Micaiah Pairings?

[Silver-Haired Maiden]

You know, I don't generally do much shipping, at least not anywhere near as much as is generally seen in fandoms.

That being said, RD is the only thing that I have a "crack" ship for. I have no real explanation of it. But I like the idea of Ike x Micaiah.

Of course I also like Micaiah x Pelleas, Micaiah x Zelgius, and Micaiah x Volug so it's not like I'm too picky xD A pairing I hadn't considered is Stefan and I will have to consider this pairing because it seems interesting.....

[vanguard333]

2 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

They were setting up Boyd and Mist back in PoR, what with their A support being Mist randomly crying and Boyd consoling her.

Then there was this bit in Chapter 17, which is odd since Boyd otherwise quits showing up in the plot after the first 8 Chapters. So that they did include him, meant they had to have a reason for it:

  Reveal hidden contents

Ike
I think she weighs... Oh, I'd say about half as much as Mist.

Mist
Wow! I'm surprised!

Boyd
I'll bet you are...

Mist
What are you grinning about, Boyd?

Boyd
Oh, nothing... I'm just amazed...Did you know you're two times heavier than she is!? I'm glad I don't have to carry you around! It'd be like wearing an extra suit of armor!

Mist
You... You pig! You're the worst!

Boyd
Gaaa!
 

Lovers' quarrel much? Ouch to Boyd if Mist is promoted at this point, since it means he is getting Shoved by a horse. The C and B supports between the two were also quarrels, with the B ending in Boyd blushing.  Can't get any more obvious here.

Boyd is also in the Prologue and Chapter 1 of PoR made out to be about Ike's equal in age and experience, and the closest thing to his best "bro" friend. In prior FEs- Archanea and Gen 1 Genealogy, the best friend of the protag got his sister, it is not without precedent in the series. Mist herself is very much a reference to the sword using Troubadours and female Paladins of Jugdral, particularly Ethlyn given she is Sigurd's little sister and Mist is to Ike.

RD then of course throws in its little bits in an attempt to remind the player of the romance and keep it alive.

This is coming from a devout MistxRolf shipper, so I think you can trust me that Mist and the Meathead is a very sensible pairing. (And I'm still not quite happy Mist didn't get an alternate paired ending with Rolf in RD.)

I agree. Boyd and Mist definitely was established even in Path of Radiance. I also agree about preferring Mist and Rolf to Mist and Boyd.

Funny enough, I've never played Genealogy, but it is interesting to compare Merric and Elice from Shadow Dragon to Mist and Boyd in the Tellius games. For one thing, Mist and Elice are both healers, but that's the part where similarities end. Mist is Ike's younger sister, where Elice is Marth's older sister. Elice, for what little character is shown in Shadow Dragon, seems rather stoic. Mist, on the other hand, really isn't. Merric and Marth being of similar age means that Elice is the older one, and in the conversation between the two in Shadow Dragon, she certainly acts like it.

Speaking of Merric, he is basically Marth's Soren, but bright and cheerful compared to Soren's gloomy and bitter. Where Boyd constantly bickers with Mist and cracks jokes like the one that got him shoved by Mist, Merric suffers from Cannot Spit it Out in regards to his feelings for Elice, as shown in the conversation I mentioned earlier.

[Interdimensional Observer]

34 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Funny enough, I've never played Genealogy, but it is interesting to compare Merric and Elice from Shadow Dragon to Mist and Boyd in the Tellius games. For one thing, Mist and Elice are both healers, but that's the part where similarities end. Mist is Ike's younger sister, where Elice is Marth's older sister. Elice, for what little character is shown in Shadow Dragon, seems rather stoic. Mist, on the other hand, really isn't. Merric and Marth being of similar age means that Elice is the older one, and in the conversation between the two in Shadow Dragon, she certainly acts like it.

Well the comparison holds stronger between Jugdral and Tellius than Tellius and Archanea, that I just tossed in there because I realized it spur of the moment after I mentioned Jugdral.

I do wish Elice and Merric got more time together so we could see more of their relationship, she got the bad luck of being a damsel in distress twice from the start to the end. And we could use more of Marth and Merric actually, they don't get much to flesh out their friendship either despite having all that time together on two journeys. Archanea's characters hurt so much for their lack of supports.

41 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

Speaking of Merric, he is basically Marth's Soren, but bright and cheerful compared to Soren's gloomy and bitter.

Yup, I realized that some time ago. Merric founded something of an archetype, its big 3 members being Merric, Asbel, Soren. With Ricken and Lugh as "lesser Merrics"- as in they meet some but not all requirements. Erk, Hayato, Lewyn and Ced have traces of the archetype, but not enough to really be members at all. Or so I arbitrarily define it.

Merric, Asbel, and Soren all have the following in common:

1. Male
2. Green hair
3. Mage
4. Has a wind magic affinity
5. Earliest in a magic class to join (Mystery Merric doesn't count here- but being the Merric, he innately has to be a Merric, and Soren was established as a Merric in PoR so the Part system of RD moving Soren to a much later appearance doesn't matter)
6. Has a close friendship with the main character

And reading over Asbel's recruitment dialog with Leif (the only dialogue Asbel gets other than with Ced at the start of the same chapter) for the first time I can remember:

Spoiler

Conversation (Asvel, Leaf)

Asvel:
“Lord Leaf! Finally! It’s me, Asvel!”

Leaf:
“Asvel!? What are you doing here? I thought you were in Tahra.”

Asvel:
“I went after you as soon as you left Tahra. But I lost track of you, and I’ve been here in Manster for half a year now…”

Leaf:
“As soon as I left!? …Then you’ve been searching for me for three years…?”

Asvel:
“Yes. Don’t you remember our promise? We vowed to reclaim Thracia together. But you left me and went off on your own, Lord Leaf.”

Leaf:
“I’m sorry… I had no choice. Tahra was surrounded by Imperial troops, and I was sure I was going to die. I never thought I would make it out of there alive… I didn’t want to put you in danger.”

Asvel:
“We swore to each other that we would live and die together, Lord Leaf… Was that an empty vow? I still remember it. And I’ve chosen to aid you as much as I can.”

Leaf:
“Asvel…”

Asvel:
“Lord Leaf, let’s reclaim Thracia. I’m willing to go through anything for that cause!”

So, since Leif left Asbel, Asbel has for years been looking for him- the person with whom he swore to live and die. Hmm... What does this remind me of? Oh yes, Soren's departure from Gallia in search of Ike when he left, and subsequent devotion to Ike once he found him.

I won't call Soren unoriginal, instead, I like how IS was able to recycle the old idea from 4 games ago, but do it in a refreshing new way. Asbel is no sharp-tongued Branded, Ike isn't a prince on the run. The details of the situations and people involved differ enough and the release distance between Thracia 776 and Path of Radiance is large enough to make this a neat echoing and not cliched repetition.

[Dark Holy Elf]

To speak a bit more on Micaiah/Sothe, there are plenty of ways in which Micaiah and Sothe are shown to have very strong feelings for each other (see the points Shoblongoo raised). I'm certainly sympathetic to the argument of "just because they're close and members of the opposite sex doesn't mean it has to be romantic", but I personally would flip that around and ask myself if I would still see the two as a couple even if Sothe were a woman or Micaiah was a man. And I'm pretty sure I would. Actually if I'm being honest I'd probably ship them harder than I do now.

 

13 hours ago, Shoblongoo said:

There may have been something going on or starting to go on with Zelgius. He was obviously into her, and she was at the very least intrigued by him. 

And I tend to believe Sothe saw that. Ostensibly, it was his time with Ike and the Griel Mercenaries that made him so uncomfortable having the Black Knight around. But I think what really pushed Sothe's buttons--and the reason he wanted the black knight to fuck-off immediately every time he popped up--is that he sensed there was a budding thing going on between him and Micaiah. (#Head-Canon) 

I never thought about it but yeah, I definitely like that headcanon; Sothe's side of it makes a lot of sense. And as much as I think Micaiah is into Sothe, Zelgius would almost certainly be intriguing to her - older where Sothe is younger, a Branded like herself, and a bit... wilder and more forbidden. (Actually it reminds me a lot of the pseudo-love triangle in the second Mistborn book, for those familiar with that.) The only place I disagree is I never interpreted Zelgius as being into Micaiah in that way at all; he's too loyal to Sephiran, and protecting Micaiah is a job for him, and there's never any suggestion he wavers in his loyalty to Sephiran at any point doing that job (e.g. he never expresses a morsel of regret for fighting her army in the Tower of Guidance, either before or after the fight).

[Just call me AL]

15 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

They were setting up Boyd and Mist back in PoR, what with their A support being Mist randomly crying and Boyd consoling her.

Then there was this bit in Chapter 17, which is odd since Boyd otherwise quits showing up in the plot after the first 8 Chapters. So that they did include him, meant they had to have a reason for it:

  Reveal hidden contents

Ike
I think she weighs... Oh, I'd say about half as much as Mist.

Mist
Wow! I'm surprised!

Boyd
I'll bet you are...

Mist
What are you grinning about, Boyd?

Boyd
Oh, nothing... I'm just amazed...Did you know you're two times heavier than she is!? I'm glad I don't have to carry you around! It'd be like wearing an extra suit of armor!

Mist
You... You pig! You're the worst!

Boyd
Gaaa!
 

Lovers' quarrel much? Ouch to Boyd if Mist is promoted at this point, since it means he is getting Shoved by a horse. The C and B supports between the two were also quarrels, with the B ending in Boyd blushing.  Can't get any more obvious here.

Boyd is also in the Prologue and Chapter 1 of PoR made out to be about Ike's equal in age and experience, and the closest thing to his best "bro" friend. In prior FEs- Archanea and Gen 1 Genealogy, the best friend of the protag got his sister, it is not without precedent in the series. Mist herself is very much a reference to the sword using Troubadours and female Paladins of Jugdral, particularly Ethlyn given she is Sigurd's little sister and Mist is to Ike.

RD then of course throws in its little bits in an attempt to remind the player of the romance and keep it alive.

This is coming from a devout MistxRolf shipper, so I think you can trust me that Mist and the Meathead is a very sensible pairing. (And I'm still not quite happy Mist didn't get an alternate paired ending with Rolf in RD.)

I understand all that. But not once did I ever get the impression that there was a bond between them that transcended being more than mere friends. And with the way the ending came about in FE10, it was like a romance was being unnecessarily forced on to an otherwise platonic relationship. The fact that Mist has faster supports with Rolf and Jill doesn't help this.

[Interdimensional Observer]

1 hour ago, Just call me AL said:

I understand all that. But not once did I ever get the impression that there was a bond between them that transcended being more than mere friends.

You consider a boy blushing to a girl just friendship? A girl crying in a guy's arms just friendship?

Then I guess you're thinking this a perfect example of friendship if you knew nothing else about this (even if you already do):

Spoiler

I won't deny that it is possible for a crying hug between a heterosexual male and female to not be romantic, nor that a such boy could blush at a such girl without it meaning love. But the context matters a lot here, and the context to me screamed romantic for Mist and Boyd.

What would have been necessary to make it more clearly romantic for you? A statement from "Boyd/Mist matters more to than anyone else." from one or the other?

I don't mean to be overly critical here, I'm just trying to get at a point. For those who can readily see MicaiahxSothe as romantic- what exactly is the essence of what makes that so very apparent? This essence of which I speak, if dropped into another relationship, would make it just as readily apparent to you that the couple was in love.

 

11 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

The only place I disagree is I never interpreted Zelgius as being into Micaiah in that way at all; he's too loyal to Sephiran, and protecting Micaiah is a job for him, and there's never any suggestion he wavers in his loyalty to Sephiran at any point doing that job (e.g. he never expresses a morsel of regret for fighting her army in the Tower of Guidance, either before or after the fight).

Very true. The best we get I think is the Black Knight saying basic chivalric stuff like "My lady" which has an inherent, if possibly misguiding here, romanticism. There is also a little, more informal line when the BK in their 4-3 convo says Micaiah is much like "her", whom I assume he means to be Sanaki given Micaiah is being stubborn in said conversation, and Zelgius as high ranking general under Sephiran must have spent some time around the Empress. But this too is not inherently romantic, even if it sheds his ultra formality for the brief moment. Every appearance the BK makes he makes for Sephiran's sake. The first to keep Micaiah and the hopes of a resurrected Daein alive, the second to keep said Daein from succumbing and therefore unable to fight and generate chaos. The third just to keep Micaiah Sephiran's dear many greats granddaughter alive.

 

16 hours ago, Silver-Haired Maiden said:

A pairing I hadn't considered is Stefan and I will have to consider this pairing because it seems interesting.....

It has the same issues as most of Micaiah's choices not Sothe and Pelleas, she never gets any time to engage with him. All they have is their introduction, the Base Convo in 4-F is Yunejacked the whole way through (but I actually think it is largely fine here given the material of the conversation).

[vanguard333]

16 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

To speak a bit more on Micaiah/Sothe, there are plenty of ways in which Micaiah and Sothe are shown to have very strong feelings for each other (see the points Shoblongoo raised). I'm certainly sympathetic to the argument of "just because they're close and members of the opposite sex doesn't mean it has to be romantic", but I personally would flip that around and ask myself if I would still see the two as a couple even if Sothe were a woman or Micaiah was a man. And I'm pretty sure I would. Actually if I'm being honest I'd probably ship them harder than I do now.

Then you're in luck; I'm currently writing a fantasy book series where there are two characters who, rather coincidentally, are comparable to Sothe and Micaiah, but with the guy being comparable to Micaiah and the girl being comparable to Sothe (and don't worry; they get together).

7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

I don't mean to be overly critical here, I'm just trying to get at a point. For those who can readily see MicaiahxSothe as romantic- what exactly is the essence of what makes that so very apparent? This essence of which I speak, if dropped into another relationship, would make it just as readily apparent to you that the couple was in love.

I have high-functioning autism, and words are rarely my strong point, so I'm probably not the best person to answer this question. To be honest, I can't really come up with an answer off the top of my head.

By the way, with Boyd joking that carry Mist would be like carrying another suit of armour, one thing to note is that even the heaviest of actual knight plate armour was 50 pounds, and that weight was spread all over the body, so it felt like a lot less. Boyd may as well be complimenting Mist, if not saying the exact opposite of what he's trying to imply.

[Just call me AL]

12 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

You consider a boy blushing to a girl just friendship? A girl crying in a guy's arms just friendship?

And somehow, I get the feeling that some of the arguments that I sometimes use in favor of Hector/Lyn are being used against me here. And that's despite Hector/Lyn and Boyd/Mist having different appeals. Especially since Mist is crying in front of Boyd for different reasons than why Lyn cries in the last scene in FE7 where she and Hector have a moment all to themselves. At least in that one, the reason why the girl is crying is known to the player as the girl is crying; something that I cannot say for the Boyd/Mist A Support.

Quote

Then I guess you're thinking this a perfect example of friendship if you knew nothing else about this (even if you already do):

  Reveal hidden contents

I was actually thinking about this pairing when I wrote what I feel about the Boyd/Mist pairing.

Spoiler

And for the record, even the Japanese voice actors for the Digimon characters depicted here had thought that both characters in question would have ended up with someone else in Digimon Adventure 02's epilogue. The fact that they ended up getting together with each other in the epilogue created a mess that Digimon Adventure Tri ended up cleaning up by essentially retconning the epilogue for the time being, and establishing a love triangle that involved these two and another friend of theirs.

 

Quote

I won't deny that it is possible for a crying hug between a heterosexual male and female to not be romantic, nor that a such boy could blush at a such girl without it meaning love. But the context matters a lot here, and the context to me screamed romantic for Mist and Boyd.

To you, maybe. But to me, if it was planned to happen, enough wasn't done to ensure that the player would be able to catch on even without supports. Something to the effect of Jaffar/Nino, rather than Chrom/Sumia.

Quote

What would have been necessary to make it more clearly romantic for you? A statement from "Boyd/Mist matters more to than anyone else." from one or the other?

At least something other than a mere blush that might be caused by the fact that the sister of his best friend is complementing him, which can only be seen in supports. Or Mist getting mad because Boyd's lack of a filter during a comical scene. Something that makes the scene that happens when the two of them have an A support in FE10 feel less abrupt. What would have also helped is if Boyd wasn't Mist's slowest support option, and if Mist wasn't Boyd's 2nd-slowest support option, in PoR. It's no exaggeration in saying that Rolf and Jill are faster supports than Boyd is. Support speeds sometimes indicate a sign of intent by the developers. And it just seemed odd that I.S. would decide on giving preferential treatment in RD to a pair that wasn't particularly fast in PoR. 

Quote

I don't mean to be overly critical here, I'm just trying to get at a point. For those who can readily see MicaiahxSothe as romantic- what exactly is the essence of what makes that so very apparent? This essence of which I speak, if dropped into another relationship, would make it just as readily apparent to you that the couple was in love.

I don't think that what people (including yours truly) see in Sothe/Micaiah can be explained simply by using words at this point. Given that some of the most ample attempts to do so have been done already by now. (I could be wrong about this, though.)

[Junkhead]

On 1/30/2018 at 2:33 AM, Dark Holy Elf said:

And as much as I think Micaiah is into Sothe, Zelgius would almost certainly be intriguing to her - older where Sothe is younger, a Branded like herself, and a bit... wilder and more forbidden. (Actually it reminds me a lot of the pseudo-love triangle in the second Mistborn book, for those familiar with that.) 

Sothe is Edward and Zelgius is Jacob. Got it.