#a protagonist with a villainous narrator in their brain

[pukefactory]

•☽────✧˖°˖ GOODNIGHT HAWAII ˖°˖✧────☾•

(COMMISSION)

★ Summary: A Compilation of Headcanons Featuring Salesperson ENA X Reader Who Suffers With Dissociative Episodes

★ Commissioner: Wishes To Remain Anonymous

★ Character(s): Salesperson ENA (ENA: Dream BBQ)

★ Genre: Headcanons, SFW

★ Warning(s): None - Completely Safe!

★ Image Credits: @JoelG

☆ She writes your name on her arm in marker. It was after the third time you forgot where you were, or worse—who she was. ENA had been in the middle of a passionate tirade against “the modern marketing mythos” when your eyes glazed over like glass, and you blinked yourself into some distant fragment of unreality. You said, “Who are you?” She didn’t yell. She didn’t even twitch. Instead, she pulled a marker from her cap like a magician might, uncapped it with her teeth, and scrawled your name across her forearm in an all-caps blocky font. “THIS IS YOURS,” she said proudly, holding it out like a trophy. It didn’t fix anything. But it felt like it could.

☆ Salesperson ENA tries flashcards. You open your eyes in her room one evening and don’t recognize a single thing. Not the bed. Not the ceiling fan that’s spinning in stilted, fractured time. Not even her. “Oh! You’re awake! Hang tight—commencing memory recovery protocol.” She whips out a little stack of index cards with hand-drawn doodles: A triangle. A cracked megaphone. A stick figure labeled “YOU.” Another labeled “ME.” She flips them one by one with such speed and enthusiasm that it makes your head spin. You forget your name again by the fourth card, but you remember her laugh. It’s enough.

☆ Meanie ENA yells at your dissociation like it’s an enemy. The first time you zoned out mid-conversation and didn’t respond for several minutes, she snapped. “HEY! HELLO?! EARTH TO MEMORY GLITCH! WHAT KIND OF SCAM IS THIS?!” You flinched—like she’d caught you doing something shameful. But then she quieted. “…I wasn’t yelling at you. I was yelling at the thing that stole you.” She sat beside you in awkward silence, gripping your sleeve like she could anchor you to now. “You’re not allowed to go on solo missions anymore,” she mumbled. “Take me with you next time, idiot.”

☆ Her business metaphors get painfully heartfelt. When you get overwhelmed and feel yourself slipping, Salesperson ENA will rattle off a strange pitch, like: “You’re an asset under temporary recession, but your emotional capital remains intact!” “I’m projecting a 12% rebound in your cognitive presence, just give it time.” It’s ridiculous. It’s corporate nonsense. But it’s her nonsense. And the sincerity behind the words is so fierce it almost hurts.

☆ She starts narrating your life when you go nonverbal. When your words vanish like fog at sunrise, ENA’s voice fills the silence. “Today, our protagonist finds themselves amidst an internal coup, the memory department on strike again. Will they recover their agency? Or will the villainous void claim another victory?” Sometimes she makes you a hero. Sometimes she makes you a fish. One time you were an onion with a tragic backstory. But always, always, she ends with: “And yet, against all odds, they persist.” You mouth “thank you” through the static in your brain.

☆ Meanie keeps a logbook—just in case. She never admits it out loud, but tucked under her pillow is a tattered notebook full of messy scribbles. Things you’ve told her. Things you’ve forgotten. Things she wants you to remember, but knows you might not. There are entries like: “They laughed today. I don’t know why. But it made me feel less gross inside.” “Tried to yell when they forgot my name. Didn’t help. Will try quieter next time.” You found it once. She slapped it out of your hands. “HEY! THAT’S NOT FOR YOU YET!!”

☆ She builds you a ‘reality anchor’ box. One day she arrives with a cardboard box full of the most useless junk. A cracked plastic clock. A plush that vaguely resembles her. A page torn from a magazine with your name spelled wrong. “I call it the HERE AND NOW box!” she beams, adjusting her hat proudly. You stare at her. “…That’s just a spoon.” “It’s a symbolic spoon, okay? Grounding! Therapy stuff! I researched it on the shady side of the internet.” You touch the spoon when your mind feels foggy. It’s warm from her hands. It’s not a cure. But it’s a reminder.

☆ Meanie learns to stop blaming you. At first, every memory slip made her feel like you were betraying her on purpose. “Why do you always disappear when it matters?! I’m not nothing to you!” But one day, when you forgot her name entirely and said it in tears—“I don’t want to forget you”—something shifted. She just sat down. Quiet. “You’re not doing this to me, huh?” She apologized. Clumsily. “S-sorry for acting like your symptoms had intent. That was…dumb.” You said, “It’s okay.” She said, “No. It’s you. That’s why I care.”

☆ Salesperson ENA leaves you voice memos. She installs a strange little recorder on your jacket collar that plays whenever it senses you spacing out. “Ping! You’re still here! You’re doing amazing! I know you’re scared, but your brain is not broken—it’s just… buffering!” Another message is her reading you a poem about ducks. The next is her explaining quantum physics very, very wrong. You never know what’s coming. But her voice, bouncing in your ear like a lifeline, always pulls you back.

☆ Both sides learn that being earnest matters more than being perfect. They try so hard. And most of the time, they get it wrong. Salesperson ENA overwhelms you with charts and graphs about recovery rates. Meanie ENA tells dissociation to “go punch itself.” But they never leave. They never act like you’re a burden. And when you finally say, “Thank you for trying,” ENA looks stunned. “Of course,” she says, softer than usual. “You’re the only investment I’d never divest from.” Even Meanie turns red. “Ugh. You’re lucky I’m sentimental now.”

[lunar1an]

thinking a lot about wildbow's early works (worm, pact) and his more recent moralistic works (ward, pale) and the sheer difference in narrative empathy

in worm and pact you have characters who do fucked up things but it feels like a lot of effort is put into understanding the people behind them and where they're coming from. rachel's dogs maul people but there's a whole Arc of taylor learning to vibe with her and befriend her and of rachel getting what she needs (a place alone with her dogs where she can let other people in at her own pace) and growing as a person. all from the angle of 'this is genuinely good for rachel and helpful'. we want her to succeed because we care about her.

in pact we see how sandra duchamp grew up, how she's just as much a victim of her family as she is someone who perpetuates that harm, and while she's an antagonist the story doesn't spoonfeed it to us--we're allowed to see her human and sympathetic moments and we're allowed to feel bad for her while also wanting her stopped.

it felt. i don't know. like the story in general respected these characters, respected the reader's ability to empathize with those characters while also knowing Murder Bad or whatever.

but then the major worm fandom interpretations shifted. you had reddit and other popular sources going on about how taylor was actually horrible and an unreliable narrator, and how the undersiders were actually ~super fucked up and evil criminals~. pact and twig were spared this for the most part by virtue of being less popular with those crowds.

and i'm not sure if the morality discourse got baked into wildbow's brain by osmosis or if he felt like he wouldn't be appeasing his fandom if he didn't address it or what.

but by ward suddenly that narrative empathy, for the most part, is missing. it becomes conditional -- the protagonist and others do not extend empathy towards others until they Properly Recognize What They've Done Wrong. any improvement, any attempt to do better isn't legitimate unless the Bad Deeds are addressed and atoned for by whatever inconsistent standards the narrative adheres to. what matters isn't riley being in a healthier place and making connections--ward thinks that we should be rooting for riley because she recognizes she messed up and is constantly making up for the atrocities she committed.

i think it's kind of reached its peak in post arc 13 pale though. every time empathy is extended it's near-always accompanied by a patronizing little reminder of "mmmm, well you did Bad Things too".

you aren't allowed to just say "well damn i sympathize with charles", for example, because the narrative constantly reminds you that actually he is Still Doing Bad and therefore you aren't allowed to feel for him. it doesn't help that the story continually one-ups itself on thinking of ways to make charles over the top evil either.

but either way it's just. bleak. in a story purportedly about community building it's shockingly uncaring. you can't just sympathize with a morally grey character or take them As They Are without the story casting judgment and constantly reminding you of their verdict. it's just exhausting and makes any positive message the story tries to send feel hollow

OBLIGATORY NOTE: this essay does not mean "actually all fallen and e88 and etc should be empathized with". what it does mean is that in a moralistic work it becomes telling when ex-nazi rune gets her own interlude and a bunch of pagetime to show how she's 'doing better' while that same courtesy isn't extended to many villains who are traumatized and might have, say, legitimate reasons to not want to be arrested or feel like they have no other option, or legitimate reason to not support the heroes, but oh. they do Crimes so actually none of that matters as long as they're still Doing Crimes.

[odetoviscera]

Baldur's Gate 3: The Evil Experience

on the recommendation of @leupagus: My Very Special Evil Boy, Vexation. don't worry about the blood, it's a fashion choice.

if you've been wondering how evil you can be in baldur's gate 3, wonder no more-- So Evil.

so beginning at the beginning, i of course chose the Dark Urge (obvious serial killer) origin, who is conveniently customizable, so i also made him Drow and a Lolth Worshipper and a Warlock (all of which has made him only marginally more evil, tbh, mostly the related dialogue options make him a smug bastard, although OCCASIONALLY this will give him a "hmm what if i enslaved you" option which people do indeed react to as if he's an evil maniac and they should flee and/or try to kill him. this goes great for them considering i'm the protagonist.)

i wake up on an illithid ship with no memories, as one does. i befriend a walking talking brain, by which i mean i lobotomize it so that i can more easily control and manipulate it, as one does. i may not know who i am, but i definitely know that i am powerful, mean, and more important than everyone here. also i have a great old one in my brain giving me eldritch blast, so the tadpole wriggling around in there seems normal. i crash the ship sort of accidentally and am set loose on my merry way to wrack the Sword Coast with terrible mayhem. probably. as soon as i figure out if i'm about to turn into a mindflayer.

the first sign of my uncontrollable evil mania was when i tried to talk to a squirrel in act one (actually, i tell a lie, the FIRST sign was when i was tempted to hack Gale's hand off instead of dragging him out of the portal he got stuck in, but i decided i needed a wizard more than a dismembered hand) and the narrator informed me i had been Gripped By A Compulsion and promptly dropkicked the squirrel into a tree. it died, obviously. i was given the option to decide if i cared about this and decided that my opinion was a frankly inappropriate level of malicious glee considering the heights from which i, clearly child of murder, have obviously fallen to get amnesia and get tadpoled and fall out of the sky on a dying illithid spaceship. anyway this set me up for Being Maximally Deranged, however there is No Karma Meter or any equivalent system to MEASURE your evil or limit your dialogue options-- i have free reign at all times, i COULD decide that suddenly i'm going to be a Repentant Murderer, i can do Nice Things if i want the reward or the exp or i am exercising my single scintilla of compassion accidentally inculcated by my eventual three simultaneous romances (one of which is with the mindflayer who lives in my brain/an artifact stopping ME from becoming a mindflayer. this game is so horny, very classic dnd "i roll to romance the villain". except i am also the villain.) at this point i have no romances, though-- at this point my companions watch me kick a squirrel to death and their collective response is "well… that seemed… excessive."

i also have the option to tell every single one of them individually that i am driven by a blood mania to murder and destruction. opinions of this range from "well admitting you have a problem is the first step!" to "that's nice, just point it at the enemy instead of ME". no one seems appropriately concerned about this. they'll learn.

anyway the next sign of my uncontrollable evil mania is that when i decided to be nice to a bard for no reason and she showed up at our next long rest to Join The Party (oh we do get a bard companion, that's nice, i said, like a fool.) i promptly murdered her in the night. as in i woke up covered in blood with her corpse ritually slaughtered at my feet and said "hm. probably shouldn't let anyone else find out i did this" and then sulked when no one gave me proper respect and rewards for murdering her. fortunately the next day my Evil Butler materialized to do just that, and proved he wasn't a figment of my imagination by giving me an Evil Cloak that lets me turn invisible everytime i murder someone. i spend the next half an act or so convinced i'm going to slowly kill off my party, but fortunately i develop the ability to control myself. now i only murder when I WANT to murder.

the rest of act one i am SORT OF a good boy-- i do deliberately get a child killed but i don't PERSONALLY kill her, i get a druid's snake to do it, so does it really count against MY soul? yes but only me and daddy bhaal know it so i am able to continue playing Goody Two Shoes for the rest of the act. (i don't know he's my daddy yet, but like… i know it. i, the player, know it. in my soul. i've played these games before.) delightful fallout, my child murder gets the druid killed after i Helpfully Save The Tieflings by telling the opposing force i'll totally help them break in and kill them all, then betraying them at the last minute. i kill so so so many goblins. i get an inspiration point for how many goblins i kill. goblins are still sentient. It's Still Murder.

act two, however, empowered by all my Blood And Chaos, i turn over a new leaf. sure sure being lauded by the tieflings was fun and all, but i do somewhat regret not killing EVERYONE. i'll do better this time. this shadow-cursed hellscape is really vibing with me. it's also trying to eat me every time i'm not carrying a magic lamp but you can't win 'em all. i pretend that i'm with the antagonists (can you call them villains when I'M the villain?) so i can get their lamp. it's carried by a drider who does not appreciate my sincere compliments about how beautifully fucked up he is. his loss, i'm down to fuck anyone. i'm already fucking a githyanki and a vampire spawn.

when i get to the Big Bad Tower where supposedly they'll know about my tadpole, i discover they know something WAY MORE IMPORTANT: who the fuck i am. everyone here recognizes me. no one will tell me anything. several of them are appropriately terrified. this is infuriating but also promising. the Big Bad is a smug dick and i want to eat his heart raw. i daydream about this.

my butler arrives to tell me if i murder a Special Girl i'll get a treat. i like treats and i LOVE murder so i go looking for her. she's maintaining a Magic Selenite Moon Shield over the single not-shadow-cursed place here, which i hate on principle-- also it's a harper outpost and i hate them too, they'd probably disapprove of murder. some rando minion with wings drops in to tell me the Big Bad of the region wants to kidnap her (ALIVE, he specifies) so obviously i now double want to kill her. i kill her in one round. the magic shield collapses. EVERYONE dies (including the tieflings i saved in act one! full circle.) and then i kill their shadow-cursed undead corpses again, for good measure.

my treat is getting to turn into the slayer. i KNEW i was a bhaalspawn.

behold my true glorious visage. (with blep.) my only complaint is that i can only become this hulking death machine once per long rest. it is, however, not a turn-limited form, i can stay in it Forever if no one kills me as long as i'm willing to Just Murder No Talking. also it has a spectacular ladder-climbing animation, this bitch goes down ladders face-down like a lizard, i love him.)

anyway i don't go back to the Big Bad Tower bc presumably they'll be mad about the dead girl (i'm guessing she's Big Bad's dead daughter miraculously resurrected. i'm totally right by the way.) but the last time i was there i got a quest to find the Big Bad's Relic, which is obviously his phylactery or something since he's got a whole death aesthetic-- after a whole Temple of Shar sequence it turns out his phylactery is a captive aasimar actually. my companion wants to murder her for shar-related reasons, so i give her the go-ahead since i don't have any SPECIAL reason to kill her myself. my companions should get to be evil occasionally too.

with his phylactery dead, it's pretty easy to mow through the Big Bad Tower, especially since i can now turn into the Death Machine. i don't have to talk to anyone here. i can Just Murder.

nearly kill the Big Bad but he flees to his basement, where it turns out there's an mindflayer colony, big deal, we've all got tadpoles in our brains (i've been eating other tadpoles for extra power along the way, because of course i have) okay fine it's a slightly big deal bc there's an elder brain here that my Special Mindflayer Friend is shielding us from whatever. it's under the control of the Big Bad who's death aesthetic turns out to be that he's the Chosen of Myrkul, and also here are reps of the other Dead Three, Bane and My Daddy. i hate bhaal's chosen on sight, as is traditional for a bhaalspawn. i will murder her someday. i will murder her SO GOOD.

unfortunately she and the baneite fuck off with their elder brain to lay siege to baldur's gate while i'm daydreaming about it, so for now all i get to murder is Big Bad Myrkul Edition. moderately satisfying. he turns in an Avatar of Myrkul in the second half but i destroy him so quickly he doesn't even get to regenerate with the hojillion corpses in the area. nobody murders like vexation.

off to baldur's gate to save the city/get bigger hunting grounds!

i do cure the shadow curse on my way out though, because i'm never coming back and i've left the place a blighted wasteland, why not, it gets me a pet druid.

there's also some drama with githyanki and vlaakith, as usual, turns out the Rebel Prince Orpheus is actually how my particular mindflayer (who is finally revealing that he's a mindflayer, a thing i have suspected all along because of all the psychic shit he does) is doing the shielding, etc. etc. also i let my mindflayer boyfriend turn me in a half-illithid, which means i get no tentacles but a BUNCH of new mindflayer powers to make me an even better murderer. can't wait to see who wins in the tug-of-war for my mind, body, and soul--the illithids, my great old one beyond the stars, a devil who keeps trying to get my attention, my vampire boyfriend who wants to ascend to vampire god, or Murder Daddy. my bet is murder daddy.

anyway we get to baldur's gate, where i break in bc i don't want any guards to know i'm here-- just jumped and flew my way up the side of the bridge past the checkpoint. easy peasy now that i have illithid flight powers on command no cooldowns just Psychically Levitate wherever i want to go. also i can turn into a displacer beast. that's right, i now have to option to become TWO DIFFERENT terrifying horror beasts and rip through mobs like papier-mache. my patron really needs to keep up, warlock powers are falling behind. (no they aren't, i've hit level 10 and can now eldritch blast three times in one round and every hit knocks enemies back and terrifies them. i'm gonna chew this city up and swallow it one bite.)

however, first thing when i get into the citadel: the baneite is being coronated Archduke, bc of course he is. so i head up to see if there's a chance to murder him and a room full of peers, BUT. for the first time EVER-- this little shit is willing to tell me Who I Am. Assassin of Bhaal, former high priest of His Temple, and ONE OF THE INVENTORS OF THIS CONQUEST PLAN. that little bhaalite chosen is my bhaalspawn sister (obviously) who fucking tadpoled me, gave me amnesia, and discarded me before making sure my corpse was cold. this will be a mistake! FOR HER.

in the meantime the baneite wants me to know that he is a big fan of mine, would i like to murder my sister since i already murdered the myrkulite, and then he and i can rule this city together with an iron grip and a blood knife, since he's sure he'll have a lot of use for an assassin as a tyrant. mind-reading and my brain-illithid agree that he is actually on the level about this, at least for the moment, so of course i agree. i will rule this city. and then i will murder him. and then i will murder EVERYONE. in THE WORLD.

so now i'm hunting the current chosen of bhaal so i can kill her and steal her place-- my butler is sending me divine visions of it, SHE can't turn into the slayer, i am evil daddy's favourite. she's also kidnapped one of my companions and is threatening to kill her if i show up but i care about that less.

and that's where i am so far! will report on Future Evils.

[words-after-midnight]

Hello! A pre-emptive Storytelling Saturday for next week: Describe your WIP in bullet points so my ADHD brain gets it quickly! 🥺🥺🥺 I would love to hear more

(Let's just ignore the fact that it's Sunday.) Hey, sorry I've been sitting on this one for a little while!! I'm not sure if you mean bullet points as in an actual summary or tropes, features, etc. so I'll try to mix both in. I'll just do libaw & TDL since I feel like SUPERNOVA's still very much percolating and not necessarily concrete enough for this exercise. ^^

tl;dr: I primarily write extremely dark (realistic) crime fiction focused around complex and unsympathetic queer characters. Fair warning: dead doves and heavy themes abound.

LIFE IN BLACK AND WHITE 🌙❄️ | Adult psychological thriller

A man works to overcome an increasingly dark obsession with his estranged ex-lover after the catastrophic interruption of their twisted relationship, only for an unexpected event to bring the past back to haunt him - literally.

Themes: Importance of nuance, domestic abuse/violence, control, agency, choice, obsession, unrequited love, mental illness and recovery, stigma;

Unreliable (and often unsympathetic) narrator;

Protagonist is obsessed/"in love" with the antagonist;

Heavy use of symbolism;

Fast-paced;

Aughts period piece;

Very intimate, introspective narrative (first person present ftw);

Queer lit, but make it dark and gritty.

THE DOTTED LINE 💀🐍 | Adult psychological horror

Young inmate navigates the perilous terrain of a U.S. medium security prison while plotting his escape (+ various bonus antics that sound very made up);

Villain protagonist with some very... interesting opinions... who lives by his own convoluted rules and morality;

Side cast that the protagonist gives zero shits about but usually still manage to be compelling;

Extremely dramatic events described in the most deadpan tone imaginable;

Themes: Survival, reinvention of self, identity, agency/autonomy, nature vs. nurture, corruption, prison abolition/heavy critique of the correctional system.

Experimental psychological and body horror + plays with classic slasher tropes; heavy experiments with form/prose/structure.

Subverts the hero's journey structure.

Currently drafting very slowly and intermittently; the draft should be finished in approximately 84 business years.

[whack-patty]

[points at you] FAVORITE CREEPYPASTA OF ALL TIME GO

ALRIGHT FOR ANYONE WHO FOLLOWS THIS BLOG WHO IS YOUNGER/NOT A FAN OF HORROR I'M GONNA PUT A CUT HERE JUST IN CASE: SPOOKY CLOWN VIDEO THUMBNAIL BELOW THE CUT. ((I may be being too cautious but I am well aware that my usual artistic content on this blog may attract people who are less comfy with the uncanny than I am so it never hurts to be respectful))

Ok so fav one I've read, mostly for nostalgia reasons, is of friggin course Chicken Bones

Read it as a kid and it was the earliest reading experience I can remember going "WOAH... YOU CAN HAVE A VILLAIN WITHOUT SEEING THE VILLAIN??? YOU CAN HAVE STORY HAPPEN BEHIND THE SCENES AND STILL KNOW WHAT'S HAPPENING WITHOUT IT BEING SPOON-FED TO THE AUDIENCE??? YOU CAN HAVE A CLIFFHANGER ENDING THAT DOESN'T SUCK???? AMAZING" and it's changed my brain chemistry ever since. I want to learn how to do what the ending of chicken bones did to 12 year old me

Also it has a cool setting description at one point and the protagonist's only description is a canonically ugly haircut <333 gotta love me a story where the protagonist isn't a sacred little angel or the coolest guy in the room

CURRENT favorite creepypasta to listen to is Creepsmcpasta's edition of Mayhem Mountain!!!

I GENUINELY USE THIS TO HELP ME FALL ASLEEP.

ITS A DANG GOOD ONE BECAUSE ok ngl I'm just realizing how similar my reasoning is for liking both stories. Apparently I have a type

Anyway spoilers:

- also has a villain (this time with a name) but they never see or interact with him once

- ARCHITECTURAL HORROR!!!!!

- A MIDDLE AGED CAST!!!!

- all with distinct personalities that are shown through the way they interact with each other, not just told as archetypes!!!

- there's TWO girl characters, and they aren't JUST "and this is my unnamed girlfriend who dies" ((my standards are so low for pastas hAHQGEFD))

- THE NARRATION IS. MMMM 👌👌👌 GOALS. The author shows what needs to be shown and tells just enough without it being too much and its delicious

- actually really accurate descriptions of what it's like to be in a life or death situation instead of the protag reacting like an anime character or an action hero to it

- and apparently I'm a huge sucker for "the villain is still at large" stories where the villain is a normal human instead of an unkillable monster

ANYWAY YES. CREEPYPASTAS MY BE FRIGGIN L O V E D. There's more good ones but these two take the cake for me hands down

[wip-collector-ace]

Time for me to rate different popular book tropes on a scale of 1-10 ✨

Y'all are free to agree or disagree.

The Chosen One: Eh, I mean, there are good books/TV shows/movies using this trope, but why does it always have to be a teenager or somebody really young? /rh. Give me a middle-aged woman or something [6.5/10]

Enemies to Lovers: I personally only like it when there are queer undertones (or overtones) to it because if I wanted to see straight couples argue and insult each other and then forget about it seconds later in real time, I'd go to my parents' house /hj. Don't get me started on Booktok (they are literally incapable of doing this trope well). [Hetero- 2.5/10; Queer- 7.5/10]

Lovers to Enemies: The drama. The heartbreak. Scrabbling for what is left before it slips away and it's too late to save it... Look, I'm not normally one for romance--- HOWEVER, this always gets me (especially if done well). [9/10]

Love Triangles: Kill it with fire. [1/10]

Redemption Arc: We've all seen Zuko's character arc--- need I say anything more? But seriously, this trope has real potential to be amazing in the right hands. Not all antagonists deserve redemption, but if you have a strong arc, I can be convinced to ignore the batshit evil they've probably done. /hj. [8/10]

Found Family: Oh, I love me some found family--- with or without a happy ending. People of different backgrounds come together after getting over their differences and realize that the bonds they've created are stronger than what anyone else could give them?? I eat that shit up. [8/10]

Main Character Having Obvious Plot Armor: Look, this may not be a specific trope, but we've seen/read what it is so we know. I get it--- the main character needs some level of plot armor to get through the story (that is if you don't plan on killing them off), but you cannot sit there and tell me that the protagonist managed to get away from 10 people shooting at them unscathed /nbh. Make it excusable/believable. [Overall, 4.5/10]

Unlikely Allies: Literally enemies to lovers minus the lovers part and now the 'hero' and the 'villain' are confused about why they're friends now. Seriously though, I really enjoy seeing people with contrasting personalities or motives being brought together by outside forces to work together to a 'common goal'. It doesn't even require for it to be romantic--- which I really like. It's great. [7/10]

Unreliable Narrator: Being gaslit by a book? Honestly? I like it. [7.5/10]

The Red Herring: If done well, this trope keeps me hooked. I particularly like this in thrillers and horror novels. However, if you just have a red herring just to throw people off and never bring it up again or it has no ties to the rest of the story, then why? (If that makes sense) Anyways, shout out to Beyond Evil for making my brain mush with the amount of plot twists and red herrings it contains. [Overall, 5.5/10]

[leatherbookmark]

that being said, and i'm sorry for being a cunt, but

it's... very irritating to read mxtx gushing about how utterly likeable wwx is, how cute lwj is when he's got wwx on his brain, how xy is "trash yang" (this is not from the interview but from the chapter comments), or... whatever she said about jgy... is the interview in japanese or chinese? i've seen chinese terms brought up by the translators and i just ???

it's just like. girl? are we all stupid for reading like, moral greyness, unreliable narrators, Layers into your work? her answers can sound so... idk, shallow? at times. the part abt her "feeling bad for jgy, but please go die now" stayed in my mind for obvious reasons, and now the 狡猾, because: no, wait, hold up, why? i want to hear more! you wrote this character, this antagonist who isn't even working against the protagonist, who's similar but different, whose circumstances are tragic and understandable as such, and you just go... cool motive, still villain, go die? like, seriously?

on top of that, i always wince when people describe jgy as cunning, crafty, plotting, treacherous, manipulative great actor etcetc, because it paints him as this... confident grey eminence who's got everything under control, rather than a guy who just... tries to survive... there was a post abt wwx's manipulation -- literally pissing people off into doing what he wants them to do -- but he's never called manipulative. but someone who doesn't know jgy would think his moustache is a thing straight out of uzumaki. it's like boiling xy down to an insane psycho who's so craaaazy and evil! 100% deranged! it's just incorrect. it's not even "well yes, but it's actually deeper than you think", it's just wrong.

...and then i see the author doing the same. AM I INSANE.

similarly, it's kinda strange to read her gushing about wwx and lwj, because while i understand on a technical level that People Are Different, most of the fic writers i know/have read are drawn to characters because they're fucked up, complex, tragic; they're a puzzle, a fascinating mechanism. not a great guy who's so great and amazing, seriously, who wouldn't like him. have i mentioned that he and his boyfriend are in love that's stronger than everything else in the world? like. did you... write wwx being supremely obnoxious as a teen while thinking he's the coolest guy imaginable?

there was a time when i, still in the clutches of cql wgxn, saw a couple of novel excerpts and decided i hated them. wwx was so annoying! lwj was so different and unappealing! i'm not gonna read this book, it's going to ruin the characters for me! and i mean. it kind of did, but also it didn't. and i sort of... feel this way about the word of god. like, yeah, some of that stuff is interesting, although it's not anything i'd consider invaluable or even particularly enlightening -- but mostly. it's just annoying

[option-monad]

ykno i think the thing i rly like about the tales of hoffmann is that ultimately youre spending 3 fuckin hours inside one guys head. even when you look at other operas ostensibly about That One Fucking Guy, they're still generally very external to their guy of choice. but like 90% of this show takes place inside hoffmann's head. he's not just a potentially unreliable narrator, he is openly making shit up and basing it on the people in his real life. and it's a mortifyingly revealing experience imo (especially if youre not *too* sympathetic towards him!)

theres just so much room there to explore the protagonist's brain problems and/or fetishes. he's so fixated on being humiliated and stepped on by other people, and sometimes its openly a sex thing and sometimes he doesn't seem to realise it's a sex thing. he has some impulse to see himself as A Creator and An Artist, but he palms that feeling off to the villain (esp coppelius and docteur miracle) because he's convinced himself that being in love with stella is more important to him. except it actually isn't, which is the entire point of the ending. he's clearly decided that he is the worlds poorest littlest meow meow and everyone else just sucks real bad, despite all available evidence to the contrary, because thinking too hard about how he actually feels is difficult and scary and thinking about hot people being mean to him is very enjoyable for reasons he never unpacks. and somehow you can straight up see him doing this in real time despite only being given his point of view. wowee.

and obviously as an addendum the fact that a decent percentage of those feelings are "wow it actually kind of rocks when that old guy is yelling at me and making fun of me, i wish hed do it more, he smells nice" really sells the whole package imo.

[vertigoambrosia]

my husband is gone let's finish this depressing ass shit

oh man we're getting nobara's backstory she's in trouble...

i've seen fanart off her with an eyepatch so i think i know where this is going

but....tbh it seems like this series is kinda just pain this arc and forafter judging by people's reactions to the manga

wait

is she actually for real dead

are you serious

oh no more flashback this is not a good sign

LMAO MEGUMI PLS

he panik

oh ok no time to laugh we back to death

wait how tf can mahito use black flash?

i swear this dude is so stupid overpowered

fucking plot armor to the max

TODO

i have never been so happy to see this fucker

yuji :(

todo :)

oh thank god if someone says there's a slim chance a protagonist can live in an anime they def will nobara's not fucked!

HELL YEAH YUJI BLACK FLASH HIS ASS

FOR NANAMIN

oh this is sad but i am actually really happy that mechamaru and miwa got to talk to eachother one last time

bro you really think sukuna is gonna let you touch itadori's soul?

todo using the power of rainbows??? rainbow flash?

kinda gay lol

(i'm kidding that ruled)

ok fuck plot armor, mahito has straight up plot jutsu

like i honestly forgot how his powers work and do not understand why he can just keep doing shit

three episodes left!

god itadori and todo gotta like, rip this guy's jaw off or something i cannot stand to hear him speak another fucking word

like i don't even find the fight particularly interesting anymore at this point

the narration is kinda weird tbh it's always kind of an awkward device

oh great is todo dead too

um

what?

i have no idea what just happened but it ruled

oh yeah of course mahito has a new even better power

'an arm is merely a decoration' lmaooo todo

HELL YEAH

FUCKIN KILL HIM

YEAH BITCH YOU OUTTA MONSTERS

ohhh poor yuji kinda dead inside

is this yuji's domain expansion?

uh???????? what?

oh great we're gonna have to deal with lobotomy brain now? can't we just end this night?

lol of course kusakabe survived

oh now we gotta bring non-fantastical consequences like the economy into this???

choso not dead? i'm actually pretty interested in what's going on with him so i wouldn't mind seeing more of him

dammit if not-geto eats mahito does that mean he can use him again later? cause i never wanna see that bitch again

yes this is truly what i wanted. more curbstomp battles. more characters i know fucking dying. fantastic.

oh ok well at least the kyoto students aren't dead yet

??????????

ok this kind of explains some odd spoiler jokes i have seen..kinda?

fuck em up choso!!

(i am pretty sure he cannot defeat kumo pieceofshit because he is obviously the series villain, but still)

i both hate and love kusakabe

so ice lady works for kumo pieceofshit? man is this ever gonna end?

oh it's the person with the least emotional intelligence in all of the show

i guess i'll get to see her do something besides say all the wrong things to geto

man i hope choso doesn't die he's just gotta last one more episode!

damn japan really is cursed like that?

well now i just have no idea what is happening

or, honestly, what this asshole's goal actually is?

oh noooo megumi's sister

welp

man they really went full "nothing will ever be the same"

i think i might regret watching this

or at least the second season

yuta?

rika's still hanging around to help?

wait WHAT gojo is being blamed?

so i guess maki is dead and we're not even gonna acknowledge that?

and nothing on megumi or nobara?

what a fucking downer fuck this show

[albacorepotato]

Alright, we're losing, so it's time for wormblr poll propaganda!

First of all: a spoiler warning for Worm and Ward, and a content warning for (not very graphic) descriptions of violence.

Worm is an excellent web serial about superheroes and supervillains. It was published online for free and can be read here, though you should probably google the trigger warnings first (this list has most of them, though of course with spoilers).

Also, I must confess I haven't watched Zim in ages, and didn't watch it in its entirety back then. Mostly, I'm writing this because I read a Zim propaganda reblog and got inspired.

That said, here's Taylor's escalation to supervillainy's greatest hits:

Her power is to control bugs. She started her career by attacking another supervillain with venomous spiders, and almost got killed in the process

Defeated a guy that had a katana. As we all know, katanas are great, so defeating someone who had one makes Taylor even greater ( /j )

Got saved by a team of teenage supervillains and joined them.

Proceeded to rob a bank, cut off a supervillain's toes, attack a superhero fundraiser, and help a different supervillain kidnap a baby.

Put a guy's hallucinogenic blood on the eyes of someone she was fighting (the same villain of bullet point 1, but like a few weeks later), and then gouged out his eyes.

According to the other post Zim does something similar, so uh

While busy taking over a city, she still spends time and effort on perfecting (Megamind voice) PRESENTATION

After a kaiju-fight-plus-natural-disaster devastates the city, she and the team take over its territory. In the process, they defeat a bunch of superpowered serial killers and kill several of them, mind control a fifteen-year-old Ward (i.e. hero in training) and also mind control one of the serial killers.

* (Well really it was body control, and in both cases they were still aware of their surroundings while they were forced to fight their respective teams)

She also destroyed a robot suit designed specifically to arrest her, kidnapped the director of the local superhero organization, held the mayor's son hostage (almost killing him via choking-by-bees-and-spiders), and had a fight that devastated the city again.

After the previously kidnapped director got replaced, she killed her replacement.

She tricked a girl into slicing herself in half.

Once her team had taken over the city, she drove away rival gangs by maiming and/or killing their leaders:

In one case, she had maggots and centipedes eat the gang's leaders eyes.

In another case she did the "pour bugs into the chili" thing to provoke the gang into a fight, and then led their leader into a different supervillain's suicide-inducing aura.

She killed one of the setting's Superman equivalents via choking-on-spiders.

After the previously killed director got replaced, she also killed his replacement.

She made a speech to some middle schoolers about why being a villain is awesome

She shot a two-year-old

After superpower-changing brain surgery, she took control of every living hero and villain in order to fight second-Superman-equivalent. A lot of them died, and one had a stroke from the stress

She threw a Superman-equivalent's wife on Superman-equivalent's face

* Okay fine. She didn't do this one. She ordered someone else to do it for her though

** This is a different Superman-equivalent than the one she killed

All of this is just the things that make Taylor a terrifying villain in-universe, but this isn't a *villain* tournament, it's a *villain protagonist* tournament, and Taylor is also great at that: one of the best things about Worm is that the first-person narration of Taylor really makes you understand and sympathise with her actions and her motivations.

I've taken a lot of these out of context for the purpose of villain-poll-propaganda, but really in every step of the way, Taylor has a reason to follow the path she does, and it can be easy to take her justifications and forget how all of it looks from the outside, right until the interlude chapters (from other character's perspectives) remind you of how far she's gone in pursuit of her aims.

Taylor art by @tactilescream

Propaganda

Invader Zim: No Propaganda Submitted

Taylor Hebert: - She's the protagonist and main POV character

- She spends the first several arcs going from "insecure teen" to "widely feared supervillain" over the course of a few months

- Her actions are definitely villainous, from robbing a bank, to attempting taking over a city, to putting bugs in the chilli someone was cooking

[sciencestyled]

We're about to Blow Your Mind with Tiny Zombie Ants and, Oh Look, Ant-Man is Narrating

Well, well, well, look what the cat dragged in – or should we say, what the ant dragged in. Get ready for a story that’s like Marvel meeting National Geographic, narrated by none other than Scott “Ant-Man” Lang. Because who better to navigate the wild world of zombie ants than a guy who can talk to ants, right? No offense to David Attenborough, but Ant-Man’s got this.

Now, before we slide into this blend of insect horror and Marvel charm, let’s get something straight. This is not your average, run-of-the-mill creepy crawly saga. This is ants getting their brains hijacked. This is teeny-tiny horror meets micro heroics, and it’s as wild as it sounds.

So, you know how Loki loves controlling minds, right? Imagine something even more microscopic than him having that power. Meet the lancet liver fluke, a parasite that could probably teach Loki a thing or two about manipulation.

But wait, there’s more. It’s not just about climbing grass blades and catching a tan for these zombified ants. Nope, these little guys are on a mission – a mission to be eaten. And it’s all thanks to our manipulative friend, the fluke.

If you’re thinking this is straight out of a comic book, then buckle up, because we’re just getting started. We've got ants biting down on grass like it’s their job, fungi that would give the Mad Titan a run for his money, and parasitic plot twists that would make M. Night Shyamalan blush.

And just when you think you’ve got a handle on these tiny terrors, the plot thickens – like a juicy Marvel crossover event where nothing is what it seems. The fluke’s intricate life cycle? It’s as convoluted and epic as any Avengers saga.

Ant-Man doesn’t just save the day by whizzing through tight spots; he’s also your guide into a world where ants are the unlikely protagonists. They’re not building sandcastles or plotting tiny heists – they’re surviving a real-life horror story, one where the villains are as tiny as they are sinister.

So, if you’ve ever underestimated the drama unfolding in your own backyard, consider this your wake-up call. Even the tiniest ant hill can house a saga of heroic proportions – and who knows, maybe even a miniature superhero, ready to leap into action.

Hold onto your magnifying glasses and prepare for a wild ride that proves, once and for all, that size really doesn’t matter. Whether you’re tackling epic villains or just trying to survive the perils of the insect world, every story is super – no matter how small.

Because let’s face it, in a world where ants can be zombified and a guy named Scott can save the universe, anything is possible. Get ready to squint, marvel (pun totally intended), and most importantly, meet the zombie ants that are small in size but big on drama. And remember, in the words of our dear narrator Ant-Man, always stay curious… and maybe keep an eye on your picnic.

[ghostinthegutter]

i think I found the reason I enjoy any BL media, especially danmei, so much.

I enbarked in the journey of reading "The Guide to Capturing a Black Lotus" and starting the first few paragraphs, not even caring slightly about the plot, the danger the main female character can be under, absolutely nothing! the narrator introduces her to me as "someone so skinny it hurts the eyes to see", the second female character is introduced the same, terribly skinny, pale, someone who wakes worry inside others hearts.

So far, I can't trust any of the female characters at all, the text goes lengths so I can feel the difference in power, brains, importance and any other area really, between the female characters and the male characters, it might be just so all of them can be Mary Sues and the dynamics better to paint, but.. How come??

When I'm reading BL, when I'm reading danmei there's no Mary Sues (or at least, you have a wild variety, the novels I usually pick, both protagonists are equals, but think about it... it's not difficult to find a book with such dynamic!)

I enjoy reading someone who is confident in their abilities AND everyone around them is also confident in them!! Take Xie Lian from Tian Gu Ci Fu, my guy is confidant okay? he knows he can beat the absolute living hell out of someone and is always chill, his partner Hua Cheng is also confident in his knowledge, abilities, capabilities, power, strength and so on, only problem is, he is sometimes too comfortable in injuring himself for the sake of others, but again, in a very equal powerful way, when he ends up all bloodied and battered up in one scene with another martial god who used to be his disciple his partner (Hua Cheng) gets sad and hurt because of it but somehow you can see how there's this line of: I know this is nothing to you at all, but it hurts me seeing you like this. They're equals!

When reading any F/M novels there's always this need to put the women in a baby position, I don't know if I have the brains to explain this, I think when we have a woman it's nearly impossible to make her fleshed and human, she's either a baby skinny uwu baby or a bitch that gets on your nerves, no opportunity to make her powerful and independent.

In BL the partners are commonly portrayed as dependable, the seriousness of some problems are seeing trough another very interesting lenses:

Married Thrice to Salted Fish: Both characters are independent, self sufficient, autonomous, self-reliant, capable, smart, etc. If one of them is going through something it's not being protected the main focus of the other one but emotionally supported what matters, I know you can kill someone easy peasy but I want to be there with you just so I can watch and when you turn back to face me I can smile at your wicked face. That's! It!

Mistakenly Saving The Villain: Again, the same dynamic, both are strong, strong, what do I want from you? Communication, a partner that is able to stand next to me, someone I can be equals with (I know it's a liiiiitle bit more complex, but you get what I'm trying to say)

And no matter what, every time I see a woman in any media she's in such a poor characterization it hurts, they just can't make a woman for the life of them, it's as if the world resented women so much they don't even know what a woman is, it's crazy.

I somehow feel more connected to guys in media than women in media, mainly in romance settings.

so yeah, this was my little TED Talk, thank you very much, this is all out of the place, but I did need to get this out of my chest, in a future I might come back and polish what I just stated here. Good bay

[sapphicdalliances]

here’s all the thoughts ive had ever

small brain: jin guangyao is evil

large brain: jin guangyao is innocent

activated brain: jin guangyao is an interesting villain whose complexity is only exacerbated by differing versions of the narrative and a deliberate lack of reliable narration. ultimately, as a foil to the protagonist, he has qualities that are both sympathetic and abhorrent, and every fan’s interpretation of his actions, motivations, role in the story, and level of appeal as a character will differ.

expanding brain: a-yao small

[honeybeewhereartthee]

You been working out carrying weight ( stuck of paper works over paper work ) lately, only because you want to get revenge to someone.

You want to proudly says and do something crazy, you probably gonna regret (your muscles would) after you did it.

But so far you manage to practice with actual living test subject ( aira Shiratori, only because you give him a rare autograph idol merchandise and no one is around to see something embarrassing) now your proud to say, you can carry someone!

Aira: mc can you p-please put me down 😭😳

your test subject who you carried like princess on your arms says while covering his face.

MC: oops sorry I was internally narrating.

Aira raise a brow at your statement but you put him down and with a determine look you walk out of the room after thanking him with the said merchandise.

With a Jojo memes running through your blood, you approach the location you know your target is. You see him in the said location, he was busy and have his back turn on you. A perfect opportunity! With a swift move you taken him off his footing and carried him, you heard something crack as you have him in your arms painfully as his muscles is probably heavy as rock. But you mask your pain with a sly smirk.

MC: how does it felt being carried out of nowhere "MAMA"?!

You can't help but felt very proud of yourself as your losing your feel to your arms. But confident enough to continue to left him.

Madara:...

He look at you surprised, he did know someone is approaching him yet he don't fear they would do them harm... Not like they can. But it turn out it was you. Who he been trying to ignored for the pass few weeks (you did notice this but your too busy with your work, and it's not like you and him are glue to each other when his around) you notice how he is staring at you and keeping his silent.

MC: your not proud how strong I am "mama"?

You fake cry, but maybe it's not fake when your reads fall down as your hand is now numb.

Madara: ....

MC:... Smh, your gonna keep silence? Mk, thats a boring reaction.

You want to let go of him now since your probably need to go to a clinic now or better yet the hospital. But Madara put his arm around you neck to secure his place, rip your arms. His still on your hold for long time then.

Madara: shouldn't you ignored and pay no mind to villain? Being associates with one would cause you more harm than good.

He felt defeated as if his internal strangle to not go near you because he fear his a tainted person, a villain. Shouldn't be near you. Yet here you are. now he felt all the weeks he bear to not approach become a pointless.

You stared at Madara thinking what's up with his mind this time around. Maybe his in another role play but as a villain instead of a mama.

MC 'should I role play as a hero then? But chiaki do it better than me. Madara really need to one role... I cannot keep up with the roles.'

you thought before you kiss his forehead which he always did to you, since your hands are both occupied at the moment and probably haft dead. He was surprised by the gesture but a smile slowly creep it's way on his face.

MC: its ok, I love stories antagonist and villains ((cause they are most of the time more good looking than protagonist)) so you don't need to ignore me. Well, you can if your busy with your life... Iszsizns.

madara:mc???!!!

You suddenly kneed as your legs give away from standing far too long yet you don't drop Madara when you did, you place him carefully down. Like he would do to you. Then the pain that is numb earlier become agonizing. You particularly crying in the floor.

MC:... C-can you help me go to a hospital... 😭

Madara: of course, my dumb child! I question how your able to do this kind of thing, turn out it's a stupidity running through your brain that made you do this.

He says this as he quick to carry you to his big warm arms, he run to go to the nearest parking lot and made the idol who's there at that time to drive the two of you to the nearest hospital, it was unfortunately tatsumi. You almost died from nervousness from the way he drive but you did faint and able to sleep off the pain along the way.

Madara was there when you wake up. Placing a food to the table of the hospital.

MC: hi.

You says while looking at your arms, it don't look it's on awful lot of bandage, you just felt very numb and can't feel them as much as you did before you carried Madara.

Madara: my child is fortunate that the doctor says your arms don't broke apart, it's only stress for carrying pass your limit. Mama is impress by your bravery's and stupidity.

MC: I thought I can carry you since I manage to carry someone else. But aira probably too light compared to someone with muscle mass like you.

You ignored his insult as your glad the normal Madara is back. It seems that his gone from his villain phrase. He seems to pause when you said another idol name. He takes a chair as he takes a spoon and takes some food to feed you.

Madara: does mama have to clean up two of your messes today instead of just one? Open up. Ahhh.

You look at the food and realize it's ice cream. You quickly take the spoonful of ice cream.

MC: what mess?

You ask him after eating the ice cream.

Madara: you carrying an idol out in the open. My child who care about idol and producer having scandal have forgetting about it now? Should I be worried more for you?

You silently curse to yourself as you forget that someone could have seen you two earlier. As well with aira even through, your pretty sure that room where you practice aira don't have camera, unless you include mayoi passing through the vent sometimes.

MC: ... What do ya want from me "MAMA"

your pretty sure his not gonna save you for free this time around. Unless his based.

Madara: :)

MC: you have handsome smile "MAMA" but it brought fears in me.

you suddenly have a bad feeling about this.

-Few days later-

MC: omgomgomgomg

you excitedly skip around as you check out the nearest booth. Your surrounded by cosplayer of your favorite game. You cannot help but smile so happily. It felt your in heaven!

Madara: don't run around too much, you still just come out of the hospital.

Madara who wear some disguise, walks behind you, smiling happily while looking at your happy face. It turn out, what he wanted for helping you out this time is assisting him in anime/game con as a MaM solo member. You pause from your step and went back to Madara side.

MC: thank you!!

You smiled warmly and your going to hug him out of the open if, you aren't worried about issue going arise again. Madara smile back at you.

"next time the price would be really much worse. So you better be a good child of mama ok?" He pats your head and soon hold your hand to drag you in a booth he sees you might be interested in. You happily be dragged by him, you two enjoyed the whole day in con.

[anitrendz]

REVIEW: I’m the Villainess, so I’m Taming the Final Boss AKA My Guilty Pleasure

Season aired: Fall 2022

Number of episodes: 12

Watched on: Crunchyroll

Translated by: ?

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Comedy

Thoughts: I’m the Villainess, so I’m Taming the Final Boss is my guilty pleasure of the season. While others immediately assumed the story would be a carbon copy of a prior villainess anime, I knew that would not be the case. Despite the lack of female-led isekai anime, I’ve enjoyed each one I’ve watched more than male-led isekai due to the variety of plots, characters, and themes. I knew that this one would resemble nothing of My Next Life as a Villainess: All Routes Lead to Doom aside from the premise, and I was right.

After her fiancé rejects her in favor of another girl, Aileen awakens her past memories as a sickly girl in her previous life. Unable to live freely like everyone else, she spent her days playing games – one of which was an otome game. After dying, she is reincarnated as the ill-fated Aileen, the antagonist of the otome game who suffers a humiliating death after the rejection of her fiancé. Indignant at the prospect of dying before her time again, Aileen sets a course of action to marry the demon lord, Claude, instead. Claude was the final antagonist of the otome game. Why shouldn’t two villains team up and live their lives to the fullest together?

I like I’m the Villainess, so I’m Taming the Final Boss for several reasons. Aileen’s an incredible protagonist who is determined, intelligent, and funny. She’s got quite the business- and political-minded brain, and she’s very active in taking what she wants and going where she wants to go. Claude is an attractive male love interest that my inner teenager couldn’t help but swoon. The world is larger than one would expect with multiple kingdoms and different cultures. There are plot twists that, despite my experience in watching anime, continue to surprise me.

Nevertheless, the anime is mediocre. Many of the things I praise above are directly due to the source material — not what the adaptation brings to the table. In fact, the adaptation brings down the story instead due to its irregular pacing and subpar animation.

The anime fits three separate arcs in just 12 episodes, and each arc has enough material to easily fit a 12-episode format. Things happen at breakneck speed, and the ending of each arc is wrapped up like someone speedreading through the narration.

This bad pacing hurts the first arc more than anything else, because the first arc is about the development of romance between Aileen and Claude. In just four episodes, they fall in love despite the fact that Claude has every reason to be suspicious of Aileen. She’s a stranger once formally engaged to his estranged younger half-brother who marched up the doorsteps to his demonic castle and demanded the two get married without any explanations. Since the first arc’s purpose is to establish character dynamics without as much plot, speeding through that development makes the characters feel shallower and the relationships forced. Although I like Aileen and Claude’s interactions, I still can’t help but feel like something is missing.

While not as evident in the later arcs due to plot, the rushed pacing does sacrifice the supporting characters and their respective dynamics, as well. Villains who take a turn seem to become better people out of nowhere. Other romances between supporting characters don’t fully make sense. Worst of all, it doesn’t even give proper time for a well-waited reunion between the two main characters of the series. Yet, the fact that I still enjoyed the underlying story and characters prove that the anime could’ve done so much more.

The visuals and animation struggled from beginning to end. The character faces are flat, the world looks like a children’s cartoon in a non-purposeful way, and the most animation we ever see are the characters running and walking. To hide the lack of animation, the anime will often switch back and forth between angles and perspectives that conveniently skip over movement. The technique works in the first few instances, but it becomes increasingly obvious as the anime depends on it.

The only two technical aspects the series does well are the music and the voice acting. The music is dramatic with orchestral accompaniment, perfect for the comedic dramatism of the series. The soundtrack even includes duck noises, a hilarious motif that directly ties to one of the funniest running jokes in the entire series.

With a cast of award-winning seiyuus, the voice acting remains on-point from beginning to end. Rie Takahashi was perfect as the rambunctious, intelligent, and funny Aileen with her flexibility to deepen her voice which came in handy in the second arc. Yuichiro Umehara’s distinctly deep and silky voice helped elevate Claude’s skipped development, lackluster facial expressions, and lack of movement. Despite Claude’s eyes staring straight ahead emotionlessly in several pivotal scenes, it’s the voice acting that portrays exasperation, surprise, or fear. Tomokazu Sugita is unrecognizable as Almond, an adorable crow demon, and Jun Fukuyama always nails suspicious yet silly characters like Keith.

So, despite my critiques of the anime itself, I actually end this series with a lot of hope. While I’m the Villainess, so I’m Taming the Final Boss didn’t perform to my expectations, its ability to still win me over every Saturday with its story and characters is proof of something bigger: female-led isekai are worth adapting. Perhaps this is just the beginning to a new phase of isekai, where we will be able to enjoy many female-led isekai with even better adaptations.

Rating

Plot: 7 (Multiplier 3.5)

Characters: 7 (Multiplier 3.5)

Voice acting: 8

Art/Animation: 5

Soundtrack: 7.5

FINAL SCORE: 69.5