#This is the same self insert MC design i use for every game

[oddlyenna]

Lucanis x my custom Rook

Love some cute sleepy cuddles.

Bonus : The doodles that started this The duality of a man and his inner demon.

[gacha-incels]

TBH

Looking at the CN gacha space right now, Situation may get even worse with current “有男不玩” ("If there is men, [I] don't play") movement in CN. They basically want devs to kneel to their demand to get rid of female MCs (only male MCs are allowed for self-insert) and all playable males, so "stinky female dogs" (as they refer to female players) stay away from their games. Also they emphasize, that they are "Number One" paying costumers and don't want their money to be wasted on creating content for female playerbase.

And we kinda see that happening ... I guess? correct me if I'm wrong

My friend told me if this goes on : in the next 1 to 2 years, all gacha will be all female cast aka the female players will flock away while incels stay.

Which for me : I doubt it's permanently but i won't be surprised?

Also Why when it comes to gacha incel I see it's always CN and KR? I tought JP had incels? or they're just the least vocal insufferable?

Edit- here’s some more info thx to @megafreelyfuzzystudentthing-blog ! “mixed toilets” is crazy. this type of misogynist gamer male is everywhere they just freak out about different things, while I think their level of hatred and vitriol towards women remains the same.

in regards to if we are seeing that right now, the majority of these games have been created with a male target market in mind for years and I don’t think there’s been an overwhelming change in the market with regards to that. I think even one game like Genshin being very successful and having multiple male banners in a row and male character designs that the men playing hate while being mixed sex is enough for these guys to think they’re “losing” this no girls allowed gacha playground, so they bug out and act like every gacha now has a feminist mandated fanservice male character they release every other patch for women. but because of the overwhelming success of GI, this shows the greater market it’s worth it to invest in getting female fans, and this is what these men are afraid of. this is also why they specifically use Genshin as the “Genshinification” of gacha, meaning adding male characters that appeal to women and making a mixed sex gacha. So in order to deter this from happening any further, they have to cause a big enough ruckus so that studios think “it’s not worth it to have to deal with all of this,” the end goal being gacha remains a separated boy’s club. this is just a basic read of the situation for anyone who is unfamiliar. It’s disgusting the way they talk about women but I think this is also the reason they emphasize how much more money they have and spend. But the way you write about it, do you see them ramping up tactics significantly? I’m interested.

edit lol I just saw this 💀 I would think things like bot spamming and AI use are going to become much more frequent. the second post talks about this so I added it. It’s kind of just gossipy but it talks about botting and the attitudes there. the hate they have specifically for this character is fucking unbelievable. I looked up this story since these guys were fucking losing their minds and everything seemed so benign. but the thing is he’s still used as a main character in stories and events so this type of freakout doesn’t do shit…and it seems like they’re able to remove the bot comments and mass one star reviews after a while anyway? maybe if the company was smaller. when I check the revenue it still seems to be making a huge amount of money

In the next 1-2 years in terms of tech it looks like the trend will be new 3D gachas and more 2D gacha studios transitioning to 3D. for the companies making the switch to 3D I think it could go fine or it will be like what happened to some actors with the transition from silent films to talkies. designs will depend on how much money has been invested and predicted to be made. From what I’ve seen it kind of looks like more of the same, either all female or all female with a couple male characters. this is typical. jiggle physics when a woman breathes like wuthering waves, “feet quality increase update” like snowbreak or another Arknights game you can say is just different than other gachas (jk). none of this looks like a huge shift in either direction but idk i could be totally wrong and something crazy could happen. let me know if I’m missing anything but this is the kind of thing I’ve been seeing.

in terms of this blog, right now it primarily focuses on the South Korean gacha incel phenomenon, I only started looking into this Chinese incel movement wrt gacha because I was able to find a little more information in English and I was curious but it isn’t a focus or mainstay. I haven’t put much here from Japan because I typically don’t check out their social media that much and like China it isn’t a focus, but off the top of my head I remember the FGO fans going after artists on twitter if they didn’t like the way a character was drawn, like sending congratulations to an artist that his father had died and that he deserved it??? After this he deleted his social media I believe, it was the artist for Parvati. Stuff like that. They have that otaku idol culture and I’m not sure if that bleeds into the gacha scene but I would think that would be the type of crossroads where you would find this gacha incel behavior. I hope this was a helpful answer and not just me rambling lol I’m always worried about this

[lynaferns]

Y/N design that I never used

Basically my Y/N idea was having a character that changes siluette every panel/escene, doesn't look the same twice. The thing was that it was going to have so many body and hair variations that I would end up "accidentally" drawing real life people (you) in at least one panel (It could have also been a fun game of pointing out in what panel Y/N looked more like your real self). Sadly I didn't know how to make this work while staying motivated to draw/write.

This guy was going to be originaly the mc in the forest elves AU but I couldn't visualize anything with it in the story. I ended up inserting myself as a placeholder that became the design and personality of the character.

I tried using it for the BIOmáquina AU but the same happened. I couldn't come up with a way of comfortably writing a readerinsert story. If the character is too bland I get blocked, I don't know how to make a character without a face for the readers without making it boring and If I give it a face and traits to make it more enjoyable to write/read it becomes basically an OC.

I don't know maybe I'm overthinking.

The thing is that I've come back to it because maaaaaaayybeeeee I finally had an idea to use it in something that I've been thinking of making an official thing... And again, Y/N didn't work for me.

BUT I HAD A WAY BETTER IDEA FOR READER INSERTIONS that I'm not sure if it would actually work because I need the readers to collaborate with me for this but IT WOULD BE SO COOL IF IT WORKED.

I'm probably not revealing this idea 'till I feel confident with the work done (or a year has passed)

[ad-hawkeye]

HI HELLO MY OTOME BLOG IS A SIDEBLOG SO I AM COMING IN ANON FORM ALSO I HAVEN'T REACHED OUT BEFORE HI!!! THE ARTEM IS ACE HEADCANONS ARE MY EVERYTHING. MY ASEXUAL AND ARTEM STAN ASS LOVES EVERY SECOND OF THIS.

Fr I thought I never thought too hard ab why I headcanon him as ace bc I headcanon almost every character I like as ace (bc I can) but maybe that's why I was so attracted to Artem when I started the game? Like maybe that's why I became such a hardcore stan?

Because the vibes are SO THERE. I say this as a professional ace-spec vibe reader. You also mentioned in the tags of one of the posts that you headcanon him as grey romantic AND I ABSOLUTELY AGREE THE SIGNS AND THE VIBES ARE ALL THERE I LOVE THIS HEADCANON.

I think the most endearing thing for the aces is that he's always just so respectful and sweet and awkward and not pushy at all, as previously stated by other posts. I like to read stories or play otome games and rewrite scenes in my mind to take out any pushiness or sexual implications bc it makes me uncomfy and with Artem I don't have to rewrite it in my mind because he's already ideal. Like he is absolutely the kind of guy to be the most respectful and accepting ever about his partner being ace-spec even if he isn't. And that is so refreshing compared to almost every other otome guy I've read (and I've played a GOOD amount of otome games) where if I were to make a "reasons blank wouldn't date me" thing they would all be "I'm asexual and he's horny" so maybe the reason we gravitate towards Artem is the feeling that he would truly accept us? I don't even self insert in otome games but whenever there's sexual implication there's still that like, painful moment of realizing that the world at large isn't made for a-specs I guess??? And I've never not once had that with Artem. Sorry if that got too deep💀

ALSO SORRY THIS IS SO LONG I'M A HUGE FAN OF YOUR CONTENT AS AN ARTEM STAN THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU DO❤️❤️❤️

!!! HI ANON!!! 💖 oh my gosh we are kindred spirits right down to our otome blogs being our side blogs </3 which. my apologies to anyone reading this for not following back or sending asks. i promise the limitations of a side blog are my sole reason!!

but oh my god YES, i am totally the same with ace headcanons. it isn’t even intentional! it’s just the way i think. i think i was initially drawn to artem because in the first few main story chaps he doesn’t actually do much besides invite her to join nxx and then stand there looking at her awkwardly sometimes.

his personal story locked me in with the advice book and introduction to his soft side. i do have a slight bias for tot’s personal stories and cards over the main story, though, simply bc the main story (by design) can’t “pick a side”, tends to not get mentioned in other stories, and sometimes feels like it was written by a different writing team?

regardless, i’m so happy to hear you agree on the gray-romantic take!!!! i specifically picked gray-romantic over demiromantic because while this is the first time he’s been romantically attracted to someone, he fell for her before there was any notable emotional connection. mc would fit the demi label a bit better me thinks hehe.

as for artem and the ace crack they stashed inside of him, you make really, REALLY good points here. holy shit, actually. i think you nailed it. i never realized JUST how often other otome games made me feel uncomfortable or left feeling like i was ‘different’. same goes for real life, i suppose. hasn’t happened while reading artem’s route though. even the cards with shameless.. er, fan service. they tend to, from what i’ve seen, play artem as the “whatever you want/whatever makes you comfortable” kind of guy, so your point holds really strong.

getting fully personal here, but i think about this a lot. tot is a popular otome game and even though there would be like. rioting in the streets if one of the boys wasn’t sexually attracted to the mc (which in itself is another depressing reminder of how different i am), it doesn’t really change the already released stories that we love. and it ultimately doesn’t matter what artem winds up being - bc like you said, ace vibes aside, artem being “respectful and accepting about his partner being ace-spec even if he isn’t” is genuinely just. such an accurate take. i can’t believe i haven’t thought of it from this perspective before. you’re so right. 

even on the flip side. if he was ace i could see him communicating with a non-ace partner about that whole situation and i just. man. i’ve called artem the antithesis to your typical otome boy as a joke before, and you know. maybe i was onto something, maybe this was the true ace crack all along HAHA.

OH MY GOSH DON’T APOLOGIZE AT ALL!!!! this was such a good read and it makes me so happy to know i’m not the only one in fandom like this 😭 😭 like i know i said this before, but i never actually intended on mentioning this hc bc i was unsure of how people would respond, especially since we all like this game for different reasons and i wanted to respect that, so i’m genuinely like. really really moved and happy HAHA!! i swear i’m gonna cry or something ;; 

AND AAA now you’re gonna REALLY make me cry, thank you for the kind words!!! i’m so happy people like my silly little rambles :’’] sincerely hope you have a wonderful day, anon!!! def feel free to message me anytime !! 💖💖💖

[weirdstuffmagic]

My opinion about uncoven

Alright, so since I finished chapter 1 (yeah, since the first day is actually day 0) I think that I can give a better opinion on this game now. So, what to start with? Hm, maybe the good points?

Right, so I really like the music (you can check it out on youtube) and the artwork, especially the backgrounds. They look amazing. About characters design I would say that I have one complaint – why is the light on them like that? What is it about? xD I really don’t get it, but it looks funny I guess.

About the gameplay – well, it’s the same system as in ML, so you can’t gather more energy points than what you get daily, unless you pay to get more. You know how it works, so yeah. Oh but here we won’t get lost since you can’t go around the mansion as you please, the story leads you.

Next point, the story – To tell you the truth, well at least to me, it’s really boring. It feels like the pace is just, idk, too slow maybe? All we do is talk, talk and talk. We get to talk with other characters soo much that it just pains me that we don’t really get as many interesting infos about them as I’d expect. The conversations mostly go like this „oh, you did this cocktail? I’ts really yummy – Yeah, I did” or „My dad i so bad – Don’t feel sad”. Like, don’t get me wrong, it’s nice that we get to see their daily lives, getting to know them little by little, but it just frustrates me xd And maybe it’s because I expected something else from this, like you know, not reading a whole chapter about everyone’s lifes so much or how, for example, Rose is so against white people and is saying that they are all liars while still believing the crap that her hypnotist said to her about her fears (that her fear of snakes, or trauma if you’d like, comes from her fear of losing her dear ones) and yeah, she didn’t go to a therapist, but to a hypnotist (and when she was a child at that). Good job.

With this one I’m just glad they didn’t make us, the players, believe that this is something legit but at the same time, it’s never said that it’s full of bulls*it. But anyway, moving on

We learn that William is from a rich family, but both of his parents don’t pay much attention to him; Silas is an internet celebrity? Not really sure xd; Kristen has a younger brother and a granny, who is sick; Rose’s mother, an activist (don’t remember well) is like an enemy of Will’s father, who is a politician; Mavka’s father left her family a few years ago and now he came back, so things are awkward; And that Ascian is probably from a lineage of witches, and that his greatgrandpa, grandma and his mother are/were ones (which others think is a lie, since magic in not real and so on).

So all through the chapters there is that one thing that irritates me the most, that it made me hate this one particular character (well, wouldn’t say that it’s real hate, but it’s just more than not liking this one, like what I feel towards few others) – it’s to make this one character to be in the spotlight, the center of everyone’s attention – it’s Mavka. Everyone is just so captivated by her, saying how gorgeuse she is, beautiful, wonderful and so and so on… And on top of that, our MC, Nyx, is just the worst when it comes to saying and/or thinking such things (whether you like it or not) – it’s like we are made to remember how awesome everyone is, and especially this readhead girl… It’s really frustrating that Nyx is made to think that every one of her friends is so special (and it’s even worse that Mavka is probably a self-insert of one of the scenarists, so things like that just make it ever so obvious). Don’t get me wrong, making a character which is like a self-insert isn’t something bad, but while making one, you need to make them something else than… this.

So coming back a little, there is really nothing worthwhile happenning and maybe that’s because it’s only the prologue and first chapter, but I really thought it would be something a little different, after reading posts about this game from their official account on insta. But well, even if it’s like that, since I started playing it, might as well see how it ends (even if it’s gonna take me ages to do…). At least I have fun commenting it with others x’D

If you read it this far, thank you and take care <3 

tl;dr: graphics are nice, game is boring. Will play it for the science and to laugh while hoping there will be less cringy scenes (which probably won’t). Pray for me, please, so I won’t loose my sanity.

[deliberatelyvague]

You Do Deserve It (obey me brothers x fem! reader)

Started: May 16, 2020 at 5:55pm

Ended: May 16, 2020 at 7:01pm

Pairing(s): (obey me brothers x fem! reader) (oc!mc x fem! reader)

Trigger Warning(s): suicide talk, loneliness, being ignored, confrontation, maybe some more.

Author’s Note: hey! I can’t answer your ask since you dm’ed me (which is totally fine 🥰) so I’ll tag you here: @leowillbefine . Also for the fem MC I decided to just insert myself, nothing will really change other than using they/them pronouns 🥰 I hope you like it!

Prompt/Request:

————

The lights of emergency rooms are blinding. You had always been told that, but you never really believed it until you experienced it after you tried to end your own life. The fluorescents were so bright, it was almost as if the doctors wanted you to stay longer because you had ended up blind.

“Hey! You’re finally awake,” a voice came from beside you, and you turned your head to see another figure sitting up on a bed, hunched over what looked to be an embroidery object. “Your parents were just here, but they had to leave because visiting time was over.”

You continued to sit there, looking around the room and the person coughed and leaned over the side of the bed a little bit, spitting into a trash can. You winced a little bit, and they took notice.

“Sorry about that. I guess having your stomach vacuumed will do that to ya,” they giggled a bit before turning back to their embroidery. “My name’s Esther, but that name is too biblical, so I go by Coda. I go by any pronouns, but I prefer they/them. Whatever’s easier for you.”

You continued to be quiet, before looking over at them and seeing what they were working on.

“Oh! Do you want to see what I’m working on? Hold on, I’ll come over,” they offered, and moved over to you, kneeling on the ground beside your bed. “Look, I’m trying to make a flower, but I’m new at this, so I don’t know if I’m doing well.”

“I think it looks good, Coda,” you complimented, and they lit up.

“Really? Thank you,” they cheered, before moving back over to their bed. “I would stay over there, but I got in trouble last time I tried to move around without someone in the room with me.”

“I’m in the room with you, though?” She looked thoughtful for a moment before smiling again.

“Good point, but I don’t want the doctor informing my parents I wasn’t cooperating again,” they explained, and then looked up from their embroidery. “What’s your name?”

You looked over at them, frowning slightly. They could’ve just read the patient info at the end of the bed. Or asked your parents.

“My name’s [Y/N]. Did my parents not tell you?” You asked, and they shook their head.

“Nah, they tried not to look at me much. It probably didn’t help that I was dry heaving when they were in here, anyway,” they answered, putting one final stitch in their work before setting it to the side. “They seemed kind of.. off. Of course, I can’t really judge how I would react if my child tried to take their life,” they thought some more. “What am I talking about? I don’t have children.”

You laughed a little bit, and their eyes lit up. You two sat in silence for a little bit, until you looked over at them. They had been heaving a little bit, but it was gradually becoming less and less as the night went on.

“So,” you started, and they gave you their attention. “You mentioned you and your stomach pumped? Sorry if it’s too personal, but what happened?”

“Oh, it’s fine. I just tried to overdose,” they said lightly, but it held a sad undertone to their voice. “My big brother caught me in the act, but I had taken them already, so he drove me here.”

“Oh,” you mumbled. You didn’t look at them again, and you thought back to earlier that day when you had tried to kill yourself. You two were such different people, it was hard to imagine someone like Coda feeling what you felt, and you felt bad for them. You wouldn’t wish anyone to feel like that, not even your worse enemy. “I also tried to off myself.”

They nodded, smiling a little bit.

“Yeah, but hey! We’re both still here, that has to count for something, yeah?” They offered, trying to cheer you up. “Beside, judging by how they roomed us, we’ll probably be together for a few days.”

After that, the two of you became good friends. You exchanged numbers, and kept in contact, talking often.

But the day that you were transported down to the Devildom, you were filled with sadness. They had taken your phone, so you couldn’t talk to them. You felt dread, but that feeling quickly changed when you met the other exchange student.

It was them, dressed in the same jacket as you, but with a button up, small tie similar to Asmodeus’ and pants. They were talking with Diavolo, about something, but the prince laughed often, which didn’t surprise you. Finally Diavolo’s eyes landed on you, and he pointed to you, and they turned.

A squeal was heard, and you were quickly bear hugged by them.

“[Nickname]! I can’t believe you’re the other exchange student! Fate, right?” They let go of you before assuring Diavolo that you would be well taken care of and that they would personally introduce you to the boys. They sent a jolt of anxiousness through you, and they lovingly put their arm around your shoulder. “It’ll be alright, I’m right here. If those boys even try anything, I’ll let them know what up.”

On the way to the House of Lamentation, they explained to you what you needed to know, and about the brothers, so you wouldn’t have to learn it yourself.

“Yeah, I heard the last exchange student I think their name was.. [MC]? Yeah, they had to learn it all by them self, evidently almost died a couple of times? I dunno, that’s just what I’ve heard.”

You didn’t know what to make of the brothers, they seemed to be pretty doting on Coda, even when they kind of brushed off the advances and tried to get the attention back onto you. They was more frusterated today than you think you had ever seen them, and finally they showed you to your room.

“I hope you don’t mind, but they wanted us roomed separately. Of course, they can’t really stop us if you want to room with me, but-”

“It’s fine, Codes.” They looked over at you concerned.

“You sure?” They asked, and you nodded, opening the door to your plainly decorated room. “Alright well, if you need anything, remember I’m always here for you, ya know?” You nodded again, and they hugged you goodbye. “Oh! Also my room is just down the hallway, the last one on the right. My door is always open.”

With that, they left toward their room, taking off their jacket and shoes, leaving the shoes outside the room. You found that peculiar and remembered to ask about it later, but right now you just wanted to lay in your bed.

This day had been weird enough, and you never dealt with change easily. So you tore off your clothes and changed into some clothes that happened to fit you perfectly and crawled into bed.

———

The boys ingoring you (pretty much) didn’t just happen the first day. It spread into the next day, then the next, almost like an infectious disease you couldn’t stop. You wanted to say something about it, but you didn’t want to be needy. But one day, you didn’t need to worry about bringing it up.

You all were sitting in the lounge room, you sat on one of the big chairs playing a video game you had bought off of Akuzon, and Coda sat between your legs on the ground, continuing the embriodery project they had been working on for the past few days. Now they was sewing leaves and what looks to be a cat.. holding up middle fingers? Anyway, it was calm, with Satan also in there, but reading a book and Belphegor sleeping.

At least it was calm before Mammon and the other brothers came in and started pulling Coda in every which way. Coda was started to get frusterated, before they ripped their wrist from Mammon’s hand.

“Why don’t you guys ever dote on [Y/N] like this? She can get attention from y’all too.” They explained, frusterated at the boys.

“She’s fine, she’s been more than fine in her classes and getting used to RAD,” Lucifer answered as that was the most obvious answer in the universe.

“Plus, she’s kind of quiet, anyway,” Mammon explained more, and Coda’s eyes snapped over to him.

“Shouldn’t that be more of a reason to talk to her? She’s quiet, get to know her,” they scolded. They then looked over at Lucifer. “And how do you think Diavolo would feel if he found out you all were neglecting one of his beloved exchange students?”

Coda grabbed your hand and lifted you up, leading you to the threshold of the room.

“Now, is you’d excuse me, I’m going to spend a lot of quality time with my.. friend, for the rest of the week, or until y’all get your priorities in order.” They declared, before being stopped by Lucifer’s voice. You dug your face in their back, trying desperately to stop the tears from coming. You didn’t really like showing emotions, but you also didn’t really like confrontation, whether it was between you and another person or two people.

“Who do you think you’re talking to with that attitude?” He asked, and Coda’s head whipped around.

“You, Lucifer. I’m talking to you. And Mammon. Each and everyone one of you that ignored her for the first week of her being here, but decided to give me all the attention like she was worth less than me. Which by the way, she isn’t.”

They then turned and led you to their room, locking the door behind them and putting you on their bed. Their room was decorated in greens and blues, a light colors, with books and miscellaneous embroidery designs and threads here and there.

They knelt down to your level after you say down.

“Are you alright?” They questioned, and you nodded, not looking them in the eye. They frowned, and cupped your face, but you smacked away their hand before standing up, hunching over in a corner and covering your face, hiding the rivers running from your eyes.

“[Y/N]-”

“Esther, why did you help me?” They flinched a little bit at that name before telling you that you were their friend, and they couldn’t stand the look on your face anything the brothers would talk to them but not you.

“I don’t like seeing my friends in pain, and they were obviously causing you that. So I put them in their place.”

“Coda, I don’t deserve that. I don’t deserve to be treated like that, I don’t deserve any acts of affection you try to give me, I don’t-”

“I swear to God if you saw one more thing about you not deserving something that you do in fact deserve, I will cuddle you until you realize your worth.” They threaten, crossing their arms over their chest. “[Y/N], you deserve to be treated like how they treat me. And any acts of affection I give you, I give you because you do deserve them.”

You just looked away from them, and you heard them sigh and walk toward you, wrapping their arms around your waist from behind.

“[Y/N], c’mon. Let’s watch some Netflix and cuddle. I need to show you a lot of love to make up for the amount that you’ve been missing out on, obviously.”

———

It’s not needed to be said, but the boys started to treat you a lot better. It’s not like all of them were mean to you, Satan talked to you everyone once in a while before that as well as Asmodeus, Belphie also slept with you in the room occasionally, but the others didn’t really.

Now they included you in everything, and you felt a lot more included, but you sometimes felt like they just let you be there to please Coda. When you felt like this, Coda knew almost every time, and would grasp your hand and tell you to stop thinking like that. Nothing good would come out of it, and that you could rant to them later tonight about what was bothering you.

The rest of the year was great.

————

This was written by me in no way trying to romanticize mental illnesses. I try to write what I feel would help me in the moment. I completely understand that mental illnesses don’t just ‘disappear’ when you’ve figured out that someone loves you or someone helps you once- that’s why I don’t write what happens after in most cases. If you are struggling, please reach out to anyone you trust, or call a hotline.

[arirna]

So, I was one of the ppl who deeply hated f!byleth’s design when it was released but after a while, it grew on me and I actually kind of like it now. So, the game has been out for a few weeks and I’m still seeing ppl complaining about it and it’s in a very obnoxious way?? Like, they would go on about how much they hate her just on her design alone? And it’s very ridiculous. I’d like to know your thoughts on this as a whole? Love your blog btw (been here since Gintama lol)

Well, while I wouldn’t call F!Byleth’s default costume design good, it certainly isn’t so awful that you can’t play as her at all. 

However, what i certainly like about her is that she’s much more expressive than her male counterpart which for me is very important considering that in later parts of the story the emotional stakes can get pretty intense and we need to see our MC reacting to these events and being more invested in what’s going on. So while some fans prefer more subdued and stoic M!Byleth i’m all for more emotional and expressive F!Byleth. 

And as for the whole male vs female avatar discourse, it’s always the same idiotic arguments you can see from the same fans all the time. Anytime a game gives you a chance to choose the MC’s gender, the same people feel pressed to notify everyone how male avatar is most certainly a CANON option and he’s the only one who matters and the female avatar is just a feature and she doesn’t fit the story and she must be forgotten etc, etc, etc. 

Male fans do this because they don’t want their self insert to share the spotlight with an “inferior�� female option and they want to see themselves recognized and represented first and foremost. Female fans do this because “my yaoi boys” and “why she can romance this male character but my precious male MC can’t, oh i hate that bitch so much for stealing a husband from my male MC, so i’m going to screech anytime i see anyone making content with female MC and a male character she has canon romance with in the game”. 

I have seen this stupid discourse so many times. In Mass Effect fandom female Shepard was hated so much at first because she “didn’t fit” and “she’s too manly and aggressive” and only in later games she was accepted by the fandom and finally recognized by Bioware when they started to use her more in advertising instead of using male Shepard only. 

Persona fans treated Persona 3 female MC like dirt constantly claiming how she’s irrelevant and Altus should never bring her back. Same fans were so afraid that Persona 5 Royal could’ve made a female main character as an option and they cheered when this didn’t happen. 

Fire Emblem Awakening fans still trash F!Robin any time they have a chance and even try to act like she’s getting too much attention and fan content as of late although 99% of the official material still uses M!Robin as default (most of this bitterness comes from her being able to romance Chrom and actually have a compelling romance in the game which centers so heavily around Chrom and Robin’s shared bond). 

And now we have Three Houses fandom using F!Byleth’s design as an excuse to trash her and ignore her existence as well. I’ve seen so many comments like “why is she getting so much fanart, i thought everyone hated her” or “but what about M!Byleth uwu”.

Honestly, all of this stupidity only makes me like female avatars even more out of pure spite. And while I won’t blame fans who are justifiably upset about the lack of m/m romance options in these games, the people who use this as an excuse to trash female characters are not getting a free pass from me. 

We already have so much media which has male characters as the focal point of the narrative. Why does every time someone try to give a female character a spotlight as well, she and her fans have to suffer through so much scrutiny and hate?

Anyway, we stan F!Byleth and her questionable fashion choices, because, if anything, she 100% owns them and Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude admire and love her for it.

[vios-rockland-corner]

My Rockland OC Sasha Holmes.

I like how this drawing turned out more than my last one did.  Tried drawing a side profile again, and this is actually the first time I’ve ever tried to draw a person sitting down.  So not a bad attempt.  The worst is still probably the hands, and I have absolutely no idea what I was trying to do with the writing desk.  It’s just awful, haha.  I also attempted to shade, but my brain went dead and for whatever reason I couldn’t get the shading tools to work the way they usually do.

I’m going to take the time to write below about how I’m going to use Sasha.  Just for fun.

So as I’m posting this, the Zeitgeist demo came out recently.  I’ve mentioned somewhere before that I usually don’t self-insert or visualize an OC when I play games with an unnamed protagonist.  

I don’t say I self-insert because I almost never use my real name when I play.  I like my name, but it just feels strange to me.  The closest I get is usually at least on the first play through, I will try to go for with the options that are closest to what I believe I would realistically do or say in the situation.  And if I’m being completely honest, doing so on that first run hardly ever gets me a fantastic result.  So it’s probably not a bad thing that I don’t imagine putting myself in the actual game, haha.  From then on, I usually just do a combination of what I’d want to do vs. what I THINK the person I’m talking to will like best.

I also don’t generally visualize an OC when I play.  The reason for this is just that I’m really bad with coming up with designs in my head.  Especially when I’m trying to visualize something that matches the same art style as what I’m looking at (yeah, I prefer visual consistency).  If I don’t have a design in mind, I really don’t put too much thought into the MC.  I just end up focusing on the other characters in the game.

So this time around I’ve at least prepped an OC here in advance to see what I want to do with her.  I DID actually use the name Sasha when I was playing the demo, just to get a feel and see if I liked the idea of using her as my MC.

Now Sasha’s still getting fleshed out with characteristics and backstory, but there are some basics that I’ve settled on.  The main thing is that she’s supposed to be an inquisitive type of person.  I purposefully picked her last name as kind of a joke.  I wouldn’t say she has any detective skills, or is even the detective type though.  More like...she’s more likely to be considered a “conspiracy theorist” rather than anything.  She doesn’t act crazy or awkward though.  She’s pretty normal and straightforward.  Some of the stuff she wants to look into may scare her or make her more nervous than excited.  But if she shows an interest in something that seems a little more far-fetched than usual, people will often poke fun at her.  If they know her personally, the most common thing for people to do is say, “Sure thing, Sherlock.”  Sasha is very unamused by this and in general just gets annoyed with the word association.  Depending on who it is, she’ll either sigh, snap back, “Don’t call me that,” or even stamp on their foot.  For the latter, it’s usually a close friend whom she knows she can get away with giving them a harder time for the nickname.

Getting back on topic though, I don’t think I’ll be using Sasha as an MC for the games.  Basically, I like to stick with canon with when it comes to the games.  I’d have to figure out either:  which story path and ending I like for the game best, OR which story ending my OC is most likely to get based on their personality.  With the former, I’d have to shape my OC’s personality around what’s required for the path to get to completion.  This could mean making the character more flirty, bold, timid, etc.  Again, this is if I want to think of the canon path (people can imagine the story however they want to).  Now if it was the latter where I just play exactly as my OC would act, whatever ending she gets then is canon.

For me, the first method isn’t as appealing as I’d like.  I’ve done the “create a character to fit a story path” before with my OC Gale.  She’s the MC I made for Marcus’s path in Till Death Do Us Part.  Fun fact, I made her AFTER playing the game because I loved that storyline and Marcus so much that I just wanted to have a character to visualize after a certain point.  But the problem with Gale is I found it can be a little tricky or odd for me to create a character’s personality to fill the blanks in a story.  So she’s still not fully fleshed out, but I do still like her.

If I just play the game as Sasha and don’t like the ending she gets when picking what she would realistically do, well too bad XD  That’s still what I would consider canon for her if she’s put in that scenario.  Now it could be fun to try a path like that and see if I do like her canon ending, but there’s absolutely no guarantee that I will like every “canon” ending in each game for her.

Now the obvious thing for some people to remedy this problem is to just make more OC’s.  I used to think it was strange why people would have a different OC for every single dating option or story path in a game, but I think I get it now.  Unfortunately, I just don’t have the creative energy to come up with multiple designs and personalities.  It’s a lot of effort for me to flesh out just one character.  I have only a handful of personal OC’s and I’d say really only two of those OC’s are fully fledged.  Even those characters though I have world-building issues with their backstories I have to work on.

I want to try to put more effort into Sasha.  She’s really just here to encourage me to draw more and to practice character creation.  If I have world-building issues like I mentioned, then I thought it might be fun to try to see if I can basically borrow another’s universe to build a character to match.  Isn’t this basically what people do in every fandom?

If I want to use Sasha as a Rockland NPC instead that doesn’t interact with the main story or characters though, I will have to think carefully about what she’s interested in.  There are different groups in the Rockland universe.  For example, I could either make her more interested in human activities or supernatural activities.  Has she heard of the Misfits, or the Hand of God?  Those two groups I don’t know yet if they cross paths or exist in separate areas.

If you’re wondering how I’m going to integrate Sasha without making her invasive...I’m working on it haha.  But I kind of thought about how “I” write all these thoughts posts on what I think about certain characters and elements before there’s any confirmation.  Basically, I could have Sasha think like me so that basically she’s curious, but only knows whatever I know (stuff about groups or characters, not gameplay mechanics obviously).  Still working on where I go from there though.  Would be fun to try to see if I could do something like little journal segments by Sasha.  But that’s a long ways off until I have a much firmer grasp on certain realities in the Rockland universe.

I talked WAY too much about Sasha here, but on the bright side I think it’s helped tide me over a little more while I wait for Zeitgeist’s eventually release.  Looks like I’ll just be playing “faceless” as I usually do, haha.

[scummy-writes]

I wonder what is your personal opinion about fleshed out mc? Tbh I'm quite disappointed that the same mc is used in every fanwork, like it's not that I hate it but we have 5 default mc and even the point isn't to use mc but to self insert. MC have a "basic" charadesign and have no eyes for this reason. I would understand if she was a legit heroine but she aren't supposed to be. I guess it's safer to do it this way, but I wish the fandom felt more free about it.

I think for a lot of content creators, they use the default Mc because players have already connected through the Mc thats shown in official CG artwork. Whereas if it’s a fully fleshed out Mc, its difficult for people to connect to the Mc in artwork and fics. Like I can look at a blond Mc, wearing bright pinks and platforms and I couldn’t connect at all. In artwork, I can still appreciate it, but in a fanfic I couldn’t make a connection because the ‘You’ the fanfic is referring to is nowhere close to how I really am. I think it makes sense for a lot of people to not give Mc a name, or barely go past that in terms of design (aka not defining a set style/eye color/hair/etc), if their main goal is to write or create something they hope can appeal to several people and be relatable. So, it’s not something I’m really against.

Now, that being said, I fully support completely custom Mc’s. I come from past fandoms where people were constantly making their own self inserts, even if it was obvious it was just the person themselves but in the games/anime/manga’s style. I loved seeing the variety, and I loved watching them be so happy. If a self insert seemed like me enough, at least in personality (and the appearance wasn’t mentioned often), I would even read the fanfics they wrote.

And, believe it or not, before I started posting publicly, I mainly wrote self insert fanfics for my friends during birthdays and holidays sjnfjsf So I’m pretty open to them and encourage others to make them!

But I also think it’s reasonable for content creators to stick with the mc mentioned in the game only, or to have a very vague character design. I guess it’s just kinda a line between wanting to appeal to many, or just yourself.

My opinion isn’t definite, however! It’s okay if anyone disagrees, I’m just pretty laid back when it comes to these things.

[juhaku-inspired]

1, 2, 5, 7, 11, 12, 14, 20, 21, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 32, 34, 35, 36, 39, 41, 44, 45, 47, 48, and 50 for the mm ask meme lololol~

jesus christ mika xD but thank you~

under a read-more for obvious reasons:

1- Favorite Character

Zen of course~

2. Favorite route

Seven’s route !!

5. Favorite “Cheritz” voice

probably Saeran’s cause it doesn’t sound like what you’d expect from him and I love it

7. Favorite chat emoji

and

11. Favorite party guest

ohh boy.... Maybe Longcat? or the Hackers Chasing Hackers guy cause it was fun completing the emails for them xD

12. Favorite chat

oh god there are so many how do you choose?? idk what one it was but the one where Zen’s saying how he doesn’t care what MC looks like cause “you’re already snug in my heart.” and he’s just being really sappy and I love him. Yoosung was there too. I have pics on my tablet but it’s dead rn so rip

14. Favorite CG

All of Zen’s Probably these:

*insert Seven’s heart emoji again*

20. Favorite ship (platonic/romantic)

...Zen x MC... YooRan is nice too. And SevenZen. I also kinda like Zen x MC x Seven but idk if that’s an actual ship haha  

21. Favorite character interaction with each other

Ahh in...Seven’s route? when Yoosung’s over Zen’s place and drunk af and Zen calls MC and is talking and calls them princess and Yoosung’s like “but Seven has the princess~~~~” it broke my heart but I also just love how Zen and Yoosung interact?? and Zen and Jaehee in Jaehee’s route. I love the mutual support gahhh~

23. Best character development

JUMIN HAN. Definitely. 

26. Best character design

Hmm probably Seven or Saeran... Saeran’s design is v interesting and edgy

27. Character who left the biggest impression on you

Zen~ tbh the first time I played it at the beginning I didn’t like him and thought he’d just be that narcissistic asshole character and I didn’t like how he picked on Yoosung about video games so much. but now I love him and yes he’s great.

28. Character you’d want to be BFFs with

Jaehee!! and Yoosung. I have a lot in common with Yoosung, I think we’d get along well.

29. Character you romantically ship yourself with

...Zen... just to point out....don’t think/play the game as my smol 16 y/o self I imagine me as like an adult, like 25, post top,...maybe not a best selling author but well off...ha....

30. Most relatable character

Yoosung~ for me at least. 

32. Funniest character

Seven ofc. And Jumin tbh, his sense of humor is hilarious.

34. First impression of the game

I had no idea how the mechanics worked and it’s not like I thought it was super realistic and adapted to every single choice you made but I didn’t understand routes and all that so I guess I thought it was more of an AI than it is....? I’m not sure what I mean but

35. First impression for each character

Yoosung- poor bby I too like playing video games 24/7 its ok I support you (hence why I got his route first xD)

Zen- asshole why are u so mean to Yoosung ur so narcissistic my g o d shut up

Jaehee- I’m not sure I remember?? She doesn’t trust you in the beginning ik so maybe I was a lil on edge cause of that. though I prob understood why she was cautious.

Jumin- I prob thought he was an uptight formal boss man. which he is. and yet he’s so much more than that that the same time...

Seven- the comic relief boi. haha, I don’t remember but probably something like that.

Rika- wow what a tragic story poor girl :c she deserved better. ...ha... It also made me feel weird about being in her apartment. like...living in a dead person’s house is kinda weird....

V- pOOR WIDOW WHAT A POOR SOUL PROTECT HIM THIS IS SO TRAGIC. I also thought it was really weird that people wanted a V route and romance w/ V cause??? he’s a mourning widow?? (do you even call males widows btw?) he’s not ready for another relationship his true love just fucking died?? What a wild time... 

Unknown- weirdo bad guy villain. I’m not sure what I thought lmao. 

36. First character you fell for

Hmmm good question?? Probably Seven, tbh?? I mean maybe more so Yoosung cause he was my first route but I remember in Yoo’s route at the party, seeing Seven so fucking sad and sorry broke my heart so much. fuck I love him

39. How did you find out about this game? What made you decide to download it? 

Tumblr was freaking out over it for a while. I didn’t get it right away but once it became all I saw on my dash I was like ‘alright I’ll try it ffs’ and the rest is history, kids. 

41. Have you completed all the routes and unlocked the secret endings?

I have~ I’ve gotten all the good endings and done the secret endings. I’ve also done a few of the normal endings (Seven’s, Zen’s, and Yoosung’s, I think) and I have very few of the bad end CGs cause it hurts me too much to try and get them, no matter what character it is haha.

44. How dedicated are you to this game? Do you set alarms and try to get 100% for each day etc? 

oh god there was a time where I set alarms for 2 or 4 AM in order to not miss chats. fuckin insane. I also used to write down all the chat times and checked the app every 2 hours once I learned the pattern of chat rooms. I’ve calmed down a lot now, and since I still have a bunch of HG from the VIP pack (and buying google play cards- yikes) I just pay for chats I miss. Which are usually only the ones from midnight-9~ish AM while I’m asleep xD. I’m still diligent in checking it every 2~ish hours during the day haha...

45. Do you play the game blindly or follow walkthroughs?

I played blindly until I got Seven’s day 10 bad ending which was my first bad end (I went through Yoo’s and Zen’s routes flawlessly??) and I panicked and used a walkthrough. I also used walkthroughs to get Jaehee and Jumin’s routes but played theirs blind unless I really needed help. Waitin’ on walkthroughs for DLCs so I can get the got damn CGs I need cause I cAN’T GET SAERAN’S ROUTE IN THE XMAS DLC FOR SOME STUPID REASON. 

47. Moments that made you laugh out loud?

So many. Mostly Jumin’s and Seven’s jokes :3

48. Ever cried or shed a tear while playing?

I already cry easy but the waterworks were constantly flowing because of this fuckin game. god damn. 

50. How has this game affected you overall? Do you regret playing it?

This game’s definitely changed my life for the better. I don’t regret playing it at all. It’s really helped me through a lot of things and probably affects me daily. If I’m sad I’ll look up at the sky cause I remember that one phone call where Seven says looking at the sky makes him feel better. That flower Zen sent that he says to look at when you feel anxious is something I’m seriously considering making my first tattoo. I fuckin named a floppy disk squishable (stuffed animal thing) Saeyoung and I have a build-a-bear Eevee I named Saeran. Nevermind how Zen’s route/ his character in general (and seven too tbh!!) have helped me with my body image and general self-love. Weird to rely on a mobile otome app for your mental health but, hey, whatever works right?