I contributed a lengthy rant on this subject to my friend Triad Orion’s site but I felt the need to write another version of it for my own website, mostly because this debate shows little sign of going away and it pisses me off to no end to hear people say that Mudshipping has no grounds. I admit that I’m more than a little biased on this subject, but I’ve played GS and TLA more times than I can count, and anti-Mudshippers constantly cite the same game events to refute the pairing, which tells me that they aren’t taking the whole saga into account when they make their judgements. It also tells me that they’re even less objective than I am.
At any rate, my goal here isn’t to rehash the same tired arguments that Mudshippers and anti-Mudshippers alike have beaten to death ten times over. What I wish to do is offer an interpretation of Isaac and Mia as characters, and therefore explain why they belong together. As far as I know, no one else has tried this yet. I will say in advance that these are solely my interpretations so I know not everyone will agree with me. However, I have played through both games numerous times and have written multiple GS fanfictions, so I like to believe that my point of view isn’t entirely skewed.
First we have Isaac. In most respects he is the typical RPG hero; valorous, kind, and handy with a weapon. He fits the stereotype almost to the letter, but Camelot threw in a couple of small twists that add to the complexity to his character. While it’s true that most RPG heroes only have one living parent, as is Isaac’s case, it’s not often that said hero sees a parent die before his eyes. The very beginning of GS1 throws the fourteen year-old Isaac into a cataclysmic event in which he witnesses his own father get killed by a falling boulder. Such a traumatic experience at such a young age would certainly have a profound effect on his personality, and there’s plenty of game evidence to show that it does. Dora points out that Isaac only began his Psynergy training because of what happened that night. In this sense, Isaac has clearly taken responsibility for his father’s death and seeks to make amends for it by becoming a stronger Adept.
Thus Isaac is not necessarily a confident leader. He’s experienced a great loss and blames himself for it, which in turn often makes him feel alone and unsure. If Isaac has a glaring fault, it lies in his sense of duty. He takes responsibility for the fate of his entire world because he helped set all the events into motion, and he takes responsibility for the lives of his friends because he is the leader of the group. Therefore, it’s safe to assume that when something goes wrong, Isaac focuses all the blame on his own actions or inaction and not on anything that was beyond his control. Such guilt would undoubtedly wear him down over time and probably make him feel very isolated from the rest of his companions.
So rather than a form of mythical superhero, in Isaac we have a troubled young man trying to do what is right for the sake of his friends and his family. Being an only child, he has a strong attachment to both of his parents, and coming from a small village, he is almost equally attached to his friends. The tragedies and betrayals (i.e. Felix) he’s experienced in his past are what drives him to become stronger, most likely so he can correct the wrongs of those mistakes or prevent such mistakes from happening again. And he willingly accepts the task of saving Weyard when he’s just seventeen. A burden of that magnitude would be too much for many adults to handle, so imagine what effect it would have on someone who’s barely out of childhood. Isaac is hardly the definition of the perfect hero. He’s young, inexperienced, and unsure of himself. But above everything else, his heart wants to do what is right, so he accepts what is before him and places the needs of countless others ahead of his own, because he knows that’s what a hero is supposed to do. That sentiment, however, wouldn’t be enough to keep him from becoming depressed or feeling overwhelmed at times.
Enter Mia, one of the last surviving members of Imil’s ancient Mercury Clan. Her past isn’t clearly explained in the games, but it’s apparent that her mother and father are not in the picture at all and that she was once very close to fellow guardian turned villain Alex. An initial glance shows that her life history is very similar to Isaac’s. It’s safe to assume that her parents are dead and she apparently has no living relatives, making her very much alone in the world. She was probably closest to Alex since he is the only other living member of the Mercury Clan, and they were both the appointed guardians of the Mercury Lighthouse, similar to how the Valeans are the guardians of Sol Sanctum. Mia obviously takes this duty very seriously, and she works hard to help everyone in Imil as the town’s healer. That’s an incredible responsibility for someone as young as she is, so it demonstrates how kind, caring, and intelligent she is.
Like Isaac, she also possesses a strong sense of duty, evidenced by her reaction to the lighting of the Mercury Beacon. It was her duty to ensure that that would never happen, and when it does, she feels that she has greatly failed her Clan. Despite the fact that she did her best to prevent the lighting, she sees it as her fault alone and wishes to make amends for her mistake. Thus she joins Isaac’s group, thinking that helping him will allow her to do penance for her transgressions.
It’s also important to note the great deal of betrayal she feels when she discovers that Alex helped to light the Mercury Beacon, and later tried to obtain Alchemy’s power for himself. The two of them were once very close friends (perhaps even more than that) and Alex turned his back on her to further his own selfish ambitions. Any young woman would be incredibly hurt if a man stabbed her in the back in such a way, and probably very angry too. Such a huge betrayal would also leave her feeling used and useless, as if she didn’t matter enough to Alex to prevent him from turning down the wrong path. So along with wanting to make up for her failure, Mia also wants answers from Alex, possibly even revenge. Those emotions drive her to be a stronger fighter and healer, and conflict with her usually gentle demeanor. There’s the half of her that wants to hurt Alex back for betraying her, and the half of her that instead focuses all the blame on herself. Being a quieter member of the group, she internalizes these emotions and only voices them in heated moments, such as the scene at the Mars Lighthouse Aerie.
Of all the girls in the GS universe, Mia is the only one we meet who seems capable of meeting Isaac on an emotional level. Her gentle and caring demeanor seems perfectly suited to "mending" any of his wounds, be they physical or emotional. She can easily comfort him and bolster his shaky confidence when things look bad simply because she has faith in him, which is evidenced by many of her speeches in the games. And she also understands what it feels like to be betrayed and to have failed in an important duty. The only girl who could come close to making that sort of connection with Isaac is Jenna, since she too has suffered betrayal and tragedy in her life. However, Jenna processes her emotions quite differently. Whereas Isaac internalizes his feelings, Jenna is prone to voicing them, often loudly. She has a much more forceful personality and often channels whatever she’s feeling, even sorrow, into anger or annoyance, and she often refuses to accept that she is capable of being "soft." This is clearly evidenced by the fact that she denies ever crying after the Doom Dragon battle. Jenna is Mia’s opposite in almost every way possible, and it’s unlikely that she could provide the same lasting emotional support to Isaac that Mia could, even if she wanted to. She simply isn’t as in touch with her inner complexities and feelings as Mia and Isaac are.
Likewise, of all the boys in the GS universe, Isaac is the only one we meet who seems capable of meeting Mia on an emotional level. Garet, even at his most sensitive moments, is much like Jenna when it comes to processing complex emotions, often turning whatever he feels into anger or annoyance. Ivan, aside from being much younger, is much more cerebral and utilizes rationality and reason to make sense of anything before him. And there is so little (if any) interaction between Mia and Picard or Felix in the games that the chances for a connection there are basically negligible. In essence, Isaac is the only one left who could possibly form a realistic romantic relationship with Mia. That alone makes him her most likely suitor, and then adding to that their similar histories and their complimenting personalities, it’s easy to see why Isaac and Mia make a good romantic match. They are both quiet, introverted characters with a great deal of sorrow in their pasts and presents. They both have strong senses of duty and responsibility, and they both care about what happens to their friends and their world. After traveling all over Weyard and spending many months together, it’s not a giant leap to assume that they would become close friends, and such a friendship could easily metamorphosis into something much deeper and more intimate.
And that, my friends, is why I’m a rabid Mudshipper. It was never about the two of them "looking good" together or anything as shallow and superficial as that. Real love isn’t something that spontaneously exists between two random people: it’s a highly complicated and encompassing emotion forged primarily from bonds of trust and deep understandings between two people. And among all of the delightful characters in the GS universe, Isaac and Mia are the most perfect match of all. They trust one another with their lives, share many of the same experiences, and above all, are able to reach each other on the most profound of emotional levels. They are two hearts with one mind; a bond to be envied by the rest of the world. The debate over Mudshipping may never go away, but those among us who understand this connection will ensure that this love story will forever endure.