#his alien ass isn't that caked anyway

[misledmiseries]

i want Debbie to kill Nolan

shhhh let me dream

[writtenjewels]

Joke Book

The “party” for his birthday was a subdued affair this year. Growing up, Jason had learned not to expect a big celebration-- his family could never afford much-- and by the time he was grown up it just didn't matter to him anymore. As long as he had his sister and his friends over, it was all the party he needed.

One by one he went through the presents, thanking everyone for what they gave him. He saved Salim's to last and his heart pounded as he picked it up. Salim sat up a little straighter in his chair and watched hopefully as Jason tore through the wrapping. Jason caught his eye and smiled at him; he got an answering smile in return. The last of the wrapping was pulled away and Jason paused, frowning at the gift.

“What's this?”

“A book,” Salim responded.

“I know that, smart-ass.” A book was the absolute last thing Jason ever expected to get for a birthday present. He had no idea what to make of it. He turned the volume over in his hands in confusion. It was a book on puns, riddles, and other jokes.

“You like my jokes so much,” Salim explained, his smile fading a little uncertainly, “that I thought you might enjoy a book about them.”

“Thanks,” was all Jason could say. He knew it wasn't nearly enough and from the look on Salim's face, the other caught that, too. Penny decided now was a good time to clear up the wrapping paper so they could have coffee and cake.

A little while later, Salim stepped outside for a smoke. Jason made sure his guests were all entertaining themselves before following.

“Can't believe you survived fuckin' aliens just to gunk up your lungs with that shit,” Jason huffed.

“I know.” Salim exhaled a puff of smoke. “It isn't like you to be so polite, Jason. You could have just said so if you didn't like my gift.”

“It ain't that I didn't like it,” Jason argued. He stared out into the distance searching for the right words. “It's just… I don't laugh 'cause I like the jokes. I laugh 'cause of the way you tell 'em. They won't be funny if I just read the book.” Salim went still, and Jason worried he explained it wrong. Maybe if he tried another approach. “Why did Hamlet feel sorry for Yorik?”

“I don't know.” Salim's brow knitted in confusion. “Why?”

“He was getting a head of himself.” Salim let out a soft laugh, and Jason grinned, nudging him. “See? That's what I mean about your jokes.”

“Are my jokes really that terrible?”

“Most of the time, yeah.” Jason smirked at him before adding, “Sometimes they're even worse. But I laugh 'cause I like when you tell them.” Salim's smile widened, his gaze almost tender. The look made Jason's heart beat a little faster. “Anyway, thanks for the gift.”

“You're welcome.” That tenderness was still in Salim's gaze. “I only gave it to you because I like when you smile and laugh.” Jason wet his lips, suddenly nervous. It felt like they were confessing something more to each other.

“I better go back inside. Try not to give yourself more lung cancer.”

“I promise that the only thing smoking will be your candles on the birthday cake.”

“Like I said,” Jason snorted, unable to stop the smile on his face, “your jokes are awful.” Salim's eyes twinkled back at him and Jason had to hurry away before the other man noticed the blush starting to rise on Jason's face.

That stupid joke book turned out to be his favorite birthday present yet.

[trapny]

So I'm gonna be writing a series of posts about how the trauma of different characters in adventure time can be seen in the way they interact with the story.

There are definitely spoilers ahead for adventure time, adventure time distant lands, and Fionna and Cake.

So if you want to, go watch those first. And if you don't want to, then do it anyway because they kick ass.

I'm gonna start with Finn and Fern, since they have the same trauma.

Finn's mental state is heavily affected by the fact that so many people rely on him. It's the child hero trope. Especially with how he puts bubblegum on a pedestal for most of the series. And when he fails or he can't do something, he's typically devastated about it.

This might stem from the fact that Joshua and Margaret weren't the best parents. Joshua, as seen first in the episode "Dad's Dungeon", sees Jake in a higher regard than Finn. Maybe not as in more valuable, but he spends a lot of time falling Finn a crybaby. It kinda makes sense that when Finn finally caught hold of a sense of importance and strength, he is decimated when that sense is cracked by failure.

But the way that Jake seems to have been consistently viewed as a stronger child than Finn also seems to have made Finn incredibly dependant on him. In earlier seasons when Jake disappeared or was seemingly killed, Finn would almost go into a catatonic state. Like when he was kidnapped by a demon and Finn seemed to go into shock of some kind.

This also intertwines with Finn's negative hero complex. When Jake is injured, Finn sees it as his own fault that he wasn't able to stop whatever caused Jake harm.

In the tenth season though, we're shown another side of this. When Jake's alien dad takes him into space, he leaves the brb note.

Jake is gone for five entire weeks. And Finn doesn't worry at all about it.

Jake is capable. He can handle himself. Better than Finn.

At least, that's probably what Finn thought. When the thought that Jake might be in trouble is brought up by Jermaine, Finn immediately rushes to Magic Man's house and uses the mars teleporter because it's the fastest way he can think of to get into space.

As well as that, Finn meets his bio dad so many times, and every time he seems to just be hoping that his dad will somehow be a good person this time. You can see this hope dwindle over time as Finn starts to resent his father. He called him "dad" a couple of times, but eventually he just starts calling him Martin.

(Martin also has some issues, but that's for a different post.)

Fern also gives us an entirely different view on how Finn's trauma affects him.

Fern has a slightly different personality from Finn, due to the effect of the grass spirit parasite thing. Not only that, but Fern also has a heavy inferiority complex because rather than seeing himself as being the same as Finn, he sees himself as being lesser.

Fern seems to try to ignore this completely. He also tends more towards violence because of the nature spirit, while Finn usually tries to find a peaceful, or at least a low mortality solution to situations.

Before the events of Elements, Fern already had an inferiority complex, although he was trying his best to keep it under control. He already went through several phases of depression, like when he just laid on top of the treehouse for several days, trying to cope with his perceived reality that he wasn't needed because he was somehow lesser than Finn.

When LSP turns the world back to normal at the end of elements, Fern is incredibly upset about how hard he failed, despite the fact that he literally could not have fixed the situation on his own.

(the events of elements also helped Finn get over his inferiority/hero complex somewhat, because it forced him to learn that saving absolutely everyone you care about immediately isn't possible. When he loses Jake to the slime, Finn goes catatonic and almost lets himself be absorbed. LSP basically had to drag him away, because Finn wanted to go back and somehow save Jake, despite there being no feasible way to do that. This is probably why it took him so long to do anything when Jake disappeared for over a month.)

It's no wonder that one of the first things Fern tried to do after Elements was trap Finn forever and steal his identity so he could feel needed and important. There was probably nothing Finn could've done to survive the fight with Fern other than "killing" him, but it still messed Finn up.

Finn perceived the event as him failing to save Fern, despite the fact that Fern was literally trying to kill him. Finn got over this, of course, but probably not entirely.

Fern so readily joined Gumbald because with Gumbald, he could be important. He could be better than Finn.

When Finn helped Fern conquer the grass spirit, it probably alleviated some baggage, but Finn was still carrying around a lot of guilt and trauma. Not to mention that when Finn realized he messed up by not trying to find Jake for five weeks, it definitely didn't help his dependence on Jake.

In the events of Fionna and cake, we see Finn after Jake died. Finn is still very obsessed with helping people, jumping at the opportunity to take Simon on a dangerous adventure. He also has Jake tattooed across his chest. Which is kinda sweet, but also kind of a symbol of how dependent he was.

The third episode of distant lands starts with a sort of dream from Finn, where he and Jake went on a "classic adventure". During the adventure, Finn is constantly trying to both help and kill everyone. Finn will switch from trying to slaughter enemies, to immediately trying to help them when they ask for it. It was kinda shown in Fionna and cake, but the dream definitely shows that Finn is a lot more willing and ready to kill than he was before.

Finn is excited to finally be dead so he can see Jake again. But when he hears that Jake is somewhere completely different, Finn is literally ready to tear the afterlife apart to find him.

When new death gains access to the fiftieth dead world, Finn immediately blames himself for "helping" new death destroy the afterlife, despite the fact that Finn the entire time was trying to work against new death.

Jake definitely has some issues, but not in the same way as Finn. They both care about each other a lot. But when they're both fighting each other to try to be the one to stop death and become him, Jake is doing it because he cares about Finn. Finn is doing it not only because he cares about Jake, but also because he feels he needs to always be the hero. He feels like he has to be the one to always make the sacrifice.

By the end of the episode, when Finn goes to be reborn, he's finally gotten over his dependence on jake. This is shown by him being willing to step through the portal alone.

When Jake decides to run in after him, it's a twist that manages to not undercut any of Finn's development. It's definitely a twist, but it slots right into place on another of the major elements of adventure time, which is Finn and Jake's bond.

When Jake goes with Finn to be reborn, despite Jake having already reached nirvana, it's not because Finn needs Jake, or because Jake needs Finn. It's because they're brothers. They're best friends. Finn goes because he's finally okay with being without Jake, and Jake goes because even though he doesn't need to be with Finn, he wants to.

So that's why that episode gave me legitimate chills.

[ectology]

seconding (thirding??) these last few anons. like the art and characters are so good but the plot.. its like someone trying and bake a cake and its going fine mostly and then they use salt instead of sugar and slowly you realize its actually one of those vaguely disturbing cooking videos where by the end you just have to log off. sorry thats so specific alksjhdf

💀💀💀 no ok that's literally a perfect metaphor. it starts off pretty solid and just starts going downhill the longer it goes on lmao. fr horikoshi's character writing is decent; he's good at coming up with character concepts and he does a great job writing their relationships realistically. that's about all he does well though lol

like ok, he sets up this narrative about the structure of hero society being inherently flawed and yet does absolutely nothing to change the status quo. he sets up the villains as sympathetic (re: dabi's childhood of severe abuse, shigaraki accidentally killing his family via quirk manifestation and then being groomed by AFO for 15 years and rewarded/encouraged to murder, toga being rejected for a quirk she can't control, twice being ostracized for mental illness, etc.), but then randomly decides that they're TOO sympathetic and retcons their stories, trying to pass them off as "bad eggs" from the start (re: dabi for some reason trying to murder shouto who was a BABY 😭, shigaraki apparently enjoying accidentally killing his family, etc.). i just don't buy that they were all "evil all along"?? what was even the point of creating sympathetic characters who were failed by their society if you're going to go back and blame it on those characters anyway?

also, the ENTIRE endeavor situation is ASS... like. again he sets up this narrative of a top hero who's an abuser and therefore ends up alienating his family and creating a villain. but actually everything is fine and his family forgives him now because he said sorry??? so fucking stupid. not to mention the fact that after dabi outs endeavor's abuse, he literally faces zero consequences. NONE. the public is sort of iffy about him now but that's it, he doesn't have his hero status revoked, he doesn't go to jail, and in fact his family specifically comes together to support him. like okay way to literally prove dabi's point

EDIT: OKAY ALSOOOO the fact that hawks, a character who is ALSO a victim of childhood abuse and grooming, is an endeavor apologist... what in the hell. that’s just so insane to me. shouldn’t him finding out his childhood hero who saved him from his abusive father is in fact, also an abusive father, result in some kind of feeling of betrayal?? wouldn’t it have made more sense for him to testify AGAINST endeavor and instead highlight the flaws in society that allow someone like endeavor to stay in power? especially after infiltrating the LOV and seeing firsthand that villains are human too??? WHATEVER.

idk tl;dr: horikoshi isn't capable of sustaining a long-term story and he should have hired a writer to help him because he's completely lost the plot and lost track of his own characters. its a fucking circus

[lizzybeth1986]

Quick Thoughts on TRR Book 3, Chapter 17

• I'm basically sitting here and thinking "jeez, these guys really want us to know FOR SURE that they don't give a shit about their lone female LI, do they". Like, you gotta admire the dedication this team has to the cause. Like, the audacity of them to put out an entire extra Drake scene while not speaking a word about Hana's sexuality in canon, esp if she isn't your fiancée. That probably takes guts. Or maybe not. Maybe all it really takes is actually giving a damn (or not) about your characters.

• Title: Save the Date. Alternative Title: Proof That Team TRR Has Excellent Memory, Unless Your Name Is Hana Lee.

• The TRR team everytime they need to do their homework on Liam or Drake:

The TRR team everytime they need to do their homework on Maxwell or Hana (but especially Hana):

• So I assumed based on the description and the title (Save the Date), that this would include a RoE-esque selection of dress, decor, cake, all free except for a few choices. So far all we've been able to select for our wedding is food. Today we choose cake via a diamond option, our maids of honor, the kids who will carry the ring down the aisle and our officiant. And gifts for the LIs.

• Madeleine thinks Gladys has "risen" to her "level". Madeleine has a level???

• Okay so we're doing a publicity run of our wedding preps. Are we that desperate to show the rest of the country how much last-minute-wedding-planning we can cram in two hours??

•

Terrence, is this your summer job?? Also, Tina, girl, I saved your ass last book after you screwed me over. The least you could do is say "thank you, O Great One and Saviour of Us All" Jeez, what do I have to do to be worshipped around here these days 🙄

•

PURPLE 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 (Sorry I love that colour it's my favouritest). But wait why am I paying for a dress if I'm going to the bridal boutique to pick out my wedding gown...right? Right?? (Orrr am I going to get a lovely fancy wedding gown for free??? 😀 Who woulda thunk!) (...oh. I have to wait till next week to see my gown. Okay. Okay. 😑)

• So we're now here in this boutique with half the court and Ana de Luca. First on our agenda: the maid of honour. If you're marrying Liam or Drake, you get to choose between Hana, Kiara, Olivia, Penelope and Maxwell. All good options xD If you're marrying Maxwell you get those four. If you're marrying Hana, you get three: Olivia, Penelope and Maxwell. Kiara isn't available because by default Hana picks her to be her MOH. Hana is clearly very, very close to Kiara and values her. Way more than the rest of us in the group seem to do, anyway.

The choices I want for Esther are Hana or Kiara. I love both. I'm so glad they included Maxwell, I like Penelope, Olivia is amazing, and all their reactions are wonderful, but these two are my favourites. (Though I'd say Esther would definitely pick Hana. She's closest to her, even calling herself "the Elizabeth to Hana's Jane").

• Once that's done, the LI gets to choose their Best Man/MOH 2. Liam chooses Drake, and he mostly behaves a little surprised and afraid that he might embarrass Liam on his wedding, which is quite the sweet sentiment and a little sad. Drake chooses Liam and from what I see, the narrative makes it a point to mention that Liam has to force his happiness because he's still not over the MC. He shows this even if the MC has not had romance points with him. Maxwell chooses Drake, specifying that even if they weren't related by marriage, he'd still consider Drake family. Drake is surprised and a little touched by the sentiment. Hana, as I mentioned before, chooses Kiara.

• Time for our ring bearers! The number of choices you have depends on whether you bought the corgi in Book 2 or not. If you do, he shows up as an extra option. The other choices are:

1. Bartie, who will be carried along the aisle via Savannah. I'm getting nightmares of the few times we took my daughter V to church and...nope. Sorry Bartie.

2. Cordonian children. Bertrand tells us that using Cordonian kids, as ring bearers and flower girls, would count as "a sign of commitment to the common people". My headcanon for Esther was that she wanted a mix of both Cordonian and New Orleans traditions (she grew up in the French Quarter), so she took every possible chance she could to highlight how Cordonian a wedding it was so the NOLA elements wouldn't completely alienate people. So she obviously chose this option.

• We now move to the last bit. If you're marrying Maxwell or Hana, Liam automatically becomes an option for the role of officiant, since it is mandatory to have a royal officiate the ceremony. If you're marrying Drake, Liam's not included because he is already Drake's best man by default. The other two options are Leo and Regina. If you choose Regina, the MC views it as fitting, given that Constantine would have been the officiant were he still alive. Regina in that sense would be a fitting stand-in. If you choose Leo, the MC maintains that he would lend "humour and levity to the ceremony" and that's something they all need at the moment.

•

This man and his "my love"s slay me every time.

• BAKLAVA REFERENCE FOR LIAM. ALL THE WAY BACK FROM ROE BOOK 2.

• Esther Noelle DuPont would NEVER leave wedding gown stuff for the last minute. Nor would she wind up on the eve of her wedding not knowing who was designing her dress until the day before. She would be badgering Liam about the cake way before. She would be badgering him about the decor. She'd be badgering him about every little detail. She'd be bridezilla. No way would she be chilling the day before her wedding, ice tea in hand.

• But they did remember that Ana de Luca was originally introduced as a fashion designer from way back in MW! Madeleine also gives Ana some of Krona's finest lace, which makes me wonder if it's a tradition to have lace from Krona on a royal/aristocratic wedding gown. My theory about this gown for the next chapter is that it might be the same for everyone, but will have additional elements behind a paywall. Or will she have options between two or three gowns? Idk.

• We get to choose how we want to be announced, and then comes the diamond option - choosing our cake with the LI.

(Screenshots - @kennaxval for Hana, and YouTube channels Vika Avey for Maxwell and HIMEME for Drake)

This is the breakdown of what this scene looks like in each playthrough:

Liam

Cake flavours: Vanilla Chantilly (white), Mocha Fudge (chocolate) and Sweetened Cordonian Ruby (pink). Liam loves the vanilla one for its subtle and complex flavours, considers the mocha one "strong, daring...somewhat sensual" and finds the pink one full of surprises (due to the Cordnian Ruby flavouring) and that "there's more to it than meets the eye". If you notice all of these are flavours Liam has an established preference for (vanilla, coffee, apples).

Decorations: The Royal design reminds Liam of his parents, so there is an element of nostalgia still there. He loves the colours of the Fairytale design, finds them "fantastically beautiful" and thinks it would be good inspiration in case they would like to expand the palace quarters.

Cake Filling: The filling options are the same across the LIs. Vanilla buttercream, rich chocolate ganache and strawberry mousse. In Liam's case, you can either feed ganache off of each other, simply try each flavour, or have him surprise you. I love my Kinky King so I knew "surprise me" would involve a blindfold somewhere 😂 (Love that option. It's quite sexy). I've also noticed that only Liam seems to have 3 options for the ganache tasting, while the rest have just two.

You also get to choose between Cordonian Ruby Pie and Baklava for a surprise dessert!

Maxwell:

Cake flavours: Coconut (white), Passionfruit (pink), and Spicy Chocolate (chocolate). He thinks of the coconut one as being "pina colada in cake form", loves the element of surprise in the passionfruit and thinks its "non traditional" flavour describes them as an aristocratic couple perfectly, and just says "wow" about the chocolate. The baker, who remembers Maxwell once trying to surprise Bertrand with cheetah cake on the latter's birthday, even sends one as a bit of an inside joke.

Cake Decorations: Maxwell jokes about the royal design being more decked out than some estates but thinks that "nothing says you're a big deal like gilded flowers, gold and jewels you can eat". He loves the castle in the Fairytale design and likes to imagine there are little cake people walking in there.

Surprise desserts for Maxwell include Cordonian Ruby Pie and Cheetah Cake.

Hana

Cake flavours: Strawberry (pink), Madagascar Vanilla (white), and Devil's Food Cake (chocolate). She thinks strawberry makes her think of it as "something...different. Adventurous". She thinks of the Devil's Food cake as "daring" and loves the vanilla because classic white cakes remind her of storybook weddings, and on cajoling from the MC to tell her honestly what flavours are her favourite Hana speaks of vanilla in a manner similar to Liam's.

Decorations: Hana is wowed by the artistry of the Royal design, confessing that she has always wanted to learn to make icing pearls as perfect as the ones on the cake. There is a tiny conversation about her baking that takes a minute, tops. The fairytale option feels whimsical and reminds her of that saying about "building castles in the clouds".

The surprise options for dessert are Cordonian Ruby Pie and Hot Chocolate.

Drake

Cake flavours: Pink Velvet (pink), Old Fashioned Chocolate Cake (chocolate) and Tahitian Vanilla Cake (white). As we all must know by now, he is okay with the flavour but finds pink "girly", doesn't have much to say about the vanilla cake and the chocolate makes him very nostalgic, because the chocolate cake was similar to the recipe his mother would use for his or Savannah's birthday cakes.

Decorations: Drake has reservations about the grandness of the Royal design but thinks it works since the occasion itself is an elaborate one. He admires the structure and craftsmanship of the Fairytale design and both him and the MC speak about the cake reminding them of the towers in Valtoria.

The surprise options for dessert are Cordonian Ruby Pie and S'mores.

• I've noticed that the story clearly references Liam's love for baklava and Maxwell's love for cheetah cakes in this chapter, but for Hana and Drake, they use desserts from their first scenes in Book 2 (where Hana prepares hot chocolate for the MC, and Drake toasts s'mores for her).

• Hmm so apparently there's some sort of surprise that all four LIs are planning for the MC. I'm guessing we'll find out next chapter.

•

My favourite scene in this chapter. I loved how Kiara immediately got protective of Savannah and made it clear that she cared about making Savannah comfortable. I think it's also pretty cool that they remembered to reference the Savannah/Kiara friendship hinted at in Book 2, and it looks like Penelope was quite fond of her too.

• The MC now needs to run to a gift store, because Madeleine lets her know at the nth moment that Cordonian tradition dictates you get gifts for the bridegroom/bride and your closest attendants. Savannah offers to help, in exchange for a little advice on her love life.

• We first pick up wedding favours at a patisserie (chocolates or macarons). I had Esther pick macarons coz she has a liking for French cuisine and food, and macarons are delicate, delicious and versatile.

• We then pass by a shop called "The Gilded Apple" that sells beautiful and rare antiques. Olivia, who loves weapons and artifacts, and is hoping she will find replicas there, is understandably excited. Unfortunately, she doesn't seem to find any (unless she did off-screen and we didn't know? Poor Olivia. Why was it so hard to find Nevrakis artifacts/replicas there?)

• So even if you buy that diamond choice to help Bertrand woo Savannah at the Costume Gala, she confesses there are still barriers. Savannah fangirling over Bertrand's "stern, yet sexy eyebrows" is a Mood™.

• Savannah tells us the entire story of how she fell in love with Bertrand, pointing out that she hero-worshipped him and thought him glamorous, and was amazed that he was so protective of her. The MC has a range of joke replies to suggest to Savannah, before telling her seriously that she should confess to him what is in her heart. But my big question is: why are almost all the BertVannah scenes for free? Why couldn't you use that free scene to...idk...properly develop Hana's character maybe??

• So here are our gifts for the LIs:

A Historical Tome for Liam. This is a hand-written history book with a blank chapter left presumably on purpose. The MC points out that he will appreciate either the rarity of the book, or the empty pages. The second option is my favourite, because the blank chapter seems to signify that Cordonia's story is "far from over" and it is "upto Liam to write this next chapter".

Maxwell will get a statue of his namesake. Savannah speculates that even though he looks like little more than an enthusiastic partygoer on the outside, both he and Bertrand can be fierce in their own ways. The MC gets to joke about what the Beaumonts might do with this statue of their ancestor, including imagining a half-drunk Maxwell using his namesake's spear to pop open champagne from a ladder.

Drake's Marshmallows Inside A Whiskey Box is quite funny and the MC gets to roast him a bit. She jokes about how it symbolizes what a softie he is on the inside even though he looks tough on the outside. It can either be spoken of as an inside joke, or as the MC showing him how well she knows him.

Hana's Telescope...well. It doesn't reflect her actual, genuine interests or personal/family history like the other three do, but instead involves some generic messages about "following your path" or "searching out your passions". Which is...eh. Tbh it sounds more like the MC is buying her a Hallmark card or something. This gift doesn't tell us much about HER, but then again when you don't develop your female LI with enough substance, that's what's bound to happen. You'll just throw over any piece of random bullshit to make do.

• I like the little story Kiara gets with her dad using that telescope, though. The one where he fooled her as a child into thinking she could see all of Europe using a telescope. I like the dynamic of that entire family. Sure they can appear businesslike to some but the love and the closeness is clearly there.

• Okay before I say anything...CONGRATS Drake stans. Nice to see so many of your MCs become Mrs Walkers now.

•

(A huge thank you to VioletFlipFlops for this screenshot)

Okay so if you're a Drake stan, you get an extra scene. The MC wants to give Drake a wedding he will be happy with, and Drake would love it too, so Maxwell suggests they elope and he will be their minister/officiant (apparently he got himself ordained to officiate over a wedding between peacocks). So they go to a nearby cliff, where you can have a lovely view of the sunset. Drake brings with him a horse named Lone Star who came all the way from his mother's Texas ranch. They have their secret country wedding and the screenshots I saw look like the stuff out of every Drake stan's dreams. Story wise, this is important for Drake's arc because it shows that he has found his place and he doesn't have to completely leave behind who he is to be the man the MC wants. Both the duel and this impromptu secret wedding bring his story full-circle beautifully.

I had to leave this scene midway though. I couldn't stomach it, couldn't stand it, and for the first time in forever I left viewing a diamond scene before it got over (or before it got to sex if they weren't my LI). I felt a little sick and quite frustrated tbh. And it really isn't because of Drake. My problem here goes deeper than that.

• From the little that I saw, Maxwell was amazing as well. He set aside the bromance jokes for the day because "this isn't about me, it's about the two of you". Oh Maxwell. You really do shine when the writers allotted for you actually bother, and they didn't do you justice this book.

• It's now almost night and our LIs have returned from whatever surprise thingummy they were planning. Everyone's happy and excited and advising the MC to take rest and Mara is here to lead everyone back to the palace. And then a crowd that first looks like a bunch of excited onlookers closes in on the MC, intimidating her, and from among the lot we see...TERRANCE. WITH A GUN. AND A PAPER FULL OF INFO ON OUR WEDDING PLANNING. WTF.

• YOU SHOULD BE IN SCHOOL DOING YOUR HOMEWORK AND PLAYING CLARINET TERRENCE. YOU'RE GROUNDED.

• The tone of the chapter's end sounds like there will be some level of investigation going on but we can't entirely be sure. In any case, I don't know how they will handle both this and the rest of the wedding prep. Let's see.

General Thoughts:

• We'd better get lingerie. I've been through enough I want the kind of sex where my king rips off my clothes and breaks my bed and makes me scream and Gladys has invest in earplugs next and...yeah. I need the right lingerie for that.

• RoE Book 3 could have been better in certain respects but one of the things they did really well was to spread out the wedding preps. It's tougher to do that here, because of all the subplots, but leaving it until so close to the end wasn't exactly the best idea either.

• I'll be honest: the "girly pink cake" comment irked me but didn't entirely anger me. On one level I hate it when people say stuff like that because I'm a girl who grew up hearing those things and I'm a mum who doesn't want my children to internalize that. It may sound like a small thing, like a casual preference, but stereotyping and forcing people into boxes start out with things we believe are "small"...and whether you think he's that kind of person or not, bottomline is the writers shouldn't have had such a massively popular character say that. It could have been ten times easier to just have him say he doesn't like that colour very much or something. See? Crisis averted.

• However, I didn't have as much of a problem with this scene as I did with, say, that scene where the MC and Drake talk to Kiara in Lythikos. Frankly for me, the fact that Drake's sympathy towards Kiara was conditional and depended solely on the MC's responses was way more disturbing. In one option, it's established that Drake and Kiara both struggled mentally in the aftermath of the attack, and that he understands it's difficult for her to get out of that trauma so easily.

But then...if the MC is insensitive and trauma-minimizing, she gets to question Kiara about not being driven enough, about "what will people say if you spend a crisis hiding away in your home?", and Drake agrees. He doesn't contest what she's saying, he doesn't challenge her, he doesn't seem to even have a mind of his own in this sequence. In this option, the MC and Drake face no repercussions at all for essentially minimizing her experience and not addressing their lack of concern for her safety, after finding out about her PTSD. My expectation when I eventually chose that option was that Drake - as someone who went through something similar - would correct the MC, and Kiara would give her the tongue lashing of a lifetime. But no, in that scene Drake is interested in validating this woman's trauma only on someone else's say-so. If I - personally - were to have a problem with Drake as a character, this scene would highlight why. And even then I know the core of the problem is not Drake. Not really. It's not as much Drake as it is the fact that the writers themselves were only interested in lip-service for this scene, not genuine validation (which is why normally sensitive people like Hana and Liam don't seem to question the group's approach to Kiara much, and nor does Maxwell). The writers possibly didn't think Kiara's experience deserved the level of sympathy that was present by default in Penelope's scene at Portavira (which is why I HIGHLY regret speaking positively about the Lythikos conversation in that chapter's QT now).

• But my biggest problem is not Drake himself. The way he is written wouldn't have been a problem at all, under different circumstances. My biggest problem is the discrepancy in how the LIs are treated in the books, how some get quality content and carefully developed character arcs while others are simply given lazy writing. And right now, the differences are so obvious and so glaring they're impossible to ignore.

• Drake got a whole extra scene today. A whole extra scene, on the logic that unlike the other three, he would be way more comfortable with a private ceremony involving just him and the MC (he says as much in Lythikos, both to Kiara and to the MC). Normally, I would have probably been happy about this. It works for Drake's character and story, and brings it full-circle to that photoshoot they had in Chapter 2 on some levels. From the little I managed to read, I can tell it was written really, really well.

And that's the problem. Over here, we have the team working on AN ENTIRE EXTRA SCENE for this character, after chapters and chapters of well developed scenes that acquire depths and layers if he is marrying the MC. Drake's narrative tends to have extra layers stitched into it - the expectations of being a Duke, the reluctance to let go of who he is while embracing his role as a future noble, the insults he faces from people like Neville and how he manages to rise above them by proving himself. Hell, they even ensure that they reference his bond with Liam and how his relationship with the MC complicates things. In this chapter alone, Liam's pain is highlighted differently in Drake's playthrough compared to the others (he shows some level of heartbreak when Drake asks him to be his best man, compared to when Hana or Maxwell ask him to be their officiant). The group chats, too, highlight Liam being part of the chat in the Hana and Maxwell playthroughs, and completely absent on Drake's:

(Screenshots from (2) @kennaxval (Hana), (3) YouTube Channels Vika Avey (Maxwell) and (4) HIMEME (Drake))

I wouldn't be surprised if they had some kind of a closure scene between Drake and Liam on this account later, while having him be absolutely okie-dokie in the Hana and Maxwell playthroughs. That's the level of attention Drake's story is being given (you can argue that Liam's relationship with Drake is different, and you'd be right, but it just goes to show how much WORK went into building this character).

And this is not restricted just to Drake. Liam has way more in terms of content as well and his scenes are of great quality. He has practically the entire book revolving around him! The book aggressively pushes him as an LI until almost the end of Book 2. The narrative has made an effort to view Liam as someone intimately involved and invested in the history of his country - it shows in most of his individual scenes, and in his cake scene and gift this chapter. Even Maxwell, who normally hasn't been given much attention this book, gets memories and some historical stuff this chapter (such as the ancestor who is his namesake and the story about the cheetah cake).

On the other hand...you have Hana. Whose canon sexuality - and her larger struggle with it - is hardly addressed in the books. Whose experience with bullying at the hands of Madeleine has been largely forgotten, even as we're constantly expected to protect Penelope from the same person. Who has gotten some of the most lackluster scenes in the series. Whose character arc got the laziest wrap-up you could imagine, who now doesn't even get original lines to describe a cake flavour she likes, or a gift that adequately reflects who she is. Whose story is given lesser focus than secondary characters like Penelope and Madeleine. PENELOPE. AND MADELEINE.

• Forget about every other chapter and take just this one as an example.

Notice how there is very little genuine personalization or memories attached either to Hana's cake scene - she simply echoes what Liam says about the flavour of vanilla when speaking about her love for classic white cake, and briefly mentions baking - or her gift which is a telescope, and which the MC attaches some generic saying/phrase to. The gift assigned for her itself is SO random, has little to no connection to Hana, and is a very odd choice for a gift. Couple that with the Hallmark-esque sayings that the MC wants to push forward, and compare it to her thought process for any one of the other LI gifts. You will see the difference.

(While you're at it, also check out this story by @i-dream-so-i-write called "The Perfect Gift". It's a rewriting of the scene for Hana's gift)

There is no throwback to, say, a time when they all had to bake pies for Queen Regina, and the latter praised Hana. Or to stories narrated to her. Or to things the MC knows she likes to do. No memories connected to Hana's grandmother, who she was obviously close to. Nothing that tells us anything new about her.

This isn't the first time this is happening. And it definitely won't be the last.

• And it's not as if they don't get any money from Hana's scenes. Even when she isn't picked as a final choice on a very large scale, she still manages to make it to the top ten in terms of diamond spending. She may not be making as much bank as Liam and Drake, but she IS clearly making bank. I'm surprised that's possible because a lot of the writing for her since Book 2 isn't worth the money people like me are constantly spending on her scenes. So I can't even buy the excuse that she's written badly because she's not popular. Clearly there are enough people invested enough in her to buy her scenes despite the lack of effort.

I wish I had more to talk about besides these complaints about how Hana is written, but I'm really not left with much of a choice. I'd like to close this QT by mentioning just one thing: the original line up of LIs given to us was Liam, Drake and Hana. One of them has the entire plot of the story revolving around him. The other has consistent and well-written character development, including an extra secret wedding scene and vast differences in his dialogue with the MC based on his relationship with her. The third LI...is given less attention and validation than at least two secondary characters in the book.

All these three were characters meant to be LIs from the very beginning. All of them made a good amount of money and had great potential for growth. So why is it that only one of the original lineup is given only scraps, while the other two get an all-you-can-eat buffet?