to preface this: i do not think it is impossible for iorveth and roche to work as a relationship
like, i know i’m about to swing a bat at a hornet’s nest, but keep in mind i’m not actually saying that “oooh we can’t ship it” so nobody try and say that’s what i’m saying.
can we maybe keep in mind a bit who they are? the units they command? because the most prevalent idea i see is that they are mirrors, and that their units are analogous to each other, and that’s objectively untrue
the scoia’tael exist because nonhumans have been oppressed, and so nonhumans living in human society get fed up, and they flee, and they join these groups and fight for their lives and their people
the blue stripes exist to hunt nonhumans.
that’s not a mirror, that’s one existing to kill the other, and the other one would have existed no matter what
I also want to point out that because the Scoia’tael are truly just.. anyone who cares to fight for the cause, they aren’t trained. there is no king or general or entity creating a training camp to make sure they’re ready before they go into the field, or disseminating propaganda about who they’re fighting. they know from their own lives
the Blue Stripes are picked specially, trained in the Temerian military and brainwashed/manipulated, they have orders from higher ups (kings, generals), they are a military unit.
these two things are not equal.
now, see, what could absolutely be interesting is Roche being unaware of that imbalance because he’s been under the assumption that the scoia’tael are a military unit that function similarly to theirs, which allows them to not feel guilty over hunting them—to him this is just two military groups fighting
the point I’m trying to make here is that I think Roche might view Iorveth as this respected rival even before/during TW2, but Iorveth would never view Roche that way! to him, Roche is killing his people!
and I think that can be really interesting, if you put them in a position where Roche is no longer aimed at the Scoia’tael but rather fighting for a free Temeria and realizes what’s going on, maybe a slow trickle of hearing iorveth mention that no elves don’t get punished if they disobey orders, they should know it’s for their own good (in contrast to army camps with actual punishment details), and Roche realizing oh my god he was basically slaughtering civilians
my point is, I think it’s disingenuous to iorveth’s character to have him pining after a man who’s literally still in the process of carrying out genocide against his people (and if you don’t think it’s a genocide, I have a few paragraphs i can point you towards in Blood of Elves)
once again I think there could be a very interesting thing of having Roche feel some typa way to iorveth in TW2, and be frustrated with it, while Iorveth doesn’t view him that way at all until far, far later, when Roche has changed direction and realized what’s wrong with his unit
(to be clear, if it was somehow addressed that it’s not an equal conflict in this characterization of them somehow being together during TW2 i’d have less of an issue, my problem is with the idea that this is an equal rivals thing so it’s totally fine they’re secretly together. because what i always see is this idea that the conflict is just that of rivals and not a completely imbalanced one)
tl;dr - iorveth and roche (and the scoia’tael & blue stripes) are not equals in the conflict and it’s really reckless to act like they’ve been ~secretly meeting up for years~ when roche is participating in genocide. their relationship needs to happen after that is no longer the aim of the blue stripes and roche has realized he’s been misled (to thinking the scoia’tael are an equal and opposite force)
(hi also please ask me about iorveth, or even roche, stuff, i have So Many thoughts actually ive done a ridiculous amount of analysis on iorveth’s character, and extrapolation)
