Flynn & Yuri’s personalities, relationship, and ideology.

[rumynoir]

...character analyses + a dash of Flynn/Yuri friendship.

I’m mildly amused that some people portray Flynn as the “blue oni” to Yuri’s “red oni.” By this, I mean Flynn is commonly written/drawn as the calmer of the two, the more rational, the one who “looks before he leaps.” And yet, there are several instances in canon that point to Flynn as the one who gets more “carried away.”

First, let’s look at their motives:

• Flynn joins the knights with Yuri prior to the events of ToV because he wants to enact change in an unfair system. He wants to patch up the loophole that nobles keep finding to avoid punishment. In doing so, he sometimes focuses too much on the bigger problem instead of taking care of the little things first.
• This is why when Alexei’s “twist” happens, he’s more or less “surprised Pikachu face” and beats himself up over it throughout the course of the Baction level. Yuri even lampshades this by questioning how the fuck Flynn didn’t know Alexei was a Shitty Person. ToV -DE- is nice enough to hint through Flynn’s frequent party joining-shenanigans that Flynn in fact did have his doubts about Alexei. But, much like Estelle, his indecisiveness is what gets in his way.
• Yuri, as we all know, left the knights because he hated having to sit on his hands and take orders while the nobility continued to take advantage of the poor. So he wastes his life away unsure of what to do. Ironically, and I say this as an opinion, I think this is what makes Yuri so insightful.
• He may be considered “lazy” and “unmotivated”, but then you have sidequests and scenes that show Yuri’s sharper than you’d think. He picks up on Artes quickly simply by watching someone do them, and he’s the first to figure out that Raven is the one who deceived them. If we go even further back, you could even chalk up to Yuri’s whole “leaving the knights” being related to Yuri focusing on the smaller things compared to Flynn’s focus on the bigger picture.
• In the scene after rescuing Ioder, he gets into an argument with Flynn and later mutters to himself that “I know better than anyone else that nothing’s changed.” And in a way, Yuri’s absolutely right. Unlike Flynn who’s slowly been working his way through the ranks, Yuri returning to the lower quarter means he’s exposed to the struggling of the lower quarter/the poor firsthand. He knows that simply working through the system isn’t going to magically undo all the damage and fix the small things.

Between the two of them, I think Flynn is more emotional. He’s not punching people out left and right, and I wouldn’t say he’s so fired up that he acts like a God damn shounen protag... But his calmness and the knightly-image he keeps up for most of the game is just a mask. Flynn, unlike Yuri, knows how to play the game. He knows that nobility will stick up their nose if he messes up even a little. By the time he joins the knights, he’s already drilled it into himself that he’s supposed to address his superiors politely and that he needs to keep his personal opinions separated from his duty.

(This is also what separates him from Yuri and hammers in the “opposites” thing they got going between them.)

And yet, we have instances in ToV -DE- where the real Flynn slips through the cracks. We have skits that hint that Flynn’s not as calm and collected as he appears to be.

There’s one skit where Rita even calls him a “fighting maniac” because he gets just as fired up as Yuri and Judy when battling. So, whether Flynn admits it or not, he likes a good fight.

Another skit has him getting into a (petty) argument with Yuri about the tradition of Artes. It gets to the point where Raven has to step in because they’re getting heated over something silly.

Ask yourself: When does the “real” Flynn come through?

Simple: Whenever Yuri’s around.

It’s why Sodia is so displeased with Yuri (pre-Zaude incident) because Yuri brings out a side to Flynn that’s absolutely foreign to her. If you put yourself in Sodia’s shoes, imagine how it feels to have someone you admire and (possibly) have a crush on acting so “out of character” because an old friend walks into the picture. What Sodia doesn’t understand is why Flynn cares for Yuri. To me, Sodia feels like the “new friend” who you introduce to your “old friends”. She will never understand the bond between Flynn and Yuri unless she comes to see Flynn as a person and sees that he’s not that knightly image she has of him.

But enough about Sodia.

The reason why Yuri and Flynn’s relationship - platonic or not - is so well loved is because it runs very deep for a relationship between two characters where one is stuck in a “supporting” role. Yuri and Flynn are both adults by the start of ToV, and yet you put them together in a few skits, and you see a side to them you don’t see with anyone else.

Whether this is... “healthy” for Yuri and Flynn is up for debate (and shippers), but personally, this is why I absolutely adore Yuri and Flynn. By the end of the game, they’re on equal footing. At times, their relationship reminds me of something between partners, not just friends. The fact that Yuri and Flynn bring out a side in one another that isn’t normally brought out with Brave Vesperia (Yuri) or the knights (Flynn) is what makes these two have such an amazing dynamic.

This also plays into why I even started this meta. If you’ve never played ToV, you’d be forgiven for thinking Yuri is the more reckless of the two of them. Let’s look at this scene when Flynn is promoted:

People seem to forget that Flynn, for a brief moment, considered taking care of Ragou himself. I don’t think we need it spelled out that Flynn had a fleeting thought/idea of killing Ragou. I mean, what’s a better solution? If you remove Ragou from the picture, then no more innocents are harmed, right? At least this way, Flynn wouldn’t have to wait to solve one problem.

But just when he thinks of doing something unforgivable, Yuri steps in. Not Sodia. Not Estelle. Yuri. His best friend who knows Flynn better than anyone else.

Yuri is the one who talks Flynn down from completely smashing his own reputation in a fit of recklessness.

This is exactly why Yuri kills Ragou and (later) Cumore. He is taking care of the “small problems” that Flynn can’t touch because of his position in the knights. He knows that Flynn can move towards the big picture, but he’s going to overlook smaller things without meaning to. That’s where Yuri comes in.

A line from Assassin’s Creed series goes: “We work in the dark to serve the light.” And it refers to how the Assassins are stuck getting their hands dirty to take care of the smaller and bigger issues with the Templars.

I have always applied this quote to Yuri because it fits him to a T. He will dirty his own hands if it means it gets Flynn (and, by extension, himself) closer to their shared dream.

Yuri serves to reel in Flynn when he gets close to doing something morally wrong, while Flynn is there to make sure Yuri doesn’t get too carried away with dirtying his hands. They may not approve of one another’s methods, but damn if they’re not going to look out for each other in their own way.

Want another example?

The scene with Cumore’s death has Flynn coming out of hiding to speak to Yuri. The dialogue heavily implies that Flynn saw Yuri kill Cumore and yet Flynn didn’t’ do fucking shit to stop it. In a way, this would technically make Flynn an accomplice to Yuri’s murder, but that’s another can of worms.

Flynn, for all his preaching of the law and keeping ducks lined in a row, has some dark demons himself. He just can’t do anything morally wrong because of where he is in the system.

“Wait, wait, wait... Where’s this whole ‘Flynn is more emotional than Yuri’ that you were talking about?”

There’s a scene in ToV -DE- when Brave Vesperia goes to Baction to rescue Estelle:

Flynn: Let’s hurry.

Yuri: Hey, slow down.

If you do the sidequest with the Hisca and Chastel cameo, you have to go and get this knight’s sword that Flynn is... weirdly worked up about getting. In fact, he gets so carried away with their goal that Yuri yells at him to “calm the hell down” (or maybe it was “calm down”, idk) by the 2nd time you defeat the Sword Dancer.

And, for those who don’t have an utter hatred for First Strike, may I remind you that it’s Flynn who attacks Garista when he finds out the truth about his father? A lot of people said this was out of character, but I have to disagree.

For starters, First Strike takes place before ToV. This is when Yuri and Flynn were in the knights so it’s highly logical that they’re a bit more immature. Hell, even Yuri’s starting fucking bar fights and getting into trouble.

Of course, I myself am fully aware that First Strike has taken a lot of artistic liberties with its portrayal of Yuri & Flynn’s relationship and was more displeased than pleased with it. I cherrypick parts of FS instead of considering the entire thing as my own personal canon.

However, it’s a bit of a disservice to call First Strike “not canon” in some way. Therefore, I’m totally okay with the whole “Flynn losing his cool and attacking Garista”.

This scene alone as well as the scenes in ToV where he gets reckless is why I personally think Flynn is supposed to be the more emotional of the two. And that Yuri is the more “logical” one. Just because Yuri’s more of a tease to his friends and can be a bit looser cause he isn’t restricted by the knights doesn’t necessarily make him the more hotheaded of the two.

...That said, Yuri is still a “fighting maniac.” And I’m not trying to downplay Yuri’s own recklessness, but with all the instances in canon, I just see Flynn not as level-headed as he thinks he is. When tension is high, he has a habit of slipping - esp shown when Estelle gets kidnapped + tortured by Alexei and his priorities (at least in DE) shift from protecting Ioder, to running after Estelle and saving her. While Flynn is all, “let’s go, we’re wasting time”, it’s Yuri who’s at his back reminding him that “yes, we need to save Estelle, but let’s not be idiots and get ourselves hurt. because then who’s gonna save her?”.

And I think this duality/internal conflict with Flynn is one of the main reasons why he, along with Yuri, is my favorite character in Tales of Vesperia. It’s amazing how Flynn can fool both in-game and out-of-game people with his knight persona, and make them think that Flynn is just a bootlicker when ToV shows us that he’s still got a few things to iron out before he really fits into that paragon knight role.

Finally, as stated before, it’s fascinating how Yuri’s the one that brings him back down to earth. It really shows how deep their friendship runs when they can bring out sides of one another that no one else has seen before/rarely sees at all.