#another series that does the second trope in a fun way is surprisingly Fairy Tail

[tea-cat-arts]

(Disclaimer: this is just a repeat shower thought I’ve been struggling to put into words)

There’s something about stories where the happy ending is only obtained through a fourth wall break that I just find incredibly unsatisfying. I get the idea is supposed to be like “this happy ending is obtained because of your hard work,” but when the player hasn’t really been an acknowledged factor in the story before that point, it ends up feeling less like a victory for me and more like a happy ending isn’t actually possible for the characters without the author showing their hand. Like, the characters growth and wills aren’t actually enough to win, but the author likes them so they’re just gonna let them get the win anyways. I want the characters’s victory to be the one that’s actually in story if that makes sense

On the flip side of that, it is so satisfying to watch a character go “if the laws of this universe get in the way of my happy ending, then I will simply rewrite them.”