Giraffe's EAH Ship Tier List: FayChess
I don't remember who requested this actually. Possibly nobody, but I feel it's a necessary companion to the Fayven one. Uhhh @caliburn-the-sword you'll like this one it has Duchess in it!
Duchess and Faybelle are ACTUAL toxic yuri---two girls who genuinely like each other, but unfortunately bring out one another's worst tendencies. This is because they're both very similar: they're highly driven and self-motivated to succeed, and desperately want to belong somewhere. So, they both naturally fall into playing the roles the system has assigned for them. Unfortunately, playing that role makes them have highly unpleasant attitudes and prone to lashing out.
Their major differences come entirely from what their destinies are and how that's shaped them growing up. Duchess is supposed to be a tragic hero, and having that kind of fate looming over your head for your entire life makes you really sour, especially when everyone around you gets to plan for a happily ever after, or at least gets to have some more control over their lives. And that is what Duchess desires: control over her own fate. She wants to be able to do something about her life and have power over where she ends up. But because she's also spent her entire life believing that following her destiny is the ONLY way and that there isn't another choice, she feels extremely trapped. So whenever she's reminded of her powerlessness, she lashes out at the people delivering the reminder and does her best to hit them where it hurts.
When Raven doesn't sign her page, Duchess is thrown into a lot of conflict because now there IS another way, but it's not from a source she trusts. She can't be sure that doing things Raven's way and having an unclear future is going to be any better than her current fate. Better the devil you know and all that. Change is scary, even when it's change for the better, and Duchess is too afraid to accept Raven's philosophy. Especially since it means she'll have spent her whole life working and preparing and suffering for something that doesn't actually matter. So a touch of sunk cost fallacy too.
When Duchess tries to change her destiny or steal somebody else's, it's her way of seeking control in a way that she thinks is acceptable and safe and will still allow her to have the approval of the authority figures in her life without having to live out her curse. Through the events of Next Top Villain, Raven is able to reveal to Duchess that NO destiny is actually a good one. Becoming a villain will give her power and respect, but it will be in the form of fear and hatred, not love. And so Duchess eventually realizes what ACTUALLY matters to her and throws away all her hard work (in life AND in her general villainy class) to save Lizzie, and is better for it.
Faybelle doesn't get quite as far as Duchess. She doesn't have a tragic ending that she's trying to escape. Instead, she's just grown up incredibly isolated due to both the circumstances of her fairytale, and the fact that she's been training to be evil---to hurt others for her own personal gain. That impulse, to try to use other people as tools and stepping stones, makes her really unlikeable to everyone, and in the few cases where it would get her approval (like with the Evil Queen, Headmaster Grimm, and debateably Baba Yaga), it doesn't work because she's being overshadowed by Raven.
So what you end up with is two overachieving unpleasant people who are isolated because of their unpleasantness, but who really really REALLY don't want to be, and they're able to find comfort and friendship in each other. That's amazing for them, but unfortunately, it also means that when they rely on each other for help with their personal problems, they're going to give each other bad advice because neither of them is well adjusted. Which is NOT points against them as a ship IN THE SLIGHTEST that's genuinely so fun to me.
The best part about them is that unlike with Duchess and Sparrow, these two don't actually have to break up at any point to continue their character arcs. In Duchess, Faybelle finds a friend who can appreciate her snark and spiteful tendencies, but she does NOT get a yes-man or somebody she can step on. Duchess is someone who can stand up for herself. In Faybelle, Duchess also gets someone who can appreciate her snark and spite in a way that most of the cast cannot, and she also gets a friend who encourages Duchess taking control of her own life in a way that none of the princesses have ever done for her. Faybelle encourages Duchess to stick it to people that neither of them like, and that includes the authority figures that Duchess has been desperately sucking up to for most of the story.
They don't help one another become KINDER people, but they do encourage each other to improve on other character flaws that helps them continue breaking away from their destinies. Faybelle can't get away with treating Duchess like a tool, she has to view Duchess as a person. Which is easy because Duchess is similar to her, but that's a really important first step for Fay. Duchess doesn't have to pretend she's happy with her life or the rules of the world, and is in fact encouraged to break them by being around Fay.
There's some other fun stuff in their dynamic to note---both of them have a weird obsession with Raven for not signing the book, despite not knowing her very well, and they definitely feed into that. I fully believe they've had entire conversations just shit-talking Raven, but most of it was totally inaccurate. They're also both competitive and ballet is a majorly important medium for both their stories. We see in Fairest on Ice that it is both super fun for them and super fun to watch them compete in dancing. It's interesting that while they both set high goals for themselves and want to be the best, Faybelle is quite a bit lazier than Duchess and never wants to do the busywork to make that happen, so she'll try to take shortcuts and will end up screwing herself over. Meanwhile, Duchess will push herself to unhealthy levels to achieve a goal, and she usually does everything on her own because she doesn't have anyone she trusts enough to do the grunt work, so I can picture them fighting about that quite a lot but crawling back to each other anyway because they don't make friends easily.
As for whether the romance angle in particular does anything for them, I think it's a power move on Duchess' part. She's been obsessed with finding an actual prince charming to rescue her for a long time. Falling into a romance with Faybelle is her finally giving up on that and choosing to focus on the people she actually loves. And I think it would be especially telling if the person she goes for is the one who challenges her behavior the least. One who doesn't force her to grow into someone less self-centered, but who does make her abandon her desire to be a fairytale princess. For Fay, it would be a really big deal because this would be the first time she's gotten close enough to someone to become romantic with them. And again, it would be telling for it to be the friend who doesn't try to change her much and just deals with her warts and all.
Would they be particularly good girlfriends? Nah, these two would fight about absolutely everything and hate make-out and encourage each other to do really cruel stuff to other people and just generally be insufferable. BUT, they are super interesting as a pair and somehow manage to have net positive character development from being around each other, so I'm on board.
I'm not gonna give them S-tier because they don't like. Redefine our understanding of the two of them or cause major ripples in the lives of everyone else by being together. But they're still an absolutely fantastic option, and honestly one of my fav ships for both girls.
Verdict: They're REALLY Fun (A-Tier)
