Oh, why not?
Jan. 12th, 2011 12:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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raphien :
Provide pairing and I'll whip up the following:
1. When or if I started shipping them:
2. What I think their challenge is:
3. What makes me happy about them:
4. What makes me sad about them:
5. What moment I wish had never happened:
6. Who I'd be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:
7. My happily ever after for them:
raphien :Provide pairing and I'll whip up the following:
1. When or if I started shipping them:
2. What I think their challenge is:
3. What makes me happy about them:
4. What makes me sad about them:
5. What moment I wish had never happened:
6. Who I'd be comfortable them ending up with, if not each other:
7. My happily ever after for them:
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2011-01-12 05:47 pm (UTC)Maybe I'm making this too easy.
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Date: 2011-01-12 06:36 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-12 06:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-12 09:41 pm (UTC)2) I just don't think they work as a positive couple. I think they bring out the worst in each other-- Tana degenerates into a clingy, manipulative, insecure mess around Ephraim, and Ephraim just comes across as emotionally tone-deaf when it comes to Tana's need for acknowledgement. Yeah, you can say that they'd grow as a couple... but if the supports are supposed to be the building bridges to love and marriage, I'm not seeing it.
3) Um, it's a good political marriage?
4) If Intelligent Systems really was trying to evoke Marth/Caeda with Ephraim/Tana, they managed to capture most of the negative points of M/C and none of the positive ones.
5) B-support. All of it. She's annoying and he's a dumbass.
6) Tana/Cormag all the way, baby. Tana really does have depth to her character, and being around Ephraim just... stifles it? The dynamic between Tana and Cormag allows for more satisfactory development, IMO. As for Ephraim... he's better off with anyone in his support network. Hell, he might be better off with Marisa.
7) They wave goodbye at the end of the war and go back to their respective kingdoms. And see each other on holidays and special events. The end.
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Date: 2011-01-12 09:57 pm (UTC)2) Well, Merric's in love with Elice. Or with the idea of Elice. So, yeah, love triangle. And despite being coyly-worded in the games, canon intends for Elice and Merric to wed and Linde to be left in the corner, making herself pretty to catch Merric's attention. She's his friend and co-worker... but not his princess. Sigh.
3) Cute, sweet, friendshippy mages with actual interests in common, not to mention shared goals. They appear to have compatible personalities, are on one another's level intellectually, and while each has suffered from the wars, it's not a case of one of them being really messed up and the other having to support them. Or of two really messed-up people being co-dependent. To me, it's an ideal basis for a relationship.
4) Linde gets canon-shafted. Headcanon says that Merric doesn't really know what he wants out of life, and he's passing up and ideal friend and lover (Linde) in favor of his idealized princess on a pedestal (Elice). And what Elice seems to want is a "child," not a husband.
5) Merric and Elice getting married.
6) I kinda-sorta 'ship Linde/George, though I'd like Linde to become a strong enough person that she doesn't need an "idol" in her life. As for Merric... well, IMO, in casting his hat for Elice he went for the wrong sibling. :P
7) I'd like them to go off and be magic nerds together after the end of the War of Darkness, enjoying a long and happy life of companionship and blowing stuff up.
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Date: 2011-01-12 10:21 pm (UTC)1) By the time I got to the ending of FE11, I was hooked. I'd never even considered it before, because Nyna always seemed too old, too remote, and so blatantly set on Camus. But all the unresolved tension between Marth and Nyna in FE11, combined with the canonical fact that he was her first choice for marriage
of two unsatisfactory options>, just clicked with me. And the new artwork is just gravy.2) Oh boy. Well, she's in love with Camus and obviously isn't very good at, you know, moving on with her life. And he's in love with Caeda even if he mostly fails at expressing it. ASIDE FROM THAT... well, there's a fair amount of friction between them in FE11. They're kind of at right angles in how they approach their responsibilities, plus they both have some emotional/psychological issues that need to be addressed. Yeah, it's kind of a mess. But I find it a fascinating mess.
3) Aside from the je ne sais quoi factor that makes me keep circling back to this pairing (and teh prettie), I think it's fair to make the argument that, rationally and politically, a marriage between them was The Right Thing To Do and could have prevented a massive and bloody war. And I take that sort of thing seriously when analyzing a game whose very premise is "restore a prince/princess to his/her throne and place in society."
4) I don't know that either of them would ever be satisfied, even if I believe, even in light of FE12, that Marth would be able to deal with a state marriage a lot better than Hardin did. Hardin thought Nyna loved him the way he loved her. Marth doesn't have any illusions about Nyna in that regard (he'd probably view the whole thing as a kind of penance for the Camus fiasco). But there's a big difference between "being able to deal" and actually being content.
5) Well, Nyna should've been more concerned with her duties as queen than about sparing the feelings of a fifteen-year-old girl. But, if Camus hadn't decided to be so damned difficult come recruitment time, things might not have devolved into such a mess.
6) I don't think Nyna has any good options. She really should've told Boah to stick his marriage plans elsewhere and ruled alone until she got herself together as a person. I mean, the best canon can offer her is, what... an "open marriage" dealie with Zeke and Teeta? Nyna/Camus is an extremely messed-up relationship and does not make me happy at all. Nyna/Hardin might have worked if they'd given it a real chance. As for Marth... hey, he's got Caeda, end of story.
7) There's no such thing as a happily-ever-after where Nyna's involved. That's part of the fun! They can be exquisitely unhappy ever after while the world spins peacefully along.
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Date: 2011-01-13 12:09 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 12:11 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 01:00 am (UTC)except MyUnit, I was... not entirely surprised?2) I think... or, rather, thought prior to FE12, that they were a bit too similar to click as a romantic pairing. They are both dedicated professional knights; Catria came across as the Peg Knight Sister who was most focused on the "knightly" side of her life, and we already knew Cain was the "serious knight" of the original Abel'n'Cain set because he didn't "retire," get married, and screw up bad. I could see Cain as being totally happy with his career, and probably looking at love-and-marriage with a fair amount of skepticism given the fates of Abel and Hardin. As for Catria... again, I assumed that her mystery love interest was Marth. I just couldn't see them as "clicking" anywhere near the time of the wars. (Still can't.) Good friends? Sure. Lovers? Nope.
3) I'm happy it's not canon. I thought that was the direction IS was pointing for FE11, and whoa nelly that is not the case.
4) In terms of narrative, I'm sad that Cain and Catria lose so much of what's important to them-- Abel and Est in particular. Even if they're close friends, they're friends who are missing a big part of their lives after the war. In terms of canon, I'm sad that their characterizations appear to have taken a hit in FE12. Also, I suppose it's kind of sad that neither of them has any viable canon romantic options... particularly as Catria come FE12 knows that her feelings for a certain man are "useless." Though they're hardly alone in that....
5) I wish large chunks of FE12 had never happened. Though I guess out of everything, the part of Cain's character ending where they cut out his future as Marth's adviser burns the worst. Like, WHY? Why cut that?
6) I don't really have any alternate straight romantic options for Cain (see comments re: FE12 supports above). I don't think he and Palla would actually work out. I briefly shipped him with Cecil, but she belongs with Rody. As for Catria, I still ship her with Marth. I just don't write it much anymore.
7) Happy ending? I dunno, being a mature pair of companionate lovers sounds happy enough to me.
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Date: 2011-01-13 01:10 am (UTC)2) Est is the stumbling block. Abel loves her (lord knows why), Palla loves her baby sister, and whether Est is present, missing, or dead, she will always be between them. I suspect Palla was a little too reserved about her feelings, so Abel misinterpreted or missed them and glommed onto the baby sister instead.
3) I don't know that anything about this pairing makes me happy. It's a beautiful might-have-been that pulls me in every time.
4) It's all sad. The Peg Sisters are presented as such cutesy characters that it's easy to gloss over that Palla loses SO MUCH. She loses the man she loves, she loses the little sister she would (and did) travel to the ends of the earth for, and she loses her beloved sovereign to that damned convent. As for Abel... "went chasing Est and was never seen again." :(
5) It's a cheap shot to say Abel shouldn't have married Est. Or betrayed his country for her. Or run after her once their lives were already ruined. Oops, I said it.
6) I have no other options for them. This is my Archanea OTP, even if it's a failure.
7) Once I come up with a happy ending for them, I will be sure to post it!
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Date: 2011-01-13 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 05:40 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-13 10:27 am (UTC)2) Their personality quirks. And yeah, Lyn would be homesick for Sacae, but in my personal experience, if you do love someone, you can deal with not going home again. Especially when the "home" you grew up in really isn't there anymore (parents dead, tribe disassembled, and so on). The pair of them aren't really cut out to be the front-and-center couple of Lycian political life.
3) The Lilina thing, above. Also, in spite of the tease/insult nature of a lot of their interactions, they do hit my warm-and-fuzzy spot.
4) Well, if they marry, then Lyn is guaranteed an early exit from the scene... and Hector's life doesn't go so well, either. He's a character set up by canon to fail, and no amount of cool or funny or awesome will erase that.
5) I wish their ending hadn't been so generic. Fail, IS, for copy-pasting all Hector's paired endings.
6) I like Lyn's ending with Florina. It doesn't have to be a romantic ending, though I'm fine with that too. Also wish she'd had an ending with Wil, heh. As for Hector, he works well with Farina and I personally like the thought of him with Serra.
7) Um... well, it's inherent in the nature of the pairing that they don't get one (long-term, anyway). So hopefully the time they have together is satisfying enough.
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Date: 2011-01-13 10:51 am (UTC)2) I think Seth is going to come out of the war with a lot of issues. He'd have to be blind not to notice the bad examples of twisted love (Orson, Carlyle, Lyon) in front of him, and I think he'd have a lot of doubts and misgivings about his own heart. Also, if he and Eirika are living at court, Ephraim's going to be a constant presence in their lives, and I do see that as being a complicating factor.
3) I do think they're well-matched in outlook and temperament and are very cute together. I think they're a good pairing; I just don't care for it when they're put on some unreal plane of perfection.
4) I dunno if anything really makes me SAD about this pairing. I mean, the whole thing about Seth suffering the rest of his life from Valter's attack on them is all headcanon anyway. I guess it makes me sad when fans use Seth as a vehicle to attack Innes or Lyon.
5) Mm. Never happened. I wish there'd been a less abrupt transition from Seth renouncing Eirika's love in their A-support to, "hey, they got married anyway and everything was cool." That's part of why I don't like fluff involving them... fluffy takes on this pairing seem to gloss over too much.
6) I'm fine with Natasha as an alternate ending for Seth and I like all Eirika's possible pairings.
7) I think Eirika's Route should've ended with her ruling Renais alone while Ephraim went down to deal personally with reconstructing Grado. And a solo Queen Eirika with Seth by her side seems like quite a nice ending to me.
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Date: 2011-01-13 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2011-01-14 05:50 am (UTC)2) Well, the major challenge other than general chaos and war is the part about Levin being dead and resurrected and not 100% Levin thereafter. :(
Also, doesn't he just disappear after Celice's victory?
3) They're an interesting and attractive couple with a lovely pair of children. And, as an evolution of the Responsible Peg Knight, Fury is a fantastic character. Levin, of course, pretty much defines his own "archetype" (the wandering prince) even if George was kind of there first.
4) See #2, above. Poor Fury. Poor kids. But it does make second-gen!Levin a really interesting character!
5) Mahnya's death. Fury's own death is deeply sad, too, but by that point, things are already so horrible...
6) Nope. It's an OTP. No other suitors welcome.
7) Too bad they can't both be resurrected for real and be reunited with the kids.