#it's this rly weird like... maybe i can tr-- nope can't do it

[dmclemblems]

I’m curious , why do dislike Sylvain /Claude; is it because of hopes /GW ?

oh nope! they were already a NOTP of mine for quite some time. it’s kind of one of those things where you’re like nah I don’t rly like this, but then over time the more you see it that feeling just grows? I don’t really consider them compatible and that was my initial feeling on it, but then I saw it get more and more popular and it was more and more frequently on my Twitter tl so I was exposed to more of it which had me thinking more often about why I wasn’t into it.

it’s kinda like, the more you see something and feel like you can’t avoid it, the more you dislike it when you already didn’t like it? I wouldn’t say it was literally shoved in my face since it was on my tl, it’s just kind of that vibe and it makes you like something less and less.

my original thoughts on it were that they wouldn’t work because Sylvain flirts and gets with people completely unattached. while it’s usually a thing with women, he drags that concern into his conversations with other people, like Felix, who take large issue with it and get upset/offended by it (and you could even argue that Felix has feelings for him, thus gets upset/offended when Sylvain won’t stop talking about picking up girls in front of him, thus leading him to become confrontational toward Sylvain so often).

I see Claude as someone who needs someone attached and who isn’t so loose toward relationships. to me he needs someone committed to him but also someone who can respect his boundaries that are caused by literal grown up with trauma. it’s pretty canon-set that Sylvain is only particularly loyal to his group of friends (not even really his own family, by which I mean father, mother, brother all, and ironically seems most sympathetic toward Miklan over the other two even in Houses), and he’s more interested in flings outside of his group of friends..

that’s not to say I think Sylvain is scum for that behavior because I do understand it and I understand why he behaves that way. I just don’t think his behavior would work with someone who needs a deeper connection and needs  relationship with security outside of his immediate friend group (i.e. he provides that for those people but not really anyone else). I’m sure there are fic writers who will write it that way for their own fics and that’s fine! when I start to like or dislike ships it’s just usually based on canon material and goes from there, with a few exceptions that start as crackships or discussions on possibilities through their canon selves, but the latter two I admit to when I express enjoyment of those ships.

if nothing else I feel like Hopes just kinda cemented it for me in seeing how much hatred Sylvain had for what was happening, because to me it says a lot that he feels that way. Sreng invades basically on the regular but he’s trying desperately to form peace with them and has no general hatred for them. he’s even on mutually joking terms with the commander we fight against in AG, but he expresses such a deep hatred for Claude/the Alliance (and I specify Claude bc it was essentially caused by his ideas, which were frequently met with disagreement and distaste by people in his immediate friend group and throughout his army, so the bulk of the issue falls to Claude). he’s not really on aggressive terms with Sreng. at the point we see, it looks more like Sylvain and Sreng, or at least the commander, are nearly identical to Holst and Nader. they fight over and over because their countries are always fighting, but they’re so used to each other that it almost feels like it’s just them sparring because the mood is too light to seem like an invasion. Sylvain has very little if any ill will toward Sreng, and yet... when it comes to the events in GW, it sounds to me like he might never, and probably won’t tbh, ever forgive what happened.

for me they seem so fundamentally incompatible. in GW, they basically turn up Claude’s “any means necessary” to eleven. basically, he’s willing to do shady things to do what he wants even if it makes him uncomfortable or he doesn’t really want to do it. Sylvain on the other hand is much more chivalrous (haha a whole Faerghus surprise right there, chivalry) and literally deathly loyal to his friends and will very literally die for them. Claude wouldn’t, in this timeline (or early into Houses) die for another person. again referencing Felix and Sylvain’s supports bc apparently Felix is good fodder to describe this lol, Felix gets angry that Sylvain does this regularly and carelessly. He hates that he doesn’t value his own life, but also that he’s prepared to die for others at all times and then just not be there anymore. I don’t think Sylvain could tolerate being with someone that would choose themselves over the people most important to them, which at a point in his life, Claude would have (maybe not late VW, say, but earlier on he would have, especially out of even just pure instinct from his childhood).

I don’t think under normal circumstances like in Houses that they’d outright hate each other, but I just don’t think they’re people who could find romance and stick with it. I don’t feel like their personalities would enable them to feel like they have a secure love or relationship.

for some reason there’s also just kind of this ick factor in it for me and idk why/what causes that. aside from the aspects of why I can’t really ship them myself, it’s kinda like, there’s that but also this weird feeling of “I really don’t like this when I see it” kind of thing? sort of like something you never liked but never totally knew why? in this case I know why I don’t like it, but I don’t know exactly where that ick feeling comes from that brings it into dislike territory. tbh I’ve always found it rly weird myself that I have such a strong dislike toward it. maybe there’s something within my reasons for not liking it that I fundamentally disagree with that makes the reaction negative. 

okay this might sound hella weird but hear me out

you ever looked at someone back in your school days if you’re no longer in school, or if you’re still in school have you ever looked at someone and just went “i do not like that person” THAT’S KINDA WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE NOW JFKSHGJGS like aside my actual reasons for “I can’t see this working”, I totally feel that in a passive way when I see the ship? it’s... a wild thing. I get where people are generally coming from who do ship it, but I guess it’s not my thing?

im sorry this was so long shfjsghjk