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The case for Henry/Sully
I've seen some of you guys (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rosage, I think?) wtf over the Henry/Sully supports, and as far as pairings go, I don't like it for either of them. But I was thinking about it, and there *is* something pretty unique about this pairing as far as it concerns Henry.
Henry's potential wives can be lumped into a few sometimes-overlapping categories: women won over by maternal urges to take care of him (Olivia, Panne, Cherche), women won over by his sticky-sweet devotion (Liz, Cherche, Tharja, Cordelia), and women who you could've sworn were just friends (at best) until halfway into S support (Avatar, Maribelle, Nowi, Miriel, Sully).
The marriages in the last category suddenly take the theme of their supports into romantic territory. So for Nowi and Miriel, suddenly they turn to baby making to solve their problems. The Avatar decides she likes quirky men and Henry promises to be her slave or something. Maribelle decides she's quite bothered by the way Henry flippantly talks about going and dying and this obviously means she's got a girlboner.
Sully/Henry? Sully/Henry was about willpower and pride. Sully proposes to him out of intense *respect*.
(As a brief aside, respect and lack thereof are critical elements in a marriage. Paul Eckman's research shows that contempt was the best predictor of a doomed marriage. I'm not at all surprised that Cordelia ended up running off and leaving Henry to raise Severa [who totally became daddy's little girl per the doomed future dlc] -- I mean she married him saying condescending shit like "Your strengths are different from Chrom's" [ヘンリー…あなたのよさはクロム様とは違うところにあるわ。] and that allegedly she liked him for who he was... without giving any examples of things she likes about him. Total bald-faced lie there.)
Anyway, I think it's remarkable that Sully sees in him something that no one else in the army overtly appreciates. Henry does have a lot of willpower, and that means something beyond his resultant abilities in hexes/magic (as is the true reason Ricken and Tharja look up to him). Not only does he make it through an incredibly adversarial childhood (perhaps even being one of few survivors of some crazy shit), he comes out the other end apparently aware enough of his shortcomings and so determined to break the cycle that he becomes a canonically good father.
Sully doesn't know any of that, but as a woman in the military she's no stranger to adversary and I think that if and when she did learn about any of it, she'd have tremendous appreciation for what Henry's managed to do.
I honestly think it would be more meaningful than the matronly wives' reactions of "poor sad bby i want to make you happy <3" (as much as it tickles me feelings-wise).
I don't know, maybe I'm talking in circles at this point. But I feel like Sully honestly recognizes and values Henry for his strengths, which is a very affirming thing.
rosage, I think?) wtf over the Henry/Sully supports, and as far as pairings go, I don't like it for either of them. But I was thinking about it, and there *is* something pretty unique about this pairing as far as it concerns Henry.Henry's potential wives can be lumped into a few sometimes-overlapping categories: women won over by maternal urges to take care of him (Olivia, Panne, Cherche), women won over by his sticky-sweet devotion (Liz, Cherche, Tharja, Cordelia), and women who you could've sworn were just friends (at best) until halfway into S support (Avatar, Maribelle, Nowi, Miriel, Sully).
The marriages in the last category suddenly take the theme of their supports into romantic territory. So for Nowi and Miriel, suddenly they turn to baby making to solve their problems. The Avatar decides she likes quirky men and Henry promises to be her slave or something. Maribelle decides she's quite bothered by the way Henry flippantly talks about going and dying and this obviously means she's got a girlboner.
Sully/Henry? Sully/Henry was about willpower and pride. Sully proposes to him out of intense *respect*.
(As a brief aside, respect and lack thereof are critical elements in a marriage. Paul Eckman's research shows that contempt was the best predictor of a doomed marriage. I'm not at all surprised that Cordelia ended up running off and leaving Henry to raise Severa [who totally became daddy's little girl per the doomed future dlc] -- I mean she married him saying condescending shit like "Your strengths are different from Chrom's" [ヘンリー…あなたのよさはクロム様とは違うところにあるわ。] and that allegedly she liked him for who he was... without giving any examples of things she likes about him. Total bald-faced lie there.)
Anyway, I think it's remarkable that Sully sees in him something that no one else in the army overtly appreciates. Henry does have a lot of willpower, and that means something beyond his resultant abilities in hexes/magic (as is the true reason Ricken and Tharja look up to him). Not only does he make it through an incredibly adversarial childhood (perhaps even being one of few survivors of some crazy shit), he comes out the other end apparently aware enough of his shortcomings and so determined to break the cycle that he becomes a canonically good father.
Sully doesn't know any of that, but as a woman in the military she's no stranger to adversary and I think that if and when she did learn about any of it, she'd have tremendous appreciation for what Henry's managed to do.
I honestly think it would be more meaningful than the matronly wives' reactions of "poor sad bby i want to make you happy <3" (as much as it tickles me feelings-wise).
I don't know, maybe I'm talking in circles at this point. But I feel like Sully honestly recognizes and values Henry for his strengths, which is a very affirming thing.
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The nonthreatening reads on Henry are really interesting especially given that he is, as thou easy, the most likely to kill people on a whim.
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Lissa is strangely trusting of a lot of people she talks to.
But even that's a bit much given her breakdown with him beforehand over the birds
Edit: I'm on my tablet' sorry autocorrect is doofy