What Emotional Conflicts Drive Viren X Aaravos Fanfiction Plots?

Most plots I’ve clicked on revolve around trust, or the brutal lack of it. Viren is a man who trusts no one, yet he’s forced to rely entirely on this mysterious, imprisoned being. Every piece of help comes with strings, and figuring out what those strings are is the whole story. The emotional conflict is the paranoia—is any of this real, or is he just a tool? Does Aaravos see anything in him worth saving, or is he just the next convenient vessel? That constant doubt eats away at Viren, and by extension, the reader. The fascination is watching how long the alliance holds before the inevitable betrayal, and what form it takes.

Viren and Aaravos are such a complicated mess, and that's exactly why they're so fun to write about. It’ s not just power dynamics, though that’s a huge part—it’s the sheer intellectual arrogance they share, that feeling of being the smartest person in any room, finally meeting someone who might actually understand them. The conflict comes from that initial recognition curdling into resentment. How do you handle a partnership where you’re equals in cunning but never in vulnerability? Viren’s got all this human pettiness and ambition, and Aaravos has seen empires rise and fall. The stories I’ve read often hinge on that imbalance: Viren wants Aaravos’s power and approval but hates needing it, and Aaravos finds Viren fascinatingly flawed but disposable.

You see a lot of plots where Viren tries to assert control, to prove he’s not just a puppet, and Aaravos either indulges him like a child or coldly reminds him of the terms of their deal. The emotional core is that sick, co-dependent need. Viren’s humanity—his love for his children, his twisted loyalty to Katolis—clashes with the amoral, ancient perspective Aaravos offers. Does Aaravos even have emotions in a way Viren can comprehend, or is it all a performance? That uncertainty drives a ton of the tension. Is there genuine connection, or just mutual use? I’m always more interested in the fics that lean into the horror of it, the slow realization that you’ve tied your soul to something profoundly alien.

It often ends with Viren broken by the weight of what he’s embraced, while Aaravos remains utterly, chillingly unchanged. That’s the real tragedy the good fics capture.

Honestly, I think the biggest driver is obsession, plain and simple. Not the romantic kind, but this all-consuming focus. Viren spends his whole life seeking validation and power, and Aaravos dangles the ultimate version of both right in front of him. The conflict is Viren’s crumbling morality against the seductive simplicity of Aaravos’s worldview. He starts with 'for the good of humanity' and ends up doing things he never imagined, and the fic explores the guilt and shame that follows, or the terrifying lack of it.

Aaravos, on the other hand, seems to operate on boredom. Is Viren just a diverting experiment? That fundamental mismatch of stakes—one is fighting for his soul, the other is passing an eternity—creates this amazing pressure. I’ve seen fics where Viren tries to humanize Aaravos, to find some scrap of warmth or pity, and fails spectacularly. Others where Aaravos develops a twisted fondness for his 'project' but can’t express it in any way Viren would recognize as care. It’s less about love and more about possession and the damage it does.

A lot of the best tension comes from minor moments. Viren noticing Aaravos never blinks. Aaravos casually referencing a historical atrocity as a minor footnote. The sheer scale of their misunderstanding.