The Deck of Destiny - A Caraval Oneshot Collection

rant

So this isn't a one shot, but it is a rant with a theory and a sad statement (if you read most of this I drop a few hints to upcoming mini series ideas!)

Once I finished reading Legendary, I knew Dante/Legend was supposed to be Scarlett's endgame significant other (If you didn't know, I'm pretty sure it's written in the extras of Legendary if you look at Stephanie's notes). But I didn't realize until now how sad that actually would have been.

Personally, I can't really see Scarlett and Dante/Legend as a couple, and obviously Stephanie couldn't either. But as I thought about it more, I laid out a couple of conclusions.

1:
The big Scarlett/Julian fight in Legendary would've been the perfect opportunity for Dante/Legend to intervene. Maybe he told Armando to tell Scarlett the truth to put a wedge in between them so he could have a chance with Scarlett.

2:
How hard it would have been on Julian. He found the person who he loved, and she would have left him for his brother. Of course, Scarlett obviously wouldn't have known Dante was Julian's brother at the time, but that would have gave him so much pain. He would've had to watch the girl he loved, the girl who could've loved him back, something his brother couldn't do (at the moment), fall in love with his brother. I was actually listening to the song "Déjà Vu" by Olivia Rodrigo, and I pictured that as what Julian may have felt (I actually started to cry a bit).

3: what would Tella have felt? She still kissed him at the end of Caraval, so she had some feelings towards Dante at the time. I can just imagine her heart deflating at seeing Scarlett with Dante, and it breaks my heart.

4: Scarlett x Legend/Dante would literally ruin everyone. I am not saying this because I ship Julian x Scarlett with all my heart (well, maybe I am) but seriously. Imagine if Scarlett had became a Fate like Gavriel wanted her to, and her and Legend started a relationship. They would literally destroy each other. Lady Luck said it first to Tella about Jacks. Okay, I mean maybe Scarlett wouldn't have found out Gavriel was her father because Dante wouldn't have opened the deck of destiny. Wait a minute...

5: Tella could have been trapped inside the deck of destiny. If Scarlett and Dante did kindle a relationship, Dante wouldn't have been there to go into mental-breakdown-bad-boy-mode and free the whole deck. Maybe Jacks would have been the one to free her then? I mean that makes sense, right?

Oh man, do I feel a... miNi sEriEs coming up?

I feel like that would be really depressing to explore, I also feel like people would get mad at me because (as I said earlier) that ship would literally ruin everyone. But now I'm really tempted to write about it...

Maybe I would just make it into a one shot instead of a five part series, but I guess we'll see (forgive me in advance for potentially bringing this ship to life)

If I did write about them, they wouldn't get a happy ending because I want to make it clear that I do not ship them! I just think it would be really fun to explore a lost idea that Stephanie Garber had planned.

I'm also in the process of writing a bit of a longer series about what would happen if Scarlett and Tella grew up royalty. Which leads me into a theory:

Why I believe Paradise is the lost heir of Elantine.

1: Paradise the lost. The lost heir. I mean COME ON.

2: the way Elantine talked about her. Paradise (I think, I could be wrong since I haven't brushed over this part of Finale many times) stole Elantine's deck of destiny. I don't even think Jacks could have pulled that off, which makes sense why only her daughter could do that. She would have access to the palace, and she would've known the tunnels in it like her own mind.

3: the Marcello situation. I'm thinking it was kind of like the Scarlett/Nicolas/Julian situation. Marcello was Paradise's arranged fiancé if she couldn't find a suitable husband within a short period of time. (He's also a governor so that means he has power, and a princess marrying him would form an alliance maybe?) She was going to marry Gavriel until, duh duh duh, he's a  Fate! So she runs away, asks Marcello for his hand in marriage if he won't tell her mother. And Marcello,(being dumb in love thinking this will maybe give him more power idk) accepts the offer (kind of like Nicolas did with Scarlett by not ratting her out to Marcello) and marries her. Except Marcello turns out to be a bad bad man but Paradise doesn't realize this, she only knows she doesn't truly love him.

For everyone who stuck around to the end, thanks for reading my rant. I hope this brings light to an over looked possibility, and I hope you look forward to a few new mini series! (Does anyone know the plural of 'series'? I just feel like putting an apostrophe is wrong..)