Mercedes and Ingway's Relationship

Ingway and Mercedes Relationship is one of the major romantic relationships in the game's main story plotline, they serves as the game's tritagonist couple and the 3rd most important two people love relationship in Odin Sphere.
==Overview==
Ingway and Mercedes's relationship is commonly cited by fans as being the most tragic relationship in the story. While Gwendolyn, Oswald, Cornelius and Velvet were ultimately able to live out the rest of their lives together and in happiness, Ingway and Mercedes canonically died before they could address their feelings for one another. (Mercedes, however, gets the chance to confess her feelings in the False Ending if she's pitted against the Darkova, with Ingway realizing that he truly loves her too.)
Despite the tragic outcome of their relationship, ironically enough, the beginning of their romance is the most comical of the three. Ingway was turned into a frog by the Wise Men and needed a fairy's kiss in order to break the curse. Although Mercedes promises to grant him a wish when he offers to retrieve her bow, she's incredibly reluctant to help him when she finds out he wants a kiss, as she's disgusted by the slimy and poisonous nature of frogs. The relationship only becomes serious during Chapter 4 of Fairy Land when Ingway nearly kills himself protecting Mercedes from Beldor, at which point she finally kisses him and reverts him to his human form.
The PS2 version initially didn't address whether their spirits were reunited following their deaths. Leifthrasir, however, adds a bonus end card to the True Ending if all the False Ending cutscenes are obtained, showing that the roots of Mercedes's tree have extended all the way to where Ingway is in the Netherworld.
== Plot Synopsis ==
Coming soon!
== Mythological and Literary Influences ==
The main part of their story together is almost word for word a retelling of The Frog Prince. In the original tale, the Princess drops her golden ball (Mercedes's crossbow in this case) into a pond. A talking frog appears and offers to retrieve it for her, which he does. Although the Princess is initially disgusted by the frog, she forms a close bond with him and eventually kisses him, causing the frog to turn into a handsome prince.
The overall tragic nature of their relationship is also seen as being a reference to Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, with the two ultimately dying and remaining together in death. (Although rather than dying together, Ingway is killed due to wounds sustained in his battle with Cornelius while Mercedes dies a little while afterwards following her battle with Onyx.)
==Gallery==
Manga Chapter 3 Preview.jpeg|Mercedes and Ingway's first encounter in the manga
Ingway demanding.png|Ingway telling mercedes that she saved him on her own and demands her to give him the kiss she promised to him
Ingway stabbing Beldor.png|Ingway protecting Mercedes from Beldor during their unique cutscene
Farewell prince.png|Mercedes being helped up by Ingway after breaking his curse
Leifthrasir Bonus Endcard.png|The bonus endcard from Leifthrasir showing Ingway and the flower
OSL04 lyot w1280.jpg|A goofy guest illustrator comic by Riyo, illustrator of the manga adaptions for "Miss Monochrome" and "Fate/Grand Order"
== Trivia ==
* Their relationship is a reference to a fairy tale called The Frog Prince, where a human prince gets cursed to become frog and the spell can only be broken with a kiss from a princess, ingway is a valentinian human prince who was cursed to become frog by Urzur upon his stumble on mercedes who is a (fairy) princess of a certain kingdom by knocking off her weapon form her on purpose to make her drop it so she will ask the frog to do a favor for her in exchange of something as a reward and ingway's request was a kiss from her as an exchange reward to retrieve the weapon for her that mercedes drop off in the swamp rivers of Elrit Forest as she was looking for Beldor who was reported being on this location, although mercedes was reclutant at first to fulfill her promise as a reward payment for Ingway's retrieve of the weapon for her but in the end she later gave in and finally fulfilled her promise by kissing the frog formed ingway breaking the frog form curse in him and eventually reveals his human form to her where mercedes immediately developed an attraction to his looks but he had to left her because of his other ambitions and made a promise to her that they will meet again that actually never happened. 
* Mercedes's confession to Ingway in the False End differs slightly between languages. In the Japanese version she explicitly tells him that she "loves him" while the English dub has her say "I really care for you."
* In both versions of the game, there is no indication that Mercedes had met or seen Ingway before their encounter in Elrit Forest. In Chapter 5 of the Little Fairy Queen manga, however, Mercedes is shown to be daydreaming about his human form, as she had apparently caught a glimpse of him at some point before the story begins. (Humorously, Ingway in his frog form is right next to her during this).
Category:Relationships
Category:Fanon