#boy do I love doomed yuri

[ai-higurashi]

"Not yet"

#ai's random art #hirogaru sky precure #hirogaru sky pretty cure #princess ellelain #ellelain precure #empress undergu #kaiserin undergu #does anyone know if we have a ship name yet? #to clarify I did not watch the episode yet it's like 3am and I'll watch in the morning this is just wishful thinking #boy do I love doomed yuri #kudos to zukoromantic for dealing with my nonsense and my cronical indecision when it came to making this

[dungeon-meshi-tournament]

You guys had a ton of funny things to say in response to the polls in the Best Chapter Cover in the Manga Tournament. So much so, that my initial list of funny comments was three full pages long. But after a lot of revising, and some delays for personal reasons, here's the post with the funniest comments of the last tournament, sorted by the poll they were commented on:

Chapter 2 vs Chapter 3 (2ound 1 part 1) slugfest between the allure of seeing a characters full pack and belongings laid out neatly versus Laios, Doomed, Eats Sandwich

Chapter 4 vs Chapter 5 (round 1 part 1) i love the go white boy go image, but yuri is always the answer

Chapter 21 vs Chapter 22 (round 1 part 1) whats his name again. chester? CHESTER SWEEP

Chapter 57 vs Chapter 58 (round 1 part 3) we are all simple. we see funny catgirl, we click the button Sorry Marcille I'm giving it to Ominous Catgirl 😔

Chapter 72 vs Chapter 73 (round 1 part 3) Chapter 73 aka future finalist for "Horniest Chapter Cover" tournament i hauve covid ryoko kui horny is the best kind of horny

Chapter 8 vs Chapter 10 (round 2 part 1) these early round Close-Ish ones are really fascinating to me. What will win: dynamic group shot, or Senshi Wear Hat

Chapter 47 vs Chapter 49 (round 2 part 2) i don't know this series or the significance of these images but one of these has a massive hairy man being slutty so i felt qualified to judge this one senshi thighs sweep HOT SENSHI HOT SENSHI HOT SENSHI

Chapter 50 vs Chapter 51 (round 2 part 3) chilchuck being one raceswap away from a five o'clock shadow is important to me

Chapter 56 vs Chapter 58 (round 2 part 3) chilchuk forever haunted by the looming ever-present spector of romance. please show him your support in these trying times Look me in the eyes and tell me you wouldn't click to pet her!! divorced dad AND potential bi king???

Chapter 68 vs Chapter 69 (round 2 part 3) THISTLE VS THISTLE WHO WILL WIN

Chapter 71 vs Chapter 3 (round 2 part 3) justice for dragon dinner but I Understand i dont go here i just need to support my bestie vore and cannibalism. ESPECIALLY vore and cannibalism sexualised. CHAPER 73 SWEEP!!!!!!!!! CUT THAT TONGUE OFF

Chapter 46 vs Chapter 47 (round 3 part 1) the senshi fanservice chapter cover is just dungeon meshi heritage

Chapter 68 vs Chapter 73 (round 3 part 2) Thistle giving head to the Winged Lion >>>>>>>>>

Chapter 80 vs Chapter 85 (round 3 part 2) my brain neuron activate when i see her eyes bags

Chapter 88 vs Chapter 89 (round 3 part 2) EAT THIS MOTHERFUCKING LION. EAT HIM. EAT HIM. EAT HIM.

Chapter 14 vs Chapter 21 (round 4) GO GIRL GO, BEAT CHESTER!! SLAY THAT OLD MAN TO THE GROUND MARCILLE

Chapter 76 vs Chapter 85 (round 4) sorry kabru but i have to support womens wrongs im sorry pepe silvia kabru but marcile looks hot in her tired renaisance faire goth era

Chapter 28 vs Chapter 47 (quarter finals) everyone LOOK AWAY im abt to do some cocomelon shit to that man ryoko kui's unstoppable lust for her own character has spread to the audience

Chapter 85 vs Chapter 97 (quarter finals) prev is right but unfortunately i saw a woman so beautiful i blacked out and voted for her before i could muster any logic 😵‍💫

Chapter 47 vs Chapter 97 (semi-finals) i read dungeon meshi for the food sorry naked senshi

Chapter 47 vs Chapter 73 (finale) battle of the horny covers THE S IN SENSHI STANDS FOR SWEEP VOTE CANNIBALISM PLEASEEEEEE senshi IS sexé but is he as sexy as laios getting his tongue [REDACTED]

#dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #best chapter cover in the manga tournament #funny comments

[sleepclaus]

Damn noticed a pattern for my comfort shows: I'm a sucker for the scenes with a focus on hands lmfaoo

Am I gay for the straight yuri/bisexual homies doomed by their narratives ?? Do I combust every time I see their respective shows show-not-tell they love each other w fucking good cinematography??? Yes and yes

(Creds to @boy-wonderoncologist for the Hilson handholding photoset ur post ignited a lightbulb in me, hope ur having a good one 🫡)

#frieren #house md #hate crimes md #hilson #frimmel #himmel #This girlie discussing motifs and themes to themself #Lmao ik it's probably easier to make comparisons to shows like Hannibal or breaking bad when it comes to house #But frieren is queer coded u can't tell me otherwise cus wtf is all this longing #Also a basic weeb enjoyer if u couldn't already tell

[mdhwrites]

Jumbled Thoughts: Romantic Rivals With Spy x Family

"What do you mean you love him!? You may be best girl, the tsundere and the one who spends 90% of your screentime with him but I'm in love... With..." "You want to go get a drink as a consolation prize?" "Yes please." And then I'm going to poison her drink so he can be all mine!

A lot of good, long term romance works have what can easily be identified as the romantic rival, regardless of how actually effective those rivals are. A character essentially designed to be an obstacle between the main couple and true love. There's a lot of forms this can take and luckily, anime has given us two great examples recently with Spy x Family's Yuri and Nightfall... But first let's get a few things out of the way.

Despite my bit at the beginning, a romantic rival actually doesn't need to be a direct competitor. Quintessential Quintuplets' romantic rival is the 5 girls' father and it'd be real creepy if he was actually trying to bang him.

"SIS!"

We'll... We'll get to that. No, instead the point of a romantic rival is simply to be someone who has to lose if the main couple ends up getting together. Their happiness and desires are essentially impossible if the main couple's happiness is achieved. That's why they're a rival since there can only be one winner. The most direct way to do this is with someone else who loves one of the two MCs but it can take on a lot of forms.

Secondly: For them to be a rival, they do actually need and investment in the potential of the two MCs being together. The best rivals are likely going to relish in destroying what might have been just as much as they'll enjoy either capturing the one they love or dooming them to misery. For their role to function though, they can't be unaware of what they're doing. Otherwise, they fall more into cruel twists of fate or comedic interventions depending on the severity of the moment and the tone it's portrayed with. Like Joe from Big Time Rush moving for her work isn't because her agent is a romantic rival, whoever they are doesn't care about the romance going on, it's just business. One that tragically breaks up the head of the band and her.

We did get one hell of a song out of it though. (Yes, I loved this show as a teenager and still think their music slaps incredibly hard. Also, I'm linking this video because it portrays more what happened but I do think the 2020 acoustic version done during lockdown is better.)

Another thing necessary for the character to be a rival though is that they are inherently a bad option. While one could call all the girls in your typical harem romance rivals to each other, it's better to call them contestants. They all have a real, viable case for taking that spot of best girl/boy, both in the hearts of our MC and of the audience. You are supposed to be okay with any of them getting with the main character. They are simply a competing ensemble.

A romantic rival is a villain. Even when not explicitly portrayed as one, you're supposed to want them to lose. They VERY rarely are real people besides maybe a sob story but that's not really the point of them. Romantic rivals are meant to elevate something into soap opera levels of drama, not for a nuanced discussion of love. A way to heighten the stakes and force the cutesy, potentially eternal lovey dovey elements of a work into what will be an even more satisfying conclusion.

Or for some EXTREMELY funny jokes. Speaking of, let's get into Spy x Family.

Nightfall versus Yor.

Yuri versus Loid.

Or, er... Well, see, why these two are so useful is that we actually have an incredible romantic rival and one that mostly entirely falls flat on his face in the role and is arguably the worst element of the show to me. As such, let's start with him: Yuri. Yor's baby brother.

He is a member of the secret police, the best at what he does despite such a young age and has a sister complex. Like... 80% of his character is sister complex. 19% more of that is screaming about his sister and then 1% of him makes you remember "RIGHT! This guy actually claims to be a functional human being!" Yuri's inability to actually function as a person is one of his biggest flaws because that single minded obsession makes it hard for him to really have more than a handful of jokes, all of which just increasingly become more stale (at least for me) as the show went on. That's a real shame too because as a rival to Loid, he's actually about as good as you could ask for.

See, while I have problems with Yuri, his failure in this role actually has a lot more to do with Loid than himself. A rival is meant to push the couple out of their comfort zone, potentially make them fuck up and do something that will upset the other, or challenge some aspect of a person's love for their partner. Loid... Doesn't have any of these traits. His whole gimmick is being the man with a thousand faces. To have so many layers, you'll have cried an ocean by the time you get to the core of this onion. That also means he has no comfort zone to push him out of, only fuck ups because of himself and...

Well actually, this is the one way I think Yuri does screw up as a potential rival to Loid. He makes big declarations about whether or not Yor and Loid's love is real but his love isn't real either. He doesn't actually know his sister. He doesn't engage with her genuinely, just like Loid doesn't. He has this nostalgic, permanent image that would take literally seeing his sister kill a loyal citizen to the country in order to even crack. That's not actually more genuine than Loid using her like he does. The only difference is that one will never ask Yor of anything and want to stay by her side while the other will only stay until the job is done. It'd be much more effective, in this role, for Yuri to genuinely know his sister and be able to call things out because of the genuine care versus Loid's artificial care.

Otherwise, what Yuri really does is be a reminder of the world these characters exist in. Someone who genuinely can NEVER find out the secret between the main couple, that they're not married nor actually in love, or else Loid is a dead man and Operation Strix is over. That's because Loid is an enemy of the state so while Yuri would lock him up for the wrong reasons, he is still one of the few people who could actually cause trouble if only he knew the truth. Too bad Yuri has been a spy for like an entire decade less than Loid and so Loid can run circles around him also making this tension somewhat tenuous at best.

He is only a threat in essentially the same way anyone is. In that he cannot know the secret. That is the exact opposite of Nightfall, Yor's rival.

Nightfall is a fellow spy from Loid's agency. She actually was a pupil of Loid's and mistook being told you can't have emotions on a mission to mean she must deaden all emotions. She is also a super spy on a similar level to Loid, making her the idea working partner for him.

But that lack of emotions is also why she can never be Loid's romantic partner. Yor is a bundle of energy and a precious cinnamon roll who wears her heart on her sleeve and couldn't help but be earnest even if she tried not to be. She is exactly the sort of warm, open person that Loid needs to ever make him consider retirement. To peel back the layers so that he can one day be himself instead of one of the many faces that he has. She will only ever love Loid... Not Loid's job or codename: Twilight.

Immediately we have the reason why these two contrast and why you will never root for Nightfall. Nightfall loves Twilight. Loves the image and ideal of Loid as this unstoppable super spy who she could essentially conquer the world with. Who she could help alleviate the woes of before they both get back to work. She'd be devoted but to all the wrong needs of Twilight. We even know she has the skills with which to do it, something Yor very clearly lacks as putting her in the kitchen is a surefire way to attempt mass genocide.

Not to say Yor is incapable of challenging Nightfall in a more practical way like how Loid entirely destroys Yuri. Yor is still superhuman in her physical capabilities which is why despite how clumsy and dumb she can be, she's still a very capable assassin. It's just that being an assassin is essentially all she's good at, besides empathy that is. Yor's care runs deep, just like how deep the tennis ball she sent into God only knows where is or the ball she played with Anya with when she did her own signature shot. Since Nightfall can't convince Loid to drop Yor due to her wifely duties, she does only have this and one other tactic to use against Yor and here she fails ENTIRELY.

The other one she's a lot better at. See, in her eyes, Yor is a bad wife. Yuri thinks the same about Loid but as a bad husband. Unfortunately for our cinnamon roll, she does not have Loid's confidence or the homely skills to back that up and so questions about her capabilities, especially with a smooth motherfucker like Twilight, shake her to her core. Luckily, she has the empathy and care that helps with Anya and makes her not just a good wife but what is even more important here: A good mom.

Here is where we get Yuri's last failing. See, a good romantic rival should be like any good villain. They oppose not only the couple but the whole premise and theme of the show. Yuri and Nightfall both do actually attack the themes to some extent by asking for stagnation and pulling the two back to their past where they will be trapped in the violence they have known all their lives. This is attacking the Spy part of the title. Only one of them actually says anything about the Family part of it though.

The most disappointing moment of the entire series for me was when Yuri finally interacted with Anya, Loid and Yor's adopted daughter, and hated her. Now, admittedly, his goal of arresting and killing Loid would pretty much certainly mean Anya's death too since she was adopted by Loid. Best case scenario for Anya if Yuri wins is going back to the orphanage but... That's the same case for if the operation that brought these three together fails in anyway. He adds nothing new with this that the base premise of this being a sham family doesn't already add.

Meanwhile, Nightfall knows from go about the operation and her opposition to Yor is specifically so that she can take the place of Loid's wife for the operation. This introduces two new elements that very, VERY few other characters can so directly. The first is that if Nightfall wins, it dooms Anya. Her desire to keep Loid as Twilight, rather than as himself, means that the warmth that Yor and Anya are forcing out of him will likely shrivel back up and die so that when the operation fails, Anya will go back to an orphanage and the family will end.

You also might have noticed that I said WHEN the operation fails, not if. While we haven't gotten it in the anime directly, we know a lot of Loid's methods for getting Anya to succeed fail and Anya at least likes Loid enough to try. Yor has made monumentally better strides in getting Anya to listen, be better and try harder than Loid ever has because, well... Anya is six. She doesn't need a cold, calculating spy, she needs parents and Yor's earnest and honesty makes her a great parent who is constantly trying to do the best for her child. From the brief glimpses we get of what Nightfall would try to employ as a parent, we have good reason to assume she'd fail just as hard as Loid has and so either Anya would run away, happy to be away from a family that no longer has Yor's warmth and has a slowly deadening Loid, or she'd be sent away once the stress and pain of that environment crushed her.

It is a unique threat that quite only someone from Loid's agency can present and it's a much more interesting reason to hate Nightfall and want to see her fail than Yuri just hating Anya regardless because he sees her as an extension of the sister stealer. It makes her a genuine villain that the regular populace can't replicate. It also allows her more dynamism as she'll do whatever she has to to gain the place of Loid's wife, even act kind to Anya, until finally she no longer needs to. She's a spy after all and this is her mission.

There's one other element here though I want to give a shout out for that is actually easy to overlook for romantic rivals: I want Yor, Twilight and Nightfall to be in a polycule. For Loid and Nightfall to finally have a real conversation and fix the lesson that has poisoned Nightfall so thoroughly. For Yor's kindness to help Nightfall see herself as a real person and not a slave to her image of Twilight. Hell, I even do want to see Nightfall be able to help shore up Yor's skill weaknesses and give Loid someone who can 100% understand his worldview, even as they both fight against keeping up those barriers. Nightfall is mostly a joke, mostly played for comedy but her genuine care for Loid, and how much it devastates her to fail, makes her into a more complex, sympathetic villain who you don't want to see be splattered on the pavement.

I... Well, I won't say Yuri is such a bad character that I want him literally dead but if he got shipped over to this world's version of America for the rest of his life, I would not miss his presence. He is a creep, a man child and quite frankly the best ending for him is probably to literally never be able to see his sister again so as to grow up as a person. Even that implies I even care enough to want to see him grow though as two seasons in, I don't really care. He has ONE truly great sequence that shows his potential and even it shows his critical flaw as a romantic rival: It has literally nothing to do with Loid or Yor. He is only an interesting character outside of the context of those two.

And for a narrative role who's whole job is to complicate and add excitement to the context of the main couple, that makes him a complete failure. So for as great as yuri is in most contexts, make sure you don't write the character Yuri if you're trying to make a good romantic rival. Not unless you wish for night to fall on your story and leave it in the dark.

======+++++======

It's kind of fun how much romance anime I've watched in the like past six months. It's still only three series, Kaguya, Quintessential Quintuplets, and Spy x Family (the last of which is SO many genres) but it did help me have some actual examples when I finally sat down and wrote this. Also, I'm currently poking at theoretically going back to my roots and writing a harem story, though also keeping it PG-13 like my current stylings so honestly, have any anime recommendations for me?

Also, this is probably another Jumbled Thoughts post that goes too much into the example, even if highlighting how Nightfall is a good contrast to Yor is so important to understanding what a good romantic rival looks like.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#spy x family #loid forger #yor briar #yuri briar #nightfall #jumbled thoughts #Romantic rivals

[min-pathologica]

sick of people slandering characters in the name of other characters sigh. putting specific characters under the cut so no one tries to argue w me on this :p drdt chapter 1 spoilers lol

yes min did wrong teruko, yes teruko’s reaction was fair, no that actually doesn’t make min wrong!! or vice versa!! this is a death game!! people are forced to do shitty things to preserve their life!! you do not have time to think maturely about a situation after killing someone in self-defense!! think honestly, this stranger you don’t like is standing over what looks like your friend’s corpse with a knife and there you are, fully visible and loudly yelping by the doorway, hands too full to make a smooth escape, seconds to think of something before he fucking slashes you. for me it’d almost be instinctual to throw the bucket, at least to free my hands and stun him. for me at least. maybe some of u would be able to run. but min did the former, and i don’t want to hear this “she should have ran” because she had like 5 seconds to think of something. like. you have 5 seconds to devise a solution to the riemann hypothesis, you’re not going to think of every answer and rank them by correctness. same goes for fight or flight. this part is literally just fight or flight lol. so next she whips out the knife pen and swipes open that bad boy light switch (wow girlboss been playing that yandere simulator). obviously the fab fashionable ultimate student knows about electrical safety and its inverse, so it came in handy when she needed this brit down on the ground. so he fucking died, and ‘oh shit i just killed this guy, what am i going to do oh god i’m going to die i should’ve ran’ no wait if i just frame teruko i’ll survive. guys if you don’t have an active death wish, enjoyment of pain, and reversed instincts, you are going to do dumb shit to avoid getting your ass killed. you are going to take the easiest route you can think of. even if it hurts everyone else. dying is really scary guys, when it’s up there in your face dancing on your nose and it could actually happen and is more than a what-if. i hear these edgy 12 year olds out there with “haha i’m so concerning knowing how to dispose of a body! i bet i could actually get away with murder!” you aren’t accounting for adrenaline deariepop. you aren’t accounting for any of the many circumstances that will inevitably come with killing someone. you will not get away with murder girlboss. so min carries on with the framing, she does a pretty good job for having like ten minutes. and at the trial the adrenaline has not gone away in fact it has come back full force with a helpful heaping of guilt. probably. y’know. cause she’s guilty. and when it comes out that she framed teruko, yes teruko’s reaction was fair, you shouldn’t be all happy skippy bible school after nearly getting killed. so anyway gay hug. doomed yuri. yes. you get it. then min fucking dies. teruko’s cranky and needs a nap. because who wouldn’t. and i say cranky with all my heart and love, because i too am cranky after writing this out

so tl:dr people get messy and make mistakes when in life-or-death situations. therefore i think neither min nor teruko should be slandered for their actions in chapter 1. cool

#minxiety

[lunas-otome-blog]

Luna's Review: Hamefura Pirates

(The full game title is: My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom! ~The Pirate Who Summons Trouble)

Official Summary:

Katarina Claes was reborn as a villainous daughter in an otome game when she hit her head and regained memories of her previous life. She struggled to safely a destruction end and seize a happy future. Sure…. A romantic comedy of avoiding destruction flags is now available as an otome game. The stage of the game is the luxury liner, and the doom flag is a “pirate”?! This is the beginning of a new bad end avoidance story.

.

(Spoiler Free) Luna's Thoughts

As a fan of the Hamefura franchise, most notably the anime, I felt this game fits right in! The simple cel-shaded art, while not as exquisite as is custom in many otoges, looks like the anime, and the characters blink and move their mouths when they talk, creating the illusion of an anime.

Catarina is a rare protagonist in that she's not meant to be a fill-in for the player; she's her own character with her own backstory. As such, you're not allowed to change her name, and she's fully voiced, which is a rare treat.

They do expect you to be familiar with the anime and reference events in it several times. While it's not a prerequisite, there's not a ton of expose in the beginning and you're pretty much thrown into it without any backstory. I've seen both the animes so this didn't bother me, and in fact I would have gotten bored with a lot of unnecessary background, so I was pleased with this.

If you're expecting a heavy, serious otome game, this is not it. "Pirates of the Disturbance" is light and silly, and you get the sense that nobody is ever in any real danger. With the exception of the two game-only characters, there's little backstory to uncover for the romanceable characters because, again, the game assumes you're already familiar with them.

I would actually not recommend this game for those who aren't already fans of Hamefura. The fun of this game is in watching Bakarina fall in love and choose someone, which is something that is probably not going to happen in the main series. It's not a particularly involved game beyond that.

I had some hesitation about including two new characters as romance options, but Rozy and Silva actually fit right in and I loved both of them pretty quickly. I think Silva was actually my favorite character in the game.

The game has four different ending types: doom, another, good and happy. You have to pick pretty much all the correct options to get the "happy" ending, so they're difficult to obtain first go. If you don't want to skip through a whole route again, you can go to the final chapter using the chapter menu and set affection to high, and then you'll only have a few choices to get right. Some of the good endings are on par or (imho) better than the happy endings, so definitely try to get all of them!

Overall, I loved this game! It's light, fluffy and a nice companion to the Hamefura anime.

My route order recommendation is Geordo -> Nicol -> Keith -> Alan -> Rozy -> Silva.

Please find below my thoughts on each route in the order I played them. Spoilers ahead!

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(Spoilers) Mary/Sophia/Maria Route

Okay so this isn't technically a route but it's what you get if you avoid picking a boy and just flirt with the girls and focus on eating the whole time. It abruptly ends the game pretty early on.

This was the first end I got because I wanted to see what would happen if I just let Catarina be herself. While I wish the girls had a more fleshed out route (or better yet, individual routes) I understand that Hamefura has never been a yuri series.

While I get that Sophia ships Catarina with her brother, and Maria's intentions may be closer to friendship, Mary's feelings are 100% romantic. This is confirmed in the anime and in the game, and she has always been on par with the men in the aspect of competing with Catarina's affections. So I would have liked to see Mary get a whole route for herself.

That said, I'm glad Catarina got a little time with the girls before getting to the boys.

.

(Spoilers) Geordo Route

Geordo is my least favorite boy in the main cast, so I did his route first. It ended up being a good choice, as his route was not particularly interesting.

There is a certain satisfaction of Catarina falling in love with her own fiance, but beyond that, this route isn't really substantial. Geordo confesses to Catarina, she struggles with it for a while, and then they get together. In one of the "another" endings, if you choose to avoid Geordo during a strategy meeting, he straight up kidnaps Catarina and bribes her with food and romance novels to stay with him forever lol. What trash.

Considering how tame these pirates seem to be, combined with the fact that they aren't allowed to harm the main cast, you never really feel concern for anyone in this route. You do get to see Geordo engage in a cool swordfight with Silva, and Catarina even gets to help out a little.

I think this route could have been improved with a little more angst, and the writers actually created a scenario that could have worked ... only to end it almost immediately. When Georgo confesses to Catarina, he claims that he's been pretending to like the rest of the group since childhood. This greatly upsets the pure-hearted Catarina, who just wants everyone to stay friends forever.

There were so many ways this could have provided for more conflict. Maybe Geordo had convinced himself that was the case and his friends needed to show him that their friendship was real. Maybe Geordo could take some needling to admit he likes the rest of the group. But the game just resolves it with Geordo immediately apologizing and coming clean to Catarina. It felt like they rushed what should have been the main arc of this route.

Overall, Geordo's route was predictable and standard. If you like the princely type, it might be for you, but I wasn't super excited about him.

.

(Spoilers) Nicol Route

Nicol's route is immediately more involved, with the introduction of a mysterious woman. You also get a lot more intro to Rozy. Overall, it felt longer and more composed than Geordo's route.

Geordo is Catarina's fiance, so there wasn't really any conflict with him liking Catarina other than her own obliviousness. But that's not so with Nicol (or any other character) who spends most of the route trying not to act on his feelings for Catarina. This sets up some delicious angst as Catarina doesn't understand why Nicol is drifting away from her.

Add in a mysterious Catarina double and a curse and you've got a much more interesting route than Geordo's. It keeps you on your toes. The correct choices are not always obvious.

I do think the witch/curse plotline was rushed, and the way they come into the information that saves the day is a little too easy. My biggest gripe is that this route didn't have to involve Nicol at all. If the point was to make Geordo jealous because Geordo resembles the prince who slighted the witch, then it didn't have to be Nicol who was affected. It would have been so easy to have Nicol be the distant relative of the prince or something and make it a role only he could play.

I also didn't get why Rozy confessed in this route. He's so nice to you and it was really heartbreaking to have to reject him. I guess the point was to allow Catarina to realize her feelings for Nicol are special, but I don't think this needed to come at the expense of Rozy's feelings. This doesn't happen in any other route. And now I have to deal with the fact that Rozy probably likes Catarina in every route. *cries*

There is also the existential dread when you realize that Catarina's original self (before she regains her memories of a past life) might be locked away inside of her. But let's not think about that lol.

That said, this route was a good length, the pacing was alright, and Catarina actually gets to do a lot, even if the debates inside her head are largely useless. She's an idiot so this checks out.

I love the "good" ending scene with Sophia proudly declaring she will never marry if Catarina becomes her sister-in-law. The Ascart siblings are truly a two-for-one deal and I am living for it. The "happy" ending was also lovely because you get to see Geordo being nice for once, telling Nicol he's glad it was him and not some rando Catarina fell for. Also Nicol's dad loves Catarina so much — it's so cute!

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(Spoilers) Alan Route

Like Nicol, Alan is not supposed to like Catarina, but his angst is even deeper because she's his brother's fiancee AND he has his own fiancee. This is set in a slightly different timeline than the anime, but Alan and Mary still have their agreement where they stay engaged to avoid other attention while knowing they are both in love with someone else (though neither knows they have the same love interest lol) so you get some extra Mary in this route.

Alan and Mary are shown to be great friends who care a lot about each other, which is super sweet. You'll also get some extra Mary backstory and a confirmation that her feelings for Catarina are indeed romantic, and they even sort of get together in one of the normal endings. I really wish she got a proper route.

Anyway, back to Alan. He's the tsundere of the Hamefura world, so of course I was excited to play his route. And his tsundere nature does not disappoint. While his route does explore some fairly typical anime tropes, such as accidental kisses, hiding in closets together, et cetera, Alan's adorable reactions make it worthwhile.

I adore Liliana, the original character who has a super cute design. I found her faith in her husband very sweet, and she's a badass fighter, too.

Alan's route was the best paced out of all I had played thus far, and it builds up to a really nice ending scene where he asks Catarina to forget he confessed to her. Catarina, of course, refuses, and asks Alan to give her time to sort out her own feelings. It was all going so well and I figured it would all resolve in the after ending.

The Alan "good" ending is a total disappointment, so make sure you don't stop there. You find out that while Catarina and Alan have been meeting up secretly at school, there hasn't been any progress in their relationship at all. Catarina hasn't been able to end her engagement to Geordo, and neither Geordo nor Mary take her feelings for Alan seriously. Worst of all, Catarina herself isn't sure if she's in love with Alan or not.

In the "happy" ending, however, he does finally get the girl and their engagement is confirmed. Alan is still treated kind of poorly, however, as you find out Geordo and Mary, and possibly others, have been sabotaging Catarina's chance to confess. Geordo does finally relent, but not without first telling Catarina that he did truly love her. It was a sincere moment but why did it have to come during my lovely tsundere's finest moment? It was kind of a dampener on what would otherwise have been a pretty nice ending. I feel like the makers of this game might have something against Alan.

.

(Spoilers) Keith Route

I left Keith's route for the last of the main cast, because he's probably got the hardest time of all when it comes to romantic chances with Catarina. While they're not biologically related, he is Catarina's brother legally, and Catarina is also the most comfortable around Keith compared to all the other characters. I figured his route would be full of sweet, sweet angst and wanted to play it later.

For storytelling purposes, I'd actually recommend playing Keith's route before Alan's. The main villain in both stories is more or less the same, but you get more on a certain character in Alan's route. Having played Alan's route already, it felt like an oversimplification because I already knew more than I was supposed to.

That said, I have very little criticism for Keith's route. It was romantic, well-paced and, unlike Alan's route, Catarina is decisively into him. She even comes to terms with her feelings BEFORE a confession or any romantic action is taken. I feel like the writers must favor Keith with how well he was treated on his route lol.

Something I really like is that Keith doesn't necessarily reveal that his love is romantic for a long time. Like, WE know it is, but you're left wondering if he thinks he's just got really brotherly feelings. But after he accidentally goes for a kiss, you get this really nice introspection where he straight up says "I've been in love with her since I was 8 years old." And you realize he's been serious the entire time and just trying not to act on it. It made my heart flutter~

I had thought him being her adoptive brother might have factored into it, but not really. Catarina isn't bothered by it. Geordo lets Keith have her, and their parents are actually thrilled that their children are marrying each other haha.

In the "happy" end, everyone is a bit mean first though. Upon seeing them together, Mary cries, Alan and Sophia are like "be happy I guess, you weirdos" and Geordo is fuming. Only Maria and Nicol are able to contain their disappointment enough to congratulate them properly. It was kind of a bummer. I actually liked the "good" ending better.

Rozy is sus as hell on this route, which made me excited to play his route next.

.

(Spoilers) Rozy Route

Rozy's route confirms what was hinted at all along — Rozy is yet another childhood friend of Catarina's, and another rival for her affection.

His route was solid, but it felt longer and more like a true ending due to how far it continues past the plot contained within the other routes. I loved meeting his cousin/wingman King Albert and enjoyed how frustrated he made Geordo, my least favorite character.

I thought the final few scenes were a little rushed, and I wish we got a little more out of the endings. Their relationship is still a secret in both the "good" and "happy" endings. You do get a proposal out of the happy end, at least.

What I enjoyed most about this route was his friendship with Silva. We don't get a lot of male bonding in games like these, so I adored how much they care about each other, and how supportive Silva was of Rozy's interest in Catarina. It made me even more excited to play Silva's route.

When you play the common route after Rozy's route, you get a new cutscene where Rozy heartbreakingly reveals he's prepared to get on with his duties and disappear without ever seeing Catarina again. He's so pure T_T

.

(Spoilers) Silva Route

Ahh, Silva. I surprised myself by falling in love with him quickly, even on other routes. He was my favorite character in the game, though I think Keith's route was still the best.

Though Rozy's route reveals most of the main secrets of the game, it made me really excited to play Silva's route last, as he's literally the only romanceable character who isn't already in love with Catarina. She has to earn his love by being an adorable idiot, which of course comes naturally to her.

I really enjoyed how this route utilized some very classic anime situations, only to have Catarina's ditziness turn them in a different direction.

For example, the first time she sees Silva upon entering his route, he's half naked and getting changed. Instead of having Catarina do the usual anime girl "kyaa!" and blush furiously, she instead immediately assumes Silva is a cosplayer. Similarly, he attempts to seduce her several times by coming close to her and pushing her down, but she doesn't understand he's coming on to her at all, quickly diffusing the situation. He's never had that happen before, so he takes an interest in her.

Silva's route is a classic slow burn, which I adored. The romance in this route felt very natural. Catarina realizes Silva is kind, despite attempting to appear forceful, and starts to feel safe around him. Meanwhile Silva continues to be amused by how unique Catarina is. It takes quite a while for those feelings to develop into romance.

The final confrontation with Silva's longtime enemy was a little rushed, but I enjoyed Silva agonizing over telling Catarina about his past. Rozy notices this too, and he's just as good a wingman to Silva as Silva is for him in his route. Man, I adore these two so much. Their relationship is so genuine and wonderful! Make sure to check out the memory log at the end for the backstory on the sketchbook, because it's never explained in the main game.

Silva's route was pretty solid. In the "good" ending, he never directly says he loves Catarina — only teases her and kisses her enough to make her realize it herself. The "happy" ending though ... man, Silva cleans up nicely! It was so cute seeing him in princely clothes, having officially become adopted into Rozy's family and learning high society just to be worthy of Catarina. He even breaks his composure a little bit because he's embarrassed, which is the fun of flirty characters like Silva.

Overall, Silva's route was lovely, and I think it should definitely be played last.

#otome game #otome review #review #hamefura #hamefura pirates #doom flag #all routes lead to doom #pirates of the disturbance #my next life as a villainess #catarina claes

[jejushipbracket]

hello op! i know m/f ships are banned here, but i would like to plead the case for harry du bois and dora ingerlund from disco elysium. yes harry is horribly misogynistic to dora in how he describes her. yes harry idolises her to the point of comparing her to the in-world jesus named dolores dei. yes the whole schtick of the ship is in the class differences between harry and dora becos harry is working class and dora is middle class (spawning the eternal question: are women bourgeois?) and dora got to up and leave their hellhole (loving) of a homeland when he couldn't!! yes class warfare is a major theme of discoE. yes /end propaganda. no worries if u do not wish to add them but in my heart they are a jeju.

I appreciate your enthusiasm, anon! Not being in the jeju poll doesn't mean your ship can't be jeju. And there can be straight jeju (to my friend Lilly who said Makoto Yuki/Aigis are jeju... your brain...), but the point of the poll is to point out toxicity between queer pairings as a parallel to JeJu, which is notoriously Yaoi. (I can't quite formulate a more serious sentence that says the same with better words.)

If you'd really like to be reductionist about it, the bracket in of itself could just be reduced to 'toxic yaoi/yuri, but also doomed and also betrayal'.

If there is enough calls for it however, I wouldn't mind running a post-bracket extra round with Straight JeJu, but keep in mind due to the general [waves hands ominously] Thing About Heteronormativity they may be held to a little more scrutiny. The blurb on the poll post isn't only silly but it does quite hold a little more truth to it.

Sorry! But I DO think more people should play Disco Elysium. And also kiss Kim Kitsuragi on the mouth.

#mod tox #not a poll #ask #jeju #the thing about settling down rules is that usually you can't cover every edge case #or some rules may seem obnoxiously restrictive #but i promise that this poll is for everyone to have fun and also enjoy more media and shipping to interact with #and also i personally see the general yaoifulness of jeju not only as a small part of a men-loving-ppl history/awakening/scripture/etc #as a whole queer thing and usually it doesn't mesh well when applied to M/f ships #i don't know if i'm being clear about this....

[ninamodaffari]

re: the little guy

when & how did he get horns! is there any particular meaning behind his forehead design &/or why it changed? how is he doing on a spiritual level, what are his hobbies and his least favorite drink, does the color red have any particular meaning to him (lots of red in his design), and why does he adventure/risk his life on the reg

OH BOY FANTASTIC QUESTIONS.

yuri got his horns from his patron as a 'gift' and a show of his power. preface: he was having an emotional breakdown because of his boyfriend at the time, a tiefling named valour, who was being a bit of a dick. Yuri wanted to return back to his former gangleader (the devil you know), but his Patron was basically like 'lets not do that and as a bonus here's some horns -- you always were horny, hehe)

for his forehead tattoo! the original design of the anchor and dot was put there by his former gang-leader of the Doomed Orphans. it represented the anchor that would all drag them down to the depths of oblivion one day, and the single dot represented the orphan, alone. after he killed said former abuser, his friend took him to a tattoo artist to have it redone, symbolically. it's an abstract shape, but represents expanding wings and rising above previous turmoil!

spiritually...yuri is...in a tough spot. His Patron is a literal devil, wanting to remake Yuri in his image (aka lawful evil). Yuri is decidedly not that. at his core, Yuri's a good kid who has been put through the ringer of bad experiences. he makes bad decisions and is mischievous and chaotic, I would peg him as chaotic good at best and chaotic neutral at worst.

hobbies: woodcarving, worm farming, general arts & crafts, taking care of his pet rat and ferret, sex..........

least favorite drink: water anything too sweet, like hot chocolate, would probably turn him off

red is a primary color I use in him to represent his devil patronage! it's also just Yuri's favorite color (and mine), and he would argue that it's a good color to hide bloodstains

AND to why he risks his life on the regular and do adventures? because he would be dead if not for his friends, and he loves doing this with them. before he was alone and had no one else, but now he has a boyfriend, a career, an education, and a future.

thank you soooo much for all the questions!!! <3 i am truly grateful

#tinfoil-dragon #yuri galkin #dnd ocs #dnd asks #yuri asks

[kibasniper111]

it's the last day of lesbian visibility week, so here's a few lesbian headcanons!

franke realized she liked girls when she was real, real little. she just didn't have any interest in boys. she always wanted to be around girls and be liked by them. kitty is her first girlfriend, and she feels really special when they're together. she feels like kitty picked her out of every other girl in camp. i do think this earns lili's frustration because she used to be close with kitty, so there's a bit of jealousy at play, and franke has picked up on it a little.

frazie and norma lesbian realness. personally, i like aro lizzie who doesn't care much for gender or using labels, but she does have preference for girls. back to the teen lesbian duo, though, i love that they're somewhat classic opposites attract because frazie still has so much baggage to unpack about her own internalized psy-phobia. i don't think they'd be close during that first summer, especially since frazie is more of a wild card, and norma, now a junior agent, is aspiring to become a full-fledged "drop the junior" agent. they're stubborn! they're snide! norma's hitting her with a smile that oozes smugness, and frazie knows she can just fling her like a rubber band, but fine, she wants smug? she wants cocky? frazie has that in spades. (also, she isn't that miffed about the hazing deal as i think people headcanon her to be - she practically rolls her eyes when raz says she can defend him or whatever during her dialogue tree. she'd be a little annoyed, yeah, but nothing like, 'ohh, you guys are the worst, and i'm gonna pelt you all with acorns the size of your heads, if you don't say sorry.' raz would be embarrassed because those are his friends, and he doesn't need a sorry because they've taken him under their wing! they like him! he's a cool li'l dude!) but what makes frazie and norma so interesting to me is that they can bring out different sides of each other. norma is proud to be psychic, proud to be an agent, and she can show frazie that there is joy in being a psychic. frazie can help norma leave her carefully cultivated shell, get messy, be a little rebellious (reasonably! because norma is not risking her job). also, raz would make the most disgusted faces at them. it's his personal hell. goodbye, razputin.

cassie and gloria are old women yuri. i think cassie's affection for lucy is unrequited. she simply doesn't feel the same, and cassie internalized that, especially since she went decades without having her answers. lucy loves her, but it's not the same as what cassie desired. it's a bygone love, and cassie has learned to move on - and so has gloria! she dealt with so much comphet throughout her life and her personal tragedies. she had affairs with men and women, and realizing she's a lesbian later in life was freeing. i think they'd have a sweet romance, something comforting and filling of their gaps.

and speaking of comphet, the camper queen of it - elka. what can be said about her? she's beholden to her foresight. she believe whatever horrors the future shows her. it will come true. it's happened for all the dooms. so, seeing herself with nils is like a sentence. she will be with him, and since she's become that entwined with fate, she's determined to at least make herself happy in their relationship, even when she's forcing it on him, and nils is clearly wanting out (though, nils isn't exactly innocent, either). she moves to the flow of the waves, so her big moment is saying no to the future, realizing that she needs to grab her own happiness instead of nodding along to the insistence of her visions. i think she'd realize she prefers girls when she's older (twenty-something? maybe mid to late twenties) since her childhood and teenage years are spent being "boy crazy" and "spiraling in depression," as written by her therapist. (at least dogen is good soundboard when she needs to vent! he thinks she's being dramatic, but gets that she's going through a lot and tries to help, though his advice often goes through elka's ear and out the other.)

#i have more but i wanna finish up a fic for another event #franke #norma #frazie #cassie #gloria #elka

[moonstone-vibe]

Fic writer (of doom) interview :))

Thank you @melodious-tear for tagging me! 🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰🐰

How many works do you have on AO3? - 83 (whaaaat? :)) okay, but I started writing some 15 years ago)

What’s your total AO3 word count? - 1,462,003. Like I said. And to quote that meme, 'some may be good, some may be shit'

What are your top 5 fics by kudos? - 1. Age of Astaroth (Ao no Exorcist | Blue Exorcist), 2. You don't need a (fucking) quirk (僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia), 3. Are we still playing (Haikyuu!!) , 4. Compensation (Haikyuu!!), 5. Reactive (Hetalia: Axis Powers)

Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? - ALWAYS!!! And I also put lots of hearts and bunnies and whatnot, for mysterious reasons. But seriously, I love comments, and not just positive feedback. It means my work has caused a reaction with the reader, stirred some emotion. I'm always grateful.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending? - hmm, I guess the angstiest would be Resentful (陈情令 | The Untamed (TV), 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù) , but Bai Lin's lament (琉璃 | Love and Redemption (TV)) is quite sad too. But usually I avoid angsty/sad/unhappy endings and strive to give my characters at least some silver lining if not a fully happy ending. I'm a sucker for happy endings, me.

What’s the fic you’ve written with the happiest ending? - The Embrace of Death and the Kiss of Life (Soul Eater). This immediately comes to mind

Do you write crossovers? - I was about to say never, but in fact I recently wrote one. For smut purposes only :)))

Have you ever received hate on a fic? - I have received the abundant pleasantries of the infamous Guest reviewers back when I was active on fanfiction.net, but those people either had a problem with the sacred guidelines or were just there to troll but never related to a fic itself. On AO3 there was the very dedicated XiYao troll, but again, they had a problem with the pairing in general rather than with my fics.

Do you write smut? If so, what kind? - I wrote both het and BL, but only BL was ever fully explicit (influenced by my absolute shifu sectionladvivi/Daniel May. I'm hardly on his level though). I never wrote yuri and I wouldn't either.

Have you ever had a fic stolen? - I don't think so.

Have you ever had a fic translated? - Yeah, Rise of the Emerald Princess (Soul Eater) was translated and that person also asked me if they could write a prequel one-shot/spin off. I was beyond flattered, you guys!

Have you ever co-written a fic before? - I have, but just once. I'd like to give it a try sometime, but it's a commitment. Maybe a one-shot.

What’s your all-time favorite ship? - When it comes to ships, my muse is as faithful as an incubus, I have no control over this thing, you get the picture. So, no. Why settle on a fave anyway? :))

What’s a WIP that you want to finish but don’t think you ever will? - I will strive to finish all my WIPs (I have like 2 :))) Normally when a fic is hopeless, I just delete it.

What are your writing strengths? - that sometimes I can write :)))))

What are your writing weaknesses? - that I have no control over my muse whatsoever and that includes long periods 'on the dry'

What are your thoughts on writing dialogue in other languages in a fic? - it's cool as long as it's a language I have at least some vague knowledge of. Walter Essner speaking French is everything :)))

What was the first fandom you wrote for? - Inglorious Basterds

What’s a fandom/ship you haven’t written for yet but want to? - nothing comes to mind right now...

What’s your favorite fic you’ve written? - hmmm, can't decide between Boy in gold silk (陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)) and White man's coffin (陈情令 | The Untamed (TV)) 

tagging @estbela @starsmadeinheaven @doodlin-moons , @someone-you-do-not-know , @coffeewithcutcaffeine, @roseszirnheld and anyone else who might want to give it a try ;)

#me as a writer (of doom)

[klownedmilk]

I'm exhuastwd tired and dying so here are my design notes + some headcanons for the new crew before I forget them

The bellhop

- weird little freak, love him.

- Based of a whale and somewhat a jelly fish to parallel the fact my manager design is based off a shark

- the staff don't need to eat but whenever they do eat, the bellhop filter feeds,

- reverse hand pin because he's the "help"

- LITERALLY melts. Put him a hot room for too long and you'll come back and find some meaty goop

- smartest of the new staff, just extremely arrogant, making him unable to really get a point accross to anyone he doesn't like

The concierge

- Based off a dove, idk if I'm gonna change his uniform to be white but I know this looser absolutely has softer features

- My brain really goes to a few things for style, some weird combo of "god he doesn't know how to dress" but Gomez Adams and "why does he know how to dress" but beetle juice

- I am a firm believer in all the staff have animal like traits, in which I present

- upside down heart pin

- Organized and clean and probably definitely disturbs guests, lacks to ability to personally connect with much.

- I need to relisten to the new crew episodes but I think it's funny if Hop and Cierge hate each other but are also most fond of each other

"You're very good at your job but man I want to sock you in the mouth"

Old crew Doomed Yuri vs new crew doomed yoai (please labatomize me)

The auditor

- well I'm pretty sure it's canon that she's in love with the hotel, if not. It is to me. (Her 🤝 the owner. Lesbians with HORRIBLE taste.)

- Based off a fly to parallel the lobby boy(I'm pretty sure it's already canon that she's fly like. But I also have my own reasons)

- short motherfucker.

- reverse brain pin.

- honestly not much to say except unlike my owner design her wings aren't pinned to her back all the time

- concave brain. Has no idea she's concave brain. My favorite girl ever.

#the hotel podcast #the concierge #the bellhop #the auditor #headcanons

[vampkomori]

im watching The Magical Revolution of the Reincarnated Princess and the Genius Young Lady and it makes me go insane so i have to write about my feelings on it and twts dead and the character limit is not enough so im doing it here

im going insane. it is that good. heres why 1. its yuri (literally) and 2. ITS A GOOD ISEKAI.

i watch a lot of isekais (unfortunately. i enjoy the concept bc a lot can be done with it Very many Interesting things can be done with it but all of them are shitty harems or a carbon copy of one another and. its tough out here.) and this is like one of . a handful. that actually. LIKE. ITS GOOD. ITS A GOOD ISEKAI YOU DONT GET MANY OF THOSE

i still havent explained why its good. basically heres a lesson on current isekai culture(?) (<- guy that cant get to the point)

theres exactly 2 kinds: one is the male fantasy where a guy reincarnates into a fantasy world and gets all the waifus. the second is the relevant one, the Reincarnated Villainess Trope which is SOO LOADED YOU DONT GET ITTT

the reincarnated villainess, to my knowledge, started with My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom aka hamefura (the jp abbreviation, henceforth refered to as such) and summarized, its about a girl that reincarnates into a fantasy otome game as the games villainess and bc the girl is a weirdgirl she basically derails the plot by being weird funny and endearing and everyone falls in love with her and she has a harem consisting of boys AND girls (in the first season. the girls side is unfortunately not taken seriously afterwards) 

and magirevo (The Magical Revolution of the Reincar- you get the gist. isekai names are long) is very similar in that the protag is a #weirdgirl but theres no harem this time and its gay for real.

where was i. basically hamefuras Thing is that its a “subversion” of the “villainess is put on trial by the crown prince who publicly annulls their engagement and accuses her of wronging the otome protagonist and also sometimes shes either killed or exiled” trope except its not a real trope. bare with me this is hilarious. its not a real trope but everyones feels like it is bc it feels familiar but there isnt a single existing example of this trope, its like a fake trope. theres certainly villainesses especially in older animes, but otome games very rarely ever even had a rival and this specific situation has literally never happened. just a fun fact. this is irrelevant to the discussion. but ill call it the fake villainess trope bc its not real but every villainess isekai “subverts” it. theyre subverting a fake trope. thats great. i could write an essay about this (already has)

anyway2.0 the point is there are literally so many. SOOOO MANY manhwas/mangas that base their story off this fake trope. some subvert the subversion some kinda follow it some deviate a lot more etc. but there always tends to be some flavour of “villainess is put on trial by the crown prince who publicly annulls their engagement and accuses her of wronging the otome protagonist (and also sometimes shes either killed or exiled)"

magirevo does this as well but in such a roundabout way you dont realize its doing the trope until its happening bc the protag, the crown prince’s elder sister, entirely does her own thing. she invents magic technology and tries to fly and tries to gain magic bc she doesnt have magic etc. so she Literally crash lands into the villainess’ trial and, in a fit of writing brilliance which i can only describe as bordering on genius, only vaguely implies that she knew it was going to happen (aka that the world shes in is a game) and literally whisks the villainess away on a whim (which in this case isnt even a villainess, shes never portrayed as one and shes not misunderstood, but as previously mentioned this is a common trope and euphy would be in the position of the villainess here) and now come the insane parts

euphy (stand-in “villainess”) is shown to have the worries/anxieties/issues that, logically, the villainess in the trope would have. i have to derail again for context on why its brilliant, the fake villainess trial trope in its most pure form is that the villainess was for real bullying the FL (the “female lead” of the otome game) and the FL/crown prince reveal this in public for revenge, in this the FL/prince are in love and portrayed as the side thats in the “right”. in the subversion of this, its literally flipped. the villainess is Wrongfully accused by the prince and “FL” (who at this point is no longer the protag of the story, but still is the protag in the original otome game which the reincarnated person.. knows about.. its getting complicated) who team up to, for never explained reasons, publicly ruin the “villainesses” image (my personal input would be that its so the engagement can be annulled more easily, its kinda like divorce where its easier if you can prove the other person was cheating. sort of. also palimony. there is technically one specific subversion that has the reincarnated person be a lawyer who helps the villainess get palimony- im getting carried away. i read a lot of these)

lost my train of thought. um. so the FL/prince are sometimes portrayed as antagonists in opposition to the “villainess”. who the reincarnated person even is kind of varies, sometimes its the villainess, and even then it depends on When in time she reincarnates (its not always since childhood) since some reincarnate during the moment of the trial, and in those the villainess was Actually a villainess, and the now-reincarnated-villainess (a wholly new person) takes this as an opportunity to do her own thing and rebuilds her life (whether in exile or not) but sometimes the reincarnated person is someone entirely unrelated to the trope, and in those cases the villainess in the trope is intead portrayed as a proper royal lady who follows etiquette very very closely. her “bullying” is mostly just telling the FL that it is inappropriate for her to spend a lot of time with the crown prince since Shes his fiance, and seeing him with another girl is very bad for his image. ultimately, the villainess is a kind person and is wrongfully humiliated/accused. magirevo does this, euphy is the perfect rule-abiding proper royal lady who only ever wanted to do right by her family and do what her father said (due to this her and her fathers relationships is strained, the anime actually touches on it . and parents are not given depth or show remorse in these things usually) so once shes whisked away by anis (magirevo protag) she suddenly doesnt have to fulfill any responsibility, has any expectations to fulfill, and is just told to do what she likes and what makes her happy, and she is not handling it well. once youre used to being ordered around and have etiquette ingrained into you its hard to just do what you Want to do and it becomes even more difficult to be able to Tell what you want to do. its very good.

anis is also an incredible protag but her whole deal isnt based on any sort of trope, so i wont go into it this time (also bc im only 5 episodes in and her thing is definitely going to span over the whole 12 eps so. refraining from commenting too early) but her BROTHER??? LETS GO TALK ABOUT HER BROTHER

as ive so eloquently and elaborately x paragraphs before (making fun of myself), the crown prince is portrayed as either the good side or the antagonistic side depending on writer, but ultimately tends to be a very paper thin one-note cardboard character that only exists for villainess angst and to hate him. which is a real shame bc theres clearly a lot of room for elaboration on motivation and just general. Potential. for a good arc. like, for real. the basic trope is just about the crown prince disgarding his fiancé for the (commoner) FL and thats it, but nobody??? sees the actions for what they are??? and magirevo does . its that the crown prince goes against his fathers wishes, against the rules imposed upon him by his royal blood and Does What He Wants and wants to be with the person he loves regardless of their status or his. thats good. thats insane. how has nobody banked on this. stocks are rising. so algard (magirevos crown prince) is that. he disregards the royal familys rules and wants to defy his fate, wants to be with the commoner girl he loves and is generally a very self-righteous person, which is used as the explanation for Why he accuses euphy in public, he thinks hes in the right for it (theoretically, bad means for good goals) and basically its portrayed as a sort of naiveté, bc hes the younger brother of anis, and still thinks the world revolves around him. zero consideration for others, doesnt think of consequences, gets manipulated by older nobles who use his self centric thinking against him, that sort of thing. plus hes a FOIL!!!! TO THE VILLAINESS!!! where the villainess is forcibly ripped from her responsibilities and now gets to live a life where she can do whatever she likes despite not having wished for it, the prince is forced to stay in his role as the crown prince and actively tries to go against the expectations placed upon him and cannot leave Despite Wishing For It (the “leave” in this case meaning the societal expectations, though its unclear if he still wants to inherit the throne at this point) and even Better, his actions and personality were entirely shaped by his sister, the protagonist, they used to be close as children with similar interests, but once anis invented magical technology (due to her knowledge from reincarnation) theres a growing rift between them bc shes heralded as a genius for her talents, and hes considered talentless. and even ! though ! anis is aware of this, and even revokes her right to the throne so that he can become ruler instead. theres so many misunderstandings in this royal family its insane. its the good kind of messy family drama. nobody knows how to talk to each other.

so im going insane bc isekais arent usually good or give any depth to characters and i feel like ive been given catnip. watch magirevo if you like weirdgirls and lesbians and like to see the fake villainess trope be explored in depth w motivations. yahoo

#k.txt #talkative. once i get going i keep going. #90% is just context explanation bc even though my thoughts are not broadcasted live to anyone. i have to explain things #brain flaw. idk if this is even coherent. im excited about something being good for once #<-enjoyer of otome isekais

[sicklyseraphnsuch]

*crying, throwing up conspiracy charts*

What if the yuri was doomed?? I know it's a cliche but what if like Candy Queen's boy crazy was her magic madness warping Bonnie's initial desire to be that perfect honor student and it was self imposed heterosexuality.

It does not escape anyone's notice that most of her marriage fantasies lead to some kind of doomed ending because she could never picture herself living forever tied to a man.

But way before the Mushroom War, like let's say the 80s or the 90s, she was falling in love with Marceline, and they were just about to make that final leap into becoming the couple they were always meant to be. When in one of their fights, Marceline tells her:

"Well, if you're such a perfect and pretty princess, then why don't you have a Crown?"

And then cha ching! Cursed! 1000 years and a Mushroom War.

Marceline gets transported into the future when Candy Queen gains lucidity enough to confess. So what's a doomed yuri to do but jump through the portal - not fully understanding what she's doing but desperate to save Bonnie.

Aaaah...

#Nah #I don't have a good enough handle of Bonnie's character #no tags for this post #Keep it secret #Keep it safe

[space-diablo]

Okay! Specially for @elmaxlys As promised - about Kuon getting her body back or in this essay I wil- As I said already - I do want her to get it back and I do not at the same time. First of all I should remind about some headcanon thing I have - to be specific that she actually HAS enough powers to create a new body for herself, but has no real motivation to get to this powers. Like a limit she made deep inside her mind maybe even not realising it. Also let's not forget that she can just take a body of any emotionless mask and use it as she wants - but she's not doing it. Seems like she is VERY COMFORTABLE as bodiless spirit. Now let's go.

I don't want her to take Senya's body. Let's not talk about ethic, just storybuilding. Senya played his role in the story. He's walked his path from getting to the realm to giving some characters more trauma (in a short of course). His own story has ended. And I see only two possible conclusions for him - to wake up in the very end or to stay like he is (and his body to die after all). Let's be honest the first one is very likely impossible. We lost the boy. Let him be the beacon for other characters to lose their minds for good to go further. And pay him some respect as character. He earned it. Reusing his body that way will ruin HIS story. He deserved to rest in peace.

Then. I don't want her to take Zeon's body as well. The more I read TSA and looking at clones the more I enjoy how our dear clones while being so different from their originals still share some behavior patterns and somehow originals fates too. Rika and TSA!Juo both walked through some kind of realisation in the critical moment. Nise-chan and Mayu has a moment of "losing" themselves (in their case reversed since for Mayu it was actually back to her functions for a moment but we about the pattern). Yuri and Tenma are fighting with all their might - survive no matter what... Even look at the Third Stage who acts by his own will in his last moments (I am not thinking about his death as a spoiler for the future- well I AM). With other clones as I remember also kind of works. And Kuon and Zeon... You see where am I going? I think Zeon has low chances of surviving after that wound. Or if she will survive - she will stay herself.

So... Now let's back to Kuon and her abilities. Honestly, I think we need VERY VERY VERY special circumstances for her to really get herself a new body. And... I have and AU for every version of it that comes to mind time to time. So yes there're A LOT of AUs and only one of it is lovely and "happy" (you that one). In other cases circumstances are not so peaceful- You know how I always want to se her destroying everything in her way for her goal- So me wanting her to get a body is mostly just to please my heart of the shipper and character enjoyer.

And now to the most SWEEEEEET part. We are back to storybuilding or why I do not want her to get a new body at all. Let's see... I mentioned already that seems like she's pretty comfortable as just a spirit. And also... Also she already has a body who willingly serves her as a vessel or a host. I really love the concept of Kuon and Sniper stay as they are now... and slowly becoming One Creature. As he's losing his sanity bit by bit (and he is) she's "consuming" his mind. Not on purpose. More like... naturally just because staying to long in one brain. Losing sense of... self identity. Emotions. One body with two souls which cannot be divided anymore because they are one. The Judges. Calm and cold. And insane. But still keeping the last piece of humanity deep deep inside. And also doomed. If the story has an END they will not survive. Because this creature will not be functional in the normal world. I am just squeaking like an idiot every time I think about it. But let's be honest such thing we will not get... even if it's in my opinion very lovely thing from storybuilding and plot points of view.

And here I stop.

#I could write more and more detailed but it's HARD for me to organise thoughts and now is even harder that usual #feel free to ask for more #i haven't reread it typos might be there #tenkuu shinpan #tenkuu shinpan arrive

[dmclemblems]

You are so nice to Lonato. After Hopes he lost all points from me as he had the gall to guilt trip Ashe into surrender because he "doesn't want to lose another son" when he didn't give a shit about that when he raised his army.

And can't forget about his wonky theory of "betraying once is ok for you can blame it on the other side but betraying twice will doom your fame so it's unacceptable", and how he would praise Rowe as wise to keep siding with the Empire to "hold on to the pride of a traitor" but will lament if he eventually "turned over" to the Kingdom. In reality it's just him dragging others down with his personal vendetta and not to mention it was his thoughtless action caused Rowe to be in such a bad position in the first place. Acting all righteous and honorable as he wish, can't change the fact that he's just a hotheaded traitor helping invaders to conquer his own country.

Tbh yeah lol I probably am a bit lenient on him out of respect for Ashe and the way Ashe frames him in Houses. Like, the whole idea in general that he adopted a child who was stealing from him and even took in the boy's two siblings (so he literally just adopted three small children when he could've had them all probably thrown in a cell or some shit) is one of the main things that keeps him from dropping for me.

One of my main issues that stops me from liking him more is the way he raised an army and how he targeted the monastery/was heading there in Houses despite knowing full well that he had a son there. The way he handles things makes it seem like he loves his blood son more than his adoptive son, and it's even worse when in Hopes you have him guilt trip Ashe (especially in SB), and then you have Gwendal of all people tell Yuri to be careful out there and whatnot later on in AG (who, as far as we're to understand in Houses, didn't even have a good relationship with Yuri after they had a falling out after Yuri was enrolled in the academy).

A big difference between Lonato and Rodrigue to me, both as fathers living in Faerghus, is that Lonato seems to favor one of his sons. Rodrigue has both his sons and basically treats Dimitri as an adoptive son (and Dimitri reciprocates this seeing him as a second father), and Rodrigue doesn't, like Houses fans used to say (don't know if they still do), treat any of his children as caring for one more than the others. To me that's how it should be, and it leaves a sour taste in my mouth to consider any parent favoring one of their children over another, and more of a sour taste when it feels a lot like it's the adoptive son who always gets the short end of the stick (and forget Ashe's siblings, Lonato doesn't even seem to spare half a thought for them).

It really confuses me in a way because he seemed to cherish Ashe a whole lot. He taught him to read and that kind of thing takes time and patience. Kids rarely pick up on things like that just... quickly and intuitively; especially in a time period where peasants weren't taught to read growing up (growing up learning things makes them easier to learn, but once you're older it can be a lot harder to take these things in). Then Ashe got into the Officer's Academy? Like... there are definitely things about Lonato/things he's done for Ashe that I respect so I don't ignore those things when I think of how I feel about him... but he's also done equally shitty things including being willing to cut Ashe down and refuse to hear him out just because "rhea bad catherine bad my poor son" (conveniently ignores that Ashe is also his son).

For sure, I agree with you about betrayal. To me betraying someone once is still a betrayal no matter how you frame it. If he had legitimate reasons to do it like say Dimitri was a tyrant or something, I'd let that slide. It's different when you betray your entire land and sworn duty because "rhea bad" and he doesn't agree with Dimitri shielding the Church, thus making Ashe guilty of association in his eyes because in Hopes Ashe is a royal knight.

For example, in GW you hear about three lords who tried to flee Leicester because they didn't agree with Claude's actions. That's justified in the way all of his comrades are questioning his decisions and behavior. It's not to say Claude is the worst person ever and like, forcing heavy taxes on his people and making them suffer, but they had very legitimate concerns that made them want to flee to Faerghus. They were more or less just... out of the picture after that when they couldn't do so. They just stayed out of it. Imo if Lonato wanted to stay out fighting in support of Faerghus out of his hatred of the Church, he could have just said hey look I don't want to support Rhea and I don't want to take part in this war either way so I'd prefer to stay behind and just defend my lands if it comes to that. Instead he just decided "dimitri bad" because he was forced between the Empire and the Church, the latter of which his land and people had a very good relationship with. Then of course there's "ashe bad" because he's Dimitri's knight.

"Hold on to the pride of a traitor" is so funny to me ajkfhksjgdk. LIKE HOW CAN YOU HAVE PRIDE WHILE CALLING YOURSELF A TRAITOR "i betrayed everything that mattered to me and i am PROUD of it! -puffs chest victoriously-" like okay guys... okay...

Yeah see I don't like Rowe either but Lonato really did put him in a shitty situation, as well as Gwendal, simply because he had a grudge. He brought tons of others into it and like, yes, I understand he can't forgive them for what happened to Christophe, but he can't blame Dimitri for that and he should absolutely not be putting Ashe in that position. Also, the Western Lords DID have a hand in the Tragedy, so if Christophe truly was uninvolved, now it really doesn't look good for him because now it makes it look more likely that he was. If he was truly innocent, all Lonato served to do in his memory is make him look more guilty of treason imo.

Lonato should have found another way to plead his case, and really imo he should've taken his anger out on the Western Lords for being the ones to cause so many problems in the first place. Faerghus was a mess after Lambert died and the Church only took any authority over executions because there was nobody who could do it in Faerghus. The Church basically stepped up to help them because if they hadn't, Faerghus would've remained in shambles. They had to make a decision like any other modern day court case, with nobody really truly honestly knowing who was innocent and who wasn't. Lonato should have been angry at the lords who made it look like his son was involved, because if they hadn't done what they did then Christophe wouldn't have been a suspect. I'm not even sure how they/Catherine came to that conclusion, so either he was involved or the lords somehow managed to make it look like he was, possibly as a scapegoat. Catherine also mentions in Hopes that Christophe was a classmate of hers, so she wouldn't have turned him in unless she was absolutely certain he was involved, either because she had proof or she had scapegoat "proof"

I feel like Lonato was a lot like Matthias in the whole, he was a good and honest man until he lost a family member and then became a totally different person. I don't want to discount that he's the reason Ashe became who he became, but the only thing holding him up in my book is literally how much Ashe appreciates him/the things he did for Ashe and his brother and sister.

I guess ultimately Lonato is a mixed bag because of that for me, but he's one of the enemies you fight that once he dies I don't feel pity for him. It's not like Miklan where I feel sorry for him when he dies. Lonato brought his death on himself when he had an out. Miklan has excuses for what he became in Houses and how he got to that point. Lonato just decided that killing his son was worth it if it meant avenging his dead son. I did appreciate how in Hopes he'll mention with his sad portrait that to avenge one son he's sacrificing the other or something to that effect, so I guess he's not totally heartless about it, but it's still such a hard to swallow fact that he'd go through with that at all.

The Western Lords are so nutty, like, Baron Dominic you need to move somewhere else buddy, these people are batshit and you're too sane to be around them.

#Lonato #faerghus character ask?! -eats it up in long post- #DCE Ask

[swannkings]

so i finished s4 of stranger things

my biggest questions:

what happened to the school counselor, max's mom, the hawkins police chief and officer, the other members of hellfire club, the one other henchman of jason's that erica dick kicked, the rest of the sinclair family, dustin's mom?

what happened to dr owens?

what happened to dmitri?

what was the reason lucas' black team mate was yoinked by vecna? if guilt is a factor and none was explicitly given for him, are we to assume it was because he felt terrible being part of a mob headed by a white jesus freak, who can be entirely interpreted as a white supremacist, that was hunting down another black teen?

my biggest issues:

i mean, the racism. the duffers are really good about making racist characters (and even making them somewhat sympathetic) -- having those characters in the time period and setting of the show is fine, however, none of the white characters ever say anything contrary or stick up for the black characters.

as much as i enjoy max and lucas, it's kind of weird max never acknowledged billy being a racist pos and neither did any of lucas' other friends.

i'm still stuck on the part where mike doesn't understand why lucas would want to fit it. LOOK AROUND DUMBASS.

the part where erica is chased down by the white high school boy and held down was stomach turning.

the entire hopper/joyce/russia plot. i can do without anymore russia plot in this show. i can do without prison camps and cold war red scare shit. it's bizarre to have this whole international political sub-plot when the duffers can't bring themselves to acknowledge what was actually happening on american soil.

yuri wasn't a funny character.

the jokes about hopper losing weight because he was imprisoned and starved for months weren't funny.

for some reason poverty seems to be played as a joke on this show. but most of the characters do come from middle-class republican families so that shouldn't surprise me.

the queer quotient:

robin and vickie will probably get together at the very end of the series, if they both survive. or they'll be secretly dating because it's 1986 in indiana, but it'll be funny. homophobia is a lighthearted joke, remember? boobies!

will is a gay teen boy in 1986. i do not expect him to come out to anyone other than jonathan and joyce. i don't think there will ever be a chance of him directly telling mike how he feels. the best i'd hope for is he comes out, mike gives some heartfelt speech about how being different is a gift or something, and then will moves back to california and meets someone new.

worst case scenario: season 5 spells doom and will dies to save the world and no one ever knows he's gay.

mike wheeler being a shit:

he's always been like this.

i kind of suspect mike is a duffer insert.

i have never liked the part where mike clearly has been infatuated with el since s1. it isn't love, it's infatuation. it's a problem the show has and the characters have never been allowed to be self-aware.

like, he literally says he's based everything about his and el's relationship around the fact that she's "special." she has powers, he doesn't. she's cool, he's not. she has no real grasp of being an average kid, he does and she has to rely on him because of it.

mike says he loves el and doesn't notice something is wrong with will because mike isn't a character, he's a device. he has no personality other than being told he's a leader. he has to say he loves el because that's the trope. he has to ignore will because it creates drama.

no offense to finn, but mike is a paper bag puppet and i wish the duffers would let him grow a personality other than being incredibly dense, ignorant, and unintentionally bigoted.

final thoughts:

this whole season was a hate crime. visually appealing, great soundtrack, but insensitive, dismissive, and abusive. more so than previous seasons, and that's including billy "certain type of people" hargrove's whole ass showing in season 2.

i feel like filming in a former nazi prison camp where thousands of jews and rroma were murdered, having a season long plot of a black kid being singled out and culminating with him being at gunpoint of some righteous white guy, and having every character with authority buying into eddie being a satanic murderer long enough to form a mob with the intent of killing him (and the police just stand there with their thumbs up their asses) is appallingly, disgustingly bad.

#sk watch #stranger things #stranger things spoilers #i despise the probability of outtakes from the prison shoots