I bought the ToS PS3 port the moment it was put up for preorder, but I finally dusted it off and took it out to play and I didn't anticipate how fast I'd fall back down the Symphonia rabbit hole. And what a time to do it, so long after that release. But, it seems I still love Symphonia's many relationships, and Sheelos is still among the dearest to me, so seeing this get uploaded was an extremely pleasant surprise.

Their relationship really is fascinating, for one being so tension-filled but yet the game makes it clear they care about each other. They both have a ridiculous amount of trauma induced emotional scars, and so, I feel like I can see this being how things end up coming about between them - wanting to be close but not being able to really commit for a long long time, because neither of them know how to properly communicate. Remaining in a status quo is easier than actually talking about it, after all. As much as I still feel frustration with the Zelos-Sheena-Lloyd 'love triangle' I do think it's an interesting aspect to their relationship in the sense that Zelos can't truly resent it, and that whole situation also is part of what maintains some of the status quo: Zelos has trouble confronting it due to his horrible opinion of himself, and the fact Lloyd is an important person to him too.

'Could we just stay like this', I feel like is kind of a common theme for their relationship, even within official merchandise. I think back to the Rodeo Ride Tour Audio Drama where one of the overarching lines is Zelos offhandedly asking Sheena if they could just escape somewhere else as they were. Deep down they're just two sad, lonely kids who had immense burdens placed on them who somehow can keep each other company. And no, their relationship really isn't the most healthy, certainly not as we see it in the game, but I do see that they're somehow just drawn to each other, and like to imagine they learn to make it work.

Anyway, I love this. I love the mood of melancholy that's sort of permeating throughout it. I also like the small side snapshots of the rest of the party's life, both while they're still traveling and also later when they disperse. Even when their journey is over, there's so much work to be done, and it's always going to be interesting thinking about what happens in their lives as they try to live in the United World as the years go by. And it was rewarding to see that yes, they did eventually come to a stable, happy relationship, even if not classically defined.