Let's talk about RariDash · 4:52pm Jun 6th, 2015
RariDash is one of those ships that seems like it should be way more popular than it is, because it makes so much sense on the surface. There are a bunch of shallow reasons that make it seem like shipping fans would naturally gravitate towards this pairing: Together they both match a very typical silly romance trope, they both seem like they would naturally be attracted to each other, and because their personalities are very similar.
But RariDash is a totally dead ship that no one ever writes. It’s such a small ship that if Cynewulf, the only even moderately prolific RariDash writer on the site, deleted all of his stories I’m pretty sure nine out of every ten good RariDash fics in existence would disappear. Also, go read The Night is Passing because it’s awesome.
Shameless plugging and compliments aside, seriously, RariDash gets way too little attention, and I don’t understand why.
Going back to those reasons from above, first, Rarity and Rainbow Dash together match a very basic and dumb romance trope—Rarity is the captain of the cheerleading squad and Rainbow Dash is the captain of the football team. I recognize that this isn’t nearly as appealing a combination as the popular athlete and the adorkable librarian, the dirty farmer and the perfume-blasted sophisticate, or the rich sadist and the personality-less cute young secretary. But if you’re working in cookie cutter formulas, and you always are when you’re writing, it’s weird that this particular formula never shows up in fan fiction.
As silly as it is, there is a bit of truth in this trope, and something that applies to both Rarity and Rainbow Dash’s characters. There is a reason why people think the football captain and the cheerleader are supposed to be together. There is a reason why the greatest football quarterback of all time is currently married to the highest paid model in the world. Maybe it’s some kind of natural selection thing where all the best people end up together so they can make the best babies. Maybe it’s because very successful people live in the same circles and end up interacting and forming relationships with other very successful people by simple means of proximity. Maybe it’s because very ambitious people treat relationships the same way they do their careers, and they see marrying some other very successful person as a sort of badge they can pin to their very successful person sash to go show off to other very successful people at Very Succesful People Club meetings.
Whatever psychosis you ascribe this to, it’s something that happens and happens often. And it’s something that matches something that both Rarity and Rainbow Dash might look for in a partner.
Rarity and Rainbow Dash, more than any other character in the show, are ambitious. They have big dreams, and they have the talent and drive to achieve those dreams. It is an inevitability that someday Rainbow Dash is going to be the world famous captain of the Wonderbolts and that someday Rarity is going be a world famous, household-name, high-end designer. And if the world works how it’s supposed to, the rich and famous will marry and live happily ever after. Which actually kind of ties into point number two.
Rarity and Rainbow Dash are one of the few pairings that I can see being naturally attracted to each other. I should probably explain what I mean by ‘naturally,’ because term defining is important.
If you’re writing shipping there’s always going to be an initial hurdle and suspension of disbelief that you’re going to need to get past to sell readers on your story. The problem is that we’re writing stories about established characters being romantically attracted to each other who not only aren’t romantically attracted to each other in canon, but who have literally no possible chance of ever being romantically attracted to each other in canon. Most fan fiction shipping in other fandoms deals with relationships that are at least plausible. We don’t.
Anytime you write a shipping fic, you have to make a jump from the show to your fic and then explain how somewhere in that jump these two character suddenly formed genitals and sexual attractions. A lot of people are already willing to accept this kind of jump. The popularity of shipping is evidence enough of that. But a lot more people aren’t willing to accept the contradiction without explanation.
If you write a shipping fic, unless you’re writing exclusively for an audience made up only of fans of the ship you’re writing, you have to explain the attraction, or suspension of disbelief is going to be broken and your story will be fundamentally unsatisfying.
I know this works differently for different people. Some people live in a bizzaro world where Rainbow Dash could be attracted to Twilight, or where Applejack could be attracted to Rarity (Two of my most viewed stories are a Rarijack fic and a TwiDash fic. Make sense of that.) But for pretty much anyone, if you write a story where Applejack suddenly falls in love with Pinkie Pie, readers are going to want an explanation before you dive into the snuggles. When you’re writing romance, you need to understand that people are always looking for certain qualities in their potential partner. Someone not having those qualities doesn’t nullify any possibility of a relationship starting, but it makes it a lot less likely. If you’re writing ApplePie, you need to explain what Applejack is looking for and how Pinkie Pie has it.
Generally, I think a good shipping fic is going to always give some kind of justification for an attraction, but I understand foregoing that explanation while writing for certain audiences. I’ve done so often enough myself. But there are a few pairings that, within the context of the show, the attraction already makes sense, at least to me. As in, if in the show these two ponies suddenly started tangling tongues, I would be less surprised that it was happening and more surprised that tv execs greenlighted it. And that’s what I mean when I say ‘naturally.’
RariDash is one of the pairings. I don’t mean that I think they’re a perfect couple, or that they’re destined to be together, or that they should definitely totally fall in love, or that they’d live happily ever after. I’m talking about a simple, base attraction. Not even necessarily an infatuation. Just a little, ‘She’s kind of cute.’ Not just in terms of physical attraction, but because Rarity and Rainbow Dash would both see in each other things they like about themselves. And because we all love ourselves, we love bits of ourselves in other people, too.
This simple, base attraction is actually crucial to writing romance, and to relationships in general. If that attraction never happens, the relationship never happens. If people aren’t attracted to each other, they don’t date, and they don’t fall in love. As the old saying goes that I’m making up right now, you can’t fall in love if your dick doesn’t get hard. If you currently have a significant other, you should give yourself a little pat on the back, because at some point they looked at you from across the room and thought to themselves, ‘I wanna tap that ass.’ And, presumably, your ass has indeed been tapped. So congratulations to you!
Back to Rarity and Rainbow Dash, it makes sense to me that they would be attracted to each other. Not necessarily that they would follow through with that attraction, but just that they’d feel it.
Rarity and Rainbow Dash are both kind of shallow, more so than any of the rest of the show’s cast. In a partner, Rarity very well might look for someone athletic and popular and successful, if only so she can show up at the next chic party and show off her popular athlete girlfriend to the other shallow ponies. Rainbow Dash might very well look for someone beautiful and high class, if only so she can brag about her beautiful high class girlfriend to her buddies.
On a deeper level, Rarity and Rainbow Dash are both confident, ambitious, talented ponies who crave attention and success. These are qualities they share that they would likely find mutually attractive. I said a little earlier that people are attracted to bits of themselves that they see in others, and that holds true here. If you’re bookish and thoughtful, you’re going to naturally like other people who are bookish and thoughtful. People like people who are like themselves. Call it a type of herd instinct if you want. Which ties into my third and final point.
Rainbow Dash and Rarity are extremely similar. Rarity and Rainbow Dash are both absolutely desperate for attention, and act loud and showy and obnoxious to get it. They are both all about putting on performances for others, consciously and subconsciously, about styling their appearances so that other ponies will think of them a certain way. The specifics of the images they’re trying to convey are different, and the motivations are different, but the product is the same.
None of Rainbow Dash’s other friends can ever understand as well as Rarity why Rainbow Dash needs others to think of her as a brash, confident, talented flyer, and never see her as anything else. None of Rarity’s other friends can ever understand as well as Rainbow Dash why Rarity insists on affecting her voice and mannerisms to the point that she can’t speak or act any other way anymore. They share a desire to create and play a role that ponies as utterly genuine as Applejack and Pinkie Pie can never really fully understand.
Rainbow Dash and Rarity’s performing extends out of their personal lives, too. Both of their careers are, very literally, about putting on performances. Rarity makes a performance out of stylized dress, and Rainbow Dash makes a performance out of stylized movement.
The most frequent scene that people chuck at me when saying RariDash is a crackship is that one from way back in Swarm of the Century where Rainbow Dash models some bizarre outfit for Rarity and complains about how boring it is. They cite it as evidence that the two have incompatible interests. Rainbow thinks fashion is boring and fashion is Rarity’s whole life is fashion.
If Rainbow Dash thinks fashion is boring, it’s only because no one has properly explained to her what fashion is (and who better to do that than Rarity?) Fashion is about looking good, about being noticed, about getting more attention than anyone else at the party. Those are all things Rainbow Dash and Rarity both love.
I’ve said it a few times already, but Rainbow Dash and Rarity are both extremely ambitious in their careers. Those ambitions are inevitably going to carry them away from Ponyville and their friends out into the spotlight. Wouldn’t be a wonderful if they had a pony there with them who could stay close even after they had to move away, because they had to move, too? Who could support them in their career because they understood the overwhelming desire to climb the ladder of success? Who would understand the pressures of success and ambition because they feel them, too?
And that’s why RariDash is awesome.
Posting tomorrow:
It almost seems like a waste to use that overlong blog post as a leadup to such a silly little story.
This fic is kind of but not really a prequel to A Final Farewell on a Moonlit Night, which is another very silly story. That story opens with the line: Her eyelids felt heavy and her head was still a confused mess of the lingering sights and sounds and smells of a dream involving a lascivious Rainbow Dash and a shared bath in tomato broth.
I reread the story and thought to myself, there’s a story in that dream.
A very stupid and shippy story.
So I wrote it.
Well said. One thing that I've always pointed out is that with Rarity and Rainbow Dash, in many cases you could switch the trappings of their episodes and the plot and lesson would work just as well of either of them (and in the case of Sweet and Elite and Rainbow Falls, they kind of did). The same is true of AJ and Twilight. Clearly this means you should write some TwiJack next.
Thanks for putting so much thought into this, theres a bunch of interesting points about how raridash could work.
While i don't agree with all of them (Rairity as a cheerleader? I'm unsure how she fits into that role) should I ever decide to write something with RariDash I'll look at this for refrence.
I love these explanations of your fics a lot. They have a lot of interesting insights that I never really considered beforehand.
I'm actually really curious. What other 'natural' pairings are there, in your opinion? (besides RariDash obvs)
This is longer than some of my stories. Also I don't think I've ever written a lesbian mane 6 story.
I agree 100% with this post, just a couple of my thoughts
I think coming up with a plausible "follow through" is the biggest problem with this ship (not many stories start from an established relationship, unfortunately...). The only Raridash stories I remember that begin before the relationship use (almost) none of the things you've mentioned in this post, setting them up either after surviving an adventure/accident together, or by both competing for the love of a third pony (and ending up in a polyamory relationship).
This is widely used in Twidash stories; even if Twilight doesn't have big dreams in many of them, she can certainly understand drive and talent.
While they're the biggest two examples of this, I believe it applies to the whole mane six (except maybe Applejack).
And of course:
The finest story on this entire site, Salvation by Cold in Gardez, is RariDash. So there's that...
Mike
Totally agree with all of this. Rarity and Dash are a power couple, more beautiful and talented and successful than you could ever be, and right in front of the public eye at all times, or at least that's what they're destined to be if they had a successful relationship. It could be argued that a bunch of dorks writing their horsewords don't automatically gravitate towards the shiny happy people coupling, but maybe that's me being cynical.
Yeah, but like... that outfit is dumb, and there's a world of difference between modelling a silly outfit and wearing a sexy one out on the town. One thing that's pretty constant about Rainbow is, for all her supposed tomboyishness, she doesn't ever object to getting dolled up and looking pretty. (That's AJ's job.) The fandom might have run her "20% cooler" line into the dirt, but when she says that it's really telling about Rainbow's priorities in life: does she come off as awesome? Vanilla Rainbow Dash is already awesome. Could she be more awesome with Rarity's eye for fashion? Given the right circumstances and the will to ship them together, you bet she could.
But, shipper logic. Oxymoronic most of the time, what are you gonna do?
Alright. Let me see what I can do. Ideas already churning. You don't mind Clop, Right?
I heard the words that summoned me. Namely, Raridash. Also Cynewulf. These are the summoning words. (These days talking about Sam Vimes of the Nightwatch will also summon me)
You know, for awhile, I was tickled pink that any folder with Raridash was like 40% me at least. Seemed like that lasted forever.
Jut about any ship except PinkieXFluttershy can convince me if its convincing. I'm less married to the shippability or non-shipability of things and more concerned with the way in which the writer writes and explores a relationship. But I do like Raridash the best. Partially it's because I am obsessed with recreating lesbian warrior poets and they fit the best! Partially because I think that it's interesting because its not the first one you expect. AppleDash and TwiJack are what people expect, because those dynamics are pretty standard fare. And they aren't bad! I've written both, actually, and I enjoy both. RariDash is a very different dynamic, and one I think it can be fun to play with. Rarity and Dash are both little bundles of contradictions. Applejack is simple folk (I think simple folk shall inherit the earth) so she is a grounding force for whoever she is. Twilight is a little neurotic but she doesn't surprise you in the same way.
Rarity is exceedingly selfish sometimes. She is also capable of great generosity to friend and foe alike. She has all of these hopes and aspirations, yet doesn't seem to neccessarily resent her Ponyville home. A person who can dream greatly without resenting the present impresses me. It shows some character. Dash is the same. She dreams about joining the Wonderbolts, about being the fastest and the greatest flier, but she doesn't mind Ponyville's smallness and rural life.
So you have two ponies who are both big dreamers. One is a bit more hardworking than the other. But they are the ones who are looking for glory. Twilight doesn't really look for it, and one gets the feeling she is destined for it by the workings of Celestia and the Universe, whereas Rarity and Rainbow have to fight for it--and want to fight for it.
I think that's a pretty big connection.
And I've said before--what is Loyalty but Generosity Militant?
3127424
You're silly.
3127442
I don't mean the cheerleader/football player thing literally. Rarity wouldn't be a good cheerleader, and Rainbow wouldn't be a good football player. I mean more that they fit the cheerleader+football player romance trope. If this show were a high school drama, Dash would be jocky football player and Rarity would be the alpha bitch cheerleader.
3127449
Other attractions I can easily buy based on interactions in the show:
Fluttershy->Rarity
Pinkie Pie->Rainbow Dash
Twilight->Celestia
I think those are all pretty one-sided, though. Maybe others. I don't know. I'm open to any ship.
3127529
I'm not sure if Twilight has the same kind of motivation or ambition that Rainbow Dash has. Twilight doesn't practice and learn new magic because she wants to be the very best at magic and for everyone to know that she's the best at magic. She learns new magic because she likes learning new magic. She's driven by curiosity and a love of knowledge.
But sure, skill and talent are attractive in anyone, and something I think Rainbow Dash in particular would find attractive.
I don't know. Everyone stylizes their appearance in order to be seen a certain way, but the way Rainbow Dash and Rarity make up roles for themselves is a step further than most people go. What performance do Fluttershy and Twilight put on for others? Is Pinkie Pie acting giggly and bouncy because she wants others to think of her as giggly and bouncy, or because she's genuinely just a very giggly and bouncy pony?
3127563
I still haven't read Salvation
I'm a bad person.
3127568
I'm guessing the only people who fantasize about happy shiny people getting together are shiny happy people. Dorks and misfits prefer to fantasize about dorks and misfits getting together with shiny happy people and then becoming shiny happy people themselves.
3127686
I demand clop.
3127816
I'll admit that me liking RariDash has a lot to do with me liking Rarity and Rainbow Dash. They're the most interesting characters, because they both make dramatic swings between selfishness and selflessness. A character who can both insist on traveling to support her friend during a big competition and then dramatically sabotage that same friend in that same competition less than ten minutes later without ever seeming out of character is a fascinating character.
3128639
What do you think of TwiLuna?
3128663
I'm never sure how to feel about the 'centuries old being + young mortal' dynamic. It could make for a fascinating story, but I have no idea how it should work or how healthy it could ever be for either party. I also don't think we've seen Twilight and Luna together enough for me to get a good beat on how they work together or what a relationship between the two of them would look like on a day-to-day basis.
With that said, I really like TwiLuna as a potential ship and I'd love to read a good TwiLuna fic sometime (recommendations are very welcome!). Twilight being a stargazing enthusiast and Luna being Princess of Night is some the best shipping fuel I've ever seen. I'd also really like to see more of their Luna Eclipsed dynamic, especially now that Twilight is a princess herself. In a way, Twilight and Luna are in similar situations. Twilight is still new to being a princess and alicorn, and Luna is still new to this time period, to being a princess again, to being Luna instead of Nightmare Moon. They could both learn a lot from each other, helping each other understand how they fit and how to play their new roles, and they'd mutually benefit from hanging out with each other more.
But Luna's role in the show has taken a pretty big turn since Luna Eclipsed. She hasn't been silly and awkward and personable in a long time. She's been playing the guiding matron of dreams figure for a while now, and I don't think that side of her is very conducive to shipping.
3128983
I started to look for recommendations, but I kind of realised that they all come conditionally.
Sharing the Night is an amazing story, but Twilight goes through quite a bit of growth before there's even a hint of romance, and at this point the story is so diverged from the show that I'm uncomfortable saying that it will convince you of Twilight and Luna being a 'natural' pairing show wise.
Apotheosis is amazing, but it's an adventure first and foremost, and the romance sort of springs from their constant exposure rather than moving from a base physical attraction to something more, as you were talking about in this blog..
Luna, Princess of Space is a delight to read, but it may as well not have Twilight or Luna it at all.
And I love Twilight's Monster but the romance aspect is by far the weakest aspect of It.
Great sci-Fi tho.
.
3128663
Luna did nothing wrong(I've always been disappointing in Ponychan for not ponifying /b/ and /pol/'s favorite joke in this manner)3129416
Thanks for the recommendations! I'm a little ashamed to say that about half of those are already in my read it later list, and probably have been for months. But so are the ways of the read it later category.
3128639
Just noticed this blog you have going (and just started following you though I do already have some of your stories in my favorites) and I am hoping that at some point you do one for Pinkie and Dash as I think it would be interesting (unless you have already done it in which case I must have missed it in your blog listing).
As an aside I agree with you. IN particular Pinkie Dash in show could be seen as one sided as Pinkie is clearly very possessive/obsessive/attentive to Rainbow Dash and Dash is not as much at least in an obvious way like Pinkie is
3156250
Yeah, I'll probably do one for PinkieDash in the near future!
3159357
Awesome can't wait!
3128639 Some dorks and misfits prefer to fantasize about dorks and misfits getting together with other dorks and misfits ;3
:(
Here, let me make it easy.
Raridash's lack of popularity is pretty simple: 5 seasons in and they are one of the two possible pair ups that have interacted the LEAST within the show proper (the other is Rarity and Pinkie) Now this fandom is weird on how much "canon basis" it needs for a ship to take off, when it's a ship between a main character and a side character not much more than a memorable scene or two tends to be needed. But with Intra mane 6 ships, lets look at the most popular? AppleDash, Strong dynamic introduced in season 1 and revisited on occasion, was the first most popular ship in the fandom. Rarijack (though Rarijack's popularity level is weird and hard to measure, it's the mane 6 ship with the most images on derpibooru so it seems to be much more popular among artist than writers on this site where Id be surprised if it was even top 5) Same thing, nowadays it just might be the single most used inter character dynamic. FlutterDash, established as friends since childhood, lots of episodes where they co-star. PinkieDash, again we see this dynamic all the time.
There just isn't much for people to really THINK of shipping them BEFORE they even get into fan fiction. It's also makes the ship significantly harder to write since there's much less core foundations a writer can build on, they have to build some of the foundations themselves.
Though of course, all I said here might be bunk since Twidash, he most popular Mane 6 ship on this site, basically got super popular at a time when they to had little interaction BUT they DID at least have Read it and Weep and they benifited MASSIVELY from popularity power. At the time Twilight was even further ahead of the others in popularity polls than she is now, and Dash was still a solid second. Also the few times they did interact, you had some vaugely rom com style dynamic. Rarijack share this too but both characters relative lack of popularity mean TwiDash was able to capitalize on this more first. I can tell you for certain, most of AppleDash's popularity comes from the "Dash" side of the ship. Otherwise outside of Rarijack Applejack shipping is almost as dead as Rarity shipping.
So I wouldn't really say Raridash is a dead ship it's the third most popular Rarity ship probably, id say Rarity shipping is borderline dead, aside from Sparity and Rarijack, and even those are smaller than basically every Dash ship ficwise. Mostly due to the character just inexblicably failing to rise up in popularity much no matter how many strong episodes or fun pieces of characterization she gets, people are ether still inheirently biased against her archetype or just don't like that kind of proudly feminine character. Frankly the only character with a more dead shipping landscape is Pinkie Pie and that's only because even her fans have a hard time writing her.