sunnyships RANKED
between the BaL sidekick au and various situationship polls and many many many DMs exchanged, my guy has aquired a handful of Character Dynamics. it is time to RANK THEM. specifically, since he is A Sidekick and thus much more malleable than Drakona is, I will be ranking these friendships, alliances and situationships by how much better or worse they make him. explanations below the cut
Top Tier: Significant Improvement
Iphianassa (Iffy) Langston-Sharpe (@curiouslavellan): the runaway heiress who accepts, fights and protects him as an equal. managed to make him so mad about the choices she was making about her own life that he decided to do better out of sheer spite. they are dating now. 10/10, period romance slowburn but with a fun bite to it (no pun intended). brings out some of his anxieties about class and alcohol and watching his loved ones spiral, but it's good for them both to confront that. actually managed to get him to Want Something and fight for it, which is impressive
Professor August Shaw (@zeebreezin): the regretful professor Sunny approaches with an offer of help on his revenge quest (this is a Drakonaless timeline). keeps trying to take care of Sunny, who is clearly seeing Himself as the caretaker in this relationship despite being much younger. wrangles him into taking Correspondence classes. 9/10, this Sunny has a bank account and possibly a degree. how did you trick him into becoming a respectable member of society. currently unclear how much character development Sunny will have in this one but it seems promising
Second Tier: Not Making It Worse
Captain Twitchery Lazaret (@capn-twitchery): treats their BaL!Sunny pretty well even though they steal his dead brother's coat. the Jack Sparrow to his Will Turner. helps him do Heart's Desire for fun, proceeds to steal the Marvellous win and then hand the wish over to him anyway. it's a ride for sure, but I say it builds character. 8/10, he gets some psychic damage along the way but it's nothing terrible. excellent work for a literal five year old
Lady Detective Drakona (yours truly): has an excellent working relationship with their canon Nemesis sidekick, but there's still a bit of distance despite him having seen them at their worst. they're preoccupied with their own tragedies and have gotten the sense that Sunny values his privacy, so they focus on looking out for him in the present. also 8/10, it's a solid strategy but he'll have to get his character development elsewhere
Ariel Christy (@vulpine-gentleman): extremely nice. teaches Sunny to talk good. fellow cat dad. urchin ally solidarity. ultimately gets A-tier rather than S-tier for the same reasons Drakona does: he's a good ally and it's a stable dynamic, but also we're not getting any revelations here other than him possibly being the subject of an Awkward Sunny Crush. 9/10, they have a good thing going on
Third Tier: It's Complicated
Alex Hastings (@thedeafprophet): HELLOOOOOO surrogate brother figure, silvering teacher and fellow cat understander. what happened. why are you so low on this li - oh. oh it's your protagonist complex and tendency to get weirdly ruthless when it's about A Particular Evil Bat. they start off so well and then have a big disagreement about what Ethical Revolution looks like and fall out for a while. I believe in them sorting it out eventually though. 7/10, two points deducted for the current beef and one for that time Sunny got possessed by Poor Edward
Fourth Tier: It's. Complicated.
Robert Jones (@viric-dreams): buddy WHAT are you doing to this guy. you are rewiring his brain chemistry by offering him unconditional help the likes of which he's never seen and then either being Way Too Nice or Way Too Much Of An Asshole. you are somehow speedrunning the worst AND the best kind of relationship you can have with him at the same time. this was supposed to be an easy mastermind-sidekick matchup, good god what is happening in there. 6/10, this Sunny is either going to rapidly work through his issues or develop several new ones
Bottom Tier: Torment Nexus
Annwyn Lochlan (@rainrein): congratulations little German girl this is the worst anyone has ever done it!!!!!! we are putting him through every generational trauma possible AGAIN at the SAME TIME. we have toxic codependence. we have physical violence. we have alcoholism. we have promising to never do it again and then immediately doing it again. also you're stalking him. 2/10, it's possible that he can fix her but at what cost