#especially for the heroine x antagonist relationship

[madeleineengland]

Rohan in "The War of the Rohirrim" (2024)

[kikyoupdates]

Tears of a Villainess ⭑˚🗡️⭑ 𝑠𝑢𝑠𝑝𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠

yandere!ocs x reader

yandere, reverse harem, isekai, original characters x fem!reader, slowburn, slowburn yandere

Reincarnation isn't as great as it sounds, especially when you've been reborn as none other than the villainess. Fated to die if you stand in the heroine's way, you immediately resolve to distance yourself from the plot. As long as you have nothing to do with any of the relevant characters, surely, you'll be able to avoid an untimely death. But in a horrible turn of events, the heroine ends up wanting to get close to you. Are you really doomed to meet the villainess' tragic end? Or is there an even more sinister fate that awaits you?

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There are three possible love interests that you can pursue in the game.  

Firstly, Alistair Calderwood. Prior to meeting the heroine, he is engaged to the villainess, but holds no romantic feelings for her. Needless to say, he falls deeply in love with the heroine and ends his engagement, which drives the villainess absolutely insane. In Alistair’s route, her obsessive tendencies result in her regularly harassing the heroine. Although it starts off small, similar to playground bullying, it quickly devolves into something more vicious. On one occasion, she even succeeds in poisoning the heroine, though she survives because the dose is thankfully non-lethal. And also because of plot armor. Definitely plot armor.  

Anyways, long story short, the villainess spirals more and more due to her obsession with Alistair, and she is eventually punished for her crimes through execution—by none other than Carmine, the man standing before you.  

That’s only the first route, though.  

Carmine Mortis is the second love interest in the game. His is an admittedly clichéd story, with that whole trope of a knight falling for a noblewoman and coveting her affections, but societal norms and social status end up standing in the way of their relationship. It’s not a particularly original concept, but you’ve always had a soft spot for characters that will fight tooth and nail for their loved ones, which is why he was your favorite out of the trio.  

Eventually, Carmine and the heroine overcome all the obstacles in their way and obtain their happy ending. But this ending unsurprisingly comes at the cost of the villainess’ life. She is a recurring antagonist, regardless of whether or not you choose Alistair’s route and her engagement falls through. Yet another reason why you think she’s such a poorly written character, because her motives in this route are much less established. The premise of the game is that the heroine is from a failing noble household, and her family moves to a new kingdom after being driven from their own land. The villainess kind of just decides to pick on her when she is introduced into high society, for remarkably petty reasons.  

God. You seriously don’t know who’s writing these villainess-type characters, but it’s a literal tragedy how poorly done they are. How hard is it to create a convincing and humane antagonist that people can maybe even sympathize with at times? Even villains that are flat-out meant to be hated can still be well-written, provided you understand their motives and they have a compelling character arc.  

But you suppose it’s a bit too late for such criticism, because from now on, this isn’t just a story, and these people are no longer simply characters.  

This is your life.  

And you’re sure as hell not going to throw it away.  

Carmine purses his lips. “Is everything alright, my lady? You seem a bit disoriented. The shock of the situation must have really frightened you.”  

You blink, realizing that you’re still holding onto his hand after he helped you to your feet. You pull away as fast as you can, and while it’s true that coming face to face with your would-be executioner is jarring, to say the least, there’s no reason for you to actually panic at this stage.  

You are innocent. You have yet to commit any of the crimes the villainess did—and you don’t ever plan to. There’s no reason why Carmine would ever slice your head off with his sword. Having played the game, you know exactly how powerful he is, and how incredibly easy it would be for him to end your life, but there’s simply no situation where that would ever occur.  

As far as you’re concerned, this will be the last meeting the two of you ever have.  

“I’m fine,” you reassure. The longer you stare at him, the more you calm down. He’s still a knight, after all. A protector of the people. He only punishes criminals, and since you’re not a piece of shit (presumably), there’s no conflict to be had.  

“Why did you try to apprehend that thief all by yourself?” Carmine frowns. Rather than looking angry, he just looks confused, which seems to be how most people react to you these days. “Even if he wasn’t concealing a weapon, did you plan on restraining him on your own? He would have overpowered you with ease.”  

Well, that’s not necessarily true. You could have done… something. Probably. Maybe.  

…fine, it was a stupid, spur-of-the-moment idea. But at least your heart was in the right place.  

“I just wanted to help,” you shrug. “I couldn’t let that man get away with stealing. I wasn’t sure if anyone else would act in time, so I took my chances. Admittedly, the thought that he might have a weapon didn’t really cross my mind… but I’m sure he wasn’t actually going to hurt me.”  

From a little distance off, the thief, who has since been tied up and bound with rope, proceeds to glare at you. 

“No, I had every intention of stabbing you,” he states.  

“Oh. Well, that’s… good to know. Thank you for your candor, I guess.”  

You flash him an awkward thumbs-up, but he merely spits on the floor and curses you in response. Meanwhile, Carmine stares at you in abject horror, and Fiona looks like she wants to curl up in a ball and die.  

Carmine shakes his head. “Try to ignore him, my lady. Deplorable scum like that isn’t worth your time. I assure you, he will be punished accordingly. Not only did he steal, but he also threatened violence. It’s a good thing I was able to apprehend him before anyone actually got hurt.”  

You look back at the thief again, who is muttering under his breath, no doubt saying immensely unflattering things about you. Still, you catch him muttering something about ‘spoiled nobles’, and how ‘people like you will never understand what it’s like to go hungry’. While you certainly don’t condone his crimes, you try to remain sympathetic to the fact that there are people who are less fortunate than you, and sometimes, those people turn to drastic measures in order to survive.  

“I wish I’d at least ripped a hole in your stomach before I got arrested,” the thief snarls.  

Dude. You’re making it really hard to feel sorry for you right now.  

Carmine narrows his eyes. “On your feet, criminal. And don’t speak to her like that. Have you no concept of respect?”  

Carmine jerks the thief up by the rope binding his limbs together, and makes a big show of keeping one hand poised above the hilt of his blade. It’s a silent threat. A warning of what will happen if he doesn’t cooperate. 

“I need to have this man brought in,” Carmine says, turning towards you again. He pauses to look you over. It seems like he’s still worried you might be hurt, or perhaps shaken up, and it’s true that you were shaken up—but for a different reason entirely. 

After what feels like an eternity of silence, he smiles.  

“There’s no doubt that what you did earlier was incredibly reckless. However… I can appreciate that you have a penchant for justice. It’s very admirable that you were willing to put yourself in harm’s way to stop a criminal.”  

Oh, wow. He’s actually complimenting you? That’s awesome! This was pretty much exactly what you intended. The more favorable impressions people have of you, the better your reputation will be, and the less likely it is that you’ll find yourself on the wrong end of a pointed blade.  

It’s definitely going to take a while, but already, it looks like your villainess title is starting to be stripped away.  

“I just want to help, however I can,” you say, smiling sweetly and batting your eyes.  

Carmine chuckles. “Yes, well, your intentions are respectable, but from now on, please be more careful and avoid placing yourself in harm’s way. Us knights are always on the lookout for criminals. We’ll be sure to keep everyone safe.”  

“Will do, boss.”  

Your smile turns to a wide grin, and Carmine gives you a curious look, clearly not used to your modern-day slang. You’ve been trying to adopt the mannerisms and way of speaking of people in this setting, but it’s difficult to completely overwrite old habits. Maybe you’ll get used to it with time. Or maybe other people will get used to how much you’ve changed. Whichever comes first.  

What started off as a rather tense encounter has fortunately ended without any issues. If you avoid the heroine, there’s no reason your path should ever cross with Carmine’s again. It’s possible you might catch glimpses of him in town every now and then, but otherwise, you will both lead separate lives.  

So far, it looks like you’ve managed to distance yourself from two of the three major love interests in the game. Not bad for less than a week in your new body. Not bad at all.  

“God, I’m so epic,” you sigh. 

Fiona, however, doesn’t seem to think you’re that epic. In fact, she has rather strong opinions on the matter.  

“Lady [Name]!” she fumes, and you watch as she balls her hands into cute little fists and shakes them wildly. She’s clearly upset, but honestly, she’s just too adorable to take seriously.  

“What is it?” you chuckle.  

“How can you even ask me that? You could have gotten seriously hurt earlier! If that man’s knife had struck you, you could have died!”  

She gasps for breath after exclaiming her last point, more riled up than you’ve ever seen her. What a loud scream to be coming from such a small little maid. It’s actually rather impressive.  

“Yes, I was reckless,” you admit. You reach out, hesitating for a moment, then you grin and pat her on the head. “It’s a good thing you reacted so fast. I sure am glad I brought you with me. You saved my life, Fiona. You’re amazing.”  

Fiona bristles. “Huh? O-Oh. Well, of course! I couldn’t possibly have let my lady get hurt! B-But what you did still wasn’t safe! There’s no telling what could have happened if that knight hadn’t been passing by!”  

She puffs out her cheeks, still very much indignant, but it looks like she’s not opposed to you patting her head. It actually seems like she’s enjoying it quite a bit. 

You finally let your hand drop, then smile again. “You’re right, Fiona. That was very rash of me, and I promise it won’t happen again. I overestimated my authority and thought I could get a criminal to behave. I guess I just wanted to feel like I was doing a good deed.”  

Fiona’s eyes widen, and you can’t blame her, because based on everything she knows of the previous [Name], wanting to ‘do good’ must sound like some kind of sick joke.  

But you can see it in her expression. Slowly but surely, her doubts and reservations are melting away. Perhaps she felt your sincerity when you patted her head, or even before, when you expressed interest in remembering her name. Whatever the case, you can tell that she’s making an effort to look past all the offenses [Name] committed against her, and is choosing to believe in the you of the present.  

You’ve just gained the cutest little ally you could possibly ask for.  

“I-I understand what you were trying to accomplish, but it was still terrifying!” she insists. She presses a palm to her chest and exhales shakily. “Just… please don’t ever do that again. I’m not sure if my heart will hold out.” 

“Aw. I’m sorry for scaring you. Don’t worry. I’ve learned my lesson.”  

You wink playfully, to which she just sighs and hangs her head in resignation.   

Still, Fiona has a point.  

At this rate, it’s much more likely that you’ll die because of your own stupidity, rather than the plot of the game.  

“...holy shit, is that stall selling mini donuts?!” 

“I’m telling you, honey, our daughter might actually be a genius!”  

Your father beams proudly as he flips through the latest pages of homework he assigned you. Needless to say, you completed everything again, and with stellar marks too. Your mother watches on with obvious skepticism, peeking out from behind her frilly hand fan. She can’t quite seem to wrap her head around what’s happening. As far as she knows, you’ve always been, well… an idiot.  

“[Name] really solved all of these questions herself?” your mother asks, still not buying into the whole thing.  

“She most certainly did,” your father hums. “I even sat here and watched her do it! Isn’t that incredible? To think that we were housing such a prodigy all this time!”  

You grin cheekily, to which your mother starts fanning herself faster, mumbling something inaudible under her breath. Probably to do with the fact that she thinks you might be possessed. It’s a popular theory that still hasn’t died down, by the looks of it.  

Whatever. You’re fully aware of the fact that you’re behaving very differently than the previous [Name], but you need to do this. You need to make a massive change, otherwise, there’s no doubt that people will resent you for the heinous acts the villainess committed before. Besides, it’s not entirely unheard of for people to reinvent themselves. It’s not especially common, but it does happen every now and then.  

Also, you think it’s really funny how your parents keep acting like you’re the second coming of Einstein. You’ve always considered yourself to be decently smart, but given how straightforward your father’s math problems are… they’re definitely giving you too much credit.  

Oh, well. It’s much better to have naive, supportive parents than ones that will make your life hell.  

“It just doesn’t make any sense,” your mother frowns. “[Name], you always used to whine and avoid studying. You said you would rather die than have to do homework, and one time you threw a fit and threatened to jump out the window.”  

“...”  

I already knew the villainess was a whiny little bitch, but come on. Whatever happened to standards, sis?  

“Um.” You awkwardly clear your throat. “Yes, well, I’d rather not speak of that incident. I’m embarrassed with how I behaved. It’s true that my sudden change in demeanor might seem rather shocking, but I really am trying to become a better, more accomplished person. Once I started actually applying myself, I realized it wasn’t as difficult as I initially thought. I only wish I’d done this sooner.”  

Unlike your father, who is absolutely giddy with the newly-improved version of his daughter, your mother seems to be much more dubious of this whole situation. Perhaps it’s a mother’s intuition or something. Obviously, she would never be able to guess that you’re an entirely different person trapped inside a new body, but it’s clear that she still has her suspicions.  

She snaps her hand fan shut, then nods. “I see. Well, this is a relief. It’s good to see you taking things seriously for a change. A strong work ethic is something to be admired.”  

She pats your shoulder and smiles encouragingly, but as she’s walking away, you swear you catch her frowning at you out of the corner of her eye.  

Yeah. She’s definitely not fully on board yet. You can only hope that, with time, she’ll come to accept the change.  

At least your father’s having a field day.  

“My darling little genius,” he praises, ruffling your hair affectionately. “[Name], I want you to know that your mother and I are both very proud of you. In fact, we’re considering finding a tutor for you to work with. Clearly, someone of your intellect needs to be challenged accordingly, and with their help, you’ll learn at a much more accelerated pace.”  

A tutor, huh? Well, you’re not opposed to it. You’ve spent the past few years of your life listening to countless professors drone on during lectures, most of which didn’t teach you jack shit. The better portion of your academic career has been self-taught. A tutor should be fine, because you get to work one-on-one with them and they’ll actually listen to your questions.  

“Of course, father. I’m excited to expand my knowledge and push past my limits.”  

He outright squeals in delight, then pulls you into his arms and gives you the biggest bear hug of all time. He was initially furious when you broke off your engagement with Alistair, but it looks like he’s completely gotten over to it.  

And to think that all it took was solving a few math problems. 

“Thank you, math,” you mumble quietly, which are undoubtedly words that nobody has ever spoken before.  

Your father eventually pulls away from you, still smiling. “Keep up the good work, my dear. And remember that we’ve been invited to attend a social function tonight. I wanted to remind you in case you’d forgotten. If you continue to be diligent with your studies, I’d be more than happy to let you pick out some new dresses for future events. You mentioned before that your wardrobe has been looking rather sparse as of late.”  

You’re tempted to roll your eyes, because what the villainess considers to be sparse is easily a hundred times more clothes than you’ve ever had. 

“Thank you for your generosity, father. I would certainly appreciate some new clothes, but I’ll shelf the issue for the time being. I’d like to make sure I’ve earned my reward. It still feels like I have a long way to go.”  

Your father chuckles. “My, my. To think that you’re even exerting so much restraint! Who are you and what have you done with my daughter? Haha.”  

“Haha… ha.”  

Don’t play with me, old man.  

He grins one last time, pure adoration in his eyes, before eventually leaving. So far, it’s pretty safe to say that your father is on your side, Fiona is loyal and is slowly coming around to the fact that you’re a better person, and your mother remains to be fully convinced. But either way, you’ve successfully broken up with Alistair and haven’t had to face any consequences, which is a win in your book.  

Now, then. It’s time for the most challenging task you’ve had thus far.  

Etiquette. 

Having played the game, you’re somewhat conscious of how certain characters within the nobility were expected to behave, but putting it in practice is a different matter entirely.  

Up until now, you’ve been able to get away with your crude, modern-day way of acting, mainly because you haven’t attended any parties or notable social gatherings. You’ve stayed within the confines of your manor, and save for when you went into town that day, you haven’t made any public appearances.  

This time, however, things are different.  

Your parents can mostly excuse your erratic behavior. You are their daughter, after all, and so long as no one important is there to bear witness, they don’t seem too concerned with it. But when faced with countless members of the nobility, most of which are looking for just about any opportunity to gossip and scrutinize, your carefree attitude won’t go over that well.  

Your one saving grace is that people already have a bad impression of the villainess. They already expect you to make rude, shameless remarks and go around trying to stir up trouble. Obviously, you won’t be doing any of that, but you hope that whatever mistakes you might make tonight will be overlooked. The last thing you want is to stick out like a sore thumb.  

“Can you believe it? [Name] actually had the gall to show up.” 

“Didn’t she make one of the other ladies cry at the last party?”  

“She did. I heard that poor thing couldn't handle the abuse and ran out into the garden, then she tripped and broke her ankle.”  

You blink tiredly.  

Looks like not standing out is a hollow dream. 

“Shh! She’s coming over here,” one of the gossiping women chides. They’re all huddled up in a group, but the second they notice you passing by, they throw on practiced smiles and pretend like nothing ever happened.  

“[Name]!” the same woman coos, using a very obviously fake, superficial tone of voice. She then curtsies, most likely because you outrank her. “Oh, how lovely it is to see you! I was wondering if you’d been invited. You always have a way of… spicing the evening up.”  

The women standing behind her giggle obnoxiously. It’s obvious that this is intended to be a passive-aggressive display, as well as an attempt to humiliate you. 

But what they don’t realize is that you’re not the same person anymore—quite literally. Therefore, no matter how they try to insult you, there’s no reason for you to take it seriously. And besides, your foremost concern is ensuring that you survive. What’s a few catty bitches compared to the threat of death?  

“Hello,” you smile. “It’s nice to see all of you as well. Also, in regards to what you were whispering about earlier, I’m afraid I don’t remember. Did I make someone cry? Truly, it must have slipped my mind. Perhaps I need a reminder.”  

They stiffen up, because normally in high society, these underhanded remarks are rarely acknowledged face to face. You’re expected to play the long game and retort with passive-aggressive comments of your own, not call them out on their bullshit.  

You have to admit, pretending to be a villainess can be pretty fun at times.  

“I-I’m not sure what you’re referring to,” the woman mutters. She then gestures towards her lackeys, glaring at you before she leaves. “I believe a close friend of mine has just arrived. You’ll have to excuse us.”  

They leave without further issue, good riddance. It’s best to keep people like that at arm’s length. You do want to establish a better reputation for yourself, but if you let others walk all over you instead of holding your ground, you’ll never be taken seriously.  

Anyways, for obvious reasons, it looks like most people are avoiding you. Officially, your parents are the actual guests, but as their daughter, you’re expected to accompany them. They’ve already gone off to exchange niceties with the host of the evening, which fortunately leaves you free to do what you want.  

And right now, what you want is to have some of that expensive wine that everyone’s drinking.  

There are a few servants roaming around carrying trays stacked with alcohol, and you gingerly pick up a glass, smiling appreciatively.  

“Thank you,” you say, and the servant reacts by flinching in surprise. Being thanked by the villainess is probably just as big of a shock as being hit by a bus.  

He scurries off, and surprise, surprise���no one else has come to talk to you yet. You take a sip of the wine and let out a sigh. Well, this is fine. From what you remember, the villainess doesn’t have many actual friends, for obvious reasons. There are a few noblewomen who occasionally flock around her and help her harass the heroine, but those same noblewomen also talk shit about the villainess behind her back, so it’s hardly a genuine friendship.  

You decide to make like a wallflower for a bit and just observe. There’s a lot to be learned, after all. High society has all kinds of unwritten rules, and the more you know, the better you’ll fare.  

Okay, so… that dude is apparently having an affair. Everyone knows it, including his wife, but they’re pretending like it doesn’t exist. And that woman over there showed up wearing the same dress as someone else, which is apparently mortifying enough to quietly cry over.  

“This is all so confusing,” you mutter, taking another gulp of wine.  

“What’s confusing?”  

You squeal. You’re so startled that you nearly drop the glass of wine in the process, but fortunately, your amazing (self-proclaimed) reflexes kick in just in time.  

Some rude bastard just snuck up on you! The absolute nerve! You’re actually about to chew him out for it, since you nearly had a damn heart attack, but you stop yourself the moment you make eye contact.  

Standing before you is none other than the third and final love interest—Flynn Pearce.  

Flynn leans closer, tilting his head. “What’s so confusing? You look unusually focused. I noticed you standing over here and mumbling to yourself. You seem to be drinking much more slowly than usual too.”  

You press your lips together. The third love interest from the game, Flynn, is none other than the villainess’ close childhood friend. They basically grew up together. That’s how far back their friendship dates. This of course means that when he starts developing feelings for the heroine, someone that the villainess has decided she hates, she openly expresses her disapproval and makes efforts to keep the two of them apart.  

Flynn is an interesting character, because he’s a bit more morally gray than the other love interests. He is obviously aware of all the villainess’ flaws, but still defends her in the initial acts of his route, because of their long-standing friendship. Unlike Alistair, who is written to be charming, poised, and compassionate, or Carmine, who despises acts of injustice and can’t stand the villainess’ wrongdoings, Flynn isn’t meant to be so clear-cut. It takes a while for him to come to terms with his feelings for the heroine and realize how permissive he’s been of the villainess’ behavior over the years. His character arc leads him to realize how guilty he is by association, and after dealing with the self-loathing that comes with this realization, he eventually casts the villainess out of his life.  

This is the only ending where the villainess isn’t executed by Carmine. In an act of hateful desperation, she lunges at the heroine with a knife, fully intent on killing her.  

But the villainess obviously doesn’t succeed, and instead, she finds that same knife plunged into her chest.  

By none other than her dearest friend.  

You could argue that Flynn is the only real friend the villainess ever had, which could have potentially made her death more tragic, if not for the fact that she was horribly written and had no redeemable qualities.  

Anyways, that same friend is now standing right in front of you. Just like Carmine, if you make the wrong choices and somehow end up tangled in the plot, he too has the potential to end your life.  

It’s always fun staring death in the face.  

“Um, nothing really,” you say, doing your best not to openly grimace. “I was just thinking… that this wine is a weird choice. I’m not sure why they picked it. It’s a bit confusing, is all.”  

Flynn frowns. “I tried the wine. Didn’t you say before that it was one of your favorites?”  

“Oh. D-Did I? Well, maybe the batch is off or something. Either way, it’s not a big deal. I’ll drink it all the same.”  

To prove your point, you throw your head back and chug the rest of the wine. Come to think of it, you do recall that the villainess is a bit of a heavy drinker. You suppose you should do your best to play the part.  

You hoped that would put Flynn’s suspicions to rest, but instead, he narrows his eyes even further. 

“Not a big deal…? If the wine really wasn’t to your taste, surely you’d have more to say about it. Normally, you would have been more vocal about your complaints. I remember you once argued with the hosts for their poor choice of hors d’oeuvres.”  

You gape at him. 

Oh my god. Fuck you, shitty villainess! Why do you have to be such a massive asshole all the time? It’s impossible to meet your ridiculously trashy standards! 

“Ah, right,” you chuckle, hurrying to compose yourself. You wave your hand dismissively. “It’s true. To be honest, I have a lot of improvements in mind for tonight, but I’m rather tired. I just don’t have the energy to go and throw their mistakes in their face. Besides, incompetent people will never learn, I’m afraid. It’s just a waste of my time. Anyways. I’m off to go grab more wine! It may not be good, but it’s palatable, at the very least. I need something to keep me busy for the rest of this mind-numbing ordeal.”  

You leave without giving him another chance to comment. Shit! You weren’t expecting to run into him so soon, and you knew from the start that he’d be the most troublesome one to deal with, since he knows the villainess so well. It won’t be as easy to cut him out of your life as it was with Alistair and Carmine. You’ll need to avoid him to the best of your ability, but you just don’t know how.  

While you clumsily weave through all the people, freaking out internally, Flynn stares at you from afar, without blinking once.  

He purses his lips.  

“She’s… acting strange.”  

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[mesaylormoon]

MaXXXine: A Review

We are finally entering a refreshing period of history in which our culture is becoming more open-minded to the idea of exploring sex in pop culture. After decades of treating the topic as taboo, it’s important — and even healthy — to normalize the subject as a part of human exploration and even a device to build relationships in film. Shows like Euphoria have helped push the envelope in regard to showing sex in media and MaXXXine is another entry into the category. It stands out as a surprisingly entertaining piece for anyone familiar or unfamiliar with the series.

Pros:

* The presentation and cinematography in this picture are fantastic. Every frame of the film is dripping with atmosphere. The color palette of muted burgundies, midnight blues, pitch blackness, and grainy visual qualities all give this production a unique, even recognizable look. The scenes that take place at nighttime in the city are especially beautiful and feel as if they were ripped right out of an old Hollywood piece

* Director Ti West expertly commits to three genres in one movie: film noir, murder mystery, and old western. It’s very difficult to find a balance when combining dissonant styles and tones, but the three somehow blend together seamlessly to create a film with a standout visual language, tone, and aesthetic

* Although the costume design and stereotypical lean-in to 1980’s nostalgia is a bit tired, the time period MaXXXine is set in gives the film a very cozy feel and it’s fun to see archival remnants of the era (VHS tapes, video stores)

* Mia Goth’s performance as Maxine is the true X-factor of this movie. The lead actress perfectly depicts the tiredness, ruggedness, frustration, brokenness, and pained complexities of a character the audience has gotten to know over the course of three films. Kevin Bacon is also a fun addition to the cast whose fate is enjoyably fun to watch near the movie’s climax

* I really like the story, conflict, and setup of this third installment. I had no idea what to expect from MaXXXine but was worried that, without knowledge of the last two pictures, I would have trouble following this one. Not only does it work well as a standalone outing, I think the simplicity of the protagonist’s motivations make the movie engaging and easy to follow

* The pacing of the movie works surprisingly well. While it is, for the most part, slow-moving and driven by character interaction, there are just enough action scenes dispersed in between to keep the conflict interesting

Cons:

* Sam Levinson’s thumbprint is very evident in MaXXXine. He is featured as a producer credit and his obsession with excessive sex scenes, over-the-top violence, and messy narrative are on display throughout the movie’s runtime

* While Maxine’s motivations to transition from adult films to Hollywood and apprehend her friends’ killers is well-established, her relationships with the supporting characters are not. Perhaps I can’t appreciate this detail as a result of having not seen the previous installments, but this was a huge flaw that severely hurt the picture’s quality for me

* The reveal of the twist villain is especially weak. It’s interesting to include an antagonist with a personal connection to the heroine, but this is a plot device that, at this point in cinema history, has become a bit overused. Moreover, his reasoning for attempting to ruin the protagonist’s career are not well-established

* A24 has made it a frustrating hook of their filmography to incorporate heavy-handed, obvious themes of anti-religion, and its use in MaXXXine is not very purposeful. One could change this element of the story and not really miss anything

Verdict: This has certainly been a contradictory review of mine, but overall, I enjoyed MaXXXine much more than I thought I would. I’m glad I took a risk on seeing this in theaters. Traditionally, I tend to like lots of A24 releases (as do most movie buffs, due to their above-average quality) but not every film developed by the studio has been a hit for me. (I absolutely hate Lady Bird and I’m not proud to say it was my first A24 viewing). Tangent aside, MaXXXine is a solid mystery movie with a strong visual identity and memorable moments that make it worth more than one sitting.

[finitefall]

Say whatever you want about the Lannister, they might not be good people at all but honestly they were extremely compelling, complex and intriguing characters and they were antagonists to the starks!Being antagonist doesn't necessarily mean that character is irredeemable or boring.Grrm managed to show us how cersei was a victim in her life but she was also an abuser, tyrion was a victim of family abuse but he became an abuser as well in his ADWD arc.Grrm didn't need to make them little meow meow to make the readers like them or enjoy reading about them, he only made them complex characters with compelling arcs and that made them popular.The thing is, Hotd can and should have written alicent in this way.they should have shown her as a victim in the beginning, because at the end of the day she is a woman living in a patriarchal society but also show how she is a woman with AGENCY instead of putting all the blame in Otto and viserys.Aegon as well should have been written in a similar way to how Grrm written Tyrion.A character that started as a harmless lazy hedonist who can be funny sometimes but then becomes a very dark character over time.And that would be much better than the passive irreredeemable one dimensional character they given us in Show!Aegon.Also they should have focused on Aegon and Rhaenyra relationship more, what did they think of each other before the war?What was their relationship before the usurpation?"Because as far as we know Aegon didn't want to usurp the throne of his sister at first before Criston and Alicen convinced him.So there are many different ways to portray their relationship in the show especially before the dance, The dance is remembered through the history as the civil war between a Sister and a Brother . so to not have the eldest daughter and the eldest son of viserys interact with each other is bad writing simple as that. Instead, we have given this weird fanfiction of Rhaenyra falling in love with her stepmother. This relationship is so painfully bad that it has severed their characterization in the show .

Hi nonnie! Sorry for the late answer, I’m only starting to catch up with my messages...

The Lannisters are extremely interesting and compelling characters, indeed. You can love them, love to hate them, both in the books and the show. I’ll start with the show even though you’re talking about the books, since we’re comparing to how the Greens aren’t compelling and interesting in the show.

Cersei was a fan favorite in Game of Thrones. Of course, Lena Headey is an incredible actress and the writers weren’t dumb to the point of not seeing it and letting her talent go to waste. Some of the most iconic scenes of the show are still, to this day, her scenes, including: “Is this meant to be your shield, Lord Stark? A piece of paper?” *tears it up* (x) and “Power is Power” (x). She’s not being nice, she’s not being a victim, she’s in charge, she’s an amazing antagonist, she’s a badass who totally owns the fact she does crazy and evil things - and is rather proud of it, too. And yet, she was a victim during her marriage with Robert, had him killed to protect herself and her children (and I don’t blame her), and we felt for her every time she lost a child (even if it’s Joffrey), when Tywin tries to marry her off to Loras for politics (even though a few seconds earlier, she was looking delighted when he told Tyrion he would marry Sansa), when she had to do the “walk of shame” (even though she was the one to put the Faith Militant in power and we hated her at first when Loras and Margaery were thrown into cells to her absolute delight). No matter what she did, we loved her. My favorite character is Daenerys, who’s a heroine unlike Cersei. But I loved Cersei because she’s interesting, compelling, she has agency... oh wait. That’s the problem for show!Alicent stans, isn’t it? Cersei was a female character with agency, she didn’t just stay a victim.

Even Tywin, played by the amazing Charles Dance: I looked forward to every scene with him and I hate the man (Tywin, not Charles). Who’s interested by any scene with Otto? Yeah, me neither. Jaime did some seriously fucked up things, including pushing a little boy out the window with the intent to kill him, and I ship him with Brienne. God, even Joffrey was at least well-written and we had compelling (and sometimes hilarious) scenes between him and Tyrion. Now, Tyrion was whitewashed in the show unfortunately, which wasn’t such a problem in the earlier seasons for me, but became ridiculous when he joined Daenerys’ side and was basically reading her the Geneva Convention. Speaking of, Tyrion in ADWD is an excellent example because I could have hated him so much and wished for his death... but it wasn��t the case. That’s how talented GRRM is: no, I don’t think of Tyrion as a good person, he’s extremely complex and tortured, and there’s no excuse for rape - not ever. But I still think he’s one of the best characters Martin wrote, I can understand why he loves writing him the most, and I still want to read Tyrion’s POV.

Compared to this, we have another rapist in HOTD, Aegon, who only had interesting scenes in episode 9 and was, before this, reduced to a jerk and a rapist. It’s hard to actually find him compelling, and as I said before, it’s even more a waste because the actor proved in episode 9 that he has talent, that he could have been a villain I loved to hate. There’s no scene between Rhaenyra and Aegon because they’re making the show all about Alicent and Rhaenyra, when Aegon has always been the threat to her claim, is the one sitting on her throne and will be the one killing her. They’ve had literally zero interaction in the first season. Even after episode 9 and giving Aegon the screen time he deserved and showing the importance of his character, they don’t follow on it. Next episode, the terms are offered in Alicent’s name, when in the book they’re delivered in Aegon’s name. But the writers are too busy with Rhaenicent, and suddenly the Dance of the Dragons is apparently a lesbian divorce drama, making Alicent awfully incoherent and uninteresting, while Rhaenyra is way more passive than should be allowed in face of what’s been done to her.

[my-complicated-pairs]

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action series

While the title of this list is “List of canon villain/heroine ships with happy endings”, it doesn’t contain only ships with male villains and female heroes:

-some of these ships consist of female villains and male heroes;

-there are some lgbt+ ships here as well;

-in some of these ships both characters are villainous (or antiheroic);

-some of these characters may be seen not as villains, but as antivillains, antiheroes, antagonists or “just” criminals - in the end these definitions are fluid and some characters may be really difficult to categorise, especially if they go through a major character development or if they appear in the slice of life media;

-I included ships involving ex-villains;

-some of these ships are the examples of the enemies to lovers trope, but they don’t involve any characters, who can be categorised as villains or antiheroes.

Other notes:

-in few examples the couple has a bittersweet ending, but I include it due to the fact that both characters are not dead and their relationship itself is happy;

-I included some pre-existing couples;

-this list was created mostly for statistical purposes (it may be used for recommendations as well, but not always) - due to it, this list includes ships that are humorous, don’t play significant role in the canon material, come from the media that are often considered to be bad or come from really obscure media;

-some ships on this list - especially if they come from media created long time ago - may be considered to be controversial due to various reasons, so if you don’t want to watch anything potentially disturbing, don’t forget about doing research first;

-I included some ships from non closed canons that have a chance to have a happy ending (they’re described as ‘hopefully’) - if they won’t get a romantic happy ending, I’ll remove them.

I’ll be updating this list from time to time, so feel free to suggest other examples :) - and correct me if I got something wrong (f.e. if the specific ship doesn’t have a happy ending, some characters are not villains and/or antiheroes etc.)

If the types of characters are not specified, the ship consists of a male villain/antihero and a heroine.

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action movies

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in anime and manga

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in animation and comics (excluding anime and manga)

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in book series

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in standalone pieces of literature

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in visual novels and video games

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in music

[note: the links lead to the respective IMDB pages] 

Live-action series - fantasy, sci-fi & horror

Wolf x Virginia (male antagonist x female hero) - The 10th Kingdom (a 2000 American fantasy series; suggested by @nerfherderbinniegirl and @monsters-and-villains) - the werewolf is sent by the evil queen from the fairytale land to modern New York City in order to kidnap the runaway prince turned into a dog; he quickly fails in his mission after falling in love with the daughter of a man who finds the said prince

(my opinion: it’s a very enjoyable series and while I have issues with the rushed ending, I highly recommend it; Wolf stops being antagonist pretty quickly, but he doesn’t stop acting over the top and ofcourse he doesn’t stop being a werewolf ;P; Virginia is a very well written heroine and watching her journey is really satysfying)

Tate x Violet - American Horror Story (an ongoing American horror series; suggested by monsters-and-villains) [note: an erased timeline] 

Shahryar x Scheherazade - Arabian Nights, a 2000 American-British fantasy series 

the Phantom x Christine - Phantom of Hillhurst, the 35th episode of Big Bad Beetleborgs, a 1996-1998 American action/adventure comedy horror series (you may watch it here) - the protagonists’ ghost friend, Flabber, is visited by the Phantom, who still isn’t over losing contect with his childhood friend/love Christine; after seeing Jo, he thinks she’s Christine, decides to become her music master and separate her from her friends and family, until Flabber finds the real Christine and reunites her with the Phantom

(my opinion: from one point of view, it’s good to know that poor Erik - although he’s never referred by that name in the show - has a happy ending with Christine at least in an episode of one of the 90s Saban tokusatsu rip offs, and it’s really cute to see them as childhood friends... but from another point of view, Phantom’s “crush” on Jo is too creepy for me - unlike Christine in the original and the other Saban tokusatsu rip off heroines, Jo is 10-11 years old instead of being a teenager, which together with the fact that the creators have intentionally shown Jo’s possession as a creepy/scary thing is a bit too much for me; luckily they haven’t shown the Phantom making any explicitly romantic/sexual advances towards Jo and he immediately forgets about her existence after seeing real Christine)

Spike x Buffy - Buffy the Vampire Slayer (a 1997-2003 American horror series... if we count the canon 2007-2018 post-series comics in) [suggested by @fluffycakesistainted] [note: the TV series ends with Spike’s death] 

Carmilla x Laura (female villain x female hero) - Carmilla web series (a 2014-2016 Canadian comedy-drama/horror series)

possibly Eunice x Charles (the pre-existing couple; female villain x male hero) - No Brain, No Pain, the 15th episode of Eerie, Indiana, a 1991-1992 American horror sci-fi series (you may watch it here)

Walker x Olivia (the pre-existing couple) - The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a 2021 American superhero series (suggested by @neoma2) 

Tarabas x Angelica - Fantaghirò, a 1991-1996 Italian fantasy series (suggested by monsters-and-villains) 

Richard x Roberta - Galavant (a 2015-2016 American musical fantasy comedy series; suggested by @a-cynical-dreamer-world) 

Madalena x Gareth (female antagonist x male hero) - Galavant (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Adalind x Nick (female villain x male hero) - Grimm (a 2011-2017 American fantasy crime drama; suggested by @iheartdramas)

possibly Tomas x Karina (the pre-existing couple) - Hawkeye (a 2021 American superhero series)

Grifforzer x Lamie (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female villain) - Kyôryû Sentai Zyuranger (a 1992 Japanese tokusatsu series) aka the series adapted into the first season of Power Rangers

Lucifer x Chloe - Lucifer (a 2016-2021 American fantasy series; suggested by monsters-and-villains)

Cheoljong x So-yong - Mr. Queen (kor. Cheorinwanghu), a 2020 South Korean historical/fantasy/romantic series (suggested by @ainomica)

Rumplestiltskin x Belle - Once Upon a Time (a 2011-2018 American fantasy series; suggested by @vilheroinefairytale)

Killian x Emma - Once Upon a Time

Katherine x Tommy (female villain x male ex-villain) - the Power Rangers franchise (an ongoing American action/adventure franchise)

Rita x Zedd (female villain x male villain) - the Power Rangers franchise

Nadira x Lucas (female villain x male hero) - Power Rangers Time Force (a 2001 American action/adventure series)

Jindrax x Toxica (male villain x female villain) - Power Rangers Wild Force (a 2002 American action/adventure series)

Blake x Tori (male antivillain x female hero) - Power Rangers Ninja Storm (a 2003 American action/adventure series; suggested by an anon)

Trent x Kira - Power Rangers DinoThunder (a 2004 American action/adventure series; suggested by an anon)

Jarrod x Camille (male villain x female villain) - Power Rangers Jungle Fury (a 2008 American action/adventure series)

Angelica x Bulbo (female villain x male hero) - The Rose and the Ring, a 1986-1988 Polish musical fantasy TV series based on the 1854 British satirical fantasy novel (suggested by neoma2)

the Mirror Universe!Hoshi Sato x the Mirror Universe!Travis Mayweather (female villain x male villain) - In a Mirror, Darkly parts I and II, episodes of Star Trek: Enterprise, a 2001-2005 American sci-fi series

Damon x Elena - The Vampire Diaries (a 2009-2017 American supernatural teen drama)

Live-action series - crime & thriller

Michael x Nikita (male antihero x female antihero) - Nikita (a 2010-2013 American thriller drama series)

A ship that used to be featured here as ‘hopefully getting a HEA’:

- Villanelle x Eve (female villain x female hero) - Killing Eve, a 2018-2022 American-British-Italian thriller series, based on the 2018- 2020 British book series: Villanelle and Eve confess their romantic feelings towards each other, they share a kiss and a short time of happiness, but Villanelle is violently killed after that; they have a happy ending in the book series  

Live-action series - historical

Leon x Bella - Beauty and the Beast, a 2014 Italian-Spanish romance series (suggested by neoma2)

Sue x Maud (female antivillain x female hero) - Fingersmith, a 2005 British adaptation of the 2002 British historical crime novel

Chu Beijie x Bai Pingting - General and I (a 2017 Chinese historical romance; suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Marcus Vinitius x Ligia - the 1985 Italian and the 2002 Polish adaptations of Quo vadis, a 1895-1896 Polish historical novel (suggested by neoma2)

Live-action series - slice of life and drama

Leon x Sol (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female antihero) - Amantes de Luna Llena, a 2000–2002 Venezuelan telenovela (suggested by neoma2)

Omar x Caro - La fea más bella, a 2006-2007 Mexican telenovela, an adaptation of the Colombian telenovela Yo soy Betty, la fea (Ugly Betty); suggested by neoma2

Alicia x Tomás (female villain x male hero) -  La fea más bella (suggested by neoma2)

Sebastian x Viola (male villain x female villain) - BrzydUla, a 2008-2009 Polish adaptation of Yo soy Betty, la fea (Ugly Betty); suggested by neoma2 [warning: at the beginning of the ongoing sequel series Viola is married to someone else, but supposedly she still has feelings for Sebastian, so hopefully they’ll get a happy ending in the new series as well]

Carolina x Mimi (female villain x female hero) - Cazando a un millonario, a 2001 Peruvian telenovela (suggested by neoma2)

Aneta x Józef (the pre-existing couple; female villain x male hero) - a 1978 adaptation of Children of the Soil (pl. Rodzina Połanieckich), a 1894 Polish slice of life novel (suggested by neoma2)

Bárbara x Luis (female villain x male hero) - Como en el cine, a 2001 Mexican telenovela (suggested by neoma2)

Juan x Monica - any adaption of Corazón Salvaje, a 1957 Mexican novel series, f.e. the 1993 series (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Rafael x Clemecia (the pre-existing couple) - El derecho de nacer, a 1981 Mexican telenovela (suggested by neoma2)

Katy x Miguel Angel (female villain x male hero) - Estrellita mía, a 1987 Argentine telenovela (suggested by neoma2)

Katy x José Julián (female villain x male hero) - Luz María, a 1998-1999 Peruvian version of Estrellita mía (suggested by neoma2)

Jonas x Sashenka (male villain x female antihero) - Gitanas, a 2004-2005 Mexican telenovela (suggested by neoma2)

Chuck x Blair - Gossip Girl (a 2007-2012 American teen drama; suggested by @catalina-infanta)

Rochester x Jane - various adaptations of Jane Eyre, a 1847 British novel, f.e. the 1983 British one and the 2006 British-French one (suggested by vilheroinefairytale)

Cruz de Jesús x Mireya - Ka Ina (a 1995 Venezuelan telenovela; suggested by neoma2)

hopefully Piotr x Beata - Klan, an ongoing Polish soap opera (suggested by neoma2)

Jesús x Heucaris - Llovizna (a 1997-1998 Venezuelan telenovela; suggested by neoma2)

Orestes x Nubis - Más que amor, frenesí (a 2001 Venezuelan telenovela; suggested by neoma2)

Rogelio x Ana Paula - The One Who Couldn't Love (es. La que no podía amar), a 2011-2012 Mexican telenovela (suggested by neoma2)

Osa x Joanna - Plebania (en. The Vicarage; a 2000-2012 Polish soap opera)

Fermina x her unnamed fiancee (female villain x male hero) - Preciosa (a 1998 Mexican telenovela)

Barbara x Marek (the pre-existing couple; female villain x male hero) - Radio Romans (en. Radio Romance), a 1994-1995 Polish soap opera (suggested by neoma2)

Annie x Jude (female villain x male hero) - Sunset Beach, a 1997-1999 American soap opera (suggested by neoma2)

Teresa x Arturo (female villain x male hero) - the 2010-2011 Teresa remake, a Mexican telenovela (suggested by neoma2)

probably Félix x Ángelito (male villain x male hero) - Trail of Lies (es. Amor à Vida), a 2013–2014 Brazilian telenovela

Lucrecia x Alejandro (the pre-existing couple; female villain x male hero) - Travesuras del corazón, a 1998 Peruvian family telenovela (suggested by neoma2)

Becky x Jos (female villain x male hero) - the 1998 American-British adaptation of Vanity Fair (suggested by neoma2)

Damián x Rosi (male villain x female villain) -  Wild Angel (es. Muñeca brava; a 1998-1999 Argentine telenovela)

Martha x Bernardo (female villain x male hero) - Wild Angel  

Luisa x Federico (the pre-existing couple; female villain/antihero x male villain/antihero) - Wild Angel

Live-action series - comedies

Salceson x Ewa (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female villain) - the 11th and 12th episode of 13 Posterunek II (a 2000 Polish sitcom)

Brady x Marisa - K.C. Undercover (a 2015-2018 American teen spy comedy series)

C.C. x Niles (female villain x male hero) - The Nanny (a 1993-1999 American sitcom; suggested by neoma2)

Karolina x Konrad (female villain x male hero) - Niania (a 2005-2009 Polish adaptation of The Nanny; suggested by neoma2)

possibly Tutencham x Rozalia - Klątwa Tutenchama (en. The Curse of Tutencham), the 26th episode of Świat według Kiepskich (en. The World According to the Kiepskis), a 1999-2021 Polish sitcom [note: this subplot is not continued in the later episodes and it should be trated as a standalone]

[frustrated-writer-skyeknight]

Strange magic [full movie]

How this did it better than Beauty and the Beast

(Though disclaimer, I also like that movie)

✅Misogynist antagonist constantly shamed by leading heroine

✅They didn't fall in love immediately

✅It was a developed relationship

✅They find things they have in common and bonded over it

✅He didn't like her because of her beauty

✅She didn't start liking him because he did several nice gestures especially for her

✅No handsome transformation in the ending, to maintain the 'beast' quality being present, and still deserving love.

✅✅✅IT ALSO HAS SONG NUMBERS

Thinking of making Plotbunny sets of this for:

Pairings: Honeymaren x Elsa, Ryder x Gregory

Castings:

Honeymaren - Marianne

Elsa - Sunny

Ryder - Dawn

Gregory - Bog King

Roland - as himself

🐇Plotbunnies🐇

Honeymaren is Queen Elsa's personal bodyguard.

Honeymaren is also her partner, soon to be wife.

Roland proposes to Ryder, and their wedding is first before Elsa and Honeymaren's.

Roland is set on marrying Ryder, who is Captain of the Knights. He wants to climb ranks faster this way, so he could lead the army too.

On the day of Ryder's wedding, Honeymaren finds out Roland's been cheating on her brother. She demands the wedding to be cancelled.

Honeymaren doesn't tell Ryder why. Roland was the first to "show interest" in him, and if he finds out it was all a lie, it would kill him. Literally. Enchanted Pixies die if they're too grieved.

Elsa tries convincing her fianceé to tell Ryder the truth. But Honeymaren doesn't want to risk losing her brother.

Honey Maren allows herself to be painted as the bad guy.

Ryder doesn't understand why his sister suddenly forbides him from falling in love, and is suddenly protective. He was Captain of the Knights! He could take care of himself.

[sherry-l]

Why YGO Vrains is such an immeasurable disappointment: a list

First of all, I need to make it abundantly clear that Im a big fan of Vrains – I love Yusaku, Ryoken, Ai, Kusanagi... you see them very often on my dash. I fantasize about the ideal version of Vrains that’s written well, the Vrains that’s fully exploited its potentials, every night in my sleep. I wrote this list PRECISELY because I love Vrains. That’s why I got so frustrated with its cardinal writing issues (and production issues). It physically pains me to hear people calling Vrains the worst and most boring series of YGO – but the fact that I couldn’t argue against that because it’s true pains me more.

And now, an incomprehensive list of the faults of Yugioh Vrains.  

1.      What the fuck is wrong with the character designs (beside that of Yusaku and Ryoken???) Everyone looks aesthetically displeasing – characters in real life look incredibly boring they could easily drown in a crowd of background characters, but their avatars are OSTENTATIOUS. Seems like the character designer had no clue what “less is more” means – blue angel, soulburner, and Bohemann for example, look like they were immersed in a bucket of glue and then dumped into another bucket filled with random accessories.

(from a fan artist’s perspective…Im especially salty about takeru, akira, Kusanagi, and the Knights of Hanois’ designs…like, their designs don’t inspire me to draw. Their personalities might be interesting, but their looks lack the vibrant, enthusiastic energy that the 5Ds, Zexal, and Arc-V characters possess)

(imagine how many fanfics and fanarts of Kusanagi x Yusaku there would be had Kusanagi looked HALF as hot as Ryoken)

And don’t even get me started on the colour palette – whoever decided on the colours just cant make up their goddamn mind! Colour saturation is way off the charts, the range of colour is too wide the audience simply dont know where to focus.

2.      Forgotten plotlines. Yusaku’s link sense? Hanoi’s spy in SOL? The Queen and the rest of the chess pieces? Yusaku’s forgotten memories? The rest of the victims of the Lost Incident? Just to name a few. 

3.      Character relationships are weak to minimal to none. Bonds and friendships – the vital element in all previous YGO series – is practically non-existent in Vrains. Where’s the camaraderie between our main casts (Yusaku, Aoi, Soulburner, Ema, Onizuka, etc…)? They don’t feel like a team fighting the evil together. They’re completely separate individuals who don’t give a single fuck if one of their…acquaintance…dies in a battle. We don’t have heartwarming moments of friendship blossoming and consolidating. It’s honestly such a let down.

4.      Interesting and debatable topics thrown away. The conflict between artificial intelligence and humans could spark so many in-depth discussions, but then the writer just decided its all Lightening’s fault. No morally gray situations, no ambiguity between the line of good and evil. It’s just all Lightening and his petty jealousy… yeah.

Oh and if Ai lives on the world will blow up. Why? Do we have a concrete reason to back that statement? eh...

5.      Overall quality of the animation. I don’t know if its because the animation staff was short on time or low on budget, but for a megacorporation (konami cough cough) that makes billions every year, they certainly are capable of investing more in this anime series. I can count the number of episodes in which the characters don’t look wacky with a single hand.

6.      Character development, wasted potentials. Ryoken is the only character who received decent treatment. The rest of the Vrains cast are all disappointments. Original concepts are cool and promising – Yusaku, a victim of child abuse with PTSD, embarking on a journey to overcome his reclusiveness and learn to open up to people around him? HELL YEAH. Aoi, a teenage idol with depression developing into a more mature and responsible heroine who saves Link Vrains? IM ALL FOR IT.  Soulburner’s character arc is fine overall but personally I don’t feel like it’s expanded enough. Also, there’s the mistreatment of side characters like Onizuka, Ema, Akira, the list goes on. I got so furious just looking at these characters and remembering that they’re all wasted and sidelined.

7.      Incoherent/ random plotlines. IDK all episodes in season 1 (Hanoi’s arc) felt pretty consistent, focusing on a linear theme – Yusaku’s revenge on the Knights of Hanoi. But after that it felt like the writers gave up writing outlines and just wrote whatever he pleased/ considered more convenient for the sake of…a plot…that he had no idea which direction it was headed for. This is reflected in the amount of forgotten plotlines we listed previously.

8.      Weak villains. Kinda related to point 4. Bohemann, Lightening, Windy, and Haru are all one-dimensional, flat, predictable villains with the cliché goal of “destroying humanity cuz humans are dumb and Ais are superior”. Not likeable, not fun to watch, not morally gray (something I expect from well-written antagonists), they are just there to serve as symbol of evil for the protags to defeat.

Honourable mentions - what I personally want to see in Vrains, really. Very biased.

-        The familial interaction between Yusaku and Kusanagi? Brotherhood, perhaps? Without any mention of Yusaku’s parents, Kusanagi is the closest Yusaku has to a brother figure. I crave for some wholesome brotherly moments between these two.

-        More slice of life episodes please.

-        The friendship between Yusaku and Takeru. Please. Please. PLEASE. From the second opening we can see the animation staff CLEARLY intended for there to be a strong bond between Yusaku and Takeru – Takeru probably was written to serve as a Jounouchi/ Johan/ Crow sort of character. Yusaku and Takeru could bond over their trauma and overcome their PTSD together. AND IT WAS SO HEAVILY HINTED AT IN THE 2ND OP!!! fam what the fuck happened to that friendship, Im so robbed.

-        Yusaku and Ryoken’s duel or tag duel. These two haven’t duelled AT ALL since the first season ended. Isn’t Ryoken Yusaku’s official rival? Isn’t it Yugioh tradition for the protag and the rival to duel like, a trillion times? AND ISNT IT ALSO A YUGIOH TRADITION FOR THE PROTAG AND THE RIVAL TO TAG DUEL?????? The fact that Yusaku and Ryoken never had a tag duel haunts me every night in my worst nightmares afjw4ot9wgrk

-        Topologina Nabee

Thanks for coming to my ted talk, this marks the end of my rant on YGO VRAINS DISAPPOINTMENTS. Again, I harboured no malicious intent when I compiled the list – its more like a vent of frustration than actual criticism. I would pay billions to see a Vrains reboot or, if there exists an alternate universe where none of the writing/production issues above are present in Vrains, I would do a Kaiba and build a dimension travelling machine and immigrate there.

TLDR: wasted potentials. wAsTED PoTEntialS. WASTED POTENTIALS!!!!!!

[hanbereviews]

Mineo Enomoto Route Review

Our first review will be of Collar x Malice, an otome game released to the PSVita that was ported to Switch after the announcement of the vita’s imminent death. It’s pretty much universally recommended when asking for a list of otome games that are plot heavy whilst still having endearing characters that make you care about them. So let’s see if that’s true!

For a brief summary, Collar x Malice follows our heroine Ichika Hoshino who is a policewoman in Shinjuku. After being attacked during a patrol she has a collar placed around her neck with deadly poison in it. She finds out that the attackers are connected to an organization called Adonis, who are perpetrators of the “X-day” incidents. A list of monthly crimes where they judge supposed criminals. Hoshino is taken in by five former police officers who each quit their positions for different reasons and have decided to investigate Adonis independently. After playing through the common route, you can select to be the “partner” of one of these officers.

I’m going to preface this that with my being Black I’m not too geeked with the heavy involvement of police within this narrative. However the game plays so much like a traditional murder mystery and the plot itself is so outlandish that I never felt uncomfortable enough to tune out. So with that said, let’s get into Enomoto’s route! For my criteria please refer to this post. 

Characterization

Enomoto’s character is actually the most stable and consistent throughout his entire route. When you meet him your impression is lovable idiot, and he kind of stays that way. This isn’t to say he’s purely incompetent, there are a lot of times that this trope is very overdone in a way where the male character is so horribly stupid you don’t exactly know how he got in the position he did. But Enomoto has a degree of intelligence to him that at least proves he knows what he’s doing. 

That said, he does have a lot more idiot moments relative to anyone else. It’s actually not as frustrating as one would think, even if you dislike his particular type of character. The narrative does a good job of making him endearing whilst not overdoing it so he seems one note. 

Other than that, he’s got absurdly strong morals that are never really compromised throughout the story. Everything he does lines up with what he says, and he never really has any moments where he contradicts himself. There are a couple moments where it seems like it, but in my opinion there’s not much tension in them. I found myself thinking, “oh man another situation where Enomoto might do something questionable. What’s the writer gonna come up with to make him avoid doing that.” This is not to say he had to do anything morally ambiguous for things to be interesting. Rather the drama came less from his internal conflict and more from outside sources.

This is not to say there was no internal conflict, as the first half of the route has heavily to do with the fact he’s made no progress in his investigation. Characters harp on him repeatedly for that, and he takes an appropriate amount of time to unpack that issue without it being magically solved. Of course Hoshino is there to help every step of the way, but she does it in a way that’s thankfully not the invasive fix-it heroine type a lot of otome games use.

Hoshino herself was kind of a polarizing character for me. Whilst she had many investigative and bright moments there are times she came off very oddly like a doormat. This is mostly a gripe with the conversations she’d have with her brother. He was very frequently unnecessarily rude to her, and while I don’t think it was necessary to be rude back she just does...Nothing. Except have an internal monologue which I didn’t find very effective. The game does a very poor job in explaining her family situation in regards to her younger brother in a way that justifies his clearly misdirected anger. 

Even when their relationship is being repaired, it takes a completely external event to get them to be honest with each other. It felt cheap, because they never really sat down and had a true heart to heart. Regardless, when Hoshino and her brother begin getting along their interactions are incredibly funny and have you coming back for more. So he’s not a bad character by any means.

Now we move onto the villains. We will start with the sub antagonist of the route, and not so coincidentally the killer in Enomoto’s case. I think they were...A bit of a letdown. I’m not sure what impression the game was attempting to give me, be it someone who just had a target of obsession and was just generic otherwise or something else. But I never really felt anything for this character. They show up incredibly late relative to when they reveal that they have something to do with Enomoto’s case, and their characterization is sub par. The only reason I can remember them so well is because their design is completely ridiculous and ripped any tension a certain event could’ve had out of it. It’s a shame, because I loved their design, it just felt very wasted in not making a complete character.

Now the main villain is...Actually done decently. He serves as a foil to Enomoto in the most blatant way possible. Essentially being the antithesis to his morals. The problem, I think, is that he never really genuinely makes Enomoto question himself. The narrative always sets him up to be pretty much universally in the wrong. So there’s no ambiguity in what he’s doing, and makes this more of a hero/villain story than anything else. 

Plot Relevance

This is where my main criticism of this route crops up and where you can see that this is clearly a giant introduction to the game. We don’t get many insights into Adonis as an organization, in fact they don’t really do much of anything in Enomoto’s route. The killer in his investigation is someone that is completely unrelated to Adonis outside of accepting a job from them, and a plot device conveniently keeps us from even interrogating them. Not to mention again that their design is so utterly ridiculous that you just can’t take any scenes involving them seriously.

However they aren’t the main villain. So this main villain must be connected to Adonis somehow right? No, actually he isn’t. Once again he has a rather vague connection to the organization at hand, that is to say he isn’t even a member. The villains in Enomoto’s route thus deal more with his personal character moments than the game’s greater plot. This was a point of frustration to me because I hate, hate, hate when otome does this. If I have a favorite picked out, I feel as if I should at least get some glance into the whole point I’m playing this game by playing their route. I’m not asking for different interpretations of the same events, but at least prove this character has some shred of importance aside from being boyfriend material. This is especially a pain point due to the fact that Adonis being an organization is definitely implied to have more than one member. Why did Enomoto not have one assigned to him? 

Character Interaction

This is actually a high point in the route. Enomoto and Hoshino have a wealth of interactions with the other former officers as well as Hoshino’s friends in the police itself. You never really feel like they’re isolated from the rest of the world. While the majority of their scenes are with each other, they’re always talking to someone else by the next scene. There’s always a different conversation to be had and that makes things feel really alive in the world itself.

A small criticism is that a lot of Hoshino’s conversations with the former officers outside of plot details, without Enomoto kind of boils down to “Oh man I totally wish I could get with you. Too bad you’re Enomoto’s partner.” Maybe I’m in the minority, but I do wish she could’ve formed a bit more genuine bonds as friends with the other prospective men. It would’ve made things feel more realistic considering they were all in this together. However I do enjoy how consistent their characters were and being able to see them onscreen. A personal pet peeve of mine is the heroine and her boyfriend being completely cut off from talking to other men because she’s “his” and the game wants to make that clear.

Final Thoughts

Overall I really liked Enomoto’s route, and him as a person. He’s got a pretty significant spot in my personal route rankings and I just love love love his personality. In terms of a numbered rating?

I’d give this an 8/10. I was never really bored and that’s a good thing.

[rockmywings]

Korean Crime TV Series Review#2: VOICE (보이스)

THE MAIN CHARACTERS TRIO:

Lead Male (Moo Jinhyuk “Mad Dog”): A veteran detective from Serious Crime Unit, being demoted as a leader of Golden Time Team under Emergency Call Department. 

Lead Female (Kang Kwonjoo “Kang Center”): A profiler who has super hearing ability, The chief of Emergency Call Department.

second lead male Main Antagonist (Mo Taegu “Mr. Mo”): CEO of Sungwun Express, an upper-classman. Psychopath.

PLOT:

Main: To catch the criminal who has murdered both Mad Dog’s wife and Kang Center’s dad and who also committed several crimes. 

Sub: To save a life who is in crucial danger from their emergency call.

OFFICIAL ENGLISH TRAILER:

REVIEW BY GENRES:

1) Various Crimes: There are Serial Killer, Kidnapping/Abduction, Child Abuse, Gangster, Illegal Immigrant, Stalker, Human Organ Trafficking, Corrupted Company, Corrupted Police--so complete. The series touches from individual crime to organizational crime, from marginal society to upper-class community. And the gruesome of crime scene places us in reality how horror the real crime is, why they are deserved to be censored in blur like News do on TV Channel (although it’s bothersome to me who use to see gore scenes in The Walking Dead and violence in any US Crime TV Series). I like how Golden Team looks so smart along with Kang Center herself as the profiler and with a hacking skilled officer to get any information. Though, there’s one staff whose multi-language ability is seriously wasted because what she did most times are similar to the hacker, as she also seeks information through internet. However, because our protagonists come from Emergency Call Center, we see how Serious Crime Unit are always outsmarted, making us wonder if they’re a bit competent in investigating while this one should be their expertise. For example, there’s no forensic or CCTV investigation ever shown here but somehow it makes sense because all of the victims who died here are under the main antagonist’s control who could ask to be covered while Golden Team successfully rescues all victims who made the emergency call.

2) Horror Elements: A part of the success of any popular scary movie is the perfect killer. There’s no other character more interesting in the show rather than the killer himself and I can guarantee Mo Taegu would steal your attention in every of his appearance. Let me explain it: A man wearing a black raincoat with face covered behind hoodie but his devilish grin is walking closer in calm steps, a sinister voice with a gravel-like quality of his jaw cracks then strikes the fear of a tormented fresh-faced woman before brutally murdering her--that’s your first impression of him. But, it wasn’t just a typical random unfortunate person whom a serial killer encounter in the dark street with certain modus operandi, nope!! More the killer is introduced, you realize he’s a type who could appear right in front of your door or behind the window creepily, making a hiss like a dinosaur to enter your room whether he decides to kill or just intentionally scare you--we’d find he did it at least 4-5 times in the series!!! (and my fave is when Kwonjoo met his eyes behind the lookout lens of her door) And behind the mask, there’s a rich, smart, and classy-typed businessman wearing an elegant suit with charming face who enchants everyone--so charismatic. Well, there is one episode that doesn’t really makes sense when he’s brutally murdering Madam Fantasia off-screen. The body is nowhere to be found in the building while he clearly didn’t have enough time to hid it in his car unnoticeable, laundry his suit (I mean, look at how much the blood he spread on floor and wall while he killed her not under his raincoat), peeking on Kang Center who has arrived 10 minutes after the phone call only to see her reaction finding his crime scene, then come back to meeting room he left before. But fuck off the logic, once again, this is horror show; let’s enjoy every killing scene of every bone he’s crushing using his kettlebell, or grotesque art of blood he painted on the wall citing Bible quote, or when he keeps the body wrapped in his house then doing bloodbath like Elizabeth Bathory, it’s all horrifyingly entertaining. Don’t forget that his victims also made a bad move tropes to meet him and give us a death flag. As if it wasn’t enough, Taegu also has some hallucination things, how creepy it is when he stared at the policeman in the car like a supernatural horror and when he’s being murdered on his mind like a zombie scene. Although those all aren’t enough to scare me, I’m sure there are some audiences who maintain to keep watching this show with eyes peeking behind their fingers but you can’t leave it yet to see who he’d murder next and who’d be survived. You’d be surprised when it reveals he commits more crimes through his company and more number of murders he had done for years with many different sizes of his weapon that will freak you out!! And with high status to work with gangster and a certain police to cover it all whom he could just eliminate as his next murdering target if he wanted, I’ll say “Welcome to Sungwun City, Mo Taegu’s World.” He is too complete to be a psychopath, an extremely powerful evil case with intellect brain to know what he does. He could be starring his own horror movie if Voice ever made a prequel. Maybe the only thing he hadn’t done yet (or ever shown) is cooking and eating the victims' meat LOL. But seriously, as the citing bible, doing bloodbath, and keeping body or organs, comes from nowhere (that is kinda different persona from the mysterious killer in eps 1-3); the writer even can add if he was ever cannibal too.

3) The high suspense in every episode: While the main villain is horror enough, the co-villains in some emergency cases also could raise the suspension that makes you hold your chair and grit your teeth. This was the most exciting thing because you could see desperate emotions of the victims transported through the call and how The Golden Team is rescuing them, battle in countdown timer minutes by minutes, second by second. Even after the first two cases that you become to feel every rescue is predictably success, you won’t lose the suspense. Voice is directed in plot-driven like a formula one’s car and once you’re seated there, you can’t stop ‘til finish line. My fave case is the child abuse, we feel so pity and hopeless because the one who makes a call is a little boy hiding in washing machine and bleeding. The least suspense is the rescue of bus passengers as the last rescue case in eps 15, probably I’ve been pretty surfeited of the repetitive rescue (but the case is important to show how crazy Mr. Mo runs his business).

4) Full Packed Action: Well, a premise of a lead male seeks revenge for the murder of the person he loves is cliche and standard in action movies; this how Mad Dog vs Mr. Mo’s confrontation has been lead since the series prolog, we know their final battle should happen. Jinhyuk himself wouldn’t be called “Mad Dog” without reason if this genre were absent. Look how his action is performed throughout the series, especially when he beat up all the gangsters in the meat house—so intense and brutal!! Don’t ever ask his nonstop energy, this is how action genre treats the main hero. Then, I expect a same intense hand in hand combat scene as to how action movie’s climax battle should be handled, main hero and main villain are equal although it’s predictable who’d be the winner in the end. Both Mad Dog and Mr. Mo are canonly brutal, you can see the same of them staring terrifyingly and intimidating when they talked to Nam Sang Tae in different scenes; you see how strong they are. Instead, we just get a short gunfighting?! I don’t complaint the gunfighting, but I mean, can they also make a duel with Jet Kun Do vs Tae Kwon Do as the two actors have the martial art skill for real? The director could make they ran out of bullet, then fight brutally, then the cops stop them to arrest him. It’s a wasted potential because the director even had given Mad Dog’s fight against a South East Asian assassin for two episodes! However, Taegu’s ending in the rooftop scene is still satisfying. Maybe the concept of Mad Dog vs Mr. Mo kinda like Batman and Joker. Despite being evil, of course Joker is powerless compared to Batman’s strength if he ever challenged him in combat. The purpose isn’t about which one is stronger. Same as Joker provokes Batman, Taegu also enjoys provoking Jinhyuk to kill himself even by telling him how he killed his wife, to prove he’s just another monster like him. And although we see how Jinhyuk doesn't hesitate to shoot Taegu four times in the rooftop brutally, he didn’t kill him at the end as he pities his enemy. But audiences would know later how it punishes Taegu in a very cruel way unexpectedly compared to what if he just died in Jinhyuk’s hand as he wishes. And of course, he deserves it.

5) The Drama is about The Victims: As well as how the credit title is presented, it tells us that this show is about the victim’s voice in asking help that used to be abandoned by slow police procedural--including our hero and heroine’s beloved one. But not only that, the profiler’s approach to seeking the Criminal’s motive then trying to calm them, making them tremble, and feeling sympathy really reminds me of Criminal Minds; criminals can be born because they were a victim too in the past--trust me, even you’d pity Taegu in the end!

6) Almost Zero Romance: 

Tbh, I don’t like the cliche that the lead male and lead female eventually hook up in the end (although I’m okay with the possible idea) so I’m glad it doesn’t happen with Voice. Even though they start to work together as a team professionally, they didn’t have to fall into an affair like duo Mulder and Scully of The X-Files. Their relationship is amazingly platonic ‘til the end as you watch them developing trust, teamwork, bond, and care to each other. 

If there’s any romance ever sparking, two Kwonjoo’s staffs in Emergency Call may be hinted. The woman is cool at first while the guy is cheerful and kind of a flirt. An obsessive fan of him is even jealous of her. But as I said, it was just hinted. Their occasional heartwarming interaction may be made for taking a break in all suspense and violent cases. It wasn’t out of place since it’s just a little and eps 9 could give you space to breathe. 

Well, this one depends on interpretation, but Taegu seems to have special attraction/interest of Kwonjoo sexually (of course, in a sick mind only psychopath could describe), for example when he stalked her, caressed her bed, stared at her picture, gave her a gift, happy when she found him, claimed that both of them are different from common herd, and show a disappointment that she doesn’t like it. On her profiling, Kwonjoo said why he’s “soft” at her probably because she reminds him of his mother, the only person he genuinely loves. Their chemistry is something the audiences not expecting before, especially in the rooftop scene as their climax. But I'm sure no one complaints [laughs].

Nah, the only true romance no one can’t debate is Jinhyuk’s love for his deceased wife; how he’s broken, how’s he seeks revenge, and then how he finally let it go.

OTHER POSSIBLE FLAWS:

Voice is an easy story and predictable with those action, suspense, and horror elements (although there’s still a twist); the ending is also clear, not open. The main mystery isn’t something that makes you heavily think to guess who is the culprit or suspect someone. Well, it’s enough to thrill for half series because once Taegu’s character is introduced at eps 8, the focus itself actually isn’t about a conspiracy behind the police/prosecutor institution like TvN Signal or TvN Stranger since the mastermind is the person outside it. Some audience may be fooled or even disappointed about it but I’m not (once again, I said Taegu’s character as psychopath fits more in horror tropes). The procedural pace, the variety of crimes, and the plot-driven won’t make you bored that you probably forget to ask for character development and question the logic; though, sometimes the running clock is too long to make us question if the run really happened just in 5 minutes. 

The lead female’s super hearing ability is the reason why all the emergency rescues success where the title “Voice” comes from, it’s full an entertaining fiction, we know real life isn’t like that. Still, it isn’t without flaw; for example, she could amazingly hear the boy’s slow tap behind the wall through communication but she failed to hear the hitting sound Taegu made when he’s smashing Daeshik’s head in the basement right when she’s entering his house. And her ability might be useless if the criminals were smart enough to make sure there's no cellphone being kept in their victim's pocket to be able to make contacts.  

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Voice is definitely my fave Korean TV Series so far. It isn’t perfect but somehow I don’t feel this is a Kdrama at all. Look at those three main characters: 

The nuance I feel around the lead female’s department and how she handles the cases is almost like when I watch US TV Series of Police Procedural Dramas (many felt like Criminal Minds mixed with 9-1-1), 

the lead male’s fighting scene is like The Raid, Bourne, or John Wick (also the Surim-dong case reminds me of NCIS: New Orleans’s case “Clearwater”),

the main killer’s approach is like Wes Craven’s SCREAM and his personality is like American Psycho’s Patrick Bateman. 

With these references, I don’t recommend this series to those who can’t stand to watch gruesome violence. The age rating in Korea's Standard is 19+ and if it was measured to my country's rating standard (Indonesia), it'd be 21+.

I haven’t mentioned yet that the actors and the actresses, both leads and supporting, are amazing. I don’t watch much Korean entertainment (movie and show) so this is the first time I’m introduced to them all, and suddenly both Jinhyuk’s actor (Jang Hyuk) and Taegu’s actor (Kim Jae Wook) are added to my fave list for me interested to watch their other projects. I also like the veteran actress who plays a granny in Surim-dong incident; she could act as three different characters!

I’m looking forward to Season 2 aired on 11th August 2018. Now, without Jinhyuk and Taegu’s characters anymore as their confrontation story is over; I wonder if this time The Golden Team somehow ever fails to save a life like TvN Signal and have kind of a sociopath as main villain like OCN Tunnel. Who knows? I still can’t imagine someone more psycho and charismatic than Taegu yet haha. And with a different director, it’s probably not horror as season 1 anymore, but more thriller. But most importantly, I want to see and know more about the heroine, Kang Center, she’s at least need character development since she was the core of “voice”.

[bpoole500]

Ms. Marvel: This Woman, This Warrior

With the arrival of the Captain Marvel movie only weeks away, the release of Carol Danvers material ratchets up with the collection Ms. Marvel: This Woman, This Warrior, collecting her earliest costumed adventures.

Some time after absorbing a blast of alien radiation, former NASA security chief Carol Danvers discovers she’s acquired both powers similar to her old ally Captain Marvel (Mar-Vell) and extensive knowledge of the militaristic Kree. Carol’s new powers manifest in an alternate personality, the forceful heroine Ms. Marvel. She also acquires a “Seventh Sense” that warns her of danger and occasionally assails her with a physically painful vision of the future. Now a successful writer, Carol accepts an offer from Daily Bugle publisher J. Jonah Jameson to become editor of the new “Woman” magazine. Carol struggles with her debilitating precognition flashes, lack of control over her transformations into Ms. Marvel and the demands of her new role. The criminal scientists A.I.M. are eager to capture Ms. Marvel and unlock the secrets of her human/Kree hybrid physiology. Ms. Marvel comes up against a variety of other enemies, from the familiar to the brand new, including Scorpion, MODOK, the Destructor, the Doomsday Man, Grotesk, Deathbird, Super Skrull and Steeplejack. Over the course of these adventures, Carol struggles to reconcile her two warring personas, while beginning to make a name for herself as a costumed hero, teaming up along the way with the Vision, Spider-Man and the Defenders.

At the time of Ms. Marvel’s mid-70s debut, Carol Danvers had been kicking around the Marvel Universe for several years. She’d been a key part of the supporting cast for the first couple of years of Captain Marvel’s original run, but had fallen from prominence once Mar-Vell’s adventures shifted away from the NASA setting. Marvel in the ‘70s eagerly mined a variety of sub-cultures and movements for new character ideas, and Ms. Marvel represented a deliberate intention to reflect the feminist movement of the era. Writer Gerry Conway and artist John Buscema (with design input from the legendary John Romita, Sr.) made use of the climax of Carol’s Captain Marvel run to craft her new persona.

As was standard practice at the time, new female characters were often based on existing male heroes. So Ms. Marvel was closely related to Captain Marvel, with similar powers that literally came from him (the radiation filtered through his body as he tried to shield Carol), a costume derived from his, and even an echo on the situation where he was forced to “share” a body with another character. The Carol/Ms. Marvel dichotomy also famously tracked a key element of one of Marvel’s marquee characters, the Hulk (especially Carol’s lack of control over her transformations and a somewhat antagonistic attitude toward her alter ego). Marvel went a step further, borrowing the Spider-Man set-up of Carol working for Jonah, who had a grudge against her heroic alter ego (Peter Parker and Mary Jane Watson turned up early on, with MJ being an initial part of the supporting cast).

It was a solid set-up, though Conway dropped out fairly early on and turned the reins over to Chris Claremont, then the writer of Marvel’s hottest book, Uncanny X-Men. Claremont did a nice job of developing Carol and dramatizing her struggle to understand and cope with her heroic alter ego. Her Ms. Marvel powers were as often a hindrance to Carol’s life as they were an asset and Carol’s struggle to integrate her two halves was a key part of the first year of stories.

Claremont wisely moved away from the borrowed Spider-Man characters (MJ disappeared without comment after a couple of issues and Jonah transitioned into an often-unseen background presence), in favor of developing Carol’s own supporting cast. That included her co-workers and an array of friends, former colleagues and relatives, as well as a problematic love interest in her psychiatrist. The debut of Deathbird should be of significant interest to long-time fans, as Claremont would later successfully transplant her to Uncanny X-Men and develop her into a major villain. Claremont did an effective job with Carol, making her strong-willed, but also flawed. She was interesting, imperfect and actually went through a learning curve of figuring out how to be an effective hero.

The art side boasted a cadre of familiar Marvel Bullpen names that ensured that Ms. Marvel was done very much in the company’s well-known “house” style. John & Sal Buscema, Joe Sinnott, Jim Mooney, Keith Pollard, Carmine Infantino, Dave Cockrum, Steve Leialoha and others contributed to the usual set-up, with a dramatic splash page followed by tightly-packed panels that kept the action moving briskly throughout. With Claremont’s imaginative plotting and strong characterization, it was a state of the art Marvel book for its time, boasting all the usual tics (copious flashbacks, recaps and expository dialogue) that current fans often find charming and frustrating in equal doses. Of note, superstar artist John Byrne handled the pencils for the Spider-Man/Ms. Marvel team-up, bringing to the mix his well-known fluidity, creativity and way of pushing the limits of the page layouts typical of the time.

As an exploration of feminism, these early Ms. Marvel stories were a mixed bag. The series was on firmer ground when they showed instead of told, so that both Carol and Ms. Marvel were strong, intelligent women who were succeeding in male-dominated arenas. Just presenting a successful woman as though it were normal was the best aspect of the book’s exploration of feminism. Unfortunately, a lot of the rest of the time, the book’s handling of the topic could be rather shallow, when it remembered to tackle it at all. That could range from simplistic Women’s Studies 101 moments, like Carol instructing someone to call her “Ms.” instead of “Miss,” or overly broad situations like random extras goggling that the fights Ms. Marvel tackled weren’t appropriate “for a girl.” Jonah was an overly obvious strawman, demanding the magazine run articles on fashion, recipes and diets, while Carol fought for articles of substance. Potentially more interesting was Carol’s relationship with her chauvinistic construction worker father, introduced near the end of the run collected here. Claremont teased at that tension, but it would be left to writers many years down the road to more fully explore Carol’s problematic relationship with her father. Tellingly, for a series with a female lead that intended to explore feminist ideas, the book had only three female creators involved, all as colorists (including the legendary Marie Severin, who would have made an excellent primary artist for the series, had anyone at the time bothered to think about it).

The biggest problem that Ms. Marvel faced in establishing its feminist bonafides was the character’s visual presentation. Because leave it to a bunch of ‘70s comic book men to produce a “feminist” book that presented its lead wearing hot pants, with bare legs and a top that was both backless and midriff-baring. That overly sexualized early look was moderated after a few issues, with Ms. Marvel at least getting a full shirt.

Despite a few missteps, Ms. Marvel: This Woman, This Warrior is an enjoyable collection with involving stories and good character work that showcase the early costumed adventures of a character that has in recent years developed into one of Marvel’s A-list properties.

[rebeccaheyman]

reading + listening 9.7.20

It’s been a minute since my last bona fide review roundup, in part because our week of vacation was followed by a week of long-overdue family visits (after all parties clocked negative covid tests), and in part because I hit a reading slump. Or rather, my version of a slump: a couple DNF aBooks in a row, plus an imbalance of reading and listening. I’ve pulled myself out of the lull, but the list below reflects my relative floundering for the past two weeks. Le sigh.

You Have a Match (Emma Lord), eBook, ARC (pub date Jan 2021). NetGalley review:

I absolutely loved TWEET CUTE and was eager to see how Lord would follow-up such a sparkling debut. YOU HAVE A MATCH brings the same timely, fresh, emotionally immediate storytelling as TC, albeit with slightly less humor and slightly more pathos. The concept takes a little more oomph to get off the ground (Leo's ambiguous ancestry leads to the DNA test that yields a secret sister result for protagonist Abby, and all relevant parties end up at the same summer camp together), and at times the narrative posturing becomes quite literally acrobatic (climbing trees, falling in ditches). Still, I happily suspend my disbelief for the sake of Lord's smart, authentic-feeling characters. In what might be a hallmark of her work, there's a consistent social media presence (IG, as opposed to TC's reliance on Twitter and an in-world messaging app). My dearest wish is that Lord's future work will not consistently rely on these trappings, which will sadly not age well; her storytelling chops are more timeless than the contemporary technologies featured in these narratives.

Muse (Brittany Cavallaro), eBook, ARC (pub date Feb 2021). NetGalley review:

I want to start by noting my excitement for this book -- and really, anything Brittany Cavallaro writes. I loved the Charlotte Holmes series and was eager to explore this new direction for Cavallaro's work. But for me, MUSE felt like it was always starting -- the action always rising, world always building, characters always establishing their identities. I didn't feel especially close to Claire, whose powers are somewhat ambiguous until they crystallize, very momentarily, in Act III. Part of the trouble, for me, is the intensive brain exercise required at the book's outset, to both visualize and conceptualize this version of America--a monarchy ruled by generations of King Washingtons. Ultimately, the story's setting (St. Cloud, along the Mississippi River) could be any imagined place; that this is a re-envisioned version of 1890s America has nothing to do with the political intrigues that drive the plot forward. I longed to spend less energy on parsing the intersections of real and imagined Americanism, and more time exploring Claire's power, her relationships to Beatrix and Remy, and the political machinations and intrigues in St. Cloud.

If my reading of MUSE is correct, then the second installment in the duology should be a runaway train of action, smart plotting, and feminist agendas -- in short, a book I very much look forward to reading. What I appreciated most in this first half of the story is what I've come to expect from Cavallaro generally: snappy, smart prose and strong women helming the narrative. It wasn't enough to make me love this read, but it's absolutely enough to keep me invested in the story's (eventual) conclusion.

The Ten Thousand Doors of January (Alix Harrow), aBook. May I confess that while this book came highly recommended from an extremely trusted reader-friend, I DNF’d my first attempt with the eBook back in November 2019? I couldn’t tell you what about me + this book didn’t jive last year, but a title this decorated and adored isn’t one I’ll easily give up on. I circled back around to it with the aBook (brilliantly narrated by January LaVoy), and while I can’t say this will rank among my favorites in the genre, it’s a solidly inventive, beautifully written narrative. In theme and structure, it’s awfully close to THE STARLESS SEA, which for me was a better book overall (one of the best of the year, actually). Something about the way the eponymous January too frequently claims “if I had only known what would happen next, I wouldn’t have done x” turned me off; this character seems to have a habit of being so caught up in her emotions that she doesn’t see obviously awful things about to happen. The antagonistic forces felt overdone and a little silly at times, and the mastermind reveal is too obvious by half. For all the flaws in TEN THOUSAND DOORS, the writing is solid enough that I’m absolutely planning to read Harrow’s next, The Once and Future Witches, out next month. 

The Marriage Clock (Zara Raheem), aBook. THE MARRIAGE CLOCK appealed to me in part because its narrator, Ariana Delawari, is a joy (she was absolutely brilliant on THE WRATH AND THE DAWN duology), and in part because I’m a sucker for Desi-focused narratives; I just love reading about these big, close-knit families with a strong focus on culture and family devotion -- not to mention the food and fashion. Suffice it to say, I was predisposed to enjoy THE MARRIAGE CLOCK... and it was... just okay. The book tries to build a story of self-actualization on a foundation of anecdotal montage -- essentially, the first two thirds of the book are about bearing witness to a series of bad first dates and getting commentary on the sorry state of modern romance. The story definitely improves once Leila goes overseas to attend a wedding, but I confess by then I felt obligated to finish simply based on time invested. The book’s conclusion, which I won’t spoil here, would have felt more satisfactory if Leila’s behavior and attitudes hadn’t been so childish throughout. Bottom line: If you can watch early seasons of Sex In The City without wanting to shove Carrie Bradshaw into oncoming traffic, you’ll probably really like THE MARRIAGE CLOCK. But if you’re looking for a more mature, nuanced Desi romance with lots of heart, consider my personal fav, THE BOLLYWOOD AFFAIR (Sonali Dev).

Smooth Talking Stranger (Lisa Kleypas), aBook. This was my first contemporary romance from Lisa Kleypas, which came highly recommended by another trusted reader-friend. The opening salvo didn’t draw me in as quickly as some of Kleypas’s historical romances, but I stuck with it because of the personal rec and Brittany Pressley’s easy-to-listen-to narration. The story is enjoyable enough, despite an underlying “mystery” that lacks real intrigue. All in all, it seems like fairly average contemporary romance... right up until the emotional gut-punch leaves you wrecked at the end of Act III. I couldn’t tell you why -- because again, nothing super special about our MCs or the plot -- but this novel had me crying all kinds of tears by the end. A strange, and strangely satisfying listen, but not necessarily one I’d recommend.

Just Like Heaven (Julia Quinn), aBook. I’ve been meaning to read a Julia Quinn for awhile; she’s a prolific heavy-hitter in the genre, and frankly it feels negligent not to have read her yet. I’ve hesitated, in part, because of purportedly questionable content in one of Quinn’s early titles, THE DUKE AND I. Reading reviews of that novel red-flagged Quinn’s entire catalogue for me (yes, it’s that bad). After reading plenty of reviews for JUST LIKE HEAVEN, I was pretty certain the egregious violations THE DUKE AND I weren’t being repeated, and the allure of Rosalyn Landor’s narration confirmed my choice. Long and short verdict: Meh. While I found our hero and heroine passably tolerable, there’s not much plot here. Instead, there’s an almost obsessive focus on one character’s recovery from an infection (gross), and when that chicken stops laying eggs, we’re asked to care about a quasi-farcical string quartet our other MC is forced to play in. The secondary characters introduced as potential leads for the rest of the quartet were either too stupid or too annoying for me to care about. If you’re hankering for historical romance, pass this over and just reread Tessa Dare for the millionth time (when will I start taking my own advice?).

Fable (hard cover) + Namesake (eBook ARC, pub date March 2021). Instagram mini-review of FABLE here. NetGalley review of NAMESAKE here. Adrienne Young is brilliant, full stop. I loved her previous duology -- SKY IN THE DEEP and THE GIRL THE SEA GAVE BACK -- and the Fable cycle does not disappoint. Strong, subtle characterizations; rich settings and evocative description; just enough mystical magic to make the world sparkle, but not enough to undermine the essential humanity of the story’s heart; and love of every stripe -- familial, romantic, friend, self -- driving the plot forward... could you even really ask for more? I devoured both halves of this gorgeous whole in a single weekend and I know you’ll love them both. Buy Fable ASAP and pre-order Namesake so Adrienne Young knows we know we don’t deserve her.

That’s it for me! On my radar this week:

Luster (Raven Leilani), aBook

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics (Olivia Waite), aBook

Lady Derring Takes a Lover (Julie Anne Long), aBook

The Smash-Up (Ali Benjamin), eBook ARC

The Heiress (Molly Greeley), eBook ARC

We Can Only Save Ourselves (Alison Wisdom), eBook ARC

Plus, the continuing saga, Will I ever finish WHEN WE WERE MAGIC? Stay tuned, and happy reading! 

[gamerszone2019-blog]

The Best Couples in Video Games

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The Best Couples in Video Games

A few years ago, we wrote about all of our absolute favorite couples in video games, but in a span of five years, a lot of things can change. So we’ve updated our list to include more of our favorite couples, from casual games to more serious RPGs, and to celebrate the growing representation of interractial and LGBTQ+ representation. Flip through our gallery below to check out all the couples we love, or keep scrolling to read.

Gaming’s Greatest Romances

Player’s romantic choice isn’t a new thing to RPGs, but it was for Assassin’s Creed, which up until Odyssey had consistently presented players with heteronormative protagonists (with the exception of Jacob Frye, who was revealed as bisexual in Syndicate’s DLC) and predetermined relationships. Like its Greecian roots, Odyssey celebrated the ability to love anyone no matter the main character’s assigned gender, letting players decide if they wanted their Kassandra or Alexios to be heteronormative, gay or bisexual/pansexual. It’s been done before in plenty of other games, but Odyssey’s special in that, well, it doesn’t hide its influences and allows players to get on with literally everyone. Random philosopher? A shipbuilder? Really important supporting lead? We ship it all. – Aiden Strawhun

Athena and Janey Springs – Borderlands: Pre-Sequel

If there’s anything Borderlands is not, it’s subtle. In Borderlands: The pre-sequel by Telltale, Janey literally introduces Athena as her girlfriend. One demeaning, poorly-timed and derogatory joke later, the two are schmoozing through the title and Tales from the Borderlands together. Borderlands has always been unapologetic and flamboyant, and its roster of characters have always matched those themes, but these two, in particular, fit the bill to a near-perfect degree. – Aiden Strawhun

Eddie and Ophelia – Brutal Legend

Sexy goth girl Ophelia is rock roadie Eddie Riggs’ fighting ally and love interest in Tim Schafer’s Brutal Legend. He meets her when they both wind up looking for the same giant axe, then Ophelia introduces Eddie to her gang and their romance blossoms. However, the path of true love never did run smooth, and it gets more than a little bumpy when Eddie is told that Ophelia is a traitor. Ophelia, heartbroken that Eddie doesn’t trust her and believing him to be the real traitor, decides to throw herself in the Sea of Black Tears. In the end, it turns out that there was an evil Ophelia — an imposter – who was doing all the bad things. If you return to the iron cross-shaped rock after you have beaten the game, you can see Ophelia again and have one last snogging session. – Emma Boyes

Isaac and Nicole – Dead Space 2

The year is 2508 and Isaac Clarke is one of a team of miners that boards the USG Ishimura after receiving a distress call from the vessel. It turns out no good turn goes unpunished, as the ship is teeming with the undead. That’s especially bad news, as Isaac’s girlfriend Nicole Brennan is one of the ship’s crew. However, sees her and she appears to be ok, although they don’t have any time to chat and catch up. Later in the game, she appears again to help him out by recalling the shuttle that government agent Kendra has commandeered after she tries to leave without him. Towards the end of the game, Isaac sees the original distress transmission, which shows that Nicole committed suicide by lethal injection before Isaac ever boarded the ship. The Nicole he saw was just a vision created by the Marker artefact to try and trick him into bringing it back to the planet Aegis VII. Love hurts. – Emma Boyes

You and All The Daddies – Dream Daddy

It’s becoming less rare to see queer couples of all sorts in video games, mainstream and independent, but it’s still somewhat of a rarity to see wholesome, meaningful representation of gay men in gaming. Dream Daddy goes a place many games have yet to go, and not only provides an incredible dating sim, but one that truly scratches an itch for the queer community while tackling themes of parenting and male-presenting body positivity simultaneously. Big daddies, little daddies, daddies of color–the player gets to choose whatever kind of daddy they want to pursue in this game, and do so in a way that is lighthearted but doesn’t make light of its material. For that, we have to make a spot for this game in our list of legendary loves in gaming because it does what so many other games haven’t dared to do just yet. – Aiden Strawhun

Cloud and Aerith – Final Fantasy VII

Sometimes video games genuinely shock you – and Aerith’s untimely death was one of those moments. The game seemed to be setting her up to be hero Cloud Strife’s main love interest, and then suddenly (before even the end of the first disc, for heaven’s sake) she’s dead, just like that. Aerith Gainsborough is a young flower seller who hires Cloud as her bodyguard in exchange for one date. When she ventures into the Forgotten City alone, the game’s antagonist, Sephiroth, kills her by impaling her through the torso with his sword while a helpless Cloud can do nothing but watch. The game goes on, but the loss stays with you, making you determined to get even with the evil Sephiroth on Cloud’s behalf. – Emma Boyes

Squall and Rinoa – Final Fantasy VIII

Squall Leonheart and Rinoa Heartily meet at his graduation ceremony when she pulls him on to the dance floor and they share a moment. Seems like romance should blossom there and then, but there’s a problem. Rinoa is dating Seifer, Squall’s arch-nemesis and all-round bad guy. Rinoa and Squall meet again on a mission – she hires him to help her liberate Timber as part of the resistance movement that she secretly heads. The two grow closer as the game goes on, ignoring minor problems like her turning into a sorceress and being imprisoned in a space station. At the beginning of the game, Squall is an unlikeable, self-centered teenager, but by the time the end credits roll, his relationship with Rinoa has turned him into a far better human being. – Emma Boyes

Tidus and Yuna – Final Fantasy X

Tidus is a professional blitzball (an aquatic sport kind of a cross between soccer and water polo) player from Zanarkand who somehow becomes transported to another world – Spira. With no idea of how to get back home, he joins up with a rag tag group of guardians who are accompanying the beautiful Yuna on a pilgrimage across the land. Yuna has chosen to become a summoner – if successful, she will defeat the destructive force called Sin that plagues her world. However, as she nears the end of her quest, it becomes clear that defeating Sin isn’t as simple as it seems, and doing so could mean her own death or that of Tidus, who may not even be real. One of the most heart-breaking endings ever seen in any media, whatever you think of Tidus and Yuna, you can’t fail to be moved at the way their story ends. – Emma Boyes

Serah and Snow – Final Fantasy XIII

Who doesn’t love a romance that spans numerous timelines? Seems to be a theme throughout the Fabula Nova Chrystalis saga. Serah is the younger sister of FFXIII heroine Lighting and fiance of hot-headed blonde bombshell Snow Villers. In the first game, she’s cursed with a task from the alien masters of the planet Pulse, the Fal’Cie, to bring her sister, fiance and a number of others to receive their own curse and become the pawns of the Fal’Cie, which are called l’cie, themselves. After completing the task, she then turns to crystal, setting off the journey her sister and Snow go on to save her from her eternal slumber. But of course, her tangled web of platonic and romantic love doesn’t end there. The tables turn in FF XIII-2 when Serah takes the leading role of her own journey to save both her sister and her fiance, of which are stuck in different timelines and states of godhood. Casual. So not only do these two lovebirds topple monster and deity alike for one another, but they also, quite literally, withstand the test of time for one another. Whoever said love is easy was very, very mistaken. – Aiden Strawhun

Luna and Noctis – Final Fantasy XV

Luna being completely out of Noctis’s league can’t be ignored, but these two betrothed rulers to-be really do have something special between them. Maybe for Luna it’s her dedication to her role in Noctis’s succession and to her people, but it’s easy to see Noctis’s feelings in his innocent, awkward and somewhat childish reactions when she’s brought into the conversation. But of course, no good romance in Final Fantasy can’t end in tragedy, or hop through a couple of different timelines, and while we don’t get to see much of these two lovebirds develop their relationship in-game, we do at least get to see them topple monsters, summon a god and reunite at the end of their long journeys. Supportive relationships are ones we like to see, and these two certainly fit that bill to a T. – Aiden Strawhun

Dom and Maria – Gears of War 2

Gear soldier Dominic Santiago lost both his children on Emergence Day, and after their deaths, his wife Maria sank into a deep depression. Nothing seemed to help her feel better, and one day she just goes out for a walk and never comes back. Dom is heartbroken, and can be seen in the game looking at the photo he keeps of the two of them in his wallet. When he’s not fighting the locust horde, he’s tirelessly trying to track her down. Tragically, when he does eventually find her, she’s been tortured so badly and partly lobotomised and in such a bad way that she doesn’t even recognise him. Deciding that the Maria that she used to be wouldn’t want to live like that, he tells her he loves her and then puts her out of her misery. – Emma Boyes

Sam and Lonnie – Gone Home

While we never explicitly see Sam and Lonnie in the flesh, Gone Home tells the story of a younger sister who’s run away from home to be with the young woman she’s fallen head over heels for. Gone Home is played from the perspective of Sam’s sister Katie, who’s come home from an extended time away. It’s an exploration game, where the story only really comes together at the end after all the little pieces Sam has left behind finally come together. Through letters and belongings and photos and strange codes, Sam quietly comes out to her sister in an unexpected, but not terribly uncommon way. The twist of the truth of Sam and Lonnie’s story is why we’ve got them here–it’s a queer love story that gets it right and has also had a left us with a very bittersweet, lasting memory about young love, acceptance and coming into one’s own. – Aiden Strawhun

Gordon and Alyx – Half-Life 2

After the Black Mesa Incident and the subsequent alien occupation of our planet, a suppression field was placed around the Earth, making humans infertile. The population grows old, but no children are being born to replace them as they die. This is the world where Gordon Freeman and Alyx Vance live. Their relationship is never explicitly stated, but it’s insinuated on many occasions throughout the game and the sequels, particularly by Alyx’s father, Eli, who badgers the pair for grandchildren as soon as the suppression field has been taken down. Gordon is actually around 20 years older than Alyx, making him a dirty old man, but since he spent those two decades in stasis they’re technically the same age, so we’ll let him off. – Emma Boyes

Ico and Yorda – ICO

Ico is a young boy who has been considered an unlucky omen for his village – so the villagers cast him out and lock him inside a sarcophagus in a nearby castle. An earthquake frees him from his prison and he starts to explore. Along the way he meets a young girl called Yorda, and although they don’t speak the same language, the pair form a bond and journey through the castle’s many rooms, looking for a way out. They hold hands as they explore together, and Ico helps the less agile Yorda get around, clearing the way so she can follow him. The Queen of the castle, who also turns out to be Yorda’s mother, isn’t too happy about their trying to escape and turns Yorda to stone. Ico rescues his princess and they finally leave the castle, waking up on a nearby shore together, to presumably live happily ever after. – Emma Boyes

Sora and Kairi – Kingdom Hearts 3

The universe has been shipping Sora and Kairi since 2002. We don’t make the rules. But it wasn’t until its latest iteration, Kingdom Hearts 3, that we really got to see the depth of feelings the pair has for one another, before, of course, being separated once again. After time and time again of saving each other, and giving one another a purpose to keep moving forward in their incredibly deranged and twisted universe, we really just hope these kids are going to be ok. After all, having your heart stolen multiple times, and then returned, is no small feat, and while the intention may be to keep these two platonic, their innocent and child-like admiration of one another is one of the purest and sweetest romances we’ve seen in games in a good, long while. – Aiden Strawhun

Link and Zelda – Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

Link and Zelda may not be a true item in this iteration of the Zelda series, but it’s difficult to not see Zelda’s literal heart eyes at Link in his memories. In this version, Link awakens 100 years after Ganon takes over Hyrule and he must save the kingdom once again by finding the modern-day descendants of Zelda’s once-legendary team and piecing together his own past as Zelda’s personal knight. Link’s a man of few words, but even though he can only grunt and yell, it’s enough to tell that he’s devoted to this princess. – Aiden Strawhun

Link and Zelda – Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword

The story of Link and Zelda is retold in every game with different characters in a different world. In every story Zelda is kidnapped, and Link sets off on an adventure to save her. In Skyward Sword, for the first time, Zelda’s not a princess, but the daughter of the local headmaster. Link is her childhood friend, and she’s not just sitting around helplessly waiting to be rescued, she has her own quests and important role in the story. The pair live on Skyloft, a village in the clouds and have never ventured to the world believed to be below them. When Zelda is swept away by demonic forces, Link follows her to the land below the clouds, solving puzzles, battling frightening monsters and tracking down items to find his favourite girl again. – Emma Boyes

Chloe and Rachel – Life is Strange

Rachel played more of a passive role in the first game, but in the prequel title, Before the Storm, we got to see Chloe and Rachel’s chaotic love develop. Chloe, a troubled, grieving teen, finds solace in the wild and carefree Rachel. She’s everything Chloe has never been and takes her on adventure after adventure–and gets her into a fair share of trouble. But their tumultuous relationship and friendship is the perfect example of everyone’s first love and the clumsy imperfection that comes along with it. And that inkling so many of us who’ve experienced trauma and grief seek in finding a way to run away and start anew. – Aiden Strawhun

Max and Mona – Max Payne 2

Max Payne and Mona Sax meet when she pours him a drink – a good start, but it turns out she’s laced it with a sedative and is a hitman for hire – and she seemed like such a nice girl. She’s presumed dead at the end of the first game, but it’s revealed in Max Payne 2 that reports of her death were greatly exaggerated. She reappears as a suspect in the murder of Senator Gate and, for reasons best known to himself, Max agrees to work with her. It turns out Mona’s working for Vladimir Lem and she’s ordered to kill Max. Since they’ve danced the two-backed beast, the femme fatale can’t do it and so Vladimir turns his gun on her and shoots her instead. Although, let’s be honest, even if it hadn’t come to that, it was just never going to work out. – Emma Boyes

Snake and Meryl – Metal Gear Solid

Solid Snake and Meryl Silverburgh’s romance follows a rocky road indeed in the first episode in the Metal Gear Solid series. The first time they meet, Meryl mistakes Solid Snake for his identical clone, the evil Liquid Snake, and then, after she realises her mistake, has her mind taken over by Psycho Mantis and tries to kill him. Luckily, Snake realises she’s not quite herself, and manages to knock her out rather than killing her. The two bond in a nuclear warhead storage building before she’s captured by Sniper Wolf. She’s then wired to a nuclear bomb. If any couple deserves a happy ending it’s these two, and if you play your cards right, in the end, they get it, driving off in a snowmobile together into the sunset. – Emma Boyes

Gregg and Angus – Night in the Woods

Gregg needs an Angus. They might be just anthropomorphic characters in a fictional world, but their laid-back story is one that hits closer to home than expected. Gregg and Angus have been close since high school, and are said to be the only gay couple in the entirety of Possum Springs (but they aren’t the only queer residents). And as is the dream for many small-towners, the pair is planning on skipping town once they’ve got enough money to leave. But what makes these two special isn’t that they’re part of a minority, but that their relationship carries an air of authenticity and vulnerability many games can’t quite get right. From their casual flirting, proclamations of love, occasional squabbles and gushy nicknames, their relationship feels real and tangible–not forced or faked. Yes, they love each other, but they’re also best friends, and the deep sense of trust the two have in one another permeates throughout the entire game. – Aiden Strawhun

The Prince and Farah – Prince of Persia: Sands of Time

The Prince of Persia and Princess Farah team up in Sands of Time to track down the magical Hourglass of Time. They find themselves trapped together in the catacombs, and with nothing much else to do, they fall in love and er, get to know each other a bit better. Farah tells the Prince of a secret word her mother told her – Kakolookiyam – which she should say if she was ever alone and afraid, as it would make a door appear. While the prince is sleeping, she then abandons him and sets off alone on the mission – believing she has a better chance of completing it solo — but is killed. The Prince arrives too late to save her, so in his grief, uses his powers to rewind time to prevent her from dying. However, as he changes history, the two are never trapped in the catacombs together and never fall in love, so when he tries to kiss her, she rejects him. Before he leaves, she asks him his name, and he replies ‘Kakolookiyam’ before vanishing into the night. – Emma Boyes

Guybrush and Elaine – Secret of Monkey Island

Possibly the silliest name in video games, Guybrush Threepwood has a big crush on the sexy island governor, Elaine Marley, although it’s quite clear to everyone except him that she’s out of his league. Elaine is constantly being kidnapped by undead pirate LeChuck, who fancies her too, and Guy takes it upon himself to always try to rescue her, even though she’s quite capable of doing that on her own. Somewhere along the line, Elaine actually falls for Guybrush, and the two are married at the end of The Curse of Monkey Island. We bet Guybrush still can’t believe his luck and pinches himself every time he wakes up next to her. – Emma Boyes

Yuri and Alice – Shadow Hearts

Shadow Hearts is a criminally underrated Japanese RPG series. One of the main characters, Alice Elliot, has the ability to hear the voices of the dead and uses her creepy talents to work as an exorcist. When her father is killed by the evil warlock Roger Bacon (seriously, what kind of name is that for an evil warlock?) she crosses paths with Yuri Hyuga, who has been hearing voices in his head telling him to find and rescue her. Meeting Alice changes Yuri – he goes from being a character called ‘the Rude Hero’ to caring about others and the fate of the world. When Alice dies at the end of the game to save his soul, he is heartbroken. In the sequel, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, in his grief he attempts a ritual to bring her back from the dead, but is unsuccessful. At the end of the game, if you get the ‘good’ ending, Yuri dies and the voiceover says that now he and Alice will be together forever. – Emma Boyes

Mono and Wander – Shadow of the Colossus

The spiritual sequel to ICO, in Shadow of the Colossus, the game starts with a young man – Wander – carrying a young woman – Mono. Wordlessly, he places her dead body on an altar. She was killed as a sacrifice as she was believed to be cursed, although beyond that, nothing much is known. Wander journeys to the Forbidden Land to speak with an entity called Dormin, who has the power to bring the dead back to life. Dormin agrees to his request to resurrect Mono on one condition – he must find and kill sixteen huge, lumbering creatures called Colossi. Wander agrees, but alas, a happy ever after for the pair was never meant to be as, having completed his mission, he is killed before he can get back to Mono. However, Dormin keeps his word, and she is brought back to life, alone. – Emma Boyes

Casey and Beatrix – Slime Rancher

We never get to meet Casey in Slime Rancher physically, but rather, through a series of letters and notes scattered about the ranch for the Slime Wrangler herself, Beatrix, to discover. Their relationship is clear, but Casey’s gender identity isn’t so obvious unless you’re paying attention. Casey is an androgynous name, but, in some letters, is addressed with she/her pronouns, making her and Beatrix queer characters. We love Slime Rancher for its casual, goofy and generally wholesome atmosphere, but this sort of subtle characterization and storytelling is what we love the most about it, especially since Beatrix, a woman of color, is front and center. – Aiden Strawhun

Jackie and Jenny – The Darkness

Jackie Estacado and Jenny Romano are childhood sweethearts that grew up together in an orphanage. They’ve been dating for years, but Jenny has no idea what Jackie really does for a living. He’s never quite got up the courage to tell his sweet, law-abiding missus that he’s actually a contract killer for mafia don Uncle Paulie. At the beginning of the game, you hang out with Jenny at her place, chatting about the usual things couples chat about and then snuggling up to watch a movie together on the sofa. You can watch the whole movie, if you like. Inevitably, when Paulie and Jackie fall out, Jenny sadly ends up being collateral damage, something that haunts Jackie through the rest of the game and its sequel. – Emma Boyes

Ellie and Riley – The Last of Us: Left Behind

Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us won our hearts for a multitude of reasons–from great gameplay and design and fabulous characterization in the base game alone. It shines even more in the title’s DLC, The Last of Us: Left Behind, which is played from Ellie’s perspective as she tries to save Joel after a battle. She ends up running into an old friend named Riley, who is excited to see her and tell her about how she’s joined the Fireflies. It’s clear from the start that these girls have a deep bond, but their friendship goes even deeper than that when Ellie takes a moment to share a kiss with Riley. Ellie and Riley are young, and awkward, and dealing with situations that go far beyond themselves, but their kiss showed gaming that even in the worst of circumstances, intimacy and self-discovery can still exist. – Aiden Strawhun

Aya and Kyle – The Third Birthday

Aya Brea is an FBI agent and Kyle Madigan is a private investigator, and the pair meet in PlayStation 2 game Parasite Eve 2. By the time of The Third Birthday (effectively Parasite Eve 3), they’ve made plans to get married, but events overtake them and the wedding is never to be. It turns out that this game’s Aya is actually her sister Eve, who did a very un-sisterly thing and took over her body. When Aya finally gets a chance to return to her own bod she finds that Kyle is dead and, not wanting to live without him, asks Eve to kill her. Instead, Eve kills herself so that time can reset. At the end of the game, Kyle is shown leaving, saying he is going to search for ‘eternity’, to try and find his Aya again. We hope there’s a sequel and he does. – Emma Boyes

Zachary and Jonas – The Walking Dead: Michonne

Telltale’s always been one for player-guided narratives but has never shied away from putting queer characters front and center. In The Walking Dead: Michonne, Jonas and Zachary’s fate can go one of two ways, as goes for many of the characters in The Walking Dead universe. But if the two survive, their relationship is one that is similar to that of Riley and Ellie’s in The Last of Us–that these two gay men, despite being handed an awful set of cards in a terrible world, were able to find comfort and stability in one another. They’re hardly the first couple in this particular series, but they’re one of the most memorable, despite playing supporting roles, because they’re part of the world around them rather than being tokens as so many gay couples are typically treated within entertainment. – Aiden Strawhun

Johnny and River – To the Moon

Johnny is an elderly man near the end of his life in a future where doctors can grant you one last wish before you die. They do this by using a special machine to enter your memories and shuffle things around so that you get to live out the life you always wanted – in your head, at least – and die happy. Enter Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts, who was called by Johnny’s caretaker. Johnny’s last wish is to go to the moon, something he never got around to doing in real life. His wife, River died a few years before, and as we journey backwards through his memories we see their good times and bad times, culminating in the sweet moment when as kids, they meet for the first time. Their relationship feels utterly believable and real and their devotion to each other is touching to watch. To The Moon is essentially a love story, and since it’s a story first and a game second, we don’t really want to spoil it for you by saying any more. – Emma Boyes

Elena and Nathan – Uncharted

Elena Fisher is a TV journalist and Nathan Drake is a treasure hunter. At first Drake sees Elena solely as a meal ticket – he’s cons her into paying for an expedition to find and recover the coffin of Sir Francis Drake – knowing full well the coffin is empty. Then their boat blows up and sinks and once back on dry land, Nathan abandons her, believing she will jeopardize his real mission – to find El Dorado. However, you can’t get rid of Elena that easily and when some debt collectors come for Nate, they run into each other again. Several adventures later, after a game’s worth of sexual tension, they finally kiss. The game ends with Drake promising Elena he’ll finally make good on his promise to give her a good story for her show. – Emma Boyes

Geralt and Triss – The Witcher 3

Redheads are pretty hard to forget. Triss has had a prominent role throughout The Witcher series, playing a very big role in The Witcher 2, and an even larger one in The Witcher 3. Of course, she’s one of the many romanceable characters in The Witcher, but she and Geralt’s romance is one for the books. Aside from being a literal fireball, Triss has an air of generosity and care that her more mysterious, and equally alluring, counterpart Yennefer doesn’t always have. She’s stubborn and sharp as a whip, but kind and nurturing. She makes a good foil to Geralt’s cold and hard demeanor, and is one of those ladies who just brings out that inner softie in him. – Aiden Strawhun

Geralt and Yennefer – The Witcher 3

It only took several books and three video games for Geralt to find his legendary sorceress lover, but nevertheless, he finally found her in The Witcher 3. The Witcher 3 its self is too big of a monster to sum up easily, but these two are particularly memorable because of the bond they share–which was initially because of a djinn. A side mission forces that bond to be broken, and well, their feelings just don’t change. And if that isn’t the test of true love, especially when your love is quite the playboy, then we don’t really know what is. Like Triss, she brings out the good, softer qualities in Geralt, but unlike Triss, she challenges him and allows him autonomy Triss’s personality doesn’t seem capable of doing. – Aiden Strawhun

Did we get your favorite couple in here? Who did we miss? Let us know in the comments below.

Source : IGN

[gregellner]

Cover by Richard Pace.

Today I’ll be reviewing “Imaginary Fiends,” in particular its first (and so far as this writing, only) arc, ‘The Cat’s Paw.’ The comic is written by Tim Seeley, illustrated by Stephen Molnar, colored by Quinton Winter, lettered by Carlos M. Mangual, and published by DC Comics’ Vertigo imprint.

Concept

Interdimensional Mental Parasites

The overall concept follows an examination of not-so-imaginary friends, extra-dimensional entities known as “interdimensional mental parasites” (or “IMPs” for short) that come from another world, and sometimes find their way into our world by breaching dimensional barriers in one way or another. It seems best for one of the main characters of “Imaginary Fiends,” Special Agent Virgil Crockett of the FBI’s IMP Division, to explain how exactly they function before we go into depth.

“In this world, their sustenance comes from the human mind. They feed on attention. Affection. Loyalty. To ensure meals, they bond with an impressionable, plastic mind, most often the young or mentally ill. The host provides a name and a narrative and the IMP soaks it up like rays of the sun. Most are immaterial and harmless, providing nothing but companionship. A confidante in a lonely world. They fade away and die when the host ages out of interest in them, like they were never there at all. But some – the hungriest of them – remain. They grow stronger. They start to be able to affect the physical world. The IMPs begin to need more sustenance. Convince multiple people to believe in them. They get a taste for fear. It gets them high. They start to demand… more.”

With the way in which the IMPs operate comes a question of agency and responsibility, but that will be discussed later.

Our primary look into the way IMPs operate comes in the form of Polly Peachpit (to be mentioned below), but other antagonists (and their hosts) also serve as examinations of this particular supernatural element.

Furthermore, the way in which more powerful IMPs can interact with the world seems to vary significantly depending upon the number of people who believe in them as well as the manner in which their story manifests. Some very powerful ones can secrete compounds to influence normal people, with the overall effect of allowing those who are normally unable to interact with them able to touch them instead. Others may not be “real” enough to do more than fight with other somewhat strong IMPs. At a certain level of power, IMPs can touch, damage, or otherwise physically manipulate the environment, down to even attaining physical contact with humans, whether to cause harm or to help save their lives, despite being invisible to most humans. As is noted in one comment, the phenomenon is reminiscent of the idea that while people cannot kill an idea, an idea can kill people through how it affects the world.

Characters

While there is a collection of different major characters, including Cameron Cale, Charlie Chokecherry, and more, it seems best to concentrate on the three main characters: protagonist Melba Li, deuteragonist Polly Peachpit, and tritagonist Virgil Crockett.

Melba Li

Melba Li is a complex figure, one that Tim Seeley often doesn’t utilize in other works. While she is the protagonist and tied to a supernatural element of the plot, her ability to physically combat her problems is severely hampered by a lack of any intentions toward acting on her own, very much unlike the similarly aged Cassandra “Cassie” Hack of his “Hack/Slash” series, or Martha “Em” Cypress of “Revival.” Instead, she has Polly Peachpit (to be discussed below) do the grunt work, and so is woefully underprepared for most direct conflict. Furthermore, rather than be either openly abrasive (like Cassie) or leaning toward emotionlessness over time (like Em), Melba is more subdued and relatively introverted, wanting to keep to herself and out of trouble as much as possible, with the exception of one bout of an underage drinking binge.

Complicating matters is the fact that she is a murderer, having stabbed her best friend Brinke Cale to death seventeen times with a fillet knife, though the circumstances involving Polly’s involvement make determining what exactly happened a bit difficult for most of the arc.

Still, her existence as Polly Peachpit’s host, an “advanced host” according to the IMP Division, makes her a primary candidate to be an IMP specialist to help the FBI as a new agent pretending to be five years older than her age of 18 in exchange for staying out of prison and under the radar. There isn’t a lot of focus on the idea of keeping her identity a secret, but her desire to stay out of a prison sentence (which would have started on her eighteenth birthday, the day of Special Agent Crockett coming to see her, if not for his deal) colors at least some elements of her personality.

In terms of the borderline X-Files approach taken by the series, Agent Li could be seen to be the closest equivalent to Fox Mulder, but only from the most superficial standpoint. While she believes in the “imaginary friends” brought forth in the form of IMPs enough to see them, she is still a relative novice in actually handling them. Even Polly Peachpit is someone she cowers from in fear. In fact, for all of her ability to imagine, she is afraid of her own imagination for most of the arc, and while she used to enjoy drawing and using artistic license when it came to various colors on a picture (such as non-blue skies and the like), her fear has kept her from enjoying anything involving creativity since the death of Brinke, to the point of only coloring within the lines of someone else’s piece, et cetera.

Polly Peachpit

“Polly Polly, Mr. Chokecherry’s wife. Wrap you in her long legs, kiss you with a knife. She eats all your candy. She takes all your dolls. Love someone more than her and she’ll take you to the falls.”

Polly Peachpit is Melba Li’s primary IMP, the one that has stuck with her even after the others fell away from her imagination. She alternates between a fully humanoid form and that of a giant werespider (bottom half being a spider, top half being a woman). As a hungry IMP, Polly is fed on fear and belief both, but while the latter may supply basic existence, the former is required for continued sustenance and to supplement her healing abilities and strength. This reliance on fear is played in a variety of ways, ranging from talk of murder at random times to basic attempts to get young children to see her and fear her so as to recover from horrific injuries.

Polly has an odd relationship with her host, one that fluctuates between abusive and caring depending on the situation. The abuse is of course necessary to keep Polly alive by forcing Melba to fear her, but the caring nature, such as trying to help her host feel better or at some points even saving her life, demonstrates that Polly is not wholly evil at all. In fact, it is entirely likely that she is just filling out the role proposed by her story (seen in the poem above), given its reliance on her as a possessive entity.

Virgil Crockett

“I didn’t see it and you died. But it’s never going to happen that way again. Now I’m going to see everything.”

Our tritagonist is another kind of character that is both familiar and new for fans of Tim Seeley. On the surface, Special Agent Crockett fills the role of the older male sidekick who acts to back up the younger heroine. However, unlike the other prominent one on Seeley’s resume, Agent Crockett is the more experienced one of the duo, at least on a certain level. He is the one to introduce Melba officially to the world of IMPs, one she only knew through her “imaginary” friends like Polly beforehand, and to which she didn’t understand the rules. While the fact that a man named Virgil introduces the main character to the nature of a metaphorical Hell may not be intentional, the literary allusion is not lost either.

To follow the aforementioned X-Files analogy, Agent Crockett fills the approximate role of Dana Scully in contrast to Agent Li’s Fox Mulder, though again turned on its head. Crockett isn’t a skeptic when it comes to IMPs, as shown by the fact that he had introduced her to the mechanisms of the concept in the first place. However, while Crockett is the more experienced of the duo in theory, in practice his regimented life as a federal agent keeps him from being very helpful in encounters with IMPs, as he cannot hear nor see them himself. Crockett struggles to actually comprehend the bizarre nature of his work, and his past failures to do so continuously haunt him even into the present day. Unfortunately, the attempts to add fluidity to his work, like experimentation with Flamenco dancing, are heavily structured, explaining why he would need a partner who has the necessary imagination to interact with IMPs.

Themes

In general, the series thus far seems to be an examination of two key concepts: trust and responsibility.

Trust

There is a heavy focus on trust in “Imaginary Fiends,” especially regarding Melba and her relationships. The entire arc focuses on her slowly beginning to trust Polly Peachpit again after Brinke’s murder, from out of necessity alone to relying upon her for support. While Polly is a danger, this trusting relationship is fostered by her connection to Virgil Crockett as well, who shows that, rather than treating her like a child or holding the threat of her prison sentence over her head, he is fully willing to work with her and help her through her problems, even while admitting that what she’s doing is wrong, and at times outright illegal (like underage drinking).

On the other hand, trust can also be seen as a bad thing at times, such as trusting someone else with all responsibility in an incident, which leads to another topic altogether.

Responsibility

Rather than that focus on trust, the primary theme in “Imaginary Fiends” seems to be one of the variability and balance of responsibility, especially as it relates to humanity’s occasional desire to indulge in escapism to step away from the horrors of their reality.

All things considered, it’s difficult to determine how evil the IMPs actually are. Much like the Xenomorph XX121 of the Alien franchise and its related films, their hostile behaviors could at times be seen as nothing more than survival instincts. Being formed of human imagination through their names, forms, and narratives, and beholden to their host’s belief in order to keep their identity “real” in the human dimension, can they really be blamed for scaring people? How much of the blame can be placed on them, at times just acting as they do in order to survive rather than as any actual malicious intent, as opposed to the very nature of IMPs in general?

Furthermore, the reasons behind the establishment of certain narratives, at times dredged in real-world horror and an attempt at escapism, further muddies the waters of how “bad” the IMPs really are, even in the case of the hungrier ones. Humans make these narratives, and the IMPs take them up as their own identities, playing a part to live. At what point does the fact that they act a certain way – especially in defense of their hosts or in a manner that they view as benevolent – get blamed entirely on them, rather than being a consequence of the host’s own desires? The primary antagonist of the latter half of the arc is especially prominent in that regard.

[my-complicated-pairs]

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in animation and comics (excluding anime and manga)

While the title of this list is “List of canon villain/heroine ships with happy endings”, it doesn’t contain only ships with male villains and female heroes:

-some of these ships consist of female villains and male heroes;

-there are some lgbt+ ships and polyamorous relationships here as well;

-in some of these ships both characters are villainous (or antiheroic);

-some of these characters may be seen not as villains, but as antivillains, antiheroes, antagonists or “just” criminals - in the end these definitions are fluid and some characters may be really difficult to categorise, especially if they go through a major character development or if they appear in the slice of life media;

-some of these ships are the examples of the enemies to lovers trope, but they don’t involve any characters, who can be categorised as villains or antiheroes.

Other notes:

-in some examples the villain doesn’t get a redemption arc and it’s the heroic character, who changes their alignment;

-in few examples the couple has a bittersweet ending, but I include them due to the fact that both characters are not dead and their relationship itself is happy/okay;

-I included some pre-existing couples;

-this list was created mostly for statistical purposes (it may be used for recommendations as well, but not always) - due to it, this list includes ships that are humorous, don’t play significant role in the canon material, come from the media that are often considered to be bad or come from really obscure media;

-some ships on this list - especially if they come from media created long time ago - may be considered to be controversial due to various reasons, so if you don’t want to watch anything potentially disturbing, don’t forget about doing research first;

-I included some ships from non closed canons that have a chance to have a happy ending (they’re described as ‘hopefully’) - if they won’t get a romantic happy ending, I’ll remove them.

I’ll be updating this list from time to time, so feel free to suggest other examples :) - and correct me if I got something wrong (f.e. if the specific ship doesn’t have a happy ending, some characters are not villains and/or antiheroes etc.)

If the types of characters are not specified, the ship consists of a male villain/antihero and a heroine.

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action movies

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action series

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in anime and manga

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in book series

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in standalone pieces of literature

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in visual novels and video games

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in music

[note: the links lead to the respective IMDB pages]

Animated movies - non-comedies

Graciella x Zane (the pre-existing couple; female villain x male antagonist) - Barbie: A Fairy Secret, a 2011 American fantasy movie (suggested by @neoma2)

some Beauty and the Beast incarnations, f.e.:

-the 1991 American (Disney) version;

-the 1997 American (Golden Films) version.

Nicholas x Kim - The Care Bears Movie (a 1985 Canadian-American fantasy movie)

Dark Heart x Christy (male villain x female antihero) - Care Bears Movie II: A New Generation (a 1986 Canadian-American fantasy movie)

Ebenezer x Belle - Christmas Carol: The Movie, a 2001 British-German family movie (suggested by neoma2)

the fat sister x one of the nobles at the court (female villain x male hero) - Golden Films’ version of Cinderella, a 1990 American movie (you may watch it here)

the thin sister x one of the nobles at the court (female villain x male hero) - Golden Films’ version of Cinderella

Anastasia x the Baker (female villain x male hero) - Disney’s Cinderella 2: Dreams Come True (a 2001 American fairytale movie)

Megara x Hercules (female antivillain x male hero) - Disney’s Hercules (a 1997 American fantasy adventure movie)

Brom x Katrina - The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, a segment of Disney's The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad - you may watch it here (a 1949 American slice of life/horror movie)

Kovu x Kiara - The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride (a 1998 American romance)

Animated movies - comedies

Caesar x Cleopatra (the pre-existing couple) - Asterix and Cleopatra and The Twelve Tasks of Asterix (1968 and 1976 French comedies)

Gru x Lucy - the Despicable Me series (an ongoing American comedy series)

Junior x Mrs. Calloway - Home on the Range (a 2004 American adventure comedy movie)

Garmadon x Koko - The Lego Ninjago Movie (a 2017 Danish-American action comedy; suggested by @ninjakitten1699)

Megamind x Roxanne - Megamind (a 2010 American superhero comedy; suggested by heroaine and @monsters-and-villains)

Clarabelle x Goofy (female villain x male hero) - Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers (a 2004 American adventure comedy)

Dragon x Donkey (female villain x male hero) - Shrek (a 2001 American fantasy comedy)

Bog King x Marianne - Strange Magic (a 2015 American fantasy comedy; suggested by monsters-and-villains)

Wolfie x Red - Tom and Jerry Meet Sherlock Holmes (a 2010 American detective comedy)

Animated series - non-comedies

possibly Trevor x Æon - Æon Flux (a 1991-1995 American sci-fi series)

Minos x Fatima (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female villain) - Aladdin: The Series (a 1994-1995 American fantasy adventure series)

implied as the future for Mirage x Fasir (the pre-existing couple; female villain x male hero) - Aladdin: The Series

Iknik x Zhu Li - Avatar: The Last Airbender (a 2005-2008 American fantasy adventure series)

Kirk/Man-Bat x Francine/She-Bat (the pre-existing couple; initially male villain x female hero, later male hero x female antivillain) - Batman: The Animated Series (the 1992-1995 American superhero series)

Kevin x Gwen - Ben 10 (a 2005-2014 American sci-fi adventure series)

Dracula x Lisa - Castlevania, a 2017-2021 American ation fantasy/horror series, based on the Japanese game series

Astivus x Jezmine’s mother (the pre-eaxisting couple; male villain x female villain) - Conan the Adventurer (a 1992-1993 American-Canadian-French series)

Diabolik x Eva (the pre-existing couple; male villain/antihero x female villain/antihero) - Diabolik (a 1997-1998 Japanese-Italian-French-American action series; suggested by @vilheroinefairytale)

Xanatos x Fox (male villain x female villain) - Gargoyles (a 1994-1996 American fantasy series)

open to interpretation for Discord x Fluttershy - My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic (a 2010-2019 Canadian-American fantasy series)

Hunter x Willow - The Owl House (a 2020-2023 American fantasy series)

implied as the future for Jason x Tenko - Princess Tenko and the Guardians of the Magic (a 1995-1996 American magical girl series)

Josiah x Sarah (the pre-existing couple) - The Spectre of the Pine Barrens, an episode of The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, a 1996-1997 American action/adventure series

Catra x Adora (female villain x female hero) - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (a 2018-2020 American magical girl series; suggested by @kittypeas)

Hordak x Entrapta (male villain x female hero-temporary-antivillain) - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (suggested by monsters-and-villains)

Scorpia x Perfuma (female villain x female hero) - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power

Rogelio x Kyle x Lonnie (male villain x male villain x female villain) - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power  

Constance x Conrad (female villain x male hero) - King Thrushbeard, the 9th episode of the 1st season of Simsala Grimm, a 1999-2010 German-Austrian-French fairytale series

Beast x Beauty - Beauty and the Beast, the 10th episode of the 2nd season of Simsala Grimm, a 1999-2010 German-Austrian-French fairytale series

the Lizard/Curt Connors x Margaret/Martha (the pre-existing couple) - Spider-Man and The Spectacular Spider-Man (1994-1998 and 2008-2009 American superhero series)

Harry/the second Green Goblin x Liz - the 1994-1998 Spider-Man series

Sergei/Kraven x Mariah (the pre-existing couple; initially male villain x female hero, later male hero x female antivillain) - the 1994-1998 Spider-Man series

possibly Mac/Scorpion x Sara (the pre-existing couple) - the 1994-1998 Spider-Man series

possibly Hobie/Prowler x Angela (the pre-existing couple) - the 1994-1998 Spider-Man series

open to interpretation for Kallus x Zeb (male antivillain x male hero) - Star Wars: Rebels (a 2014-2018 American sci-fi series)

Adam/Rubberband Man x Sharon - Static Shock, a 2000-2004 American superhero series (suggested by an anon)

Zethrid x Ezor (female villain x female villain) - Voltron: Legendary Defender, a 2016–2018 American mecha series

Lance x Kitty - X-Men: Evolution, a 2000-2003 American-Canadian superhero series

Animated series - comedies

Grim x Hildy (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female villain) - The 7D, a 2014-2016 American comedy series [note: it’s a lighthearted comedy with the unchangeable status quo, so while their last scene in the last episode shows them running away from danger, there’s no doubt they’ll survive and their relationship will stay happy]

Kitty x Bunny (the sorta pre-existing couple; female villain x female hero) - The Mask, an episode of Courage the Cowardly Dog, a 1999-2002 American horror comedy series

Quackor x Monkey (female villain x male hero) - A Quackor Cartoon, an episode of Dexter’s Laboratory (a 1996-2003 American sci-fi comedy) [note: in one of the further episodes Monkey is romantically involved with his pre-existing heroic love interest]

Gandra x Fenton (female antagonist x male hero) - DuckTales reboot (a 2017-2021 American adventure comedy)

Hector x Major Doctor (male villain x female villain) - the alternative future timeline (possibly the main future timeline as well) in Evil Con Carne (a 2003-2004 comedy series)

Nergal x Sis - The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy (a 2001-2007 American dark comedy series)

confirmed by the creators for Drakken x Shego (male villain x female villain) - Kim Possible (a 2002-2007 American action comedy series)

Darsh x Penelope - Jack the Dragon Slayer, an episode of Mad Jack the Pirate (a 1998-1999 American adventure comedy)

King Homer x Marge - King Homer, a King Kong parody, the second segment in Treehouse of Horror III, an episode of The Simpsons, an ongoing American comedy series (you may watch it here)

Tunn-la x Stalingrad (female villain x male villain) - The Tick vs. Arthur's Bank Account, an episode of The Tick (a 1994-1997 American superhero parody series)

hopefully The Monarch x Dr. Mrs. The Monarch (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female villain) - The Venture Bros. (an ongoing American superhero parody series)

the Big Bad Wolf x the Grandma - Big Red Riding Hood and the Pizzas, an episode of Walter Melon (a 1998 French-American adventure comedy series)

A ship that used to be featured here as ‘hopefully getting a HEA’:

-Phantom Blot x Pepper (male villain x female villain) - DuckTales reboot (a 2017-2021 American adventure comedy): they surely care for each other, but their relationship wasn’t confirmed as romantic (at least not yet) and we don’t know, what happened to both of them (most probably they’re alive and were caught like other F.O.W.L. members)

[note: the links lead directly to the shorts]

Animated shorts - non-comedies

Hades x Persephone - Disney’s The Goddess of Spring (a 1934 American fantasy short); you may watch it in better quality (and the Portuguese dub) here

the queen of the Land of Symphony x the king of the Isle of Jazz (female villain x male hero) - Disney’s Music Land (a 1935 American fantasy short)

Animated shorts - comedies

Pete x Minnie - Disney’s The Barn Dance (a 1929 American comedy)

the final Big Bad Wolf x the final Grandma - Czarny Kapturek (en. The Little Black Riding Hood; a 1983 Polish black comedy) [warning: it’s heavily +18]

Witch Hazel x Bugs (female villain x male hero) - Bewitched Bunny (a 1954 American comedy)

Elmer x Bugs (male antagonist x male protagonist) - Bugs' Bonnets (a 1956 American comedy)

Tom x the female cat - Smitten Kitten (a 1952 American comedy)

Jerry’s evil consciousness x the female devil - Smitten Kitten

Tom x Toots (male villain x female hero turned villain) - Love Me, Love My Mouse (a 1966 American comedy)

Animated commercials

Clifford x the princess - Clifford the Dragon, a 1985-1990 British fantasy series of mouthwash commercials (you may watch it here, here, here and here)

the male x the female - Czarna Polana (en. The Black Clearing), a 2018 experimental Polish vodka commercial

Animated web stuff

possibly the vampire x Laura - DO YOU BELIEVE IN WITCHES 😱 MYSTERY RIDDLES WITH VOICE by 7-Second Riddles (a 2020 animated vid; suggested by neoma2)

possibly Heidi x Thomas (female villain x male hero) - "Heidi" - Oblivion (Grimes) (a 2017 horror comedy) by Dany Darkly

Little Wolf x Little Red Riding Hood - Little Wolf that fall in love with Little Red Riding Hood, a 2019 animation by Teh Shim Yee

Hades x Persephone - Persephone by Hue Vang

Boba x Leia - Boba's Back! | Robot Chicken (a 2010 science fantasy parody) by Adult Swim

Duke x Missi (male villain x female hero turned villain) - The Vampair, an ongoing Israeli dark comedy/horror series

Animated happy endings for Reylo

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - 【STAR WARS】【Reylo手书】Fanvid anime - Kill me baby! by Batcat is here

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - A NEW ORDER- Finished Reylo Animation! How I wish TROS had ended :'( by DayofToast, an American YouTuber

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - Ben Solo Lives by DayofToast

dark!Rey x Ben Solo (female villain x male hero) - Kinda Sweet- Smuggler Ben Solo and Dark Rey AU Animatic. by DayofToast

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - Rey mourns Ben Solo - Six Feet Under - Reylo animatic- Happy Ending by DayofToast

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - THE WORLD BETWEEN WORLDS- FINISHED [Hades Town Animatic] by DayofToast

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - How Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Should Have Ended (a 2019 parody short) by How It Should Have Ended, an American YT channel

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - Far From Home by Leandra Vargas

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - I See the Light Reylo by Michi Chocoleto

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - Rise Of Skywalker Final Battle - 16 Bit Scenes by Mr Sunday Movies, an American YT channel (suggested by @probablyajedi)

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - Star Wars: The REWRITE of Skywalker [ANIMATIC] by Nathan Rojas, an American YouTuber

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - How Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Should Have Ended by Nicholas Damiani

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - Bad little boy animatic (reylo ) by Suffersdaily, a Greek YouTuber

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - I know im a wolf - Reylo animatic by Suffersdaily

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - TROS - Alternate Ending (a 2019 parody short) by The Farce Awakens, an American YT channel

Ben Solo aka Kylo Ren x Rey - the main storyline of The Farce Awakens (an ongoing parody series)

Hux x Rose - the main storyline of The Farce Awakens

possibly Phasma x Poe x Finn (female villain x male hero x male hero) - the main storyline of The Farce Awakens

[note: the links lead to the respective Wikipedia, Goodreads and Wookieepedia pages]

Comic Books

Caesar x Cleopatra (the pre-existing couple) - Asterix and Cleopatra (a 1965 French comic book for children)

Spike x Buffy - canon post-series Buffy the Vampire Slayer comics (a 2007-2018 American comic book series; suggested by @fluffycakesistainted)

Selina/Catwoman x Bruce/Batman (female villain/antihero x male hero) - the Earth-Two continuity in DCU, an American comic book franchise (suggested by @heroaine)

Kirk/Man-Bat x Francine/She-Bat (the pre-existing couple; male villain/antihero   x female villain/antihero) - DCU, an American superhero comic book franchise

Diabolik x Eva Kant (male villain/antihero x female villain/antihero) - Diabolik (Italian comic book series created in 1962; suggested by vilheroinefairytale)

Bribaud x Didina (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female villain) - Le Pommier De Dieu (en. God’s Apple Tree), a 1988 story/album from Hugo, a Belfian comic series for children

Samson x Dondon (the pre-existing couple; male villain x female villain) - Le Pommier De Dieu (en. God’s Apple Tree)

Ramparam x Gaeta (the pre-existing couple) - Cudowny lek (en. The Miraculous Cure), a 1981/1984 story/album from Kajko and Kokosz, a Polish comic series for children

the Lizard/Curt Connors x Martha (the pre-existing couple) - Marvel Comics, an American comic book franchise

Hobie/Prowler x Mindy - Marvel Comics

Sundra x Nexus (female villain x male hero) - Nexus (an American comic book series created in 1981)

hopefully Tolvan x Aphra (female villain x female antivillain) - Star Wars: Doctor Aphra (an ongoing American comic book series)

possibly Sssysssy x his fiancee - the 1991 edition of Ochrona przyrody (en. Nature Conversation), the 10th volume -  originally published in 1975 - of Tytus, Romek and A’Tomek, a Polish children’s comic book series

Szczerbaszczko x the queen of Formicineland - Tytus wśród mrówek (en. Tytus Among the Ants), the 21st volume of Tytus, Romek and A’Tomek series, published in 1994

[note: the links lead directly to the comics]

Web comics - fantasy, sci-fi, action/adventure etc.

hopefully Azimuth x Audrey (non-binary villain x female antihero) - Audrey and Azimuth by Queenie (suggested by monsters-and-villains)

hopefully Cain/Alexiei x Abel/Ethan (male villain x male hero) - Starfighter by HamletMachine (+18; suggested by @mismehellawes)

Web comics - slice of life, drama, crime, (non-action/adventure) comedy etc.  

Yu Jung x Hong Seol - Cheese in the Trap (a South Korean series) by soonkki (suggested by @an-exemplary-vegetable)

hopefully Purple Hyacinth x Lauren - Purple Hyacinth by Ephemerys and Sophism (suggested by @pacificwanderer)

hopefully Aseph x Elzay - The Villain’s Savior by Zetson, Myoung rang, YeonSeulA (an ongoing romance series; suggested by @k10c2)

[my-complicated-pairs]

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in book series

While the title of this list is “List of canon villain/heroine ships with happy endings”, it doesn’t contain only ships with male villains and female heroes:

-some of these ships consist of female villains and male heroes;

-there are some lgbt+ ships and polyamorous relationships here as well;

-in some of these ships both characters are villainous (or antiheroic);

-some of these characters may be seen not as villains, but as antivillains, antiheroes, antagonists or “just” criminals - in the end these definitions are fluid and some characters may be really difficult to categorise, especially if they go through a major character development or if they appear in the slice of life media;

-I included ships involving ex-villains;

-some of these ships are the examples of the enemies to lovers trope, but they don’t involve any characters, who can be categorised as villains or antiheroes.

Other notes:

-in some examples the villain doesn’t get a redemption arc and it’s the heroic character, who changes their alignment;

-in few examples the couple has a bittersweet ending, but I include it due to the fact that both characters are not dead and their relationship itself is happy;

-I included some pre-existing couples;

-this list was created mostly for statistical purposes (it may be used for recommendations as well, but not always) - due to it, this list includes ships that are humorous, don’t play significant role in the canon material, come from the media that are often considered to be bad or come from really obscure media;

-some ships on this list - especially if they come from media created long time ago - may be considered to be controversial due to various reasons, so if you don’t want to read anything potentially disturbing, don’t forget about doing research first;

-I included some ships from non closed canons that have a chance to have a happy ending (they’re described as ‘hopefully’) - if they won’t get a romantic happy ending, I’ll remove them.

I’ll be updating this list from time to time, so feel free to suggest other examples :) - and correct me if I got something wrong (f.e. if the specific ship doesn’t have a happy ending, some characters are not villains and/or antiheroes etc.)

If the types of characters are not specified, the ship consists of a male villain/antihero and a heroine.

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action movies

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action series

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in anime and manga

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in animation and comics (excluding anime and manga)

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in standalone pieces of literature

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in visual novels and video games

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in music 

[note: the links usually lead to the respective Goodreads pages]

Book series - fantasy, sci-fi & horror

hopefully Jean-Claude x Anita - Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, an ongoing urban fantasy series by Laurell K. Hamilton, an American author (suggested by @a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Tristan x Isla - The Black Prince Trilogy, a 2014-2015 fantasy romance series by P.J. Fox, an American author (suggested by @vilheroinefairytale)

Stefanos x Erin - Books of the Sundered, a 1991-1994 fantasy romance series by Michelle Sagara West, a Japanese-Canadian author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale) 

Laurent x Damen (male villain x male hero) - The Captive Prince, a 2013-2018 fantasy romance series by C.S. Pacat, an Australian author (suggested by @mademoisellemurders and @basilt0npitch)

Legend x Donatella - Caraval, a 2017-2019 fantasy romance series by Stephanie Garber, an American author (suggested by @addiesluc)

Beltain x Percy - Cobweb Bride, a 2013 fantasy romance series by Vera Nazarian, an Armenian-Russian American author (suggested by @monsters-and-villains)

Vlau Fiomarre x Claere Liguon - Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian (suggested by monsters-and-villains)

Persephone x Hades (female villain x male hero) - Cobweb Bride by Vera Nazarian (suggested by monsters-and-villains) 

hopefully Rhysand x Feyre (male antagonist x female hero) - A Court of Thorns and Roses, an ongoing fantasy romance series by Sarah J. Maas, an American author (suggested by @pacificwanderer)

Bane x Mirra - Demon Lord, a 2010-2012 fantasy series by T C. Southwell, a South African (?) author (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) 

the dragon terrorizing Ankh-Morpork x Errol (female villain x male hero) - Guards! Guards!, the 1989 novel in Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, a British author

Magnus x Cleo - Falling Kingdoms, a 2012-2018 fantasy series by Morgan Rhodes, a Canadian author (suggested by an anon and addiesluc)

Cardan x Jude (male villain x female antihero) - The Folk of the Air, a 2018-2019 fantasy series by Holly Black, an American author (suggested by monsters-and-villains and pacificwanderer) 

Madoc x Oriana - The Folk of the Air by Holly Black [warning: a bittersweet ending - Madoc goes to exile and Oriana follows him as his wife]

Lucius x Narcissa (the pre-existing couple; male antagonist x female antagonist)  - Harry Potter, a 1997-2007 fantasy series by J.K. Rowling, a British author

Draco x Astoria (male antagonist x female hero) - Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling [warning: Astoria dies in The Cursed Child]

Marak x Kate - The Hollow Kingdom Trilogy, a 2003-2005 fantasy romance series by Clare B. Dunkle, an American author (suggested by monsters-and-villains and vilheroinefairytale)

Trent x Rachel - the Hollows/Rachel Morgan series, a 2004-2016 fantasy series by Kim Harrison, an American author (suggested by @meadow-mellow)

Howl x Sophie - Howl’s Moving Castle, a 1986-2008 fantasy romance series by Diana Wynne Jones, a British author (suggested by monsters-and-villains) 

various couples - the Immortals After Dark series, an ongoing paranormal romance series by Kresley Col, an American author (suggested by pacificwanderer)

Zane x Danica - Hawksong (the 1st book in The Kiesha’ra series), a 2003 fantasy romance novel by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, an American author (suggested by roguesareth)

Hai x Nicias - Wyvernhail (the 5th book in The Kiesha’ra series), a 2007 fantasy romance novel by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, an American author (suggested by roguesareth)

the Lord of the Feasts x Hiresha  - Lady of Gems, a 2011-2013 fantasy series by A.E. Marling, an American author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale) 

Day x June - Legend, a 2012-2019 sci-fi series by Marie Lue, an American author (suggested by @augustintodarkness)

Ulvhedin x Elisa - Footprints of Satan (as the main characters) and The Last Knight (Ulvhedin is one of the main characters), 1983 fantasy romance novels, the 13th and the 14th volume of The Legend of the Ice People by Margit Sandemo, a Norwegian-Swedish author (suggested by @neoma2) 

Mar x Shira - The Garden of Death (the 17th volume of The Legend of the Ice People), a 1984 fantasy romance novel by Margit Sandemo (suggested by neoma2)

Marcel/Lucifer x Saga - Lucifer’s Love (the 29th volume of The Legend of the Ice People), a 1987 fantasy romance novel by Margit Sandemo (suggested by neoma2)

Tamlin x Vanja (male antivillain x female hero) - The Demon of the Night (the 33th volume of The Legend of the Ice People), a 1987 fantasy romance novel by Margit Sandemo (suggested by neoma2)

Halkatla x Rune (female villain x male hero) - A Glimpse of Tenderness and Is There Anybody Out There? (the 43th and the 47th volume of The Legend of the Ice People), 1988 and 1989 fantasy romance novels by Margit Sandemo (suggested by neoma2)

Ulvar x Tilli (male ex-villain x female hero) - mentioned in Móri and the Ice People (the 2nd volume of The Legend of the Realm of Light, the continuation of The Legend of the Ice People and The Warlock saga), a 1995 fantasy romance novel by Margit Sandemo (suggested by neoma2)

Eli x Oskar (male antivillain x male hero) - Let the Right One In and Let the Old Dreams Die, a 2004 vampire novel and its 2013 sequel by John Ajvide Lindqvist, a Swedish author 

Zakath x Cyradis  - The Malloreon series (sequel series of The Belgariad series), a 1987-1991 fantasy series by David Eddings, an American author (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) 

Noah x Mara - the Mara Dyer series, a 2011-2014 fantasy romance series by Michelle Hodkin, an American author (suggested by mademoisellemurders)

Ileskar/Illukar x Medair - Medair, a 2010-2011 fantasy series by Andrea K. Höst, an Australian author (suggested by monsters-and-villains)

Vin x Elend - Mistborn, a 2006-2008 fantasy series by Brandon Sanderson, an American author (suggested by @thefirewithallthestrengthithath)

Spook x Beldre - The Hero of Ages, a 2008 fantasy novel from the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson, an American author (suggested by @thefirewithallthestrengthithath)

Valen x Nova - Neron Rising, a 2018-2019 science fantasy romance series by Keary Taylor, an American author (suggested by an anon)

Simon x Meg - the Others series, a 2013-2019 urban fantasy series by Anne Bishop, an American author (suggested by meadow-mellow)

hopefully Caspian x Lace - Pandemonium, an ongoing fantasy series by Willow Anderson, an American author (suggested by addiesluc)

Mr. Gray x Maura - The Raven Cycle, a 2012-2016 fantasy series by Maggie Stiefvater, an American author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale)

Nasir x Zafira - Sands of Arawiya, a 2019-2021 fantasy series by Hafsah Faizal, an American author (suggested by @filigranka)

Lou x Reid (enemies to lovers) - Serpent & Dove, an ongoing fantasy romance series by Shelby Mahurin, an American author

Warner x Juliette - Shatter Me, a 2011-2020 dystopia series by Tahereh Mafi, an Iranian-American author (suggested by @abydragonfly)

Christoper x Sarah - Shattered Mirror and All Just Glass (the 3rd and the 7th book in the Den of Shadow series), 2001 and 2010 paranormal fantasy novels by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, an American author (suggested by @roguesareth) 

Malachiasz x Nadya - Something Dark and Holy, a 2019-2021 fantasy series by Emily A. Duncan, an American author (suggested by pacificwanderer)

implied as the future for Ciena x Thane (friends to lovers to enemies to lovers) - Lost Stars (a Star Wars novel), a 2015 American science fantasy romance novel by Claudia Gray, an American author (suggested by pacificwanderer)

Sinjir x Conder (male antihero x male hero) - Life Debt and Empire’s End, the 2nd and the 3rd part of the Star Wars Afermath trilogy, a 2015-2017 science fantasy series by Chuck Wendig, an American author

Caelena x Rowan - Throne of Glass, a 2012-2018 fantasy romance series by Sarah J. Maas, an American author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale and pacificwanderer)

Seth x Josie - Titan, a 2015-2018 paranormal romance series by Jennifer L. Armentrout, an American author (suggested by mademoisellemurders)

Regin x Sonea (male ex-villain x female hero) - the Traitor Spy trilogy (a sequel to The Black Magician trilogy), a 2010-2012 fantasy series by Trudi Canavan, an Australian author (suggested by neoma2)

Osse x Uinen - briefly described in The Silmarillion, the 1977 book from Legendarium created by J.R.R. Tolkien, a British author

probably Lestat x Louis (male villain x male antihero) - The Vampire Chronicles, a 1976-2018 vampire series by Anne Rice, an American author (suggested by mademoisellemurders)

Damon x Bonnie - The Vampire Diaries: Evensong, an American vampire romance series (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Hideo x Emika - Warcross, a 2017-2018 sci-fi series by Marie Lue, an American author (suggested by @dystopianinterstellar)

R x Julie - Warm Bodies, a 2010-2018 romance/zombie series by Isaac Marion, an American author 

Keenan x Donia - Wicked Lovely, a 2007-2011 paranormal romance series by Melissa Marr, an American author (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Irial x Leslie x Niall (male villain x male antihero x female hero) - the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Devlin x Ani - the Wicked Lovely series by Melissa Marr (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Morozko x Vasya - the Winternight Trilogy, a 2017-2019 historical fantasy seeries by Katherine Arden, an American author (suggested by pacificwanderer)

Khalid x Shahrzad - The Wrath and the Dawn, a 2015-2016 fantasy romance series by Renée Ahdieh, an American author (suggested by monsters-and-villains and pacificwanderer)

Ships that used to be featured here as ‘hopefully getting a HEA’:

-Eve x Ezekiel (female villain x male hero) from the LIFEL1K3 trilogy, a 2018-2019 sci-fi series by Jay Kristoff, an Australian author (suggested by monsters-and-villains): Eve gets a redemption arc and survives, but Ezekiel gets a romantic happy ending with a different female character;

-Thorn x Ophelia from The Mirror Pass, a 2013-2019 fantasy series by Christelle Dabos, a French author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale): they are happily married for some time, but at the end of the series they are forcefully separated and it's implied that despite her efforts, Ophelia will never find her husband;

-Archex aka Cardinal x Vi from the new Star Wars extended canon books - Phasma and Black Spire by Delilah S. Dawson, an American author: Archex  gets a redemption arc and it’s revealed that he has romantic feelings for Vi, but she doesn’t return them; at the end Archex dies by sacrificing himself.

Book series - crime & thriller

Anthony x Claire - Consequences, a 2011-2015 thriller/erotica series by Aleatha Romig, an American author (suggested by @ainomica)

Hannibal x Clarice (male villain x female hero turned villain) - The Silence of the Lambs and Hannibal, 1988 and 1999 horror novels, the 2nd 3rd part of the Hannibal Lecter series by Thomas Harris, an American author (suggested by @heroaine, and vilheroinefairytale and an anon)

Villanelle x Eve (female villain x female hero) - Killing Eve, a 2018-2020 thriller series by Luke Jennings, a British author

Ignazio x Karissa - Monster in His Eyes, a 2014-2016 crime/romance series by J.M. Darhower, an American (?) author (suggested by ainomica)

Fred x Aniela - Niewolnice z Long Island (en. The Slaves of Long Island), a ca. 1930 thriller/crime series by Antoni Marczyński, a Polish author (suggested by neoma2)

John x Vicky - Vicky Bliss, a 1973-2008 mystery series by Elizabeth Peters, an American author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale)

various couples - many books by Edgar Wallace, a British author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale)

Book series - historical 

Juan x Mónica - Corazón Salvaje, a 1957 series by Caridad Bravo Adams, a Mexican author (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Chu Beijie x Bai Pingting - Gu Fang Bu Zi Shang (en. A Lonesome Fragance Waiting to be Appreciated), a 2005-2015 historical romance series by Feng Nong, a Chinese author (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Lazaro x Leonora - books by Frédéric Lenormand, a French author (suggested by vilheroinefairytale)

Mickey x Silence - Wicked Intentions (2010), Notorious Pleasures and Scandalous Desires (2011) from the Maiden Lane, a historical romance series by Elizabeth Hoyt, an American author (suggested by neoma2)

Book series - slice of life & drama

Andrew x Neil (male villain x male hero) - All for the Game, a 2013-2014 sports series by Nora Sakavic, an American author (suggested by an anon)

[my-complicated-pairs]

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in visual novels and video games

While the title of this list is “List of canon villain/heroine ships with happy endings”, it doesn’t contain only ships with male villains and female heroes:

-some of these ships consist of female villains and male heroes;

-there are some lgbt+ ships and polyamorous relationships here as well;

-in some of these ships both characters are villainous (or antiheroic);

-some of these characters may be seen not as villains, but as antivillains, antiheroes, antagonists or “just” criminals - in the end these definitions are fluid and some characters may be really difficult to categorise, especially if they go through a major character development or if they appear in the slice of life media;

-I included ships involving ex-villains;

-some of these ships are the examples of the enemies to lovers trope, but they don’t involve any characters, who can be categorised as villains or antiheroes.

Other notes:

-in some examples the villain doesn’t get a redemption arc and it’s the heroic character, who changes their alignment;

-in few examples the couple has a bittersweet ending, but I include them due to the fact that both characters are not dead and their relationship itself is happy/okay;

-this list was created mostly for statistical purposes (it may be used for recommendations as well, but not always) - due to it, this list includes ships that are humorous, don’t play significant role in the canon material, come from the media that are often considered to be bad or come from really obscure media;

-some ships on this list may be considered to be controversial due to various reasons, so if you don’t want to play anything potentially disturbing, don’t forget about doing research first;

-I included some pre-existing couples.

I’ll be updating this list from time to time, so feel free to suggest other examples :) - and correct me if I got something wrong (f.e. if the specific ship doesn’t have a happy ending, some characters are not villains and/or antiheroes etc.)

If the types of characters are not specified, the ship consists of a male villain/antihero and a heroine.

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action movies

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in live action series

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in anime and manga  

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in animation and comics (excluding anime and manga)

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in book series

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in standalone pieces of literature

List of canon villain x heroine ships with happy endings in music 

Visual novels and otome games - not free ones (including microtransactions)

Lucio x the apprentice (male villain turned hero x female, male, or non-binary hero in the uplift ending; male villain x female, male, or non-binary hero turned villain in the reverse ending) - The Arcana: A Mystic Romance, a 2016-2021 American fantasy game by Nix Hydra (suggested by @a-cynical-dreamer-world) [note: the apprentice’s gender is customizable]

Nadia x the apprentice (female hero turned villain x female, male, or non-binary hero turned villain) - the reverse ending of Nadia’s route in The Arcana by Nix Hydra

Portia x the apprentice (female hero turned villain x female, male, or non-binary hero turned villain) - the reverse ending of Portia’s route in The Arcana by Nix Hydra

Roen x Ritsuka - Dance with Devils, a 2016-2018 Japanese fantasy series

Shiki x Ritsuka - Dance with Devils, a 2016-2018 Japanese fantasy series

Urie x Ritsuka - Dance with Devils, a 2016-2018 Japanese fantasy series (suggested by @acquiredmen)

Lindo x Ritsuka (male hero turned villain x female hero turned villain) - demon ending of Lindo’s route in Dance with Devils, a 2016-2018 Japanese fantasy series (suggested by acquiredmen)

Raze x Bright (male villain x female hero with an option of becoming a villain) - Demonheart, a 2017 dark fantasy visual novel (suggested by @javomelancholie)

Ayato x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Shu x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Reiji x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Kanato x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Laito x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Subaru x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Ruki x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Yuma x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Kou x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Azusa x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Carla x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Shin x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Kino x Yui - Diabolik Lovers, an ongoing Japanese vampire series

Visual novels set in the World of Aeser by Sun Labyrinth - an American dark gothic series

possibly Mara x Alan/Allie (female villain x male or female hero turned villain) - one of the endings of Goblet of Mercy, a 2023 game [note: free to play]

Markaius x Tetrine - the canon ending of Asher, a 2014 game, the first part of the trilogy, and The Empress of Aeser, the currently-in-development third part of the trilogy (suggested by an anon) [note: free to play]

Julius x Tell - the canon ending of Tell a Demon, a 2015 game, the second part of the trilogy, and The Empress of Aeser

Nethiil x Tell - The Last of the Lords of Ice, a 2022 game, the continuation of one of the bad endings of Tell a Demon [note: free to play]

possibly Julius x Tetrine - The Empress of Aeser

Visual novels featured in the Lovestruck app by Voltage Entertainment USA, an American subsidiary of a Japanese developer [warning: at this moment the game is not available anymore, but the fans work on making it available again]

[note: links lead to official descriptions, trailers or first episodes, either uploaded by the official accounts or recorded by fans preserving the game content] 

Astraeus x main character (male villain x female hero turned villain) - Astoria: Fate’s Kiss and Astoria: Lost Kisses, 2015 & 2018 fantasy games (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) [note: Lost Kisses cover events happening between the first and the second season of Fate’s Kiss and it’s very recommendable to read them, when you play Astraeus’s route] [note: before picking the first season of Astraeus’s route in Fate’s Kiss, you need to go through first two seasons of Hades’s route in this game (you don’t need to read Hades’s seasons in Lost Kisses, cause in his case it’s simply a filler arc and it creates some canon discontinuity on his route)]

Selene x Orthrus (female villain x male hero) - Hades’s route in Astoria: Fate’s Kiss

Prime x Charybdis (female villain x female antihero/hero) - Medusa’s route option for Burst with Pride, an Astoria: Fate’s Kiss side story [note: non-playable characters]

Special mention to Euryale x main character (female villain x female hero), Pallas x main character and Helios x main character - they were considered as possible new routes for this series, but unfortunately in the end they weren’t started!

Lavinia x female main character (female villain x female hero) - Ever After Academy, a 2020 fantasy game [note: an unfinished route]

Antonio x main character - Havenfall is for Lovers, a 2017 horror/fantasy game (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Vanessa x Liliane (female antagonist/villain x female villain) - Antonio’s route in Havenfall Is for Lovers [note: Vanessa is an antagonist/villain on Diego’s route and Liliane is a villain on Mackenzie’s route]

Vanessa x main character (female antagonist/villain x female hero) - Havenfall is for Lovers 

Diego x main character (male ex-villain x female hero) - Havenfall is for Lovers [note: they’re also mentioned as a couple on Duke’s route in Villainous Nights]

Gwen x Grace (female villain x female hero) - (Mackenzie’s route in) Havenfall is for Lovers [note: non-playable characters] [note: these two are an endgame couple on all routes, but Gwen starts as a villain only on Mackenzie’s route]

Damien x Annabelle (male villain x female villain) - Mackenzie’s route in Havenfall is for Lovers [note: non-playable characters; both of them were considered as possible new love interests for the main character on their own routes, but in the end nothing came out of this]

Special mention to Annabelle x main character (female villain x female hero), Liliane x main character (female villain x female hero), Dracula x main character, Jonas x main character, Victor x main character and Damien x main character - they were considered as possible new routes for this series, but unfortunately in the end they weren’t started!

Rafe x female main character (male ex-villain x female hero) - Immortal Heart Society, a 2021 fantasy game [note: an unfinished route]

Special mention to Rafe x male main character (male (ex-)villain x male hero) - it’s considered as a possible new route for this series, but unfortunately in the end it wasn’t started!

Helena x main character (female villain x female hero) - Love & Legends, a 2017 high fantasy game (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Alain x main character (male villain x female hero/ex-villain) - Love & Legends (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) [note: the main character’s heroic/villainous status differs on various routes - on other character routes she’s simply a heroine] [note: Alain and the main character appear as a romantic couple on one of the posters in Grace’s room in all Havenfall Is for Lovers routes - usually it’s hidden behind Grace’s back]

Special mention to Jinhai x main character - it was considered as a possible new route for this series, but unfortunately in the end it wasn’t started!

Casimir x Benoit (male villain x male hero) - Nikolai’s route in Queen of Thieves, a 2019 crime/action game

Special mention to Tristan x main character and Thea x main character (female villain x female hero) in Reigning Passions, a 2019 high fantasy game - they were considered as possible new routes for this series, but unfortunately in the end they weren’t started!

Yvette x main character (female villain x female hero) - Sin With Me, a 2019 action/fantasy game (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Special mention to Vinca x main character (female villain x female hero), Nero/Kozholok x main character and Lazareth x main character - they were considered as possible new routes for this series, but unfortunately in the end they weren’t started!

Antares x engineer aka human main character - Starship Promise, a 2017 sci-fi game (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Corvus x his unnamed wife (the pre-existing couple) - Antares’s route for engineer aka human main character in Starship Promise

Zhora x engineer aka human main character (female villain x female hero) - Starship Promise (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Tyrian x engineer aka human main character - Starship Promise [note: an unfinished route]

Antares x private investigator aka alien main character - Starship Promise spinoff [note: an unfinished route]

Special mention to Gamma x one of the main characters (non-binary villain x female hero), Corvus x one of the main characters, Tyberius x one of the main characters, Evander x one of the main characters and Beta x one of the main characters - they were considered as possible new routes for this series, but unfortunately in the end they weren’t started!

Lucien x human main character (male ex-villain/antihero x female hero) - Sweet Enchantments, a 2018 fantasy/slice of life series

Runa x human main character (female ex-villain/antihero x female hero) - Sweet Enchantments

Special mention to Axia x one of the main characters (female villain x female hero), Kamila x one of the main characters (female villain x female hero), Elyscia x one of the main characters (female antagonist x female hero), Cyril x one of the main characters (male ex-villain/antihero x female hero) and Aristeo x one of the main characters - they were considered as possible new routes for this series, but unfortunately in the end they weren’t started!

Renzei/Falcon x Monarch - Villainous Nights, a 2018 action/sci-fi game (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Lorelei/Badger x Monarch (female ex-villain x female hero) - Villainous Nights (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Special mention to Scarlet x Monarch (female villain x female hero), Dahlia x Monarch (female villain x female hero), Charles x Monarch, Sampson x Monarch and Hayden x Monarch - they were considered as possible new routes for this series, but unfortunately in the end they weren’t started!

Visual novels and otome games - free ones

[note: links lead to downloads] 

Sano x the protagonist (male villain x player-gender hero turned villain) - ending no. #8 of Sano’s route in Boyfriend to Death, a 2016 Australian/Canadian dark gore game by Gurobob, Darqx, and ElectricPuke [+18] 

Vincent/Akira x the protagonist (male villain x player-gender hero turned villain) - ending no. #21 of Vincent’s route in Boyfriend to Death 2: Fresh Blood, a 2017 Australian/Canadian dark gore game by Gurobob, Darqx, and ElectricPuke [+18]

Vincent x Farz x the protagonist (male villain x male villain x player-gender hero turned villain) - ending no. #17 of Vincent’s route in Boyfriend to Death 2: Fresh Blood 

Cain x the protagonist (male villain x player-gender hero turned villain) - some endings of Cain’s route and one ending of Vincent’s route in Boyfriend to Death 2: Fresh Blood

Lawrence x the protagonist (male villain x player-gender hero turned villain) - no. #14 ending in Lawrence’s route in Boyfriend to Death 2: Fresh Blood [note: Lawrence may die in the good ending of Ren’s route]

Ren x the protagonist (male villain x player-gender hero turned villain) - some endings of Ren’s route Boyfriend to Death 2: Fresh Blood

possibly Vincent/Akira x Lawrence (male villain x male villain) - epilogue in Boyfriend to Death 2: Fresh Blood

possibly Sano x Rire (male villain x male villain) - epilogue in Boyfriend to Death 2: Fresh Blood

Guilleme x Rosa - the secret ending of Cupid (a 2015 Philippinean dark gothic game) by Fervent [suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world]

Senrei x Biyu - Days of the Divine (a 2013 Dutch fantasy game) by Circle Pegasi (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Duliae x Alenca - Ebon Light (a 2019 American fantasy game) by Underbliss (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Laceaga x Alenca - Ebon Light by Underbliss (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Oswald x Cheryl (male villain turned hero x female hero in the canon ending; implied as the future in Oswald’s neutral ending; male villain x female hero turned villain in the dark ending) - Fantasia: Realm of Thanos (a 2009 Indonesian fantasy game) by azureXtwilight and its 2010 sequel Fantasia: Requiem of The Abyss by the same creator (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) [note: canon endgame]

Leon x Cheryl - Leon’s good ending and Gil’s alternative ending in Fantasia: Realm of Thanos by azureXtwilight 

Oswald, Leon, Gil & Ian x Cheryl (two male villains and two male heroes x female hero) - the harem ending in Fantasia: Realm of Thanos by azureXtwilight  

Leon x Melodia - the canon ending and Gil’s good ending in Fantasia: Realm of Thanos and Fantasia: Requiem of The Abyss [note: the main character’s potential LI ending up with a non-playable character]

Cain x Valen (male ex-villain x female hero) - Fantasia: Requiem of The Abyss [note: canon endgame]

Bastian x Christina (male villain x female hero turned villain in the “Foretold” ending, male villain turned hero x female hero in the “New Order” ending) - Fatal Hearts, a 2007 British fantasy game by Hanako Games (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Jeremy x Christina (male villain x female hero turned villain) - Fatal Hearts by Hanako Games (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Bastian x Katie - the “Hopeful Future” ending in Fatal Hearts by Hanako Games [note: the main character’s potential LI ending up with a non-playable character]

 Zareh x Mina - Frozen Essence, a 2010 Canadian fantasy game by VenusEclipse (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Caius x Mina (male villain turned hero x female hero in his light ending; male villain x female hero turned villain in his dark ending) - Frozen Essence by VenusEclipse (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Varian x Mina - Frozen Essence by VenusEclipse (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Rowan x Luana (male villain/antihero x female hero) - Home’s Embrace by Sunlit-Dreamer, a 2019 American horror game (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) [note: you don’t get to know about Rowan’s villainy/antiheroism unless you play Waite’s rejection ending]

Rowan & Waite x Luana (male villain/antihero & male antihero/hero x female hero) - Home’s Embrace by Sunlit-Dreamer (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) [note: you don’t get to know about Rowan’s villainy/antiheroism and Waite’s possible antiheroism unless you play Waite’s rejection ending]

Lady Os x Corvus (female villain x male hero) - The Knife of the Traitor by Chegovia, a 2012 Peruvian fantasy/comedy game (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) 

Lady Os x Lilja (female villain x male hero) - The Knife of the Traitor by Chegovia (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Lady Os x Gervase (female villain x male um... hero) - The Knife of the Traitor by Chegovia (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Lady Os x Vosges (female villain x male hero) - The Knife of the Traitor by Chegovia (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) 

Adrian x Miranda - Nachtigal by Cyanide Tea, a 2013 Australian vampire game (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) 

Luca x Miranda - Nachtigal by Cyanide Tea (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Adrian & Luca x Miranda (two male villains x female hero) - Nachtigal by Cyanide Tea (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Virion x main character (enemies to allies to lovers) - Oathbreaker, a 2019 English high fantasy game by RinmaruGames  (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) [note: if you don’t choose Virion as the love interest, they become friends who care deeply about each other] 

Takeo x Kumiko - Our Mountain, a 2019 American fantasy game by Neeka of OBP (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world) 

Kenji x Kumiko - Our Mountain by Neeka of OBP (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Ruce x Gwyn - The Villaintine by niannn, a 2018 Philippinean slice of life game  (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Chrysandra x Cyril (female villain x male hero turned villain) - Wanted: Dragon,  a 2015 Australian/American fantasy comedy game by Godline and Metasepia Games (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Chrysandra x Balrung (female villain x male villain) - Wanted: Dragon (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Chrysandra x Niir (female villain x male villain) - Wanted: Dragon (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

the Lampir x the woman who dated him - What’s Your Name? by Sunlit-Dreamer, a 2017 horror/dark comedy game (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

the Cat & the Dragon x the cute animals enthusiast (two male villains x female hero) - What’s Your Name? by Sunlit-Dreamer (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Visual novels and otome games - online flash games

[if you want to play them, download Newgrounds Flash Player from here]

The Blood Prince x Jenna (male villain x female hero turned villain) - Moonlight Dating Sim, a 2007 American horror/fantasy game by Nummyz (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Stas x Jenna - Moonlight Dating Sim by Nummyz (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

The Pond x Jenna - Jenna Moonlight: Red Moon Destiny, a 2009 American horror/fantasy game by Nummyz (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

Cross x Jenna (male villain x female hero turned villain) - Jenna Moonlight: Red Moon Destiny by Nummyz

Other video games - the professional ones

[note: links lead to Wikipedia pages]

Maria x Altair (enemies to lovers) - Assassin’s Creed, a 2007-2018 American action-adventure stealth series [note: Assassin’s Creed: Bloodlines shows how these two fell in love with each other, Assassin’s Creed II reveals to the general audience that they were romantically involved, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations shows Altair’s memories from the life he spent together with Maria, their entire romantic plot is shown in the book Assassin’s Creed: The Secret Crusade] (suggested by @kittypeas)

Te’ijal x Galahad - Aveyond, a 2004-2015 RPG series (suggested by a-cynical-dreamer-world)

the Beast/Adam x Belle - various official Disney’s Beauty and the Beast adaptations: 1993 Beauty & The Beast: Belle's Quest and Beauty & The Beast: Roar of the Beast, 1994 adaptations for the NES and for the Super NES 

Arion x Altena - Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War, a 1996 Japanese RPG game (suggested by an anon)

optional for Gangrel x Robin - the DLC content for Fire Emblem Awakening, a 2012 Japanese RPG game (suggested by an anon)

optional for Walhart x Robin - the DLC content for Fire Emblem Awakening, a 2012 Japanese RPG game (suggested by an anon)

Erim/Lufia x Maxim’s descendant (female villain x male hero) - Lufia & the Fortress of Doom, a 1993 Japanese RPG game

Erim/Seena x Wain (female ex-villain x male hero) - Lufia: The Legend Returns, a 2001 Japanese RPG game

implied for Hecubah x Jack (female villain x male hero) - the wizard���s route in Nox, a 2000 American RPG game

Ashi x Jack (female villain x male hero) - the alternate ending in Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time, a 2020 Japanese action-adventure game based on the 2001-2012 American animated series [warning: Ashi dies in the series and in the regular game ending]

Revan x Bastila (male villain turned hero x female hero-temporary-villain in the canon ending; male villain-temporary-hero x female hero turned villain is an another plot option) - Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, a 2003 American RPG game

Alicia x Waffle (female villain x male hero) - Tail Concerto, a 1998 Japanese action-adventure game (suggested by an anon)

Other video games - indie ones

Kcalb x Etihw (the pre-existing couple; male ex-villain x female hero) - The Gray Garden, a 2012 Japanese pseudo-RPG game [note: non-playable characters] [note: in the widespread English translation Etihw’s gender was wrongly translated as non-binary]

Kcalb x Etihw (the pre-existing couple; female ex-villain x male hero) - Gray Garden The, a 2014 Japanese pseudo-RPG game (an official The Gray Garden parody) [note: in the widespread English translation Etihw’s gender was wrongly translated as non-binary]

Samekichi x Wadanohara (male antagonist x female hero) - Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea, a 2013 Japanese pseudo-RPG game (suggested by an anon) [note: before reaching the true ending, you have to watch two other endings first, and both of them end tragically for these characters]

Cherryblod x Doloz (the pre-existing couple; male ex-villain/antihero x female hero) - Wadanohara and the Great Blue Sea [note: non-playable characters] [note: the truth about Cherryblod’s past is revealed in one of the vids in the bonus room that you may reach after beating entire game]