venam and melia are no doubt characters that can stand pretty proudly on their own, but i think its undeniable that their relationship with eachother is a huge part of their character as well.

one of the reasons i see thrown around for not liking them is how "abrupt their relationship feels" which i disagree with; its been hinted at all the way back in terajuma (and before if you squint) and even moreso in previous versions of the game. but i don't like that argument specifically because of chapter twelve, relevantly titled "remember, i love you."

.this part is also why I'm going to debunk the apparent argument against them of "their age gap is weird, so you can't ship them!" not only do i think the story blatantly proves this is false on multiple occasions, one of which being that they Do canonically date, it is very weird to me you are trying to turn the only canonically sapphic ship in the main story predatory.

continuing with chapter 12, venam's confession to melia (being on her mind As she was turned to stone, a fate she Knew had no real cure) is the title of the chapter.

one of melia's main motivations during the bad future segment is the fact that she couldn't abandon venam, wanting to save her at "any cost necessary" and chasing any sort of answer related to her petrification at all. she wanted to return to her time, For Venam.

i'm unable to get a screenshot of this, but i do think it is also worth mentioning that melia's reaction to lavender's phonecall with this information directly parallels venam's reaction to melia's death in the early game; they mentally shut down, and try to go on with ther lives like it never happened.

i just really don't think you read the story correctly if you believe with all your heart these two don't have any chemistry. particularly a lot of venam's dialogue during the terajuma arc stands out to me, especially the dialogue when melia's stopped before the summit after defeating eli and sharon.

melia's words after kania rips the archetype after her stick out to me as well; she apologized to Venam specifically, and nobody else. subconsciously, they're always on eachother's mind. melia's the reason venam's inspired to grow as a person; venam's the reason melia's drive to seek a better future was ignited in the first place.

....so, basically, i'm really not a fan of how people act with these two. they're very obviously meant to be a couple at the most, and paired characters at the least, and i feel as though erasing that part of them would be erasing and misunderstanding a big part of them.

and as a bonus, here's some misc dialogue I'm very fond of c: