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Yoo Joonghyuk: I think we're gonna have to kill this guy, Catarina Catarina: Damn

There's two ways to look at who she would end up with, the first being compatibility, the second being likeliness. Compatibility feeds into likeliness, but high likeliness doesn't mean high compatibility.

Geordo is perhaps the most likely, because it would realistically be hard for him to let go of the engagement. In pirates of the disturbance he only lets go in half the routes, the other half the conversation either hadn't happened, or he was ""putting it off"". Therefore he is most likely to get married to Catarina simply through inertia. However he is far from most compatible, evidenced by how she runs away to the ministry from fear of having to marry him.

Maria is the most compatible for two reasons:

First is that Catarina clearly loves her the most, and says about three times a novel that she wants Maria to be her wife. This is because Maria can bake, is beautiful, kind, and all round pretty much perfect. As expected of the MC of an otome. They get along great and Maria never makes any odd moves, or waste time fighting the rivals. (Which generally causes Catarina to zone out.) Instead she actually talks to Catarina and maximises her use of their time together.

The second is social status. Catarina is still mentally a girl from Japan, and is not suited to high society. She still can't dance, and she breaks etiquette at every event. There's two "another ends" in pirates of the disturbance where she leads a commoners life in another country, and in both it's said that she found them fulfilling. Living a life with Maria would require less adjustment than living with Geordo, or Nicol, etc.

On top of this, Catarina isn't in line for inheriting the dukedom, and Maria is the famous light magic user, so their social statuses could work out. She herself would not mind lowering her status, (since she barely registers it,) her mother thinks her unsuitable for any high rank, and her father just wants her to be happy

This also makes Maria more likely than other options. (Excluding Geordo)

Aside from breaking her engagement, the biggest obstacle to Catarina ending up with anyone is her own feelings. She's in denial of the possibility of anyone having romantic feelings for her, and this is entirely because of her role as the "villainess". The only people she doesn't worry about getting killed by are Nicol, Sophia, Mary, and Maria herself.

Having grown up with the first three, she's put them safely in the friend zone. But Maria is 'new' and romantically available. As a commoner, Catarina feels a kinship, instead of reservation. I'm not really wording this very well, but basically there's less mental blocks against her; Catarina doesn't first have to get past the possibility of a 'doom end'. Maria is the easiest one to see Catarina realising romantic feelings for, and she's also the only one I would say that Catarina actually has those feelings for already.

Once Catarina has the feelings, has accepted the feelings, and spoken to Maria about the feelings, they can successfully convince Geordo to break up the engagement.

The rest of the main cast are not going to happen for a multitude of reasons.

Keith: he's her brother. No matter what he does, she isn't going to stop thinking that. I'm refusing to acknowledge his routes in pirates of the disturbance. They aren't canon anyway.

Alan: lack of chemistry. They are just friends. Also, he didn't even realise his own feelings until recently, and doesn't act on them. This is not going to help Catarina see him in romantic light.

Nicol: has a better chance than the others because of his smile, which is very effective. If he could get Catarina to stop compartmentalising it as a fictional character smile, he would have a chance. Unfortunately, he isn't proactive enough to do this.

Sophia: she wants Nicol to end up with Catarina more than herself.

Mary: too far friendzoned. She isn't feeding Catarina enough GL, and most of her tactics are obstructing the guys, and planning lives in other countries.

Raphael: she never really had any thoughts about how handsome he was, he never made her swoon, but most critically, he's too absent. Poor guy is too stuck in paperwork to be making any advances.

Now for the new cast.

The other two FL2 routes are shockingly in love with Maria instead of Catarina. This is perhaps more tragic. I'm not sure if they have a lower or higher chance of happiness this way. Oh well.

But Sora <33

Now, he is in love with Catarina. and I honestly think he has a higher likelihood than everyone bar Maria and Geordo.

Again, his lack of nobility is a point in his favour.

Second, his carefreeness. He's very chill and goes with the flow, which matches Catarina nicely.

He's knowledgeable in areas where she is dense, and can make up for her shortcomings nicely, but he doesn't admonish her for this (unlike Keith who sighs at her ten times a day).

He does lots of things without making a big deal of them, and is actually very committed to those he loves. (It takes a LOT of effort to learn an ancient language)

He's not overly obsessed with her as some others are. This is good because obsession is just not a good way to have a healthy relationship. It's honestly terrible. Trust me.

The lack of obsession + chillax personality mean Catarina feels very relaxed around him. She's able to have normal conversations without pausing to be like 'oh no have I said something faux pas'. It also means he can have normal conversations with her, without being all 'what can I say to get her to fall in love with me'.

It ALSO means he doesn't fight aggressively for her, which means the others view him lower down on the rival list. Always a good thing.

He can change himself to be better. After the whole him kidnapping Catarina thing, he doesn't pull any physical moves again, because he realised she doesn't reciprocate that. (Muzzing hair doesn't count.) Aside from this, he changes his morality a little, having been influenced by her. That makes them more compatible.

He does these because of her, but not necessarily for her. Again, good sign of a healthy relationship. And again, unlike some rivals (Geordo and Mary I'm looking at you.)

(also just completely as a side note but Rozy accompanies her gardening and makes stuff for her because he wants her to be happy but more than that because he enjoys those things as well. So I genuinely think he might be most compatible out of literally everyone, it's just a shame he's off in a non canon timeline. I could write a whole other post on him but that's for later.)

He is well travelled. Catarina wants to go to other countries, this is a very consistent fact. Not only for rice, but for fun. He knows how to act in these places, can safely accompany her, and bring her to the "authentic" sides. If she travelled with Geordo, they would only ever see the high end places, tailored for visiting nobility. Even Mary, who does extensive research, would still be out of place. Sora <333 doesn't have either of these shortcoming.

They both have weak magic, and they both have dark magic. That's gotta be something.

They're both blue. This doesn't really count but it's also my favourite colour so I thought I'd mention it.

Canonically the prettiest, so much so that even Catarina was wowed. Also canonically the strongest physically but this is mainly a point in his favour because I think it's cool.

But there are points against him.

He's old. She's either 16 or 17 when they meet. That's definitely a child, no matter the legal age in sorcier. Legally they would have no issues, but there's still a mental gap. Idr how old he is exactly but I feel like it was 23-27. You could argue that Catarina is older due to her past life, but I'm really not convinced.

He doesn't know how to relationship in a way that isn't physical. This is outright stated a few times, and also shown by his actions. Yeah he stops pulling moves on her, but he doesn't know what to do instead. All he's got are flirting skills, designed to get information out of people. Such artificial love isn't suited for actual courtship, and he knows this. That's why he ends up confused at what to do and feeling a vague sense of helplessness instead.

He doesn't get much time with her. Even though he walks with her to work every day, and the eat lunch together a lot, the scenes themselves are ENTIRELY SKIPPED OVER by the novel. Clearly, the author felt nothing substantial happens during these times. Which means nothing really develops. I'll be honest, I don't give a shit if these scenes fail to woo Catarina, I just want to see his name on the page a few more times. But if even the author doesn't want to mention him, that's not a good sign.

He's too chill to be making moves. He only pushed her on the bed/kissed her initially because he had great opportunity to. But he's not really interested in forcibly making opportunities to hang out. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but it's Catarina we are talking about. She needs to be told to her face at least three times that you have romantic feelings for her before she even considers herself as romancable. (Relatable)

He did kinda push her on the bed and would have done more if plot hadn't happened. Now this is explained as him, yk, only having experience in that matter and nothing else, but there's people who understandably cannot forgive him for this. This isn't mentioned in the novel at all, and idk how the author feels about it, but it's still not great.

So within the novel itself his likeliness is lower than both Maria and Geordo, and his compatibility is only lower than Maria.

Outside the novel, I think anyone except Maria has a 0% chance of bagging Catarina.

Its very unlikely that the author will go down the route of actually developing a relationship. Not only would he have to pick, it would drastically change the genre. Catarinas whole thing is that she refuses to acknowledge romance. (Fellow aro???) But more than that, writing recricated love is a different skillset to writing hamefura as it currently exists. And the whole fandom would be expecting something good, something worth the wait.

So the compatibility has to be good, and built up to, and it needs to make sense that whoever it is gets chosen above all others. In both cases Maria wins.

I've already spoken about chemistry, and compatibility. But of course it makes sense for the MC of FL to be picked above all the rest. Plus, villainess x Heroine is a great ship.

Meanwhile, Catarina choosing one of the original cast? Unfair to the rest. The fans would be demanding explanation. Also, I don't see it (for reasons stated earlier).

Her choosing Sora? Now I would in a heartbeat, but for his role in the novel it wouldn't make sense. He arrived late, and we barely see their interactions. I'll forever have ln9 in the center of my hamefura shrine, but that doesn't mean they actually have romantic scenes. If she really ended up with someone who is relegated to background character in half the frames he actually appears in, that just wouldn't make any sense. It would be so incredibly out of nowhere.

So yeah, I think sadly it's not happening, and neither is anyone else.

Selfishly I would want him to end up with Catarina, because it means more scenes with him.