Given its plethora of awesome qualities, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is one of the greatest JRPGs of all time. But among the many things that the game got right, it certainly got one aspect wrong—romance. Initially, it seemed that this game had a lot of promise in the realm of romance, especially compared to previous Fire Emblem games, which had no romance options at all. You can choose almost any character to be with as female Byleth, and you can dictate which characters students and staff end up with in the epilogue. In addition, Three Houses made some kind of attempt to be inclusive of same-sex relationships, considering most females can be romantically paired with other females. Yet, somehow, the developers thought it was a good idea to not include same-sex relationship options between men.
Realizing that they’d left this option out of the game entirely was a bit of a slap in the face. How could anyone have thought it made sense to include same-sex female relationships but not same-sex male ones? After grumbling to myself about this but moving on with the gameplay, it became even more heart-breaking as I watched Sylvain and Felix’s relationship unfold.
In the “C” rank support conversation between the two of them, Felix is clearly agitated with Sylvain. While he presents it like he’s just angry because Sylvain is never acting seriously enough, he specifically calls attention to how bothered he is by Sylvain constantly hitting on women. Afterwards, Felix adds that Sylvain doesn’t realize how his actions “hurt others.” It’s clear that Felix has taken a more personal offense than what he’s suggesting, and this is likely because of his feelings for Sylvain. As far as Sylvain is concerned, his feelings for Felix could explain why he is so obsessed and vocal about chasing after women in the first place. Overcompensating much? His fear of his feelings for Felix could easily be what is driving him to want to be known as the “ladies’ man,” and would also explain why he never commits to a relationship with any of them.
This analysis is further supported by the “B” level conversation, in which Felix immediately apologizes for being too harsh on Sylvain previously, and then the rest of their conversation is flirtatious banter. For example, Sylvain says, “You're off to train? Again? Now who's insatiable?” to which Felix responds with, “Better than sitting idle like you.” Considering we know that they care deeply for each other after growing up together, it’s obvious that this isn’t being said with malicious intent.
But what really made me ship this relationship the most was when I got to their third “A” rank support conversation. Felix thanks Sylvain for his help on the battlefield and then says, “You’re always…” with a trail off that implies “saving me” or “there for me.” Felix’s shyness when trying to say this heavily suggests he is feeling something deeper than a surface-level “thanks for your help.” Furthermore, Sylvain invites Felix to come eat with him after saying he will always be there for him.
To top everything off, the A+ rank conversation includes Felix becoming flustered over the fact that Sylvain got hurt when protecting him. Sylvain directly tells him that he'd be perfectly fine dying, so long as Felix is alright. In the second half of the conversation, Felix tells Sylvain that seeing him smile again makes him want to give Sylvain a hug (and we all know how much Felix is not a hugger). They then reflect on the promise they made each other when they were younger about sticking together until they die.
Given these conversations, both characters make it painfully obvious that they have deep feelings for each other. Not only that, their personalities work together on every level—Sylvain complements Felix by having him lighten up a bit, and Felix keeps Sylvain grounded. I cannot think of a better romantic match in the rest of Three Houses. Yet, they’re really trying to tell me that these two cannot be soulmates? Absolutely nothing will make me accept that conclusion.