Sally Hope/Darrell Rivers
| Pairing | |
|---|---|
| Pairing: | Sally Hope/Darrell Rivers |
| Alternative name(s): | |
| Gender category: | F/F, femslash |
| Fandom: | Malory Towers |
| Canonical?: | No |
| Prevalence: | Moderate |
| Archives: | |
| Other: | |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
This article or section needs expansion. |
Sally Hope/Darrell Rivers is a femslash pairing in the Malory Towers fandom.
Canon
Darrell and Sally both appear in all the original Malory Towers books, starting school at the same time. While Darrell both wants to attend Malory Towers and is looking forward to it, Sally’s home life is more complicated and she feels that she has been sent away following the birth of her baby sister. This leads to Sally being withdrawn throughout the early events of book one.
The pair follow something akin to an enemies-to-friends storyline arc throughout the first book, with their relationship becoming increasingly antagonistic once Darrell brings up Sally’s baby sister for the first time. Sally denies having a sister, yet Darrell knows from discussions with her own family that she does.
This conflict escalates to a physical altercation, after which it is revealed that Sally has been struggling with the early symptoms of appendicitis and she becomes seriously ill. Darrell wrestles with the guilt of having harmed Sally and writes to Sally’s mother confessing her role.
Eventually, after Sally has her appendix removed, more details come out about Sally’s family and why she was sent to boarding school, Darrell apologises for her actions, and the pair form a friendship. They then remain close friends throughout the remaining books (which also persists to some degree into continuations), though they do have other problems to overcome, primarily resulting from Sally’s jealousy and Darrell’s temper.
Fandom
The pairing is relatively popular within the fandom in fannish spaces like Livejournal and Archive of our Own.
As well as the enemies-to-friends arc often being extended into an enemies-to-friends-to-lovers arc instead, there is a lot of fannish mileage out of Sally’s canonical jealousy. Sally struggled throughout book one due to feeling pushed aside by her parents in favour of her baby sister. In many ways, the same feelings of being pushed aside and jealousy resulting from that crop up in books two and three (where it is a primary plot point) in regards to her friendship with Darrell. This is especially true in situations involving Darrell’s friendship with their classmate, Alicia Johns.
This jealousy has been headcanoned by fans of the pairing as Sally struggling with her growing romantic feelings for Darrell and how that causes her to be possessive of Darrell to varying degrees. Some fanworks have Sally's feelings for Darrel be either unrequited or presumed unrequited by Sally, these fanworks are often much angstier.
On the other hand, Darrell is canonically not as sensitive to other people’s feelings or particularly tuned into understanding others, commenting in book one that she is “too tightly in her own skin” to see things from other people’s points of view. This is often explored in opposition to Sally’s more astute nature, with Darrell sometimes being the last person to realise in fanworks that either Sally has feelings for her or that the pair of them behave in a manner that leans more towards romantic than platonic.
Fan Commentary
Darrel and Sally from Mallory Towers were lesbians how the fuck did I not get it till now
#rah blah #for real #Those two were definitely more than friends #mallory towers
the way alicia johns darrell rivers and sally hope were the first love triangle i ever encountered and nothing has beaten them since
#as a kid i always had the biggest crush on alicia #i think i always shipped darrell/alicia #but now i think I'm hardcore team darrell/sally #THEY ARE EVERYTHING TO ME #malory towers
Common Tropes and Fanon
- Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers
- Jealousy/Possessiveness - Sally canonically both struggles with feelings of jealousy when other people are close with Darrell and can display mildly possessive behaviour over her. These are often explored in far greater depth in fanworks of the pairing.
- Useless lesbian - Darrell’s slight obliviousness when it comes to other people’s feelings can be played up in fanworks, often having third-parties finally helping her realise that she is in love with Sally.
- Post-canon - As many Malory Towers fanworks tend to be based in the original time-period of the 40s-50s, a number of fanworks age up the characters to adulthood to explore their feelings for each other, where there would be means of privacy.
- Romantic friendship/platonic life partners - There are also some works where it is left deliberately vague what kind of relationship the pair have; with some taking more of a queerplatonic approach to their relationship.
Controversies
As with all queer interpretations of Enid Blyton works, fans in spaces outside of Tumblr, Livejournal, or AO3 often take issue with the pairing existing as well as fanworks with a sapphic focus.
Example Fanworks
| Examples Wanted: Editors are encouraged to add more examples or a wider variety of examples. |
Fanfic
- A Secluded Spot at Malory Towers] by johnnypurple. ‘’’It was a terrible thing, to be in love with your best friend.’’’
- Safe Harbour by Sangerin. ‘’’It began when Darrell stumbled upon Bill and Clarissa in a private moment.’’’
- Flaws by tornyourdress. ‘’They both have their flaws.’’’
- Trust by Pathology Doc. ‘’’Darrell and Sally are at university. There are no limits to their newfound freedom. But what will they do with it?‘’’
Other Fanworks
Meta
Archives and Communities
Other Fannish Resources
(Rec Lists, Big Bangs, Thing-a-thons, Holiday Exchanges, wiki links, etc.)
References
- ^ neutronian post, Tumblr. (14 December 2023) (Archived-14 December 2023)
- ^ oniongarlicchutney post, Tumblr. (14 December 2023) (Archived-14 December 2023)