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100 days of enemy recs: 38. David/Jonathan
Aww, thanks, random number generator, giving me this one in the Days of Awe. (I come to the story from a mostly Christian background, but I feel like one thing about Scripture that Jews and Christians can both agree on is David/Jonathan OTP.)
If you don't know the story: There was a king named Saul who lost the mandate of Heaven. Since he was fighting several existential wars at the time, and barely had a grip on his army's loyalty already, this caused some anxiety. So he ordered out for somebody to come play him music to help calm him down, and they brought him this hot twink shepherd named David, who could play the lyre really soothingly. (Presumably in the 2020 AU version of this he was an ASMR youtuber.)
Anyway what you have to know about David, other than him being really hot, really a twink and good at playing Rest, was that he went out to a battle Saul's men were losing and defeated the enemy champion using nothing but his shepherd's slingshot. Also he had charisma like nobody's business? (And he had been secretly anointed king by God to replace Saul, but that comes up in conversation less often then you think.) The troops really liked him, so Saul didn't really have a better option than to give him a command, and he turned out to be really good at soldiering, too. Good enough at soldiering that Saul started to get extremely paranoid that the people were going to overthrow him and set David up as king, so he started trying to kill him in various ways.
Which is all well and good, but meanwhile, Saul's eldest son Jonathan had fallen in love with David, and in between arranging liaisons he's helping thwart Saul's assassination attempts. Eventually David ends up hiding out in the wilderness with a band of men, and then taking sanctuary in one of the countries they're fighting. The politics all get very complicated, Saul hires a necromancer for some reason, David keeps getting chances to kill Saul and not taking them because he's still loyal. But one thing that isn't complicated is that Jonathan and David still love each other a lot, even as wars and betrayals happen all around them.
Finally Saul and Jonathan are killed together in the same battle, and David sweeps in with his loyal rebels as reinforcements too late to do anything but clean-up and mourn. But he does give a eulogy where he's careful to point out that that what he felt with Jonathan was better than he ever felt with a woman, thereby setting a precedent for every slash ship for the next three thousand years.
(There is a theory that Jonathan faked his death to run off and be with David but tbf this one is a very shaky theory.)
David/Jonathan fanfic currently accessible is disproportionately based on the TV show Kings, which is a secondary-world modern AU of the story, featuring Sebastian Stan in his classic role of tragically gay politician's son. The show does take some liberties with the plot but I don't really know what they are because I have only read the fanfic? I think the TV show was afraid to be quite as gay as the original, so David and Jonathan's relationship is somewhat more explicitly adversarial. (This does not seem to have worked at making it less gay.) So here's some fic of each kind.
(Also I should note that the original canon has a lot of genocide and baby-killing? Like a lot. Kings the show seems to have replaced a lot of it with torture and sexual abuse. But these are war criminals either way. So be warned. #problematic)
If you don't know the story: There was a king named Saul who lost the mandate of Heaven. Since he was fighting several existential wars at the time, and barely had a grip on his army's loyalty already, this caused some anxiety. So he ordered out for somebody to come play him music to help calm him down, and they brought him this hot twink shepherd named David, who could play the lyre really soothingly. (Presumably in the 2020 AU version of this he was an ASMR youtuber.)
Anyway what you have to know about David, other than him being really hot, really a twink and good at playing Rest, was that he went out to a battle Saul's men were losing and defeated the enemy champion using nothing but his shepherd's slingshot. Also he had charisma like nobody's business? (And he had been secretly anointed king by God to replace Saul, but that comes up in conversation less often then you think.) The troops really liked him, so Saul didn't really have a better option than to give him a command, and he turned out to be really good at soldiering, too. Good enough at soldiering that Saul started to get extremely paranoid that the people were going to overthrow him and set David up as king, so he started trying to kill him in various ways.
Which is all well and good, but meanwhile, Saul's eldest son Jonathan had fallen in love with David, and in between arranging liaisons he's helping thwart Saul's assassination attempts. Eventually David ends up hiding out in the wilderness with a band of men, and then taking sanctuary in one of the countries they're fighting. The politics all get very complicated, Saul hires a necromancer for some reason, David keeps getting chances to kill Saul and not taking them because he's still loyal. But one thing that isn't complicated is that Jonathan and David still love each other a lot, even as wars and betrayals happen all around them.
Finally Saul and Jonathan are killed together in the same battle, and David sweeps in with his loyal rebels as reinforcements too late to do anything but clean-up and mourn. But he does give a eulogy where he's careful to point out that that what he felt with Jonathan was better than he ever felt with a woman, thereby setting a precedent for every slash ship for the next three thousand years.
(There is a theory that Jonathan faked his death to run off and be with David but tbf this one is a very shaky theory.)
David/Jonathan fanfic currently accessible is disproportionately based on the TV show Kings, which is a secondary-world modern AU of the story, featuring Sebastian Stan in his classic role of tragically gay politician's son. The show does take some liberties with the plot but I don't really know what they are because I have only read the fanfic? I think the TV show was afraid to be quite as gay as the original, so David and Jonathan's relationship is somewhat more explicitly adversarial. (This does not seem to have worked at making it less gay.) So here's some fic of each kind.
(Also I should note that the original canon has a lot of genocide and baby-killing? Like a lot. Kings the show seems to have replaced a lot of it with torture and sexual abuse. But these are war criminals either way. So be warned. #problematic)
- Wonderful (1375 words) by WishingStar
Fandom: Christian Bible (Old Testament), תנ"ך | Tanakh
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: David | Dāūd/Yehonatan | Jonathan
Additional Tags: Fluff, Jonathan has no chill
David comes home in triumph, and he shouldn't have. - Single Use Weapon (67407 words) by Fahye
Chapters: 3/3
Fandom: Kings (TV 2009)
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: Jack Benjamin/David Shepherd, Michelle Benjamin/David Shepherd
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Loyalty, Politics
Prince Jonathan is working for the terrorists opposing King David's new reign. Maybe. Depends on who you ask. - The Book of Nathan (7776 words) by Dani
Fandom: Kings (TV 2009)
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Characters: Jack Benjamin, Lucinda Wolfson, Ephram Samuels, Joseph Lasile, David Shepherd, Silas Benjamin
Jack fakes his death, runs off with David. - no rebel, no renegade (10315 words) by indigostohelit
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: תנ"ך | Tanakh
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Relationships: David | Dāūd/Yehonatan | Jonathan
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Space, Flashbacks, Tragic Romance, Father-Son Relationship, Royalty, Space Battles, Monsters, Religious Content, Jews In Space, Religious Imagery & Symbolism
Space AU!