You Can’t Tell Me Not to Ship Lee Scoresby & John Parry on His Dark Materials

After a physically and emotionally taxing episode of HBO’s His Dark Materials, Lee Scoresby could use some tender loving care. Enter Jopari, also known as Will’s father John Parry, played by Andrew Scott. I can’t imagine telling myself in 2019 a lot of things about 2020, but wanting nothing more than to see the Hot Priest and Hamilton kiss is certainly one of them.

One could take it back even further to 2010 and swap those characters out with Usnavi and Moriarty and really confuse my past self and probably yours, to be perfectly honest. All aboard my His Dark Materials crack ship—we’ve got bacon sandwiches!

Big things happened in “Tower of the Angels,” like Will becoming the bearer of the Subtle Knife, Mrs. Coulter crossing worlds in Fleur Delacour cosplay, and Mary Malone learning about the existence of friggin’ angels. But can we just take a moment to appreciate that Will’s dad whispered sweet nothings into a ring to summon Lee Scoresby to him, and then greeted him with soup and the aforementioned sandwich? Can we talk about how they bonded over their mutual hatred of Lyra’s father, Lord Asriel (James McAvoy), and looked at each other with alternating smolders and heart eyes? Can we marvel at how, by using his shaman magic to make the balloon fly, John is literally the wind beneath Lee’s proverbial wings? I am watching respectfully.

I want their adventure to go on forever now? I want these two dads—one biological father and one found father—to join up with Will and Lyra and become a little family. Wouldn’t that be nice?  I want Lee to teach John how to show up for his son, and I want John to teach Lee how to love himself. It breaks my heart every time Lee says that his life is worth a tenth of Lyra’s … come on, bud! She may be the Chosen One, but you’re not so bad yourself. I’m glad that they found each other, and I want to see what happens next.

It’s not as far-fetched as some crack ships go. I’ll acknowledge that, but I don’t necessarily think that’s really where the show is going in the end. Some actors just ooze chemistry, and Andrew Scott is one of them. If you didn’t learn that with Sherlock, you most definitely did with Fleabag. This can be my own personal headcanon, and you’re all welcome to join me in yelling “make out” at my television screen.

There are honest-to-goodness, from-the-books queer characters coming later in the series, and we can talk about whether or not they are good representation when it happens. I simply want to ship these two characters for the sake of it. They make a good team, and that should be championed. If you need me, I’ll be editing a Aëronaut/Shaman fancam to “I Believe I Can Fly” or “Come Fly With Me” or something similarly on the nose.

(images: HBO)

Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site!

—The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.—