...Except for when (SPOILER)Fran asks Balthier what it's like to have a "second woman" (which implicitly implies that she is his woman, to begin with) - an obvious reference to Ashe. This elicits an irritable "baka!" ("fool", if you don't know) from Balthier, as though the mere suggestion that he could love any woman other than Fran is preposterous.Originally Posted by Aria28
Hmmm, well, one thing for sure is that (SPOILER)there is no sense of competition at any point between Fran and Ashe, so it's not formally a love triangle.
I also detected some hostility towards Ashe, coming from Fran, in several scenes.
(SPOILER)And you would argue that it's *not* love...?! What else could it be...?(SPOILER)I imagine that this notion comes from the long and great friendship, as well as the complicity that's so obvious between Fran and Balflear (here I'm sure Scooby would say it's love...
Balthier and Fran are both completely estranged from their families. They are both outcasts. All they have is each other. They have become each other's family; each other's home; each other's everything. How can what is between them *not* be described as love...?
And let me ask you this: who does Balthier love *more* than Fran...? Is there anyone *else* whom he loves...? I don't think so.... I think that Fran is both the person whom he loves the *most* - and the *only* person whom he loves. To say that he loves Ashe would be preposterous! He is attracted to her, at most....It can't be both...?(SPOILER)...there sure is tenderness there, but whether it is love or a beautiful friendship is never clear.Riiight.... Because what's a little breast-grabbing between friends!? :riiight:(SPOILER)I know there are tender gestures between them, but then it's nothing I haven't seen between true friends, either.I'd say that's an enormous exaggeration. (SPOILER)Vaan shows far more concern for Ashe, and has a better understanding of what she's going through. Balthier is often extremely insensitive to her, e.g., when the group were addressing the Marquis, and he was prattling on about "fresh clothing", blithely oblivious to Ashe's distress - which Vaan (and Penelo) had picked up on. Vaan and Ashe have several soul-searching conversations - while she and Balthier only have one. Their talk on the bridge, under the stars (forgotten the name of the location), is particularly poignant - and an important scene for both characters. In fact, if I didn't find it so implausible (but no more implausible than I find Ashe/Balthier), I would probably ship Ashe/Vaan.(SPOILER)Then there's what's developing between Ashe and Balflear, although I don't think it could possibly be love, at least not until the very end, but even that is very debatable. Balflear sure goes to great lengths to help her "cut her ties to the past", that prevent her from taking the right decision. You understand at one point that at first it was for personal reasons as well, but not only, and he feels very comfortable with her towards the last third of the story...Huh?!(SPOILER)...to say she's her love interest in the game would be too much of a stretch though."She's her love interest"...?!
(SPOILER)Ashe fancies him. So does Penelo, IMO. So do I. He's hot stuff. End of.(SPOILER)Ashe sure cares for him a lot in the end, and my interpretation is that she's at least a little infatuated with him.
But, Fran loves him. She loves him enough to plead with him to leave her behind, and to save himself, when she is stricken by the Mist.... She loves him enough to sever ties with her family and friends, and to willingly give up some of her innate Viera abilities to be with him....(SPOILER)I'm sure he finds her attractive; he's got eyes, after all. But there are two things that make Balthier who he is, two things that are of the utmost importance to him: Fran, and sky piracy - both of which he would have to forsake in order to be with Ashe. He has made it clear that he is not willing to forsake either thing - EVER! He is sky pirate to the bone, and Fran is his everything.(SPOILER)Whether he does reciprocate the feeling at this point is impossible to tell - there's no clear sign that could be interpreted in that way.
But, even if, hypothetically speaking, he were to make these enormous sacrifices, he still couldn't be with Ashe - because, relative to her, he is a commoner. Ashe must marry a member of the nobility. And Ashe would never abdicate her throne; she has made it clear that, the most important thing to her is to be a good queen to her people. So...Ashe/Balthier just ain't gonna happen.
By the end of the game, the party members have all gone their separate ways: Fran and Balthier are together, Vaan and Penelo are together, Basch is together with Larsa, and Ashe is all alone - removed from the rest - a lonely queen, looking out from her balcony....
People become attracted to other people; it happens all the time.... But, not all attractions develop into relationships.... Not every attraction has to go somewhere.... That's all there is between Ashe and Balthier: an unfulfilled attraction....Theory?(SPOILER)Unless you give a certain meaning to the whole ring subplot - I have a friend who's got a wonderful theory about it, LOL
(SPOILER)Balthier demanded that Ashe pawn her wedding ring, until she could find something else to offer him and Fran, as payment for their services. When Balthier posted the ring back to her, Ashe was delighted - because it was all she had left of her dead husband (whom she did love).
I don't see what else there is to it....(SPOILER)Uh, no. He almost always stands beside Fran. I noticed that, during group scenes, they always stand off to one side. Even when Balthier goes to check the body of a dead Judge, Fran accompanies him. They're, like, inseparable.(SPOILER)Also, something interesting is that when the whole party stands together in a given situation, Balflear either stands by Fran or by Ashe, and that's pretty much 50/50, at least in the last third.
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