to preface this: i do not think it is impossible for iorveth and roche to work as a relationship
like, i know iām about to swing a bat at a hornetās nest, but keep in mind iām not actually saying thatĀ āoooh we canāt ship itā so nobody try and say thatās what iām saying.
can we maybe keep in mind a bit who they are? the units they command?Ā because the mostĀ prevalent idea i see is that they are mirrors, and that their units are analogous to each other, and thatās objectively untrue
the scoiaātael exist because nonhumans have been oppressed, and so nonhumans living in human society get fed up, and they flee, and they join these groups and fight for their lives and their people
the blue stripes exist to hunt nonhumans.
thatās not a mirror, thatās one existing to kill the other, and the other one would have existed no matter what
I also want to point out that because the Scoiaātael are truly just.. anyone who cares to fight for the cause, they arenāt trained.Ā there is no king or general or entity creating a training camp to make sure theyāre ready before they go into the field, or disseminating propaganda about who theyāre fighting.Ā they know from their own lives
the Blue Stripes are picked specially, trained in the Temerian military and brainwashed/manipulated, they have orders from higher ups (kings, generals), they are a military unit.
these two things are not equal.
now, see, what couldĀ absolutely be interesting is Roche being unawareĀ of that imbalance because heās been under the assumption that the scoiaātael are a military unit that function similarly to theirs, which allows them to not feel guilty over hunting themāto him this is just two military groups fighting
the point Iām trying to make here is that I think Roche might view Iorveth as this respected rival even before/during TW2, but Iorveth would neverĀ view Roche that way! to him, Roche is killing his people!
and I think that can be really interesting, if you put them in a position where Roche is no longer aimed at the Scoiaātael but rather fighting for a free Temeria and realizes whatās going on, maybe a slow trickle of hearing iorveth mention that no elves donāt get punished if they disobey orders, they should know itās for their own good (in contrast to army camps with actual punishment details), and Roche realizing oh my god he was basically slaughtering civilians
my point is, I think itās disingenuous to iorvethās character to have him pining after a man whoās literally still in the process of carrying out genocide against his people (and if you donāt think itās a genocide, I have a few paragraphs i can point you towards in Blood of Elves)
once again I think there could be a very interesting thing of having RocheĀ feel some typa way to iorveth in TW2, and be frustrated with it, while Iorveth doesnāt view him that way at allĀ until far, far later, when Roche has changed direction and realized whatās wrong with his unit
(to be clear, if it was somehowĀ addressed that itās not an equal conflict in this characterization of them somehow being together during TW2 iād have less of an issue, my problem is with the idea that this is an equal rivals thing so itās totally fine theyāre secretly together.Ā because what i always see is this idea that the conflict is just that of rivals and not a completely imbalanced one)
tl;dr - iorveth and roche (and the scoiaātael & blue stripes) are not equals in the conflict and itās really reckless to act like theyāve been ~secretly meeting up for years~ when roche is participating in genocide.Ā their relationship needs to happen after that is no longer the aim of the blue stripes and roche has realized heās been misled (to thinking the scoiaātael are an equal and opposite force)
(hi also please ask me about iorveth, or even roche, stuff, i have So Many thoughts actually ive done a ridiculous amount of analysis on iorvethās character, and extrapolation)
