RoyLili

"I'm the one who's known him the longest. I can't lose to those other girls!"

- Lilina about her feelings for Roy

RoyLili is the het ship between Roy and Lilina from the Fire Emblem fandom.

Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
In Eliwood and Hector's B support, Hector had a dream about a future version of himself having a blue hair daughter. He tells Eliwood that he might not like this future, as this girl later is taken away by a red hair boy that Hector believes is from Pherae. Eliwood at first hopes that this doesn't come true for their sake. The boy and girl are eventually revealed to be their respective children, Lilina, Hector's daughter and Roy, Eliwood's son.

In the epilogue of the NTSC version of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Lilina has 10 years old and was under the care of her father Hector. When Eliwood visits Hector, they discuss the events that happened earlier. Eliwood decides to introduce his son Roy to Hector, who also decides to introduce his daughter Lilina to Roy. Both children are the same age at the time. The fathers decide that the kids go out to play in the yard, not to mention that Lilina asks Hector's permission to show Roy a pony toy, which Hector agrees. This cutscene doesn't appear in the PAL version of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.

Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade
Lilina and Roy, being childhood friends, studied together in Ostia under the tutelage of General Cecilia. When war breaks out between the Lycian Alliance and Bern, Eliwood sends for his son Roy to return to Pherae. When he arrives, he finds his castle overrun by bandits, with Lilina and Eliwood inside. Roy wins the confrontation, saving them both from the bandits. When the three are reunited, Eliwood tells Lilina to return to Ostia, as Marquis Hector is absent, and she, being his daughter, should take over the throne while awaiting her father's return, to reassure her people of the present war. Lilina obeys and heads for home, but not before leaving Roy's protection to her trusted knight, Bors. Later, Roy goes to Araphen, but unfortunately, he finds Hector, Lilina's father, mortally wounded. As his last wish, Hector personally entrusts Lilina to Roy. Roy himself makes a last promise to Hector to take care of her. Until this point, Roy initially doesn't notice Lilina's feelings for him.

Lilina rushes back to Ostia, but upon arrival, unfortunately and without knowing why, she is captured and taken hostage inside a room in her own castle, just as an Ostia rebellion led by General Legance breaks out. When learning this, Roy is too worried about Lilina and runs to Ostia with his army as soon as possible to rescue her. When Roy finally arrives at Ostia castle, he defeats Leygance and the rebels, then saves Lilina from being killed by the enemy general, he tells her about the death of her father, Lord Hector, in the castle of Araphen. Understanding this, she takes Roy to a secret cave on the outskirts of Ostia, where she gives him one of the divine weapons: Durandal. From then on, Lilina accompanies and helps Roy's army fighting against their enemies with her magic anima skills for the rest of the game.

During the course of the game, she shows great affection for Roy; if she is not thinking of him, it is because the memory of her father fills her with melancholy. Even in both support A with Marcus and support B with Gonzales, Lilina tells Gonzales she likes Roy very much.

A Support and Ending
Like Roy, Lilina is still concerning about everything changed by the war and Roy confesses her that a thing that won't change is that they'll always be together, which makes Lilina a bit flustered, but she accepts it,

At the end of the game, if Lilina is still alive when Roy defeats Idunn, she returns to Ostia to rebuild it, like Roy does with Pherae. If Lilina and Roy get A support together, they will both marry and become the King and Queen of the united Kingdom of Lycia, not to mention that also a special cutscene is triggered where they both are talking about Guinivere and her imminent crowning ceremony, and after that, Lilina is still trying to confess him her feelings while Roy says that if she stays in Ostia he would see her many times as he want and also that some day, Roy will come for her.

Fire Emblem: Hasha no Tsurugi
The Hasha no Tsurugi manga, translated as "The Champion's Sword", is an adaptation of the game Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, written by Hiroshi Izawa and illustrated by Kotaro Yamada. The manga differs from the game by the fact that the manga itself is initially a side-story and later an alternate retelling of the game events, with some original characters accompanying some of the game ones. The manga tells the story about Al, the protagonist of this manga who grew in the mountains with his foster father, Magough and he eventually joins Roy's army alongside Tiena and Gant. Most of the characters that are in the game only appear briefly as cameos or are only mentioned in the manga.

Lilina is one of the characters who has a major role in the manga, like her partner Roy. Most of the events that Roy and Lilina go through together in the manga also happen in the game with some differences. Unlike in the games, Lilina does not take Roy to the Ostia cave and therefore, they don't possess the Durandal, the Blazing Blade, despite Lilina being alive through the entire manga. And also, while in the game is optional, Lilina acts as Roy's girlfriend and ends up marrying him in the manga, as stated in her ending, making it the only time that both are totally canonically married.

Roy and Lilina have a close relationship paralleled to Al and Tiena's, both of whom have some similar facts. At the end of the Disturbance of Bern, Al and Tiena also are married like Roy and Lilina.

Fire Emblem Awakening
Roy and Lilina are two playable extra characters that the player can get through SpotPass, released in The Binding Blade character set. Additionally, Roy can be obtained via DLC. Although Roy and Lilina can't form a bond via Support system in Awakening, he mentions her when battled against him in a downloadable xenologue "Champions of Yore 3", assuring that he'll end this battle "for Lilina's sake". When defeated, Roy says that "Lilina deserves better...".

Fire Emblem Engage
Both Roy and Lilina appear in the most recent addition to the series, with Roy as an Emblem Ring and Lilina as a Bond Ring.

Fire Emblem Heroes
Roy and Lilina are two of the heroes that the player can summon separately via the Breidablik using orbs to help Alfonse and his sister Sharena defending their kingdom Askr from the Emblian Empire. As in their original game, Roy and Lilina can develop a bond via support. They can raise their level of support in the following ranks: C, B, A and S if they stand together in the gameplay. Each of them have variants beyond their base forms: Roy has three solo variants and a duo variant paired with his father while Lilina has four solo variants and assists a duo variant of her own father.

Roy and Lilina both received Valentine's Day variants in the Love Abounds focus in February 2018. In the associated paralogue, the two are seen browsing the various candies being sold during the Day of Devotion festival when Lilina suddenly asks Roy about what kind of gift he would like someone to give him. He says that he wouldn't mind anything since someone thinking about him enough to give him a gift is all he needs before reminding Lilina about the tournament being held. The two are beaten and forced to retreat, but not before Roy manages to save the present Lilina was holding on to. While Roy and Lilina are regrouping for the final round, Hector - who joined the tournament alongside Eliwood and Lyn - notes how happy his daughter is around Roy and believes the present she has is for him. In its corresponding former Tempest Trials event, Breath of Destiny, Valentine Lilina feels that the player's army were arriving to fight her and she pledges Eliwood that she can fight, but he doesn't allow it, hoping Roy fight instead. One week later, when the event finishes, Roy and Eliwood manage to quell the Tempest to prevent Lilina from losing further fights. In the aforementioned event, Valentine Lilina was the final boss of this event.

Roy and Lilina also both received Bridal variants in the Bridal Blossoms focus in May 2022. In the associated paralogue, Lilina is stressing out about the Bridal Festival's prize of a special ceremony for the one that obtains the special bouquet and whoever they choose. When Cecilia - who's also competing - presses about it, Lilina explains that she knows that Roy will get the bouquet but worries who he'll pick, especially since it's rumored he already knows who to share it with. Cecilia encourages Lilina to get the bouquet herself since it'll mean she gets to decide, which motivates her to go out and do it. Midway through the competition, Roy - accompanied by his father - find Lilina, which gives her the chance to ask about his choice. However, she panics at the last minute and splits off to focus on finding the bouquet, cursing herself for not being able tell Roy her feelings. In the end, Roy manages to get the bouquet, only for him to instead give it to his father since his end goal was for his mother (Could be Lyn, Ninian, Fiora or a fourth unknown woman) and Eliwood to have the ceremony. Seeing this show of familial love from Roy motivates Lilina to better herself so that she can be with him.

In addition to the above, Roy and Lilina both also have a legendary variant. In these variants, they are depicted as they are sometime after the events of Binding Blade and wielding upgraded versions of their respective Elibean legendary weapons. The two are also a handful of heroes to have been given Resplendent outfits, depicting them in outfits based upon one of Zenith's kingdoms and realms. Lilina's normal variant and Roy's "Brave" variant both have Resplendent outfits based on the fire kingdom Múspell, while Roy's normal variant has one based on their icy counterpart Nifl.

Two small images of both together can be found in the Fire Emblem Heroes guide.

Events and Aether Resort
Some of mechanics introduced in Fire Emblem Heroes allow two heroes to spend time together, which some players use to make Roy and Lilina spend more time together, representing the pair in Askr. When the Heroes Journey is available, both can be sent together to complete special levels where only they both battle against random opponent heroes. If the player wins the battle, it's rewarded with some Memento Points that can be used to make the player's heroes take part of a Memento event. Also, the player can check what the heroes are doing through the World Mirror as they can do a variety of actions such as walking in a forest, making a camp and sleeping together in a tent, depending of the actual time shown in the device.

In Lost Lore event, the player can send heroes to other worlds on scout missions to earn rewards. Each team consists on 1-2 heroes. If Roy and Lilina are sent to the World of Binding in this event, their scout missions are faster. Otherwise, their scout missions are slower if the are sent to any other world that doesn't correspond with the World of Binding unless they are bonus characters in that event.

Finally, through Aether Keep, the player can access the Aether Resort, a non-combat game mode. This mode allows the player's heroes that were already summoned as well as friends' ones to interact each other through short animations. The player can use R&R Affinity to spend it in farming plants and purchasing buildings that allow further interactions between Heroes, including Roy and Lilina, like trying other weapons, sleeping in the same room or in the same bed and even spending time together in hot springs. But for that, the player must spend orbs as it takes to finally summon any variation of Roy and Lilina separately, which would take some time, normally some months.

There are many artworks of Roy in Fire Emblem Cipher and in the ones where Roy is accompanied, he is usually depicted with Lilina together in most of them.

Super Smash Bros. series
In Super Smash Bros. Melee, Roy was included as a selectable fighter, which is unlocked by completing Classic with Marth. While Lilina was not included as a selectable fighter, she appears as a sticker that can be obtained in Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but removing Roy as a selectable fighter in that installment, so Roy and Lilina are stickers that increase the attack stats of the fighters who wear them equipped in Subspace Emisary: Roy increases the slash attacks to +24 and can be used by everyone, while Lilina increases the attacks made with the legs by +5, can only be used by Marth and Ike. As the stickers, Roy and Lilina are depicted with their original artworks from The Binding Blade.

Roy returns as a DLC fighter in Super Smash Bros. for 3DS and Wii-U, although without any reference to Lilina in this installment. In Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Lilina appears as one of the spirits that must be rescued from Galeem's control in World of Light, specifically in The Light Realm.

If the player manages to get Lilina's spirit, he/she can decide to equip any of their fighters, although the real Roy is rescued near the end of World of Light in the Final Battle area where Galeem and Dharkon fight each other. If Lilina's spirit is equipped on Roy, she grants him two support spirit slots and heavily increased damage to fire-based attacks, not to mention that most of Roy's attacks imbue his Binding Blade with fire.

Additionally, if Palutena's Guidance about Roy is triggered by Pit at Palutena's Temple, a dialogue appears in which Viridi, answering Pit's surprise about Roy being 15 years old, she mentions that Roy spend his days in Ostia as a noble and he "smells like heaven", possibly pointing that the Super Smash Bros version of Roy married Lilina, not to mention that he is "post game character" and wields the Binding Blade, implying that he finished the events of his respective game before entering Smash.

The World of Light
In this adventure from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, everything that happens with Roy and Lilina is implied. Here, Roy and Lilina were struck and atomized by Galeem's beams of intense light, alongside every fighter and secondary characters present there, with Kirby the only fighter barely escaping successful with its Warp Star. Galeem's deadly light engulfs almost the entire universe, transforming everything into a single planet created by Galeem itself, the World of Light. Roy is captured and possessed by Galeem and when captive, he's used as one of the models (alongside other fighters) to create puppet fighters and imbue them with spirits, with the sole purpose to stop Kirby from trying to fight Galeem back and freeing its allies and spirits. Meanwhile, Lilina herself is turned into a spirit, alongside thousands of secondary characters from other franchises.

In the Light Realm, under Galeem's influence, Lilina's spirit is imbued in one of Palutena puppet fighters, especially a red Palutena variant in reference to Lilina's sage appearance in Fire Emblem Cipher. By fighting against her, Lilina's spirit grants Palutena puppet increased power of fire attacks, making her Explosive Flame more powerful. In the middle of the fight, a Roy minion appears, also as another puppet fighter to assist Palutena fighting the player's fighter, in reference to Roy being Lilina's best friend and potential husband. Kirby or its allies must defeat both of them to free Lilina's spirit from Galeem's control.

Even though Lilina's spirit is freed, Roy himself is still not, as he is still captive by the time Galeem is defeated for the first time, because Dharkon's darkness takes control of some remaining spirits and captive fighters. To free Roy, Kirby and its allies went to the Dark Realm and defeated Dharkon after many battles and then, in The Final Battle area, during the war between Galeem and Dharkon, Roy is finally freed.

However, the fate of every fighter and spirit, including Lilina's spirit and Roy himself depends on which of the two antagonists is chosen to fight in the final battle. If only Dharkon is defeated, Galeem dissolves it and takes the entire universe again, this time with nobody escaping from it, resulting in one of the two bad endings, implying that Roy is struck by the light again, possibly being turned into a spirit and Lilina's spirit is in Galeem's control again. If only Galeem is defeated, Dharkon impales it and engulfs the entire planet into darkness, with Mario collapsing, seemingly dead. It implies that all fighters including Roy also collapsed and every spirit including Lilina's were faded. If both Galeem and Dharkon are defeated at the same time, they fall into the sea and explode. Although they couldn't turn back into normal, every spirit including Lilina's are freed from their control and they head into the sky, resulting in the true ending. From that point, it's unknown what happens with Lilina's spirit and Roy himself after that.

Quotes
"Lilina? Let's be friends. We can play over there."

- Roy to Lilina in their first meeting

"But the Roy I know had mismatched buttons on his suit, and he couldn't do even one step of a dance... I always thought I had to take care of him."

- Lilina to Bors in in The Binding Blade.

"Something for my father, something for Lilina... Oh, and I can't forget..."

- Valentine Roy's audio quote from Fire Emblem Heroes

"Lilina is a great friend of mine, from way back when we were children. We studied together in Ostia."

- Roy's quote from Fire Emblem Heroes

"My friend Roy and I have known each other a long time. We once went to school together. He's so studious!"

- Lilina's quote from Fire Emblem Heroes

"I'm going to end this for Lilina's sake."

- Roy's quote when battling him in the downloadable xenologue Champions of Yore 3 in Fire Emblem Awakening

"Lilina and I are childhood friends. She taught me all about court manners while studying in Ostia. She also had a large hand in my looking presentable..."

- Valentine Roy's quote from Fire Emblem Heroes

"We must hurry to Ostia! Lilina... Please be safe"

- Roy's concern about Lilina in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade

"Marcus... What does...what does Roy think of me? I...I'm not so sure anymore. [...] Roy... He's... I've always...liked him..."

- Lilina to Marcus in their A support in The Binding Blade

"After returning home, Lilina became the marquess of Ostia, and married Roy a short while later. Together, Roy and Lilina united the Lycian League and created the Kingdom of Lycia, a peaceful nation blessed with prosperity and harmony."

- Lilina's ending with Roy after achieving A support in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and canonically stated in the Hasha no Tsurugi manga.

Behind the Scenes
There are three known members of Intelligent Systems that appear to like Lilina as Roy's "canon" love interest according to them:


 * Hiroshi Izawa is the writer of the Hasha no Tsurugi manga and responsible for canonizing RoyLili in it.
 * Kotaro Yamada is one of the most prominent artists and he was responsible of illustrating the Hasha no Tsurugi manga. Since then, he is the author of the Resplendent Lilina in Fire Emblem Heroes and he is responsible for drawing Roy and Lilina together in some of Fire Emblem Cipher cards.
 * Eiji Kaneda, another artist, is the author of depicting Roy and Lilina in one of his artworks that later would be used to make their figurines in Good Smile Company.

Fanon
RoyLili is one of the most popular ships with the Fire Emblem franchise. Lilina is the most popular of the favourite candidates to be Roy's final love interest.

In Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, compared to other Roy's love interests (like Cecilia, Sue, Sophia, Larum or Shanna), Lilina gains more support points per turn, and therefore quickly reaches support level A with Roy.

Fire Emblem Heroes also has the aforementioned mechanics that allow two summoned heroes spend time together. Here, Lilina also is the most popular choice to spend time with Roy in Lost Lore, Heroes Journey and Aether Resort, featuring the couple in Askr.

There is even official artwork of them together, from Fire Emblem creator, Intelligent Systems, which suggests that the developers may like Lilina as Roy's love interest, not to mention by the fact that they are canonically married only in the Hasha no Tsurugi manga (even if the Manga is not canon to the game).

Roy and Lilina are also celebrated as possible pair of cousins, since there's a considerable amount of fics that portray them as so, exploring a platonic familial bond between them, since in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Roy may be Lilina's cousin if Eliwood is married to Fiora and Hector is married to Florina or Farina (With A support in each), since Fiora, Florina and Farina are sisters, not to mention that in Heroes, in Breath of Destiny former event from Tempest Trials, Lilina calls Eliwood "Uncle".

Criticisms of the ship are most diverse. On Roy's father Eliwood's side, fans who like RoyLili as a het ship, they heavily dislike it as a family ship between cousins, preferring Elnini (Eliwood/Ninian) rather than Elfiora (Assuming that the case goes towards Hecflor) and stating that Lilina calling "Uncle" to Roy's father is not necessarily an uncle for family related blood, because of Eliwood and Hector's relationship as best friends. Meanwhile, most of detractors include fans who don't like childhood friend romances or main guy/main girl calling the ship "boring" and claiming both Roy and Lilina are "more interesting" with their other love interests, mostly Roylarum and Gonlina and also depicting in memes that the young version of Hector threats to kill Roy with the Armads axe if he goes too close with Lilina. In the Super Smash Bros. fandom, RoyLili also has friction with other well-known ships like Roycina (Roy/Lucina), Pyroy (Roy/Pyra) and Corroy (Roy/Corrin) due to Lilina only appearing as a spirit in Ultimate. Additionally, in NSFW content, Lilirutger (Lilina x Rutger) is also another strong rival.

Fandom
FAN FICTION
 * Roy/Lilina tag on FanFiction.net
 * Roy/Lilina tag on FanFiction.net
 * Roy/Lilina tag on FanFiction.net

FAN ART



Trivia

 * Roy and Lilina were featured together in merchandise as figurines, released by Good Smile Company, starting in September 2023, although they are purchased separately.
 * Lilina is the only Roy's ally from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade that appears in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate as a spirit. that can be fought in a Spirit battle, where she's represented by Palutena and the stage and music (Gaur Plains) represent the Lycian plains, Roy and Lilina's homeland.
 * Also, a Roy minion appears to protect the Palutena puppet that contains Lilina's spirit. The player must KO both opponents in battle to free Lilina's spirit from Galeem's control.
 * In addition of that, Lilina is the only Roy's love interest that does so in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in similar way that happens to Caedarth.
 * Since many of the other GBA Fire Emblem titles feature at least one second lord or co-protagonist, many players think that Lilina should be the second lord in Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade and command together with Roy as the two Etrurian Generals, just like Cecilia, Perceval and Douglas, since in its prequel her parents Eliwood and Hector were the ones who commanded an earlier army in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.
 * In spin-offs, Roy and Lilina are depicted as two of the Eight New Legends of Elibe, as they both often use the weapons of the original Eight Legends: Roy uses Hartmut's Binding Blade and Lilina wields Athos's Forblaze. Both weapons attack their enemies with fire and deal heavily damage against manaketes and dragons, which is why some fans call them The Elibean couple that condemns their enemies and dragons to hell.
 * If Roy dies in his original game in a Game Over, Lilina mourns for him, if she is alive on the battlefield. If not, Guinivere (Marcus in the first two chapters) does this role.