Pairing Meme: FE7 Time

[mark_asphodel]

Uh-oh.  I must be crazy to do this... posting my public opinions about the game that most of you hold dearest to your hearts when I've never unlocked Hector mode or played Hard Mode anything or unlocked most of the support convos or lived for years immersed in Elibe.

So, just take into account that these are all my own personal opinions and biases, mmmkay?
 
- One True Pairing Ship
- Canon Ship
- "If this happens I'll stab my eyes out with a spork" Ship
- "You are one sick bastard" Ship
- "I dabble a little" Ship
- "It's like a car crash" Ship
- "Tickles my fancy but not sold just yet" Ship
- "Makes no canon sense but why not" Ship
- "Everyone else loves it but I just don't feel it" Ship

OTP 'Ship: 
Don't have one yet. 

Though I must confess to a very strong preference for Hector/Lyn for political reasons.  I am not terribly taken with either Lyn or Hector as personalities (no, really) and their "courtship" contains some elements that annoy me.  But Lyn's various endings irk me greatly with regards to the fate of Caelin, and I much prefer the idea that Caelin passes to Lyn's own daughter rather than believing that, after fighting a struggle over her rights to Caelin in which people died, including decent people who were on the wrong side, she just "pulls a Nyna" and runs away to suit her own interests.  The idea that Lilina's ultimate role of unifying all of Lycia begins literally at home, with the union of her father's Ostia and her mother's Caelin, also pleases me.

Canon 'Ship:
Gotta go with Pent/Louise.  They're sweet, they're canon... they might be morons for messing around in wartime but I guess Klein's age was predetermined and that's how the timeline shook out.  And apparently Clarine turns out to be rather obnoxious.  But these two have some especially touching retreat quotes and I really don't understand why some people loathe them.  And Pent's cute.  

Spork 'Ship:
Oh, god.  So many of these.  If there's Matthew/Guy involved, I'm not reading it unless I really, really trust that author and have some kind of motivation to even be reading it.  Heath/Legault, same deal.  Kent/Sain, same deal.  Anything involving "sex" and Karel, same deal.  And the reason for all these is the same-- overexposure to bad fanfic back in the day when I was plowing through ffnet looking for anything related to the "Akaneia" games.  I saw enough M/G, H/L, and K/S that the 'fic summaries started to give me hives.  And use of Karel often just seems to be an excuse to be exceptionally gross.  Heath/Legault might be a fine pairing in some respect, but at this point, I just don't care what its good points are and I don't want to read it.

Sick Bastard 'Ship:
Some authors write things involving the morphs.  Some of these stories are really not that bad.  Some of them are.  Eliwood/Limstella was the centerpiece of a surprisingly thoughtful 'fic that threw FE6 canon out the window.  I'm still not sure whether I enjoyed it or not, but I certainly finished it.  Though it might have just been the realism of that story that impressed me, rather than the pairing; the author didn't hold back at all when inflicting dysentery upon Eliwood, and a lot of writers just wouldn't try.

Dabble 'Ship:
I'd kind of like to see some solid 'fics featuring Erk and Nino post-game.  I can see why no one writes it (the overwhelming predominance of Jaffar/Nino), but I like the possibilities.  He's very sweet with her... the picture book and everything.  Aww.

Car Crash 'Ship:
Eliwood/Fiora and Eliwood/Lyn.  Because of, you know, Ninian.  Eli/Fiora I sort of fancy on its own merits (and because I rather like to be weird), but I've finally fallen into the camp that says that, yes, Ninian really is Eliwood's True Love and he won't ever be the same if she goes through the Gate.  Eliwood/Fiora is going to be problematic (and boy did I like "Fools Rush In" by sacae  for tackling some of the problems), and we know it can't possibly end Happily Ever After.   As for Eliwood/Lyn, I don't believe them to be anything more than dear friends, and while I can appreciate the fictional possibilities of Eliwood turning to his best friend for comfort, there are again going to be Issues.  And this one doesn't end so well either.

Also, realistically?  Hector/Farina is going to be like a fifty-car pileup in the center of Ostia.

Harken/Isadora has the hint of screeching metal and burning gasoline around it, too.


Not Sold 'Ship:
Lots of pairings, really.  I dunno.  Erk/Priscilla?  

Why Not? 'Ship:
Friends have successfully made the case to me that Sain/Florina ought to have been a viable option.  Sain is, whatever his quirks, a gentle man as well as a gentleman and would treat Florina very well.

Also rather liked shining_valor 's take on future!Pent/Louise wherein Pent is all wrapped up in his studies and Louise is consoling herself with Erk.

And finally-- I like Hector/Serra, dammit!  That's another one that should've been canon.  It's loopy and whacked-out and there's such poignant depth behind Serra's confabulations and I.  Just.  Like.  It.  [FWIW, Serra = an evolution of FE3's Melissa with more than one facet to her personality.]

Not Feelin' It 'Ship:
I understand why people gravitate to Kent/Lyn (well, for a start, it's about the only marriage ending that doesn't assume that she DIES), but in spite of the many fellow writers who have made the case for it, this pairing is something I like and read only on an intermittent basis.  A handful of stories have connected with me emotionally, but most don't, and I think the problem is mostly that I'm not especially taken with Lyn.

Same thing with Hector/Florina.  This is a "type" of pairing (super-shy and gentle girl, big lummox of a guy) that fails to move me in general, and while individual stories have touched me, as it stands I consider this to be the least preferred of Hector's canon-pairing options.  As in, "I'd rather see him with Eliwood."

While Raven/Lucius can be done decently, usually it just seems like an excuse for stereotypical seme/uke garbage.  Again, I trust some authors in particular and don't bother with the rest.

[I can tell when I'm really only connecting with particular stories and not with a pairing based on whether or not I bother looking for fanart.  If it's purely the writer, I ain't digging up fanart for that couple, because it's not really the couple that clicks for me.]

Finally, Nino and Jaffar?  Yeah, I know it's one of those canon-preferred things where you're really supposed to go with Jaffar even if Erk is technically an option, but it leaves me quite frigid.  I wouldn't say I hate it, exactly, but I don't react well to it and I can't entirely say why just yet. 

There.  I did it.  Meme's done, unless I'm going to half-ass my way though Jugdral.  Not touching Tellius with a ten-foot pole.

Comments

[thenicochan.livejournal.com]

Yaaaayy FE7!

Miscellaneous comments follow, with no flow or purpose:

Pent/Louise is probably my Elibe OTP. But you are right, it seems a lot of people just don't like them. I think they're sweet and funny and they are both very pretty together

The Holy Trinity of Elibe Yaoi you have mentioned tends to have the same effect on me. I don't even really care for Matthew/Guy even when it's written well. Kent/Sain, in my head, could really work out, and I've seen some really good fics for it, so of the trio it is my favorite for sure.

Eliwood/Lyn seems to be just generally unpopular. That woman has was too many romantic options (If you're on the Eliwood/Lyn side, maybe that's where Roy got his playboy ending tendencies from?)

I read sacae's Eliwood/Fiora fic and it really intrigued me. I could see this pairing (or any Eliwood pairing other than Ninian) as simply being a tragic attempt at Eliwood moving past Ninian's return through the Gate...

I share your sentiments on Kent/Lyn, though I enjoy Lyn just fine. Something about it just doesn't click with me all the way.

Raven/Lucius has the makings of a really excellent pairing, and I've read a few good fics centering on them but you are right. They are often forced into the seme/uke roles by the fangirls who have no regard for characterization. R/L also have the nice distinction of being one of those "subtle possibilities" thanks to their ending, which IS made sure to gay-up to eleven. I also have a bit of a hard time connecting with Raven as a character. I feel like if he was a real person in our current society he would be a whiny kid who only shops at Hot Topic and pretends to be all "deep and brooding" but probably has a poster of Twilight in his room.

Also, Nino/Jaffar? Despite the creepy age difference I am sold on this pairing. It pleases me.

[hooves.livejournal.com]

PFFF ILU. For being opinionated. YES.

Spork ships-- I agree 100% on all of those. I actually see Karel as asexual, and there are so many shitty attempts at Matthew/Guy and Kent/Sain and Legault/Heath (that, by the way, bring a whole new meaning to OOC) that it's enough to really make you contemplate grabbing a fork for your eyes.

Dabble ship-- I actually like the idea of Erk and Nino, and might play around with it for my novelization. I can see Jaffar/Nino, but the cliché (badass serious killer + hyper young girl who loves him) not only doesn't do it for me...it's been WAY OVERDONE. (And, by the way, done much, much better.) IMHO, Erk/Nino makes the *most* sense in terms of canon. Erk and Nino and Jaffar are all gone-- it's safe to assume that Erk either went into hiding or (as per canon ending) went after Nino. I don't think Nino wouldn't like Jaffar, because he's something familiar to cling to, I guess. But after spending time with Lyn (who seems to sort of mother her?) and then with Erk and even others, I think she'd actually grow apart from Jaffar. Then again, I also feel he couldn't ever really love her and care for her and give her what she needs. TL;DR...their relationship would be really, really fucked up. And in the worst of ways.

Car Crash ships-- Oh God, so much to say. I'll try to keep it short.

1.) Eliwood/anyone that isn't Ninian.

A.) Eliwood/Lyn just makes me :| In a lot of ways, it's worse (more tragic?) than Eliwood/Fiora. I guess I see it as being that way because Lyn frolics off to Sacae again in canon, which tells me she wouldn't be happy living anywhere else (for an extended period of time/for the rest of her life). No matter what anyone says, some people get severely homesick even if they really love someone and want to be with them. (I don't think love conquers all, obviously. Hah.) The good thing about it is that they are, at least, good friends. But it would feel too platonic to me. Meh.

B.) Eliwood/Fiora. Ah! Glad you liked that 'fic, by the way. I have been thinking way too much about characters over the last however many years. sain and I regularly would have long (4+ hour) discussions about pairings and characters, and realism-- "Will ____/_____ work out?" The game crams Ninian down your throat, and he's very affectionate toward her in canon-- if he wasn't, I would probably enjoy Eliwood/Fiora a lot. However, the game at least makes it pretty clear that his #1 pick is Ninian, and anyone else would be second best/leftovers.

I could have gone much deeper into the Eliwood/Fiora pairing, and I might with a novelization. I honestly can't decide on things like pairings because I like so many. I love triangles, but writing several of them... eh. At any rate, I can see Eliwood/Fiora working out, but like I tried to show with that 'fic...I don't see both of them being truly happy.

C.) I love Hector/Farina. He has the dynamic with her that he has with Lyn, but Farina won't want to run off to Sacae and very likely wants to stay as far from Ilia's shittiness as she can get. Also, their "arguments" aren't really arguments so much as they're Farina being distrusting. And IMHO she probably has a lot of reasons to be. Someone did mention writing a story about having her run away after marrying Hector, though, and I found that to be intriguing. (Way, way more intriguing than Lyn doing something similar. But I think this was because Farina would probably take stuff. Maybe.) But it's very car-crashy, not only because of Farina's inability to trust, but because Hector's a protecting type and Farina doesn't seem to want to be "protected". I do see it working, and I like it much more than Hector/Florina (AHH DON'T SHOOT ME) but it wouldn't ever be a perfect ending type thing.

D.) Harken/Isadora doesn't bode well with me, either. I really like shimizu_hitomi's 'fic about Isadora. I still don't like Harken, though. He's a loser in my book. :/

[samuraiter.livejournal.com]

You and I seem to disagree on a large number of pairings in Elibe (note my response to this meme), but this, of course, is perfectly okay. :-) Elibe, like FE in general, has a little for everybody, but that which is catnip for one person can be stinkweed for another, and everybody interprets these character dynamics a little differently.

....

Color me extremely fascinated at the notion of Eliwood / Limstella.

[shining-valor.livejournal.com]

[Twitches]

No, no! Must not touch the gun... No killing of people because of disagreements, my pretty!

~

I grant that you have points in some of your explanations. Yes, you do have points. Some I even agree with. Except Hector/Lyn in any capacity. This rubs me the wrong way and causes reactions such as the above.

[Though I must confess to a very strong preference for Hector/Lyn for political reasons. I am not terribly taken with either Lyn or Hector as personalities (no, really) and their "courtship" contains some elements that annoy me. But Lyn's various endings irk me greatly with regards to the fate of Caelin, and I much prefer the idea that Caelin passes to Lyn's own daughter rather than believing that, after fighting a struggle over her rights to Caelin in which people died, including decent people who were on the wrong side, she just "pulls a Nyna" and runs away to suit her own interests. The idea that Lilina's ultimate role of unifying all of Lycia begins literally at home, with the union of her father's Ostia and her mother's Caelin, also pleases me.]

Bah, if you look at the way things go, you'll find that Lyn originally has no plans for staying in Caelin - the turn towards Caelin rides upon two knightly lads who bear news of a sick grandfather. That was what really turned her focus towards the tiny canton. In fact, had Lundgren not interfered, its a possibility that she may have even bypassed Caelin altogether after a short visit (though she probably would have made a point in visiting the ancestral holdings from time to time.) And if you recall, the driving focus of the journey was to eventually come back and crush the bandits that had taken away her parents and clan.

(Also, someone mentioned Lyn's selfishness in a reply post I think. Is it truly Lyn's selfishness, or is it the selfishness of certain folk in Caelin? After all, "Champion Roland...His heirs become the lords of the Lycian League..." would make it so there are plenty of potential inheritors of the bloodline, although mayhap not in direct descent from the Hausen/Lundgren part of the tree.)

:P

Ignore my grumpiness - I still think you make a lot of good points amongst the ones that I rabidly disagree with. Having different points of view makes for diverse fiction, which is a good thing.

So yeah, never mind me...

[penandpaper71.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to see this meme end for you. I've enjoyed reading it. ^_^

Harken/Isadora is one of those pairings that I've gone back and forth on (I liked it for a while, but I less enthralled by it these days. I'm not necessarily opposed to it, I suppose, but Isadora's character makes me nervous. On rereads of their supports, she doesn't come off sounding terribly emotionally stable and, admittedly, Harken has his own issues that make me wonder how well he'd fare in a relationship. I'm at the point were I'm not sure that I'm totally comfortable pairing either off with anybody without some further development for their characters. Maybe if they worked through their issues after the war it could work out, but I can't imagine that they're going to just go home, get married, and live happily ever after. On the other hand, it might be interesting to try to work through the issues with their relationship in fic.

I've actually never liked Nino/Jaffar and I feel quite alone in this. I think that it's Jaffar's personality that turns me off of it. I don't see someone like Jaffar simply being healed because of love. He's in no way ready for a relationship during/ by the end of the war and I think it would take a fair amount of effort to get him to a place where he would be ready for one (Assuming that he isn't already too badly emotionally damaged), but, then again, this one ends poorly anyway, so perhaps that doesn't matter.

I also agree with a lot of your thoughts on the whole pairing Eliwood with anyone who isn't Ninian.

Posted again because I didn't like how something was phrased. My apologies.