Tissaia De Vries x Philippa Eilhart || "If you don't know the value of loyalty, you'll never understand the damage of betrayal."
Their eyes say a thousand things that could never be encompassed into words. How beautiful is it that there is so many messages one can see in an exchange of looks - anguish, love, heartbreak, etc. Maybe they should've known better.
And yes, I will die on this hill : they are one of my headcanon - were together before Sodden Hill - to me, the relationship they had fractured when Philippa refused to stand with Tissaia and follow her to war, and it broke for Philippa because Tissaia refused to listen to her that Vilgefortz was not a good ally.
But isn't it the tragedy of who they are, too, as characters? So similar yet so different. Both having tunnel vision, Tissaia for the greater good, for the continent yet neglecting the small details of now, of people and their need until that letter to the people, and Philippa for the advancement of her power and her status yet neglecting to see the people around her in the long run that her ideas might break or alienate or that she will have to hurt in her quest. (I will stop myself before I start writing an essay about them to being a mirror and yet also a complete opposite of each other.)
Kind of heartbreaking that in the "The Witcher" books, during Philippa's coup, Tissaia tells her that she was her best student.
You wanna talk about Doomed Yuri? About tragic wlw? About rarepairs? Yeah, I'll be there, I've got decades of delusions and of the trope bury your gays in fandoms under my belt. Let's go lesbians!