No, this is not a ship; don’t worry.
Anyway, I’ve had an idea surrounding Rox’s interactions with Rytlock for the past few weeks, but I haven’t gotten round to discussing it with anyone. However, it came back to mind with some bits of dialogue from the end of the Tower of Nightmares arc (see attachment). I think Rox and and Rytlock may be relatives. Specifically, I think this is one of those “lost relative” things where Rox knows she’s a cousin or sister or something of his, but Rytlock doesn’t actually know it.
Alright, so original development of Rox that we saw ingame was her trying to get into the Stone warband, enough said about that. However, this has gone on for some time, and she seems pretty dogged about joining Rytlock. In contrast, she still has a rather sober assessment of the whole situation, of Rytlock, outside of legion politics and when addressing her present allies on the subject; she’s not exactly acting like a gushing cheerleader here. If this was just about her being a gladium, there’s got to be easier ways than randomly trying to get into one of the most exclusive warbands in the alliance (remember, she was in a band of miners. Not exactly the most astonishing résumé for joining a top legion authority).
Compounding her behaviour is her utter subservience to Rytlock and the general demeanour she has addressing him. I admit I’m not able to cite too much directly here, seeing as the LS makes me unable to go back and re-read some of the world building here, but if you look up the “Delegation” short story in this context, I believe it has merit. Furthermore, her compatriots seem to be noticing it as well, as Braham has called out her utter devotion to this charge at the drop of a hat (again, see attachment). She seems to really want this, but her motives as yet don’t seem to match up; it doesn’t quite make sense. There’s got to be a personal reason we’ve not seen so far. Barring some kind of “secret crush” subplot that’d be flying out of left field at this stage, I think the idea that she knows something about a common lineage between them has merit.
Or she could just genuinely admire Brimstone and think she’s got what it takes to join that warband. Actually now that I’ve typed this out, it’s starting to sound like some awful idea that a 12 year old fanfic writer coughed up. Plus I admit this would be kind of a hackneyed kick against the established lore, seeing as familial relationships aren’t taken that seriously in the legions. I’m wary to believe that a decent writer would be willing to pull something like this out of nowhere. Actually I’m starting to feel a little silly for thinking about this off and on for the past few weeks now.
I don’t know, thoughts?