Balthier » Pairings

As with any fandom, pairings are a big thing. So, without further ado, I shall list a few I've seen involving Balthier with my commentary.

Vaan

No. Just... no. Vaan may have a one-way thing for Balthier (man, that airship is extremely sexy), but Balthier has more sophisticated tastes than a little boy who's an Aladdin ripoff. If anything, Vaan should be paired with Allen of Xenosaga; both of their hands get more than enough of a workout from their solo-amorous activities in the dark.

Penelo

Okay, I amdit that Penelo is cute in that "whee look at me I'm a dancer girl lol" kinda way. And the two do interact once, in which Balthier indirectly causes her capture by B'Gamnan and she's tied up all prisoner-like. Still, Penelo would be too easy of a target for our most-likely experienced sky pirate; girls like Penelo are a dime a dozen.

Fran

Now we're talking. Fran is every fantasy gamer-boy's wet dream; she has bunny ears, wears a sexy getup that's classy with its Victorian-esque feel, and she is rather ferocious when tied up.

All kidding aside, this is a pairing which has a lot of merit; the trust that these two share is great, and they're rather inseparable. I'd be surprised if there were absolutely no feelings of some sort of affection between the two, or even one-way. I doubt it's just a partnership of necessity after a while.

Then again, it is also entirely possible that nothing serious is going on between the two. With the lack of interaction in Final Fantasy XII, it could be taken either way; either we're not looking far enough into it, or we're reading way too much into it.

In Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings, the pairing itself does not get much focus, but other elements of the game seem to point towards a relationship between Balthier and Fran, as it talks about racial discrimination as a theme, as well as making it canon that Viera have reproductive traits as new races are introduced, such as a new race of Viera that were descended as a mix between Aegyl and Viera. One of the main antagonists, Midia, was one of these Viera who fell in love with a Hume. A lot of the subplots and themes behind Revenant Wings point to interracial couples.

Ashe

Now this is interesting.

I would seriously not be surprised if Ashe had some feelings for Balthier. Then again, Ashe is living with the memory of a dead first love, and probably got no booty as he was sent off to war.

I haven't given this pairing much thought until I came across this and this (follow up here), which got me thinking about it. They can speak for this pairing a lot more clear than I could. I like Basch x Ashe, but this pairing is starting to slowly climb its way up on my list.

Larsa

No. Just... no. No homopedophia-play, okay?

Basch

Okay, so most of the other pairings above were made up (I don't surf forums, fics, or comms very often), but... dear goodness, my friend Rin showed me a couple of fanarts from Japanese sites with this pairing! Worst of all, it shows our favorite sky pirate in submissive positions!

I am speechless. This is a scary-butt pairing which I refuse to even consider. If you know what's good for you, you'll stay away from it, too. Every time someone makes or witnesses a Balthier x Basch piece of fandom, a bunnie rabbit gets run over by a lawnmower.