Ho Yay / The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel

Warning: spoilers relating to events/reveals that happen during the first two games shall be left unmarked. Certain spoilers relating to the third and fourth game however shall remain tagged.

Rean x Crow

Serial head patter getting head patted.

In a series full of handsome and strapping dudes this was bound to happen. Particularly with its main lead, Rean Schwarzer, and his friend turned rival, Crow Armbrust. There's a very good reason why fans joke that Rean is the heroine to Crow's hero and one need only to look at the examples below to see why. There's a huge case of Platonic Writing, Romantic Reading between the two of them since most major moments between them are mandatory to the plot and aren't blocked by an optional bonding event. In Japan, they even have a Portmanteau Couple Name: KuroRiin/クロリン. Plus the words "50 mira" being an Unusual Euphemism for the fans. The two of them have the same primary type of element with Time yet have polar opposing secondary elements with Rean having Fire and Crow having Water.

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Cold Steel I & II

Trails of Cold Steel

• In Chapter 6, during their Group A's field study in Roer, Rean ends up receiving a call to meet up with Claire at night. Afterwards, when all is said and done, he receives a call from everyone else. Crow has this to say:
  Crow: Whoa, hold on. A late night date? I thought you only had eyes for me Rean ♥
• If players do not pick anyone for the motorcycle scene, then Crow automatically goes with Rean.
• Before the dancing event, Crow returns Rean the 50 mira coin that he borrowed ages ago. Rean, not wanting him to go away, claims that the money Crow borrowed had interest which means he needs to stay with them some more. This conversation happens again in Cold Steel III as a flashback when Rean, after he went out for a drink with Randy, and Rean ends up thinking about Crow and whether he would drink with them or not.
• In the dancing event of Cold Steel I, if players picked Crow, then Crow is the one who ends up dispensing advice towards Rean rather Rean doing it to the other characters. Rean ends up claiming that they might as well be partners in crime with Crow wondering if he should wear it with pride or not.
• If you ship Rean and Crow, the latter's tendency to hit on girls, make perverted comments about girls and his numerous comments about how he wants to give the Class VII girls very revealing costumes for the school festival concert could be interpreted as a case of Have I Mentioned I Am Heterosexual Today?.

Trails of Cold Steel II

• Rean and Crow talking aboard the Pantagruel during the Intermission. It plays out in a manner similar to a spat between two people who went through a bad break up finally meeting up with each other once again. Although angry with Crow over his actions, Rean is quick to calm down once Crow offers him lunch and afterwards asks him about his reasons for doing everything he did. Crow tries to dodge the question by prying into Rean's love life, but Rean insists claiming that he-Class VII wouldn't be able to move on unless he did. Crow finally obliges him, and once he finishes he notes that Rean actually looks sadder about his backstory than Crow himself is. Afterwards, he then encourages Rean to take action out of his own will rather than be influenced by others including Crow himself, giving Rean a headpat (pictured above) before leaving. It's because of this and Alfin's own words that Rean decides to escape with the latter. Many fans believe that this scene gave Rean a Stockholm Syndrome for Crow.
  • The entire scene in general is a parallel to a similar event in Sky SC where the main lead Estelle is taken to the Glorious and thinks about about joining Ouroboros just so she could see Joshua, her adoptive brother and love interest, again. Not surprising given that in the original concept of the games Proto-Alisa (whose role went to Rean) and Proto-Rean (whose role went to Crow) were meant to be a duo similar to Estelle and Joshua.
• One of Rean's Excellent Dishes in Cold Steel II is the "Fish Burger" food, derived from the "Tomato Burger" recipe. Fish burger is also the food that Crow served at him back at Pantagruel, which Rean claims was much better than the food that he ate the night before.
• During Alfin's bonding event at Roer, Rean ends up confessing how important Crow is to him which leaves Alfin jealous at their relationship.
• At the beginning of the Finale, if players don't pick anyone to visit the Class VII dormitory with them, then Rean goes inside the dormitory by himself. He then starts walking up the stairs, something the fans note that it's all animated compared to the other dorm events where Rean and X character just checks their room first, then Rean's and then finally Crow's; and Rean ends up staring at the door to his room and Crow's. He immediately goes towards Crow's room and not even visit his own while reminiscing Crow's time in that room and swearing that he's taking him back. During the epilogue, Rean can visit Crow's room again after visiting all of the other rooms before finally saying goodbye to Crow and closing it for good.
• There's also their final battle in Cold Steel II complete with an all out Ham-to-Ham Combat. But before they do so, Rean ends up being sad that regardless of whoever wins between the two of them, nothing will feel like the same anymore. Crow fires one back that he should knock that off and start already. After their duel, the rest of Class VII grill on them, claiming that they're in their own little world. When Crow calls Rean out for cheating in their duel, Rean ends up admitting that he did it unconsciously and then somehow manages to claim that Crow was also with him in his ARCUS. Crow ends up being stunned into silence.
• There's also the final battle against Vermillion Apocalypse where Rean and Crow, despite the fact that they've never practiced it before, somehow has a Combination Attack between the two of them. No one else has a Combination Attack in the entire Erebonian arc; not even the Stahlritter's combination attack since their version is just one person attacks then a follow up just like an ARCUS link attack. This carries over for the rest of the Cold Steel games and Reverie.
• Then there's Crow's death and Rean is holding Crow in his arms with Crow head patting Rean one last time before he draws his last breath. Then Osborne shows up and undoes everything Crow and the ILF had done with Rean confronting Osborne about the fact that he's still alive despite Crow shooting him and demanding to know if Crow's life was all wasted. This was also The Reveal where Osborne is Rean's dad which makes it somewhat awkward that the son wanted his real dad to die from his friend's hands.
  • One of the flashbacks Rean has when remembering this detail is Crow looking at Rean. Except this is also the event where Crow is chosen for the dance scene back in the first game. Regardless of who Rean chose for the dance scene.
• A meta example but Hatsuu, one of the localizers of the game, decided to make this video as the official trailer of Cold Steel II but couldn't make it work mainly for how much spoilers it has at the end of the first game where it was mostly about Rean and Crow.
• Even though it takes place in the Interquel anime The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel - Northern War , episode 5 has Rean still keeping Crow's words to heart and his eyes have the image of Rean cradling Crow in his arms.

Cold Steel III & IV (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Trails of Cold Steel III

• The first time players even had a hint of the game coming out, players were only treated with an image with both Rean and Crow, back to back.
• Anytime Rean sees a 50 mira coin, his instinct is to remember Crow and Rean nearly calls Randy "Crow" when a 50 mira rolls at his feet. He also has a 50 mira coin right next to the photos of his family and friends at his desk. Rean basically acts like a widow who lost her husband a few years back and can't get over it until he meets Azure Siegfried.
• After explaining himself to Randy, on why he almost called him "Crow", Rean says both him and his friend are very similar, except for a few traits. When Rean explains said traits, he says that Crow was his "partner-in-crime" (original was written as 悪友, akuyu.). However, said line is present only in Crow's bonding event, more specifically, his last one. This is one of the few times the main story makes a part of a bonding event an actual thing that happened. The only other time that happened was with Towa's bonding event CS1 where Rean helps her in the library being referenced in her first bonding event in CS3. Those two are the only ones that had their bonding events referenced in the actual story, without the player choosing if it can be canon or not. So, we can make the interpretation that Crow was more or less the choice that was decided for the ending of the first Cold Steel, at least.
• Then there's the duel with Rean and Azure Siegfried and when Siegfried tells Rean that the information that he has will not have any "interest", Rean immediately thinks back to their talk in Cold Steel I where Crow claims that he's paying Rean's interest. Rean then ends up reaching his hands towards Siegfried, asking if he's forgotten all about them before Siegfried inside Ordine warps out. Rean nearly looks like he's about to cry about being forgotten by Crow.
• After the final battle of Cold Steel III, Crow immediately stops fighting Alisa's group, jumps down towards Rean and summoning Ordine then grabs Valimar from behind to stop him from killing Osborne, the guy he spent half of his life trying to murder. Clearly, Rean's stability is more important than his life goal at this point.
  • Case in point: In Cold Steel IV it was revealed that Crow was cursed/brainwashed by Ishmelga when he was Azure Siegfried. So that means that seeing Millium's sacrifice and Rean losing control of himself was strong enough to break the curse that was holding his memories back.
  • Another case in point: seeing Valimar and the rest of the Soldats about to fight the Nameless One triggers his memories of him and Rean fighting together against Vermillion Apocalypse in their Divine Knights. This causes him to drop the fighting immediately as he tries to snap Rean out of his rage.
• Out of the five people brainwashed by masks - Crow, Angelica, Victor, Ilya in Reverie, and Shahina in Kuro No Kiseki, - Crow is the only one who broke through Ishmelga's conditioning himself (and of the five, he's had his for the longest time). While Ilya came close, the mask proved too powerful for her in the end. Angelica, Victor, Ilya, and Shahina needed someone to break their masks (Rean's party, Laura, Rixia, and Sarah in their Dance-Off respectively), but Rean is so important to Crow that not even Ishmelga could keep those emotions in check for good.

Trails of Cold Steel IV

• The way Falcom is making the marketing for Cold Steel IV after Crow's profile was out: He is being paired with Rean everywhere. Hell, they were even revealed together when Rean's new clothes are revealed. If you search for merch of the game, you'll see easily that they have keychains together, their weapons have keychains together, Crow is always with the products that have Rean and his students, and the main picture◊ for Cold Steel IV has Crow as the closest person to Rean, only being changed with Juna for the PS4 cover. And, to just drive it home, we have the official picture for the Steelbook of the Special Edition of the game, with all the protagonists of the arcs (except for Kevin). Estelle is paired with Joshua, her official love interest, and Lloyd is paired with Elie, arguably his main love interest since she is always being called the mom of their group while Lloyd is the dad. Rean is paired with Crow with no sign of the other girls.
• During the Black Workshop break out, Crow tells both Duvalie and Celine that the reason that he's helping out Rean, who has given in to his Superpowered Evil Side, is that he owes Rean an interest and tosses a 50 mira coin at him with Rean catching it. Both Duvalie and Celine are just confused since they have no idea what that is all about. Again, this is another scene that Crow could have taken the opportunity to plan Osborne's assassination again, but he spent all his time waiting for everyone to help Rean instead.
• Crow’s bonding event with the ticket for the Ferris wheel in Cold Steel IV. If you choose any other guy, they will make simple comments about their friendship with Rean. With Crow, he will ask why he was invited, because “two guys in a ferris wheel is kinda...”, implying he sees the whole thing as romantic. Then he asks if Rean was dumped and was using him as a rebound, but Rean denies it and says he just wanted to spend the night with him. The whole thing with Crow’s line sounds like Suspiciously Specific Denial.
• In Cold Steel IV, Rean and Crow duel one last time but Rean is hesitant and asks what happens to the loser after the winner absorbs the Divine Core. Crow ends up telling Rean that he's acting all cocky despite Crow actually wanting to lose the duel so that Rean will end up defeating Osborne. After Rean defeats Crow and Valimar starts absorbing Ordine, Rean approaches Crow who is disappearing and demands that Crow live like his life depended on it, grabs his shirt, pulls him up, hugs him, and shares the energy that Valimar absorbed into Ordine back to Ordine itself, insists Crow to come back and stay with him because he needs him, before Rean swaps it out with the word "them"^* Rean really loves to use the Last-Second Word Swap trope. In short, their lives are tied to one another. Watch how Rean hugs Crow during this scene and remember that Rean doesn't hug any of the girls first whenever the girls hug him.
• Cold Steel IV's title screen evolves the farther the player goes in the story where it first features Rean all chained up with his eyes closed when the game's booted up for the first time, followed by New Class VII throughout Act 1, and during Intermission, it features Rean again all bound up with his eyes open this time and the picture slightly zoomed in. When Act 2 starts up, it features two members of old Class VII on the title screen depending on where the player is at in the story. Guess who ends up getting paired with Rean.
• All the faces that Crow makes towards Rean in the fourth game, when he doesn’t have anything to hide anymore, are something else. Case in point.
• Before the final battle against Osborne, Rean is approached by Crow who tells him that it's been a long and fun journey. Whoever Rean chooses for the fireworks scene ends up looking back at the two of them with a sad face before walking away from them. Many fans joke that the Love Interest gets cucked by their Ho Yay relationship. Then there's the normal ending of Cold Steel IV where Rean, Crow, and Millium (but she's a sword and is physically dead but spiritually alive) all die together to disperse the Great One and the two Sept-Terrion out of Zemuria for good since their lives are tied to it.
  • The fact that the normal ending theme is a love song isn't helping things.
• Gameplay Mechanic: Rean can buy different items for everyone in Class VII in Cold Steel IV, the same way he could in the previous game, from normal items to fancy ones like bracelets. The same way Alisa was the only one who got a ring in Cold Steel III, Crow is the only one in Cold Steel IV that can get a ring as well.
  • Rean's default party in the True Final Boss fight consists of him, his students, Crow, and Aurelia.
• Even Falcom themselves have been getting in on the act after releasing a memorial plaque◊ that has Rean and Crow in it.
• The Ho Yay is insanely popular that Cold Steel IV's popularity poll for "Favorite Combination◊" might as well have been called Cold Steel Series starring Rean, Crow, and those guys.
• Taken to absurd heights in the Cold Steel IV VR dating sim. The player (Rean) has the option to interact with the usual suspects as far as romance options go, but Crow's an option as well. They're well aware of the appeal of their relationship at this point.
• It's scary to see how very similar they are in Cold Steel IV. Both have white hair, both of their lives are tied to the Great One, both have red eyes, both are Awakeners to a Divine Knight, both have a Combination Attack with each other, both have a massive scar on their chest, both of their primary quartz are Time, both of them are competitive against one another, both are the only members of old Class VII to have two S-Crafts in Cold Steel IV (and four S-Crafts overall throughout the entire Erebonia arc), both are required for the Divine Knight fights (not the soldats however), and both have dueled each other in all four games. Patch 1.03 adds another one in the game where both have a Super Mode that costs 100 CP though Crow's Destiny Blue is absurdly powerful and lasts longer but can be cancelled, while Rean's Spirit Unification took a nerf in that after three turns, Rean cannot be controlled by the player, although Rean's immune to status ailments and has a permanent strength buff in his uncontrollable self.
• We have some of it in Emma's romantic bonding event, of all things. When she is confessing her love, she puts Crow in the same category as Alisa and Elise.
  Emma: You help everyone else feel at ease while you have this look like you've already given up!
  Emma: I understand that! Not as a witch, as a woman! Like Alisa and Elise.
  Emma: Like Crow... no, much much more, I can't stand it!
  • This is actually an incorrect translation, Emma’s talking about how Rean and Crow are both so self-sacrificing here.
• The Cold Steel Character Maniacs book lampshades the ship in a 4-koma gag comic with Alisa and Juna blushing while reacting to the Rean-Crow hug scene, mumbling not to tell Dorothee. Only to state Dorothee wrote a Rean-Crow fanfic that sent the publishing houses of Erebonia into a tailspin.

Reverie (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Trails into Reverie

• During Towa's Daydream the second year quartet are off to have a class reunion but some classmates arrive early and so they all hang out at the branch campus. While the others take the opportunity to spend time in groups with the students Crow and Rean take over the music room without any of Crow's old classmates anywhere in sight to have a electric guitar contest where they slip into their own little world again. It takes them a fair amount of time to even notice Towa is in the room even though she's standing perfectly across from them.
  • Later, Rean talks to Crow about how he is going back to Jurai with Stark. Crow says the situation is dicey so he's gotta, which Rean accepts.Rean then tries to ask about Crow's plans for after but can't bring himself to voice the thought. Crow smiles a little sadly and tells Rean not to cry because he’ll be lonely without Crow, and that they’re still young. Rean waves him off, but quickly reminds Crow to call him when he arrives in Jurai, only for Crow to make fun of him for reminding him to call more than once.
  • When the upper classmen are among themselves they discuss their plans for the future and Crow mentions he plans to travel around the continent to find a meaning for his second chance at life. Rean's earlier comments make it pretty clear that he already knew this, that they've discusses this at length and that he dreads being separated so much he couldn't talk about it and Crow was aware of this and tried to ease his anxiety.
  • The ending reveals however that Crow didn't go through with his travels and instead hangs out at the branch campus now, helping Class 7 with stage craft for a play. Apparently he couldn't take being separated either. Given that he apparently has a Panzer Soldat just parked in the branch campus hanger that no one there questions in any way he's become a regular sight around the place, just hanging with Rean at any opportunity.
  • Earlier in the game, after the events of the Daydream and the reveal of C, Rean immediately goes to call Crow (who he apparently has on speed dial) but can't get through. Later he mentions that he’s tried calling him multiple times without an answer and while he's worried he trusts Crow completely and doesn't doubt for a second that he's both innocent and going to be okay no matter the trouble he's in, showing again how unshakable their trust is. Crow for his part hurries back to Heimdallr immediately after hearing about C and shows off his rarely used genius level intellect by predicting Rufus's actions perfectly to help Rean apprehend him. All of this without them exchanging a single word for like a week.
• At the climax of chapter 2 of both Rean and C's party, when C's party has to fight against Class VII for the second time, the pairings who are ARCUS linked are Rean-Crow and Jusis-Millium. Also known as the top two pairings of the Cold Steel IV pairing poll.
  • Speaking of links, Crow is the only male original Class 7 member Rean addresses by name when using Rush. In their victory quote Crow jokes that he should've worked his interest off by now but Rean tells him he's still got some left. It's quite clear that the interest will never be paid and they're never going to let anything get between them again
• At chapter 4 during the Horror Coaster minigame at Mishelam, if the player takes anyone other than Crow, then at the end of the ride, Crow comes by and starts shooting at the enemy. However if players pick Crow for the ride, then Crow just stands up and shoots the enemy himself rather than having anyone else join them. Guess he didn't want anyone interfering with his date with Rean.
• During their journey at the Castle of Mirrors, Rean and Celine get separated from the others. A clone of Crow tries to attack Rean, only for Crow to shoot his clone, saving Rean from getting attacked. Crow is the only Class 7 member who saves Rean at any point
• At the end of the game, Rean and Crow talk about everything that's happened during the game with Rean worrying after hearing about his alternate self's words to Lloyd regarding the future. Crow notes it's useless to think about such things and notes they only need to confront it like they always do: together, something that Rean agrees to.
  • Important note is that this is the last scene of the Erebonia Arc and its between the two of them, without any mention of Rean's chosen love interest. In fact, if you do choose a love interest it is brought up twice in passing but Crow still takes center stage as Rean's partner.

Other Examples

• Machias and Jusis. So much. Their bickering interactions, coupled with their defensive attitudes whenever someone suggests they might not dislike each other, seem a lot like Belligerent Sexual Tension. Near the end of the first game, the two even sing a duet together. By the epilogue of the second game, even Rean ships them. Among the students, this attitude is not helped by Dorothee and her antics.
  • Once Machias and Jusis settled things up, and became more open to the rest of Class VII, both are never in the same team again. But, there's something to say about how Machias and Elliot, along with Jusis and Gaius, are always in the same team since then. Both pairs being Birds of a Feather does help, especially for Machias and Elliot.
• Aside from the above, Machias is also the first classmate that reunites with Rean in the second game, including a very emotional embrace upon meeting again.
• Like Lloyd, Rean can engage one with every male party member thanks to Relationship Values.
• For the girls, Laura and Fie end up getting along very well once they patch up their differences. By Cold Steel III and Reverie, they're always together compared to the rest of Class VII.
• Alisa's rivalry with her lacrosse clubmate Ferris, especially on Ferris's side of things. She gets noticeably flustered whenever Alisa is nice to her, and her insistence that they're rivals falls increasingly flat. (For that matter, the second years in the club, Theresia and Emily—the two were also rivals in their first year, but now are very close. There's even a scene in the second game, in order to recruit Theresia onto the Courageous, where Emily meets with Theresia's father. He doesn't approve of the girls' "friendship," but after seeing the depths of their devotion to each other, he entrusts his daughter to Emily. Very heterosexual gal pals, you see. When they reappear in the fourth game, they're always seen together, too.)
• Also, Angelica and Towa. Hell, Angelica and every girl she sees. Even when she's been brainwashed by Black Alberich her desire for women is so strong that she still ends up flirting with female opponents.
• In Cold Steel III, Shirley gropes Duvalie in the latter's first appearance, not counting the prologue, where it ends with Duvalie crying for her mother and her master while Shirley is refreshed. Then there's chapter 3 where Shirley and Angelica start flirting with each other even on opposing sides.
  • Duvalie in general is quite devoted to Arianrhod, to the point of being almost obsessive that even when they're on opposing sides in Cold Steel IV she takes the time to quickly berate Ash when he's being rude to her master.
• Aside from her interest in Rean, Alfin is also very close to Elise. She caps this off in Cold Steel III where her and Elise's final bonding event is basically Alfin suggesting a One True Threesome with Rean so that she could have them both in her life. If Rean chooses to romance her in the final game, her reaction upon learning of his feelings is to worry about how Elise will handle the news and wondering why he didn't choose Elise.
• In Cold Steel IV, during the finale of Act II, Mariabell who is the newest Anguis of Ouroboros meets Vita for the first time. Even while they're on opposing sides, Bell already starts flirting with her by saying that she could learn a lot about being an Anguis from her, and suggestively asks for "private tutelage." Vita rebuffs her by subtly letting her know she's straight when she says "we're not quite on the same team here, so to speak." Funnily enough, Tio and Altina hear the whole exchange and both of them miss the subtext, with Altina outright saying there's clearly a deeper layer to the conversation beyond her comprehension.
• Before a big battle in Cold Steel III, Principal Aurelia says "Let's see if you're everything I've dreamed you are, Steel Maiden." Clearly only talking about her opponent's fighting prowess, and nothing else.

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