Love For Dummies - The Top 50 Fictional Relationships Thread

[Positronic Brain]

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#22

Michiru/Haruka
46 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #2 (q3)

Fandom: Sailor Moon
Relationship type: cousins-being-pals-sure-why-not, canon
AO3 Factor: 1018
​

All I’ll say about this is that this is the cartoon that taught me that lesbians exist.

No, like, seriously. I mean, it’s no secret I grew up in a conservative family in a country that has a really weird relationship with gender. So when Sailor Moon hit like a tsunami in my country and Haruka and Michiru were introduced, girls in my school (and my little sister) wouldn’t shut up about them.

In case you don’t know, Haruka and Michiru are Sailor Uranus and Sailor Neptune, and they come together as a package. Haruka presents herself as more masculine, while Michiru is the femme of the pair. Haruka controls winds, Michiru controls the waters. Haruka is more physically oriented, whie Michiru’s powers are more psionic based.

I think you’re seeing a theme here.

And yes, they are totally pals.

And they were a revolution. I think they did a lot more to normalize same-sex relationships among my generation that any other form of media. There was no debate on whether they were lovers, they obviously were. They protected each other in battle and, this being Salior Moon, any time they died they died protecting each other or together. That's love.

(Death is a revolving door in the Sailor Moon universe, don’t worry)

Which is why I found so *weird* that in the US dub they were cousins. Like… hello? My country being more liberal than the freaking bastion of freedom in the western world?

They also did a lot to open my eyes to a lot of other things, I’ll tell you that.

When talking to a same-gender couple, it’s bad manners to ask who is the Uranus and who is the Neptune

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[Positronic Brain]

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#21

Shovel Knight/Shield Knight
48 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #10 (Positronic Brain)

Fandom: Shovel Knight
Relationship type: shovel-and-shield canon
AO3 Factor: 12
​

Oh, man, this is a tough one not to spoil. So I’ll be brief.

So, Shovel Knight, paragon of knighthood and shovelry, used to have a partner, Shield Knight. It’s exactly as it sounds - they were complementary opposites. Shovel Knight is all offense while Shield Knight is all defense. They used to adventure together until, after an ill-fated incursion into the Tower of Fate, Shield Knight was lost.

We don’t see much of Shield Knight during Shovel of Hope because she's, well, gone - but she’s always there. Shovel Knight keeps having these dreams where he fails to save her and his eternal rival, Black Knight, keeps blaming him for her fate. And it’s Shovel Knight’s desire to discover what exactly happened to Shield Knight what drives him to go back to the Tower of Fate and try to get some peace, which starts Shovel of Hope, the main campaign from the game.

I don’t want to spoil things here, but, well, the reason why this ship scores so high with me is that it is the perfect marriage of story and gameplay. Shovel Knight’s dreams are interactive, making you feel his longing and despair and guilt for not being able to protect Shield Knight. And in the end… man, if you’ve played this game, you know what happens at the end, and it’s awesome and it’s the best final boss fight ever and it’s the perfect gameplay incarnation of what a relationship should be.

Extra points for being able to, after one of the latest patches, choose the genders of both Shield and Shovel Knights. True love will not be bound.

Complementary skills are a good idea to look for in a partner - like finding somebody who encourages you to be more organized if you’re chaotic, or who plays scissors if you always play rock, or who provides cover to your powered up fire. Min/max that relationship!

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[Positronic Brain]

But in case you do want to be spoiled re: Shovel Knight

Spoiler

That's teamwork. I never thought I'd like playing a co-op game where the other player is controlled by the computer. And you have to work togeter to beat The Enchantress - Shield Knight protects you and allows you to reach The Enchantress.

 

[q 3]

My favorite Michiru/Haruka moment is also a big spoiler, and apparently a very controversial scene (but I like Michiru more than Haruka so I'm no stranger to being the niche within a niche within a niche).

Spoiler: from the SuperS OVA

The villain has captured Haruka and is draining her life, and he threatens Michiru that he has a deadman switch that will kill everyone in the world if she tries to stop him. Without hesitating Michiru blasts the villain and saves Haruka, and it turns out the villain was bluffing about having a deadman switch. The villain is astonished, asking how Michiru knew he was bluffing. She gets the smuggest look and says "I didn't. A world without Haruka isn't worth saving." Of course, now we're left uncertain whether she was bluffing and it's just delicious.

 

[Kirin]

Han and Leia I figured were shoo-ins regardless of whether I made room for them on my list. (Also, the 'ship gets dinged slightly for how sketchy some of Han's early interactions are by modern standards... but he gets better.)

Delenn and Sheridan really *should* have been on my list, I'm not sure why they aren't. What the heck, me of a few weeks ago?

I also definitely appreciate Michiru/Haruka in concept, though I haven't directly watched/read much of their source material.

 

[Issun]

I was the other vote for Butt Butt and Shield Butt. Shovel Knight and Super Metroid are the only two games I know of where the final boss battle does more to tell you about a central relationship in the game than a lot of other games do in ten hours of dialogue.

 

[Positronic Brain]

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#20

Kermit/Miss Piggy
49 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #9 (Issun)

Fandom: The Muppets
Relationship type: frog-and-pig, canonish
AO3 Factor: 53​

If, somehow, we managed to boil a cup of water every time Kermit and Miss Piggy’s relationship goes from off to on and viceversa, we could solve the world’s energy crisis for all eternity,

Miss Piggy and Kermit have been orbiting each other since their debut. It has been mostly one sided, with the fabulous Miss Piggy aggressively pursuing Kermit at every chance she could get, and Kermit finding ways to get away. Fear of commitment or is our fabulous green host not interested?

Eventually, though, Miss Piggy’s efforts start to pay off. After the Muppet Show ended and the Muppets moved to the movies, Miss Piggy and Kermit sealed the deal on their relationship and got married several times. The meta-narrative is that these were weddings in a set, so they don’t count, but maaaaaaaybe there was something there among the actors.

Which is what I find fascinating about the Muppets, how somehow they have several layers of fiction going on at the same time. We have the characters in-screen and the characters out-of-screen and the out-of-screen-of-screen…. And in the “real” world, Kermit and Miss Piggy do have a romantic relationship. Until they don’t. And then they get together. And then they didn’t. Are they together right now? I’ve lost track.

So yea, sum up all the do-they-don’t-they of all the layers in the narrative onion and you can power up a city,

But they look lovely together.

Aggressively pursuing your love interest can pay off. Some people may call it Stockholm syndrome, but what do they know? You might want to make sure they don’t know a good lawyer first, but other than that, this could be your road to love!

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[Positronic Brain]

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#19

Edelgard/Byleth
50 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #8 (Positronic Brain)

Fandom: Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Relationship type: s-rank, canonish
AO3 Factor: 2369
​

Ah, Fire Emblem, the world’s leading dating simulator. You meet tons of people and court them by showering them with gifts and by having long talks and by sipping tea and by fighting together in the tactical warfare minigame. It’s fun! And while there’s like a thousand possible pairings - since your love interests can also pair among themselves - there’s one that stands out.

Your playable character is Byleth, an emotionally stunted mercenary who through contrived circumstances ends up, somehow, as a teacher in a military college where you have to pick which one of the titular three houses you’ll lead. And in three of the possible four scenarios, you end up crossing swords against Edelgard.

Edelgard is the head of the Black Eagles House and the crown princess of the Adrestan Empire. She’s coded as a Fire Emblem villain - red armor, horns, axe larger than herself - and she ends up as the villain if you decide to not lead her house, starting a war that engulfs the whole continent of Fodlan.

But this is where things get interesting.

If you join her house and put some effort in getting past her business-like exterior, you can end up fighting along her. See, her motivation for war is that she wants to bring down the chaste system in Fodlan that puts idle nobility and the clergy at the top of the food chain, and this is so entrenched that the only realistic way she can see of achieving this is by revolution. She has the right idea, but her methods are cruel and ill-thought, but you joining her changes the timeline and it is the only one of the scenarios where the war gets somewhat contained, where Edelgard has a shot at succeeding and where she doesn’t end up impaled in your sword.

I like this pairing for two reasons. One, Byleth can be male or female, and I prefer the female version in this ship - and the game doesn’t care, using virtually the same script for both genders. Whether this is just saving writing costs or a definitive progressive gesture from Nintendo, the end result is a nice normalization of same gender relationships - and fem!Byleth is a lot more charismatic than her bland male counterpart.

Two, because you know what happens when they don’t get together, you appreciate how they change each other. To join her you have to put a lot of work into getting close to her, and you discover a traumatized, resentful woman who also has a tender and caring side she only shows to her inner circle of friends. You literally get to know how she is behind her armor, and provide her with the strength she needs to tune her revolution into something else than just a blunt instrument of destruction. And together you manage to overthrow the chaste system of Fodlan and usher in a new age. And make out, if you wish.

In the futures where they don’t have each other to support and to smooth out their rough edges, Edelgard will end up as puppet of her mysterious benefactors and become a half-human monster who will gladly burn half of Fodlan, and Byleth will either join a cult, be inducted into a fraternity or marry a cop. Fates worse than death.

So join the Empire. Do it for them.

Teacher-student relationships are messy and hardly worth it unless you grind gifts several weekends straight to increase your rank to S.

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[Issun]

I didn't vote for Edelgard and Byleth, as I have never played a Fire Emblem.

As for Kermit and Miss Piggy, it's definitely not something that holds up if you examine it too closely, but if you just sit back and enjoy the antics they're a lot of fun.

 

[Positronic Brain]

I didn't vote for Edelgard and Byleth, as I have never played a Fire Emblem.

Ooops! I'm blaming my cat because I'm not admitting that I copied the wrong row from my spreadsheet.

(fixed, thnx!)

 

[q 3]

As the other voter for the pairing, yes, F!Byleth is the correct choice here. For me part of the appeal comes from Byleth being a bland silent protagonist except here is the one possibility in the entire story where she takes action entirely of her own volition and without simply going along with whatever someone else asked her to do. It also leads to her heart beating for the first time in her life.

 

[Positronic Brain]

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#18
Homer/Marge
51 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #6 (Johnny Unusual)

Fandom: The Simpsons
Relationship type: still-going.strong, canon
AO3 Factor: 41
​

You’d think that the same gender relationship in Sailor Moon would have created a moral panic in my country, but it really didn’t. You know what caused such a moral panic I managed to get an A in a paper dissecting moral panics over media? Homer and Marge.

Yes, my country is dumb.

In hindsight, Homer and Marge don’t do anything really new about relationships, other than them being cartoons and yellow. The thing is that they are very, very good at doing what they do.

Homer and Marge are the archetypal sitcom couple. He’s lazy and dumb, she’s smart and proficient. In fact, she’s smart enough that we viewers can’t help but wonder why she “settled” for dumb Homer - and the reason is because Homer loves Marge so bad it almost hurts, and Marge loves him back. Through the shows decades we have seen him prove time and again that, in spite of his selfishness, the man has a lot of heart on him and it’s all fixated in Marge - and just as she supports his dumb ideas, he supports her ambitious one.

Homer and Marge work because they tell us than, in spite of our differences, love can keep us together.

So while Homer and Marge are like every other stereotypical sitcom couple, they are very very good at loving each other.

By the way, the moral panic in my country was due to the fact that this cartoon (“for kids”) with yellow people (“grotesque”) was very cynical and crude and mocked everything (“irrespectful”) and eroded traditional values. Somehow the moral guardians missed that one of the things that never changed in Simpsonsland was that, at the end of the day, no matter what happened, Homer and Marge were together stronger than the day before.

There’s always somebody for everybody, even for people who propose at mini-golf fields using onion rings. Keep up hope!

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[Positronic Brain]

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#17

Jim/Pam
52 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #2 (Issun)

Fandom: The Office
Relationship type: coworking-spaces, canon
AO3 Factor: 622
​

I’m not familiar with The Office (I know!) beyond having met my wife in one. I assume I’m far from the only one with that particular story, but that makes me feel closer to this couple already!

In any case, I asked Issun to explain to me what makes this pairing rank high in his list:

The will they/won't they relationship is as old as television, and it only got worse after a decade of Ross and Rachel. It seemed that Jim and Pam were headed for that course, with them constantly missing their chances over three seasons. Then something unexpected happened: They got together and stayed together, and they were happy. The Office allowed their relationship to have hiccups over the following five seasons (the less said about their season 9 arc, the better), but they loved each other enough to work through everything, while never being afraid of a friendly rivalry over the spending of a budget surplus.

I still grin like a big dummy every time I watch the final scene of Season three's finale.

In retrospective, Issun has a great point - Ross and Rachel were the culmination of the worst parts of the wont-they trope, and they heralded a dark time for shipping. It’s nice to finally be out of the dark ages! But just judging from the several articles I found about how writers kept introducing obstacles into Jim and Pam's relationship (and at least one instance of the actor putting his foot down) looks like Jim and Pam didn’t manage to escape unscathed out of sheer luck, but by putting in the hard work.

Like in a real relationship. Or an office!

Instead of using dating apps or such, have you considered just going into an office?

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[Falselogic]

I recall vaguely that the Simpson's was blamed for a lot of things but they always seemed half-hearted and tame compared to the shirt rending and hair pulling I saw around Married with Children.

 

[Solitayre]

All you need to know about Married with Children is it cultivated a very strong right-wing fandom that persists to this day, and a lot of the actors who worked on the show seem uncomfortable being associated with it.

 

[Issun]

Not surprised that Johnny was the highest vote for Marge and Homer, but I am surprised that I was the only other vote. I thought I knew this forum.

I also think part of Jim and Pam's success is that the actors were as invested in their relationship as the audience. Witness what PB brought up, that the writers were going to have Jim cheat on Pam and John Krasinski told them, in no uncertain terms, that that was not happening.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I recall vaguely that the Simpson's was blamed for a lot of things but they always seemed half-hearted and tame compared to the shirt rending and hair pulling I saw around Married with Children.

I think the anti-Simpsons hysteria was more visible because the Simpsons was SUPER visible due to marketing from the get. Plus I think there was still a strong "cartoons for kids" mentality that made people extra upset about kids watching this show. My parents were cool about it. They didn't like me watching Married with Children because I was a goddamned 6 year old. But when the Simpsons came out when I was 7/8? Go to town. They loved it too and I think my dad related to it's messaging so he was really cool about it. I never thought of my parents as either super permissive nor super restrictive but there was always a few times I appreciated when they were. The time I watched Robocop at age 6, though...

Not surprised that Johnny was the highest vote for Marge and Homer, but I am surprised that I was the only other vote. I thought I knew this forum.

I get it on a few levels. One, it's kind of a vanilla pick and perhaps their love isn't one of the strongest elements for some people. Particularly as the show got a little more mean-spirited as it went on (even in the Golden Age). But the era when it felt like James L. Brooks was really imbuing his whole dramedy rom-com feel good vibes on the show, particularly in the less wacky but surprisingly effecting second season episodes, it's a relationship I really care about. It really comes down to if the writer thinks Homer is just an asshole or hopeless oaf or if they are willing to both see value in him as a person and have him be more relatable. I think Homer is SO wacky and stupid and jerky sometimes, in ways that can be funny, that it's easy to forget how well he works as someone we can actually see in the mirror.

I will say that sometimes in the wackier seasons, I like it when they are actually on the same page in amusing or surprising ways.

Also interesting, I feel that they are the couple, because they can be drawn in bed easily, who seemed to have the healthiest and most robust sex life on TV in the 90s.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

#40

Fran/Balthier
38 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #15 (Kirin)

So I'm taking this down in the masterlist and... why is this ranked 40? I'm not sure what's happening here. Did it also get 38 points?

 

[Positronic Brain]

So I'm taking this down in the masterlist and... why is this ranked 40? I'm not sure what's happening here. Did it also get 38 points?

Nah, it's a mistake - tha what happens when you spend the whole week in maven hell, you end up coping the wrong part of your template. It's fixed now - they're 26.

I'm also updating the master list at the beginning of the thread this weekend, so you might want to wait until then.

 

[Positronic Brain]

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#16

Jake/Amy
54 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #4 (Beta Metroid)

Fandom: Brooklyn 99
Relationship type: maximum-dorkage, canon
AO3 Factor: 3710
​

This ship works because they both are dorks.

They express their dorkitude differently. Jake Peralta is kinda like an hyperactive puppy who had coffee mixed in with his sugar kibbles, which you’d think would hinder his performance as a detective but somehow he makes it work in his favor. His closest competitor in cases closed? Detective Amy Santiago, a woman so organized and controlling that you know she orders her sock in alphabetical order twice a day.

Yes, tale as old as time - boy meets girl, they become rivals, friendly rivalry turns into something more, boy joins witness protection program, boy and girl get together, they live happily forever after.

This relationship works because, while they are very different, they respect each other, and they do try to meet midway. They support each other unconditionally in their work and out of it, and you know they humor each other in their brand of dorkyness - I’m sure Jake has given Amy colored post-its to help her tag the documents she brings home from work, and that Amy roleplays some Hans Gruber for Jake as foreplay.

Yes, they are dorks. And they’re so cute I can even forgive them for being cops!

Friendly rivalry might sound like a good idea to court someone, but you have to tread carefully - not all environments are conductive to this. Like, closing sales? Yes. Arresting people? Murky territory. Pro Wrestling? Your mileage may vary.

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[Positronic Brain]

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#15

Utena/Anthy
58 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #4 (Kirin)

Fandom: Revolutionary Girl Utena
Relationship type: gals-being-knights, canon
AO3 Factor: 494
​

True confession time - back in college the Anime club had these weekly showings and one time they did a screening of the first six episodes of Revolutionary Girl Utena. Hey, it was free, and this was at a time when a VHS with four episodes would cost an arm and a leg; you bet I made to all the showings I could, so I went to this one.

To this day I don’t have the minimum idea of what I watched.

Anyhow, since I am not familiar with this series (even though at one time I absolutely tried to be but my only memory of the whole deal is the bad-ass bed picture above and even that memory I might have gotten from a meme afterwards) I asked Kirin to talk about this ship.

Revolutionary Girl Utena is symbolism all the way down, and the show's central relationships are no exception, so here's Utena/Anthy in a nutshell: fuck the patriarchy, fuck the oligarchy, fuck the whole system - love and human connection can transcend everything and bring it all crashing down. Or at the least, offer a way Out.

Utena is a person who wants to protect others but hides deep insecurities about herself. Anthy is simultaneously a goddess, a pawn, and a sacrifice; the lynchpin of a tightly controlled social order. Over the course of the story they come to trust and love one another in ways that enable them to break out of their own shells. In the end it's their feelings for each other that overcome the shackles that bind them.

"Even if the two of us are torn apart, the time that we spent together wasn’t wasted. So I can change the world."

Well, that explains one half of this couple having a sword in her chest, I guess.

Don’t watch anime with high levels of symbolism in their subtitled version in a dark room a friday night after your last tests when you’re tired and running on fumes.

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[Positronic Brain]

Uh, and looking at what's coming down tomorrow, both entries are from the same series. Please look forward to it.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

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#16

Jake/Amy
54 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #4 (Beta Metroid)

Fandom: Brooklyn 99
Relationship type: maximum-dorkage, canon
AO3 Factor: 3710
​

This ship works because they both are dorks.

They express their dorkitude differently. Jake Peralta is kinda like an hyperactive puppy who had coffee mixed in with his sugar kibbles, which you’d think would hinder his performance as a detective but somehow he makes it work in his favor. His closest competitor in cases closed? Detective Amy Santiago, a woman so organized and controlling that you know she orders her sock in alphabetical order twice a day.

Yes, tale as old as time - boy meets girl, they become rivals, friendly rivalry turns into something more, boy joins witness protection program, boy and girl get together, they live happily forever after.

This relationship works because, while they are very different, they respect each other, and they do try to meet midway. They support each other unconditionally in their work and out of it, and you know they humor each other in their brand of dorkyness - I’m sure Jake has given Amy colored post-its to help her tag the documents she brings home from work, and that Amy roleplays some Hans Gruber for Jake as foreplay.

Yes, they are dorks. And they’re so cute I can even forgive them for being cops!

Friendly rivalry might sound like a good idea to court someone, but you have to tread carefully - not all environments are conductive to this. Like, closing sales? Yes. Arresting people? Murky territory. Pro Wrestling? Your mileage may vary.

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I liked Brooklyn Nine-Nine from the jump but often I didn't care that much for the will they/won't they of Jake and Amy. I feel like when they really established themselves as a couple, that's when I was fully on board, as they have a complete understanding of each other, willing to tease like they did in the old days but now finding those things charming about each other. Also, their clear love also isn't going to stop themselves from completely destroying each other physically and mentally during the Halloween Heist.

 

[q 3]

Find yourself a girlfriend who will turn herself into a car for your grand getaway.

 

[Rascally Badger]

I liked Brooklyn Nine-Nine from the jump but often I didn't care that much for the will they/won't they of Jake and Amy. I feel like when they really established themselves as a couple, that's when I was fully on board, as they have a complete understanding of each other, willing to tease like they did in the old days but now finding those things charming about each other. Also, their clear love also isn't going to stop themselves from completely destroying each other physically and mentally during the Halloween Heist.

The real best couple from B99 is Hitchcock and Scully, but I'm afraid I'm spoiling things further up the list.

 

[Falselogic]

There are lots of great couples in B99- The ones already mentioned and Holt/Cozner, Diaz/Pimento

 

[Positronic Brain]

I liked Brooklyn Nine-Nine from the jump but often I didn't care that much for the will they/won't they of Jake and Amy. I feel like when they really established themselves as a couple, that's when I was fully on board

Same! In retrospective it might be because, yes, we had to live through the ages where everybody had a will-they-wont-they for seasons, but it feels great when they just let a relationship develop. i was pleasantly surprised that they brought them together and keep exploring what it means for characters like these to be together instead of rehashing the same "gee, we could be happy togeher if we hadn't missed the boat this time" trope again and again.

 

[Johnny Unusual]

I really liked that they dropped Charles pining for Rosa. Once they just became cool friends and started seeing other people, it all worked a lot better.

And I liked both Jake and Amy (as characters rather than a couple) a lot from the jump but early on it felt like they had to shove their leads together. There are definitely relationships, especially on sitcoms where the leads are great and they even have a kind of chemistry but making it romantic seems like a chore. This is definitely one where it turned around and once the question of will they won't they is answered, it actually gets MORE interesting, unlike some shows.

 

[Positronic Brain]

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#14

Maxim/Selan
61 points • 3 mentions • Highest rank: #5 (Torzelbaum)

Fandom: Lufia II. Rise of the Sinistrals
Relationship type: starcrossed-lovers, spoilers, canon
AO3 Factor: 0
​

Fate dictated that these two ships fell next to each other in the list. Ironic.

Maxim is the protagonist of Lufia II, which is a prequel to Lufia. In fact, the original Lufia game opens with a flashback to the ending of this game, and the whole story is just filling up the quest that lead our heroes to that point. As such, I won’t even try to avoid spoilers here - but at this point I believe everybody knows THE twist.

Anyhow, from the opening of Lufia we know that Maxim, the legendary hero of old, is the leader of the four heroes fated to defeat the Sinistrals - a nice bunch of four deities with dominions like Destruction, Chaos, Death and Terror. So you can see why their defeat at the hands of Maxim and his wife is a critical point in history.

Yes, Maxim has a wife, Selan, she of the piercing lance. We know her name since the intro of Lufia 1 and…

…well, the game knows you know, so it has fun teasing you. At the beginning, Maxim has a love interest, his childhood friend, following him during the first third of the game - but she’s not Selan, so if you’ve played Lufia you know who’s getting her heart broken. Selan’s intro is delayed and, in something rarely done in a SNES RPG (only DQV comes to mind) we witness their lightning courtship and marriage. They have a son. And they keep adventuring. That’s right, a jRPG mom and dad couple who don’t hang their shields after marriage.

And then the ending happens, which is what makes this all so bittersweet. You know, from the intro of the original game, that Selan dies battling the Sinistrals atop their floating Fortress of Doom, and that Maxim stays behind with her when the party escapes from the collapsing evil lair. You spend the whole game knowing how this will play out, which is a kick to the heart, true, but also makes every single happy moment between this couple so much sweeter.

Hey, don’t worry, it could have been worse. Some territories, like Europe, didn’t get Lufia II, so this was their intro to the series and they went in completely blind. Imagine how they felt when they got to the end. I almost envy them.

And then comes Lufia.

Marriage and having kids is not the endgame, it's the beginnning of a whle new adventure. The only things that can stop you is hitting your thirties or being lethally wounded in a cutscene.

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[Positronic Brain]

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#13

Maxim’s Descendant/Lufia
62 points • 2 mentions • Highest rank: #1 (Solitayre)

Fandom: Lufia and the Fortress of Doom
Relationship type: not-so-starcrossed-lovers, spoiler, canon
AO3 Factor: 0
​

So, that kid of Maxim and Selan’s? He survived thanks to not being inside or below the fortress at the end of Lufia II and his descendant is the protagonist of Lufia and the Fortress of Doom (no relation with Indiana Jones and his Temple of).

Turns out that the Sinistrals were defeated but not dead, so they rise again, and because genetics are a bitch is now up to Maxim’s Descendant (a.k.a. The Hero) to deal with the potential end of the world. Luckily for him, he’s not alone, and soon he has a party of fellow heroes that include his childhood friend, Lufia.

So, Lufia. Sweet girl, good with magic. Totally in love with the Hero. And Hero loves her back! But, in a cruel twist spoiled by every single magazine when the game comes out, she has a secret even she doesn’t know.

During the game you meet three Sinistrals but the fourth one, Erim, the Sinistral of Death, remains unseen after Maxim’s battle with her at the intro. Turns out that Lufia is the reincarnation of Erim, and it was this resurrection of sorts what allowed the other Sinistrals to come back to life. So now Lufia needs to choose to claim her divinity and destroy the world or embrace her humanity to stay with the Hero.

Yeah, it’s hard to explain what makes the Lufias work without spoiling things, uh? But they are good games, both of them built around a simple love story, which is what makes them unique.

Be sure to discuss the Important Topics with your Special Other - the sooner the better. Imagine finding out your girlfriend is the Sinistral of Death after you’ve sent the URL to the wedding registry to your guests. Awkward.

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