally, maybe during joint training. Bakugou respects strength and effort above all else. Conversely, Bakugou learning to listen, to be still, to let someone else take the lead in a strategy—that’s the real character death for him, in a good way. I saw one story where Bakugou, after a villain attack leaves him temporarily quirkless, has to rely entirely on Shinsou’s coordination. The sheer, simmering frustration of that dependency forced a kind of trust that declarations never could. Their dynamic isn’t built on soft moments, but on grudging acknowledgment that the other fills a weakness. Bakugou gives Shinsou a model of unapologetic, visible power; Shinsou gives Bakugou a lesson in tactical patience and the weight of perception. The rivalry never fully dissipates, it just morphs into this constant, sharp-edged push to be better than the other, which ironically becomes the most stable thing in their lives.

especially the ones exploring Momo and Okarun's dynamic. The best stories nail how trust builds in tiny, messy steps—not some grand confession. One fic had Okarun accidentally grabbing Momo's hand during a fight, and instead of pulling away, she squeezed back. That silent moment said more than any monologue. The authors often use supernatural threats as a catalyst; facing death together forces them to rely on each other when they'd normally bolt. What really gets me is how fanfic writers mirror the manga's humor in tense moments. Like Okarun tripping over his own feet mid-battle, making Momo laugh despite herself. That vulnerability becomes glue. Some AUs even flip their roles—Momo as the skeptic, Okarun as the believer—which highlights how trust isn't about who's 'right' but choosing to stay anyway. The fandom's invented this whole lexicon of gestures (shared headphones, matching bandaids) that speak louder than 'I trust you' ever could.