LogFAQs > #906433142

Feel like talking about the relationship between Michel and Giselle.

Out of any single element in the story, the relationship between Michel and Giselle is the most important thing that the writers had to get right. While Morgana's revenge is the cause of everything that happens, Michel and Giselle's pure devotion to one another is what acts as the catalyst for resolving everything. Without their desire to be together again, Giselle doesn't remain in the mansion as The Maid and Michel doesn't do the borderline impossible and find his way back. That kind of devotion implies a relationship that is firmly in the "eternal pure love" category that comes off as unrealistic and cliche in most stories. Maria even states that she thinks Michel's trust in Giselle is going to be broken, to which Michel strongly refutes...and considering what we've seen up until that point, Michel is right.

It would be so, so easy to get this kind of relationship wrong. How do you write a pairing where you're able to buy that they spent literally almost 1000 years trying to get back to each other? Especially with how bad their initial first impressions of each other are. And second, and third. Michel pulls a freaking knife on Giselle at one point. Lots of couples in fiction have animosity towards each other when they first meet because it makes for fun scenes, but very rarely have I seen it displayed so brutally realistic as Fata Morgana did. Michel and Giselle's early interactions with each other come about as a result of the respective traumas each of them have experienced up until that point, and even before you know exactly what those traumas are, you get the sense that each one is deeply hurting on the inside.

In the end, though, it's because their characters feel so honest that I'm able to buy Michel/Giselle despite (or even because) of their animosity. When they finally achieve a major breakthrough with each other and find that they have a lot more in common than they realized, it allows them to trust each other on a sort of deeper level. Once your dirty laundry has been aired and the other person is still able to look you in the eye and see you as normal, it kind of skips a few steps in the relationship. And while the way they grow closer to each other starts from dramatic circumstances, afterwards it's far more grounded and built on them legitimately liking spending time with each other. Every interaction between Michel and Giselle where they're just...talking, is perfectly written and shows a couple that is obviously happy together (even before they're officially a couple) without being written as overly saccharine.

In summary, Fata Morgana sets up Michel/Giselle as a couple where you can easily see why they would want to be together, and then easily see why they would want to stay together, all while keeping them feeling like real people. That's extremely difficult and it's probably the most impressive element of writing the game has. When Fata Morgana shows me that Giselle spent almost a millenia as The Maid waiting for Michel while Michel pulled together his shattered souls over the same period of time while trying to get back to Giselle, I can buy it, because I can buy that those two just care that much about one another.

In a shorter summary: Michel/Giselle is OTP.
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Black Turtle did a pretty good job.