Alright chat sit your asses down shut up and listen because I'm gonna explain why Sifdile is the best platonic and romantic ship in In Stars And Time.
I'm gonna divide this into parts because if I don't I'll probably lose my mind. Okay? Okay.
We don't know much from the party's travels before Dormont, but from what we DO know, Siffrin's and Odile's relationship was already... weird.
At first, Odile thought Siffrin was a spy sent by the King, and (skipping forwards a bit) this thought intensified even more nearing Sus Event as shown in the artbook, before being disproven by Siffrin helping them kill him without hesitation. Even despite this, Odile's suspicions of Siffrin don't seem to truly go away, though that could just be her secretiveness towards everyone.
On the other hand, Siffrin starts feeling slightly jealous of her, seeing her as, essentially, a better him, especially after losing his eye. Not only that, but he also distrusts her as well, seeing her as somewhat nosy and always finding out when something is wrong, which sometimes gets on the nerves of Siffrin "I must hide every aspect of myself" Nomiddlename Nolastname.
Despite this, though, they seemed to really enjoy each other's company, usually going on "secret quests" checking antique shops in silence through most towns they went to. Even if they didn't talk to each other during them, they were close enough to each other that they liked hanging out together. Basically they matched each other's vibes.
Also, Siffrin made a wooden Odile figure thingy for her and no one else while travelling, which is like, totally platonic /j.
Seriously though, it showed they trusted each other a lot in some things, but they were basically breathing on the other's neck on some other.
Now this is where shit gets serious, since the loops make Siffrin think deeper about their party and realize things they didn't before.
Their jealousy towards Odile only intensifies during this, noticing every single mistake he makes and how Odile just seems better at everything, feeding into his self-deprecation.
This feeling, though subconscious, only intensifies more and more as he messes up, seeing himself as a liability to his team.
During Odile's friendquest, Siffrin has to find a familytale for her. This is, arguably, the longest friendquest to do on your first time. This is mostly irrelevant as he would've helped her either way but I feel like I should mention it.
During it, they both go on another Secret Quest™, which eventually leads to Odile confessing she's not doing any research, and instead she's looking for anything to trace back to her Vaugardian roots after her mother left.
Even still, after Siffrin tells her about his home, she says that their origin don't make everything they are. At first, Siffrin pretends to agree, trying to not give it much thought. But after Act 4 starts, that feigned indifference twists into bitterness and even more jealousy.
Siffrin, no matter how hard he tries, can't even hope to even get part of his past back, and seeing someone have the chance to go and see for herself what should've shaped her just to say it didn't matter gets him incredibly angry. His off-handed comment in his mind turns into an entire rant he doesn't dare to say out loud.
This is probably where his jealousy peaks. He no longer sees her as someone who's just better than him, he sees her as everything he should be. Better as a leader, better memory, better relationship with their past, better EVERYTHING. To Siffrin, Odile is the living example of why he doesn't deserve to be loved.
But the way Odile surpasses Siffrin is not the only thing he hates about her, there's also the small, itty-bitty fact that she
(or Sus Event to friends lol.)
This is where everything truly goes to shit.
During Act 4, Siffrin can accidentally (or not) rack up Sus Points, indications of Odile growing more and more suspicious of Siffrin and his mannerisms.
Something as simple as gagging at the smell of banana, to the fact he knew information he only could've known if he was to the House before, all make Odile suspect more and more of Siffrin, even talking behind his back about it.
When talking to Odile in the last snack break, she confronts Siffrin, fully admitting she knows he's definitely hiding something, to which Siffrin just responds with a teasing "do your worst", almost daring her to try and figure him out.
Unfortunately for him, she already did.
When talking to her after beating the King, she starts off normally, but as soon as she starts acting differently, Siffrin's mask starts to crack.
One of Siffrin's biggest fears is his party finding out he's in a time loop, because he thinks that they'll hate him for trapping them. And one of the things he hates the most about his friends is Odile's nosiness.
Sus Event is the pure manifestation of that fear. Odile, the perceptive one, the smart one, the better one, has him right where she wants him, and she, SOMEHOW, figured out he's in a timeloop all by herself and Siffrin's slip-ups.
To this, Siffrin breaks. He screams at her, telling her her to leave him alone, because he thinks they'll hate him if they won't. Because he thinks that she'll hate her if she doesn't, because he knows, in a way, that if she finds out what he thinks of her, she wouldn't even dare to look at him in the eye.
In a way, Sus Event happens from a place of care. Odile wanted to know what's wrong with Siffrin, but she dealt with it terribly, since, even if she wanted to help him, she hated having someone she already didn't trust hide even more secrets from her.
Siffrin at that moment didn't see the Odile he went on secret quests with, or the Odile that shared her past with him. He only saw the Odile from when they first met, the one that barely trusted him, that only stuck around because her friends liked him.
Of course, she didn't think that, but how could he know? He's so caught up on his issues, his past, his future, that Odile confronting him about only made everything worse, and made them resent her even more.
And yet, somehow, somehow, it got even worse.
As y'all already know, Siffrin fucks up everything in Act 5, but when they talk to Odile, it feels like it was personal.
When he messes up the other friendquests, it's mostly a consequence of the loops. With Mirabelle he worded everything horribly; with Bonnie, he does it from a desperation to speed everything up; and with Isabeau, they mostly just state insecurities they discovered about him and barely feels personal (in my opinion).
With Odile though? Siffrin doesn't even try to be rational.
For starters, she finds him out immediately, which already gets on Siffrin's nerves. But when she tries to question him he breaks down.
During the "friendquests", Siffrin's mostly pretends to be relaxed, if not a little manic. But with Odile he doesn't manage to even do that.
He doesn't try to act normal, or to put up a fake smile as he pushes her away, he just spits out all of the venom he had building up from before the loops.
All of his jealousy, all of his anger, all of his bitterness, it all came to this, and it didn't even feel good for him. He felt bad, horrible, disgusting.
And the thing is, Odile is the most justified in not wanting Siffrin to go with them. To her, someone she already didn't trust a lot came up to her, insulted her for caring and then brought up how her mother left her.
Even still, despite all of this, deep down (pretty deep down), they still couldn't manage to truly hate each other.
Even though I would've liked they addressed their issues a bit better, Act 6 rounds up pretty nicely.
As I said, despite all that happened, they can't bring themselves to hate each other. They had so much in common, such a deep bond, that even under all of their distrust, anger and fear of long-term relationships and communication, they still loved being friends (or partners if you aren't a COWARD).
Of course, they still have a lot to talk about, but so do everyone else in their family. It's all a process they'll go through together.
So, what's the conclusion, you're probably asking.
Basically, Sifdile is a relationship built on distrust and jealousy, between two people of similar situations, who both know each other better than anyone else while also being wary of the other's every move.
They're both usually in their own worlds, but sometimes, they manage to connect, and when they do, they fit together perfectly.
I don't think they could be in a relationship right after the loops, hell no, they still need to address their "I feel like I can't trust you at all" feelings before addressing their "dude can we kiss please" feelings. But with time, patience and A LOT more communication, they could be something, idk if partners, nor if they'd actually consider themselves that, but something.
Thanks for coming to my tedtalk. Siffrin and Odile should make out, bye.
