Ship Essay #1 - Jayle/Janus, VP:L

[wallwalker]

I am terribly rusty at these things. I am hoping that the practice will help me make the next one better!

---

Introduction

Valkyrie Profile: Lenneth - released originally on the PSX as simply Valkyrie Profile - is an action RPG with a rather unusual structure. Its major gimmick is that you, as a valkyrie, are gathering souls for a great battle between gods and giants. There is a metaplot in the game, related to Lenneth Valkyrie and her own past, but it's very easy to miss if you don't already know how to unlock it. It's entirely possible to pass through the entire game without ever seeing a hint of it. However, no matter how you play the game, you are always introduced to the lives and losses of the valkyrie's einherjar - the warriors that Lenneth recruits after their deaths, trains for war and often sends to Valhalla. Their lives and struggles are just as interesting as Lenneth's own metaplot, and a great deal more accessable.

With a few plot-important exceptions, most of them get little in the way of character development; they have one fairly long scene as Lenneth first meets them, and not much else. Relatively few of them are shown to have any interaction with each other at all, either in life or after death. This doesn't make shipping impossible, mind you - just a bit more difficult, and harder to explain to onlookers, than usual. This is my attempt to explain one of my more unusual einherjar pairings.

Characters

Janus is the first of this duo that we meet in-game; he's generally recruited in the first half of the game. The impression he leaves upon first appearance is that he is a man who has been through very hard times. While still a powerfully built man, his face is wrinkled and worn and his hair is beginning to turn grey, at the age of forty. He never opens his left eye, perhaps implying that it is missing or injured.

Like so many Einherjar, his story is a sad one; he was an honorable man in a dishonorable time. Through hard work, Janus had in his prime become a Knight of Crell Monferaigne, and a member of the king's most trusted advisors. But he accepted a request from the King to assassinate a noble, and despite his considerable skill as an archer, the attempt failed; no one, not even he, knows what happened or why his bolt missed its mark. The upshot of this was that Janus was painted as a coward and deserter by the King, in order to save face. Janus, who was still loyal to the royal family, accepted this fate, and did not return to his home for ten years. But even after all of that time he was still called a coward and hated by his former peers. When he attempted to find redemption with the new King, he was shot in the back by his old conspirators out of fear that he would seek revenge on them.

Given his past, perhaps it's understandable that Janus doesn't speak very much. He keeps largely to himself, although it's not out of a lack of bravery. He'll make sacrifices to help others, and his courage is unquestionable, but outside of battle he stays largely to himself, not sharing his feeling with others even when he is approached... a character trait that turns out to be a help to him in at least one situation, when the one who approached him turned out to be untrustworthy.

Jayle, in contrast, is an emotional character, prone to shows of anger, rage and affection in equal measure. She is a skilled swordswoman and fencer, and dresses in full armor that conceals her body. Jayle is one of the Knights of Crell Monferaigne as well; as a rule, only men are accepted as Knights, and it would be disasterous for her if she were revealed as a woman. Her true name, Leticia, is known only by her commander Fahn, who discovered her secret and kept it safe.

Her reason for joining the Knights is revealed to be a quest for revenge. She was born a noblewoman in the neighboring country of Gerabellum. But despite her noble upbringing, she became consumed with the need for revenge against a nobleman and sorceror in Crell Monferaigne, a man named Magnus. She traveled there to seek revenge, and disguised herself in order to join the Knighthood. Thanks to Fahn's agreement with her cause, and his patient training, she became one of the most skilled fighters in the nation, at the young age of twenty. But when the two of them finally made their move against Magnus, the sorceror summoned a fearsome demoness who charmed Fahn and his other men - but not Jayle, because of her gender. Instead, despite the Valkyrie's attempt to intervene, the demoness instead manipulated Fahn and forced him to stab Jayle, causing her death. She does not succeed in striking Magnus down, although it is implied that once the demoness is weakened and driven away, Magnus is left powerless as Fahn attacks him in a rage.

Jayle is shown to have a very close relationship with Fahn while she still lived. The two had fallen in love, although Jayle expressed concern that her relationship with Fahn was nothing more than a manipulation - a fear that the demoness used to dishearten her when her charms failed. After Fahn's death, while her courage and pride both remain undiminished, she seems to have little chance to form connections with others; she throws herself into war, perhaps as a way to deal with what she has lost.

Relationship Basis

There's little interaction between these two characters in canon. The two of them never directly speak, even though it is possible for them to fight beside each other with Lenneth for a long portion of the game. And while a few characters do have the opportunity to interact with each other in Asgard, neither of these characters do. All of which, I'm sure, begs the question of why I feel that a relationship between them possibly could develop. My answer: Despite not explicitly showing us any interaction between them, the game does at least set up the possibility of interaction, either during or after the war in Asgard - assuming either that they remain there after Lenneth goes back to sleep, or that they both survive the rebirth of the worlds, depending on the ending. And I feel that, given the opportunity, the two of them could find kindred spirits in each other.

I do think that their relationship might be a difficult one, at least at first. Jayle is a proud, fierce fighter, prone to emotional outbursts and often in the fray of things. Janus, while no less courageous, fights from a distance, and does not speak much of his experiences or his emotions. The two are from different generations and different backgrounds, and might not be able to find much common ground at first.

Still, the two of them share common threads in their experiences in life. Both have lost everything that they have ever known, and done so willingly, in the name of honor - Jayle left to seek revenge for a slight against herself or her family, and Janus willingly lost face to protect the good name of his beloved king. And what they have lost, they lost due to the darker, more corrupt elements of the nation that they served. Still, both of them retain their courage. Both of them stayed loyal to someone, or some ideal, that they cared for, and they did it until the very end. I think that they would both recognize that in each other, given the opportunity to work together, and that they might seek understanding in each other.

Nuts and Bolts

There is a lot of possibility for the two of them once the war is over. While VP:L doesn't show very much about the day-to-day lives of the einherjar in their paradise, VP:S does at least indicate that they are allowed to stay there as long as they are willing to serve. And that's just the case in the B Ending - what about the A Ending? One of the fan theories about the game is that Lenneth elevates her einherjar to godhood themselves, to fill the void in Asgard left by the deaths of the other gods.

So how would their relationship work? Well, as the more emotional of the two, I believe that Jayle would be the driving force behind the relationship, once it began. Janus, in many ways, was shown to be a more submissive personality despite his considerable bravery and strength, willing to follow any order for his king and country. Jayle is younger, more emotional and vital in many ways, and more rebellious. She's also very willing to take dangerous risks; her plan would have probably involved danger to herself if she had been discovered.

That's one reason why I like this relationship. The two of them would charge into danger together, and neither of them is really stronger than the other. Or, rather, the two of them would both be strong, but in different ways, and their strengths would compliment each other's. And they both have lived with a strong overtone of betrayal and corruption in their lives; I can see them both crusading together to wipe it out, however they can, fighting side by side to do it.

Should Jayle's feelings for Fahn be considered in this? I think that they should - however, Fahn and Jayle are now separated by death. While this isn't precisely insurmountable, it is, at the least, difficult to deal with. I think it's conceivable that she would choose to take another lover. (Also there's my personal theory that Fahn and Janus were at least familiar with each other when Janus was one of the Knights, and that Fahn respected Janus and at least had some idea of why he was exiled. That could put a different face on the relationship, even make Fahn a part of it.)

Conclusion

In all honesty, I can't tell you why I began shipping this pairing. I had just finished Valkyrie Profile for the first time on the PSX, and I was thinking about the characters. And then these two popped into my head, and just seemed to click. I've never seen anyone else pair them, and I can only think of maybe one person who's agreed with me that it might work, but even so, I've never been able to convince myself that it wouldn't work.

This essay, more than anything, was me attempting to understand why I ship these two -why the idea that they might make a good couple came to me ten years ago and still hasn't let up. I hope that it's brought up some interesting food for thought, at the very least.