#tc&tf kenna

[playchoicesconfessions]

Sent by anonymous

‘This is a kenna rys appreciation post. I love her and I miss her and thank you, goodbye’

POST/CONFESSIONS DO NOT REFLECT THE MOD’S PERSONAL OPINIONS!

[lover-also-fighter-also]

Hey guys!!!

First of all, THANK YOU for the 214 votes on the BEST CHOICES MC poll!!!🎉🎉. As promised, I have decided to make a second poll, featuring many other MC's who probably will be your all-time favourites. Be sure to reblog this poll for a greater sample size.

[a-cloud-for-dreams]

Um excuse me peasant that's QUEEN Kenna to you 🙄

[choices-binglebonkus]

I swear every time I play The Crown & The Flame it gets better and better.

[onefernecito]

Did I replay the entire thing for these scarce moments between them? Bet your ass I did. They're precious and Annelyse deserved better.

[dizzy-pixels]

[m0nchoices]

kenna and a dom (doodle). played through a bit of tc&tf on the free pass, def fun but i ran outta steam and it timed out 😭 ig luther won this time

[the-unconquered-queen]

Alternate MCs being from books with multiple PoVs but not the "main" one per se (e.g. Dom being an MC in TC&tF while Kenna is the lead lead)

[animedublove]

Final Post for Choices FanWorks Day is my top 10 Choices MC. Huges thanks to @choicesfandomappreciation for making such a welcoming space and it has been fun seeing everyone's post so her we go.

1) The Elementalists MC

2) BloodBound MC

3) Kenna Rys (TC&TF MC)

4) Across The Void MC

5) Kindred MC

6) The Perfect Match MC

7) America's Most Eligible MC

8) The Freshman MC

9) Crimes of Passion MC

10) Foreign Affairs MC

[playchoicesconfessions]

Sent by anonymous

‘Queen Charlotte said in D&D3 that the jewelry you can wear at the wedding was a gift from Queen Kenna to Queen Elizabeth. So the writers are trying to tell me that Kenna fought dragons the SAME TIME Lizzie was fighting the Scotts or whatever? 🤨’

POST/CONFESSIONS DO NOT REFLECT THE MOD’S PERSONAL OPINIONS!

[connorgreens]

guessing the ilw crew's favorite movie genres:

lincoln: for some reason i see lincoln being into dramas, especially crime dramas. i'm thinking along the lines of fight club and taxi driver. but he's also a secret fan of anime movies, because he used to watch them when he was younger and now they're nostalgic to him

abel: we know he likes indiana jones, so i'm guessing he's an action/adventure type of guy. he probably prefers movies to be on the lighthearted side, and cries at movies with sad endings. he also probably genuinely enjoys watching historical documentaries

jocelyn: i feel like jocelyn can't resist a good horror comedy. it has to be a very specific type of comedy though, because she can't stand bigoted jokes in any way shape or form. movies with strong female leads like jennifer's body or heathers are right up her street

amalia: amalia is tough because i haven't played her route yet but i'm gonna go out on a limb and say she loves a good documentary. they're the only movies she'll choose to watch on her own, because she likes to feel like she's learning and being productive even if the documentary isn't meant to be educational. i can see her being really into true crime docs, but only if they focus on the victims rather than the killers

bonus because i'm having too much fun with this:

connor: connor strikes me as both an action movie dude and a comedy dude, but i also think he's the type of person who can watch anything and enjoy it. i feel like a lot of what he watches is just stuff his friends recommend, because he trusts their judgement more than his own about stuff like this

noah: noah is a total fantasy nerd but he would never admit it out loud. he tells everyone he likes horror movies, which isn't technically a lie, but if it's between lord of the rings and friday the 13th i think he would absolutely pick lotr. also, his stuffed moose is named "kenna" which im assuming is a reference to tc&tf (an in game fantasy tv show), so that pretty much confirms my theory

genuine!mc: i think genuine!mc would enjoy romantic comedies. anything sweet that can make them laugh is a good movie in their book, if it's corny and cute they've likely seen it. they don't like sad or heavy movies, and much like abel, will cry if a movie has a sad ending

sarcastic!mc: sarcastic!mc likes watching so-bad-it's-good movies in the spirit of making fun of them. they don't take any movies too seriously and are probably the type to commentate over anything they watch, whether alone or with other people

aggressive!mc: i feel like aggressive!mc is a big fan of horror movies, the gorier the better. they don't get scared very easily and will make fun of the movie if they think it's boring or the effects are lame. i also think they like to talk during movies, unless they're really invested

ilitw!mc: this one is also tough but i'm gonna say ilitw!mc likes action/thriller movies, although they will watch literally anything as long as it has a compelling plot. they probably prefer watching movies with people to watching them alone, and they're pretty chill about letting others pick the movie, so they've probably seen a variety of films in different genres

[thefirstcourtesan]

I told @brightpinkpeppercorn that Guinevere js a mix of the best of ACoR, TC+TF and TRR, and it really feels like that and I think those were books that brought out the best of the fandom. I know we are only two chapters in, but I have so many high hopes for this book and it's mix of fantasy, intrigue and courtly romance.

It has the deep fantasy of TC&TF and like Kenna, Guneivere is a princess with a strong background and a kingdom to save. Like ACoR, it gives us a setting and characters we already know and hopefully will bring the intrigue. And, like TRR, there is the romantic setting and Arthur and Lancelot have Liam/Drake vibes. So far Guinevere appears to be borrowing the best of all three of these books that I love so much.

[choices-binglebonkus]

The Crown & The Flame: An Exceptionally Rare Critical

I have made no secret of how much I love The Crown & The Flame. One of the three original series that accompanied the launch of Choices back in 2016, it holds a very dear place in my heart as one of my all-time favorites. However, I value objectivity, and am fully aware (and even appreciative) that all of my favorites, no matter how much I love them and no matter how good they are, have flaws.

The Crown & The Flame is no exception to this, and though I think the books have held up remarkably well, they’re definitely very flawed. Particularly book three. Most of my gripes with the series come from book three, actually, and that is the very subject of this post: the issues that came with the final book in the series.

As always, these are just my personal opinions. So if you love TC&TF, that’s great! I love it too. I just thought that, since the series gets so little criticism, I would take an objective stance and take up that role.

Pacing and filler

The first issue I’d like to discuss about book three is its pacing. Compared to the first two books where everything was go, go, go, this book doesn’t really do that. And I’m not a huge fan of that since the stakes are arguably larger in this book since Empress Azura has literally threatened to kill everyone in the Five Kingdoms should they not submit to her.

A lot of the chapters are positively BLOATED with fluff and filler. The first three chapters take place in Ducitora and the only major plot points that occur are that Kenna meets Azura, Leon is killed, and Azura wages war on the Five Kingdoms as Kenna and co. make their escape. I think that the first three chapters could have been condensed into one and a half chapters bridging onto the next major plot point. At the very least, we should have gotten to see more of Ducitora and Marossi. We got to see very, very, VERY little of it, and with little substance to show for it all.

Dom’s chapters didn’t have a lot of substance to them, either. It’s mostly just Dom fighting Hex’s mind control, making some semblance of progress, immediately failing and succumbing further to her control, and getting frustrated or feeling guilty. And, while I’m thinking about it, what purpose did Dom being captured by Hex serve? In what way does it further the main plot? It honestly just felt like the writers had Hex capture him just so he and Kenna wouldn’t be together 24/7 to keep them separate for their dual-lead chapters. In other words, his capture seemed to serve primarily as filler as well.

My biggest complaint regarding filler comes from chapters 13 and 14, which are E N T I R E L Y filler, no two ways about it. Chapter 13 focuses on Kenna speaking with all the allies she’s amassed, and the chapter time is seriously cut down if you haven’t recruited any diamond allies. Chapter 14 is the exact same thing, but this time, Dom is the one who talks to all the allies. Why they needed two chapters of pure filler, I’ll never know. But I’ll tell you what: back when TC&TF was still releasing on a weekly basis, I was so annoyed that we had two whole weeks of filler. There was no need.

The worst part about all the filler was the impact it had on the buildup to the final battle. Compared to book one and two where we fought tooth and nail for the entire book to get Stormholt back or to prepare for Luther’s return, the buildup to the battle with Azura felt very underwhelming: the book was mostly just a little bit of plot here, filler there and there, here we are switching POVs to one of the side characters for a couple of chapters, here’s some more filler. In books one and two, there was practically NO filler, and the buildup to the final battles was much better for it.

A lot of books are pretty notorious for filler and fluff, but TC&TF book 3, dare I say it, may have been the worst about it given the high stakes and the generally fillerless precedent set by the previous two books.

POV flipflopping

In books one and two, you got to play as characters other than Kenna and Dom in diamond scenes, plus that one time where Val infiltrated the Nevrakis stronghold masquerading as a handmaiden. Other than that, the writers stuck religiously to the Kenna/Dom POVs, and the story was much less choppy, confusing, and generally less all over the place because of it.

This is not the case in book three. You play as Kenna and Dom, yes, but the POV flip-flops around between other characters as well. Leon, Val, Raydan, even Whitlock. I’m shocked as hell that they didn’t somehow manage to cram in a chapter where we played as Annelyse or Sei.

Of these different POVs, Raydan’s was the most important and by far the least filler-y. It still didn’t really sit well with me, though. The Crown & The Flame is Kenna’s (and Dom’s, but mostly Kenna’s) story. Book 3 is 17 chapters. Kenna—the main freaking character—is either unplayable or mostly unplayable for nine of them. Nine! But she gets off much better than Dom—the deuteragonist, mind you—who only gets three chapters where he’s the main focus. And, of course, you’ll recall my previous complaints about how Dom’s chapters were filler. So.

Having all these different POV switches was not graceful in the slightest. It was unnecessary for the most part, and at times, it really came across as a Wattpad POV fic where the pre-teen author interjects every few paragraphs with <{[CHARACTER A’S POV]}> and ~{[CHARACTER B’S POV]}~ because, like I said, it wasn’t graceful, and it wasn’t necessary. Especially since TC&TF is a dual-lead story.

The allies

I actually made a ranking list from worst to best of every recruitable ally in TC&TF across all three books. It’s currently unpublished on my blog, but it’s been sitting on my computer for a while. At any rate, most of the book three allies were ranked very, very, VERY low. There are 32 recruitable allies in all, and numbers 32-27 on my ranking list are all book three allies.

Aurynn Amanth, though I liked her as a character, doesn’t do shit after you recruit her and is only in a grand total of two extra chapters if you recruit her, and for 25 diamonds, that’s so goddamn steep. Clover Hapley also serves no real purpose for 23 diamonds, but somehow appears more than Aurynn and for two fewer diamonds. Florian Tartassis and Zenobia Nevrakis were recruited just to fill the allies roster, plain and simple. Anton Luno was just kinda…there. And Luther—the Blood King who mercilessly slaughtered the royals and nobles of the Five Kingdoms, who conquered the realm and waged war against any who dared to rise against him—does fuck all unless you give him control of the Nevrakis army, then tries to murder Kenna at the end regardless.

There were only a few book three allies I ranked higher than #27. The Mechawolf Pup, who didn’t do much, and who I also found annoying as hell, but he was kiiiinda cute I guess. Lia really stuck her neck out for Raydan by translating the anti-magic book for him, but she doesn’t do much when you recruit her. And I love Madeline to pieces, but she’s 30 diamonds and only appears in five chapters.

Hex was the second highest ranked book three ally on my ranking list at #6 overall because she was such a complex character, and though she was incredibly morally grey, recruiting her nudged her towards active atonement and the chance to actually do some good in the world. Diavolos was ranked #3, and I think he really could have been an awesome character in the series if we had gotten to know him sooner because the dynamic between him and Kenna is impeccable, and he’s such a vulnerable character when you think he wouldn’t be.

Unfortunately, most of the book three allies are just there to fill the ally roster or do damn near nothing once you recruit them. The only allies we got who were heavy hitters were Hex and Anton (recruited jointly to fill the ally spots) and Diavolos. Since book three is the highest-stakes book of them all since we fight an entire fucking EMPIRE, we should’ve gotten some seriously powerful allies. Instead, most of who we got were characters who couldn’t fight: Aurynn, Clover, Madeline, Lia, the Mechawolf Pup, Zenobia, and Florian.

What kind of sense does that make?

Finishing things off…

The Crown & The Flame, to reiterate, is one of my favorite series in Choices. I’ve replayed it time and time again and never get tired of it because it’s just that kind of story. And I do like book three. I’m not saying it’s a bad book at all: it’s actually quite a good book. I just think it’s much less of a good book than 1 & 2, which were absolute titans to compete with.

Even my faves are imperfect. But that doesn’t mean I love them any less. And TC&TF book 3 is a shining example of that: flawed, but still perfectly lovable.

With all that said, I think I’ll give the series another replay soon.

[suoirallesalta]

Suoirandom Edit!

- NB Katherine (Hair)

- TCTF Kenna (Face)

- HSS Principal Rivera (Outfit)

a corporate queen I guess lmao

[clynter]

I'm still hoping they'll make another medieval/fantasy book like tc&tf😗