Tomarrymort: Why it’s Such a Promising Ship
Tomarry and Harrymort are honestly my favorite ships of all time, but I feel like I can’t tell my friends about it, because they’d be undoubtedly horrified at the mere thought of hero/villain ships, especially one involving our favorite Tom Marvolo Riddle.
So, allow me to enumerate the three main reasons why Tomarrymort has become my all-time favorite.
J.K. Rowling painstakingly draws numerous parallels between Harry and Tom’s childhoods. For instance:
Harry grew up in an abusive home. The Dursleys verbally abused and belittled him, starved him, worked him like a servant, and overall treated Harry worse than a second-class citizen. Similarly, Tom Riddle also spent his childhood in a horrid environment. He was born in London back in 1926. Religion was still incredibly prominent, especially Christianity and Catholicism (the latter to some lesser extent). Children are also prone to fits of accidental magic, and there’s a good chance Tom was considered a “devil-child” or an “abomination” by the adults in his life.
B. Unfit, Magic-abhorring Guardians
The Dursleys did everything they could to quash any “freakishness” of Harry’s. That included christening him a “freak” to his face, harsh punishments for any accidental magic, taking away his school supplies, mocking him, and later turning a cold shoulder. Wool’s Orphanage also decidedly disliked Tom. While Tom was by no means a saint, the Matron explicitly expressed her unease towards Tom’s strangeness. If an adult would be so prejudiced against Tom, I’m willing to wager that his peers were equally hostile and afraid of him.
C. Marked by Dumbledore from a young age
Ever since the prophecy was made, Dumbledore saw Harry as someone special. He manipulated Harry’s life in numerous ways, and I’m not going to create a list since that deserves a long textpost of its own. Along similar lines, Dumbledore also ‘marked’ Tom from the start too; he decided that Tom was a dangerous, irredeemable person back when he first met Tom.
D. Why these similarities matter!!
There’s a plethora of literature that examines the influence of upbringing on a child. Whether we like it or not, children are objectively impressionable beings, and nurture consequently plays a large role in the development of a person’s behavior and character.
Tom and Harry have had similar influences upon their childhoods, hence, it’s quite fascinating to see where their paths diverged and why their decisions differed. And, the (essentially) shared experiences would be a point of shared ground between the two. A ship is always intriguing when the two subjects in question are almost two sides of the same coin, if you will.
This is the most obvious reason why Tomarrymort is so interesting. For instance, the Parselmouth ability alone holds a world of potential. A language that only the two of them can speak- what a wonderful metaphor for the singularity of their relationship in canon as well.
In canon, we’ve seen Horcrux-wearers become heavily influenced by Voldemort’s soul shard. Examples: Ginny with the diary, possibly Umbridge with the locket, the trio with the locket, etc. This tidbit of information also provides vast potential for Tomarrymort: Harry housed a soul shard for over a decade. I know that the shard was tiny fraction of Voldemort’s soul and might not have been strong enough to influence Harry, but Harry spent way too much time with the Horcrux for him to be completely unaffected. So, that’s bountiful fodder for a fanfic already.
Additionally, as many fics address, what would it be like for a Horcrux to reunite with the original soul? Or with other Horcruxes? There’s so much to be explored there.
The actual prophecy has been re-interpreted by numerous fanfics in different ways. The last two lines are the most fanficable, in my opinion.
“And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, but he will have power the Dark Lord knows not…”
Already there’s a key phrase that catches my fancy: “mark him as his equal”. A mark in itself is an inherently possessive act of claiming, which ties back to Tomarrymort as a ship. And, them being “equals” gives fanfic writers a good deal of leeway to play with that statement.
“And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives…”
The ending line has been the most obsessed-over portion of the prophecy. Taken at face value, this line indicates numerous possibilities that all promise a unique form of hero-villain interaction.
Anyhow, the existence of the prophecy to begin with already makes the ship irresistible. Why? The concept of fate is a riddle that has plagued mankind for the ages. Even if the prophecy didn’t specifically refer to Harry and Harry alone, there’s so many what-ifs and for-certains that deal with the prophecy, which makes it tempting to ficwriters.
III. Fanfiction application
Tomarry and Harrymort fics are truly a spectrum of their own. One reason why I like Tomarrymort so much is that you can see just about any interpretation of their relationship. There’s so many AUs, canon variations, and ‘genres’ available. I’ve never seen such a wealth of creativity applied to a single ship, and it’s honestly enthralling.
While you can find anything from oneshots to massive slow builds in this fandom, Tomarrymort generally leans towards the longer side. For instance, if you search top-kudos-ed Drarry fics, you’ll find that the average fic length of those are greatly lower than that of Tomarrymort. Tomarrymort usually requires a good deal of worldbuilding, context setting, buildup, and many other factors, and it’s pretty intense. Even oneshots require a relatively high degree of (concise) context.
There’s many reasons for why I adore Tomarrymort so much, and the above serves as a mere baseline description. This particular ship simply holds so much potential, and there’s so many different takes available. And, even if this might not count as a reason, I just really like the people in this subset of the fandom. All of you are amazing, kind, thoughtful, and lovely, which of course is a magnificent bonus.
If you’ve read this far, kudos to you! Thanks for listening to my rambling ❤️
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