ArLance

ArLance is the slash ship between Arthur Pendragon and Lancelot du Lac present in multiple fandoms, including The Once and Future King, BBC Merlin and Shrek.

The Queen of Air and Darkness/The Witch in the Wood
After Arthur had been crowned and had grown up into a young man, Merlyn tells him that now is the time to assemble the Knights of the Round Table, explicitly saying that Lancelot shall be the first one. Since Merlyn was using his backsight, Arthur is somewhat perplexed as these events hadn’t occurred yet.

The subject of Lancelot is brought up again later, when Arthur questions how he’s supposed to find him. After Merlyn leaves to fulfill the prophecy with Nimue, Arthur finally meets Lancelot. He’s a teen boy at the time and impresses Arthur with his skill, inspiring him to recruit him as the first Knight once he’s old enough.

The Ill-Made Knight
The book begins where the previous book ended, with Lancelot being confused why Arthur would pick him, seeing himself as the titular Ill-Made Knight. It also explicitly mentions that Lance is “in love” with Arthur, which fuels him with a desire to impress him.

Hearing from Merlin that Arthur is married to a woman named Guenever, Lancelot grows jealous of her and justifies his hatred of her by imagining her to be a horrid human being. When he finally meets Guenever with Arthur, he is surprised by her kindness and grace. But her displaying vulnerability causes Lancelot to fall for her, which everyone, including Arthur notices. Guenever also falling for Lancelot causes Arthur distress, Merlin had told him that Arthur’s best friend and Arthur’s wife would fall in love, but he didn’t expect for it to happen so soon. However, Arthur and Lancelot manage to maintain a healthy friendship throughout the war, forgetting all about Guenever. Arthur outright hopes that Merlin’s prophecy will not come true.

Nonetheless, Lancelot couldn’t resist his feelings of Guenever, trying to not disappoint Arthur further has him show himself to be a true hero by rescuing a fair maiden named Elaine of Corbin from a curse. Said maiden however takes advantage of him, forcing him to impregnate her and Guenever to evict him from the castle once she finds out. This causes Lancelot to go mad, but Arthur is very relieved when Lancelot returns to society a few years later. He listens intently about what happened to him, then Lancelot takes his son Galahad to find the Holy Grail and prove his worth to Arthur.

After further hardship involving the death of Elaine of Corbin, Arthur invites Lancelot and Galahad back into his castle.

Shrek the Third
The movie reimagines the characters from Arthurian myth in a high school setting, with Lancelot being a self-absorbed jock while Arthur is his loser rival.

Lancelot only has very brief appearances, when Shrek and company mistake him for Fiona's cousin Arthur, believing the strong and handsome Lancelot to be the perfect king for their kingdom. However, Lancelot is insulted by being mistaken for Arthur, saying that the scrawny kid who just fled the scene is the real Arthur.

Later, when Shrek search for Arthur in the great hall, they find him being given a wedgie on of the flagpoles. They assume Lancelot did this to him since he's laughing at Arthur's misery, but Lancelot then points at the nerds above Arthur, showing that even they pick on him. During Arthur's speech after Shrek reveals him to be the rightful ruler of Far Far Away (by elimination), Arthur turns to Lancelot and his friends, telling them that they shouldn't pick on anyone as they could turn out to be royalty. Lancelot is not impressed.

Fanon
There's a decent amount of fuel for ArLance, depending on adaptation. Considering how even the stories that have Lancelot be antagonistic towards Arthur still have him be one of his most loyal knights.

The Once and Future King
Readers of The Once and Future King speculate that author T.H. White was projecting his own homosexuality (White was homosexual according to his biography) onto Arthur and Lancelot, explaining the explicit use of the word "love" when it comes to describing the bond between them in the series. People are less likely to ship them with each other as they are likely to ship both of them in a polycule with Guenever/Guinivere, but fanfics between just the two of them do exist.

Shrek
The existence of slash fics between these particular versions of Arthur and Lancelot can be explained by Arthur fangirls back when the movie came out wishing they could ship him with another guy, Lancelot just happened to be the only male character his age who actually interacted with him. That particular situation is sometimes compared to the rise of the Once-ler fandom around 5 years later, albeit not nearly as extreme.

Fandom

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