Is there going to be a route for Lance? (update)
A while ago I wrote a post about being pretty sure that there wasn’t going to be a fifth route.
Am I still convinced about this? Not as much.
But am I positive that there’s going to be one? Not yet.
I really want to, I’m just being very cautious.
It is very late in the game, Guadienne has alreasy a boyfriend, they have exchanged I love yous (I’m looking at you MCL) and she has very recently defined him the love of her life. This would be a done deal in other games, but this is Eldarya and anything could happen.
In episode 26 there’s a lot of nice banter between Guady and Lance, his LoM can raise up to 40 points and he defines her cute at least 3 times. He’s basically flirting.
While we don’t understand yet the logic behind the illustrations, it seems however that after a whole episode spent with Lance we didn’t get even a single illustration for him and Guardy. The one with Valkyon and Lance seems to be more connected to Valkyon than his older brother and there could’ve been dozen of good illustration opportunities throughout the episode.
Also, he pushes Guardy off the cliff at the end (calling her a brat, not sure how it sounds in french). I do think though he was just trying to by himself time to escape, probably assuming she’s not in real danger because either the guys or the kraken would save her. I’m not sure if this is just wishful thinking, we have to wait next episode and see.
But even if he was fully consciously pushing her towards her death? I’d be fine anyway. He is who he is, in that moment he was upset and even more volatile than he usually is after having witnessed his mother memories and being surrounded. He’s a “villain” and he’s not going to change over night.
Throughout the episode we can see that he doesn’t want to be alone, while he pretends and act tough he looks for Guardienne’s company the whole time
He’s opened up to her in ways he’s not done with anyone else, not even his brother. The memories end with him believing that he is alone and can only count on his family, on his race.
I’m excited to see how his believes are going to change, because if there’s one thing I’m sure about it’s that he’s going to be redeemed, they’ve given use too much insight into his head, his past and his vulnerability.
(Again, I’m going to highlight the fact that if they’re redeeming him only for us to play matchmaker between him and Miiko I’m going to quit on the spot.)
So the problem that remains is, is this redemption going to lead to a romantic relationship?
The thing that obviously strikes the most is that Guardy can feel attractions towards him during the episode, in a relatively very short amount of time spent together during which she’s also doubting if he’s killed her boyfriend.
But the most important thing is not even the dialogue per se, but the fact that you can unlock it only if you have high enough LoM with him.
Throughout the whole episode you can decide not only to be either against him or simply nice, but from this choice here you have actually three options: bad, neutral/friendly and romantic.
This only happens for LIs, for characters like Kero, for examples, it doesn’t.
Edit: Also, forgot to add the second main point, probably even more significant:
If you have high LoM with Lance and move your crush you don’t get your boyfriend illustration! This could signify doubt in Erika’s feelings.
So... we don’t get a Lance illu, but not even the boyfriend one. Could this indicate a break-up and some time where Erika stays single? Before getting with anyone else even Lance?
So, at this point, I think there’s a good chance we will have his route, but (and if the difficulty of unlocking illustrations is any proof) it’s not going to be easy.