#ryemma

The Canon:

To start things off, let's look at the basic structure of each one. These events are already filtered through my experience of the game and my personal interpretation of the progression of the events.

Rye joins the adventure since he's sick of Ryva and wants to experience the world. On their visit to Candar, he meets Emma, a maid to a noblewoman. She is sick of her life of doing chores and obeying someone's orders, and she desires to enroll in the School of War and Magic to be a swordmistress. Rye offers to pay for her schooling (simp) and the moment he hands her the money, she quits.

After finishing her schooling, Rye allows her to tag along to repay the financial help he provided her. While in Seri, Emma signs up for a tournament and Rye insults her, because she goes against his expectations of a woman. With this, they bet. Whether Emma wins the tournament or not, they play a little master-and-servant game that they become fond of.

After playing it enough, Rye almost begs Emma to marry him because she's not like other girls (pay attention to this; this is important). While she's actually not flattered by his words, Emma still agrees and they marry.

On the other hand, you have Ava and Gavin. Ava joins because Uthar requested her to accompany Ean and help the party travel by sea. Gavin joins because he's a little bored of the Bogwood and the swamp/marshlands. In Grimm's Cottage, Gavin flirts with both Emma and Ava (pay attention to this; this is important), and while Emma doesn't give any substantial reply to Gavin, Ava straight up turns down his advances, which makes him think she is playing hard to get and only fuels the flames of his passion.

Gavin tries to win her affections by asking Dredel to put a love spell on Ava, but Ava instead turns it on him, which only further makes him mad for Ava's love - which, in fact, makes Ava blush. In Shivendale, Ava tries to give him a magic mushroom to rid him of his affections, but the farmer messes up and Gavin only becomes crazier in love. In Happily Ever After, Gavin finds Hilda, borrows Calliope's Wand, and tries to use it on Ava, which doesn't really work because he just tapped it on Ava's head.

Finally, in Casket Hills, Gavin offers his eye for Ava, which eventually convinces her to return his affections and marry him.

The Analysis:

In theory, Rye and Emma's relationship works. Rye is a boy stuck in a farm, wishing to learn more about the world. A journey in many stories expands a character's POV, and Emma represents that idea. Emma is an unusual woman, especially to Rye who expects girls to be more like Iya - calm, cute, and romantic. (Ava, who is almost like Emma, I think wouldn't count as a "girl" to Rye, because one, she's a pirate, and two, she's older so she's a figure of authority to obey rather than a woman to categorize. We'll go back to this later.) Emma doesn't just hold a sword and masterfully swing it; she also sticks up to bullying by turning things on her bully. She probably also has a teensy bit of a wicked streak, because the things she makes Rye do can get rather distasteful. Emma is a wild, petty lady who appreciates grime and doesn't hesitate to torment people if she feels like it... and Rye is fond of that, because he's never met a girl this obnoxious.

Meanwhile, Emma is a girl who, despite her competence in just about anything she does, is bored of being a maid. She doesn't want to be someone's servant; that's pretty humiliating for someone so great like her. Her former master and her coworker seem to imply she's lazy, and to me it seems like she's a gifted kid who also happened to have financial troubles and a dose of perfectionism. Rye, to her, would be someone who's helped her see a brighter, more fun side to life. Rye's tasks for her are pretty childish, and it's easy for her to twist it and laugh about it. She's likely thinking on the inside if Rye is serious or not - but Rye is indeed serious despite their jokes and pranks, and that earnestness is what perhaps wins her over, because when he seriously gets hurt, she's quick to remedy the situation and affirm that yeah, she's indeed interested in him. For Emma, Rye is so stupid, but he's fun to be with.

Now, in theory, again, it works. They both find each other weird, but Emma helps Rye widen his horizons while Rye helps Emma have fun. However, in the end, Emma and Rye's relationship is just. Weird. I'm not saying weird is bad. It's that the events in their relationship tree is pretty strange. First, while Emma winning the tournament seems like more canon, the necessary events for her and Rye to accumulate attraction points are so out of the way, and mostly only Ean and Iya comment on it, while the events on the other branch take place in places you would indeed go back to for both main quests and side quests. Second, there's no real hint of romance in it; it feels as if they just like each other because they're novelties to their bleak pre-adventure lives, the spice that brings variety to everyday monotony. I feel that if they're faced with certain deep issues that require deep responsibility, they'd instantly crumble and fall apart.

Now, let's look at Ava and Gavin.

In theory, it's just a bad trope and a way to force some additional game mechanics and character relationships or so-so. Ava doesn't seem to be interested in romance, and Gavin is just straight up a narci (a different kind of narci from Nic, but that's besides the thing) who doesn't have much of a contribution to the story. But, to me, I find their relationship tree deeper and more compelling.

Ava struck me as the kind who actually did play hard to get. She knows who she is, what she is like, and how people think of her. Her nickname, Rip, gets her mistaken for a man. Like Emma, she swings swords and commandeers a crew of thug-like sailors who all go by derogatory PG-13 nicknames. Going by Rye's definition, she is an unwomanly woman, and she's already pushing closer to 40 years old. In short: she knows she's not that attractive. For me, her attitude towards Gavin (and Uthar) is simply her denial towards the notion that a man would see her as a woman in the romantic sense - she is not feminine and she cannot offer that kind of company towards a man. She will be a friend, she will be a confidante, she will be a teacher, but she will not be a lover to a man.

Gavin meanwhile is a man who expects to be liked. The usual women who surround him adore him with their affections which he likely often rejects. He just likes to be loved; who wouldn't want that? He doesn't even discriminate by appearance; if there's a woman he knows she wants him. (Except for Iya. I think Iya to him would be baggage because she's incomplete and seems to depend on Ean for a lot of things; he likes his women a little more independent and also Iya is way younger so uh.) His conversation with Emma has her straight up saying "I like the weird farm boy" and him going "Nah I know you want me." She doesn't say anything after that; maybe she does find him attractive to a degree, but she still likes Rye better. Thinking about it, it would be weird for her to say that because stupid Rye might cry - and she doesn't want to seriously hurt him, just tease him a bit.

Ava on the other hand says that Gavin isn't as handsome as he thinks he is. However, instead of giving up, Gavin instead tries to pursue her all the more. The man loves a challenge from a woman who plays hard to get - and he calls her a "sweet lady". Ava denies this; now, whether she's denying she was interested in him or she's as sweet as he claims her to be, that's debatable, but I think the sweet part has more credibility. This is because when Dredel's present makes Gavin fall in love with Ava more, he calls her a "foolish maiden" who makes him suffer, and she blushes at this. That gives me the idea that Ava is not used to thinking of herself in a feminine perspective, and Gavin treating her as such actually flatters her. Even more so when she treats her missing eye as an almost crucial part of her identity - when Gavin insists on offering his eye for her, she blushes and her resolve to keep her missing eye wavers. To him, she is someone worth the effort of wooing no matter how many times she says no.

Compare this with Uthar, who she definitely spent more time with several years prior. She was young, she was probably more adamant on being an independent woman and him becoming a good leader. In the end, Uthar could not sacrifice the future of Thais for a life with her on the seas (and, of course, she would not sacrifice her freedom as a pirate for a wealthy, political life on the throne; she describes the pirate's life is "free" to Nic). She probably regretted it, but it seems she already came to terms with it by the time she met Nicolas. She certainly did not look for a romance with him or even asked about Uthar; she was more of a mentor/elder sister figure to him.

On the side of Gavin, I think he is legitimately interested in Ava as someone he wants to spend the rest of his life with. He might have started his pursuit with superficial ideas, but the more he spent time with Ava, the more his feelings became genuine. Considering that the canon love potions/spells/charms seem to only remove nonsense filter instead of actually manipulating someone (a.k.a. Hilda using Calliope's Wand on Gavin but it doesn't actually work, likely because he doesn't see her that way; meanwhile Ean and Iya are pretty much crushing on each other and is a major party of why she remembered him even when her being is incomplete so any love spell/potion/charm would make them act mushy with each other), Dredel's present would've only heightened Gavin's desire to be with Ava and removed his hesitation to pursue her. Furthermore, the sense of sight is a vital part of being a person for most people, and he's willing to part with his own eye if it means it can help Ava. He even becomes willing to work with Nic a little more, even if it's mostly to please Ava.

In short, Gavin and Ava happened to be the perfect kind of person for each other. Gavin put actual work to a relationship - which I assume he never actually did towards his other affairs, if any, since all the girls love him anyway - while Ava found someone who can genuinely look at her as a woman and tell her she's worth everything. It's beautiful; it's moving. I love this story. It almost brings me to tears.

TL;DR, again: