One True Impossible Pairing

[mark_asphodel]

Seriously, why is my fanficcing OTP apparently Catria/Marth?  It doesn't happen.  It can't happen.  The amount of canon-warping to make this even possible is tremendous, confining it to the land of utter AUness or sometime well after the games.  And I don't have a problem with that, as I'd rather write about adults than teenagers anyway, but it still calls into question as to why I've latched onto what is, canonically, a teenager's unspoken crush on her superior.  Unspoken-- and unrequited.

Comments

[writerawakened.livejournal.com]

I find unrequited love to be more interesting to read and write about than mutual love, actually. What that says about me, I don't know. xd.

Maybe it's the subtlety and unspoken nature of it that makes you gravitate toward it to begin with?

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Yes, the subtlety and the ambiguity have a lot to do with it.

Part of it was that FE3 left it completely ambiguous as to whether Catria's interest in Marth was romantic or not. She could theoretically have felt simply extreme dedication and professional loyalty, just the same way she felt toward Princess Minerva. I think the truth lies somewhere in between, because Catria's professionalism and her focus on being a knight is such a huge part of her personality (which is part of why I love her). Anyway, I loved the gray area there.

Then FEDS comes along, and at first it looked like Catria/Marth was thrown out the window and supplanted by Catria/Cain[*], but I've come to the conclusion that they're both viable options for Catria's mystery love interest from her DS character ending. So, it *is* love on her part... which means you have this super-capable soldier with a deeply inappropriate interest in her lord and commander. Not that this is anything new by FE standards (Kent and Seth say hi)... though the amusing thing is that Cat/Marth actually predates the more "traditional" knight/princess pairings from FE7-10.

Anyway, at the base of it, I'm probably grooving on the same thing that excites fans of Kent/Lyn and Seth/Eirika... in fact, I only started to like Seth/Eirika after I realized the "juice" to the matchup contained ingredients I already enjoyed! But Kent and Seth both have the potential to resolve their romantic tension, and canon leaves Catria hanging. All we know is that she throws herself into rebuilding Macedon-- specifically, it says she "worked tirelessly" for her nation. That same precise wording is used for one other character ending in FE3... for the guy left in charge of Macedon and everything else after the war. Which means they'll still be in proximity. Hm....

:D

* It all has to do with support bonuses that are impossible to achieve at A-level thanks to Catria's join time. Talk about over-analyzing minutiae....

[writerawakened.livejournal.com]

Unrequited love is cool. There's plenty of opportunity to milk it for drama, so...yeah. I used to like Seth/Eirika a lot, but over the years I've found that my interests have veered away from the knight/princess pairing...far, far away. One-sided love is neat though. Dats dat good shit.

Whenever I write Kent (and I write from his POV a surprising amount, maybe because, well, I know what it feels like to like a girl who may or may not like you) I always throw in some mention of that. I mean, introspection city, and if there's one thing I LURVE to write, it's THOUGHTS. Kent (and Seth) is one of those characters I find myself writing about a lot (or at least, from the POV of), and I don't know why, because I don't really like him (I prefer the "Abels", I guess.)

Speaking a' Kent...XP

(You mean it's physically impossible to get Marth/Catty's A support? Wow, even Renault has enough time to get to A...)

Boy I feel out of it tonight. Gotta get some ZZZ...

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

One-sided love is best without a side of wangst, though. Some of the worst stuff I ever read 'fic-wise was one-sided Gundam Wing garbage, usually Duo pining for Heero.

Hey... you *did* up and post "The Crimson Knight." I'll have to take a look and see what changed.

[writerawakened.livejournal.com]

Well, with all due respect to Gundam Wing...that IS Gundam Wing fandom. XD That's supposed to be a pretty crazy fandumb, right?

Yeah, I posted TCK up. I made changes to all the things you commented on, so I think the prologue and stuff is much better now :D Thanks again for the feedback!

[mark-asphodel.livejournal.com]

Gundam Wing has got to be one of the benchmark insane-o-crazy fandoms of all time. I mean, you had people altering official pix and fabricating interviews to validate their pairing preferences. I swore off fandom entirely for at least a year thanks to that sort of madness.

The "war" I saw a few years back between Eli/Ninian shippers and Eli/Lyn shippers is *nothing* compared to the most minor of GW relationship flamewars.

I'll delve into reading TCK once I get my shiny new laptop configured....