I Think the Biggest Appeal of VarFlins for Me...
Is not the lifespan angst, or even what other people like about the ship (I've seen a lot of people agree that they appreciate both Varka and Flins are really capable characters on their own who don't need each other to function, which I totally stand by from a lore point but ngl I'm so stupid-sappy-true-love-pilled that I live for "Met the love of my life and it changed my fundamental views of the world" stories)--no, for me, I think the biggest appeal of VarFlins is something sillier (okay, maybe not so silly):
Varka gives me massive "Always the bridesmaid, never the bride" vibes.
Emotionally, he is the pillar that everyone in his community leans on, from the average Joes at the pub, to all of the younger generation, to every single knight, to the god of their whole nation. And not in a cold or aloof "strict father" way, but in the warmest and most kind-hearted way possible: He knows everything about everyone's personal lives. He asks about their troubles, their achievements, their current plans and their biggest joys. He sets his knights up on dates and writes their love letters for them if need be. He tries his best to patch up broken relationships, to be there for those who are down, and carry the emotional and literal burdens of every single person around him.
He's so loved by everyone he meets that the knights in-game call him "our Varka." He belongs to them.
But because of this admiration, because he is a role model to every person in his entire nation--hell, to others just in nations he's visited--Varka is also much more of a symbol than a real person. He's word-for-word "larger than life," a figurehead whose entire role in the story is so tied up in history that he doesn't even get an actual exploration of his origins--his story is as Andrius's, Ravenwood's, Rostam's, Arundolyn's, and Roland's legacy.
But there is a difference between being a legend and being a person.
Although it's abundantly clear that everyone in Mondstadt adores Varka, "loving" is not the same thing as "being in love with."
Everyone would pick Varka for a leader--but has anyone ever picked him as a partner?
Every other character we know about from Varka's generation (Seamus, Federica, Crepus, etc.) is or was married with children. Varka has watched all his closest friends meet, fall in love, and build their families. He's now watching their children grow up and reach the age where they're ready to find partners and start families of their own, all while he still remains the "lone wolf" at the top.
And that's clearly not for lack of interest in forming personal relationships! He absolutely sees Rosaria and Razor as his children, and he canonically refers to himself as a parent in the game.
He has a family he's formed for himself--there's just no "mate" in his wolf pack.
And this is normally where I'd jump on the "Maybe there's no partner on purpose! Maybe part of the reason why I love this character so much is that I relate to him in another way too; maybe this character doesn't want a partner because he's aroace!" But to be honest... that's not really how Varka's lack of partner comes across to me. He doesn't strike me as the type who genuinely has no interest in romance. In fact, in Godwin's anecdote recently, Varka flat out talks about virtues that make a good partner and the responsibilities that one has in a relationship:
Which at least seems to indicate that Varka's thought about what makes a good partner, what expectations he'd hold himself to if he were in Godwin's position. At the very least, he doesn't have any issues putting himself in the position of "the longing lover," given that he's able to spit out a love letter on the spot to help Godwin keep in Glory's good books.
Varka's also humorously quick--perhaps more so than any other character we've seen in Genshin to-date--to stick his nose into his friends' romantic lives, such as introducing Seamus to Federica in the first place, then deliberately bringing both of them with him on his expedition to force them back into doing things together. Varka the C+ relationship counselor. Varka is definitely the busybody who hears all the relationship drama from everyone whenever he shows up at the bar. I FEEL IT IN MY BONES that people throw themselves on his shoulders, drunk out of their minds and sobbing out their personal woes. And of course, what does Varka do? Surely he listens to all of it and gives the best advice he can for everyone else's relationships, all while having no relationship of his own.
Oh no duh, I'm sure at least 2/3s the knights have had massive crushes on Varka at some point. Having a crush on Varka is probably a rite of passage in Mondstadt; in fact, not having a crush on Varka is probably weirder than having one, as far as Mondstadters are concerned. If there's a spike in the number of male knights identifying as gay in the current generation, I'm sure it's because Varka was a whole lot of young people's gay awakenings. But celebrity/role model crushes are just that--safe, silly crushes that you never have any plans of actually acting on, that you know will never go anywhere. It's the kind of deep admiration that is easy to mistake for infatuation. It's something to tease your friends over, but not something to actually confess.
Somewhere along the route of transforming into a hero, a myth, a legend, a legacy, a pillar of his community, the figurehead leader around which an entire army is rallying... Varka became untouchable. He became "Grand Master Varka" instead of "just Varka." He became the person everyone wants to be, instead of the person people can realistically envision themselves being with. I fully believe everyone in Mondstadt thinks "It would be amazing to be the Grand Master's partner!"--but not a single person would actually believe they are worthy enough to be that partner.
It's not that Varka isn't husband material. It's that he's the Vicuña wool of husband material--so priceless that no one is even brave enough to touch it.
"Surely someone as amazing as the Grand Master would never consider dating someone as boring as me," or "He'll never notice a low-level knight like myself," or "There's got to be way too much competition for some as impressive as him; there's no way I'd stand a chance..." I bet everyone in Mondstadt who ever even so much as thought of the Grand Master as attractive was able to immediately find some reason why Varka would never pick them, never notice them--why Varka was just too far above the "average" person to ever even dream of how a relationship might work. I'd wager there's even a fair bit of "Grand Master Varka is shouldering so much for the knights and for Mondstadt; I could never burden him with my dumb feelings" etc. etc.
Everyone has their own excuse to not even try, and so no one ever does.
You know, you just KNOW, Varka's been the best man at half a million Mondstadt weddings.
But (at least as far as we've seen--and it is a gacha game with no canon ships, so...) no one's ever picked Varka.
And that's why I love VarFlins.
Because there's nothing really stopping Flins from just... picking Varka.
Flins doesn't seem to care a lick about the Knights of Favonius other than a general respect for the help they've given to the Lightkeepers. He admires their virtues, but he has no stake in the glory and reverance of the Four Winds' legacies or the mystique and allure that surrounds the title of "Grand Master." He isn't from Mondstadt; he isn't part of the culture for whom Varka has become a symbol first and a man second.
There's no particular reason for someone who is a hero and a legend in his own right to truly put Varka on a pedestal and think "This person is completely out of my league." Like, who even could qualify as out of Flins's league at this point? (People even headcanon Flins as being the Belyi Tsar's past love although there's no in-game evidence of this, so clearly fans think even archons aren't out of Flins's league!)
For Flins, Varka is just "that guy who played pretend at being a tourist on my island," and "someone who laughs at my jokes," and "my drinking buddy." He's "the person who I have to stop from over-exerting himself" and "the person whose homesickness I notice." Varka is "a steadfast ally" but not "someone who would never notice me."
Even in his "About Varka" voiceline where Flins deliberately hypes Varka up...
Flins starts with "You won't see me crossing blades with Varka" but ends with "Well, if I have the chance--" Shoot your shot Flins, you can do it!! The idea of being a match for Varka would be an honor, but not an actual impossibility.
If anyone in the world could be audacious enough to just swoop in and steal the Grand Master's hand, wouldn't it be perfectly in keeping for it to be Flins, who can casually joke like this even in the face of a Fatui Harbinger?
Search your feelings, you know it to be true: Nobody in this game could make Varka blush brighter than a tomato than this literal firecracker whose manners are so impeccable they somehow loop back around into shameless.
Okay, being serious again, what I mean is this: I love that Mondstadt loves Varka. I love that Varka is a source of warmth, reassurance, inspiration, and fatherly support for everyone from his own country.
But I also love the fact that actually being "in love with Varka" might be something that only a non-Mondstadter could ever truly achieve, because there's something so wonderful to me about the idea of finding someone who just sees you as YOU, rather than first seeing the weight of all the history and hopes you carry.
I love the romantic idea that you can spend half a lifetime watching everyone around you fall in love, wondering when it might be your turn... for that turn to just come on a mundane night, in the world's least romantic place (an actual graveyard), when you're shivering like a drowned rat from having your boat tipped over into the sea, with someone who's not even human but who is obviously trying very hard not to snicker at your ridiculous disguise or perhaps just at the absurdity of the world itself--
How lovely it would be, after so many years, to finally be chosen.
Some random Knight of Favonius: Mr. Flins, is it true? Were you actually brave enough to ask the Grand Master on a date?!
Flins:
