I'm not sure what you mean by "idolize"? If you're asking me why I say more positive things about Nearl than Saria, I guess it depends from the angle.

Nearl being the paragon conducts herself in a way I find admirable, if detrimental (to herself). She's a lighthouse that guides and helps those flailing in the dark. She realized that it's impossible for her to defat all that plagues the world. Instead, she'll do her best to act as a beacon of hope so that others don't despair. For them to believe that there IS good in the world and that she will fight for those in need, no matter who they are. To be living proof that knights are real, to inspire them.

It's a largely thankless endeavor and honestly, I wish they explored more on how this type of mentality actually affected her negatively. We only have a few bits and pieces here and there hinting at how Nearl's selflessness is isolating, how lonely she is, how being a lighthouse means little if it isn't being maintained by other people. How she'd give her life for a stranger instead of looking after herself. How she basically ties her self-worth to her knightly creed--who is Nearl without it? She's also chivalrous, charming, and has a cute hidden dorky side to her. And in a world as terrible as Terra where most people are understandably jaded and cynical, someone as idealistic with strong convictions as Nearl is a novelty.

Meanwhile Saria gives off the appearance of someone who has her life together, but in actuality she's failed. So. Much. She's disappointed and let down and hurt practically everyone in her life at some point, that it's almost impressive if it wasn't so sad. Whereas Nearl has her admittedly lofty goals, Saria is more pragmatic, but simultaneously selfish. She enabled Kristen's behavior, possesses an arrogance, inflexible and stubborn to a fault, is kind of a bad friend once you think about it, bad at communication and feelings, and would repeat history again as long as it meant that Rhine Labs survived. This makes her compelling, but at the same time, someone arguably worse than Nearl. By contrast, it's easy to write character studies on Saria, but that's mostly because we see a lot more of her "ugly" side compared to Nearl.

TL;DR I like both a lot, but dunking on Saria is way easier. It's easy to see how someone could fall for Nearl. It's also easy to see why Saria fails at relationships.

"Situationship" is probably the most accurate thing to call it. Not really a romance, not a friendship, not even a typical mutual enmity. But they are SOMETHING to each other.

For my specific headcanons about them... my Doctor is very ace, so their relationship isn't very intimate at all. I can't see Kal being very physical either in a non-clinical way. Doctor's interactions toward Kal are routinely awkward, exacerbated by their own autism and Kal's standoffishness about them in general. At first, Doctor isn't sure what to make of Kal's initial hostility, but the more persistent it is, the more Doctor is inclined to return the sentiment. I wouldn't say they become outright antagonistic, but a mutual distrust essentially becomes the foundation between them, despite working together for both Rhodes and Amiya's sake.

Both of them are also incredibly emotionally obtuse, which lends to their overall wariness about each other. While Doctor may be more open with Amiya, Kal has seen a side of Doctor that no one else has, and that sort of knowledge is strange and unsettling, even frightening. Kal will forever hold it against Doctor, despite them "not being the same person as before" due to their amnesia. But to what extent does a past action define someone? If they don't recall it? And to what degree does them wanting to reclaim their identity means a reason to be concerned?

My Doctor feels alienated and isolated, but also because they have a desire to become "whole" again, and that involves going back to Priestess, despite all signs pointing to how sinister she is and how little she seems to care about Terra. The dynamic between KalDoc becomes a lot more intriguing when you have to tackle the concept of identity, and how (my) Doctor has to reconcile being a good person while also reaping the consequences of their own actions, and yet feeling an emptiness that cannot be filled nor alleviated in any way without returning to what made them a monster in the eyes of others.

The thing that makes KalDoc dynamics so precarious and difficult to get right and/or engaging is that you have to maintain Kal'tsit's resentment of Doctor without turning her into a tsundere. What makes it fascinating is that reducing it down to merely "hate" doesn't quite encapsulate all that feels, according to her. Hate isn't enough. It certainly isn't love, nor apathy. And Kal'tsit, while witnessing those glimmers of humanity from Doctor, cannot relinquish her resentment. She knows better to. Kal will protect Doctor, but will never fully trust nor forgive them. That resentment, that distrust, belongs to her. It will be the only thing that's hers. It's one of the many things that make her "Kal'tsit".

Also it's really, really hard to find queer female or nonbinary Doctor portrayals because 9 times out of 10 you'll trip across some rando who consistently uses he/him to refer to Doctor whenever they are paired with a female character. Or draws/writes them in a very stereotypical cishet male way. And while I know appearance doesn't necessarily dictate gender, and that nonbinary people can use he/him, I honestly doubt the wider gacha crowd is conscientious enough to consider a genuine NB depiction instead of just assuming that Doctor is a cishet man by default.

And thank you very much; if you enjoy those pairs, I encourage you to read the works by @dramaticgaze and @lykieu on Ao3. They are among my muses <3

Ahh damn, I knew I was forgetting someone... I'm planning to pull for her too. I think I would put Ascalon in "Ace".

I headcanon Nine as ace because that's kinda just what I landed on after thinking about her for a bit. No real reason, just like how people are a certain sexuality just because. But if I had to put one in, then maybe it's because I don't get a great read on Nine to definitively say where I do want to put her. So her being in the Ace category is shaky, because IIRC I put her in Pan before.

Of course, this is all subject to change later on, so who knows where they'll end up next year by the time Pride rolls around again.

I prefer Kal'tsit/Gladiia.

I've spoken before elsewhere that Theresa doesn't really FEEL like a character to me; she feels more like an "event" that happened to other characters. A Messianic archetype. The people AROUND Theresa, and the effects she had on them are more interesting than Theresa herself. And as a consequence, that doesn't really give Kal'tsit/Theresa any interesting depth. Despite Theresa meaning so much to Kal, the dynamic itself feels pretty plain and isn't really intriguing to me.

Meanwhile I personally find GladKal more compelling because their dynamic involves someone who's arrogance stems from viewing herself far above other races, being humbled by this one woman who has lived for far too long, and has Seen and Experienced far too much for Gladiia to comprehend. Kal'tsit holds both respect and detachment towards Gladiia while Gladiia is in awe (and perhaps even a small bit of fear) of her. They wouldn't fight over dominance--Kal is too tired and has a complex about exerting her will onto others, while Gladiia has to reconcile deference and her insane top energy towards Kal. Kal'tsit makes Gladiia feel small. She behaves like Kal's guard dog, showing overt concern for her, despite her disdain for land-dwellers. Like yes, Kal'tsit willingly went to jail for the Abyssal Hunters, and she doesn't necessarily show a preference for Gladiia over the other fish, but the combination of Kal's selflessness versus Gladiia's selfishness is tasty.

Also this post: https://dlartistanon.tumblr.com/post/715063285007974400

It's not an odd question at all! I have an updated version. This network isn't exhaustive however; there are some pairs and/or relationship lines that are missing that I didn't include, either because I don't ship it or I don't have enough of an opinion on them to warrant being on this chart. Or only me and my friends know about them.

Notes:
- Doctor is either nonbinary or fem. Also very ace.

Side rant: A lot has happened in 4+ years. Particularly the way Doctor is written and how certain characters are written around them. "Why is Doctor here then?" you may ask. It's canon discontinuity for me, and I've realized that the only way for me not to gag at Doctor content in the game is if I reconcile their existence by superimposing my own take.

However, in doing so, I refuse to call it a self-insert. That word is so loaded with awful baggage and is a viscerally unpleasant reminder of how some of my faves' writing is ruined for the sake of pandering to the lowest common denominator in order to make the player feel special. At the same time, I'm not depicting "Canon Doctor" either because the "canon" writing around them is so half-baked and poorly-constructed in a failed attempt to appease both self-inserters and people who want an Actual Character. My Doc is not In-Game Buckethead, not a self-insert, but a secret third thing.

If I have any Doctor ship, it's solely with Priestess. Maybe Kal'tsit, but the dynamic has to be very specifically tumultuous. Taking characterization bits that I like (my Doctor design is ripped from the promotional image that looks like a Female Doctor) and discarding the ones I don't. Same goes for every operator who's writing suddenly takes a nosedive whenever Doctor is involved.