Another Summer Friday, another compilation of fan videos to help you pass the time before you’re out of work for the weekend. Welcome to Fan Video Friday, where Sage and I truly do God’s work. This week we bring you videos set to Of Monsters and Men’s “King and Lionheart”. This moody and atmospheric ballad is an excellent companion to your dramatic and science fiction-y OTPs. It’s a perfect song for a pairing that is a true PARTNERSHIP, be it a Gal Friday/Superhero, an Elf/King, or a crime fighting duo stopping the apocalypse. All that is required is a partnership where the two are halves of a whole and can’t function without the other. ENJOY THE FEELS.
(Also…no Mulder and Scully video to this song? You’re fired, internet.)
— Kim
Steve and Bucky – The Captain America Franchise
Sage: Starting all things “King and Lionheart” off on a particularly tragic note, here’s the story of star-crossed best friends Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes. The Winter Soldier is a “howling ghost” if I’ve ever seen one, and the entire second half of this video makes me want to throw my heart in the trash. Enjoy!
Twelve and Clara – Doctor Who
Kim: Sage wrote about this one when she did a compilation of all the best Twelve and Clara videos. But we couldn’t do a “King and Lionheart” post and NOT include this one. This tends to be the first video we show people in order to drag them on board the S.S. Twelve/Clara. It has a 100% return rate of convincing people. We’ve verified this. The vidder makes excellent use of shippy dialogue like “Beat that for a date!” and that TOTALLY unambiguous “I love you” from the end of “Mummy on the Orient Express”. Join us on this ship, would you? It’s not at all going to end in tears.
Also, if anyone deserves to be called “Lionheart”, it’s Clara fucking Oswald.
Oliver and Felicity – Arrow
Sage: FULL DISCLOSURE, Kerry of Veritas Productions is our pal. But who needs nepotism when the work is so damn good? Ship Captain Stephen Amell himself is among the many fans of Kerry’s excellent Arrow videos, and one should always follow her captain’s orders. So watch this video and admire fetus Olicity – all tentative feelings and reckless bravery. And listen up, CW: this is the Arrow I want back next season, you got me? Let the fanvids be your guide.
Abbie and Ichabod – Sleepy Hollow
Kim: “As the world comes to an end, I’ll be here to hold your hand. Cause you’re my king and I’m your lionheart.”
Um, yeah. This song is about these two beautiful idiots who stand as the only thing between us and the end of the world. And they stand together, hand in hand. “I choose to forge my fate with you.”
IS IT OCTOBER FIRST YET?
Mal and Inara – Firefly
Sage: Fillion is basically a child here. And Morena Baccarin halted her aging process at 19, so that’s something she should teach us all how to do. Anyway, they are ATTRACTIVE. And while Mal and Inara are finally, FINALLY together in the Serenity comics, the show’s bullshit cancellation means that, on film anyway, this ship was all build-up and no…completion? Yeah, completion is the right word.
Much like in the 12/Clara relationship, I think that Mal’s friendship with Inara (and with the rest of the crew, but she called him out the most often) helped him to realize what a hero he’d been all along. He’s the king of his little sphere, made better because he wants to rise to his friends’ expectations of him. And Inara the Lionheart makes her way gracefully through a dangerous world by relying on her compassion, wits, and refusal to take shit. BAMF-est couple in the ‘verse.
Aragorn and Legolas – The Lord of the Rings
Kim: Everyone talks about Frodo and Sam as the TRUE love story/OTP of Lord of the Rings. However, the Aragorn and Legolas friendship/bromance/love story is JUST as compelling and real. Legolas could not be more steadfast in his devotion to Aragorn (his FACE when he thinks Aragorn died says it all), making him the very definition of a “Lionheart”. And, lest we forget, Aragorn is LITERALLY a King. So there.
Bilbo and Thorin – The Hobbit
Sage: I know a shippy video when I see one, and believe me, the interwebs are not wanting for achingly romantic edits of Thorin Oakenshield and Bilbo Baggins. But this video in particular is about this unlikely partnership above any unrealized sexual chemistry. It’s about the way that the dwarf and the hobbit constantly surprised each other, how they allowed and forgave each other’s faults, and how Bilbo of the Shire stepped up to the plate EVERY DAMN TIME. A family of Lionhearts, those Bagginses.
P.S. Thorin and Bilbo were totally in love with each other though. And should Thorin have survived, they could have moved from Middle Earth to literally anywhere in the United States of America and gotten legally married. HAPPY PRIDE, NERDS.
Everyone – The Lord of the Rings
Kim: Why, yes. That would be three Tolkien themed “King and Lionheart” videos in a row. What is it about The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings that lends itself so well to this song? Well, first of all, it is literally about Monsters and Men (ba-dum-dum-CHING!). It’s about Kings. And it’s about ordinary people finding their courage and strength in the most extraordinary circumstances.
What got me in this video is how the vidder layered Sam’s monologue from The Two Towers over the instrumental break. I never pass up an opportunity to quote that speech, so here you go.
Sam: It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.
Plus, these movies are just really homoerotic, and you know how we feel about that here.
President Bartlet and his Staff – The West Wing
Sage: Kim is currently on suspension from being my friend and this is why. You don’t see a lot of group videos to this song – the two in this post were the only truly great ones we found. But what collection of humans are more worthy of being dubbed “kings” and “lionhearts” than the idealists of the Bartlet White House?
This vidder did a gorgeous job of covering West Wing ground in this piece, with the “King and Lionheart” distinction shifting from pairing to pairing every time the phrase is sung. (Santos and Josh, Josh and Donna, CJ and Toby, JED AND CHARLIE, etc, etc.) The legacy of this show (which Sorkin has never been able to fully recreate, sigh) is its hopefulness, and the belief that, in some universe at least, people who work together towards good things will achieve those things. The friendships in The West Wing lit up the screen, ESPECIALLY when they were tested. And those relationships always won out, even over the politics. Sorkin and his writers really knew how to create a moment (Josh giving Sam the “he’s the guy” high sign through a glass door; Toby standing alone at the homeless veteran’s military funeral; Jed stamping out his cigarette on the floor of a cathedral), which is why well-crafted videos like these always beckon me back for a series rewatch. Bartlet for America, Bartlet for always.
Clarke and Bellamy – The 100
Kim: I would argue that Clarke is the “King” in this scenario (Bellamy does call her “princess” after all), but let’s not get bogged down in semantics. Like Lord of the Rings, The 100 is about ordinary people finding courage in extreme circumstances. The show is fucking BRUTAL and it’s hard to watch at times…yet we do because of characters like Clarke Griffin and Bellamy Blake. The show is NOT about these two pining for each other (ain’t nobody got time for that when they are being attacked by Grounders), it’s about them finding strength in each other. It’s about them depending on each other to survive. It’s about their partnership. And there is nothing more romantic than that.
Do you have a favorite “King and Lionheart” video that we missed? Let us know in the comments!
shanleighwitt says
So which one of these was supposed to be a gift for me?
jk jk jk GIVE ME ALLLLLLL YOUR GAY SUPERHEROES
HeadOverFeels says
❤️❤️❤️❤️
shanleighwitt says
Never mind, I just watched it, you keep this garbage away from me, I am not emotionally strong enough