Ho Yay / Tales of Vesperia

Estelle and Rita

• It isn't long before it becomes apparent to both the player and the rest of the party that Rita has more than a platonic interest in Estelle's well-being. Makes one wonder just what was it that Estelle found in Rita's drawer.
  • They give off a very strong Pseudo-Romantic Friendship vibe, what with Rita constantly fretting and worrying over Estelle's safety and how protective she becomes of her as the game progresses. And while it seems one-sided from Rita's end, there's scenes such as them sleeping in the same bed at the inn at Heliord. A later scene has Estelle fall asleep at the foot of Rita's bed while watching over her.
• The scene that comes closest to confirming the attraction takes place when the party returns to Halure, after Rita first joins them. Yuri has a private chat with Rita about Estelle, that essentially amounts to If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...
  Yuri: "Back there, in the Shaikos Ruins, you said blastia would never betray you..."
  Rita: (folds arms) "And...?"
  Yuri: "All I'm saying is you and Estelle aren't blastia. Got it?"
  Rita: "Oh, I see. You're afraid for her... scared that I might hurt her..."
  Yuri: "Estelle's innocent, good... not like you, or me. Just remember that, so you don't go doing anything reckless."
  • Even Karol notices how close the two of them are, and lampshades it in the following the victory skit:
  Estelle: (impressed) "Wow, Rita! That is SO cool!"
  Rita: (blushes and stammers) "Really...? Um... t-thanks."
  Karol: (grinning) "Ooo~oo!"
  Rita: (flustered) "S-shut up, you!!"
  • Judith also calls Rita out on her attachment to Estelle, during the skit that takes place, after Alexei prevents her from accompanying Estelle back to the capital^note by ordering her to investigate the Aer Krene at Keiv Moc instead. When Rita claims she'd deliver her report to Alexei in person, Judith replies that it sounded like an excuse to see Estelle^note since Rita could simply send the report by messenger.
  • A subliminal joke in Nam Cobanda Island, in a quick play. One's a hero, one's the damsel to save, guess who plays who? Estelle's the hero and Rita's the damsel Estelle has to save. Then there's the impromptu twist when Rita fries the play's antagonist...
    • She hit Estelle, too...
  • The fact that a guy named "Yuri" christens them as, "Ristelle" adds fuel to the fire, during the skit that triggers by using Rita's Levitation skill for the first time.
• The Updated Re-release even adds some new scenes where Rita and Estelle pledge their eternal friendship and raise a baby together.
  • Near the end of the babysitter sub-event, Estelle notes that she and Rita look like a married couple:
  Estelle: (sleepily) "Hey, Rita, don't you think we look just like a mom and dad?"
  Rita: "Huh?? Where'd THAT come from?"
  Estelle: "Heh, heh... like a happy little couple..." (falls asleep)
• A sidequest in the ruins of Yormgen rewards you with swimsuits for the guys and girls respectively. Rita refuses to wear hers until Estelle says she'd probably look cute in it. After Rita puts it on, Estelle gushes over how good it looks on her, which causes Rita to blush and say the same about Estelle.
• If you complete Aurnion's construction and approach the monument in the town square, it'll trigger a sub-event in which Rita confides that she grew up as an orphan. So Blastia essentially became like family to her, which prompts the following dialogue between her and Judith:
  Rita: But I'll have to say goodbye all these blastia soon....
  Judith: Brothers and sisters can't be together forever. Someday, you'll have to leave them behind and move on.
  Rita: Someday, you say...?
  Judith: When you find someone who's even more important to you.
  • Rita then looks directly at Estelle, whose speech balloon blocks Yuri and the others from view while she and Rita stare at each other. None too subtle implication there.
• As soon as you enter the first dungeon with Rita, she is caught by the main character, staring at Estelle with little blush marks. She doesn't continue to stare, but will get very flustered when the other characters tease her for being close to Estelle.
• Estelle's ecstatic reaction to Rita first calling her by her Affectionate Nickname instead of Estellise. Paired with Rita's Luminescent Blush and stuttering when it's pointed out.
• The whole method to save the world at the end? Rita made it just to save Estelle. The world was just a welcome bonus.
• Bandai Namco put on the "Tales of Ristelle" live-action skit, which hung a massive lampshade on Rita's affection for Estelle. Zelos' JP VA tricks Rita's VA into showing up, by telling her Estelle would be there. When Rita calls him out for it, he and Milla tease her for being tsundere towards her.
  Zelos: "But really though, isn't it true that you and that Estelle gal are pretty close?"
  Rita: (shyly) "Wh... I-it's really not like that..."
  Zelos: "THERE IT IS~!!!! Rita-chan's tsundere personality! How cute~"
  Milla: (thinking aloud) "Oooh, so this is that tsundere thing that I've read about in my book. It is interesting."
• And the biggest one? The whole reason that Rita eliminates Blastia research, and brings Magic and the Summon Spirits into being? To save the world? No, To save Estelle.

Flynn and Yuri

• To say nothing of Yuri and Flynn's could-be-interpreted-either-way friendship since childhood.
  • Actually, let's say something about that. It would really not be going far to say that Yuri's kind of obsessed with Flynn. The second line out of his mouth in the game is about Flynn. Before you find him in Capua Nor, Yuri will bring him up out of nowhere, like after curing Halure's tree, or when everyone sees the ocean from Ehmead Hill. He really does give off the impression that Flynn is all he thinks about, and that's before he offers his life for Flynn's during the sequence with Barbos trying to start a war in Dahngrest. And on Flynn's side, well, there's the Taking the Bullet moment in Zaude, the fact that he scoured the entire ocean to search for Yuri after his supposed death, and his constant worry that Yuri's not getting the credit he deserves for his heroic acts. Their admittedly tense relationship culminates in their Duel Boss fight - preceded by the line "everything I feel is in this sword," no less - after which they lie side-by-side in the grass for a while. Add to this dozens of extra scenes, sidequests and subtext moments and they start to rival Ristelle.
  • Their whole relationship at times seems to be as exes who are still attracted to each other. And are awkwardly navigating their attraction and changed circumstances since the last time they were together.
  • When Karol mistakes the situation between Estelle, Flynn, and Yuri as a Love Triangle with Estelle in the centre, Yuri gets annoyed at the idea. In such a way that Karol might be slightly correct but wrong in who Yuri perceives is at the centre of it.
• On the Flynn and Yuri thing, in the Updated Re-release they have a dual Mystic Arte together, which may draw comparisons to previous Official Couple Emil and Marta's team-up attack in Tales of Symphonia: Dawn of the New World and the team-up attack used by later Official Couple Jude and Milla in Tales of Xillia.
  • They're also basically constantly voted as the "Ideal Combination" or "Best Partnership" in the Japanese popularity polls...and the runners-up are usually official couples like Jude and Milla above, or Asbel and Cheria from Tales of Graces.
  • And just like Rita and Estelle, this is not lost on the characters in the game itself. Sodia is fully aware that Yuri is her main competition for Flynn's affections, which puts her attempt to kill Yuri on top of Zaude in a whole new light.
  • Yuri's talk with Sodia after the above incident has him mentioning that he's just "standing here until someone better comes along" giving the impression he's invoking Unlucky Childhood Friend in regards to his relationship with Flynn. Flynn, on the other hand sees things differently.
  • Yuri is always the first and the last to talk about Flynn, he mentions him at the most unnecessary moments too. When your team reach at the top of Ehmed hill and see the sea for the first time, Estelle says the place is really beautiful (and romantic). What Yuri says? He is just wondering (for no reason) if Flynn saw it too.
  • For a quick moment, Yuri has to (optionally) wear the soldier's uniform, Estelle and Judith say he looks handsome and he blushes. Oh, he didn't blush because of the compliment, he just got embarrassed because Flynn used to say that "he looked silly with his uniform" and ends the conversation with a "That's why i hate that uniform!"
  • You can also get an optional soldier costume for Yuri later in the game. If you wear it and talk to Flynn, he'll ''Wolf Whistle''.
    • Since the Updated Re-release has Flynn in the party at that point, instead you get a skit after wearing a soldier uniform for a little time. Flynn is, as mentioned in the skit above, laughing while Yuri gets very flustered and, from some of his reactions and lines, suggests he was hoping for something more flattering from Flynn (such as the Wolf Whistle above).
• Also worth pointing out is Yuri's explanation for why he doesn't turn Sodia in for her crimes. He seems more angry that she's abandoned Flynn than about the whole attempted murder thing. Then he says he agrees with her about something, which turns out to be...well...this:
  Yuri: I'm a criminal. I could be killed any time. Flynn is the perfect knight. A perfect leader. He doesn't need a criminal by his side.
• In the Updated Re Release Patty immediately treats Flynn as a rival as soon as she hears about him. Yeah. She hasn't met him yet and already sees him as a rival to her quest for Yuri's heart just from how people talk about him in relation to Yuri.
• When you head to rescue Flynn and his group from a horde of monsters after gathering the four great spirits, Flynn and Yuri have a very long Held Gaze moment. Flynn in particular just can't seem to keep his eyes off of Yuri. Sure it might be because Yuri was presumed dead after his fall from Zaude but Flynn kinda looks like he wants to kiss Yuri. And then they race off together (plus Repede) to save everyone from the monsters cheerfully fighting their way together and almost coming across as a Battle Couple...even better in the Updated Re Release since Flynn is beefed up from the 360 version and thus they are evenly matched in fighting skills.
  • Not to mention that the only time Yuri ever makes a request of his friends is to borrow the only thing they have against the Adephagos to help Flynn. Raven even lampshades this.
• In fact, everyone seems to ship them to some degree, just like Ristelle above. There are just too many comments that pop up both during the main storyline and in sidequests that shows the whole group realizes that Flynn and Yuri's relationship is...special.
• The fact that come Project × Zone, Xiaomu, ships the two of them and even asks Flynn on what their relationship is with Flynn saying nothing more than just childhood friends.
• The Final Gale technique of Yuri's. You gain it by having him train for a very long time with Flynn in Aurnion, with the rest of the party commenting on it in a "why are we surprised anymore" fashion as they end up staying up all night. Yeah, one of his strongest attacks come from that. And then it gets gayer in hindsight as there is only one other time Final Gale shows up in the use of someone else; as a Linked Art between Xillia's Official Couple Jude and Milla. Yeah.
• Not to mention that these two have a very vocal supporter in Yuri's original VA even a decade after the game was released. Any time someone so much as suggests Yuri and Estelle may be more than surrogate siblings he gets visibly annoyed and sets people straight. Or...well,gay.
• The Japanese opening was described as a love song about Yuri and Flynn from Estelle's point of view by BONNIE PINK aka the singer and songwriter herself. And she was chosen specifically because they liked her and the song she presented them.

Others

• Zagi's violent obsession with Yuri.
  • Hell, every time you fight him, he is screaming stuff like "Yes Yes!" and "You're the only man who ever made me bleed!"
• Adding to the Les Yay, Judith frequently tells the other girls "you look cute when you're X."
  • Estelle really seems to admire Judith's breasts after certain battles and skits.
• Sometimes Karol gives the impression he has a Precocious Crush on Yuri due to how much he looks up to and trusts him.
• Raven/Yuri has some things going for it. What with Raven having the most Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today? moments thanks to Yuri, Yuri being the one to convince Raven to turn against Alexei and live his own life, and some of their interactions are just...interesting. Oh and for bonus points, Yuri physically resembles, according to official art Casey/Kyanary aka Raven's lost love very much so. There's a skit where Raven claims he's good at cooking sweets to attract the ladies; of the group he's in only Yuri could be seduced with sweets...
• One can't forget Duke and Elucifer. The latter's murder leaves Duke so bitter, he's prepared to sacrifice all of humanity as a means of saving the planet.

  • Given what the other Entelexeia look like, it's safe to say that this one crosses over with Hot Skitty-on-Wailord Action.
  • Not necessarily. We've seen that at least one of them can take on human form.
  • Indeed Elucifer's Daughter no less. Her father could well have had the same ability to take human form.