What are your thoughts about lygustelle 😋
Too many, unfortunately.
I'd say biases aside but sadly biases are heavily into play here 😭 This is my side hustle ship and I'm taking them to hell with me
Very very VERY long ramble below
I'm too easily got by the Lygus type of character. Though not entirely similar, the vibes he has scratches the same itch as have Douma from Demon Slayer and Mahito from JJK iykyk. The type of guy that should feel like very serious business, but has fun along the way, has plenty of screws loose, and is weird about other / specific people. The kind with a "yandere" vibe without owning that label if you feel me. I also feel like I have a soft spot for characters that're secretly this very influential guy from the past, or somehow came back from the past into the present. (The Emperor from BG3 and Miraak from Skyrim for me)
Rotting over Stelle was kind of a surprise even for me. I started the game because I loved her design and the AE trio dynamic (I started 2 months after HSR launched). She grew on me insanely quickly by being very funny and drop dead gorgeous lol. So she was adopted into my brainrot. I mention this, because if I just passively like two characters who interact, I don't even think about ships. It takes brainrot level characters for me to ship, and only if they have interactions that I feel can lean into it.
As for lystelle, it only really started in 3.4 for me. Before that I just thought Lygus was a beautiful NPC with a banging design. Well, I fell insanely hard for Phaistelle, and Lygus' actions in 3.4 put him in mind for me a lot for silly little meme doodles. I mean, he literally put Stelle into a fanfiction with his OC (Phainon), saying they were childhood friends. That's crazy to me 💀 The butt of many jokes, Lygus on the mind tormenting Stelle with his infatuation over the Phaistelle ship...
3.5 changed everything. The back and forth between them did something to me, especially since they could only exchange words right until the end. He brought out an intense side of Stelle I'd never seen before, and I loved it
I played 3.5 first half in ENG and the rest in CN (don't ask lol), but have watched a good few playthroughs in ENG, so this might not be entirely accurate... but I felt that in ENG, Lygus always spoke politely to Stelle, despite their opposing sides. A very clear example for me is the grove scene: after Lygus imprisons Stelle, we hear him very clearly angry towards Cerydra and the others. There's no reason for him not the be mad at Stelle, considering she's trying to stop him, yknow? But he's still polite to her. Even when he visits her in the prison. And when she's outright mad at him, he still laughs it off.
I love their back and forth. The fact that Lygus canonically enjoyed talking to her, enjoyed her curiosity to the point of nostalgia, reminded of the same past Zandar started this whole project to return to.
Something that adds a lot to this for me is the fact that Lygus is a fragment of Zandar. He's not just a robot running on AI, he has an entire consciousness that of a human within him. He's had human experiences, so he lacks some of the intricacies of if he was run by AI, which would've been a bit of a turn off for me ngl.
I also think it's worth mentioning that Stelle is the first person he's actually spoken to regarding the truth of Amphoreus and what he's up to. He's been nothing but self isolating in Amphoreus to train the simulation, with the only contact being with the lines of code (characters) within the simulation. Even though his conscious is human, his body is robotic, with surely many other changes to have helped him endure this entire time alone. I actually think he's lonely but would never admit it, which is why he's such a yapper (affectionate) to the only person who's real, thus the only one who matters (Stelle).
Anyway, since much of his plot hinges on the Destruction, naturally, he's interested in the Stellaron within Stelle. That's another point of him focusing on her. He even offers knowledge that can elevate her to a powerful status. (I say powerful, since I don't think it'd turn her into an Aeon). And as he's been living for so long, witnessed the past without Paths, I don't doubt he has such knowledge. Yeah, he does say later he's interested in experimenting on her if Cerydra handed Stelle to him, but if you're a freak like me that's just hot LMAO (Why did he sound so excited suggesting experimentation tho...)
I like the fact that, throughout 3.4 and 3.5, Lygus is our only companion that's "real", as in not a part of the simulation - not a "fictional" character. Since Dan Heng left at the start of 3.4, that makes only him and Stelle the "real" people there. It kind of adds to my brainrot even as a Phaistelle fan.
Lygus in 3.5 had many moments of trying to get her to change sides, up until the end he was still trying to persuade her to join him. He never wanted to have to battle Stelle. Stuff like that really gets me, a villain like him, still being polite, borderline "soft" towards the protagonist, but still having his own goals he builds towards. He does what he can with words to convince her, but will still defend himself if it comes to that.
(Off topic but I love that Stelle can call him a clown right after this 😭)
Something that I found especially juicy, was that to get Lygus at a standstill after the end, they had to loop the battle over and over again, with all of those battles ending with Lygus defeating/killing Stelle and Hysilens. Mutually assured destruction is delicious to me. You destroy me, I destroy you. Especially when coupled with the fact that Lygus would've rather not done that at all. That he would've rather Stelle joined him.
(The face Stelle makes here is so heartbreaking. She knows she's going to die here. She thinks she's doomed the universe here... I love it 😭💔)
But the amount of willpower it takes to get killed over and over again knowingly is driving me insane. Every time Stelle gets killed she makes the decision to rewind and do it again. Ugh... doesn't this mirror Phainon in a way? She's forced to let Lygus kill her as many times as it takes to eventually make Lygus buffer, putting herself in these cycles of destruction for a chance at destroying him... That's so tasty. Also that cutscene in general is like in my top 5 hsr cutscenes, it's so good.
Lastly, it's just the way he talks to her. I mentioned his politeness earlier but one of the biggest draws for me was how he referred to her. Though I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) Lygus has referred to others as either my Lady/Lord, too. But most importantly to me, he has called Stelle his Deliverer.
He also calls her his Executioner, which is another parallel to Phainon.
Phainon who calls the Flame Reaver executioner, where they have their "final battle" in the Vortex of Genesis... where we later have our "final battle" with Lygus. In that instance, Stelle is the Flame Reaver to Lygus' Phainon.
In the end, I view it as one-sided. Lygus' obsession with the Deliverer... but it's fun to think of a Stelle that humors him, or perhaps even likes him, since he did pose as a council member before 3.4. but as I said, this is mainly my crackship, my little side hustle away from the main things lol, but while it's here it's real juicy to think about.
Or I can give you a TL;DR and just say I found them hot asf, especially in the grove cutscene. I can't be the only one...
Idk if I should thank you or apologize, anon, for giving me an avenue to write this novel of a response lol. I guess I just needed to let this out of my system cuz well... I have been having a normal moment in some of my posts tags LMAO